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36 ~\         o i'~  A r  a~ t h Si; ~g~                       o f JErcIn ~ge 57




THE ILLUSTRATED
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
BY
THOMAS KEIGHTLEY.
REVISED AND EDITED,
WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS,
BY
JOSHUA TOULMIN SMITH,
AUTHOR OF "COMPARATIVE VIEW OF ANCIENT HISTORY," "NORTHMEN IN
NEW ENGLAND," ETC.
NEW YORK:
THE WORLD PUBLISHING HOUSE,
I39 EIGHTH STREET.
1876.








THE ILLUSTRATED
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
BY
THOMAS KEIGHTLEY.
REVISED AND EDITED,
WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS,
BY
JOSHUA TOULMIN SMITH,
AUTHOR OF "COMPARATIVE VIEW OF ANCIENT HISTORY," "NORTHMEN IN
NEW ENGLAND,"' &C.
TWO VOLUMES IN ONE.
IVOL I.
i
NEW YORK:
THE WORLD PUBLISHING HOUSE,
139 EIGHTH STREET.
~I~~~,               ~~~~~1876.








PR E FACE
PO THE AMERICAN EDITION
1r presenting this work to the public, some remarks are owing
from the Editor explanatory of the office which he has discharged
in reference to it. In the two former Histories of this series, (the
Histories of Greece and Rome of the same author,) the chief labor has been confined to a careful revision of notes and authorities, the correction of any casual errors, the omission of any
doubtful expressions of opinion, and the careful preparation of an
assistant table of contemporu'wy history. The work now before
us requires, however, somethi-ng more of editorial labor, - which
it is only fair to the Author and Reader to point out. I. Histories
of Greece and Rome allude to matters concerning which the
inhabitants of England and America have equal means of information. That which, in its allusions, is adapted to one country, is, therefore, equally so to another. This is not the case,
however, with respect to a history of England. Such a history,
written in England, must necessarily contain allusions familiar
to every inhabitant of that country, but which will not be thus
familiar to others. Notes or alterations are then sometimes necessary, in order to make these allusions clear. II. Mr. Keightley
is, in general, remarkable, above all other historians, for his candor, his freedom from party bias. He generally gives the facts
on each side with equal fairness and freedom, and his expressions
of opinion in respect to agitated or party questions are usually
equally unbiased and independent. But there are, as it is impossible there should not be, occasional instances in which a
prejudice or bias is apparent. As it is most important that his-!ory should comprise a rigidly strict adherence to facts, without
any biased interpretation of those facts by the historian, the Ealtor has thought it his duty to prune all such exhibitions of prejudice or bias. It will be observed that opinions, not facts, are
here spoken of. No fact has ever been altered, for Mr. Keightley




PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.               I
of man, while other characteristics are thrown into the shade.
Tile animal nature of man has, until within a comparatively recent period, held the chief sway in all political relations, and the
settlement of political disputes. By the animal nature is nere
simply meant the impulses which lead to the love of acquisition
and the glory of the battle-field, — both as purely animal impulses
as any that mark the beasts that perish; both happily, now,
though only very recently, reduced, in all most civilized communities, under subjection to the moral and intellectual nature of
Iman. Hence, in such political histories, battles and their details
are too firequent. NJVations, until a very recent period, have invariably had recourse, in the settlement of all disputes, to the
barbarous form of wager of battle, to decide the right, although,
by the express laws of almost every nation in Europe, wager of
battle between individuals has been long abolished. It is extraordinary that so barbarous and absurd a custom should have
been thus so inconsistently persevered in, in -the one case, while
it has been abolished in the other. The public mind in England
is, however, at the present time, in general, as much opposed to
the appeal to this antiquated ordeal in the one case as the other;
and it is to be hoped that the page of the future historian will
abound chiefly in details of the moral and intellectual history of
that as well as other nations; and that the history of society, of
science, and of literature, will take high precedence of' the history of politics. Meantime, the history of the politics of every
nation must be studied by all who would observe the advance
of nations, or truly understand their actual condition. More
especially is that study important in respect of' those nations
where, as in England, the struggle between general independence
and assumed individual prerogative, has been long continued
and eventfil, though crowned at last with noble and glorious
success.
I.T. s
i i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




AD   OR 9S PREFACE TO VOLUME FIRST.          vii
has sunk to mere superstition, despotism is its usual ally. Hence
I have little hope of ever seeing true liberty enthroned in Southern Europe, or extending her ennobling influence through the
vast regions of Southern America.
I have not hesitated to make Dr. Lingard my principal guide
In about a third of the present volume; as in the history anterior
to the House of Tudor I did not deem it always necessary to
write immediately from the original authorities, though I have
frequently consulted them. From the commencement of the
period alluded to, the inquirer after truth must draw from the
original sources; for all the modern streams are turbid with religious and political prejudices.
It is almost superfluous to mention my obligations to the writings of Mr. Hallam; for it would be mere presumption to write
a history of England without their aid. On various occasions I
have introduced the profound and beautiful reflections of sir
James Mackintosh. They constitute the principal value of his
work, his narrative being very indifferent and frequently incorrect.
To Mr. Turner and M. Von Raumer I have also to acknowledge
my obligations;
In an Appendix are introduced various matters which could
not properly form a part of the text. I have commenced it with
a list of the principal authorities, as there was not space fobr retf
-rences at the foot of the pages.
~. K.
LeNn,




C 0 NTEN T S.
ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD.
CHAPTER  I.
Britain under the Romans. B.. C. 55. -A.. D.'450.
Tai  Britons. - Landing, of Caesar. — Caractacus.. — Boadicea. — Agneola
— qShate of Roman Yritain...............................p. 1 —
CHAPTER  II,
The Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms.  450-827.
The Germans. — Hengist and Horsa. - The Heptarchy. -The Britons. -
Conversio'Rof the Saxons, - Offa ofMercia. - EGBERT of Wessex..p. 7-17
CHAPTER  III.
kings of Wessex, Sovereigns of England.  800-836.
L  Darwes.- -- tHEL WuLF. - ETHELBALD, ETHELBERT, ETHERED.ALFRED THE GREAT. - -EDWWARD I. (the Eldes ).........p.  17 —26
CHAPTER IV.
Akahla-Sazon Monarchs of all Britain.  925-1016.
ATiEELSTAN.- Battle of Brnenburgh. - EDMUND.- EDRF.D, lIDw~I.Saint Dunstan., —  Eliva.. -- EDCAR (the Pacific.) _- Elfrida. - EDWARD
II. (the Martyr.) -   unstan's Miracles. - ETHELRED (the Unready.) —
Massacre of the Danes; - their Conquests. -  EDMUND II. (Ironside.
p. 27 —41
CHAPTER V.
Danish Kings; Saxon Line restored.  1016-1066.
CANUTE.- IHAROLD  I. (Harefoot.) — HARDAcNvTE. — EDWARD III. (the
Confessor.) - Godwin. - Harold. - iharold in Normandy. - HAROL.D II.
-Battle of Hastings. — Anglo-Saxon Constitution..............p. 41-59
ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD.
CHAPTER  I.
William I. (the Conqueror.)  1066-1087. 
Coronation of William;- his Return to Normandy. —Conquest of the West             i
and North of England. - Hereward. - Rebelion of Norman Nobles. -
Dissensions in the Royal Family. - Fall of Bishop Odo. - War with the
Kiag of France. - Death and F uneral of the Conquerer 3- his Character.
p. 60 —74
CHAPTER  II. 
William II. (Rufus.)  1087-1100.
War with Robert of Normandy. - The Crusade. - Primate Anse!m. - Death
of William; — his Character.................................p. 74 —79
______________________________.' j.,....~...




CIGAPTEJt HI..   nry l.(11eaucccr -.)  100-r41. 
t'he Kingats MarriaIe.; —.his.Conntest with Duk.Itobrt.t-Fte of Robert. —: Wlliam. FitZ —R.Bert. - Death of Prince William; — oE itzRobrt 5,- of
tue Kiqg. -Character of Henry..........p...............  Q-.8t
CHAPTER IV.
StepAia. 1135l1-U54.
Usurpation of Stephe n.   Miseries -endured by the People. —Wlar between.Stephen, and lheEpress.;-  between  Stephen and young Henry —: lDeath
of Stephen. — The Feudal.Bystem. —Eowoaehents of Xhe Papatey.-The
Kieg's Court and-the.Royal'Revenues.........               8._...,.. - p.i  97....    HOUSE iOF PNLTAGENE-.
*1 ~               O~~5~HA!PTER  1.
-Henry II. (Plantagenet.) 1154-1189.
Dominions of Henry. — War af Touiloaue;.  History of Thomas a Becket;
Contest between him aad the Kling. -,iMrder of Becket. - Invasion of
Ireland. - Wars between "Henry and his Sbns.. Da-tl and Character of
-the:'King-, -lhages in the Law of England...................1
CHATITER II.
Richard (Crurtteisiosam)  1189-1199.
['reparations for the Crusade,. -:Massacre of ihe!Jews. - Richard's Crusade;
- Captivity in Germany;- Return to England.; -his Death- J-,Cbt4aclar.
-Logbeard........................................      129
CHAPTER  III.
John (.Ladcand.)  1109-1216.
Accession of John;- his Marriage.- Capture and Murder of Prince Arthur.
- Loss of Normandy.- Contest with,the Pope. - Johwbbeamaes a.. qsl
of'the'Hly- See. _- iMagua Charta. —'War between Jolhn  nd: his,Baairs  --
his Dl)eath..... I........-......... —.p142
CHAP.TER  I;V.
mHenry  II. (of Minehester.)  2f6-4i279.' Submigsio df the Barons. -Hubert'de Burgh. — War with the King of France.
- Extortions of the Pope. - Efforts to restrain the King's Prodigality. -
Simon de Moitfort. - The.Mad Parliameit. - Battle and Mise of Lewes.Origin of the House ef o0uinoss. — Escape Oif Prince Edward. - Defeat
and Death =qf Leicester,.-_Statutes.of Marlbridge. -.Death'pf tbe Kig..p.,1..163.-CHAPTER V.
Edward.I., (Longshanks.)  I272-1307.
Edward in the East. —Petty Battle of Cbalons. -Reduction of Wales. —
Affairs of Scotland. - Loss of Guielne. -Battle of Dunbar. — William
Wal ace. - Battle of Stirling., - Battle of'Falkirk. - Reduction of Scot.
land.- Robert Bruce.- Death and Character..ofEdw.ard...-ftate.of,*e
Constitutio.............................. 
B




CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VI.
Edward II. (of Carnarvon.)  1;j07-1327.
Piers Gaveston. - Battle of Bannock-burn,- Hugih Spenser. - Execution of
the Earl of Lancaster. - Hostile Conduct of the Queen.-  Execution of
the Spensers.- Deposition and Murder of the King........... p. 183-191
CHAPTER  VII.
Edward III. (of Windsor.)  1327-1377.
Peace with Scotland. -Tyranny of Mortimer; - his Seizure and Execution. -
Affairs of Scotland.- Battle of Halidons Hill. - Edward claims the Crown
of France.- Inyasions of France. - The Countess of Montfort. - Invasion
of France. - Battle. of, Creci. - Siege of Calais. - Battle of Poitiers. -
State of France. - Peace of Bretigni. - The Black Prince in Spain; - his
Death. - Death of the King. - State of the Constitution. - Windsor Castle
and the Order of the Garter.........................p. 192-216
CHAPTER  VIII.
Richard II. (of Bordeauz.)  1377-1399.
Insurrection of the'Peasantry. - Power of the Duke ofiGiducester. - Richard's
Expedition to Ireland.- Murder of Gloucester. - The King absolute. -
Norfolk and Hereford. - Return of Hereford. - Capture of the King; - his
Deposition. - Wickliffe.............................p. 216-235
CHAPTER IX. 
Henry IV.  1399-1413.
Murder of Richard II. -Battle of Humbledown. - Battle of Shrewsbury. -
Suppression of the Insurrection. - Seizure of the Prince of Scotland. - Anec.
dotes of the Prince of Wales. - King's Death and Character... p. 235-242
CHAPTER X.
Henry V. 1413-1422.
Sir John Oldcastle. - Henry claims the Crown of France. -Conspiracy. - Invasion of France. - Battle of Agincourt. - State of France.- Confe, ence
of Meulant.- The Perpetual Peace. -Death of Henry.......p. 242. -252
CHAPTER XI.
Henry VI.  1422-1461.
Affairs of France and England.- Battle of Verneuil.- Siege of Orleans. -
Battle of the Herrings. —Joan of Arc;-her cruel Death. - Losses of the
English.- The King's Marriage. - Death of the Duke of Gloucester; —of
Cardinal Beaufort. - Accusation of Suffolk — his Death. - Jack Cade. —
The Duke of York.- Battle of St. Alban's. - War of the Roses. - Battie
of Blore-heath. - York declared Heir to the Crown. - Battle of Wakefield,
of Mortimer's Cross.....  p. 252-274
CHAPTER  XII.
Edward IV.  1461-1483.
Battle of Towton; — of Hedgeley-moor and Hexham. — Henry taken. —
Marriage of Edward. - Risinges of the Peasantry. - Flight of Edward,-.
his Return. - Battle of Barnet;- of Tewkesbury. - Death of Henry; — of
Clarence and of the King......................p. 275 —287
CHAPTER  XIII.
Edward V. 1483.
Parties at Court. - Imprisonment of Rivers and Gray. - Execution of Hastlngs.
-Jane Shore. — Dr. Shaw's Sermon. - Gloucester made King... p 287. —z
_.




CONTENTS.                              l
CHAPTER XIV.
Richard IlL 1483-1484.
Murder of the Princes. —Conspirac  and Death of Buckingha:s. - Richard
proposes to marry his Niece. - Landing of Richmond.-Battle of Bosworth. —Constitution under the Plantagenets. - Religion of the Fifteenth
Century................................p. 293 —304
HOUSE OF TUDOR.
CHAPTER I.
Henry VII. 1484-1509.
The Sweating Sickness. - King's Marriage. -  Lambert Simnell. — Battle of
Stoke. - Coronation of the Queen. - A ffairs of Brittany.. -Perkin Warbeck. - Execution of the Earl of Warwick. - Marriage of Prince Arthur.
-The King's Avarice;- his Death and Character........... p. 305-32i
CHAPTER  I1.
Henry VIII.  1509-1526.
Execution of Empson and Dudley. - War with France;- with Scotland. -
Battle of Flodden. - Wolsey. - The Field of the Cloth of Gold. - Execution of the Duke of Buckingham. - Wolsey deceived by the Emperor.
p. 321 —33
CHAPTER III.
Henry VIL. (continued.) 1527-1535.
The Reformation. - Luther. - Henry writes against him. - Origin of Henry's
Divorce. - Anne Boleyn. -Progress of the Divorce. - Cranmer. - Fall of
Wolsey;- his Death. - Opinions of Universities. -Cromwell. -Cranmer
made Primate. - Henry marries Anne Boleyn. - The Holy Maid of Kent.
- Execution of Bishop Fisher; - of Sir T. More; — his Character.
p. 335 —360
CHAPTER  IV.
Henry VIII. (continued.)  1535-1538.
Visitation of Convents. - Trial and Execution of Queen Anne. - Risings of
the Peasantry. - Death of Queen Jane. - Suppression of the Monasteries.
- Regiald Pole................................     p. 360-377
CHAPTER V.
Henry VIII. (continued.)  1,38-1547.
Burning of Lambert. - Act of Six Articles. - King's Marriage with Anne of
Cleves; - his Divorce. - Execution of Cromwell. - Catherine Howard. -
War with France and Scotland. - Conspiracy against Cranmer. —Anne
Askew. - Attempt to injure the Queen. - Execution of Lord Surrey. -
Death of the King;-his Character.......................p. 377-393
CHAPTER  V1.
Edward VI. 1547-1553.
The Council. —Progress of the Reformation. - Invasion of Scotland and
battle of Pinkey. - Lord Seymour. - Joan Bocher. - Risings of the Peasantry. -Fall of Somerset. - Bonner and Gardiner. — The Lady Mary.
Trial and Execution of Somerset. — Settlement of the Crown. - Death of
the King............p. 393 —411




CHAPTER VIL.Mary.. 155'3 —,
Ly J.ane Gr. y. -The people declare for MAt       i. Y.d Exe.'n d
Northumiberlauld. — Proceedings again:rt;.. RE Aru  r r. - frie Quee s Mar
riage..- Wyat's Insurrection. - Execl'ii- n of Lady. Jane, her UH4aMs4, aeua
her Father. -VDanger.of the  Princsr Zhizabeth.., —, Marriage of the Qseein.
- Arrival of Cardinal Pole.- The Piincess Elizabeth....... p. 411-430
CHAP'tER  VIII.
Mary (coatzuaed.) 1555-1558.
Proceedings against the Reforr;:r. - Martyrdom of Rogers and Hooper. —
Proceedings against Cranwrer,, Ridley~ and Latiter. —Martyrdom  of the
two last.  Death of Olaydiier. - Martyrdoin -f'Cranmer. - Pole made
Primate.- Battle of' t. Quin tin. - Loss of Calais. - Death of the Queen,
and of the Cardinal...................... p. 430 —48
CHAPTEAt' iX.
Elizabeth.  1558-1,.5.
Aiiiession of EiiPiza''.as i-her Coronaiion. - The Reformnation established,.
Foreign  Aftairs. - Affirs of Scotland.   return of Mary to Soootad.,-Reliative Sia.tioati of Elizabeth and Mary. - Suitors to the British Queens
-Mary and Darnley; -  their Marriage. - Flight of Murray and his
Friend.......p. 449-470
CHAPTER -— X.
tltzabi h'(coit iid.) 15 66-1571.
Musisr o' Rizzio. -the Queen's Affection for Bothwell.- Death of the King.
-PrJceedings in Consequence of it. —Mary -marries Bothweil. - Association of the Nobles..-. Surrender of the Queen i  her Imprisonment and Ab.
dication — her Escape and Flight into'Engltarid. -- Coiierence at York and
Harapton Cotut. - Proposed Marriage ~With the -D.ke of Noiflk.-. Rising:in the North. — Death and Charaeter of the Regent MUrray. — State of Polh~cs.,'-ELiztibeth exommuieated...................... p. 4-70-489
~'CHAPTER' XI.
Fli:abeth (continuted,)  -3571-1587.
Religious Parties. —'1 rial ajld Execution of ~Norfolk. - MWsacre of St. Bar.
tholomew;- its Conse'quences. — ii'r Francis Drake. — Eizabeth's Coquetry
-with the Dke of      -  er-seeition o thee  f    ou.-Peeeti  the   tholies. —Aiirs df
-land. — Danger of Elirzabeth. -Dr. Parry..-Thie Qt6ih- ids -tle'Duth. --
Babington's Conspiracy. - Trial of the Qneen of- Sots. o-d-cnt dttu   f
Elizabeth.-Execution of the Queen of Scots. —Behavior of Elizabeth
after it.......................p. 489 —520
CHAPTER XIH..Elizabthk- (eontinued.)  1587-4603.
Conduct-of tie "ings'of Sdotland:hind France. -- Philip prepates to invaae
Englind.  PielPkrations'for Defence.- Tihe, Invincible Armada. -bDeath:and Chafaeter -of -Leirester., — A-flairs'Of Frantne. - Naval Eaeriprises. —
Taking of Cadiz. - State of Ireland. - Essex sent thither. — His Return,
Insurrection, and Death. - thl   4uiene' lIa4t Illness and Death. —Her
Character. - Measures of'her,Reign. -. State.of England  under the
Tudors.,..... p. 521-.542
APPEN-DIX.......p.  - --




HISTORY O-F ENGLAND.
ANGTIO-SAXON PERIOD.
CHAPTER  I.
BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.
B. C. 55-A. D. 450.
IF in imagination we transport ourselves back in time for
a space of about two thousand years, and view the isle of
Britain, whose vales and plains are now blooming with the
riches of cultivatioi., whose numerous cities and towns
are animated with the activity of commerce and manufacture,
whose fleets ride triumphant on the most distant oceans, and
whose political institutions claim the admiration of the entire
world,- a widely different scene will appear before us.
We shall behold a region covered with forests and spreading
into marshes; its inhabitants a rude, barbarous race, subsistcng chiefly on the milk and flesh of their numerous herds of
cattle, with little of agriculture, and few of the useful arts;
their towns mere enclosures in the woods; their dwellings
rude wicker cabins, their only vessel the coracle, or boat of
frame work covered with skins. Nearly as low in the scale of
humanity, as her colonists in after-times found the aborigines
of the New World, were the original tribes of Britain when
the legions of Rome first landed on her shores.*
The indigenous inhabitants of the British isles were beyond doubt a portion of the Celtic race, whose seats on the
— in land extended eastwards to the Rhine, and southwards
into Spain. The manners, customs, and institutions of
* See Appendix (A.)
VOL. I.     1                        A




2                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the whole race were the same, only varying according to their
geographical position; the rudeness and barbarism declining
as they came near more civilized countries.  Like all races
n a low state of culture, the Celts were divided into numerous
independent tribes, and warfare evermore prevailed among
them. These tribes were composed of three classes or orders;
the sacerdotal order, named Druids, the nobility, and the comr
mon people. All knowledge was in the hands of the Druids;
they were the priests, the philosophers, and the judges of
the people; those who refused to submit to their sentence
were punished by excommunication, and as the Celtic race
has been at all times prone:o superstition, this weapon was
as powerful in their hands as in those of the Romish clergy
of after-ages. They were presided over by an arch-druid
who held his office for life; they formed not a caste, but an
order, into which any one who was duly qualified might be
admitted. The Druids had a peculiar system of physics and
astronomy; they taught in verses, which were never committed to writing; their chief doctrine was that of the Metemnpsychosis, or passage of the soul into various bodies; their religious system was dark and sanguinary. The order enjoyed
immunity from all taxes and imposts, and were not required
to serve in war. The nobility exercised a despotic power
over the inferior people, who were in a:tate of the rmost abject slavery; and the power of the Ve'gobret, or prince, of
each tribe was absolute.
We thus see that the institutions of the Celtic tribes offered a striking resemblance to those of the East; the same
degrading thraldom of the inferior people, the same exaltation
of the sacerdotal order as in Egypt and India; even the employment of chariots in war was common to both regions.
Hence many have derived the Celtic religion and institutions
immediately from Asia; but this is a theory of which there
is no need, and for which no satisfactory evidence has been
offered.
The Celts o" Britain had dwelt for ages in the seclusion of
their isle, without any direct intercourse with the civilized
nations round the Mediterranean, when at length the arms
of Rome reached the opposite coast of Gaul. We are cer.
tainly told much of the direct trade to Britain of the Tyrians
and their colonists of Carthage, but no proofs of this are to
be found, and it is much more probable that the tin, iron,
and other minerals of the island were conveyed over land to
Spain or the south of Gaul, and there disposed of to the for.
eign traders. We are also of opinion that the mines of Brit.




BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.                3
ain were wrought by the Germans, who, under the name of
Belgians, had colonized its southern coast, and not by the
natives, and that it was in their large vessels, and not in the
British coracles, that the commerce was carried on with the
continent.                                                       1
Such then was the state of Britain when (B. C. 55) Julius     j
Caesar, being engaged in his project of subduing Gaul as a
means to the enslaving of his own country, thought that the
invasion of an island which was regarded as beyond the limits
or the world might tell to his advantage at Rome.  He accordingly embarked with two legions, and having eftected a
landing near Deal on the coast of' Kent, defeated tne natives
who came to oppose him'; but as it was not convelnient for       i
him to make any stay in the country, he granted mne Britons
peace on their promise of sending him hostages, adid returned
to Gaul.  The following spring he landed with d iorce of
five legions and two thousand horse: the Britons, who, layiig aside their jealousies, had given the supreme command to
Cassivelaunus, prince of the Trinobantians,* opposed without      i
effect his passage of the Stour; he afterwards forced the passage of the Thames above Kingston, took Cassivelaunus'
chief town, received the submission and hostages of several
states, and having imposed tributes (which never were paid)
quitted Britain forever.
The civil war occupied the remainder of Caesar s life, the
policy of his successor, Augustus, was adverse to exteniding
the already enormous empire, yet an intercourse was Kept.
up with the British chiefs, some of whom  made offeingss:
on the Capitol, and they allowed duties to be levied on the       J
commerce between Britain and Gaul.t The policy of Tioeri-        it
us was similar to that of his predecessor.  The frantic savage,
Caligula, to whom the empire next fell, led the arniiy, at the
head of which he was plundering Gaul, to the coat opposite
Br;ain, (A. D. 36;) the warlike engines were set in order, and  
ne issued his commands to the expecting troops to charge the      i
ocean, and gather its shells as spoils due to the Capitol and
Pal atium.
At length, while the imperial throne was occupied by the
feeble Claudius, (43,) the plan of conquering Britain was se.
riously resumed.  An exiled British prince having applied to
the emperor, orders were issued to A. Plautius, who commanded in Gaul, to invade the island. The Roman soldiers
at first hesitated to embark. When they landed they found
* See Appendix (B.)       t Strabo, iv. 5.




4               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
no enemy to oppose them, for the Britons had fled to their
forests and marshes, thinking the invaders would retire; but
Plautius hunted them out, and subdued the country south of
the Thames. The emperor himself soon after appeared in
Britain, crossed the Thames, and routed an army of the natives; and having been in the island but sixteen days in all.
returned and triumphed at Rome. The war in Britain was
continued by Plautius and his lieutenant Vespasian, the fu.
ture emperor. The command was afterwards (51) given to
P. Ostorius, who carried his arms to the Avon and the Severn; he easily routed the Icenians; the resistance of the
Silurians, under their gallant chief Caractacus, (Caradoc,)
was more stubborn, but the legions were victorious in a great
battle, in which the family of the chief became captives, and
he himself, seeking refuge with Cartismandua, queen of the
Brigantians, was by her basely surrendered. They were led
before the tribunal of Claudius, in the presence of assembled
Rome. The British prince addressed the emperor in dignified and manly terms, and life and liberty were granted to
him and his family.
The defeat and capture of Caractacus did not end the war;
the Silurians still gave the Romans abundant employment,
and Ostorius died worn out with care and anxiety. His
successors Didius and Veranius carried on the conflict without much success. At length (62) the command in Britain
was given to Suetonius Paulinue, an officer of great ability
and courage. Regarding the isle of Mona, (Anglesea,) which
was the chief seat of the Druids, as the centre of union and
focus of resistance among the Britons, he resolved to reduce
it. He led his army to the strait of the Menai; they beheld
the opposite shore covered by armed Britons, among whom,
with wild gestures, dishevelled locks, and brandishing flaming torches, ran women exciting them to courage, while the
Druids stood apart, and with hands upraised to heaven devoted
the invaders of their sacred isle. The Romans paused: at
length, urged by the voice of their general, they advanced
their standards: the foe made but a brief resistance; the isle
became the dominion of the victors, who built there a fort,
and cut down the groves which so often had witnessed the
human sacrifices offered by the Druids.
While Suetonius was thus engaged, he was summoned
to quell an insurrection in the part called the Province.
The king of the Icenians, when dying, had followed the
Roman practice of making Cesar heir, along with his two
only daughters, hboping thus to secure their succession;




BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS.               5
but the Roman officers entered on his kingdom as a conquered country; they violated the princesses, beat and
scourged their mother Boadicea, and plundered and enslaved
the nobles. Joined by the Trinobantians, the Icenians flew
to arms; as the veterans who had been placed as a colony
at Camalodunum  (Maldon) had behaved with the usual
violence and insolence of the Roman military colonists,
they were the first objects of attack.  They were utterly
destroyed; the legate Cerealis, who was leading his troops
to their aid, was defeated.  Suetonius, on coming by forced
marches to Londinium, (London,) found it necessary to
leave that flourishing city and the municipal town of Verulamium  (St. Albans) to their fate, and seventy thousand
persons were slaughtered in them  by the Britons.  Suetonius, having drawn together a force of about ten thousand
men, took up a position flanked by eminences, his rear being
secured by a wood. The plain in front was soon filled with
the troops and squadrons of the advancing foes; Boadicea,
bearing her insulted daughters in her car, drove from nation
to nation, exhorting them to avenge their injuries. The
fight began; but victory soon took the side of skill and
discipline; eighty thousand Britons, it was said, lay slain.
Boadicea terminated her life by poison. Fire, sword, and
famine then wasted various parts of the island. The successors of Suetonius were inactive; Vespasian, when emperor, gave the command in Britain to Cerealis, who made
war with success against the Brigantians, and then to Frontinus, who subdued the Silurians.
Vespasian next committed Britain to Cn. Julius Agricola, a man who united in his person all the civil and military virtues. Soon after his arrival (80) he retook Mona,
of which the Britons had repossessed themselves; he then
devoted himself to conciliating the minds of the natives by
a proper regulation of the tributes, and by introducing justice
into the administration of affairs. After some time (82) he
led out his troops and conquered the country to the aestuary
of the Taus, (Tweed?) and the next year (83) he built a line
of forts fronm the firth of Forth to that of Clyde. He had
some thoughts of invading Ireland, one of whose princes,
being expelled, had sought his aid; and he was of opinion
that a single legion and a few auxiliaries would suffice for
the conquest of that island, whose people were even more
barbarous than the Britons. The tribes north of the firths,
who were called Caledonians, meantime (85) prepared for
war; they assailed the Roman forts; they also fell on the




.  HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ninth legion in the night, and were near overcoming it.
Agricola resolved to invade their country; he advanced as
far as the Grampians, which he found occupied by an army
of thirty thousand warriors, which was receiving daily accessions of strength; each clan was led by its own chief, but
the superior abilities of Galgacus were acknowledged by all.
The infantry, armed with claymore and target, occupied
the hills; the horse and war-cars moved about on the plain.
But vain as ever were the arms and courage of the mouni it-    taineers against the discipline of the legions; the night
Si; 14beheld ten thousand Caledonian warriors lying dead on the
plain. Agricola, having advanced somewhat further into the
country, and forced some of the tribes to give him hostages,
led his army back to winter quarters. His fleet meantime sailed. northwards, and having succeeded in circumnavigating the island, returned to its usual station at Sandwich.
The conquests of Agricola gave the Roman dominion
tit.      In Britain its greatest extent. All the native tribes south
of the firths lived henceforth in peaceful submission to the
empire; the Roman language and manners were gradually diffused among them; colonies and municipal towns
were spread over the island; war was unknown, except on
the northern frontier, where the untamed Caledonians gave
i; 0he legions occasional employment.  Against their incur}~tl      sions the emperor Hadrian, when in Britain, built a wall
from the Tyne to the Solway firth, and in the reign of his
successor, Antoninus, a similar wall was constructed on the
line of the forts between the firths raised by Agricola.
The distance of Britain from  the seat of government, and
the security of its insular position, often excited its prefects
to assume the imperial purple, and it was hence named
"an isle fertile of usurpers," (tyrannorum.)  The two most
celebrated of these usurpers were Carausius, at the end of
the third, and Maximus, at the end of the fourth century.
During the period of Roman dominion the zeal of the
early Christians introduced the beneficent religion of the
gospel into Britain, as into all other parts of the empire,
mnd it became the dominant faith throughout the Romanized part of the island. The names of Pelagius, a Welshman, and of Celestius, a North Briton, are famous on
account of their theories of original sin and free will,
which caused them to be ranked among the heretics of those
times.
When internal decay, and the pressure of the barbarians
from withou  were menacing the existence of the emnire.




rL E ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOMS.            I
the troops were gradually withdrawn from the more ienlote
provinces. The Picts, as the people north of the firths
are now called, being strengthened by the Scots of Ireland who had settled on the west coast of their country,
began to pour in their ferocious hordes on the Roman
province; they even reached and plundered London, and,
though defeated, renewed without ceasingitheir incursions.
The Saxons from the opposite coast of Germany also made
frequent plundering descents on the unwarlike province.
The legions were at length totally withdrawn, and the Britons left to their own resources. Instead, however, of uniting
against the common enemies, their princes and chiefs wasted
their powers in contests for the supremacy of the island.
At length (449) Gwerthern, or Vortigern, a British prince,
being hard: pressed by his rival for dominion Aurelius Ambrosius, (who claimed descent from Maximus,) and harassed
by the incessant inroads of the Scots and Picts, resolved on
the fatal expedient of taking a body of the Saxon freebooters
into'his service, and he formed a treaty with two of their
chiefs, named Hengist and Horsa.
CHAPTER II.
THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOMS.
450-827.
THE Germanic or Teutonic race, which occupied Europe
east of the Rhine, differed in language, religion, manners,
and external appearance from their western neighbors the
Celts. The love of liberty was a leading trait in their character; their obedience to their chiefs was free and voluntary; their religion, though a part of their being, was no
slavish superstition; and the German quailed not, like the
Celt, before a sacerdotal order. He held the female sex in
honor, and nowhere was valor seen to pay homage to beauty
as in the forests of Germnany. The Germans further differed
from the Celts in their passion for maritime enterprise; and
while the Celt had only his hide-covered coracle to creep




8                 HISTORY OF. ENGLANPD.
along the shore,* the Germans ploughed the waves ad faced
the storm in strong, well-rigged ships,t This led them, like
the ancient Greeks, to combine piracy.with trade, and we
may suppose that after the Roman conquest of Gaul and
Britain, and the consequent increase of luxury and wealth in
these countries, the pratice.of piracy became more extensive among the lmaritimeiGermans..
These piratic tribes.-were:the Jutes of the'Cimbric. peninsula, or Jutland, the Angles of Jutland and Holstein, and
the Saxons who.dwelt thence to the Rhine.. Hengist and
Horsa, to whom Vortigern applied, were Ealdormen. or chiefs
of the Jutes, and the tradition is that they came -to his airc
with three caiule (keels; i. e. ships,:) carrying sixteen hundred
men.  In imitation of the Roman practice of-granting lands
for military service,. Vortigern bestowed on them the isle of
Thanet, whither. numbers of their countrymen repaired to
them. Their arms were successful against the Scots and
Picts, but when the Britons refused to: comply with their
further demands, they joined these northern tribes, and
spread their ravages over the whole. island. The Britons,
led by Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, (which last they had
deposed for his vices and incapacity,) now resisted with all
their might, and in one battle, (455,) fought at iEgeles(Ayles-) ford, Horsa was slain; Hengist then associated with
himself his son Eric, or XEsk, and a series of victories gave
them possession of the whole of Kent, which was the first
cf the kingdoms formed by the invaders.
The British writers relate the following anecdotes in
connection with these events, but which probably are mere
fictions to cover the disgrace of defeat.  Hengist, they say,
had a beautiful daughter, named Rowena, whom he resolved
to employ as a means to extend -his influence over the British
king. At a banquet given by Hengist, the fair Rowena
advanced, bearing a golden goelet filled with wine, and presented it to Vortigern,.,whoa  having thus:an opportunity
* The Venetans of Gaul, who fought with Casar on-the sea, (B. G.
iii. 8-16,) might seem.to form an exception;:but Strabo (iv; 4) assures
us they were Belgians) and these.were always$ regarded as of Germanic origin.
t Among other reasons for regarding the navigation of the Gernans
and -their northern kindred as homesprung, may!be mentioned, that the
names of a ship, and. all its. parts, are original termss of their languages,
and not adopted from the Latin, Greek, or Punic..
t Her words on this occasion were, AWes heal, hlaford conuna!
(" Health to thee, lord king' ") tfom the first two of which was
Abrmed the old English wassail.;The usual reply Wass, Drine heal




THE- ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOMS.              9
of contemplating her beauty, became enamored.  He askedand obtained her of her father, and, as was to be expected,
she used an injurious influence over his mind. Again, it is
said that: after the first: war between the Brltons and Saxons,
a banquet, the scene of which: was the celebrated Stonehenge,:
was held at the ratification of a peace; but the treacherous
Hengist had made his companions -conceal their:seazes,:or
short swords, beneath their -garments, and on his crying out.
as had been concerted,-" Lay hold on your seaxes!i (Nimet'
eure seaxes,) they fell on: and slew three hundred of the British nobles, and made~ Vortigern a prisoner. 
To return to- the history.  The Jutes were followed by
the Saxons; -a chief named Ella landed (477): with- his three
sons to the west of: Kent, and defeated the Britons, and
drove them into the wood of Andredes-leage;* he again
(490) routed them, and took and razed their town of Andre-.
des-ceastre.  He then formed the kingdom of the SouthSaxons, which embraced the modern county of Sussex.
Another body of Saxons, led by Cerdic and his son Cynric,
landed (494) to the west of the kingdom  of the SouthSaxons. They also were victorious against the Britons, and
they gradually conquered the country from Sussex to the
river Avon in Hampshire; they also passed the Thames, and
subdued tile country as far as Bedford. These were called
the West-Saxons, and the kingdom of Cerdic was named
Wessex.
The Saxons at this time also established themselves on
the east coast, where they formed the kingdom of the EastSaxons, or Essex, of which that of the Middle-Saxons, or
Middlesex, was a part.
The Angles now followed the example of their kindred
tribes, and a large body of them  occupied the country to
the north. of Essex, which was named from  them  EastAnglia. Here they were divided into two portions, namedl
the North-folk, (Norfolk,) and the South-folk, (Suffolk.)
The country from the Humbei to the firth: of Forth was
occupied by the Britishl kingdoms of Deyfyr: (Deira) and
Bryneich,: (Bernicia,): which- were -separated by a forest ex —
tending from the Tees to the Tyne. The Jutes and Saxons
are said to have invaded Bernicia in the time of Hengist,
but without mmuch success. At length (547) Ida, the Angle,
anded with: a large force: at Flaniborough Head,. and-he
* The Weald (that is, wood) of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, is the re
mains of this forest.




10                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
speedily mad- himself master of the' country.  It is not
known how the conquest of Deira was achieved, but in 560
we find it under the dominion of the Angle' Ella.  Deira
and Bernicia were afterwards, under the name of Northumbria, united under lone monarch, and the kingdom thus
formed was the most powerful inithe island.
The country south of Deira  and west of Anglia was
regarded  as march- or border-land toward' the Britons,
(whence its name of Mercia.) It was chiefly settled by the
Angles; a great part of the population continued British,
and it was divided, into a number of states.  Mercia was at
first, it would seem, under the supremacy of Northumbria,
but a fierce chief named Penda cast off the subjection,
(626;) conquests were made fromn the Britons and West- and
East-Saxons, and gradually Mercia became extensive and
powerful.
Thus was formed what is usually called the Heptarchy,
or seven states, founded by the German conquerors of -Britain.  This term has been objected to as not' strictly correct,
for there were at first' eight instead of seven independent
kingdoms; but Deira and Bernicia were so early united,under one sceptre, that it seems to us a needless effort after
exactness, to change, as has been done, Heptarchy into
Octarchy.
The Britons, or Welsh,* as they were namedby the conquerors, were thus driven back to the western side of the
island. Their country, extending from Alcluyd or Dunbarton (i. e. Dun or fort of the Britons) on the- Clyde to the
south of Lancashire, separated from Northumbria by a range
of mountains, was named Strathclyde and Cumbria; they
also held, and their descendants retain, the:country named
Wales; and, in the south, Damnonia'(Devonshire) and Cernaw, (Cornwall,)'under the name of,West-Wales; were long
independent of the Saxons.' Of:th'e Britons of the conquered
country, part fell in defence of their liberty and property; part
sought refuge with their independent kindred,; the remainder
submitted, and were incorporated'among the'conquerors in
various relations of freedom or servitude.  It'is'remarkable,
that in these parts their language went entirely. out of use; t'* The Anglo-Saxon word W[ealh, (i. e. Gael,) and its kindred terms
in the other Teutonic dialects, signify a' Gaul, stranger, or foreigner.
Thus: the Germans at:the'present dary iahl Italy Walschlsan'd and the
Italians lWtlscher. The Valais in Switzerland, the Walloons, &c., are
all of the same origin.
ti See Appendix (C.) In Celtic, amhain (pronounced awa;n or'owan
akin to amnis) is a river, and uisge is water. There are three or more




I HE ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOMS.                11
British terms fcrm no portion of the modern English; few
towns or lands retain Celtic names; the chief vestiges of the
Celtic having once prevailed over the whole islard are the
appellations of some mountains and streams.
We have thus succinctly related the conquest of Britain
as it has been transmitted to us by the oldest authorities.
We must not, however, conceal the fact that but one, the
British Gildas, can be regarded as a contemporary, and that
from him we obtain hardly any details; while Venerable
Bede, our principal authority, was not born till two centuries
after the conquest; and as Christianity, and with it letters,
was not introduced among the Saxons much more than half
a century before his time, we are left to suppose that the
genealogies of chiefs and the songs of bards were the materials for the history of the conquest and the succeeding
century and half. How little real history these usually transmit is well known; in the present case, for instance, the
numbers of the invaders are ludicrously small, and the names
of the first leaders have such a mythic air, as to lead some
inquirers even to doubt of their actual existence.* Nor are
the tales of the British bards more credible than those of the
Saxons, and the fame and the existence of their renowned
Arthur are at least as problematic as those of Hengist and
Horsa.
To proceed: all Britain was thus divided among the
Anglo-Saxons, as we call the conquerors; the Britons, or
Welsh; and the Picts and Scots, north of the Roman wall.
Ceaseless warfare, it will readily be supposed, prevailed
among all these independent states; and the Anglo-Saxons,
little heeding their community of origin, turned their arms
as freely against each other as against the Welsh or the
Picts.  Milton has said that these conflicts are as undeserving of notice " as the fights between the kites and the
crows," and this remark certainly holds good with respect
to the general reader, though it may not apply with equal
force to the philosopher or the antiquary. We will therefore
rivers in England named Avon, the same as the former word; and the
Exe, Axe, Esk, (to which we may, perhaps, add the Isis, Ouse, and
Wash,) are connected with the latter.
* Hengist and Horsa both signify horse; the white horse is the arms
of Kent anc Hanover; the ancient Germans, according to Tacitus,
kept sacred white horses, from whose neighing they took omens. (Seo
Palgrave, Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, Fart i.
p. 395.) We do not, however, think thit their names present any
difficulty.  Wolf (Ulf) and Bear (Beorn) were names of real persons;
why then object to Horse




12'HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
content ourselves with selecting some of the most prorminent
events in each of the kingdoms during the space of about
two centuries.
We shall begin' with Kent, as it was in this kingdom
that Christianity was first introduced among the heathen
Saxons.*  The following was the occasion. Gregory (who
was afterwards pope, and named the Great) happening when
a young man to pass through the slave-market at Rome, his
attention was caught by some boys, with fair long hair and
blooming complexions, who were there exposed for sale.
He asked the slave-dealer of what country they were; he
was told that they were Angles.  "With reason," said he,
" are they so called, for they are fair as angels, and would
that they might be cherubim in heaven! But from what
province of Britain are they?"  " From Deira."  "Deira!"
said he, "that is good; they must be delivered from the
wrath (de ira) of God. But what is the name of their
king?"  "Ella."  "Ella! Allelujah then should be sung
in his dominions." Gregory forthwith resolved to go on a
mission to Britain; he obtained the pontiff's consent, but
the people of Rome would not suffer him to expose his life
to such peril. At length he ascended the papal throne himself, and he then resolved to make no delay in proposing the
truths of the gospel to the pagan Saxons. He selected a
monk named Augustine, whom with forty companions he
sent to Britain, (596.)
The conjuncture was favorable. Ethelbert, king of Kent,
was married to a Christian princess, Berta, sister of Caribert, king of Paris: when, therefore, the missionaries landed
in the isle of Thanet, and sent to solicit an interview with
the king, it was readily granted; but Ethelbert, fearful of
magic, would only receive them  in the open air  They
advanced, bearing aloft a silver cross, and a banner displaying the image of Christ, and chanting litanies; then address-/
ing the king, they explained to him the tenets of their faith
Ethelbert hesitated-to embrace the new doctr.ne, but he
gave them leave to preach it to his people, and assured them
of his protection. Soon, however, the king and his court
became converts, and his example so wrought on his subjects that not less than;ten thousand of them were baptized
on one Christmas. He gave up his own palace to the mis.
# National hatred on one side, and contempt on the other, had prob
ably prevented, or rendered unavailing, any attempts on the part of
the British Chxistians to convert the Saxons.




THE ANGLO SAXON KINGDOMS                  13
sionaries, and the church which they built adjoining it occupied the site of the present cathedral of Canterbury. Sebert,
king of Essex, the nephew of Ethelbert, readily embraced
the Christian religion, and on the site of an ancient temple
of Apollo, in a wild, desert island formed by the branches of
a small river that fell into the Thames to the west of London,and which was named Thorney (Thorn-isle) from its appear,
ancs, he built a church dedicated to St. Peter, — the pres.ent Westminster Abbey.  He also built in London, on the'
site of a temple of Diana, a cathedral dedicated to St. Paul. ~
On the death of Ethelbert, however, the new faith seemedl
likely to decline; his son and successor Eadbald, smitten
with the charms of the widowed queen, made her his- wife,
and returned to the religion of his fathers. The sons of
Sebert also renounced the new faith. Mellitus, bishop of
London, and Justus, bishop of Rochester, returned to Gaul,
and Laurentius, the successor of Augustine- was preparing
to follow their example. Ere he departed he resolved to
make one more effort to reclaim Eadbald.  The night before
he was to set out for the continent, he caused his bed to be
made in the church. In the morning he came to take leave
of the king, and stripping his back and shoulders, showed
them bloody with the marks of recent stripes. Eadbald
asked who had dared thuo to treat a person in his station.
He was told they were the chastisement inflicted on him, in
the dead of the night, by the prince of the apostles, for his
having thought of abandoning his flock.  The king was terrified; he put away his queen, suppressed idolatry, and
became a most zealous Christian.*
Edwin, king of Northumbria, was married to Ethelburga,
daughter of Ethelbert, and at the request of her brother
Eadbald he allowed (625) a missionary named Paulinus to
preach in his dominions. Edwin's had been a life of vicissitude; he was heir o the crown of Deira, but Ethelfrith, king
* As this is one of the first Romish miracles in English history, w'e
must make a few remarks on this subject. Of the fact above related
we see no reason to doubt, though most surely St. Peter was not the
flagellator. From the earliest ages to the present day, that " the end
sanctifies the means " has been the maxim of the Church of Rome.
The fraud, as was apparently the case in the present instance, was
often well intended, but still it was fraud, and therefore is to be condemned. The preceding narrative is given at full length by Venerable Bede. Dr. Lingard thus softens it: " On the morning of his intended departure he made a last attempt on the mind of Eadbald; his
representations were successful." Surely this is not fair-dealing in a
historian.
VOL. I.      2




14               HISTORY OF ENGL ND.
of Bernicia, who had married his sister, expelled him wher!
an infant from his inheritance. When Edwin grew up, he
sought refuge with Redwald, king of East-Anglia, where,
from his manners and conduct, he gained universal favor.
E helfrith sent repeatedly, offering large rewards to Redwald
if he would kill him or give him up. The Anglian prince
at first steadfastly refused; at length he began to waver.
Edwin was informed of his danger, but he refused to fly;
the queen then strongly interested herself in his favor, and
Redwald resolved to remain in the path of honor. Knowing
that a war must ensue, he resolved to anticipate Ethelfrith, and
he invaded his dominions. Ethelfrith fell in battle against
him, and Edwin became king of Northumbria, where he so
distinguished himself by the strict administration of justice,
that it was said that during his reign a woman or child might
openly carry a purse of gold without danger. The king of
Wessex, unable to face Edwin in the field, resolved to have
him murdered.  The assassin, named Eomer, came as an
ambassador, and when the king stretched forth his hand to
welcome him, he suddenly drew his sword and attempted to
stab him; but Lilla, one of the king's officers, seeing the
act, threw himself before the sword, which passed through
his body and wounded the king. The fright of the queen
brought on premature labor; the safety of herself and her
babe was ascribed to the prayers of Paulinus, and with
Edwin's permission the infant was baptized. A victory
which he gained over the treacherous king of Wessex also
contributed to dispose him to embrace the new faith, and
after divers conferences with Paulinus, he called the groat
council of his realm to take the matter into consideration
The first who spoke was Coifi, the chief priest.  He declared himself satisfied of the nothingness of the gods whom
he had hitherto served; " For if," said he, "they had power
to bestow blessings, I, who have always served them, should
have been most highly favored, whereas the contrary is the
case." One of the nobles then spoke, likening the soul to
a sparrow, which in the midwinter, when the king is enjoying himself with his lords by the fire, flies into the warrn hall
where they are sitting, and having flitted for some time
around it, again goes out into the storm it another door.
" Thus," added he, " we know nought of the origin or end
of the soul, and if the new doctrine can give us any certainty,
we should embrace it."  All assented; Coifi then proposed
that the temple of Godmundingham, at which he officiated
should be destroyed, and offered to commence the profina




THE ANGLO-SAXON KINGDOMS.            15
tion. It was the law among the Saxons that the priests
should never carry arms, and should only ride oni mares; but
Coifi now, to prove his change of faith, mounted a warsteed, girt himself with a sword, and grasping a lance
galloped on to the temple. The people thought him mad,
and their amazement increased when they saw him hurl his
lance against the fane; no opposition, however, was made
to the demolition, and the number of the converts became
Eo great, that for thirty-six days Paulinus was engaged from
morning to night in baptizing them. The Christian faith
was gradually adopted in the other states, and in zeal and
piety the Anglo-Saxons might vie with any people of the
time.
Of the political events of this period the following are
the most deserving of note. In the year 626 Penda mounted
the throne of Mercia, at the age of fifty, and he reigned for
thirty years. He was a man of a violent, tyrannic character, ever at war with his neighbors. Edwin, king of Northumbria, and his successor Oswald fell in battle against him.
Penda himself was slain at last in the battle of Winwid-feld,
fought against Oswio of Northumbria, (655:) his successor
Peada was a Christian, and the Mercians embracedthe faith
of their king. The greatest of the Mercian monarchs was
Offa, who warred with success against the British princes,
and drove them out of the plain country; to secure his con.
quests he ran an intrenchment, still named Ofla's Dyke, froir
near Chester to the Wye. Offa also conquered Kent and
Essex; Wessex submitted to him, and by treachery and
murder he gained East-Anglia. For Ethelbert, king of that
country, wishing to espouse one of his daughters, went in
person to his court at Tamworth, in reliance on Offa's honor,
though they had long been at enmity. But Offa's queen
said to him, "Now you have your old enemy in your power,
whose kingdom you have so long coveted;" and Offa
treacherously seized and beheaded him. The princess,
however, had time to give the Anglian nobles warning,
and they made their escape, but Offa entered mnd conquered
the kingdom. The power and fame of Offa were so great,
that the emperor Charlemagne entered into friendship and
alliance with him. Offa reigned forty years; after his death
Mercia rapidly declined.
The supreme power in Britain was reserved for the royal
line. of Wessex. Egbert, a youth of the race of Cerdic,
being deemed by the people to have a better right to the
tnrone than Beortric, who occupied it, (784,) was an objec'




i.li            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of suspicion to that monarch, and to save his life he took
refuge with Offa, king of Mercia. Beortric sought and
obtained the hand of Offa's daughter Edburga, (787,) but his
request for the surrender of Egbert was refused. This
young prince, however, not deeming himself secure, retired
to the court'of Charlemagne. Edburga, who was a woman
of the most vicious character, frequently: made her husband
put his: nobles to death: at times she was herself the agent;
and one day, when sh6 had m'xed a- cup of poison for one
of the nobles, the king by-mistake partook of it and died.
The people rose, and drove Edburga from the country, and
abolished the title of queen; * she went to France, thence
to Italy, and king Offa's daughter finally died a common
beggar at Pavia.
Egbert now returned from France, (800,) and occupied
the vacant throne. He concluded a peace with Mercia, and
then (809) turned his arms against the Britons of Cornwall
and Wales, whom in the space of fourteen years he reduced
to submission. The power of Egbert at length excited the
jealousy of the Mercian king, and a war broke out; but
the Mercians sustained a great defeat (823) at Ellandune,
(Wilton,) and Egbert, then sending his son with an army
into Kent, drove out of it the prince who governed it under
the Mercians, and the people joyfully submitted to his rule.
The East-Anglians revolted, and put themselves under the
protection of Egbert. The king of Mercia led an army
against them, but he fell in battle; the same was the fate of
his successor; and Egbert finally (827) invaded and conquered Mercia. He then turned his arms against the
Northumbrians, who submitted at his approach. The whole
island south of the firths now acknowledged the authority of
the king of Wessex.
We will terminate this portion of the early history by a
few observations.
The resemblance is very striking between the heroic age
of Greece and the early Anglo-Saxon period of Britain. In
both the form of government is regal, and confined to particular families, who derived their lineage from the deities
worshipped by the people; for if the Grecian Basileus traced
his pedigree up to Zeus, the Saxon King drew his down
from Wodin, (Odin,) the monarch of the northern heaven.
The same qualities of mind and body were required in the
sovereigns of both people. The king was the source of law,
* Hence, instead of queen, we shall find the term lady employed




EGBERT.                        17
and the administrator of justice, in Britain as in Greece; and
if in one country he was aided by a Bule: or senate, comr:
posed of the nobles or chieftaias of, hs.realm, the same appearance is presented by the other in its Witena-gemot, (MIeeting
of the Witan, or Wisemen,) or great council.*
The leaders of the, Anglo-Saxons were at first called
Ealdormen (Aldermene) or elders.t When they took the title
of King,$ that of Ealdormen,was retained for the inferior
chieftains, or the governors of districts and towns.  Some
of the Anglo-Saxon! kings assumed a still higher title, that.
of Bretwalda, or Ruler, of Britons, and those who-held it are,
supposed to have enjoyed some kind of supremacy over the,
different states of the island.3,
CHAPTER  III.
KINGS OF WESSEX SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND.
EGBERT, 800-836.
AT the time when Egbert mounted the throne of Wessex,
the Anglo-Saxons had been for three centuries and a half
the occupants of Britain.  During all this time they had
been divided into separate, independent states; and, as we
have seen, warfare against each other or the original natives prevailed almost without intermission. A new and
most formidable foe, of their own race and kindred, was,
now about to appear, and a closer union among their states
was required. It would almost seem that Egbert had foreseen this necessity, for we are told that on his accession he
gave the name of England (Angle-land) to his realm; and as
only the West-Saxons were his subjects, we may infer that
he even then aspired to the monarchy of the whole island.
It was probably at the court of Charlemagne, and in imita* See History of Greece, Part I. ch. ii.
t As the Grecian chiefs were calledK yeovrss, Hetrm I.1 ii. 53.
$ King is cognate to the Persian Kldn, and perhaps to the Celtic
Ccan, (head.)
~ The Bretwa!das were Ella of Sussex, Ceawlin of Wessex, Ethel
bert of Kent, Redwald of East-Anglia, Edwin, Oswald, and Oswid
of Northumbria, and Egbert of Wessex.
o*                             C




HISTORY OF ENGLANL.
tion of that g;za: monarch, that he forrrn-i! tihis plan of ex.
tensive domlinion.
The foes with whom the English were now to contend
were the Northmen, (the people of Denmark and Norway,,
named by them the Danes. Like all nations in a low state
of culture, the Danes had probably lived for centuries with
little knowledge of any country but their own; and though
they nmay have possessed the art of ship-b.;iding from time
immemorial, and had navigated their own stormy seas without fear, we have no accounts of their pillaging the coasts
of the more southern countries till about the period at which
we are now arrived.  Some internal changes, of which we
are uninformed, may have taken place at this time in Scandinavia; excess of population may have caused want; a spirit
of adventure may have sprung up from  some unknown
cause; at all events we shall henceforth find the fleets of thle
Vikingar, or northern pirates, annually devastating the coasts
of France and England.  They were still heathens, and the
martial character of their religion tended to augment their
ferocity.
Their first appearance in England is said to have been in
787, in which year they landed fronm three ships on the coast
of Dorset; and when the reeve of the next town attempted to
make them prisoners, they slew him, and escaped to their
vessels. In 793 and 794 they made descents on Northumberland, and plundered the monasteries at Lindesfarne and
Wearmouth. Probably from having become better acquainted with the political state of the island, they now directed
their efforts against the south coast, and formed alliances
with the Britons of Devon. In 833 they landed from thirtyfive ships at Carrun (Charmouth) in Dorset, where king
Egbert gave them battle. The slaughter was great on both
sides, but the invaders kept the field. Two years after (835)
a large body landed, and, being joined by the men of Devon,
invaded Wessex; but Egbeft met and defeated them  at
Hengistdune.  The year after his victory king Egbert died,
leaving two sons, Ethelwulf and Athelstan, of whom the
former succeeded to the clown of Wessex,:.e latter obtained
Kent, Essex, and Sussex.
E'IHELWULF, 836-857.
I'he landings of the Danes on the east aod south coast
were now periodical, but they were in gen'eral stoutly re.
misted. Still, the spoil they were enabled io carry off en



ETHELBALD.  ETHELBERT.               19
couraged them, and every year their numbers increased.
They twice tcok and pillaged London and Canterbury, and
in 851 having defeated the king of Mercia, they advanced
into Surrey; but at Ac-lea (Ockley) they were encountered
by king Ethelwulf and the West-Saxons, and routed with
prodigious slaughter. In 854 a large body of them came
and passed the winter in Sheppey island in the Thames.
While his kingdom was thus endangered, king Ethelwulf,
urged by superstition, undertook (S54) a pilgrimage to Rome,
where he remained for twelve months. On his way home
he married Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, king
of France. He had been previously married to Osberga,
daughter of a nobleman named Oslac, who had borne him
five sons, Athelstan,(now dead,)Ethel bald, Ethelbert, Ethered,
and Alfred. The last was his favorite; and the year before,
though he was but five years of age, he had sent him  to
Rome, where Pope Leo IV. consecrated him as king, and
made him his godson.  This circumstance alarmed Ethelbald, the eldest son, and he took up arms to secure his right
to the throne. On the return of Ethelwulf a civil war was
on the point of breaking out, but it was happily prevented
by the moderation of the king, who, contenting himself with
Kent, Sussex, and Essex, gave up Wessex to his son, (855.)
Ethelwulf died soon after, (857,) and was succeeded by his
second son, Ethelbert, in Kent, Sussex, and L..se%
ETHELBALD, 857-860.
Ethelbald gave great scandal to his people ty marrying his
step-mother Judith, but he divorced her on the remonstrances
of Swithun, bishop of Winchester. lIe died after a short
reign, and was succeeded by his brother Ethelbert.
ETHELBERT, 860-866
The Danes now resumed their ravages. They stormed
and burned Winchester, (860;) but as they were returning to
their ships laden with booty, they were fallen on and routed
by the men of Berks and Hants. In 865 they settled themselves, as the Jutes had formerly done, in the isle of Thanet.
Their neighbors of Kent gave them a large sum of money to
purchase peace, but the faithless Danes took the money and
then ravaged the country.




20               HISTORY OF ENGLAND
ETHERED, 866-871.
The reign of Ethalbert also was short..Aq;Is aeatn
(866) his next brother, Ethered, mounted the throne, and in
the very year of his accession, a large army of Danes, led by
three brothers named Halfdan, Hingvar, and Hubba, said to
be the sons of the famous northern hero Ragnar Lodbrok,
landed in East-Anglia, the people of which made peace with
them and supplied them with horses. The pirates, thus
mounted, crossed the Humber and poured into Northumbria,
where the people were at discord among themselves, having
deposed their rightful king Osbert, and given the throne to
Ella, a man not of the royal line. The two rivals, however,
ioined their forces against the invaders and attacked them at
York, which city they had taken; but the Northumbrians
were defeated, and both their kings slain. The Danes then
entered Mercia, and took the town of Nottingham.  At the
request of the king of Mercia, Ethered led an army to oppose
them, but they seem to have kept possession of the town.
They next spread into Lindesey, (Lincolnshire,) wher- the
were bravely resisted, but their numbers and their ferocity
finally prevailed.  They plundered and burnt the monasterie
of Medhamstede, (Peterborough,) Croyland, Ely, Thorney
and Ramsey, and then invaded East-Anglia.  Edmund, the
king of that country, a prince celebrated for his virtue and
piety, offered them a gallant resistance, but he was defeated,
and, being hotly pursued, was discovered and dragged from
his place of concealment. The Danes bound him to a tree,
and, on his steadfast refusal to renounce his faith, they beat
and abused him, shot their arrows at him, and at length, by
the order of Ilingvar, struck off his head. The next year
(S71) the Danish host advanced to Reading in Wessex: the
king and his brother Alfred led an army to oppose them, but
were defeated.  Four days after they engaged them again,
with success, at Escisdune, (Aston?) and in about a fortnight
after the two armies again encountered at Basing, where victory was with the Danes, who were once more successful in
a battle fought two months later at Morton in Berks. The
king didd the following Easter of a wound he had received,
leaving his throne to his brother Alfred, a young man twentytwo years of age; who hlad greatly distinguished himself iv
the mwars of this time.




ALFrRED THE GREAT.               21.. AED THE GREAT, 871-901.
Alfred first engaged the Danes at Wilton, and no less than
nine battles, besides numerous skirmishes, took place in the
course of this year. A treaty was at length concluded, and
the, heathens evacuated Reading and moved to London.
Burhed, king of Mercia, to whom London belonged, then
made a treaty with them, and they removed to Lindesey; but
findi; g little to plunder in this wasted coauntry, they poured,
regardless of the treaty, into Mercia, and took a station at Repton, (874,) whence they spread their ravages over the country. King Burhed, despairing of being able to resist them,
left his kingdom and retired to Rome, and the Danes made
one of his thanes king, on condition of being their vassal, and
resigning when required. The next year (875) they divided
their forces; one division, under Halfdan, invaded and conquered Northumbria; the other fixed itself at Cambridge,
whence it moved the following year (876) and came unexpectedly to Wareharn in Dorset; but Alfred forced them to
a treaty, and they swore in their most solemn mode (that is,
on their holy ring or bracelet) to depart, giving some of their
chief nobles as hostages. Yet, heedless of all this, they made
a rapid movement (877) and gained possession of Exeter; but
Alfred besieged them, and forced them to a new treaty,
which was better kept. They went back to Mercia, where
they divided a part of the land among themselves. In the
midst of the following winter, (878,) however, they secretly
collected their forces, entered Wessex, and seized the town
of Chippenham, whence they ravaged the kingdom far and
wide; some of the inhabitants fled over the sea, the rest subniitted. The spirit of the king alone remained unbroken;
but he could not collect troops, and he was forced to lay aside
all marks of royalty, and to conceal himself under mean disguises.
It is related that he took refuge for some time in the cottage of oneof his cowherds, to whomn his person was unknown. As he was one day sitting by the fire adjusting his
bow, arrows, and other arms, the cowherd's wife set some
cakes on the hearth to bake, naturally expecting that he
would have an eye to them. She then went about her other
household affairs, but happening to turn about, she saw that
the cakes were all burnt. She rated the king well, telling
him he was ready enough to eat them, and so might have




22                 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
minded them. Alfred bore her reproaches with pat'ence, and
his quality remained undiscovered.*
Gradually Alfred was enabled to collect a small body of
faithful followers, with whom he retired to a bog or morass
formed by the waters of the Thone and Parret in Somerset.t
Here, on about two acres of firm land,, they raised a habitation, and led the life of outlaws, supporting themselves by
plundering excursions against the enemy and those who had
submitted to them, and also by hunting the deer of the forest
and taking the fish of the streams.  His abode here, however,
was not long; the men of Devon had defeated and slain the
Danish chief Hubba when he landed on their coast, and captured the Raven, the magic standard in which the heathens
placed -such confidence.T  Alfred soon felt himself sufficiently
strong to venture on engaging the Danish army, but he resolved
previously to ascertain its condition and situation.  For this
purpose, it is said, he disguised himself as a gleeman or minkF      strel, and entered their camp.  The rude warriors received
and entertained him joyfully for his music and songs; he was
brought to make melody before Guthrum  their leader, and
allowed to go where he pleased all through the camp.  After
F Z        a stay of some days he retired, having obtained the knowledge
he wanted.~  He then summoned the men of Somerset,
Wilts, and Hants to meet him at Brixton, on the verge of the
great forest of Selwood, and they came in great force, and
greatly rejoiced to behold him again in arms.  He led them
thence to Ethandune, (Eddiston?) and took a position  in
front of the enemy.  A fierce and bloody engagement terminated in favor of the English; the Danes fled to their entrenched camp, where Alfred blockaded them for a space of
* This anecdote is related by Asser in his life of Alfred, so that
there can be no aoubt of its truth. It is curious enough that Asser
puts the woman's exclamation into Latin hexameters, the only ones
that occur in his book. They are as follows: —
" Urere quos cernis panes gyrars moraris
Cum ninimul (,valde) ganues lhs mandutare cealentes.1"
It was thence named _Ethelinga-ige, or Isle of Nobles; now
Athelney.
I  It was woven, says Asser, in one afternoon, by the three daughters
of Ragnar Lodbrok: if victory awaited the army, it would appear
like a live raven flyingr; if defeat impended, it would hang down and
droop.
~ We question the truth of this story. It is not told by, Asser, who
could hardly have omitted it, (we first meet with it in lngulf;) it answered no purpose, as no attack was made on the camp; it seems
merely a reDetiti'n of that of Anlaf. soon to be notieed




ALFRED. THE GREAT.                23
fourteen days. A treaty was then agreed to; the Danes gave
hostages, and engaged to evacuate Wessex; and Guthrum
pledged himself to receive baptism, which rite was performed
about three weeks after, the king being his sponsor. As
was usually the case in these times, most of the Danes followed the example of their chief. It was further agreed that
Guthrum should settle with his people in East-Anglia, and a
part of Mercia, acknowledging Alfred as his superior lord.
Guthrum remained faithful to Alfred as long as he lived; his
subjects laid aside their predatory habits, and devoted themselves to agriculture. A Danish prince named Guthred was,
by means of the bishop of Lindesfarne, made king of Northumbria, and he also acknowledged the supremacy of Alfred.
Ethelred, who was married to the king's daughter Ethelfieda,
governed Mercia as alderman; Wessex and its dependencies
were under his own more immediate rule.
During some years the kingdom had tolerable repose,
and in these years Alfred employed himself in providing
the means of defence.  He rebuilt or fortified London, and
other towns which had been ruined by the Danes; he established a militia, assigning a rotation of military duty to all
his subjects; and greatly increased and improved his navy,
which he stationed in different divisions round the island.
The efforts of the Northmen were at this time chiefly
directed against the Netherlands; but in the year 893 a fleet
of two hundred and fifty ships entered the Rother in Kent,
and going up it for four miles, landed, and formed a strong
camp at Appledore, in which they remained for a twelvemonth. At the same time a famous pirate, named Hastings,
sailed up the Thame~ with eighty ships, and raised a fortress
al Middel-tun, (Milton.)  The king came with his forces,
and, taking a station between the two armies, harassed them
greatly. The army at Appledore then set out for the
Thames with their plunder, with the intention of passing
over into Essex; but Alfred came up with and defeated them
at Farnham, and took all their booty. They fled over the
Thames, and entrenched themselves on the Colne, where
they were besieged by the king. But meantime the Danes
of Northumbria and East-Anglia, who had joined their countrymen, put to sea, with one hundred and forty ships, and
invaded the coast of Devon; and when Alfred returned to
its defence, the foreign Danes raised a fortress at Benfleet.
The king's troops, however, stormed and took this camp;
among the captives were the wife and two sons of Hastings,
to whom Alfred generously gave their liberty, Tile Daues




24               HISTORY OF ENGLANID.
then pushed boldly across the island, and came to the Severn
where they formed a strong camp; a large army of English
and Welsh besieged it. The Danes had eaten all their
horses, and many of them -had died of hunger, when they
burst out, and with great loss forced a passage and returned
to Essex. Here, being reenforced, and having secured their
wives, ships, and property in East-Anglia, they set out again,
and marched day and night till they came to Chester, which
was lying''deserted.  The king's -troops, which had been
unable to overtake them, besieged thbem for a few days, and
then retired.: They staid there for the winter, and then
(895) set forth again, and came to the isle of Mersey, on the
east coast of Essex,:whence they sailed, (896,) and going up
the Thames, towed their vessels twenty miles up the Lea,
and formed a strong camp..The: king, in the harvest, came
and encamped near London, in order that the citizens might
get in their corn in safety. One day, as he was riding along
the Lea, he observed a spot which might be secured, so that
the Danes could not bring down their ships. He forthwith
set about raising forts on each side at that place; but the
Danes, aware of what he was about, broke up suddenly, and
marching to the Severn, again raised a fortress there, in
which they passed the winter; and the next summer (897)
they went thence to Northumbria and East-Anglia, and having gotten ships, sailed away to France. They still, however,
harassed the south coast of England; and Alfred, who had
built ships of war on an improved plan of his own, destroyed
several of their vessels. As a piece of wholesome severity,
he hanged the crews of two of them  which had bee - driven
ashore on the coast of Sussex.
As;we are now approaching the close of this great monarch's reign, we will pause, and take a brief survey of his
efforts to improve his people in the intervals of war.
It will not surprise any one who is acquainted with the
general ignorance and barbarism of those times, to hear
that Alfred though the favorite son of a king, had attained
the age of twelve years before he learned to read. When
he was at that age, his mother one day showed him and his
brothers. a volume of Anglo-Saxon poetry, and said that the
book should'be his who first could read it. Alfred, who had
always loved to'listen to the lays of the minstrels, and
whose'curiosity' was. excited by the fine illuminated or
colored  letter' with- which -the' bo'okl commenced, asked
eagerly' if she would really give it. She assured him that
the would; he then took the book, sought out' at teacher,




EDWARD 1.    -
and soon made good -'lis claim to it.*  The next book that
he read wvas a collection of Psallms-: this he always carried
about with him, and it was his' chief source of consolation
in his retreat in ~Athelney.'When his kingd6m was settled
he began to study Latin, and' he translated from it the works
of Orosius, Boethius, and Venerable Bede, and other pieces.
His great object was to diffuse sound, knowledge among his
people; he therefore refused to promote the uneducated to
office, and he invited. eminent sch-iolats from' all -parts, and
gave them honors and dignities.  His labors were not without fruit. "'When Itook the kingdom," says he, " very few
on this side of the Humber," very few beyond, not one that I
recollect south of the Thames  could understand their prayers
in English, or could translate a letter from  Latin into
English;" yet he lived to thank God that those who sat in
the chair of the instructor were then capable of teaching.
By a regular distribution of his time into three equal parts,
for repose, business, and study, this great prince, though
laboring under a severe internal malady, was enabled to produce more literary works than any man of his time.
Alfred died in 901, in the fifty-third year of his age, and
thirtieth of his reign. His character has, down to the present day, been the theme of universal applause, as the nearest
approach to perfection in a man possessed of power that our
nature has yet exhibited.  His civil and military talents
were alike great; his religion was simple, sincere, and unostentatious; his love of truth and justice were remarkable;
his passion for the acquisition and diffuilsion of useful and
valuable knowledge was strong; he especially encouraged
trade and mercantile adventure. The fame of his wisdom,
justice, and love of his country, was so prevalent among the
succeeding generations as to cause the most valuable institutions to be ascribed to him, though without- reason or
proof. But though we must thus -derogate from his fame
as a legislator, the character of'Alfred as the good and great
monarch remains one with which that of the emperor Mar
cus Aurelius can alone be placed in -Competition..
EDWARD I. (THE ELDER.!: 901-925.'Edward, named: the Eldet, to distinguish him from his
successors of the same name; was' chosen bythe Witan to
succeed his father'Alfred;.l  Bit E'thelwald, the son c f the
SeO Appendi 
VOLI.        3




26              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
late king Ethelbald, resolved to assert his claim  to the
throne; and assembling his partisans, he took possession
of the town of Wimburn in Dorset. The king marched
against him, and Ethelwald, though he vaunted that he
would conquer there or die, stole away secretly, and escaped
to Northumbria, where the Danes owned him as the king.
He then went beyond sea to collect troops, and (904) he
landed in East-Anglia, where the people at once submitted
to him. In breach of peace they joined him (905) in an
invasion of Mercia, and penetrated to Wiltshire. King
Edward assembled an army and pursued them; he ravaged
all their country from one end to the other, and then retired,
charging all his men to follow; but the Kentish men took
no heed, and staid till the Danes came and surrounded
them. The battle was fierce, and most of the leaders on
both sides fell, among the rest the pretender Ethelwald; so
that the disobedience and loss of the Kentish men was ultimately of advantage to king Edward, who in the fcllowing
year concluded a peace with the Danes of Northumbria and
East-Anglia. The turbulent Danes, however, could not remain at rest, and they began again (911) to ravage Mercia.
The king assembled a large fleet to attack their coast: thinking all his troops were aboard of these ships, the Danes
advanced boldly into Mercia, wasting and plundering; but
the royal troops came up with them as they were retiring,
and routed them with great slaughter.
During the remainder of his reign, king Edward gradually
extended his power and supremacy over the whole island.
The people of Northumbria and East-Anglia submitted to
him; the princes of Cornwall, Wales, Cumbria, and Strathclyde, and the king of the Scots, became his liegemen. In
all his projects he was assisted by the Lady of Mercia, as
his sister Ethelfleda was named, who governed Mercia after
the death of her husband, (912.) This able princess headed
her own troops, and gained victories over both Danes and
Britons. She and the king turned their thoughts to the
possession of strong fortified towns as the best means of
securing the realm. The Lady fortified Bridgenorth, Tamworth, Stafford, Warwick, Leicester, Derby, etc.; the king
raised works round Hertford, Witham, Buckingham, Bedford, Malden, Towcester, Colchester, Stamford, Manchester,
Nottingham,: and other towns. On the death of the Lady
(920) Edward took the government of Mercia into his own
hands. After a prosperous reign of twenty-four years, king
Edward died in peace, (9255.)




ATHELSTAN..
CHAPTER  IV.
&NGL;' —AXON MONARCHS" OF ALL BRITAIN.
ATHELSTAN, 925 —941.
BY the will of his father and the choice of the Witan,
Athelstan, the late king's eldest son, mounted the throne.
He was crowned at Kingston, but a part of the West-Saxons,
alleging that he was illegitimate, refused to recognize him,
and a conspiracy to seize and blind him was formed by a
nobleman named Alfred. The plot was discovered, but as
Alfred denied his guilt, he was allowed, according to AngloSaxon usage, to clear himself by oath before a bishop. It
was agreed that he should go to Rome and swear in presence of the Pope; he accordingly repaired thither, and
before the Holy Father swore that he was innocent. Instantly, it is said, he fell senseless to the ground, and he died
within three days.
The first wars in which this able prince was engaged
were against the Britons of Cambria and Damnonia, who
strove to regain their independence. But their efforts were
unavailing; the Cambrian princes had to come to Hereford
and do homage, and agree to pay yearly twenty pounds weight
of gold and two hundred of silver into the hoard or treasury
of the'king of London;' they were to send him every year
twenty-five thousand beeves, and their best hawks and
hounds, and the country between the Severn and the Wye
was to become a part of Mercia. The Damnonians, who
hitherto had dwelt to the Exe, were now driven beyond the
Tamar, and completely reduced beneath the sceptre of
Athelstan.
The king, in the hopes of maintaining peace, had given
one of his sisters in marriage to Sihtric, the ruler of the
Danes beyond the Humber; but Sihtric dying soon after,
(927,) the northern chieftains urged his sons Guthfrith'Godfrey) and Anlaf (Olave) to cast off allegiance to Athel
stan; "for in the old time," said they, " we were free, and
served not the southern king."  War was resolved, on.
Constantine, king ok the Scots, took share in it; but:the
power of the English king was not to be withstood; the
Danish princes were forced to fly.beyond sea, the Scottish




28                HISTIitr H   OsTOa    ENGLAND.
king to do homage for his dominions, and give his son as
a hostage, (926.*)
Guthfrith and Anlaf-emnbraced the life of pirates; the for.
titer died early, but the latter, more fortunate, made him
self master of Dublin, inr Ireland, and became the chief of
a powerful piratic force.' The king of the Scots, ill brooking subjection, made a treaty with Anlaf; the Britons of
Strath-clyde, Cumbria, andt'Cambria readily joined in the
confederacy, and when Anlaf entered the Humber with a
fleet of six hundred and twenty sail, the:whole confederacy
took armns.  King Athelstan assembled  an army without
delay, and the hostile forces met at a -place named Brunnanburgh. It is said that Anlaf before the battle disguised
himself as a minstrel, and entered the English camp.  The
soldiers quickly flocked about him: the news of the arrival
of a strange minstrel was brought to, the king, at whose
order Anlaf was led to the'royal tent, where he played and
sang as the king and his nobles sat at a banquet; he was
then dismissed with a suitable reward. He retired, having
noted every thing in the camp; but his pride would not let
him retain the money which prudence had induced him to
accept, and he buried it in the ground when he thought himself unobserved. A soldier, however, saw him, and on a
close inspection recognized him, and then went and informed
the king. Athelstan demanded why he had not given information when he might be seized. The soldier made answer,
that he had once served and sworn fealty to Anlaf, and if
he had1 betrayed him, the king might justly suspect him of
equal treachery to himself. Athelstan praised him, and then,
suspecting Anlafs design, removed his tent to another part
of the camp, and the vacant ground was occupied by the
bishop of Sherborn, who arrived that evening with his
retainers.  in the dead of the night Anlaf and his troops
burst: into the English camp, and making direct for the royal
tent, as they thought, slaughtered the bishop and- his companions.  The tumult spread; at sunrise a regular battle
commenced, and having lasted. all:through the day, terminated in the utter- discomfiture of the invaders.  Five Danish
kings and seven earls (Iarls) were slain, the king of Scots
lost his son and warriors without number fell.  "Never,"
* The kirig of-Scots had, as we ehave seen,'done homage to Edward
i 921. There are, we apprehedi4, few points in history more certain
than the. vassalage of the Scottish crown from that date till the end of
the fourteenth century: See Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the Eng
7wilh eCnstituibin` vol. i. joh. 2ao




EDMUND.  ZDItED.                 29
says the poet who sung the battle, " since the Saxons and
Angles, those artists of war, arrived, was such'slaughter
known in England."'
After this great victory the realm  of Athelstan was at
ease and tranquil. The King of the English, or of all
Britain, as he styled himself, was highly respected by the
princes of the continent; the kings of Norway and Armorica
sent their sons to be reared at his court; the son of the German emperor, Charles the Simple king of France, the duke
of Aquitaine, and Hugh the Great, ccrunt of Paris, espoused
his sisters; and after the dethronement of Charles the Simple, his widow and her son Louis took refuge in England,
whence the latter was named when restored D'outremer,
(From elevon(d ~ea.)
EDMUND. 941-947.
Athelstail was spceeded (941) by his brother Edmund,
li?.en only eighteen years of age. The Northumbrians immediately recalled Anlaf from  Ireland to be their king:
and Wulstan, archbishop of York, warmly espoused his
cause.  Mercia was forthwith invaded, and Tamworth taken
and plundered; a battle was fought at Leicester, after which,
by the mediation of the prelates of York and Canterbury,
a peace was concluded, by which Edmund was to rule south,
Anlaf north of Watling Street,* and the survivor to possess
the whole. Anlaf, however, died thenext year, and Edmund
then (945) reduced all Northumbria.  He next turned his
arms against the Britons of Cumbria; he defeated and expelled Donald, their prince, and blinded his sons, and then
gave the country to Malcolm, king of Scots, in vassalage.
Edmund the Magnificent, as he is named, did not long enjoy
his power. As the next year (746) he was sitting at a feast
with his nobles, on St. Augustine's festival, he saw at the
table one Leof, who had been outlawed. Enraged at his
audacity, the king sprang up, caught him by the long hair,
and dragged him to the ground; but in the struggle Leof
drew a dagger, and gave the monarch a mortal wound.
EDRED. 947-955.
As Edmund's children were young, we was succeeded by
his brother Edred, a prince of delicate frame, but of vigor* So the Roman military road from Dover to Chester (a par of
which still remains) was named by the Saxons.
_______        3*




30               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ous mind; his dominion was acknowledged by all the king
doms of the island. Hardly, however, had the Northumbrians
taken the oaths, when they rose in rebellion, and made one
Eric their king. Edred speedily invaded and laid waste
their country; and as he menaced to return and do still
worse, they deposed and miurdered their new ruler, and submitted to the king.' As Wulstan was the chief cause of disturbance, Edred, after confining him some time at Jedburgh,
made him bishop of Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, where he
could do no mischief.  Northumbria was now made an earldom, and not a kingdom, and the earl was appointed by the
king.
EDWY. 955a-959.
On the death of Edred (955) his nephew Edwy, the son
of the late king Edmund, was chosen king, and Mercia became the appanage of the king's younger brother Edgar.
The most remarkable man of these times was Dunstan,
whom the church of Rome has canonized for his exertions
in her cause. Dunstan was of noble birth, and even akir.
to the royal family, and his wealth was considerable; he
received his early education at the monastery of Glastonbury; intense study brought on him while there a severe
attack of fever, and there is some reason to suppose that it
may have caused a partial derangement of intellect, for all
through his life he was, according to his own account, (and
we should not be too forward to accuse him of falsehood,)
tormented by visions of evil spirits. His bodily frame was
delicate, but his mind was most active; he was master ot
all the learning and arts of the age; he wrought the various
metals with great' skill; he excelled chiefly in music, and
with the tones of his harp he sought to soothe his perturbed
spirit, and banish the thoughts that agitated him. By his
uncle Athelm, archbishop of Canterbury, he was early introduced at the court of king Athelstan, where he won favor
by his knowledge and accomplishments. But envy and
jealousy soon showed themselves among the courtiers; the
proud spirit of Dunstan was roused, and he quitted the
court: his enemies lay in ambush for him; they seized and
bound him, trampled him under foot, and flung him into a
marsh, where he lay till he was found and relieved by some
passers by. He soon after consulted his uncle on his future
course of life; the prelate urged him to become a monk, but
Dunstan loved a beautiful maiden, and he withstood all his
arguments  Athelm then prayed that some evil might befaU




him to cause him to act right; and Dunstan. viewing a fever,
brought on probably by mental uneasiness, as a judgment
sent from heaven, took the monastic vows at Glastonbury.
Not content with the ordinary austerities of the convent, he
built himself a cell too short to allow him  to lie at his
length, and here he wrought at his forge when not
engaged in prayer: his sleep was brief; his food barely
sufficed to sustain nature.  Here too the fiend assailed him,
and it is said that late one evening he came in a human form,
and, thrusting his head in at the little window of the cell.
began to tempt the recluse with wanton language. Dunstan,
who knew who he was, waited patiently till he had made his
tongs red hot, with which he then seized the tempter by the
nose, and the yells of the tortured demon were heard over
the surrounding country.  The fame of the sanctity, the
talents, and the wisdom of Dunstan spread over the whole
realm; king Edmund, on his accession, invited him to court,
and made him his chief minister, and his influence in this
and the following reign was without limits. The zeal of
Dunstan was directed to two points: the enforcement of
celibacy on the clergy, and the introduction of the monastic
rule of St. Benedict into England.  Hitherto the English
clergy had followed the dictates of nature and the plain sense
of Scripture, and entered, like other men, into the married
state; but the Oriental reverence of asceticism and celibacy
had gradually been gaining ground in. the Western church,
and the Popes had possibly begun to discern the advantages
they might derive from cutting the clergy off from all social ties; and heedless or ignorant of consequences, eagerly
sought to enforce an institution which experience has shown
to be the most detrimental to morality that has ever been
devised. A Roman monk named Benedict had also drawn
up a series of rules for the regulation of the convent of
Monte Cassino, over which he presided; the superiority of
these rules caused them to be adopted all over the continent, and the monks throughout Europe thus formed one
corporation. The rule had been adopted at Glastonbury,
but the English and British monasteries in general continued
to govern themselves by their ancient institutes. Dunstan,
a man of resolute character, and in whose heart all social
feelings were now extinct, resolved to enforce the rule which
he approved, and the celibacy which he had learned tvi regard
as sanctifying; he had naturally to encounter much opposition, but like most reformers of his character he was'little
scrupulous as to means, regarding them as;ustified by the




32                 HISTORY' OF ENGLAND.
end, and he exerted all the influence and power he possessed
to carry his favorite measures.
On the accession of Edwy the influence of Dunstan in
ihe state began to wane; for the king, a youth of but seventeen years- of age and addicted to pleasure, set himself
against the new regulations in the church. Edwy had, in
opposition to his councillors and prelates, espoused a beautiful maiden of the royal blood, but related to him  within
the prohibited degrees.* On the day of his coronation,
when his nobles were carousing after the Saxon fashion in
the royal halls, the king secretly withdrew, and leaving
them to their revels, retired to enjoy the society of his wife
and her mother. At the desire of the guests, Dunstan and
one of the prelates went in search of him, and entering the
apartment, Dunstan abused Elgiva (so the queen was named)
and her mother in the most opprobrious manner, even
menacing the latter with the gallows. He seized the king,
dragged him away to the hall where the nobles were revelling, and forced him to resume his seat.
Edwy had too much spirit not to resent this insult, and
Elgiva naturally urged him to vengeance. Under the pretext
of his having made away with public money in the late reign,
he banished him the kingdom. Dunstan retired to Ghent,
but he had left a strong party behind him; at the instance
of Odo, archbishop of Canterbury, the people rose in rebellion in Mercia and the North, and made prince Edgar their
king; and in Wessex O(do forced the king to give up Elgiva,
who, by the prelate's orders, was seized by a band of soldiers,
her face was scarred with a red-hot iron, and she was banish.
ed to Ireland.t  But when her wounds were healed, she re
* We give this view of the case on the authority of the honest Saxon
Chronicle. Its words are: "In this year (958) archbishop Odo divorced king Edwy and Elfgiva, because they were too sib" (i. e. near
akin.) There must, therefore. have been a marriage. The atrocious
statements and imputations of Dunstan's biographers are, in our
opinion, utterly unworthy of credit. He knows little of writers of this
class who believes that they will stop at any falsehood in the cause of
their hero.
t How gently Lingard tells all this! " Archbishop Odo undertook to
remove the scandal by enforcing the punishment which the laws
awarded against women living in a state of concubinage. Accompanied by his retainers, he rode to the place, arrested Ethelgiva, probably in the absence of her lover, conducted her to the sea-side, and pu,.eer on board a ship, in which she was conveyed to Ireland. At his
return to court, he waited on Edwy, and in respectful and affectionate
language endeavored to justify his own conduct, and to soothe the
exasperated mind of the young prince."




EDGAR.                        33
turned in search of her husband; she was, however, inter-.
cepted by a party of )do's soldiers, by whom she was seized.
and hamstringed, anm she died in great torture at Gloucester.
The unhappy Edwy d d not long survive, and Edgar, now but
thirteen years of age. Secamre king of all England.
E):DGAR  r[HE PACIFIC.)- 9i59 —975.
There is, perhaps, o just reason for supposing that Dun-:
stan, or possibly even C)do, had given orders for the atroci —
ties which his partis as had committed; but he certai nly
eaped the advantage of them.  He returned  in triumph
when Edgar was acknowlediged in Mercia and NorthurnL-ia,
and became his chief adviser; he was made b;.shop of London and Worcester, and Edlgar forced the successor of Odo
to resign, that Dunstan might have the primacy, with which
he held the sees of London and Rochester.  The married
clergy were persecuted without mercy, and not less than
forty-eight Benedictine moriasteries were founded in England.
The king joined heartily in this persecution; and the monkish writers have in return made him  almost a saint.  Their
only charge against him is his fondness for introducing Flemings, Germans, ans, and Danes into the kingdom, who corrupted,
as they say, the simple, virtuous habits of the people.
Yet Edgar's character was in some respects far from  perfect.  Ile broke into a convent and carried off a nun, at
least a lady who had assumed the veil,* named Wulfreda, and
made her his mistress; for this Dunstan enjoined him by way
of penance to fast twice a week, and to lay aside his crown
for a term of seven years.  But on another occasion the monarch's guilt was morally, thouah not perhaps in Dminstan's
eyes, of a deeper dye.  Having heard much of the beauty of
Elcrida, daughter of Ordgar, earl of Devon, he directed one
of his favorites, named Athelwold, to visit the earl under
some pretence, and see if fame spake true of his daughter's
charms. At the sight of Elfrida, Athelwold conceived the
most violent affection, and he resolved to sacrifice his duty to
his love.  Ile returned to the king, and told him  that fame
had exaggerated, as usual, and that Elfrida was but an ordinary maiden.  Edgar then ceased to think of her; and some
Mailmsbury asserts that she was not professed, (sanctimonialis.)
Dunstan's biographers expressly. say she was; yet Dr. Linoard undauntedly cites them as witnesses for his statement, that she "was a
young lady educated in the convent, who to elude his pursuit had
covered herself with the veil of cune of the sisters."
E




34               HISTORY OF ENGLAND
time after Athe wold said to him, that he had been thinkin1g
that homely as Elfrida was, her birth and fortune would
make her an eligible match for himself, and he craved permission to seek her hand. The king gave a ready assent, and
even strongly recommended him to her parents, and the fair
Elfrida became the wife of Athelwold.  But a courtier has
many enemies, and the truth soon reached the ears of the
king; he dissembled his resentment, and only told Athelwold
that he was resolved to pay him a visit, and be introduced to
his new-married wife.  Athelwold saw his danger, anld having obtained permission to precede him by a few hours, hastened to Elfrida, and revealing to her the whole truth, implored her to use every artifice to conceal her beauty.  Elfrida, an aspiring, ambitious woman, though secretly incensed,
promised compliance, and Athelwold's fears were somewhat
allayed: but whlat was his horror when he saw her come before the king in the full blaze of her charms, and practise all
her arts on the royal heart!  Edgar still dissembled, buit a
few days after he slew Athelwold at a hunting party with his
own hand, and then made Elfrida his queen.*
Edgar, named by his.historians the Pacific, was doubtless
a prince of no mean capacity. His sway was supreme over
the whole island; the sound of war was unheard during his
reign, justice was duly administered, and the realm prospered:
the kings of Scotland and Man, and all the princes of the
Britons, were his liegemnen.  In the sixteenth year of his
reign, (973,) having celebrated his coronation at Bath,t he
assembled a fleet of five thousand sail, it is said, and proceeded to Chester, whither his vassal princes were summoned to
meet him and perform homage.  The morning following the
day of that ceremony, Edgar and his royal vassals etntered a
barge on the Dee; each prince grasped an oar, the king himself took the helm, and they thus proceeded dowvn the river to
St. John's monastery, and having there heard mass, returned
in the same manner to the royal abode.
The reign of this prince is remarkable for the extirpationi
)f wolves in England.  Driven from the plain country, these
animals harbored in the mountains of Wales, whence they
descended to commit their ravages. Edgar changed the annual tribute imposed by Athelst;an on the Welsh princes to
* It is but fair to add, that the authority on which Malmsoury relxtes this tale is apparently a Saxon ballad.
t This was probably the resumption of his crown on the expiration
af his penance




EDWARD It.                    35
that of three hundred wolves' heads, and so active a chase
was kept up against the wolves that the race was soon extinct.
EDWARD II. (THE MARTYR.) 975 —978.
On the death of Edgar (975) there was a contest between
trio parties in the state, the one supporting the claim  to the
throne of Edward, son of the late king by his first wife, the
other seeking to place the crown on the head of Ethelred, the
son of Elfrida. Edward's cause, which was founded in J lstice
and supported by Dunstan, succeeded, and he was crowned;
but his reign was brief. As he was hunting one day in Dor.
setshire, (978,) and came near Corfe Castle, where Elfrida
and her son resided, he went unattended to pay them a visit.
Elfrida received him with great apparent kindness, but while
he was drinking a cup of mead on horseback, one of her ser.
vants, as he had been directed, stabbed him in the back: the
king gave spurs to his horse, but he soon fell exhausted by
loss of blood, and was dragged along by his horse till he expired. The appellation of Martyr was bestowed on this innocent and ill-fitted prince, and miracles were believed to be
wrought at his tomb.
It was during the reign of this prince that two events
occurred which have led many modern writers to entertain
serious and not ill-founded doubts of the sanctity of Dunstan's character.
At a synod held in Winchester, (977,) at which the young
sing and the prelates and nobles of the realm  were preseht,
the matters in dispute between the clergy and the monks
were discussed. When the arguments had been gone through,
a profound silence reigned, all anxiously expecting the reply of Dunstan, who sat with his head hanging down as immersed in thought.  Suddenly a voice was heard from a crLcifix in the room, saying, " Let it not be! let it not be! Ye
have judged well; to changre were not well! "  Even at the
time some contrivance was suspected, and certainly the transaction strongly resembles a feat of ventriloquism, a power
which there is some reason to believe the saint possessed.
Another synod was held the following year at Calne, at
which the king was not present, on account, it was alleged, of
his tender age. The two parties occupied different sides of
the room When his opponents had ended their arguments,
Dunstan declareo  that he would commit the cause of the
church to Christ.  Instantly the floor gave way under the
opposite party, and they were killed or maimed by the falling timbers, while the part where Dunstan and his friends




36               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
were sitting remained firm and unmoved.*. This may doubtless have been accidental, but one may without breach of
charity suspect, as Fuller says, "that Dunstan, who had so
much of a smith, had here something of a carpenter in him,
and some device used by him about pinning and propping up
the room."  Unfortunately the character neither of Dunstan
nor oc his church offers any security that such an atrocious
measure would not be resorted to in suD'ort of'the cause.
ETHELRED (THE UNREADY.) 978-1016.
Ethelred mounted without opposition the throne which his
mother's crime had procured him, (978.)  Though he was innocent, Dunstan at his ceronation pronounced, it is said, a
malediction on his reign for the guilt of Elfrida and her ac
complices; and never was prophecy of ill more fully aceorm
plished, though Dunstan lived but to see the beginning of
the evil.  The Dates, who had let the kingdom  have rest
since the days of Athelstan, now  renewed their ravages.
Sweyn, son of the king of Denmark, being banished by his
father, assembled a pirate-fleet, and appeared off the coast of
England, (9S2.)  Chester and London were taken and plundered, and the whole south coast ravaged.  The Danes continuing their inroads,,the Witan, by the advice of the archbishop Siric, agreed (991) to pay them 10,0001 to purchase
exemption from their ravages, for which purpose a tax under
the name of Dane-geld (Dane-money) was imposed.  But this
cowardly expedient had the fate it merited.  It served but to
excite the cupidity of the Danes, and next year they appeared in still greater force on the east coast.  The English
were now roused to energy; a large fleet was assembled at
London, and it was intended to close the pirates in harbor
and then assail them; but the treachery of one of the English leaders frustrated the plan.  Alfere earl of Mercia.
who had been a partisan and accomplice of Elfrida's, had
been succeeded in his office by his son Alfric, (983.)  The
new earl, having engaged in a conspiracy against Ethelred,
was banished the realm, (9S5:) yet such was his influence
* So the matter is related by Dunstan's biographers  The Saxon
Chronicle, Malmsbury, Huntingdon, and others say that Dunstan
alone escaped injury by catching hold of a beam. The account in the
text seems to us the true one. Lingard, with his usual art, affects to
regard this and the speaking crucifix as fictions undeserving of notice
The biographers are now, with him, silly, credulous men, who corn
piled from materials of the worst description; but when the object is
to chaige the unhappy Edwy with the most incredible depravity. their
evidence becomes unimpeachable 
K2 —-l~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, _             --— i
Ii::_~_  i____.Z__ 




ETHELREDI.                    37
and power, that he was restored to his lands and office. As
a means of securing himself, he had entered into a secret
league with the Danes; he now sent them intelligence of
the plan for their destruction, and he stole away from the
army the night before the engagement which took place.
The king had the barbarity to put out the eyes of Elfgar,
the traitor's son, to punish the misdeeds of the father.  Yet
ere long Alfric was again ruler of Mercia!
In 993 Sweyn, now king of Denmark, and Olave king of
Norway, entered the Humber with a large fleet, and laid all
the adjacent country waste.  The next year they came and
laid siege to London, and failing to take it, spread their ravages over the southern counties.  The king and his council
agreed to give them  16,0001. if they ceased, and to supply
them  with provisions.  They therefore fixed themselves at
Southampton, and food came to them from all parts of Wes.
sex. Olave soon after visited the king at Andover, and was
there baptized; he made a solemn promise, and kept it, never
again to molest the realm of England, and on his returdf to
Norway he imposed his own faith on all his subjects
Year after year the Northmen made descents on various
parts of the coast, burned the towns and villages, and laid
waste the country.  The troops collected to oppose them  always lost courage and fled, their leaders not seldom setting
them the example. In 1002 peace was purchased for a sum
of 24,0001., and food as before. Meantime the king and his
Witan resolved to have recourse to a most atrocious expedient for their fututre security. It had been the practice of the
English kings from the time of Athelstan to have great numbers of Danes in their pay as guards or household troops,
(Hus-carles,) and these, it is said, they quartered on their
subjects, one on each house.  The Hus-carles, acting like
soldiers in general, paid great attention to their dress and ap.
pearance, and thus became more acceptable to the females of
the families than the Englishmen liked; they also, of course,
behaved occasionally with great insolence. At the same time
they acted very remissly against their foreign kinsmen, and
were strongly suspected of having intelligence with them.
It was therefore resolved to massacre the Hus-carles and their
families throughout England.  Secret orders to this effect
were sent to all parts, and on St. Brice's day, (Nov. 13th,
1002,) the Danes were every where fallen on and slain. The
ties of affinity (for many of them had married and settled in
the country) were disregarded; age, sex, or rank could claim
no exemption; even Gunhilda, siste' to Sweyn of Denmark.
VOL. I.     4
___________________________________________    ________ 




008               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
though a Christian, was, after beholding the death of hier hus.
bauld and son, beheaded by the command of the king's favorite, Edric Streone, the chief instigator, it is thought, of
hlie massacre.  With her last breath she declared that' her
death would bring the greatest evils on England; and her
words were true.  Sweyn, burning for revenge, and glad of
al)retext for war, soon made his appearance on the south
coast, and during four, years he spread devastation through
all parts of Wessex, and round to East-Anglia.  In 1006
the king and his Witan agreed to give 30,0001. and provisions as before for peace, and the realm thus had rest for
two years. In this space of time, measures were adopted for
raising a large land and sea force; every owner of nine hides
of land was obliged to furnish a man with helm and breastplate, and he who had three hundred and ten a ship. The
greatest fleet that had ever been seen in England was assembled (1009) at Sandwich, but it was as fruitless as the preceding armaments; and Brihtric, brother of Edric, having traduced Wulfnoth, the' Child of Sussex,' as he is called, to the
king, the latter went off with his. division of twenty ships,
and ravaged all the south coast.  Brihtric sailed with eighty
ships in pursuit of him, but his vessels were assailed by a
storm, and most of them driven ashore, where they were burnt
by Wulfnoth.  The king and all his nobles, on hearing of
this disaster, quitted the fleet, which went back to London;
and thus, after all the great expense of preparation, nothing
was effected. Immediately after came a formidable Danish
army, called from its leader Thurkill's Host, to Sandwich,
and during this and the following year it spread its ravages
almost unopposed through Kent, East-Anglia, Mercia, and
Wessex.  London repelled the invaders from its walls; but
they took most of the other towns which they attacked, and
Canterbury.was given to them by the tre.chery of an abbot
named Elfmar.  They led the venerable archbishop Elfeah
a captive to their fleet, in the hopes of obtaining. a large ransorm for him.  But he stood firm against, themn;; he declared,
he had no goods of his own, and he would not waste those of
the church, which belonged to the poor and needy, nor " provide Christian flesh for Pagan teeth by robbing his countrymen for them."  T-hey dragged him before a kind of council
of their;.clliefs, who were at a rude,.tumultuous banquet;
ttheir cry was, " Gold, bishop, gold!" and when he still persisted in refuising, they pelted him with cow-horns and bones,
At length one of them smote him with an axe on the head
and killed him.  Meantime Edric and the Witan, who were,~~                                                    -— ~~



ETHELRED.                     39
assembled at London, had agreed to pur.chase the departure
of the Host for 48,0001., and the king made Thurkill. earl of
East-Anglia, and took him and a great part of his men into
his pay.
But all availed not to save England from the Danish yoke.
Next year (1013) king:Sweyn appeared with a large and
splendidly equipped fleet at Sandwich; he sailed thence and
entered the Humber.  All Northumbria and Lindesey, an:d all
the Danes north of:Watling Street, joyfully submitted to him,
and gave hostages.  Leaving his fleet and his hostages with
his son. Canute, (Knut,) and having made the country furnish
horses for his army, he advanced southwards, spreading devastation on his way. London, where the king abode at this
time, having repelled his attacks, he went to Bath, where he
received the submissions of the western thanes. Meantime
Ethelred abandoned London, and took shelter in the isle of
Wight, where having bitterly complained of the treachery
and disaffection of his nobles and generals, he sent the lady
Emma, his wife, and his two sons, for safety to the court of
her brother, the duke of Normandy, whither he was soon
obliged to repair himself also. The royal exiles weir most
kindly received at the Norman court, and Sweyn becah e the
unopposed ruler of all England.
The duke of Normandy, to whom  the king of England
was allied by marriage, was the third in descent from Hrolf
or Rollo, one of the most formidable of the piratic Northmen in the days of Alfred.  Harassed by the continual
devastations committed on his dominions by these freebooters,
the French king Charles the Simple agreed to surrender the
province of Neustria to Rollo on the same terms as Alfred
had given.up East-Anglia to Guthrum.  Rollo thus became;
the Mnost powerful vassal of the crown of France; he treated
his new subjects with justice and kindness, embraced, their
rieligion., and, sought to mitigate the ferocity of his freebooting icomrades; by degrees;the two parties firmly coaalesced, the French language becammn  tiatt of both coulrt and;
people, the manners and religion of the French prevailed;
the province was named Normnandy from the Northmen.
Sweyn did not long enjoy his' new dominion; he died
early in the following year, (1014.) -The Danish host, ohose
his son Canute king; but the English nobles and 4llergy nlet
aid, resolved, to,.recall king Ethelred, providedrl.e would
pledge himself to govern them better than he had done hitherto. The king sent over his son Edmund, named Ironside
from h's bodily vigor, and a solemn compact was entered




4i0             IIS'IORY OF ENGLAND.
into between king and people, he engaging " to be tneir faith
ful lord, to better each of the things that they disliked, and
to forgive each of the things that had been done or said
against him;' provided they all unanimously, without
treachery, turned to him."  A  decree was then passed
declaring every Danish king an outlaw in England. Ethel.
red recurned and marched an army into Lindesey, where
Canute was making preparations for war, and laid the country waste. Canute having retired to his ships sailed round'
to Sandwich, where he set the hostages given to his father
on shore, after cutting off. their hands, ears, and noses.
The next year, (1015,) a great council was held at Oxford.
Among those who repaired to it were Sigferth and Morcar,
the chief thanes of the Danish Burghs; *: but the treacherous
Edric, having enticed them into his bower, (bure,) or private
apartment, had them there slain, probably with the knowledge of the king, who immediately seized their possessions.
The widow of Sigferth was-confined at Malnsbury, whence
Edmund the Atheling t carried her off by force and made
her his wife, and in her right took possession by the strong
hand of all the lands of Sigferth and Morcar. As Canute
was now ravaging the coast of Wessex, an army under Edmund and Edric advanced to oppose him; but no action took
place, in consequence of an attempt of Edric to betray the
prince. Foiled in his attempt, the traitor went off with
forty ships and openly joined the enemy. All Wessex now
submitted to Canute, and he and Edric led their forces in
the mid-winter into Mercia, burning and plundering as
usual. Edmund vainly tried to collect a sufficient army to
oppose them; the king, fearing treachery, would not take the
field, and Canute, having ravaged all the east of Mercia,
entered and subdued Northumberland, whose earl had joined
the Atheling.
While such was the state of affairs, the troubled life and
reign of king Ethelred came to a close. He died on St
George's day (1016) at London.
EDMUND II. (IRONSIDE.) 1016.
On the death of king Ethelred all the Witan who were
present joined with the citizens in electing Edmund the
Atheling king; but the Witan of Wessex meantime met at
* These were Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, and Stamford
t Atheling (front ethel, noble) is equivalent to crown prince or heir
apparent




CANUTE                      41
Southampton and chose Canute king, and the sword was
now to decide between the rival monarchs. Canute sailed
UD the Thaines and laid siege to London, which was bravely
defended by the citizens; and in the mean time Edmund
reduced Wessex. Having gained two victories, he came
and raised the siege of London, and he again routed the
Danes in Kent; but the traitor Edric, who had been hitherto
on the side of the Danes, now sought a reconciliation with
Edmund, who allowed him to join his troops with the royal
army; and at the battle which was fought soon after at
A.ingdon in Pssex, while victory seemed about to declare
for the valiant Edmund, Edric, having slain a thane who resembled theking, held up the head, crying, "Flee, English!
flee, English! dead is Edmund! " and theni set the example
of flig.At. "Thus had Canute the victory," says the chronicle, "though all England fought against him, aind all the
nobility of England was there undone."  Canlute: followed
Ednmund into Gloucestershire, where that indefatigable
prince had assembled another army. When the forces stood
in array, Edmund proposed to decide their claims by single
combat; but Canute saying that he, a man of small stature,
would have little chance against the tall, athletic Edmund,
proposed, on the contrary, for them to divide the realm as
their fathers had done. A meeting was held in the isle of
Olney for the purpose, and Edric and the Witan there arranged that Edmund should retain Wessex, Essex, EastAnglia, and London, with a superiority over the rest of the
kingdom which was assigned to the Dane. But before the
end of the year Edmund'was no more, and Edric is accused
of having been the author of his death.
CHAPTER V.
DANISH KINGS AND SAXON LINE RESTORED.
CANUTE. 1016-1035.
WHEN the death of Edmund was known, the Witan assem-r
bled at London and decided that Canute should be king of,
all England, and thiey outlawed the family of Ethelred
Canute soon after put to death Edwy, the brother. of
4*                          F




42               HISTORY  OY' ENGLAND.
EdmLt.rd; ana he sent that monarch's two infant childrer m
his brother, the king of S.weden, requesting,.him, it is said,
to free him from  uneasiness by their death. The Swede
shrank. from staining his hands with the blood of babes, and
sent them to the king of Hungary, who brought them  up
carefully. One of them  died; the other, named Edward,
was married to his benefactor's sister-in-law, and had issue
of which we shall, hear. anon.  Canute might.thus have been
so far secure; but the lady Emma had her two sons with her
in Normandy, and duke Robert, their cousin, was inclined
to assert their rights.  To obviate this danger Canute sought
and obtained the hand of Emma in marriage, engaging to
leave the crown of England to lier issue by him.
Canute divided his realm into four separate governments
Wessex he retained in his own hands; Mercia was ruled
by Edric; East-Anglia by Thurkil-l the Dane, and Northumberland by the king's kinsman Eric.  But in the very first
year of his reign Edric met the reward of his treachery in
the following manner. Not content with Mercia, he sought
more, alleging as his merits his treasons to Edmund. Canute replied, that he who had been a traitor to an old master
would hardly be faithful to a new one. Eric then, probably
in concert with the king, struck Edric dead with a battle-axe;
his body was flung into the Thames; his head was stuck on
the highest gate of London. Several of the English -nobles
were put.to death, and their possessions given to the Danes;
and these men, as was to be expected, treated the English
with such insolence as drew on them their universal hatred.
Canute was the most powerful monarch of the age. He
was king of England, Denmark, and Norway, and superior
lord of Sweden and Scotland. England was his chief abode,
but he frequently visited his northern dominions, where the
hostility of the Sclavonian Vends, who held the south coast
of the Baltic, and the independent spirit of the Swedes,
gave occasional employment to his arms. In one of these
expeditions the native English troops, commanded by Godwin, son of Wulfnoth,' the Child of Sussex,' bei. g stationed
near the enemy's camp, their leader seeing a favorable opportunity, fell on it in the night and cbmpletely- route the
foes. Canute, to reward Godwin, gave him his daughter in
marriage, and highly advanced him  in wealth and honor.
All through:hereign of this king: England was at peace; to.
ward its close, (1033,). Malcolm king of Sc.ots, and his son
Duncan prince of Cumbria, refused. homage, alleging that
Canute, not being the rightful king, was not entitled to claim




HAROLD 1.                     43
it; but the appearance of that monarch,with a large army
soon reduced them to obedience, and they performed their
homage.
Advancing age mitigated the original harshness of Ca.
nute's character; his rule became just and equitable, and
he gradually gained the affections of his English subjects;
religion also engaged much of his thoughts and time, and
he showed his piety in the manner of that age by building
churches and endowing monasteries.  He even (1031) made
a pilgrimage to Rome, and he engaged the princes through
whose dominions he passed to cease from exacting tolls from
the English pilgrims.
t is said that one day, while he was residing at South.
ampton, his courtiers were extolling his might and power.
Canute ordered his chair to be set on the strand, where the
tide was now,,advancing, and as lord of the ocean commanded it not to approach; but heedless of his mandate the
waves pursued their destined course, and soon flowed around
the royal seat. Then turning to his flatterers, the king bade
them  confess the weakness and impotence of all human
power compared with that of Him who had said to the
ocean, " Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." After this
he deposited the crown in the cathedral of Winchester, and
never again resumed it. Canute died at Shaftesbury, (1035,)
after a reign of eighteen years, regretted by his subjects, and
confessedly inferior in fame and ability to no monarch of the
time.
HAROLD I. (HAREFOOT.)
Canute left three sons, Sweyn, Harold, and Hardacnute.
To the last, who was the issue of the lady Emma, and was
alone legitimate, England was due by the marriage contract; but Canute had by will appointed him ruler of Denmark (where he now was) and of the Danes in England,
while to Sweyn he left Norway, and to Harold England.
This last, who was on the spot and had secured the royal
hoard or treasure, was supported by Leofric earl of Mercia,
the thanes north of the Thames,' and the ci'tizens of London;
while Godwin, now earl of Wessex, and the English, in
general, were in favor of Hardacnute. A Witena-gemot was
held at Oxford, in which it was agreed that Hardacnute
should be king;of Wessex. As. he still remained in Denmark, his mother Emma, aided by Godwin, governed it as
regent. IHer two sons by Ethelred, who were in Normanndy,
meantime fitted out a fleet and sailed over to England to




44               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
maintain their right; but on coining to Southampton they
found the people prepared to oppose them, and they retired.
Soon after a letter was written in the name of their mother,
inviting one or both of them to come over and assert their
claimn to the crown; anid Alfred, the more spirited of the
two, set sail from Flanders with about 600 followers.' Godwin received him with much seeming kindness, and they set
out for Winchester; but at Guildford they were all seized
in the night by armed men, and next morning, being drawn
up in a line with their hands bound behind them, one out of
every ten was selected and set at liberty, a few were reserved
for slaves, and the rest were inhumanly butchered. The
unhappy prince was sent to Ely, where he was blinded, and
he soon after died. Godwin was generally accused of this
crime, Harold having, it is said, gained him by a promise to
marry his daughter.*  Emma, not thinking herself any longer
safe, retired to Bruges in Flanders, where some time after
she was joined by her son Hardacnute, and Harold dying
(1040) after a reign of about four years, he was unanimously
invited to occupv the throne.
HARDACNUTE. 1040-1042
One of the first acts of the new monarch was to avenge
on the senseless remains of Harold his own exclusion and
the murder of his brother Alfred; he caused them to be dug
up and flung into the Thames. This king imposed such
heavy Danegeld on the people, that coinmotions prevailed in
various parts, particularly at Worcester, which town was
stormed and plundered by his command. The reign of
HIardacnute also was brief; at the wedding-banquet of his
banner-bearer, a Dane named Towed the Proud, at Lambeth,
which he honored with his presence, and where the drinking,
as usual, was deep, he fell speechless to the ground, and
expired a few days after, (1042.)
EDWARD III. (THE CONFESSOR.) 1042 -10b.
Edward, the remaining son of Ethelred, was at this time
in England, whither he had been invited by his brother
the late king, and being of a timid character, was preparing
to fly to Normandy, when Godwin proposed to secure himn
* Dr. Lingard has, in our opinion, made a very good defence foGodwin.




EDWARD III., THE CONFESbOR.            45
he crown on condition of his espousing his daughter Edi.,ha the Fair.  Edward assented; the influence of Godwin
smoothed al difficulties in a great council' held at London
and at Easter (1043) Edward was crowned at Winchester.
To gain the affections of his people he abolished the odious
tax of Dane-gelt; he at the same time resumed the lavish
grants of his predecessors to their Danish favorites. His
conduo, t, his mother was rather harsh; under the pretext
of her having neglected himself and his brother after her
second marriage, he stripped her of her property and confined her in a monastery near Winchester.
The power of Godwin was now at its height: ale himself
ruled Wessex and Kent, his son Sweyn was over a large
portion of Mercia, aci Harold, a third son, was earl of EastAnglia and Essex, so that his influence extended over the
whole south ot England. The remaining part of Mercia
was governed by earl Leofric,* Northumbria obeyed earl
Siward; and England was thus int effect divided among three
great families.  Still Edward, though ruled by the Godwin
family, never liked them; and in consequence of this dislike, or urged by that mean and mistaken piety which acquired him from the monkish writers the title of Confessor,
he never claimed his conjugal rights from Editha the Fair.
Godwin gradually became alienated from him, and the king's
weakness soon furnished him with a popular subject of complaint. Edward, gentle and feeble in character and reared
in Normandy, preferred the Normans, whose manners were
more polished than those of the English.  Numbers of themn
repaired to his court, where they were received with great
favor, and the chief offices in church and court were conmmitted to them. Their language, the Norman-French, also
became that of the court. The popular jealousy was
naturally excited, and Godwin secretly nourished it. At
length an event occurred which brought matters to a crisis.
Eustace earl of Boulogne, the king's brother-in-law, having come over to England (1051) and staid some time at
court, proceeded to Dover on his return.  He and his train
entered the town in armor, and insisted on having free quarters. One of his men being refilsed admittance into a
house, fell on and wounded its master; the Dover-nian slew
the intruder; the alarm spread; Eustace and his men got to
horse, and came and killed him.n his own hearth. They
* This is the earl who, with his wife Godl a, is famous in the Cov
entry legend of Peeping Tom.
-




46              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
then went through the town slaying all tney met, out most
of themselves lost their lives in the fray. Eustace hastened
to court to complain, and Edward without inquiry ordered
Godwin to repair to Dover, as it was in his earldom, and
punish the town by military execution. Godwin refused,
alleging that the people were not in fault. Matters speedily
came to a rupture; Godwin and his sons Sweyn and Harola
assembled an artmy and demanded the surrender of the earl
and his followers.  The king called on Siward earl of Northumberland and Leofric earl of Mercia to come to his aid,
and they assembled their troops, which were also joined
by those of Ralph, a Norman who had been made earl of
Worcester. The two armies approached each other in
Gloucestershire, but no engagement ensued, as the majority
in both declared against shedding the best of English blood
in civil contest: a truce was effected; hostages were given
on both sides, and it was agreed to refer the whole matter to
a witena-gemot to be holden at London. At the appointed
time Godwin came with his troops to Southwark; but measures had been taken to reduce his strength, and finding he
could not dictate, and that even his personal safety was not
certain, he took to flight, and the gemot passed a sentence
of outlawry on him and his sons. The king gratified his
spleen against the family by stripping the innocent Editha
c-f all that she possessed, and confining her in the convent of
Wherwell in Hampshire, of which his sister was abbess.
Godwin and his son Sweyn retired to Flanders, taking
with them  a ship laden with treasure; Harold sought refuge in Ireland. His earldom was given to Algar the son of
Leofric, and a nobleman named Odda obtained the west part
of Wessex. When the king's power was thus reestablished,
his cousin William, the young duke of Normandy, came
over with a numerous train to visit him, and, having spent a
short time at the English court and witnessed the state of
affairs, he returned home.
But though the Godwin family were outlawed, they were
not reduced.  The old earl assembled a fleet (1052) in Flanders, Harold collected forces in Ireland, and having united
their strength, they appeared on the south coast. Sussex,
Surrey, Kent, and Essex declared for them; the peasantry joyfully supplied them with provisions; they sailed up
to London, where the king was residing, and sent to de.
mand the restitution of their honors. A denial being given;
Godwin's troops became furious, but he restrained them, and
having stationed them in the Strand, (as the north bank of




EDWARD  Mi., THE CONFESSOR.              47
the Thames, wvest of the city wall, was named,) prepared for
action.  The king's troops were numerous, but they were
loath to fight against their countrymen, and he was obliged
to yield to their desire of an accommodation.  A witena-gemot was assembled, before which Godwin protested his own
and his sons' innocence of all laid to their charge.  H.is
power was too great for his veracity to be questioned; all the
forfeited honors and possessions were restored; the lady Editha, also,' sat in her honor.'  On the other hand, the foreigners, with a few exceptions, were outlawed, and the Ncrman
bishops of Canterbury and Dorchester only saved their lives by
a precipitate flight.
Godwin did not long enjoy his power; as he was sitting at
the royal table the following Easter, (1053,) he fell down in a
fit, and died within a few days. The legend says that the
king had charged him with the murder of his brother Alfred,
whereupon he cried, " May this morsel be my last if I did r l
and the piece of bread which he attempted to swallow choked
him.  His power and honors fell to his son Harold, who resigned East-Anglia to earl Algar, who had held it when he
was himself an outlaw.  On the death of his' father Leofric,
(1'057,)Algar succeeded to Mercia, and he then resigned East.
Anglia, a part or the whole of which was given to Harold's
brother Gurth.  Algar was outlawed shortly after (105S) on
a charge of treason; he retired to Griffith prince of Wales,
who had married his sister, and he so wasted and destroyed
the adjoining country that Harold was glad to make peace
with him and let him resume his honors.
Harold had also an opportunity of extending his influence
in the north.  Duncan king of Scots had been treacherously
murdered (1039) by one of the subordinate chiefs namned
Macbeth, who then expelled Malcolm  the heir, and seized
the crown.  Malcolm  appealed to Edward as his superior
lord, and by the king's directions earl Siward led an army
into Scotland, (1054,) where he defeated and slew the usur
per, and placec Malcolm on the throne.  Siward's eldest son
had fallen in the battle; he died himself the following year,*
and his remaining son Waltheof being too young to govern
the earldom, Harold made the king confer it on his own
brether Tosti. After a few years, however, the thanes, weary
* When Siward heard of the death of his son, he asked how he had
fallen, and being told that his wounds were all in front, lie said he was
satisfied and desired no better death for himself. When he felt his
own death approaching, he declared he would die as a warrior, and
arrayed in armor, with his spear in his hand. he breathed his last.




HISTORY OF ENGLAND
of the tyranny of their new earl, rose against him and drove
nim away, (1065.)  They appointed Morcar son of Algar and
brother of Edwin, who had now succeeded his father in Mercia, to be their earl, and Harold deemed it prudent to acquiese!e in their choice.  England was now in effect divided
between him and the sons of Algar.
The king, who had mounted the throne at the age of forty,
being advanced in years and childless, began to think of
appointing a successor.  He therefore had summoned from
Hungary his nephew. Edward, named the Outlaw, the son of
[ronside.  The prince came (10F57) with his wife and three
children, Edgar, Christina, and Margaret; but ere he had
seen the face of the king, he fell sick and died, to the great
grief of all the people. The king, it is said, then passing
over the young Edgar, whose incapacity was apparent, made, fvli appointing the duke of Normandy his successor.  It is
also said that Harold was the person who brought the duke
the tidings of the bequest in his favor, but there is great contradiction in the various accounts of this matter. That Harold bound himself by oath to forward the views of William, iE
a matter of little doubt; how the oath was obtained is problematic. The common account is as follows: Godwin had
been obliged to give one of his sons and a grandson to the
king to be kept as hostages beyond sea; and they had been
committed to the charge of the duke of Normandy. Harold,
having procured Edward's permission for their release, proceeded in person to Normandy to obtain them. Being driven by a tempest on the coast of Ponthieu, he was, in accordance with the barbarous usages of the age, made a prisoner
by the count, Guy, who expected to obtain a large ransom
from him. Harold sent to inform the duke of Normandy,
the count's superior, of his being, thus seized when on his
way to the Norman court, and William forthwith ordered his
vassal to transmit his captive to Rouen. Here Harold was
treated with the utmost courtesy. and no objection was made
to the release of his relations. William then took occasion
to inform him of his pretensions to the crown, adding that the
king intended to make a will in his favor: he desired the aid
of Harold in furtherance of his claims, vowing the utmost
gratitude, and offering him the hand of his daughter Adela.
Harold was astounded, but knowing himself to be in the
duke's power, he promised every thing.  William required
his oath; Ilarold swore on the missal in the usual manner in
presence of a large assembly; the missal was then removed
and there appeared beneath it a vessel filled with the bones of




HAROLDT  1. 4u.
saints, and other relics which William had caused to- be plaied:
there secretly, and on which Harold'was now held to- have;'
sworn.                 -
Another account says that the object of Harold's voyage
was to inform William of king Edward's intentionls in'his.
favor.  A third and more probable account isi, that Harold
was merely: sailing along the coast of Sussex on business -or
pleasure, when a storm drove him to Ponthieu.-  
The life of the feeble mon-arch was fast drawing to its cdose. 
A ware of the approach of'death, he hastened the consecration-l
of the abbey of Westminster, which he: had rebuilt.  On Innocents' day (1065) the fane was dedicated'in:his name by,
queen Editha, and on the- eve of the zEpiphany (Jan. 5) he
breathed his last, and was interred in the abbey: the following day.
A prince more devoid of energy than Edward, is not to be
found- in history.  His very external appearance displayed his
character; his hair and skin being remarkably white, and his
complexion rosy like that of a child. He was abjectly superstitious, for which he was canonized by the church, and miracles
were invented for him. He was weakly indulgent and lavishly charitable. If he showed any symptoms of vigor, it was
in his love for the chase, between which and his prayers he
divided his time. For the affectionate remembrance in which
he was held by the English nation, he was more indebted to
the Norman tyranny than to his own deserts; his reign was
looked back to as halcyon days between the rigors of the
Danish and Norman rule; and the laws of the good king Edward (meaning thereby not his code, but the laws which prevailed in his time) were the constant demand of the people
for near a century.*
It is perhaps not undeserving of notice that the Confessor
was the first who touched for the king's-evil.
HAROLD HI. 1066.
It was said, and perhaps with truth, that as the late king
lay on his death-bed, he yielded to the importunity of Harold,
and named him  to succeed.  At all events, on. thie day of
Edward's funeral, Harold was crowned without opposition by
Aldred archbishop of York. The southern counties, which
he and his family had long governed, readily acknowledged
* h1 is really amusing to see how Dr. Lingard strives to. nake sIome
thing respectable out of' the character of this-royal saint.  
VOL. 1.      5                          G




50               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
his tuthority.  To gain the good-will of the Northumbrians
he made a progress to the north, accompanied by Wulstaln
the good bishop of Worcester. His efforts were successful,
and to bind Edwin and Morcar to his interests, he espoused
their sister Editha.
The news of the death of Edward and the coronation of
Harold reached the duke of Normandy as he was hunting in
his park near Rouen.  The bow, it is said, dropped from his
hand; he stood a few moments rapt in thought, then threw
himself into a boat, and crossing the Seine, entered his palace. and after an interval of moody silence, he called his bar.
ons to council. By their advice he sent to require Harold to
perform his engagements and resign the crown. The reply
was such as might be expected, a refusal veiled under specious
pretexts, in effect a defiance of the Norman power. Forthwith
William summoned a parliament of his barons at Lillebonlne,
and though the nature of their tenures did not oblige them
to cross the sea in the service of their liege-lord, they agreed,
at the impulsion of a baron named Fitz Osbern the Bold, to
aid in the conquest of England.  Promises of rich rewards
were made by the duke to stimulate them to exertion: similar promises were held forth in proclamations, and the flower
of the chivalry of Britanny, Poitou, Anjou, and other parts
crowded to the standard of William the Bastard.*
The pope when applied to readily condemned the perjury
of Harold, and he sent the duke a consecrated banner and
a ring containing a hair of St. Peter's, at the same time
stipulating for a more punctual payment of the Peter-pence.t
Meantime William aided Harold's brother Tosti, who was
in Flanders, and enabled him to collect a force of sixty
vessels, with which he passed over to the Isle of Wight, and
began to ravage it and the adjacent coast. Being driven
off by Harold's forces, he sailed away to Lindesey, blat here,
finding Edwin and Morcar too strong for him, he went to
Scotland, and at the end of the summer Harold Hardralda,
ling of Norway, to whom he had become a vassal, having
entered the Tyne, he came and joined him. They thence
sailed to the Humber, and went up the Ouse toward York.
On the right bank of this river they were engaged (Sept. 20)
by the earls Edwin and Morcar; the English were defeated
He was the natural son of duke Robert by a maiden oL hmlnble
birth named Arlotta.
t This was an annual tax of a penny a house, granted to the HIol
See by king Ethelwulf. Lingard is silent about this and the ring




HAROLD 1I.                    51
with  great slaughter, and the two earls w.ere besieged in
York.
King Harold, who had assembled a numerous fleet, and
taken a position with his land forces between Hastings and
Pevensey to await the arrival of the Normans, on hearing of
the landing of the Norwegians, led his trobops with all speed
to the north.  He reached the neighborhood of York four
days after the defeat of Edwin and Morcar, and came up with
the Norwegian king and but a part of his forces.  Tosti
advised his ally to fall back to his ships; the proud spirit of
Hardrada spurned at retreat.  He sent three messages to his
ships, to summon his remaining warriors to his side, and then
retiring to Stamford bridge, on the Derwent, drew up his
men in array of battle; his array was a hollow circle inll
whose centre waved the Landeyda (Land-waster) the royal
banner of Norway; the outer rank fixed their spears obliquely
in the ground, while the second rank protruded theirs, so that
the English, who were mostly cavalry, would impale their
horses if they made a charge.  As Hardrada was riding
round the circle to inspect it, his horse stumbled and threw
him. " Who is that warrior in blue, with a glittering helmet,
that has fallen?" inquired Harold; he was told it was the
king of Norway.  "He is a large and stately person," replied he, " but his fall shows that his end is at hand!" Harold
then sent to Tosti, offering him the earldom of Northumbria
and other honors.  "That offer should have been made last
winter," said Tosti; " but if I accept it, what will be given to
the king of Norway? "  " Seven feet of ground, or as he is
a very tall man, perhaps a little more," replied the envoy.
"Go back," cried he, " and tell king Harold to make hiim
ready for the fight, for never shall it be told in Norway that
earl Tosti left Harold son of Sigurd, and went over to his foes."
The fight began, (Sept.'25:) the English cavalry in their
usual manner charged in masses, dispersed, reassembled, and
charged again.  The ardor of their foes at length made
them  break their firm array to pursue them; the English
rushed in at the opening; Hardrada fell pierced in the neck
by an arrow.  Tosti took the command; the troops from the
fleet arrived: the battle continued till Tosti and every chief
of name had fallen, and the evening closed on the complete
victory of the English.  Harold dismissed Olave the son of
the fallen king in safety, and having taken possession of the
fleet and booty, led his troops to York. Here, as he sat at his
royal banquet, tidings came to him of the landing of the
Normans in Sussex.




HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The preparations of the. duke of Normandy being comrn.
pleted, a numerous fleet of vessels of all sizes assembled in
the month of August at the mouth of the little river Dive,
to convey his forces to England.* But the wind proved
adverse for more than a month,:and when at the time of the
equinox it changed, and the armament. put to:sea, a storm
came on, and though the greater part of the ships escaped to
St. Vallery, near Dieppe, several were lost, and the shore
was covered with wrecks and the bodies of the drowned.
To appease the wrath of Heaven, William caused the body
of St. Vallery to be carried in solemn procession, and when
the weather became serene the armament again put to sea;
the duke's galley, the present of his wife Matilda, on whose
prow stood a golden boy, his right hand pointing to England,
his left holding an ivory trumpet to his mouth, leading the
way. The vessels advanced so unequally, that when the duke
reached the English coast many of them were still twenty
leagues in the rear, and they would have been an easy prey
to the English fleet if it had been at hand; but fortune
favored William in every way; the wind which he had deemed
so adverse had only detained him till Hardrada had landed and
drawn the disciplined forces of Harold to the north, and in
that interval the English fleet had been obliged to disperse to
get provisions, and the wind had not yet permitted it to reassemble.  He landed without opposition at Pevensey, (Sept.
2S,) whence he advanced to Hastings, and raised fortifications at both places to protect his ships, which were speedily
blocked up by the English fleet.t
It is said that when William sprang to land from his galley
he stumbled and fell. The superstition of the age might
have converted this into an ill omen, but the soldier who
raised him had the presence of mind to avert it; seeing his
hands full of mud, he cried, "Fortunate leader! you have
already taken England! its earth is in your hands!"
Harold flew to London on hearing of the landing of the
Norman; though hie had lost some of his best troops in the
late battle, and, it is said, had disgusted the rest by retaining
the whole of the Norwegian spoil, he assembled within six days
a force which he deemed sufficient to meet the invaders. Hie
sentspies to ascertain their strength; William, it is said, caused
these men to be led through his camp and then dismissed.
As the Normans: shaved the upper lip, contrary to the Eng* See Appendix (E.)
t Hence the falsehood appears of the stcry of his burning his shine




HAROLD 11.                    5:
ish custom,.ne spies told Harold that they looked like an
army of priests; he laughed, and said, they would find these
priests right valiant soldiers.  Messages passed between the     i
two rivals. William offered Harold the option of a legal trial
of their claims, or a single combat.  Harold replied that God
should judge between them: his brother Gurth then urged,!
that as he had been so unfortunate as to be obliged to take
an oath of fealty to William, it would be wiser for him not to   ii
enter the battle in person, but'to let him, whose conscience
was clear, lead the troops.  Harold derided these apprehensions, and forthwith set out with his forces, in the hopes of
surprising the Normans like the Norwegians; but William
was too alert; his scouts brought him timely word, and Harold giving over his plan of a night attack, the two armies took
a position at a place anciently named Senlac, now called
Battle, front the event, eight miles on the London side of
Hastings.
It was the laudable custom of that age for the warriors to
employ themselves in devotional exercises the night previous
to a battle, and to hear mass and receive the sacrament in
the morning.  With this the Normans complied, while the
English, we are told, passed the night in feasting and revelry.
At dawn (Oct. 15) Harold drew up his troops on the declivity
of a hill in one compact, solid mass; their rear was protected by an extensive wood; each man was covered by his shield
and grasped a battle-axe, the ancient English weapon.  The
king and all his nobles, and other horsemen, dismounted and
took their station with the rest; in the centre waved the royal
banner containing the figure of a fighting warrior woven
in gold, and adorned with precious stones; beneath it stood
Harold and his brothers Gurth and Leofwin.  On an opposite eminence the duke marshalled his troops in three lines,
the first of archers, the second of heavy infantry, the third of
his numerous cavalry in five squadrons; the papal banner
was raised in their front by Toustaine the Fair; William
bore suspended from his neck the relics on which Harold
had sworn.
The Normans raised their war-cry of" God help us! " and
advanced; the English responded by shouts of" Holy rood!
God's rood! " A Norman knight, it is said, named Taillefer,
preceded the army mounted on a stately horse, tossing his
swrord up in the air with one hand and catching it with the
other, and singing aloud the deeds of the hero Roland; he
slew two English warriors, but fell by the hand of a third. The
Normans ascended the hill; their archers, having discharged
Iu




54                 ISTORY OF ENGLAND.
their arrows, fell back on the infantry, but neither could
make any impression on the English phalanx: the cavalry
then charged; the battle-axe hewed them down; the Norman left wing, horse and foot, turned and fled; the opposite
English broke from the mass and pursued; a report was
spread that the duke had fallen; William took off his helmet
and rode along the line. A  body of cavalry got in the
rear of the English, who had pursued; the fugitives turned,
and the English were all cut- to pieces. Again he assailed
the English phalanx; firm  and unmoved it withstood the
shock.  He then had recourse to stratagem; a part of his
horse feigned flight; the English again broke and pursued:
a deep ditch, concealed by vegetation, lay in the way; pursuers and pursued fell into it pell-mell, but the English were
destroyed as before.  The same stratagem was tried with the
same success in another part of the line.  Still the main body
of the English stood unbroken around their king; but William had directed his archers to shoot upwards, that their
arrows might fall down on their enemies. By one of these
Harold was wounded in the eye; his brothers were already
fallen. Twenty Norman knights rushed to seize the royal
banner; Harold was slain; the English broke and fled. It
was now night, but the Normans pursued them  by the light
of the moon, and the fugitives turning on them in a place full
of ditches, took a severe vengeance for their defeat. Thus
was this memorable battle terminated; the victors lost in it a
fourth of their number; the loss of the vanquished, like their
number, is unknown.
William caused a spot near where Harold had fallen to be
cleared, and pitched his tent there, in which he and his bar.
ons supped that night. He afterwards founded an abbey on
that spot named Battle, in which prayers were to be continually offered up for the souls of those who had fallen. Though
Harold's mother offered its weight in gold for his body, he refused it. He caused it to be buried on the sea-shore, saying,
"He guarded the coast when living, let him still guard it
now that he is dead."  He seems, however, to have afterwards
relented, and the remains of Harold finally reposed at the
abbey of Waltham, which he had founded.*
See Appendix (F.)




ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION.              55
Having now brought the history of the Anglo-Saxons to
its close, we will pause and take a slight view of their polit:
ical institutions.
The population of Anglo-Saxon England (exclusive offthe
kings of the blood of Wodin) was divided into three classes
the Earls, the Ceorls, and the Theowes. Of these the Earls
were the nobles, or land-owners; the Ceoris (Churls) were
their vassals, the class of ignoble cultivators and artisans, answering to the demos of Greece; the Theowes were slaves,
whose wretched condition was the consequence of their
crimes, or of their imprudence in contracting debts which
they were unable to discharge.
The Earls and Ceorls were each again divided into two
classes; the former consisted of the Hlafords (Lords) or
great landed proprietors, and of the Sithcundmen or those
who by blood were Earls, but who had not property enough to
make them Hlafords. The Ceorls were divided into Heorthfastmen or householders, and Folghers (followers) or laborers and farming servants.  The Ceorl, also named Bonde 
and Gebur, (Boor,) and in Latin Villanus, (whence villain,)
seems to have been attached to the soil, in which, however, he had a property, and as long as he paid the customary
rent, and rendered the usual services, he could not be removed. In all other respects the Ceorls were freemen, and
under the protection of the law. It is probable they were
for the most part (like the continental villani) the descendants
of the Britons who continued to hold their lands under the,
Saxon conquerors.
The Thane (Then or Thegn) or Knight, (Cniht,) that is,
servant, (minister,) was originally one to whom land was
granted on condition of his fidelity to his lord. In course
of time the word Thane became equivalent to Earl, and the
Thanes, were the gentry of the country, that is, all between
the Alderman or Earl t and the Ceorl; and the king's thanes
and lesser thanes answered to the two classes of the Earls.
The lands held by these- classes were either Folcland, (answering to the Odal-land of Scandinavia, the allodium of the
continent,) that is, land held in absolute property, or BoO
* This word is still in use in the North-of Europe. We find it still
in husbaLnd, (house-bonde,) which answers to the paterfamilias rather
than the maritus of the Latin, and in h-sbandman.
t After the settlement of the Danes in England, this term, corresponding to the Scandinavian Jarl. was used as synonymous with
Ealdorman




-  HISTORY OF ENGLAND;
lana, (Book-land,) or Lan land, (Loan-land,) that granted vy
charter and held on particular conditions, theief or feud' of
the corlitnent.  The-holders of alli these: landso were: subject
to what iwas called the trinoda necessitas, viz., the- payment (of
taxes for the Bricgbote- or repairs of roads: and bridges, the
Burhbote or repairs of Ifortresses, and the Fyrd or:general
array of military service for.the defence of the country.
The:first and lowest political division of.the land seems
to have been the Townj (Tun,) answeritng in-some sort td
the Manor of the Normans;*- - It contained not only the: land
which the Hlaford:held in: his own hands, but: the -land 0r
feuds which he thad granted. by.charter, and the folcland
included within its limits, andsotaeicormmon pastures for:the
geiieral use.: A:second and larger division was into- Hundreds; t and a still larger into Shires, above which there was
nothing but the original Kingdoms.t  -
Each of these divisions had its mote or court for the administration of justice. That of the town was named the
Hall-mote, as being usually held in the hall of the lord's
residence.  The lord had the right of executing summary
justice on thieves caught with the goods on them; he could
impose fines, etc.  His officer was the Reeve, (Gerefa,~)
who represented him on most occasions, received all his
tolls and dues at markets, etc., and superintended the Ceorls,
by whom, however, he was elected to his office. In the Hallmnote we may discern the- court-baron with civil and the
court-leet with criminal jurisdiction of the present day,
while the Reeve reminds us of the modern steward of the
manor.
The Hundred-mote or Folk-mote met once a month; it
nwas presided over by the:alderman, (whether of the shire
-r only of the hundred is uncertain,) with whom the bishop
of the diocese sat, and it was composed'of the thanes or
landlords whose demesnes lay Within  its jurisdiction.  It
was attended by the reeve and four godd and lawfufl men'* In Scotland and Ireland the word' ton is still: sed in this sense.
t Whether as containing 100.hides of land, 1,00 free families, or. 100
tithings, is uncertain. North of the Trent the Hundred was called
Wapentake, from the custom, it is said, of the suiters touching the
weapon, i. e. spear, of the ealderman when he entered on his office.':i Sdm~ shires~,sueh' as' IKenti:"and  ussex, ha;d: been: original king
dome; ot.hers,l such as' Yorkshire, were divisions of kingdoms. The
power of the Shiremote or -eounty-court: was'greater-, in:the: formei
kind.....:
-. ~- Gerefa is the same as the Germnian CGraf, a. cotint; r earl. IFrom
Shire-gerefa we have made Sheri.f




ANGLO-iAXON CONSTITUTIONN.                5
from: each:town,: and also, it would appear, by the prkist.  It
took cognizance of the crimes and misdemeanors committed
within: the hundred; -it tried civil actions, and it was:in this
court' that' contracts were made for the sale of lands, anl
thle money paid:in the presence of the Hundredors, who
could afterwards bear Witness if -required, and landbocs orcharters were there read out and published.
The Shire-mote:met twice a year under the presidency
of the bishop' of thie dio6ese and-the alderman- and the
gerefa- of the'shire.  Every landlord in the shire was required- to- attend personally:ort by his reeve; the reeve and
four good men from each town also appeared at it.
The; tights:of the crown, of the Church, and, of private
persons were here discussed and determnined; grants' andcharters were read' out as in the. hundred-mote, with which
it had. much in common.  In the shire-mote the.laws which:
had been enacted by the king in council were received and
published.
Far above all these courts was the great council of the
nation, the Witena-gemot or Micel-getheallt, (Great-thought.)
Originally  each kingdom  had its own  witena-gemot, at
which, besides the prelates and thanes, the reeves and four
men of the towns gave attendance; but when the regal authority was fully extended over the whole island, the witenagemot became of greater dignity. It was held at the three
great festivals of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas.  The
king sat on his throne with the crown on his head and a
sceptre in each hand, surrounded by his officers of state.
The vassal Cymric and Celtic princes were summoned to it,
as also were the prelates and the earls and great thanes of
the realm. Laws here were enacted, taxes imposed, grantsmade or confirmed, state criminals tried.  The choice of a
successor to the throne (but restricted to the royal line) was
made by the Witan on the death of the king.*
* [It is a fact  worthy of particular attention, as showing the inde-.
pendence and love offliberty which, from the earliest times, animated
our Saxon ancestors, that the crown of England w.as'always elective.
not ionly before butsafter the accesgion- of William ithe Norian.' Even
at the present. day: theform is.retained,!although the destraction of all
substantial royal. prerogative and power renders: the actual exercise of.
the c onistttiona.l'elect.ve right'a matter of no impovtanee- This interesting'piint' f 6onstitutiohal history appears to ha ve escaped MIr
Kei'htleey'a frnti~6  Ith ha,: lowever' b6een clearly e6tabiished by the
researchesf of Sir: Harris i'Miolas and "others.:See'.:  GhCroiolohgy -of.:
History," p. 272, and, also,' Ccqwparative, Viewt of Anciqt't UiStorty
and Explanation of Chrodnolgical Eras," by the edit  of this work,




58              JHISTORY OF ENGLAND,.
Of the crimes tried in these various courts some were botelos, or inexpiable, and were punished with death.  Such were
treason, murder, desertion in war, housebreaking, and open
robbery. Others were redeemable by a were, that is, a fine
or damages. Of these the most remarkable  was manslaughter, as the weres of the different classes of society were
exactly apportioned. Thus the were of a Ceorl or Twihendman, as he was named, was 200 shillings, while that of an
Earl or Twelfhlendman was 1200; an intermediate class, the
Sixhandman, whose were was 600 shillings, are also named.
and these are supposed with probability to be the Sithcundo
men. The were of the Ealdorman was twice, that of the
Atheling three times, that of the king six times as much as
that of the Earl.
Compurgation was another feature of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence. As circumstantial evidence was never admitted,
every cause was decided on oath or by the ordeal.  If a
man was accused of a crime and there was not proof positive against him, he was allowed to clear himself by the
ordeal of boiling water or red-hot iron, or he might sweat
to his innocence and bring forward, as his compurgators, a
certain number of his relatives and neighbors, who would
swear to their belief of the truth of his assertion. The
gradations of rank were of influence in this case also; the
oath of a king's thane, for instance, was equivalent to those
of six ceorls.
The Anglo-Saxon system of police, named Freeborgh
or Frankpledge, is also deserving of notice, but it is involved in much obscurity. It appears to have been of two
kinds: the seignorial, by which the lord was bound to produce his vassal when any charge was made against him; and
the collective, by which the ceorls in their tithings were
borghs or security for each other. These tithings were of
different extent in different places, the smallest number of
persons in one of them being ten, whence they derived theil
name. The tithing was directed by its principal member,
who was named the Borges-ealder, (corruptly Borsholder.)
The system  of frankpledge was by -:no'means universal
throughout England.  It became of more importance after
the Conquest than in the Anglo-Saxon times, being found to
be a good mode of securing the allegiance of the people.
The trial by jury formed no part of the Anglo-Saxon
system, though the germ of it, as of so many other institutions of later timnes, may be found in it.
Bishops were appointed by the king and the witena-gemot




ANGLO-SAXON CONSTITUTION.                59
to which they were amenable, and by which they could be
deposed and otherwise punished.  The inferior clergy, if
they committed secular offences, were tried and punished by
the secular tribunals.  The lands of the church were in
general subject to the trinoda necessitas. The clergy were,
however, held in high honor; the Mass-thane, as the priest
was called, ranked in all respects with the World's-thane or
gentleman. In doctrine the Anglo-Saxon church agreed
with that of Rome, and, as we have seen, it had its full share
of errors, false miracles, and pious frauds.  We have, however, abundant evidence to show that whatever might be the
private opinions of some of the clergy, the revolting absurdity of transubstantiation formed no part of its system of
belief.
From this very slight sketch of their constitution, it will,
we believe, appear that our Saxon forefathers were a free
people. The rights of every one were secured by law, and
could be maintained in the various courts of justice; the
aristocracy was strong, but not oppressive; the crown was
hereditary,* and had its recognized rights; in a word, the
framework of that wonderful political phmenomenon, the
actual British constitution, was there. We are of opinion
that political like natural constitutions are of gradual growth
and development, and that as in the child we may see the
future man, so in the earliest form of a state we may discern
its mature condition. As far as experience has gone, it
seems a nearly hopeless attempt for one people to try to
imitate or adopt the institutions of another.t
* [In a limited degree only; see note, p. 57, and the references
there made. -J. T. S.]
t The reader, desirous of fuller information on this subject is re
ferred to Palgrave's valuable work already quoted, Hallam's Middle
Ages, and Allen's Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Roya
Prerogative in England




T  t.
HISTORY OF ENGLANPJ I
ANGLO-NORMAN PERIOD.
CHAPTER  I.
WILLIAM  I. (THE CONQUEROR.)
1066-1087.
AFTER his victory at Hastings, the duke of Normandy l1
his troops eastwards along the coast, spoiling and ravaginp
on his way. As the people of Romney had attacked and
defeated some Normans who had landed there, he burned
the town and massacred the inhabitants; he then advanced
to Dover, which town was likewise partly burned and the
castle forced to surrender. After a delay of eight days, on
account of the dysentery which prevailed among his troops,
he directed his march toward London; on his way he was
met by a deputation of the Kentishmen, offering to submit
on his engaging to respect their liberties and rights.
The Witan and the citizens of London had meantime
placed the Atheling Edgar on the vacant throne, and on
account of his incapacity the direction of affairs was committed to Stigand the primate and the earls Edwin and
Morcar; but disunion prevailed in their councils, and many
of the higher clergy, it is said, swayed by the authority of
the pope, or hoping advantage from it. were for submission
to the Norman, who had now reached Southwark, which
suburb he burned, after routing those who came out to oppose him; he then turned, and having plundered Surrey,
Sussex, Hants, and Berks, crossed the Thames at Wallingford, whence he moved to Berkhamstead. Bucks and Herts
were now laid waste; the supplies were cut off from Lon




WILLIAM 1.                    61
lon; Edwin and Morcar had retired home. Resistance
seemingt hopeless, Stigand and deputies on the part of the
~lergy and people entered his.camp and swore fealty to him.
The following Christmas was appointed for his coronation 
he meanwhile: encamped a few miles from "the city till a fortress (the origin of the presentr Tower) should have been
raised for his security.. On the appointed;day (Dec. 25) he
proceeded to:Westminster Abbey, where the ceremony was
to be performed by the archbishop of York, (Stigand being
under a sentence of suspension.)  A. guard of Norman
horte. surrounded the abbey, in which the English were
already assembled.  William  entered with his nobles, the
ceremony began; - the: bishop of Constance asked the Normans in French if they would have their duke crowned king
of England; a similar question was put to the. English in
Saxon by the prelate of York. Instantly a loud cry of assent
arose from; all parts of the edifice. The Normans outside,
fancying; or pretending to do so, that the English were assailing those within, set fire to the neighboring houses; those
who were in the church rushed out, the English to save their
lives and property, the Normans to share in the plunder,
and William  was left alone with the archbishop and a few
ecclesiastics of both nations.  The trembling priests received
from the monarch, whose terror nearly equalled their own
an oath to govern the English people as they had been governed by the best of their native kings.
William, who is henceforth named the Conqueror,* manifested a laudable anxiety to gain the affections of his new
subjects; he granted new privileges to the citizens of London; he put down the bands of robbers which now infested
the country; he protected travellers and merchants; he was
accessible to all; he even made an attempt to learn the Engish language.  At Barking, whither he retired after his
coronation, he was waited on by Edgar, Edwin, Morcar,
Coxo, and a crowd of other nobles and thanes, who did him
homage and were confirmed in their estates and honors.
He then made a progress through the neighboring counties
to gain:the people by his affability and courtesy.
To reward his followers he confiscated the estates of
those who had fought against him at Hastings, affecting to
regard them as traitors.  By these foreigners, who thus settled in England, numerous castles were erected to secure
* Conquisitor. It simply means aicqui-,' he claimed'the crown:b~
legal right.
VOL. I.     6




b;2              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
their possessions, and in each town the king raised a for.
tress in which he placed a Norman garrison. These measures occupied his attention during the early part of the
year, (1067;) in the month of March, in compliance with
the desires of his Norman subjects, he prepared to revisit
Normandy; and having committed the direction of affairs
un England to Odo, bishop of Bayeux, his uterine brother,
and William Fitz-Osbern, he led such of his troops as were
returning home to Pevensey, where, having distributed rich
presents among them, he embarked, taking with him Edgar,
Edwin, Morcar, Stigand, and other English of note, under
the pretext of doing them honor, but in reality that they might
serve as hostages for the obedience of the people.  Lie was
received with the greatest demonstrations of joy by his native
subjects, who were amazed at the quantity of wealth he had
acquired, and who gazed in surprise at the magnificence displayed by his English followers.  To the monasteries which
had put up prayers for his success he made costly offerings;
to the pope he sent the banner of Harold and a large quantity
of gold and silver.
While William was thus displaying his liberality in Normandy, those whom he had left behind in England were driving the people to desperation by their tyranny and oppression, and it was in vain that redress was sought from the
regents, who gave no heed to their complaints.  Resistance
therefore began to be made in various parts; the people
of Kent invited over Eustace count of Boulogne to their
aid, offering to put him in possession of Dover. He landed
and was joined by the neighboring people, but failing to
take the castle by assault, he lost courage, and reimbarked
his troops with some loss. In Hereford, the English, under
the command of a chief named Edric the Wild, and aided
by the Welsh, drove the Normans out of the country. A
general confederacy against the strangers was organized; the
nobles who had submitted were secretly invited to put themselves at the head of it, and Coxo was actually assassinated
for persisting in his fidelity to the Conqueror.
When intelligence of what was going on came to the ears
of William, he returned to England without delay, although it
was now mid-winter; he kept his Christmas at London,
where he lavished his caresses on the English prelates and
nobles who appeared at court, and issued a proclamation to
the citizens, assuring them of his intentions to govern them
according to thei- ancient laws, and to secure them n their
property. Having thus soothed the people of London, he set




WILLIAM  1.                    63
out (1068) with his troops for Devon, where he people were
in arms, and laid siege to Exeter. As he app: oached, a dleputation met him, offering to pay as tribute a sum equal to what
they had paid their former kings, but declining to swear allegiance; he refused to listen to these terms; his troops ad.
vanced to the assault, the English being placed in front; ere
the assault was made, the magistrates came forth, sued for
peace, and gave hostages; but on their return the citizens re.
fused to ratify the peace, closed the gates and prepared for defence.  William then put out the eyes of one of the hostages
in their view, and invested the town; the siege lasted eighteen days, with great loss on the part of the besiegers; at
length the walls were undermined, and the city was forced to
surrender. The whole of Devonshire and the adjoining
British Cornwall were speedily reduced; about the same time
Somerset and Gloucester were also subdued, and the land
seized and divided.
Those who were dispossessed of their lands, and the lovers
of liberty in general, gradually retired to the north, whither
the Normans had not as yet penetrated.  Edwvin, Morcar,
and other chiefs secretly repaired thither; an alliance was
formed with the Welsh and with Malcolm king of Scotland,
(at whose court Edgar had taken refuge, and who had married
Edgar's sister Margaret,) and an extensive plan of resistance
to the Normans was formed.  It is said that in the conquered country a secret plan for assassinating the Normans
(like the Danes in the time of Ethelred) on a festival,
when they would be without arms, was projected, but it was
discovered, and those most deeply engaged in it had to seek
safety in flight. William, resolving to strike the first blow, led
his troops northwards; he took Oxford by assault, massacred
the inhabitants, and burned a great part of the town. The
same was the fate of Warwick, Leicester, Nottingham,
and Derby; Lincoln was forced to capitulate, and William
then crossed the Humber.  The English and their confederates gave him battle; they were routed and fled to York;
that city-also was taken by assault, and all in it massacred
without distinction; a fortress was erected there and strongly garrisoned to keep the surrounding country in awe.  It
does not appear that the king marched much farther north,
for the Normans were grown weary of the service, and desirous of returning to their wives and families.
The next year (1069) Edmund and Godwin, the sons of
Harold, came with some ships from Ireland, and made descents in Somerset and Devon, where the people rose against
the Normans; but their efforts were crushed by the troops




-64              HISTORY OF ENGL1n"
(chiefly, English) sent against them, and the sons of Harold
were forced to retire. The people of Cheshire and the ad
joining country also rose, but the king marched: in person
against them, and one battle crushed their hopes.  But though
the English no longer made head in the field, their irregular
bands dill the Normans great mischief, and frequent ambuscades kept the enemy in terror. The governor of York wrote
to the king to say that unless reignforced he could not hold
out; William hastened thither and found the castle actually besieged; he speedily dispersed the assailants, and then
commenced the erection of a second castle, and being resolved to extend his dominion, he sent Robert de Comines
or Cumin with twelve hundred horsemen and a large number
of footmen to occupy the city of Durham. As Cumin approached that town, the bishop came to meet him, and warned
him of his danger; but he treated the warning with contempt,
and having put some of the inhabitants to death, he took up
his quarters in the bishop's house. In the night beacons
flamed on all the adjacent heights, and at dawn the gates of
the town were forced, and the English poured in and slaughtered the Normans; the bishop's house was set on fire, and
Cumin and all in it perished. Troops were ordered from
York and elsewhere to avenge this massacre, but the soldiers
on reaching Northallerton refused to advance.
The people of the north and east of England ceased not
to solicit their kinsmen of Denmark to come to their aid
against the Normans; William, on his part, sent his most
adroit bishops with rich presents to Sweyn king of Denmark
to induce him to remain at peace. But the Danish monarch,
urged by his subjects, sent this year a fleet of two hundred
and forty ships under his brother and his two sons, which
entered the Humber in the autumn: the people rose to join
them; Edgar, Edwin, Morcar, and the other exiles hastened
from Scotland, and their united forces advanced joyfilly and
confidently to the attack of York. The towns-people aided
the invaders; the castles were carried by assault, the garrisons slaughtered, the governors led prisoners to the Danish
fleet, and the castles razed.  The Danes then stationed their
fleet for the winter in the Humber, Ouse, and Trent.
This invasion of the Danes, and the capture of York, caused
William great concern.'To secure the obedience.of the
Englis!.-. of the south, he restrained the insolence of his sol.
diers, and made some slight concessions, but he best succeed.
ed in weakening his enemies by prevailing on the uncle of
the Danish princes, by the promise of a large sum of money




WILTIAM I.                    65
to induce them to depart at the end of winter. He then
(1070) set out for York, at the head of his best troops, and
carried the city by assault.  Edgar and the other chiefs fled
to Scotland; the Normans spread over Northumberland, burning towns and villages, and slaughtering men and cattle
alike; and from the Humber to the Tyne there did riot remain
an inhabited town or a field in cultivation; all was one desert
covered with ruins of towns, houses, and convents; the lands
of St. John of Beverley alone escaped the general calamity,
owing, says the legend, to the visible interposition of the saint.
On the banks of the Tees, Edgar, Edwin, Morcar, Waltheof,
and other chiefs entered the camp of the conqueror and made
their submissions anew, and Waltheof received the hand of
his niece Judith, and the earldom of Huntingdon and Northampton.  William then had the regalia brought to York,
where he kept his Christmas in great pomp. But meantime
famine preyed on the wretched country, and more than one
hundred thousand persons perished north of the Humber.
All England was now subdued under the Normans. The
inferior people, in general, submitted to the yoke they could
not avoid; the higher classes had partly fallen in the field,
or by the sentence of military tribunals; some had fled to
Scotland, some to the north; a band of daring spirits, led by
Siward earl of Gloucester, went by sea to Constantinople,
where the emperors had long kept a body-guard of Scandinavians, named Varangs, (Warriors,) and entered into this service, and others soon followed their example.  Others again
took to the woods at home, whence they issued and attacked
the Normans on the highways, and plundered those who had
sullbmitted to them. The chief seat of these outlaws, as they
were named, were the isles of Ely and Thorney, in the fens
of Cambridgeshire; their Camp of Refuge, as it was called,
was secured by defences of earth and wood, and several nobles
and spiritual dignitaries gradually repaired to it.
William now (1071) proceeded, in concert with the pope,
who sent three legates for the purpose, to depose, under
various pretexts, the principal Saxon prelates and abbots, and
give their places to strangers.  Stigand was deprived of
Canterbury, and that see given to Lanfranc, a Lombard by
birth, and'r.homas, one of the king's chaplains, obtained
that of York, the ancient claims of which to equality with
Canterbury he was forced to resign, and Lanfranc was now
styled the primate and father of all the churches in England.
Many of these new dignitaries lived in a state of continued
6*r




66               HISTORY OF; ENGLAND.
hostility with the clergy under them, whom they insulted,
persecuted, r)bbed, and sometimes even murdered.
The Camp of Refuge, meantime, continued to be the re.
treat of the independent English; Stigand and other deposed
prelates and abbots were there, and Edwin and Morcar also
fled thither; but the latter, induced by the promises of the
king, having left it to return to the court, was seized as he
came out, and sent a prisoner to Normandy. Edwin also
left the camp, and having spent six months in collecting men
and supplies in England, Scotland, and Wales, was returning
to it when he was betrayed to the Normans, and he fell
fighting bravely; their sister Lucy was given in marriage
with all the possessions of their house to an Angevin, named
Ivo Taille-bois, who fixed his abode at Spalding, in Lincolnshire, where he exercised the utmost tyranny and oppression
over his English vassals.
There was at this time living in Flanders an Englishman
named Hereward: hearing from the exiles that his father was
dead, his heritage given to a Norman, and his mother in great
distress, he set out for England, and assembling a troop of
his relations, he attacked and expelled the intruder.  Necessity obliging him to maintain by force what he had seized by
force, he was engaged in ceaseless conflicts with the Normans, and as he was mostly victorious, his fame spread far
and wide, and his deeds were the theme of the popular ballads; his lands lying at Brunn (Bourne) near Croyland, his
exploits were well known to those in the Camp of Refuge,
and at their request he went thither and took the chief command.
The efforts of Taille-bois, and Turauld the Norman abbot
of Peterborough, to reduce the outlaws proving fruitless, the
king took the field in person against them. To reach their
retreat he found it necessary to construct a causeway three
miles in length over the marshes.  Hereward, by his sorties,
so impeded the work, that the Normans fancied he was aided
by the evil one, and to fight him at his own weapons Taillebois brought a sorceress and placed her in a wooden tower,
in advance of the works, to perform her incantations.  But
Hereward made a sudden sally, set fire to the reeds, and
burnt the sorceress and most of the soldiers that were at
work. At length, treachery effected what force could not
achieve; the monks of a convent in the Isle of Ely, weary of
privation, sent to say to the king, that if he pledged himself to
leave them their property, they would enable his troops to en.




WILLIMI 1.                     67
ter the isle unperceived.* This offer was accepted; the camp
was suddenly assailed; many were slain, the rest forced to surrender.  Hereward and a few other brave men made their
escape through the tnarshes, and he continued to be, as before, the terror of the Normans.  At length, if we may trust
the very dubious authority of a metrical history, a Saxon 1aSdy
nanaed Alftrud, who had large possessions, charmed with his
valor, gave him her hand, and at her desire he made his
peace with the king. But the Normans, who dreaded him,
gave him no rest; and one day, as he was sleeping in the open
air after his dinner, he was fallen on by a troop of armed men;
with only a short lance and his sword he killed, says the
rhymer, sixteen of the assailants before he fell.t  It became a
common saying, that if England had had three more like him,
it had never been conquered.  The treacherous monks of Ely
suffered (and no one can pity them) for their treason to their
country; a party of Norman soldiers was quartered on them;
they had to pay 1000 marks; their plate and ornaments
were seized, and their lands divided into military fiefs for the
Normans.  Having made an expedition to the north, and
obliged the king of Scotland to do him homage for his kingdom, William  collected (1.073) an arrmy of English, and
passed over to the continent to take advantage of a dispute
between the count of Maine and his subjects. The mingled
valor and ferocity of the English could not be withstood;
the whole province submitted to William, who led his troops
laden with booty back to Normandy.
While William was absent, a rebellion, headed by Norman
nobles, broke out in England. Roger earl of Hereford, son
of William  Fitz-Osbern, had engaged his sister Emma to
Raulf de Guader, a Breton, earl of Norfolk. The king, it is
not known why, sent to forbid the match, but heedless of the
royal mandate, Roger conducted his sister to Norwich, and
the wedding feast, to which Norman, Saxon,  and Welsh nobles and prelates were invited, was held. When heated with
wine, the guests gave a loose to their tongues against the king,
abusing his birth, and declaiming against his avarice and his
ingratitude. The two earls then proposed to Waltheof, who
was of the party, to join in an insurrection against William,
who, they said, would never return, adding, that then one
of them should be king, and the other two rule under him;
D* r. Lingard, of course, takes no notice of this transaction.
t Invulf simply says that he made his peace with the king, ended
his days in.-anquillity, and was buried with his wife at Croyland.




58               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Waltheof, though he did not assent, promised mscrecy; bishops and barons, knights and warriors, swore to be faithful to
the cause, and Roger went home without delay to make the
needful preparations. The conspiracy, however, was easily
crushed; earl Roger was defeated and taken before he could
pass the Severn, and Guader and his troops were routed by
bishop Odo and William de Warrenne. The victors cut off
the right foot of all their prisoners. Guader fled to Brittany;
his bride defended the castle of Norwich till forced by famine to surrender. The estates of both the earls were confiscated, and Roger was condemned to perpetual imprisonment.
The fate of Waltheof was more severe. He had only been
guilty of what is called misprision of treason; but his wife
Judith had fixed her affections on another, and Ivo de Taillebois and others coveted his lands. The royal council were
divided in their sentiments, and the earl lay a prisoner at
Winchester during an entire year. At length his enemies
prevailed, sentence of death was passed, and early in the
morning, while the people of Winchester were in their beds,
(lest they might attempt a rescue,) he was led to an eminence
without the town, and there beheaded.  By the English he
was regarded as a martyr, and miracles, it was believed, were
wrought at his tomb in the abbey of Croyland.  His faithless
wife, however, was punished. The king ordered her to marry a knight named Simon of Senlis; she refused, as Simon
was lame and deformed; the king then gave Simon the eldest
daughter and the estates of Waltheof, and Judith passed the
remainder of her days in poverty and contempt.
The last English earl was now gone, and William next
proceeded to depose the last English prelate.  Wulfstan of
Worcester was surnmoned (1076) before a council at Westminster, and ordered by the king and Lanfranc to resign his
staff and ring, because, as he could not speak French, he could
not, it was alleged, discharge episcopal functions in England.
Wulfstan, says the legend, stood up, walked to the tomb of
king Edward, and said, " Edward, thou gavest me this pastoral staff; to thee then I commit it."  Then turning round he
cried, " A better than thou gave it to me; pluck it away if
thou canst."  He struck it into the solid tomb, whence no
one could extract it till the sentence was revoked; it then
yielded to the touch of the Saxon prelate.*
Family dissensions now came to disturb the peace of the' Lingard omits this also; he merely says that Wulfstan was aot
molested




WILLIAM 1                    69
king of England. HIe had three sons, Robert named Gainberon, or Curthose, from the shortness of his legs; William,
called Rufus, or the Red, from the color of his hair; and
Henry, for whom his love of letters gained the title of Beauclerc. Robert had the nominal government of Normandy,
under his mother Matilda, and the Norman barons had been
allowed to do him homage.  When he grew up he claimed to
be put in possession of the duchy, but met with a flat refusal.
An accident occurred to augment his discontent. The king
being at a place named L'Aigle with his three sons, William
and Henry, who were opposed to Robert, came to where he
lodged, and going into an upper room, began to play at dice,
making a great noise, and even poured water down on him as
he was walking before the door. Robert in a rage drew his
sword, and ran up stairs to slay them; the alarm was given;
the king hastened to the spot, and with difficulty appeased the
tumult. But that very night Robert set out with his partisans,
and attempted to surprise the castle of Rouen. Failing in
his project he was obliged to leave Normandy, and he spent
five years in rambling through France and Germany, making
his complaints to princes and nobles, and soliciting aid, but
all the money he got he gave away to loose women and buffoons. At length (1079) he fixed himself at the castle of
Gerberoy on the frontiers of Normandy. The king came in
person and besieged the castle; one day, in a sortie, Robert   r 
wounded and unhorsed a knight.  At the voice of the fallen
man he recognized his father, and he instantly alighted and. 
helped him to his horse. The remonstrances of the prelates    a;
and barons, and the tears and entreaties of the queen, pro-!
duced a new reconciliation, but soon after Robert went away    i
again, and did not return during his father's lifetime.
After the death of Waltheof, the king had committed the      t
government of the country between the Tweed and T'yne to:
Walcher bishop of Durham, a native of Lorraine, who exercised the most intolerable oppression over the people; his officers, among other violent acts, put to death a Saxon, named,iulf, who had retired to Durham when deprived of his property, and who was dear to his countrymen. The spirit of the
people was roused, a secret conspiracy was organized, and it
was agreed that they should bring their arms concealed with
them to the county court that was to be held at Goat's-head
(Gateshead) on the banks of the Tyne. At the court they
claimed reparation for the various acts of injustice that had
been committed. The bishop demanded previously four
hundred pounds of good money; the spokesman, retiring as




70               HISTORY, OF 0  ENGLAND.
i'    f. if to confer with the rest, cried out to them in their own lan
guage, "Short rede, good rede, slea ye the bishoppe!"
They drew their weapons, and the bishop and one hundrer
of his followers were slain. The insurrection extended, but
the bishop of Bayeux marched with an army to the north,
ravaged the country, pillaged the cathedral of Durham, and
slaughtered and mutilated the people without any distinction.!'his tyrannical prelate's fall was at hand. Inflated with
his rank and wealth he aspired to the papacy; he sent large' 3-      sums of money to Rome, where he had purchased a house,
and was proceeding thither himself with a numerous train of'l *I    barons and knights whom he had persuaded to accompany
}: i      him, when the king, who had been informed of his plans, and
9 ~        who did not desire to see him on the papal throne, met him
5 i, on the high sea, off the Isle of Wight, and brought him back to;i: 6    that island, where, before an assembly of the nobles, he acti~ s    cused him of various acts of oppression and treason. "Consider now," said he, " and say how I should act toward such
a brother?"  All were silent.  " Seize him, and confine
him," then cried the king. None venturing to lay hands on
he prelate, the king himself seized him. "I am a clerk and
t minister of the Lord," cried Odo.  "I condemn not a:lerk or a priest, but my count whom I set over my kingdom," replied the monarch. Odo was then sent a prisoner to
a castle in Normandy.
The Northmen, who had so often deceived the hopes of
the English, at length (1085) prepared to attempt their liberation from the yoke of the Normans; Canute of Denmark,
aided by Olave of Norway and Robert earl of Flanders, had
collected a great fleet and army for the purpose. William
assembled a large army to oppose them; he re-imposed the
Dane-gelt; he obliged the English to assume the Norman
habit that they might not be distinguishable; he laid waste
the whole of the north-east coast, and he hired such a nuinber of mercenaries on the continent, " that," says the Saxon
Chronicle, "men wondered how the land might feed thetr
all."  The expedition, however, never sailed; variou: causes,
among which are enumerated the bribes of the king of England, detained it forn more than a year, and at length a mutiny broke out in ~which Canute was slain by his own soldiers,
and the hopes- of the: English expired with him.
The following year (1087) William quitted England laden
with the.curses of the people.. He staid at Rouen, whence
he carried on negotiations with the: king of France relative
to the territory, of Vexin, and by.the advice: of his physicians




WILLIAM I..71
ho kept his bed, in order to reduce his excessive corpulence.
One day the king of France said, joking, " By my faith the
king of England is a long time lying-iii! There will be great
doings at his churching." This being reported to William, he
flew into a rage, and, swearing his most solemn oaths, by the
splendor and by the birth of God, that when he got up from
his lying-in, he would light a thousand tapers * in France, he
assembled his troops, entered the Vexin, (Aug. 10,) and destroyed the standing corn, the vines, and fruit-trees; he set
the town of Mantes on fire, and as, in his rage and impatience,
he galloped through the ruins, his horse, chancing to tread
on some hot embers, threw him forward on the pommel of
the saddle. A dangerous rupture ensued; he was conveyed
to a monastery near Rouen, where he languished for six
weeks. As he felt the approach of death, his conscience
smote him; he sent money to rebuild the churches at Mantes,
and to the convents and the poor of England, and at the de.
sire of his prelates and barons he ordered the state prisoners,
both English and Norman, to be set at liberty. Aware of the
turbulent character of his brother Odo, he long refused to
include him; but he yielded at length to the entreaties of
his friends. He made his will, leaving Normandy to his son
Robert, and England to William.  "And, father," said
Henry, " what will you give me?" " I give you 50001. out of
my treasure."   " But of what use is it ifI have no place of
abode?"  "Trust in God, my son; let thy elders precede
thee; thy time will come after theirs." Henry went off to receive the money, which he had accurately weighed, and got
a strong chest to keep it in. William, by his father's directions, set out for England, and the king was left with only his
servants.
At sunrise, on the 10th of September, tne king was awaKened by the ringing of a bell. On inquiry he was told that
it was for primes at the church of St. Mary; he raised his
hands, saying, " I commend myself to my lady Mary the holy
mother of God, that by her prayers she may reconcile me to
her son, my Lord Jesus Christ," and iltimediately expired.
Instantly his physicians and other attendants mounted their
horses, and went home in haste to protect their houses and
property; the servants then pillaged the royal abode, carrying
off arms, clothes, and every thing of value, and the corpse lay
for some hours nearly naked on the floor, for the people of
* Women, when being chilrched, used So bear a lighted taper in
their hand.




12              HISTORY OF ENGLANd,
the toa n were nearly beside themselves with terror of what
might happen now that the check of the royal authority wax
removed. At length some of the clergy, having recovered
their senses, came with tapers and censers, and prayed for
the soul.of the departed. The archbishop of Rouen directed
that the corpse should be conveyed to Caen, to be in.
terred in the church of St. Stephen, which the king had
founded; but none would take the charge till a knight, named
Herluin, moved by compassion, brought it thither at his own
expense. The monks of St. Stephen's and many of the clergy
and laity came forth to receive it, but a fire just then breaking out in the town, they all ran to extinguish it, leaving the
monks alone.
On the day of the burial the Norman prelates and abbots,
and a great multitude of people, were assembled in the church;,
the mass was said, and the corpse was about to be lowered
into the grave before the altar, when a voice from the crowd
cried out, " Clerks and bishops, this ground is mine; it is the
site of my father's house; the man you are praying for took
it from me to build his church; on the part of God I forbid
the body of the despoiler to be covered with my mould."
The speaker was Asselin Fitz-Arthur, to whom William had
often denied justice; the bishops, finding his demand just,
paid him sixty shillings for the grave, and promised him the
full value of the rest of the land.  The ceremony then pro.
ceeded, but the grave proving too narrow, as they tried
to force down the body, which was in the royal robes, and
without a coffin, the belly burst, and the stench was so great
as to drive the assistants out of the church.
The Conqueror was doubtless a man of very great ability,
superior to all the princes of his time. " He was," says the
Saxon Chronicle, " a very wise man, and very rich, and more
sl5lelidid and stronger than any of his predecessors were.  He
was mild to the good men that loved God, (the clergy,) and
beyond all measure severe to the men that gainsayed his will.
So stern was he and wrathful, that one durst not do any thing
against his will. In his time had men much distress, and
very many sorrows. Castles he let men build, and miserably
swink the poor. The king was very stern, and took from his
subjects many a mark of gold, and many hundred pounds of
silver, that he took with right and with great unright from
his people for little need.  He was fallen into covetousness,
and greediness he loved withal. He made great dleer-parks,
and therewith made laws that whoso killed a hart or a hind
that man should be blinded. He forbade (to touch) the harts,




WILLIAM I.                     7
so also the boars; he loved the tall deer as if he were their
father. He also set by the hares and they must go free.  His
rich men mourned and the poor men shuddered at it; but
he was so ster, that he reeked not all their hatred, for they
must follow all the king's will if they would live or have land
or even his peace."
In this character, drawn by a contemporary and one who
lived at his court, we discern the imperious ruler, the man of
mental energy sufficient to hold in check the haughty coinpanions of his victories; and to this energy he united that
vulpine artifice for which the Normans were at. that time noted all over Europe. In his person the Conqueror was of middle stature; his countenance was stern; his strength prodi.
gious. He was religious after the fashion of the time; he heard
mass daily, he founded churches and monasteries, he treated
the clergy with respect; but he steadily refused to do homage for his kingdom to pope Gregory VII., and he asserted his
royal supremacy over the clergy of England. In domestic
life he was an affectionate husband and a sufficiently indulgent father.
The passion of this monarch for the chase was, as the
chronicler says, inordinate. Not content with the sixtyeight royal forests, besides chases and parks in various parts,
he laid waste a tract of thirty square leagues in Hampshire,
(burning villages, cottages, and churches, and expelling the
inhabitants,) to form the New Forest, as it still is called.  To
preserve the game in these forests a particular code of laws,
most iniquitous and oppressive in their provisions, were
framed, and courts instituted for carrying them into effect.
No part of the royal despotism was so galling to the subjects
of both races as these forest-laws, and they were a continued
subject of complaint.  From them are descended the modern
game-laws, and the violators of them, the deer-stealers, were
the predecessors of the modern poachers.
The great survey of the kingdom  contained in what is
called the Domesday * book was made in the latter part of
the reign of the Conqueror. From it we learn the relative
state of the landed property in his time and in that of the
Confessor, and thus see how total the transfer had been from
the hands of the English to those of the Normans.
* Two derivations were given of this name, the one from Dooms
dity, the last judgment, which it was said to resemble in its certainty
ilnd authority, the other from the Domus Dei, as the treasury in which
it was kept at Winchester was named. This last seems to be the
more probable origin.
VOL. 1.      7                           J
l...




74               HISTORY  OF ENGLAND.
A law of police which directed all fires to be put out at the
tolling of a bell called the Curfew (Couvrefeu) bell is by later
chroniclers ascribed to William, but without any countenance
from the early writers.
The Norman conquest, as we have seen, caused great individual suffering in England; but as evil, no more than good,
is never unmixed in this world, we naturally are led to inquire what were its advantages. These seem to have been, a
more efficient police; in the days of the Conqueror, according
to the chronicler, a girl laden with gold might have gone
safely all over the kingdom; security against invasions from
Denmark, which were never renewed after his reign; more
extended intercourse with the continent, and thence a greater polish of manners, more magnificence in architecture, and
greater learning in the clergy. We are, however, far from
saying that all these combined - and some are only problematic benefits - at all compensated for the miseries inflicted
by the conquest.
CHAPTER II.
WILLIAM II. (RUFUS.)
1087-1100.
WILLIAM'S first care on arriving in England was to secure
the fortresses of Dover, Hastings, and Pevensey, and to get
)ossession of the royal treasure at Winchester.  Lanfranc
who had educated and knighted him, as was then the usage,
was naturally disposed in his favor, and he crowned him at
Westminster (Sept. 26) without hesitation. Robert, who was
at Abbeville at the time of his father's death, took peaceablo
possession of his duphy, and the two brothers might have remained at unity, but for the restless bishop OAdo and some of
the leading nobles who possessed estates in both countries,
and who felt it to be their interest that they should be under
the one ruler. Deeming the easy, indolent character of the
duke more for their purpose, and perhaps regarding h1l
right to all the dominions of his father to be clear, they declared in his favor, and retired to their castles until he
should land with the army which, at the instigation of Odo, he
was levying for the invasion of England.




WILLIAM It.
William, thus deserted by the Normans, resolved to appeal
to the English.  He convened their leading men, and making them many fair promises, particularly of a relaxation of
the forest-laws, engaged them to declare in his favor; and
with an army of Englishmen he besieged and took the castles
of Rochester and Pevensey, which were held by bishop Odo
and his brother the earl of Mortaigne. He granted their lives
to his uncles, and let therm depart, but he confiscated their estates, He then detached the potent earl of Shrewsbury from
the confederacy; and as his fleet, manned by English, prevented the arrival of succors from Normandy, he speedily reduced the other barons, some of whom he pardoned, but most
he attainted, dividing their lands among those Normans who
had remained faithful to him.  As for his promises to the
English, he thought no longer on them, and the former oppression continued.
William at length (1091) felt himself strong enough to attempt the acquisition of Normandy, where the lax administration of Robert had caused much discontent. Having bribed
the barons who held the fortresses of St. Vallery and Albemarle to put them into his hands, he embarked with a large
force, and landed in Normandy. Robert, on his part, assembled troops, and matters were likely to come to extremities,
when the principal men on each side interfered, and made
them come to an accommodation. Robert agreed to give his
brother possession of Eu and of the towns of Albemarle,
Feschamp, and some others, on condition of his aiding him
in the reduction of Maine, and restoring his partisans so their
estates in England.  It was further agreed that on thu death
of either brother without issue, the survivor should succeed
to all his dominions.  According to the usage of the.time,
when the nobles were so powerful and independent, twelve of
the greatest barons on each side swore to exert themselves to
have this treaty carried into effect.
As prince Henry, to whom Robert had sold the territory of.the Cotentin for 3090 marks, was an object of suspicion and
disquiet to both brothers, they joined their forces and besieged
him in the fort of Mount St. Micliael.  Want of water. had
nearly obliged him to surrender, when Robert, hearing, of his
distress, gave him permission to supply himself, and even
sent him wine for his table. When reproached by William
for this ill-timed generosity, the good-hearted duke replied,
"What! should I-let my own brother die of thirst?  Where
shall we find another when he is gone?" The king himself,
as hle was riding one day alone to view the fortress, was fallen




76               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
on by two of Henry's men, and unhorsed. One of them was
preparing to slay him, when he cried out, " IHold! knave, I am
the king of England." The soldier dropped his sword, and
raised him with every mark of respect. The king gave him
a reward, and took him  into his service.  Henry wtvs soon
forced to capitulate, and he continued for some years to wander about, oftentimes in great distress.
While the king was in Normandy, Malcolm of Scotland
again made an incursion into England. William  hastened
home, led his troops against him, and made him renew his
homage.  Two years after (1093) Malcolm  made another
irruption into the north, but he was surprised and slain by a
party of the troops of earl Mowbray, and confusion prevailed
for some years in the royal house of Scotland. William
meanwhile kept his eye on Normandy, where he instigated
the refractory barons to rebellion.  In 1094 he went over to
their aid, having ordered a force of twenty thousand men to
be levied in England, and marched to the coast as if to
embark.  But here the king's minister exacted ten shillings
apiece from them, and dismissed them; and William employed
the money so well that he was in a fair way to become master
of the duchy when he was recalled by an irruption of the
Welsh, which was succeeded (1095) by a conspiracy of
Robert de Mowbray, Richard de Tunbridge, Roger de Lacy,
and several other barons, to dethrone him and give the crown
to his cousin Stephen count of Albemarle.  But the king's
celerity disconcerted them.  Mowbray was taken and cast
into prison, where he languished for thirty years, and the
others were punished in various ways.
It was now the season when the eloquence of Peter the
Hermit and of the supreme pontiff was rousing the warriors
of Europe to march in arms to Asia, and free the sepulchre
of Christ from the thraldom of the rude fanatic Turks,
who held the Holy City and insulted and abused the pious
pilgrims of Christendom who resorted thither to perform their
devotions.  At the call of the Holy Father, thousands and
tens of thousands placed a cross on their right shoulder, and
pledged themselves to war against the enemies of Christ.
Princes caught the infection equally with the inferior people;
devotion inspired some, the love of adventure others, and
there were some who pleased their imagination with the
prospect of rich lordships and fair domains in the fertile
regions of Asia.*  Among the princes who assumed the
* The details of these romantic expeditions will be found in a workl
kbv the vresent author, named;The Crusaders,' in 2 vols. sm 8vo




WILLIAM II.                    77
-ross, and than whom few were actuated by purer motives,
was the gallant, generous, but imprudent duke of Normandy.
Being, as usual, without money, in order to obtain the means
of appearing suitable to his rank, he agreed to transfer the
duchy during the term of his absence to the king of England,
for the sum of 10,000 marks. William raised the money by
extortion on all his subjects, the very convents being obliged
to melt down their plate to supply him.  Robert then (:1096)
set forth in gallant array with the martial pilgrims, and his
brother took possession of his duchy.
After the death of Lanfranc in the year 1089, the king, urged
bv his profligate and rapacious minister Ralph, nicknamed
Flambard, (Firebrand,) a Norman priest, held in his own
hands the revenues of Canterbury and of such other sees as
fell vacant, heedless of the remonstrances or complaints of
the clergy; but a severe fit of illness (1093) having terrified
him, he made many fair promises of amendment of life and
rule, and consented to fill up the vacant sees.  The person
selected for the primacy was Anselm, a native of Piedmont,
at that time abbot of Bec in Normandy, a man of great
learning and piety.  Anselm, it is said, fell on his knees,
wept, and implored the king not to require him to accept the
dignity; and when this availed not, he clinched his right hand
so fast that it was by main force that the pastoral staff was
placed in it.  But if Anselm  was firm in refusing his high
office, he was equally firml in maintaining its rights against
the crown.  William, on his recovery, forgot all his good resolutions, and went on in his old course of tyranny and oppression; he sold spiritual dignities as before, and still held the
revenues of the church, and among them a great part of those
of Canterbury.  This caused disputes between him and the
primate; another cause of disunion was the schism  in the
papacy, there being now two rival popes, Urban and Clement;
and Anselm, who had already acknowledged the former, resolved to have his authority recognized in England, while
William, like his father, would have no pope acknowledged
there whom he had not himself received.  Both king and
primate were resolute: the former at length summoned a
synod to Rockingham in order to have Aniselm deposed, but
the bishops declaring themselves incompetent, he gave up the
attempt, and other motives afterwards having induced him
to acknowledge Urban, the contest thus ended.  But when
(1097) the king was about to make an inroad into Wales,
and he called on the primate to furnish his proportion of.roops, as he was bound, Anselm sent them in such bad con.
L ~  ~    ~     a




ISj              HISTORY OF'ENGLAND.
dition as to be quite useless; the king threatened to prosecute
him; the primate demanded the restoration of his revenues,
and appealed to Rome, and at length, not thinking himself safe in England, he asked and obtained permission to
return to the continent; he then repaired to Rome, where
he was received with great respect by Urban, as a sufferer
in the cause of the church; the king meantime seized on all
the revenues of his see.
After enduring great hardships, and suffering a fearful dim
inution of their numbers by famine, disease, and the sword,
the Crusaders at length (1099) saw themselves in possession
of the tomb of their Lord.  The news of their success stimulated those who had remained behind, and William duke of
Guienne and earl of Poitiers assembled a large body of pilgrims to lead to the Holy Land. It would appear that he
had proposed to mortgage, like the duke of Normandy, his
dominions to the king of England, now the wealthiest monarch in Europe, for William  spoke of spending his Christ
mas (1100) in Poitiers; but his end was now at hand. As
he was at Winchester, (Aug. 2,) having had unpleasant dreams
the night before, and being told of the visions of a certain
monk, which, though he affected to despise them, made al
impression on his mind, he gave up the thoughts he had had
of hunting that day; but, having eaten and drunk heartily at
dinner, his spirits revived, and he rode out into the New
Forest; his attendants dispersed in quest of the game; in the
evening some colliers, passing through the forest, found the
king lying dead, with an arrow  stuck in his breast, and
bleeding copiously; they laid the body on their cart, and con
veyed it to Winchester.*
It is doubtfil how the king was slain: the common report
was that a French knight, Walter Tyrrel, having shot at a
stag, his arrow glanced from a tree and hit the king.  Walter, seeing the unintentional crime he had committed, gave
spurs to his horse, went to the coast, passed over to France,
and joined a body of pilgrims for the Holy Land.  But the
abbot Suger assures us that Tyrrell had often after, when he
had nothing to hope or fear from it, asserted on oath that he
had not even seen the king that day in the forest. The
fact of the king's death therefore alone is certain; the agent
and the motive are alike unknown.
* The New Forest was fatal to the family of the Conqueror; it had
already witnessd the death of his son Richard and his neghe%
William.




HENRY 1.                     79
Such then was the end of the Red King in the twelfth year
of his reign.  As he had the misfortune to be on ill ternls
with the clergy, the dispensers of fame in those times, llis
character has been transmitted to us in the most odious
colors. Making, however, all due allowances, we must still
regard him as an odious, rapacious tyrant, yet as a man very
richly endowed by nature, and capable of better things, had
he been pl iced in circumstances more favorable to virtue.
CHAPTER III.
HENRY I. (BEAUCLERC.)
1110-1135.
PRINCE HENRY was also hunting in the New Forest when
the death of his brother occurred. On learning that event
he hastened to Winchester to secure the royal treasure. William de Breteuil, who had charge of it, also hastened thither
and opposed him, alleging the right of his elder brother to the
crown and treasure; but Henry drew his sword, and threatened to slay him, and so many took the prince's part that De
Breteuil was forced to give way. Henry then proceeded without delay to London, and caused himself to be crowned, by
the bishop of that see, on the third day after his brother's
death, (Aug. 5.)
Aware that on the return of his elder brother he should
have a struggle for his usurped crown, Henry resolved to
secure, if possible, the affections of all classes of his subjects.
He promised the clergy that he would not hold the temporalities of any vacant see; he engaged to his barons to mitigate all the feudal burdens, and he concluded his charter in
these words, which applied to his English subjects particularly: " I restore to you the laws of king Edward with my
father's amendments."  He invited Anselm, who was now at
Lyons, to return and resume his dignities, and on that prelate's arrival he engaged him to act in a matter of some delicacy.  Henry, as a means of securing the affections of his
English subjects, wished to espouse Matilda, daughter of
Malcolm king of Scotland and of Margaret " the good queen,
king Edward's kinswoman, and of the right royal kin of
England."  But this lady, who was residing in the atl hey of




80                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Rumsey, over which her aunt presided, had taken the veil,
though not the vows. A council of prelates and nobles was
held at Lambeth, before which Matilda was examined by
Anselm, and she declared that her only motive for assuming
the veil had been to secure her honor from the brutal violence
of the Norman nobles, against which the religious habit alone
was a protection."  The council, aware that such had been
a common practice with the English ladies since the conquest, pronounced her fiee to marry, and Anselm joined her
forthwith in matrimony with the king, and anointed and
crowned her queen, to the great joy of the English nation,
who looked on this as a return to their ancient line of princes.
As he expected, Henry had soon to contend for his crown.
Iobert, who had acquired great fame in the east, had left
he Holy Land soon after the conquest of Jerusalem. On
his way home through Apulia, he became enamored of Sibylla, the lovely, virtuous and prudent daughter of one of the
Norman barons of that country.  He sought and obtained
her hand, and, detained by her charms and those of the
climate, he lingered so long in Italy that he did not reach
Normandyv till his brother had been a month dead.  He took
possession of his duchy without opposition, and then made
preparations for asserting his right to the English crown.
Many of the principal. Norman nobles, such as Robert de
Belesme earl of Shrewsbury, William de Warrenne earl of
Surrey, Arnulf de Montgomery, Robert de Pontefract, Ivo
de Grentmesnil, and others, sent inviting him to come over,
promising to join him with all their powers; for the same motives operated now as in the time of his contest with the late
king, and moreover justice was clearly on his side; so much
so that the very seamen of the fleet which was assembled to
oppose his landing, carried a large part of it over to him.
Robert embarked his troops and landed at Portsmouth, and
his partisans repaired to his standard.  Henry, who was supported by the primate, to whom he paid the greatest court,
and by several puissant barons, also assembled a large force,
and advanced to oppose the invader.  The two armies lay
opposite each other for some days, their leadcrs fearing the
"I do not deny,' said she, ".' that I have worn the veil; for when
I was a child my aunt.Christina put a black cloth on my head to preserve mel from outrage; and when I used to throw it off, she would
torment me both with harsh blows and indecent reproaches. Sighing
and trembling, I have worn it in her presence, but as soon as I could
get out of sight I:aiways threw it on the ground and trampled it under
my feet." Eadmer.  57.




RENRY 1.                      81
result of a conflict.  Anselm  and the leading men then mediated a peace, Robert resigning his claim  on England for
an annual pension of 3000 marks; each prince engaging to
restore and pardon the adherents of the other; and each
being to succeed to the dominions of the other in case of his
dying without issue. Robert then departed, and Henry soon
took occasion to prosecute the earl of Shrewsbury and his
other supporters under various pretences, and when (1103)
Robert ventured over to England to remonstrate against this
breach of treaty, he ran sonme hazard of losing his own liberty; he found it necessary to resign his pension, of which,
to save appearances, he made a present to the queen, who
was his god-daughter.
But nothing less than the possession of Normandy would
content the ambition of Henry.  Affecting to view in the
conduct of Robert, who had taken the outlaw  Belesine into
his service, a breach of treaty, he landed with an army in
Normandy.  Several of the prelates and barons (probably
secretly gained by him) besought hini to take the government on him. "Your brother," said they, " is not our governor; his people have no protection from his power.  He
dissipates all his wealth in follies, and often fasts till noon for
want of bread; often he cannot leave his bed for want of
clothes; when he is intoxicated, strumpets and buffoons strip
him of his garments and boast of their robbery." This may all
have been true, and Robert may also, by his remissness, have,
as was added, suffered his barons to make war on each other
and inflict great misery on the country; yet it is difficult to
believe that pity for the afflicted people was the motive which
actuated the king of England, who, when Robert declined
his modest proposal of resigning the government to him,
commenced military operations. The first campaign produced no event of importance; but in the second, (1106.)
in an engagement before the castle of Tinchebrai, (Sept. 2S,)
Robert was utterly defeated, and himself and some of his
b;onis, 400 knights and 10,000 men, were made captives
aft.er an immense slaughter of his troops.  All Normandy
then submitted to Henry.
The fate of Robert, the only Norman prince who has a
claim  on our sympathy, was a hard one.  His captivity at
first was light, but, having attempted to make his escape, his
ayes, it is said,* were put out by command of his unnatural
W* estminster, Paris, Wikes. Malmsbnry, however, who was a
contemporary, says, "T o the day of his death he was held in free cus



2  HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
brother, according to the barbarous practice of the age, and,
during a term of thirty yea.rs, he was transferred from castle
to castle, and he breathed his last ini that of Cardiff in the
eightieth year of his age. IIis lovely wife, whose prudence
might have averted his misfortunes, had died some years
before the battle of Tinchebrai; his only son William, a boy
of five years of age, was taken at Falaise.  When led before
his uncle he sobbed and cried for mercy. Henry made a
sudden effort, as if to rid himself of evil thoughts, and directed him  to be removed.  He was committed to the care
of a baron natned Helie de St. Saen, who had married
Robert's natural daughter, by whom he was carefully nurtured.
Among the captives at Tinchebrai was Edgar Atheling,
whom  some slight similarity of character had attached to
Robert's fortune. He was personally brave, but so mean
were his talents that Henry, like his father, could venture to
assume the appearance of magnanimity toward him.   He
gave him his liberty and a small pension; and the last male
of. the line of Cerdic thus vanishes from history.
Henry soon began to repent of his liberality towards his
nephew, and he sent a trusty messenger to the castle of
Helie de St. Saen to get possession of him.  Helie was
absent at the time, but his servants conveyed away the sleeping child and placed him in safety, and Helie on his return
abandoned his property and went with his helpless charge
from court to court.  When William grew up, and displayed
talents and virtues worthy'of his race, he interested various
princes in his favor. Louis le Gros king of France, the
feudal superior of Normandy, a brave and generous prince,
aware of the danger of letting the king of England become
too powerful, joined with the counts of Anjou and Flanders
in supporting the cause of William, and a petty, indecisive
war was kept up for some years.  Henry detached the count
of Anjou from the confederacy by contracting his eldest son
to the count's daughter, and the death of the count of Flanders who was slain in a skirmish near Eu, further weakenea
the cause of young William.  King Louis tried to engage
the church in his favor by taking him to a council at Rheims,
(1119,) over which pope Calixtus II. personally presided;
but the arts and the gifts of Henry easily overcame the just
tody by the laudable affection of his brother, suffering no evil but
solitude, if that can be called solitude where there was great attention
oa the part of his keepers, and no want of amusements or of dainties'




HENRY I.                     83
claims of his nephew, and shortly after a peace wfs con
eluded between him and the king of France.
But fortune soon offered another chance to young William.
King Henry, when his eldest son, also nanied William, had
attained his eighteenth year, took him over to Normandy
(1120) to have him recognized as his successor. On their
return from the port of Barfleur, the king's ship, having a fair
wind, was soon out of sight, buit that of the prince having
been detained by an accident, the sailors and their captain,
Thomas Fitz-Stephens, got drunk, and when they set sail,
they ran the ship on a rock, where she foundered.  The
prince had gotten into the boat, and was now clear of the
ship and out of danger, when he heard the cries of the countess of Perche, his natural sister.  He made the seamen put
back to save her, but, when the boat approached the ship,
such numbers crowded into it that it went down and all perished. About a hundred and forty young noblemen were
lost on this occasion; the only person who escaped was a
butcher of Rouen, who clung to the mast. Fitz-Stephens
also grasped it, but on being informed that the prince was
lost, he said lie would not survive, and let go his hold.  The
king, when assured of the calamity, fainted away and never
regained his cheerfiulness.
The death of this prince was a misfortune to England, inasmuch as it gave occasion to the civil wvars which ensued;
but had he survived he would probably have been as great a
tyiant as any of his race, for he often declared that if ever he
came to govern England he would yoke the Saxons to the
plough like oxen.  Queen Matilda had died two years
before her son, (1118.)
As the prince had left no issue, and he had no legitimate
son remaining, the king resolved to marry again.  His
choice fell on Adelais, daughter of the duke of Louvain and
niece of pope Calixtus, (1120.)  But Adelais brought him
no children, and young Willian, having again gained the
count of Anjou to his side, was able to keep Normandy in a
state of disturbance for some years.  Henry, however, again
(1127) detached the earl of Anjou by a marriage.  His only
remaining legitimate child, a daughter named Matilda or
Maud, had been married to the emperor Henry V. She was
now a widow, and he offered her hand to Geoffrey, the count's
eldest son. The marriage took place, though contrary to the
inclination of the empress, who regarded it as a degradation,
and opposed by several of the barons of England and Normandv, and Matilda was recognized as heiress of al\ his




l HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
iomirfons.  The king of France still continued his support
of William Fitz-Robert; and when Henry, by his influence
with the church, had succeeded in having that prince divorced from the daughter of the count of Anjou on the plea
of consanguinity, Louis gave him  (1124) in marriage his
queen's sister, and on the death of the earl of Flanders, who
was assassinated (1128) when at church, he invested him
with that county.  But William, doomed to be the sport of
fortune, did not long enjoy his dignity.  In consequence of
his having taken severe vengeance on the murderers of his
predecessor, a plot was laid by their friends and relatives
to assassinate him when retiring from the apartment of his
mistress late in the night. This lady, who was privy to the
design, could not refrain from letting tears drop on his head
while bathing it according to the fashion of those times.
William's suspicions were awakened; he pressed her, and
she told him the whole truth.  He thus escaped this danger,
but he shortly afterwards died of a wound received in battle
at Alost against the count of Alsatia.
Henry was now free from uneasiness; his daughter the empress was delivered of a son and heir, (1132,) and two more
sons born to her seemed to render the succession secure.
He made the nobility renew their oath of fealty to her and
her eldest son in a council held at Oxford.  He spent the
latter years of his reign chiefly in Normandy, to be near his
daughter, for whom he had a strong affection.  An incursion
of the Welsh having taken place, (1135,) he was preparing to
return to England, when having eaten too heartily of lampreys,
a food he was often cautioned against, he got a surfeit, and
died (Dec. 1) in the sixty-seventh year of his age; his body
was brought over to England and interred at Reading.
Henry I. was a monarch of superior ability; the Conqueror
alone of his family equalled him in talent.  lie showed great
spirit in his dealings with the church; he caused justice to be
rigidly executed.  "A good man was he, and mickle dread
was there of him," says the Saxon Chronicle. " Peace made
tie for man and beast, whoso bare his burthen of gold and
silver no man durst say to him aught but good."  But he set
at nought his charters and his promises, and he taxed his
people without mercy; he increased the rigor of the forest
laws, and enlarged the forests; he punished him who killed:  stag as him who murdered a man; he made all the dogs
near the forests be mutilated; men were even in some cases
prohibited from hunting on their own lands, a great grievance
in those days  Henry was more addicted to literature than
l —--------- ----— U~-~  ~ IT   ~ --- -~-~- ~ L  ---— ~ ~- l
l'                   -— ~ —------------------------  2-i E




STEPHEN.                      8 5
was usual among princes and nobles at that time, whence he
obtained the appellation of Beauclerc, or Fine-scholar. His
treatment of his brother and nephew violated all the principles
of nature and justice-; but when there is uncontrolled power,
and a kingdom is the prize, these principles have been set at
nought in all ages of the world.
CHAPTER IV.
STEPHEN.; 1135-1154.
IN a regularly ordered state the succession of Matilda would
have followed as a matter of course, as no one else had even
the shadow of a claim to the crown; but Henry himself had,
by his usurpation, shown how a crown might be acquired
without right, and there was one, whom, perhaps, he little
suspected, ready to tread in his footsteps.
Adela, daughter of the Conqueror, had been married to the
count of Blois, to whom she bare a numerous offspring; two
of her sons had been invited over-to England by king Henry,
and he made one of them, Henry, who was in holy orders,
abbot of Glastonbury, and afterwards bishop of Winchester;
for Stephen, the other, he obtained in marriage the (laughter
and heiress of the count of Boulogne, who had also large es.
tates in England; he moreover conferred on him extensive
domains in both England and Normandy. Stephen always
affected great gratitude towards his uncle, and he had been
forward in taking the oath of fealty to the empress iii 1131.*
By his valor, liberality, and affable manners he had gained
great favor with both barons and people in England, and the
citizens of London were especially devoted to him.
On the; death of his uncle, Stephen resolved to make a bold
effort for the crown; he passed over to England, and hastened
to London, where he was received with acclamations by the
* On that occasion the king of Scots first took the oath of fealty in
virtue.of his rank; Stephen and Robert of Gloucester, the king's
natural son, contended for the second place. It may be, as Dr. Lingard siys, that they had both designs on the throne, but the subsequent
conduct of Robert contradicts this supposition
VOL. I.      8
I  ________________________________




E86             HISrORY OF ENGLAND.
populace. His brother and the bishop of Salisbury end( av.
ored to prevail on the primate to crown him; and to overcome that prelate's scruples they produced Hugh Bigod, a
servant of the late king, who made oath that when on his
death-bed he had declared his intention of making the count
lof Boulogne his heir.  The primate was, or affected to be,
convinced, and he performed the ceremony of the coronation
at Westminster, (Dec. 022.)
Stephen, imitating his predecessor, issued a charter exactly
similar to his, with probably as little intention of observing it;
he further, still following his uncle's example, lost no time in
getting possession of the royal treasure of 100,0001. which
lay at Winchester, and with this money he took into his pay
a large body of mercenary soldiers from the continent, and
procured a recognition of his title at Rome.
The Norman barons, moved by hereditary animosity to the
Angevins, and also by the motives which had always made
them desire the union of-their duchlly with England, readily
submitted to Stephen; and the king of France, Louis the
Young, received the homage of his son Eustace for that province, and gave him his sister in marriage. Geoffrey of Anjou
was obliged to make a truce for two years with Stephen, on
condition of being paid 5000 marks a year during that period.
Robert earl of Gloucester, the natural brother of the empress, to whom he was much attached, was the person whom
Stephen had most to dread. This nobleman would do him
homage only on conditions which would give him a pretext
for revolt whenever he pleased, and the king was obliged to
consent. The clergy made similar reservations in their oaths;
the barons extorted the right of fortifying their castles, and
soon fortresses rose on all sides, filled with a brutal and
ferocious soldiery.  A contest for the crown soon commenced
between Stephen and Matilda, and the miseries which ensued
are thus vividly described by one who witnessed them.
"In this king's time," says the contemporary Saxon Chron.
icle, "was all dissension, and evil, and rapine' for against
him soon arose the rich (i. e. great) men that were traitors;
when they found that he was a mild man, and soft and good,
and did no justice, (execution,) then did they do all wonders.
They had done him homage and sworn oaths, but they held
no truth; they were all forsworn and heeded not their troth;
for every rich man blilt his castles, and they held them against
him, and they filled the land fulQl of castles. They sorely
oppressed the wretched men of the land with castle-works,
and when the castles were made they filled them- with devils
I_.      _ __ _                        -                            ____I




STEPHEN.                    87
and evil men; then took they the men that they weened had
any goods, both: by night and by day, peasant men and women,
and put them in prison for their gold and silver, and tortured
them with tortures not to be told, for never were any martyrs
so tortured as they were; some they hung up by the feet and
smoked them with foul smoke; some they hung by the thumbs
or by the head, and hung coats of mail at their feet; to some
they put knotted strings round their head and twisted them
till it went to the brains.; they put them into dungeons where
there were adders, and snakes, and toads, and killed them so;
some they put in the crucet-house, that is, in a chest that was
short and narrow and not deep, and put sharp stones in it, and
forced the man in, and so broke all his limbs. In many of
the castles were things loathly and grim that were called
Sachenteges, of which two or three men had enough to do to
carry one that was so made, that is fastened to a beam, and
they put a sharp iron about the man's throat and neck that he
might on no side sit or lie, or sleep, but bear all that iron.
Many thousands did they kill with hunger. I cannot and
may not tell all the wounds and all the pains that they gave to
wretched men in this land, and that lasted for the nineteen
winters that Stephen was king, and still it was worse and
worse.  They laid guilds (taxes) evermore on the towns, and
called it tensezie; when the wretched men had no more to
give they robbed and burned all the towns, that well thou
mightest go a whole day's journey and shouldest never find
a man sitting (dwelling) in a town or land tilled. Then was
corn dear, and flesh, and cheese, and butter, for there was
none in the land. Wretched men died of hunger; some took
to alms who were one time rich men; some fled out of the
land; never yet was more ivretchedness in the land, and never
did heathen men worse thap they did; for after a time they
spared neither church nor church-yard, but. took all the goods
that were therein, and then burned church and all together;
neither did they spare bishop's land, nor abbot's, nor priest's,
but robbed monks and clerks, and every man who wal able
another; if two or three men came riding to a town all the
township fled before them, weening that they were robbers.
The bishops and learned men cursed them evermore, but
nought thereof came on them, for they were all accursed,
and forsworn, and abandoned. It was the sea men tilled; the
earth bare no corn, for the land was all destroyed with such
deeds, and they said openly that Christ slept and his saints.
Such and more than we can say we tholed nineteen winters
for our sins."




88               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
After this faithful picture, drawn by the hand of one who
described what he beheld, of the horrors of feudalism, and
the misery caused by the usurpation of Stephen, it seems
hardly necessary to go into details; we will, however, narrate
succinctly the principal events of the contest for the crown
In the first year of Stephen's reign the earl of Exeter took
arms against him, and David king of Scotland: invaded England in the cause of his niece the empress; but the earl was
forced to submit, and the Scottish king agreed to an accommodation. David again invaded England, (1138;) the-ravages
committed by his wild, ferocious followers are described as
exceeding the usual limits of atrocity, and the earl of Albemarle and the other barons of these parts lost no time in collecting their troops to oppose them. The armies encountered
at North-Allerton, (Aug. 22,) and in the battle called that of
the-Standard, from a large crucifix on a wain used by the
English as a standard, the Scots were totally defeated.
Earl Robert, having matured his plans in favor of his sister, pretended that Stephen had violated the conditions made
with him, renounced his allegiance, and withdrew to the continent,'(1139.) As Stephen had now embroiled himself also
with the church, by forcing the bishops of Salisbury and Lincoin to deliver up the castles they had erected, Robert advised
the empress to appear in England to head her party.  She
landed (Sept. 22) with him and one hundred and forty knights
in Sussex, was received by the queen dowager Adelais in her
castle of Arundel, and thence proceeded to her brother's castle of Bristol; Geoffrey Talbot, William Mohmmn, Ralph Lovel,
and several other barons declared for her, and her cause gradually gained ground; battles and skirmishes occurred in
various parts all through the following year; at length (Feb. 2.
1141) Stephen and the earl of Gloucester came to an engagement near Lincoln, and the king was defeated and led a captive to Gloucester, where he was treated with great rigor.
The barons of Stephen's party all submitted; the bishop of
Winchester, who was invested with legantine authority, and
had been on ill terms with his brother on account of the affair
of the two bishops, was now induced to come to an agreement
with Matilda; to gain the clergy more effectually she consented to receive the crown from their hands, and in a synod
summoned by the legate, at which the Londoners were the
only laymen present, she was proclaimed queen of England.  Her authority was generally acknowledged, but tranquillity did not long remain; besides the disadvantage of her
sex, she was of a haughty, imperious temper; she rejected in




STEPHEN.                     89
the most ungracious manner the petition of Stephen's queen
and several of the nobility for his release, though they en
gaged that he should renounce the crown; that of the legate,
that his nephew Eustace might be allowed to retain his pat.
rimonial estates; and that of the Londoners, for the laws of
king Edward.
The Londoners were greatly offended, and the legate, who
had probably never been sincere in the cause' of Matilda,
fanniing their wrath, they conspired to seize her; she fled
to Oxford, and thence to Winchester, where she was besieged by the Londoners, Stephen's mercenaries, and the
legate's vassals; being hard pressed she was obliged toattempt an escape, which she effected with difficulty, but her
brother Robert was taken prisoner, and he was of so' much
importance to the cause that her party were glad to give
Stephen in exchange for him. The war was now renewed,
and was carried on for some years with various success; at:
length in the severe winter of 1142 the empress was closely
besieged by Stephen in the castle of Oxford. When her
stock of provisions was exhausted, she dressed herself and
three knights in white, as the ground was covered with snow;
a sentinel who had been bribed conducted them through
the enemy's post; they crossed the Thames on the ice, proceeded to Abingdon on foot, and thence, having procured
horses, rode to Wallingford.  This escape was a matter of
astonishment to her enemies, while her friends viewed it as
little less than miraculous.
At length (1146) the death of her brother Robert and of
some of her other friends convinced the empress of the uncertainty of the event, and she withdrew to Normandy (1147)
to watch the progress of affairs; her departure, however,
brought little tranquillity to Stephen.
Stephen soon alienated many of his partisans by requiring
the surrender of their castles; the legantine power also had
been transferred by the new pope Eugenius to the primate
Theobald, the enemy of the late legate; and moreover the
pope, as Stephen resisted one of his encroachments, had laid
his party under an interdict.
There was, however, a cessation of hostilities for two
years after the departure of the empress. In 1149 her son
Henry, who had now reached his sixteenth year, being
desirous of receiving knighthood from the king of Scotland, passed through:England with a large- retinue, ankd
raised the hopes of his partisans. On his return, (1150,
after having spent some time in the Scottish court,: his
8"                           I.




90              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
mother resigned Normandy to him, and on the death of his
father he inherited Anjou. The following year (1151) he
greatly increased his power by a marriage with Eleanor of
Guienne and Poitou. This princess had been married to
the French king Louis the Young; she was the companion
of his crusade to the Holy Land, (114S,) and her conduct
in the East had been so reprehensible that Louis, on his
return, yielding to the suggestions of delicacy rather than
of prudence, had divorced her. The young count of Anjou,
less fastidious, immediately paid his addresses to her, and
espoused her within six weeks after the divorce; and his
dominions now extended from the confines of Flanders to
the Pyrenees, while his superior lord Louis did not rale over
more than a tenth of France. Louis, incensed at this conduct of the count of Anjou, aided Stephen's son Eustace to
overrun Normandy; but Henry speedily drove them out of
it, and then, as Stephen was now besieging Wallingford.
which was held by his partisans, he passed over to their aid.
To draw Stephen away he laid siege to Malmsbury, and
having taken that town marched to the relief of Wallingford.
The two armies lay in sight of each other, divided by the
river Thames. Meantime the prelates and nobles on each
side, weary of civil discord, proposed an accommodation,
the earl of AruIdel boldly saying " that it was not reasonable
to prolong the calamities of' a whole kingdom on account of
the ambition of two princes; " and Henry and Stephen, having
conversed across a narrow part of the river, agreed to a truce
for that purpose. Stephen's son Eustace, a turbulent youth,
abused his father openly for concluding this truce, and, withdrawing fiom the camp with his followers, began to ravage
Camnbridgeshire: he fixed his abode at the stately abbey of
St. Edmund's Bury, but he took a fever as he sat at a banquet there, and died. This obstacle being removed, a council was held at Winchester, (Nov. 1153,) in which it was
agreed that Stephen should retain the crown of England for
his life, on condition of his adopting Henry, who was to be
his successor; that Stephen's son William should inherit all
his father had possessed before he usurped the crown; that
the adherents on both sides should sustain no injury; that
all grants of the crown lands made by Stephen should be revoked, and all castles built by his permission be demolished.
These terms being sworn to, Henry returned to Normandy.
Stephen did not long retain his dignity; he died the following year, (Oct. 25,) after a boisterous and unquiet reign of
nineteen years. Hie was a prince possessed of many noble




F EUDAL- SYSTEM.                 91
and estimable qualities, and would have probably made an
excellent king- if he had acquired his crown in a legal, manner.
Having thus brought the Anglo-Norman period. of our
history to its close, we will make a few remarks on the condition of the. nation at this time.
An erroneous opinion, has long prevailed that the Norman
conquest swept, like a moral deluge, over the country, carrying away its ancient and venerable institutions, and leaving
in their place such as had been hitherto unknown in England.
We are told that the Conqueror had even formed a plan
for fixing on: the English nation the ultimate badge of conquest by abolishing their native dialect, and forcing themn to
assumne that of their masters, for which purpose he ordered
that the French language should be taught in all the schools,
be employed in pleadings in the high court of justice, (Curia
Regis,) and be used in laws and charters.  The whole of
this theory, however, rests only on. authority of the most
dubious character; " the Conqueror and his son Henry' I. reenacted, as we have seen, the laws of the Confessor; the
English language (never the French) was employed by them
in their charters, and though the latter was probably much
used in the Curia Regis, the members of which were mostly
Normans, it was a matter of convenience rather than obligation. Finally, the county and other courts continued in use
little altered.
The great changes introduced by the Norman conquest
were, the almost total transfer of landed property; the change
of the hierarchy. in the church; the development of the feuda
system; the separation- of the ecclesiastical from the civi,'jurisdiction. Of these the first two have been. already sufficiently noticed; we will therefore proceed to explain the two
last.
The more inquiry into the Middle Ages advances, the
more we recognize the influence of Rome, and the inmitative,habits of the:tribes which overturned her empire... It was
long the fashion to regard the feudal system as. an original,
regular plean formed by the Barbarians for the preservation of
thbconquests tlhey had made.; more accurate inquiries make
it probable, that the system; in, its main points lay lready. to
heir hands.
* Namnelyt that. of.Ingulf.  SeePalgrave.




92                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The colonists of ancient Rome were bound to military
service when called on by the state, and in the latter days
of, the republic they were soldiers alone who thus were
rewarded by their victorious general. The emperor Alexander Severus extended this system as the means of defending
the frontiers of the empire.  Lands were given to those who
were named the Limitanean and Ripuarian soldiery, - from
their location on the marches (limites) and the banks (ripas:
of the great frontier rivers, - and their heirs, without a power
of alienation, on the express condition of military service.
At a subsequent period lands, denominated Latic,* were
given, in the interior of the provinces, to large bodies of the
Barbarians onl similar conditions. We thus find the system
of the tenure of land by military service completely formed;
and the other great characteristic of the feudal system, the
personal relation of Lord and Vassal, may, perhaps, be as
safely deduced from that of Patron and Client at Rome (its
similarity to which has often been observed) as from the
antecedent usages of the Celtic or German tribes.
All the elements of feudalism prevailed among the AngloSaxofis, but the peculiar circumstances in which the Normans were placed, caused it to attain a more perfect form,
and the ingenuity of Norman lawyers drew such consequences from it as made it a system of absolute slavery.
In the feudal system of England the king was regarded as
the original proprietor of all the lands in the kingdom; those
who held them were his vassals, and were obliged to swear
fealty, that is, fidelity, to him, and do him homage, or become
his men. The vassal who thus held by military service was
bound to serve his lord in war, and to attend or do suit to
his court in peace, in order to answer for any offences he
might have himself committed, and to assist in the trial of
others. In war the vassal was required to attend his lord
in arms for a space of forty days at his own expense.
The lands of England were divided by the Conquetor into
about 69,000 feuds, fiefs, or knights' fees: he who held an
entire fee- was bound to serve -for forty days; he who had
half a one for twenty, and so on; the lord Who held several
fees furnished men in proportion. A vassal of the crown,
or tenant in capite, or in chief, as he;was called, might subenfeudate his lands, and have vassals boutid to himself as he
was- to'his:superior lord; but. these:wete? also regarded aw
vassals of the crown, and bound by allegiance.
"O"Fro m he-'Geiffiihik   Ltold-: lei6  dP e.i




ENCROACHMENTS'OF THE PAPACY.              93
The incidents of the Analo-Norman feudalism  vere as'ollows:
Aids -- These were sums of money paid to ransom the lord
if made a prisoner; to supply the means of making his eldest
son a knight, a ceremony attended with no little expense;
to portion his eldest daughter.
Reliefs.- The relief was a composition paid by the heir
for permission to enter on the fief which had lapsed to the
superior lord by the death of the last possessor.
Primer Seisin. - This was an increased relief paid to the
king by the heir of a tenant in chief, if of full age; it usually
consisted of a year's profit of the lands.
Wardship. - If, at the death of a tenant, his heir was under
the age of twenty-one, or his heiress under that of fourteen,
the lord became guardian in chivalry, and he had the custody
of the person and lands (without being accountable for the
profits) till the former attained the age of twenty-one, the
latter of sixteen years.  The heir in capite, on coming of
age, was bound to take knighthood or pay a fine to the king.
I  larriag,e. - During the minority the lord had the power
of disposing of his ward in matrimony, provided the match
was not one of disparagement; and if he or she refused it,
they forfeited the value of the marriage, that is, the sum that
any one would have given for it to the guardian. If the male
ward married without the consent of his guardian he forfeited double the value of the marriage.
If a tenant in chief transferred his land, a, fine for alienation was due to the king.  If he died without heirs of his
blood, or was attainted for treason or felony, the land reverted to the lord.
Such were the main features of feudalism in England, and
when we consider the wardships and marriages, (both peculiar to English  feudalism,) and the arbitrary nature of
reliefs and aids, we may fairly look upon it as a system of
slavery and oppression.
We are now to consider the condition of the church at
this time, for which purpose we must sketch the vast project
of sacerdotal dominion formed by the aspiring mind of
pope Gregory VII.
In consequence chiefly of the imbecile superstition of the
kings of France, the episcopal order had made great advances
toward the acquisition of a power similar to that of the
ancient Druids. From the earliest times, inconsequence of
the rank of the city over which he presided, a kind of supremacy had been generally conceded to the bishop of
________________________  ______  _____  ___..._._____....  _ _......-..




94               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Rome, and this notion of his superiority gradually extended
through the discontent of prelates, who appealed to him
against their metropolitans, and he thus was imperceptibly
drawing to himself the power acquired by the episcopal or ler.
In the latter part of the eighth century a work, purporting
to be a collection of decrees of bormer pontiffs, appeared
under the name of one Isidore.  This forgery (as it has been
long known to be) was calculated to extend the papal authority
and diminish that of the metropolitans, by enjoining appeals
to Rome and forbidding to hold national councils without
the permission of the pontiff. The bishops gladly acquiesced
in them, and the papal power rapidly advanced; its strength
was also increased by the more rigorous imposition of celibacy on the clergy, and by the spreading of the rule of St.
Benedict - points on which we have already touched.
Such was the state of the papacy when the celebrated
Hildebrand became its animating spirit. His daring mind
conceived the project not merely of freeing the church
from  all subordination to the temporal power, but of making it supreme over it. The subject of investitures, or
the conferring of spiritual dignities by lay princes, was that
with which he opened the contest when, under the name of
Gregory VII., he ascended the papal throne. From the
earliest times bishops had been elected by the clergy and
people; the form still continued, but princes easily managed
to have the real appointment; and in England we have seen
the direct nomination by the crown. Gross simony of course
prevailed, for what was valuable would be naturally the
subject of bargain and sale, and the temporalities attached
to the spiritual dignities were in most places considerable.
These temporalities, mostly the grants of former kings, were
regarded in the light of fiefs. The new bishop therefore
was required to swear fealty, and to do homage to the lord
who invested him by the delivery of a ring and crosier.
Gregory issued a decree against this practice; and thus
commenced a contest with the emperor Henry IV., which
lasted throughout their lives, and was kept up by their
successors for nearly half a century.  it was terminated by
a compromise with the emperor Henry V., the monarch
recognizing the freedom of elections, and resigning the
right of conferring the spiritual dignity, (by the hing and
crosier,) but retaining that of delivering the temporalities
by the sceptre. A similar arrangement was made with
Henry J. of England, who had vigorously contested this
point with the papacy and its uncompromising advlocate




ENCROACHMENTS OF TI E PAPACY.              b5
archbishop Anselm.  Each party thus gave up something,
the real gain seems to have been on the side of the crown.'
In the disputes on this subject we discern the influence
of the doctrine of transubstantiation, which, ignorant and
superstitious as the preceding ages had been, was not yet
establibhed by the pontifical authority.  At the council of
Bari (1096) it was declared to be abominable that pure hands
which could create God, and offer him tip in sacrifice for
the sins of the world, should (in the act of homage) be
placed between hands polluted with rapine, and bloodshed,
and defiled by contact with the other sex.  The abomination, however, was suffered to remain.
To extend the papal power over the prelacy, it was decreed that no bishop should exercise his function till he had
been confirmed by the Holy See. Bishops were cited to
Rome on the most frivolous pretexts; archbishops were
obliged by Gregory to go thither in person to receive their
consecrated pallium.  A further hardship was the constant
sending of special ministers, legates d latere.  Hitherto a
metropolitan of the country (in England the archbishop
of Canterbury) had- held a perpetual legantine authority
as the pope's lieutenant or representative; but now specia.
legates were continually coming, who assumed high authority, held couincils, deposed bishops, framed canons, and, at
the samne time, lived in great splendor at the expense of the
prelates, whose pride was galled by the circumstance of the
legate often being but a simple deacon.
To maintain their power the popes had two most efficacious weapons, excommunication and interdict.  The first
had been originally nothing more than the power which
every society has of expelling its own unruly members; but
the church had gradually managed to invest it with terrors,
and use it as a weapon of offence and vengeance.  Th'- excommunicate were cursed, with a fiendish minuteness of
detail, in soul and body, limbs and joints, in their goings-out
and comings-in, in all times and all places;t they were cut
off from  society like the leprous; any communication with
them became morally infectious; when they died the rites
* This contest affords a proof that the popes and clergy were often
actuated by a sense of justice and duty in the apparently most dubious
cases. Paschal II. actually signed an agreement with Henry V. by
wE ich the prelates were to resign all the lands, &c., they held in fief
of the emperor, provided he gave up the right of investiture.
See Southey, Book of the Church, i. 190, 191. The entire form
may be seen in Sterne's Tristram Shandy.




0Lj6             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of sepulture were denied them. This sentence, however
only affected those who brought it on themselves by opposition to the church: interdict fell often on the innocent.
When a prince or noble had offended the church, and the
milder sentence did not prove efficacious, his dominions were
laid under interdict, that is, religious offices were interdicted
in them. No service was perforined in the churches; no
bells were tolled; no sacraments administered, save the first
and the last, baptism and extreme unction; the dead lay unburied; a moral gloom overspread the land. It was Gregory that first employed these spiritual weapons with advanage. In the plenitude of his power he dared to excommunicate the emperor Henry, and even to issue against him H
sentence of deposition from the throne, releasing thereby
his subjects from their allegiance.
In England the usurpations of the church were greatly
forwarded by the separation, in the time of the Conqueror, of
the ecclesiastical from the civil jurisdiction.  The clergy
claimed now a total exemption from trial before lay-tribunals, however great their crimes might be; and as the
church inflicted no higher penalty than stripes, sacerdotal
murderers and robbers (of whom the number was not trifling) thus escaped the punishment justly due to their crimes.
The struggle between the crown and church on this head is
soon to occupy our attention.
As we have observed, the local courts continued in the
Anglo-Norman period; but paramount to them was the
King's Court, (COlria Regis,) which was held wherever the
king was residing.  It was composed of the justiciary,*
chancellor, treasurer, and the other great officers, with any
others whom the king might appoint; it served to collect
and manage the revenue, to despatch public business, and to
decide private suits.  No suit could be brought before it
without paying a fine to the king, and unfortunately the justice of the Anglo-Norman monarchs was scandalously venal.
The revenues of the crown in this period were chiefly derived from  the immense royal demesnes which were let out
to farm, and from the feudal aids, reliefs, etc.  To these are
to be added the customs on the import and export of merchandise, and the tallages, (cuttings,) that is, taxes arbitrarily imposed on the royal towns and demesnes; the inferior
* This was the highest office in the kingdom. The justiciary pre
sided in the king's -:ourt, and he was by his office regent in the absence
of the king.




ENCROACHMENTS OF THE PAPACY.             97
ords had also the right of imposing tallages on their own
towns and demesnes.  Escuage or scutage, that is, commutation for personal service in war by paying a certain sum
on each knight's fee, commenced in the rein  r- Henry 1.,
out it was not often resorted to in this period.
V9L. [.    -9..




T H
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET,
CHAPTER  1.
HENRY II. (PLANTAGENET.)
1154-1189.
O' the neath of Stephen, (1154,) the English nation,
weary of civil contention, cheerfully acquiesced in the accession of Henry Plantagenet   The new monarch, now
only in his twenty-first year, exceeded all the princes of his
time in extent of dominion. In right of his mother, he ruled
England, Normandy, and Maine; from his father he inherit.
ed Anjou and Touraine, while his union with Eleanor gave
him the provinces thence to the Pyrenees, with Perigord,
Limousin, and Auvergne. He thus possessed a third of
France; a vassal far more powerful than the monarch to
whom he owed his homage.
After a delay of six weeks, chiefly caused by inclement
weather, Henry landed in England, (Dec. 3,) and shortly
after, (Dec. 19,) he and his queen were crowned at Winchester with unwonted magnificence. His first care, after
the festivities were over, was to reform the abuses which
had arisen during the civil contests of the late reign. He
obliged all Stephen's mercenaries to quit the kingdom, and
with them their leader William of Ypres, whom that king
had made earl of Kent; he revoked all the grants made on
either side during the late reign; he reformed the coin,
which had been adulterated; he forced all those who had
obtained possession of the royal castles to resign them, and




HENRY 11.                    99
he insisted on the demolition of those which had been
erected by individual nobles.
Having settled the affairs of England, Henry returned
to France (1156) to oppose his brother Geoffrey, who had
set up a claim to Anjou and Maine, and had invaded these
provinces.  He forced him to resign his pretensions, and
the appanage left him  by his father, for an annual pension
of 10001.  The people of Nantes, in Brittany, who had
just expelled their count Hoel, invited Geoffrey to be their
ruler: he gave, of course, a ready consent, but he enjoyed
his dignity only for two years: on his death (1158) the
king of England claimed Nantes as his heir, and moreover
as feudal superior of Brittany. Conan, the duke of that
country, had already entered on it; but Henry having gained
king Louis to his side by a contract of marriage between
his eldest son Henry, now  five years of age, and the
daughter of that monarch, who was yet in her cradle, soon
ended the pretensions of the Breton prince; and Conan
moreover, to secure Henry's aid against his unruly subjects,
affianced his daughter and only child, an infant, to Henry's
third son, Geoffrey, also an infant. On the death of Conan,
(1165,) Henry, as guardian to his son and daughter-in-law,
took possession of Brittany.
As soon as he had made good his claim to Nantes, the
ambitious king of England cast his eyes on one of the
largest and wealthiest provinces of France. Queen Eleanor's
grandfather had.married the only daughter of William
count of Toulouse, but William  had mortgaged or sold his
dominions.to his brother Raymond, who on his death
quietly entered on them, and they continued in his family,
though the duke of Guienne had asserted a claim  in 1098,
and Louis in right of Eleanor in 1145. These last pretensions were now advanced  by Henry, and forming an alliance with Berenger count of Barcelona, and Trincaval
lord of Nismes, he prepared to assert them.  Raymond of
Toulouse, on the other hand, called on his superior lord
king Louis, to whose sister Constance he was married, and
Louis, now fully aware of the dangerous ambition of the
king of England, prepared to oppose the very claim he had
himself advanced some years before. Henry, sensible of the
unwieldy nature of a feudal militia, followed the example
of his grandfather, and in lieu of service imposed a tax of
31. on every knight's fee in England,:and forty Angevin
shillings on those of Normandy, and with the produce of




.00             HISTORY OF ENGLAN).
this scutagt, as it was named, which amounted to 180,000L
he took large bodies of mercenaries into pay.'uihe war, however was productive of no event of much
importance.  Henry was unable to make his claim  good,
and the pope finally mediated a peace between him and the
king of France.
During the anarchy of the late reign the church nad gone
on emancipating itself from secular control. Holy orders
were conferred by the bishops without discrimination; and
as all who had received the tonsure were members of the
sacerdotal body, and "the bishops," the historian says,
" were more vigilant to defend the liberties and dignity of
their order than to correct its faults, and thought they did
clergy from public punishment," rapines, thefts, and homicides were frequently  committed by these "tonsured demores," as they are styled by Becket's biographer.  The
king was assured that not less than one hundred homicides
had been committed with impunity by the clergy since his
accession. To this Henry was resolved to put a stop, and,
knowing the importance of having the primacy filled by a
person from whom he would not have opposition to apprehend, on the death of archbishop Theobald (1161) he resolved to bestow the vacant dignity on his favorite and
chancellor Thomas a Becket.
This extraordinary man was the. son of a respectable citizen of London named Gilbert a Becket. According to a
romantic tradition his mother was the daughter of a Saracen
emir. Gilbert, it is said, being'on'a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, had become a captive to the emir, by whom he: was
treated kindly and admitted to his society., The: emir"s
daughter saw and loved him; she made occasiotis of conversing with him, in which she learned his name- and that
he was from London in England.  She told him her love,'
and her desire to become a Christian.; An opportunity for
escape, however, having presented itself,'Gilbert, heedless
of the fair Saracen, embraced it arind returned to England.
She resolved to pursue him, and, quitting her father's abode'
in disguise, she proceeded to the coast.  She knew but two
English words, London and Gilbert; by pronouncing the
first she found a ship bound' for England, and when she
landed she reached by means of it the capital. There she
We nt about the -streets crying- out- Gilbert.  HIer strange
manner and garb drew a crowd after her, and as she hap




HENRY II.                     101
pened to. go through the street in wh Ich Gilbert dwelt, the
noise attracted the attention of his servant Richard, and he
went out to see the cause of it.  Richard, who had shared
his master's captivity in the East, at once recognized the fair
Saracen.  He told his master;- they brought her in, and then
placed her in a nunnery till Gilbert had consulted the prelates who were sitting at St. Paul's.  It was their opinion
that he should marry her, as she was desirous of becoming a
Christian: she was accordingly baptized by the name of
Matilda, and made the wife of her beloved Gilbert.*
The fruit of the union of Gilbert and Matilda was a son'
named Thomas.  As the child showed talent he was carefully educated at the schools of Merton, London, and finally
Paris.  When he grew up he was admitted into the famiij
of the primate Theobald; he felt his inferiority to those
whom he met there in learning, but the grace of his manners
and his natural talents made up for the deficiency; though
twice, by the arts of his rivals, expelled from the palace, he
contrived to reinstate himself in the favor of the primate, by
whom  he was even employed on a negotiation at Rome,
which he executed with such ability as to be rewarded with
some preferments in the church.  With his patron's permission he then went and attended lectures on the canon and
civil law, first at Bologna and afterwards at Auxerre.  On
his return the provostship of Beverley, and soon after the
wealthy archdeaconry of Canterbury, were bestowed on him
by the primate, and when Henry II. came to the throne,
Becket, then thirty-seven years of age, was by Theobald's
influence raised to the high office of chancellor.  He speedily
won the favor of the young monarch; the education of prince
Henry was confided to him; he was made warden of the
Tower, and had the custody of the castle of Berkhamstead
and the honor of Eye, with the services of one hundred and
forty knights.
Becket was of a vain, ostentatious temper; his soul was
superior to the love of money, and he spent his large revenues with princely magnificence.  IIe kept a splendid table,
which the king often honored with his presence, and at
which numerous noble giuests sat each day.  Numbers of
knights entered his service, reserving their fealty to the king,.and many barons sent their sons to serve him, as to the best
* This tale rests on the single authority of Bromton, that collector
and embellisher of romantic legends. It may be true, but Becket'
biographers seem to have known nothing of it.




i 10 2            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
school of chivalry.  Becket hunted, hawked, and played at
chess.  His clothing was of the richest quality; his retinue
was numerous and splendid.  Though his style of living was
thus unbecoming an ecclesiastic, still no charge has been
made against his morals in private life.
Becket was sent to Paris (1158) to settle some disputes
ir       between Henry and the French king, and to negotiate a
marriage between their children.  Nothing could exceed
the pomp in which he travelled; the people as he passed
cried, " What must the king of England be when his chancellor travels in such state!"  In the war of Toulouse
Becket appeared at the head of seven hundred knights paid
by himself.  He was foremost in every enterprise, and, when
Louis threw himself into Toulouse, Becket was the man to
urge an immediate assault, and to make light of Henry's
scruples about attacking his superior lord.  When the king
retired he left the chancellor in command, and the warlike
churchman reduced three castles, and, in single combat,
Ir l       gallantly unhorsed a French knight.
Sulch was the man whom  Henry had fixed on for the
primacy, never doubting but that the primate would be as
compliant to his will as the chancellor had been.  He had
been hitherto so little of a churchman that, when the king's
intentions were made known, the empress, his mother, reimonstrated, the people exclaimed, and the clergy expressed
their grief and dismay at such an appointment.O   Becket
himself is said, when the king mentioned to him  his intention, to have regarded his gay apparel with a smile, and,
saying that he did not look very like an archbishop, to have
told him plainly that this appointment would probably cause
him to lose his favor.  He is also said to have expressed the
saine apprehension to his friends in private.  Still he did
not, like Anselm, steadfastly decline the high office, and, as
his smile might have appeared to belie the words that succeeded it, the king persisted, and, after the primacy had lain
vacant for thirteen months, Becket passed over to England
with the royal mandate, and, having been previously ordained
a priest, was consecrated at CanterbL,ry by Henry bishop of
* So the clergy of England assert in their letter to Becket. His
reply is not satisfactory. If the empress, says he, dissuaded, it never
aame to the public ear; he heard the acclamation, not the exclamation
of the people; only those of the clergy who were envious made any
3bjection, and he appeals to the unanimity that prevailed at his election. (Epist. Divi Thomae, Lib. i. Ep. 108, 126, 127.) Might not a
great. change have been wrought by royal influence in the course of
thirteen months,




HENRY II.                    103
Winchester, in the presence of prince Henry and a numerous assemblage of the nobility and higher clergy.
The sudden change which now took place in Becket's
mode of life, is ascribed by his friend and biographer to an
immediate unction of the Holy Ghost at his consecration;
many late writers see in it nothing but hypocrisy. To us
the truth seems to be as follows: Becket was, as we have
seen, covetous of fame, and of it alone; he had now attained
an eminence which left nothing higher to aspire to; and, as
versed in the canon law, he was probably a firm believer in
the validity of the rights to which the church laid claim.
These, in pursuit of the objects of worldly ambition, he had
hitherto made light of, but now glory of a high order lay
within his grasp; he had only to stand forward as the champion of the church, to forfieit his royal master's favor, to
brave his enmity, and even to offer up his life in sacrifice for
the rights of the church, and undying fame awaited him.
And all this was Becket prepared to do. We must then
admire his magnanimity and daring spirit, while we condemn
the duplicity which made him take an office which he knew
was given for a far different purpose. But on this, as on so
many other occasions, the end was held to sanctify the
means.
Nothing gives a spiritual leader more influence over the
minds of the people than the appearance of extreme sanctity
and contempt of the world and its vain pleasures. With
this then Becket resolved to begin.  He dismissed his splen
did train and retrenched the luxury of his table. He who
had vied with the gayest of the nobles in richness of apparel,
now wore next his skin sackcloth filled with dirt and vermin;
his food was of the coarsest kind; his drink water in which
tlie bitter herb fennel had been infused; his naked back was
frequently subjected to the discipline; he washed each day
on his bended knees in his cell the feet of thirteen poor
persons, whom he then dismissed with food and money. He
was constant in reading the Scriptures, in prayer, anid in
ministering at the altar; he walked in meditation, his face
suffused with tears, in the cloister; hle visited and comforted
the sick monks.  When religious men came to visit him he
received them as if they were angels from heaven.
By way of intimation, as it were, to the king to prepare
for the contest, Becket sent in his resignation of the chancellorship, under the pretext that he felt himself hardly
equal to the duties of one office, much less of two. This
irritated the king, and when thw primate came to meet him,
i




&04'            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
on his landing at -Southampton, he received him coldly, an4
soon after called on him to resign his archdeaconry also.
Becket refused, we know not on what grounds, certainly,
we may say, not out of avarice; but he was obliged to yield.
Shortly after he obtained the royal license to attend a council.held at Tours by pope Alexander III.  He presented to
the council a book of the life and miracles of archbishop
Ansel'm, for whom he solicited canonization; thus intimating
his purpose of treading in that:prelate's footprints.  As
Alexander did not wish to irritate Henry, he declined for the
oresent to confer that honor.
One of the canons of this council was directed against all
those who detained or usurped church property; this Becket
on his return proceeded to put in force, asserting that, no
time can avail against the rights of the church.  Ile required
the king to surrender the town and castle of Rochester;
Richard de Clare, one of the most powerful of the barons,
was called on to resign the castle of Tunbridge, and other
nobles other possessions, which the primate maintained had
originally belonged to his see.  While the king and the nobility were in a ferment at this proceeding, the undaunted
primate went a step further, and asserted his right to present
to all benefices within his diocese. A living falling vacant,,
of which one William de Eynesford was patron, the primate
presented to it; Eynesford expelled the clerk by force; the
primate excommunicated him; Henry, as he was a tenant in
chief of the crown, required that the sentence should be
withdrawn; Becket haughtily replied, that it was not for the
king to dictate to him whom to absolve and whom to excomrmunicate.  As, however, the law was explicit on the subject.
he was finally obliged to give way.
The contest had thus gone on for nearly two years, when
an atrocity committed by a person in orders set the king and
the primat: fully at issue,* (1163.) This man, having seduced a young lady in Worcestershire, murdered her father
that their guilty commerce might not be interrupted. The
public indignation at this horrible deed was high; the king
demanded that the clerk should be given up to be tried
before the ordinary tribunal; the primate, to save him; had
him placed in the prison of the bishop.  Henry then summoned the bishops to meet him at Westminster, and after
* Becket's friend and biographer, Fitz-Stephen, expressly says that
this was the occasion of the breach between the king and primate
Yet Dr. Lingard, who, when it suits his purpose, sets such value ox
contemporary biogrrahy, takes no notice of it whatever.




HIENY. II.                  105
complaining of the corruption of their courts,:by which he
said they levied more money off the kingdom within the year
than he did, required that clerks, in future, if found guilty of
a crime before the bishop, should be degraded and then
handed over to the civil power. Tile prelates were disposed
to assent, till Becket took them aside and engaged them to
refuse on tiht pretext of its not being just that a man should
be tried twice'for the same offence. The king demanded
if they would obey the ancient customs of the realm; one
assented, the rest followed Becket in saying "saving my
order."  Henry, who knew that this reservation would include whatever they pleased, left the hall in a rage, and next
day he deprived the primate of the custody of the royal
castles which he still held. For this Becket cared nought,
but. the other prelates were terrified.and counselled submis.
sion, in which they were joined by the pope's almoner,'who
alleged his instructions from the pontiff to that effect. The
primate at length waited on. the king at Woodstock, and
promised to observe the customs of the realm, omitting the
obnoxious clause. The king treated him with civility, and
a great council was summoned to meet after Christmas at
the castle of Clarendon near Salisbury.
When the council met (1164) the bishops were called on
to fulfil their promise.  Becket required that it should be
made with the aforesaid reservation.  Ilis breach of faith
incensed the- king; he menaced him with exile, and even
with death; two of the prelates with tears implored him to
submit; the earls of Leicester and Cornwall assured him
they had orders to employ force, and conjured him not to
make it necessary; the Master of the Temple and one of
his knights fell on their knees, entreating him to have pity
on the clergy; the door of an adjoining room was thrown
open, and armed men were seen with thenr clothes tucked
up and their swords and battle-axes ready for conflict.  The
primate was incapable of fear for hiniself, but he felt a     l
generous anxiety for the safety of others, and he yielded.
Those who best knew these customs were then required to        
put them in writing, and at Becket's desire the assembly
was prorogued to the following day.                            t
The Constitutions of Clarendon, as the customs now reduced to writing were named, were in number sixteen, of
which the following are some of the most important: clerks,
if accused of crimes, shall be tried in the civil courts; no
churchman of any rank shall quit the realm without the
king's permission; all causes not strictly ecclesiastical -hall
I-:~~~~~~~~~~




1:06            HJISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ie tried in the king's courts; all prelates and other splritua.
dignitaries who are the king's tenants in capite shal be sub.
ject to the feudal burdens, and attend in the king's courts;
the king shall hold all vacant sees and receive their revenues
till the vacancy is filled; the election shall take place in the
king's presence, and the person elected shall do homage,
and swear fealty to the king as his liege lord.
Three copies were made of the Constitutions, to which
the prelates affixed their seals according to usage, with the
king and barons. The primate refused, but it is probable
that in this case also his obstinacy gave way.  lie went
home, and as it were to punish his weakness he abstained
from the service of the altar for forty days. The pope, at
his desire, gave him absolution for that sin, at the same time
counsellirn moderation. Soon after he went to Woodstock
and solicited an audience of the king, but Henry refused to
see him.  He then, like Anselm, attempted to escape to
France; but the sailors of Romney would not expose themselves for him to the indignation of the king, and he was
obliged to return. He now began to set the Constitutions
openly at nought; and the king, on the other side, was
stimulated to exertion by those about him, who looked
forward to a confiscation of church property and a share in
the plunder.
The primate was cited to a great council at Nottingham.
When he arrived (Oct. 13) the king refused him the kiss of
peace; a charge of high treason was made against him, and
his goods and chattels were declared forfeited.  Though the
composition in such cases in Kent was but forty shillings, a
sum of 5OMl1. was required from  him, for which he gave
security. Next day he was called on for a sum of 3901.,
which he had received as warden of the king's castles; he
declared that the whole sum had been laid out in repairs,
but;:dded that that should be no cause of quarrel between
him and the king.  A further demand was then made of
50(l., which Henry said he had lent him. Becket replied
(as doubtless was the truth) that the money had been a gift;
his word was not allowed to balance the king's, and he gave
security for that sum also. On the third day he was required
to account for all the moneys he had received when chancellor, and to pay the balance.  He replied that at his consecration he had been discharged of all demands by prince
Henry and the justiciary in the king's name. He asked
permission, however, to retire and consult with the other
prelates  In these' pr( ceedings the kiing was plainly acting




HENRY 11.                   107
from a mean, paltry spirit of vengeance, and was seeking to
crush the man who, he saw, preferred what he deemed his
duty to his own favor. The claim now made amounted to
the enormous sum of 44,000 marks, and though, in honor,
the primate stood discharged, he, by the advice of his
Brethren offered 2000, which were of course refused.
Some then advised him to resign the primacy; Henry of
Winchester alone encouraged him to resolution.  As this
was Saturday, he craved a respite till Monday to make his
answer.
Strong as was the primate's mind, his body gave way under
his mental agitation, and he fell so ill as not to I-e able to
leave his bed on Monday morning. His resoiation too
almost failed, and he even had thoughts of going barefoot
to the king, and throwing himself at his feet, and praying
him to be reconciled. But pride and a sense of duty came
to his aid, and, when some of the bishops came and recommended submission, he rebuked them in the severest terms.
He had taken his final resolution, and that was to brave the
royal indignation to the uttermost.  He rose, went into the
church, and, at the altar of St. Stephen, performed the mass
for that martyr's day, which begins with " Princes sat and
spake against me," and he directed to be sung the verse of
the Psalms, " The kings of the earth stand up, and the
rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his
anointed."  Then, providi~ng himself with} a host to have in
case of extremity, he moved on toward the council; at the
door he took from his chaplain the silver cross he was bearing before him, and carried it himself. The bishops came
forth to meet him, and remonstrated with him on this conduct; he heeded them not; he entered the hall, from which
the king had retired to an inner apartment with his nobles,
and sat down, holding the cross before him. The king's
rage at being thus braved became ungovernable, and the
prelates trembled for their primate's life. They then asked
and obtained the royal leave to appeal to Rome against him
for his perjury.  They went out, and, taxing him with his
breach of faith, renounced their obedience to him, and cited
hiim to answer their charges before the pope.  The primate,
who saw clearly the advanta(ge he had now gained, calmly
replied, "I hear what you say."  They sat down on the
opposite side of the hall; the earl of Leicester came out and
summoned him to come and hear the sentence passed on him
by the temporal peers.  I-e denied with dignity and composure their'ight to judge him, and cited both themr and the




[08             HISTORY' OF iNGLAND.
prelates to appear before the pope.  He rose to depart; a
cry of " Perjured traitor! " met his ear; he looked round
fiercely, and said with a loud voice, that but for his holy
orders he would defend himself with arms against those who
thus dared to insult him. He returned to the monastery
where he abode, followed by the populace and the poorer
clergy. He then sent to ask permission to leave the kingdoin: the king took till next day to consider; but in the
night the primate quitted the abbey in disguise, and having
wandered about for some time effected his escape to Flanders..The king of France, a superstitious man, forgetting, in
his jealousy of Henry, that the latter's was the common
cause of kings, took the part of Becket, and applied to the
pope in his favor. The pontiff gave a cool reception to a
splendid embassy which Henry sent to him at Sens, where
he was residing, and when Becket came thither he received
him with every mark of distinction, Henry then sequestered
the revenues of the see of Canterbury, and, with the cruelty
and injustice common in that age, banished the kingdom all
Becket's relations and domestics, to the number of nearly
four hundred persons, making them swear that they would
join without delay the primate, whom he thus hoped to reduce to need. But the pope frustrated his design by absolving them from their oath, and distributing them  in the
convents of France and Flanders. The Cistercian abbey of
Pontigny was assigned as the residence of Becket, who now
set no bounds to his spiritual insolence; he declared that
"Christ was in this case again tried before a lay tribunal,
and once more crucified in the person of his servant," taking
it for granted, according to the spiritual logic then usually
employed, that his cause was the cause of God. At length
(1166) he ventured in the most soleinn manner to excommunicate all concerned in drawing up or supporting the
Constitutions of Clarendon, and all who had laid or sbhuld
lay hands on the goods of the church.  Many persons were
mentioned by name in this impious sentence, and threats of
the same treatment were uttered against the king himself.
Henry, with all his vigor of character, was superstitious,
and he feared while he hated Becklet he was also aware of
the effect which the censures of the church might have on
the minds of his people. He gave orders to watch the ports
most strictly, that no letters of interdict might be brought
in, and he threatened with the severest penalties those who
should bring them or publish them. Meantime he prosecuted with vigor the appeal which he hadl been rnduced to




-;fENRY U.                a09s
make to Rome.; his agents there employed effectually those
golden arguments which, as one of Becket's. friends -~rites,' Rlme never despised," (that. Rome which Becketihimself
says was. prostituted like a harlot for hire,) and two cardinals
Nere despatched to hear and determine the whole affair,
Becket's arts and obstinacy, however, rendered their efforts
ineffectual.  At length, (1169,) when the petty warfare
which had continued for some years between Henry and
Louis was terminated by a peace and the marriage of their
children, this last monarch sought to reconcile Becket and
his sovereign. They met in the presence of Louis.  Becket
humbly knelt before his king, but unyielding as ever, he
persisted in saving his order when promising to obey the
customs of the realm.  Henry in a rage reproached him with
his pride and ingratitude; then turning to Louis, "Mark,
my liege," said he, "whatever displeases him  he says is
against the honor of God; but that I may not be thought to
act against that honor I make him this offer. There have
been many kings of England before me, some who had
greater, some who had less power than I. There have been
many archbishops of Canterbury before him, great and holy
men. What the greatest and holiest of his predecessors did
for the least of mine, let him do for me, and I shall be content." The whole assembly declared that he had condescended sufficiently.  Louis asked Becket what he coulk
say to this: he still persisted; his friends then took him
away by force.  Louis treated him  with neglect, and apparently was about to withdraw  his protection; but. his
enmity to Henry; and his unmanly superstition finally:prevailed, and he fell at Becket's feet and with tears implored
his forgiveness.  When Henry sent to complain of his still
protecting him, he replied with an appearance of magnanimity, " If the king of England will thus cling to what he calls
-the customs of his fathers respecting the church, he must let
me adhere to those of mine, which ever were to protect the
exile and the fiigitive."...
At length (1170) the contest was brought- to a termination. It was agreed to elude the chief subject of dispute,
and Becket was to be restored to his see to hold it as it had
been holden by his predecessors.  But a new difficulty arose;
the primate required, according to the custom of the age, o
be saluted with the kiss of peace.:. the king declared that.he
had bound himself by a vow never to kiss Becket.'The
pope sent Henry a dispensation, but he would not depart
VOL. I.  10




1t l             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
from his resolution. The difficulty was, however, at length
got over, and the treaty concluded.
While the terror of excommunication was suspended over
the head of Henry, and he knew not what its effect might be
on the minds of his superstitious subjects, he had used the
precaution of having his eldest son, prince Henry, crowned
by the archbishop of York   Though it was done in secrecy,
Becket heard of it, and he prevailed on the pope to suspend
the archbishop, and excommunicate the bishops who had
assisted at it. On his arrival in England, where he was
received with the utmost enthusiasm by the clergy and people, he proceeded to launch his spiritual thunder against
those who had assisted at the coronation'or persecuted the
exiled clergy, and seemed bent on renewing the war with
the king. When this intelligence reached the ears of Henry,
he was greatly moved at the prospect of a renewed contest;
the archbishop of York, who was now with him, told him
the plain truth, that he could never hope to enjoy peace
while Becket lived, and the king, strongly excited, cried out
before all his court, "To what a miserable state am I reduced, when I cannot be at rest in my own realm by reason
of one single priest! Is there no one to deliver me out of
my troubles?"  Four barons, named William  de Tracy,
Hugh de Moreville, Richard Brito, and Reginald Fitz-Urse,
who heard these words, bound themselves by a secret oath
to make the primate revoke his censures, or to carry him out
of the kingdom, or put him to death. They secretly left the
court, and landing near Dover. went to the castle of Ranulf
de Broc, a man whom the primate had just excommunicated,
who supplied them with soldiers. They entered Canterbury
in small parties, and were received into the monastery by
the abbot, who was on the king's side.
It was now the third day after Christmas. On that festival the primate himself had celebrated mass and preached to
the people, and in his sermon he told them that his dissolution was at hand, and that as one )f their archbishops had
been a martyr, they possibly might have another. He then
thundered forth his invectives against the king's friends, and
excommunicated De Broc and his brother by name.
On the morning after their arrival (Dec. 29) the four
barons, attended by twelve knights, entered the primate's
bed-chamber. It was after ten o'clock, but:he had dined,
and was conversing with his friends. They sat down on the
ground opposite him, and after a pause Fitz-Urse requirea




HENRY II.                   111
him to absolve the prelates; he made an evasive reply; both
parties grew warm; the barons desired him then to leave the
kingdom; he replied with his wonted spirit; they left the
room, ordering the monks to guard him; he followed them
to the outer door, telling them he valued not their threats.
"We will do more than threaten," they replied. In the
court-yard they then began to arm themselves. The primate's servants barred the gate, and his friends, iot without
difficulty, prevailed on him to retire through the cloisters into
the cathedral, where vespers had now begun. He proceeded
thither slowly, the silver cross borne before him; when they
would secure the doors he forbade them, saying, " You ought
not to make a castle of the church." He was ascending the
steps of the choir, when the barons, who, after vainly assaying
the palace-gate, had got in at a window and searched it all
over, entered the cathedral. It was now dusk, and he might
probably have escaped if he would, but his heroic soul, which
aspired to the glory of martyrdom, spurned at the thoughts
of flight. They rushed forward, crying, " Where is Thomiias
a Becket? Where is that traitor to the king and kingdom? "
No reply was made. In a louder tone they then cried,
" Where is the archbishop?"  He advanced, saying, " IIee
am I, no traitor, but a priest, ready to suffer in the name of
Him who redeemed me."  They required him again to absolve the prelates, and again he refused. They told him
then he must die, and Fitz-Urse, laying hold of his robe, bade
him get out from thence or die. He said he would not move.
"Fly then," said Fitz-Urse. "Nor that neither," replied
the undaunted primate; 1" if it is my blood you want, I am
ready to die that the church may have peace; only in the
name of God I forbid you to hurt any of my people."  One
struck him with the flat of his sword between the shoulders,
saying, " Fly! or you are dead." They attempted to drag
him out; he clung to one of the pillars; he nearl:" threw
Tracy down, and he flung Fitz-Urse off, calling ilim pimp.
Stung by this insult, the knight made a blow of his sword at
him; a monk named Edward Grimes interposed his arm,
which was nearly cut (,ff, and'Becket himself was wounded
in the crown of the head as he was bent in prayer. " To
God," said he, " to St. Mary and the Saints, the patrons of
this church, and to St. Denis I commend myself and the
church's cause.:"  A second blow-brought him: to the ground
before St. Benedict's altar. He settled his rt be about him,
joined his hands in prayer, and expired beneath repeated
Wows.'Brito clove his skull, and the sub-deacon Hugh of




HISTORY. C-F_ ENGLAND.
Horsea, justly named the Ill -Clerk% with,the impotent mNa.
lignity of a savage, scattered, th0  brains about with the.ppint.
of his sword.:...      i..
Thus perished, in the fifty-third year of his age, this, ex
traordinary man, a martyr in.the cause, of the -monstrous
usurpations of the church,- but actuated, we believe,, by a.
sincere sense of duty; and fair nmight be his fame,:and hon
cred by all. might.be his memory, if he had, not, in.pursuit
of his object, like but too many other: saints of his church,
trodden in the tortuous paths of bad,faith and duplicity.
The murderers of the archbishop retired to the castle of
De Moreville at Knaresborough. in Yorkshire, not venturing
to appear before the, king. Nothing in. fact could exceed
Henry's consternation when he;heard of the bloody deed.
He saw an abyss yawning before him, as all the feelings of
justice, and compassion, and honest indignation would be on
the side of the church.  The king of France and other
princes called on the pope to avenge the cause of religion.
The embassy, headed by the archbishop of Rouen, which he
sent to Rome, found the pope highly incensed, and about to
lay England under an interdict. But, as Henry was really
guiltless, and the pontiff deemed it wiser to husband his sacred power than run the risk of seeing it exhausted,, he contented himself with a general excommunication of the murderers and their abettors. Two legates were sent to Normandy to examine the cause.
While Henry was thus seeking to appease the pontiff,
some adventurers, his subjects, were extending his dominion
and gaining for him a nominal kingdom. The island ofilreland was inhabited by, a portion of the Celtic. race, but as
they had never been subdued by the Romauls, they remained
in their primitive barbarism.  Christianity had been introduced among them in the fifth century by. Patricius, a native
of Britain, and the superstition characteristic.of the Celtic
race had led to the foundation of num.erpli mnonasteries,
which offered. some glimpses of culture- and trqanuillity
amidst the incessant feuds w-hich prevailed -among the: native
tribes, and the endless succession of murders:, abductions,
and similar crimes, that were of daily occurrence..,Even in
the twelfth century the native Irish seem  tohave been but
little advanced beyond the Britons in the days of Caesar.
They lived: chiefly on the milk, and flesh of theircattle,; they
had.little tillage and few arts. ~ The Northmen. had invaded
a'd ravaged this island like. England and France, with this
difference, that they were here. the superiors in knowledge




HENRY II.                     113
and culture: they founded towns along the coast, and all the
trade of the island was in their hands.
Henry II. had long cast an eye of cupidity on this fertile
island. In the very commencement of his reign, (1156,) while
Adrian IV. (Breakspear,) an Englishman  by birth, occupied
the papal throne, he obtained a bull, authorizing him to invade and reduce that barbarous island. For, as the Irish had
been converted before the see of Rome had put forth her
monstrous pretensions, and Ireland was in a great measure
separate from the world, the Irish clergy followed the simpler doctrines of their first teachers, and did not acknowledge
subjection to Rome.  Adrian therefore, assuming that all
islands on which the Gospel light had shone, belonged to
Christ's vicegerent on earth, in the plenitude of his power
authorized and exhorted the king to invade Ireland, destroy
the vice and wickedness of the natives, and oblige them to
pay a penny yearly from each house to the see of Rome.
The Irish were commanded to submit; the enterprise being
for the glory of God, and the salvation of the souls of men.
Henry thus sought to gratify an unjust and grasping
ambition by sanctioning a claim  against which he was, in
his ownl case, so soon to contend with all his energy.  Various matters, however, prevented him for some years from
taking advantage of the pontiff's generosity.  At length a
feud among the barbarous natives themselves called his'
attention  toward Ireland. Besides their minor division
into septs or clans, the Irish nation formed five kingdoms,
Desmond, Thomond, Connaught, Ulster, and Leinster, and
of the five sovereigns one was usually lord paramount of
the whole. The supremacy lay now with Connaught,
Dermot MacMorrough, king of Leinster, was in love with
the wife of O'IRuark, chief of Breffiey, (Leitrim and Sligo,)
and taking advantage of her husband's absence, he carried
her off from  an island in a bog, where she had been placed
for security.  O'Ruark complained to Roderic O'Connor,
the lord paramount: their united forces invaded Leinster,
and Dermot, who was hated by his subjects, was forced to
seek safety in flight.  He repaired to king Henry, who was
at that time (1167) in Guienne, and offered to hold his
kingdom in vassalage of himn if restored by his arms.  Henry
accepted the offer, but, as the state of his affairs did not
allow him then to engage in the enterprise, he gave Dermot
letters patent to his English' subjects, authorizing them to
assist-hiiv The Irish prince caine to Bristol, and he soon
ffter made an agreement with.ti't 3   ta         -sX  s
10 *                        o




11 4             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Strongbow, earl of Stl~"-oPe'e mbbroke, a man Wno, having
impaired his fortune, was ready for any desperate adventure.
Strongbow, for his aid, was to have the hand of Dermot's
daughter Eva, and be declared heir to his dominions. Dermot
also engaged two other ruined knights of South Wales,
Robert Fitz-Stephen and Maurice Fitz-Gerald.  He then
returned to Ireland, and lay concealed in the monastery
of Ferns, of which he was the founder.
In the spring, (1169,) Fitz.Stephen, who was first ready,
set sail with a small force of thirty knights, sixty esquires,
and three hundred archers, and landed at Bannow, not far
from the town of Wexford. He was followed by Maurice
Prendergast with ten knights and sixty archers, and with
this small force they ventured to march against Wexford,
which was surrendered to them by the Ostmen*, who inhabited it.  Fitz-Gerald next arrived with ten knights, thirty
esquires, and a hundred archers; and such was the advantage their superior arms and military skill gave the invaders,
that no force the Irish could bring together was, able to resist
them.  Dermnot, not satisfied with recovering his own kingdom, aspired to extend his odious sway. He sent a messenger urging Strongbow to make haste and perform his promise,
and the earl, having obtained a reluctant consent from
Henry, to whom he repaired in Normandy, quickened his
preparations.  He first sent over Raymond le Gros with
ten knights and seventy archers, and this petty force, we are
assured, defeated a body of three thousand Irish who came
to oppose them when they landed near Waterford.  Strongbow himself now came with two hundred knights and esquires, and a good body of archers.  Waterford surrendered;
Dublin was taken.  Strongbow married the Irish princess,
and Dermot dying shortly after, he became sovereign of
Leinster, and aimed at the conquest of the whole island.
Roderic, a weak, inert prince, was roused at last4 and with
thirty thousand men he came and laid siege to Dublin; but
Strongbow made a sally at the head of but ninety knights
and their followers, and routed this tumultuous rabble with
great slaughter.
The news of the extraordinary success of these adventurers was by no means agreeable to king Henry, who feared
they might cease to conduct themselves as subjects.  He
sent orders for them to return, and forbade my supplies to
be sent to them; he finally resolved to pass over himself to
* That is, Eastmen, as the No~r hmen called themselves in Ireland.
P._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _




HENRY II.  115
Ireland.  He sailed from Milford* (1172) with a fleet of
four hundred sail, and landed near Waterford.  All the
Irish princes, except Roderic and a few others, repaired to
him  and acknowledged themselves his vassals.  He proceeded thence to Dublin, where he held a great council, at
which the Irish princes attended, for regulating the state,
and soon after the clergy met in synod at Cashel to reduce
the church to due order. He kept his Christmas in Dublin,
at which he entertained the Irish kings and chiefs, and the
following Easter (1173) he returned to England, leaving
Hugh de Lacy justice of Ireland.  Strongbow, though deprived of his kingdom, retained great possessions; the conquerors dwelt intermixed with the Irish through Leinster, and
gradually extended themselves into the remainder of the
island. The two races, separated by origin, language, and
manners, never coalesced.  Ireland continued as before to
be the theatre of anarchy and bloodshed. The injustice of
conquest and the evils it produces were not here, as in other
cases, compensated by increased civilization, for the English
settlers degenerated, while the Irish remained nearly stationary.  The scanty annals of the following three centuries in Ireland offer one black tissue of ferocity, vice, and
crime, with hardly a gleam of virtue and humanity to break
the gloom. The earnest entreaties of the nativeIrish for the
benefits of English law were constantly rejected through the
influence of their Anglo-Irish countrymen, who found it more
easy to plunder and oppress them while they were separate
in law  and in language.  Ireland (politically speaking)
should either not have been invaded, or it should have been
conquered, as Engrland had been by the Saxons and Nor.
m ans.                       X
The fame which Henry gained by this nominal conques,
of Ireland enabled him to treat on advantageous terms with
the pope. In the month of September he met the papal.egates at Avranches; and having made a solemn oath that
he had neither command,  nor desired the death of the
archbishop, and promised to allow that prelate's friends to
return, and to restore the possessions of the see, to acknowledge Alexander, and permit appeals to Rome, he received
absolution and was confirmed in the grant of Ireland. Becket's zeal was rewarded by the pontiff with canonization as
a martyr; numerous miracles (the number stated is two
hundred and seventy) were said to have taken place at his
tomb, to which vast crowds of pilgrims resorted every year,
and rich offerings were made at it.  Becket's murderern




116             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
oeing only liable to the censure of the church, (as the clergy
by refusing to submit to the civil law had forfeited its pro
tection,) remained some time at Knaresborough unmolested
At length, finding themselves generally shunned as excommunicated persons, they went to Rome to implore the pontiff's forgiveness.  He enjoined them  as a penance to
visit the Holy Land, and they died while there, and were
buried at the gate of the Temple.
Henry, now the most powerful monarch of his time,
having ended his contest with the church, looked forward
to the enjoyment of peace and tranquillity in future. But
the king of France, always jealous of him, sought to raise
up enmity against him in his own family.  Henry had by
his queen Eleanor four sons: Henry, whom he had caused
to be crowned as his associate in the throne, and for whom he
intended England, Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and Touraine;
Richard, who was to have Poitou and Guienne; Geoffrey,
who would have Brittany in right of his wife; and John,
named Lackland, but for whom  he destined the lordship of
Ireland.  Prince Henry, excited by his father-in-law king
Louis, now insisted on his father's resigning either England
or Normandy to him, and on the king's refusal he fled to
Paris.  Queen Eleanor, whose own frailties had not made
her indulgent to those of others, offended by the repeated
infidelities of the king, stirred up her sons Richard and
Geoffrey to make demands similar to that of their brother.
and persuaded them when denied to fly also to the court
of France.  Eleanor herself absconded  but she fell soon
after into the hands of her husband, by whom she was kept
confined for the remainder of his reign. Kings and princes
were not ashamed to aid these three undutiful boys" against
their indlulgent parent.  An  extensive  coinfederacy  was
formed; William the Lion, king of Scotland, was induced
to join by the promise of Northumberland; the earl of
Flanders by that of Kent; the earls of Blois and Boulogne
were to have rewards of the same kind.  Many of Henry's
continental barons, weary of the strictness of his government,
declared for the young princes, their future rulers.  Even
in England the earls of Leicester and Chester openly took
arms against their sovereign.  A  simultaneous invasion
Qof his dominions was proposed by the confederates.
Henry first applied to the pope, who readily excommuni* Henry 1va but eighteen, Richard sixteen, and Gecffrey fifteen
fears old.
_____  __        __      __gli7                 ______




HENRY 11.                   117
cated his enemies for him. But this spiritual weapon prove
ing of little avail, he took into his pay a body of twenty
thousand Brabancons, with whom and with his faithful subjects he prepared to make head against his enemies. The
earls of Flanders and Boulogne invaded Normandy on the
east, king Louis entered it on the south; the former took
the town of Aumale, the latter that of Verneuil.  The
Bretons rose under the earl of Chester and Ralph de Fougeres; but the king defeated them near Dol, and then faeced
their leaders to surrender in that town. A conference followed between the two kings, in which Henry, only stipu'ating to hold the sovereignty for his life, offered half tL~.
revenues of England, or of Normandy and Anjou, to his son
Henry, half those of Guienne to Richard, and promised to
resign Brittany to Geoffrey. But the insolence of the earl
of Leicester broke off the negotiation, for this rebel had
the audacity to revile and insult his sovereign, and even
to lay his hand on his sword as if to draw it on him.
The king of Scots had meantime entered Northumberland, and his barbarous hordes committed their usual excesses. But Richard de Lucy, whom Henry had left guardian of the realm,defeated him and forced him to make a
truce and retire.  Lucy then marched southwards to engage Leicester, who had landed in Suffolk with a large body
of Flemings, and, being joined by Hugh Bigod of Framlin g.
ham, was about to push on for the heart of the kingdom.
The guardian met him with an inferior force at Farnham in
Suffolk. Ten thousand Flemings fell in the action, and
Leicester himself was made a prisoner.
The following year (1174) a number of the English barons rose in arms, and the king of Scots made an irruption at the head of eighty thousand of his ferocious subjects.
The guardian, ably supported by the bishop of Lincoln, the
king's natural son, a gallant man, took the field against him,
but was very hard pressed, and Henry found his own presence
requisite in England. He landed at Southampton, (July 10,'
and, being either influenced by superstition or resolved to
call it to his aid, he proceeded to Canterbury to worship
at the tomb of the new saint. When he came within sight
of the church lie alighted from his horse and walked to
it barefoot: he prostrated himself before the shrine of the
martyr, fasted and prayed during  the entire day, and
watched that night alone in the church. In the morning
he assembled the monks, and, placing a scourge in the hand
of each, bared his back and submitted to the discipline




118    e         HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
which they inflicted. Next day, having received absolution,
he set out for London, where intelligence soon arrived of
the defeat and capture of the king of Scots at Alnwick by
Ralph de Glanville, the famous justiciary, and the northern
)aronis; and as this victory was said to have been gained on
tle very day (July 12) that the king had received absoluti.n, it was regarded as a proof of his being reconciled with
Heaven and the blessed niartyr.  Henry was too politic not
to take advantage of this opinion, and professed to rejoice in
the renewed friendship of the saint. He speedily reduced
the English rebe.,% and returning to Normandy, relieved the
k $   town )f Rouen, which Louis was besieging.  A truce was!a> F    then made; a conference followed at Tours, and an accornmo/.ation was effected, Henry. giving his sons far less advanta. eous terms than he had offered them before. He, however,
t >      consented to pardon their adherents.
K:'L'he Scottish king had to pay dearly for his share in this
unjust enterprise.  He himself, his bishops and barons, were
t!:     obliged to come to York (Aug. 10, 1175,) and in the cathedral do homage to king Henry, acknowledging him and his
successors for their superior lord, and ceding to him the
fortresses of Berwick and Roxburgh in perpetuity.
Having thus terminated the contest in which he had
been engaged with his family and neighbors, Henry, for!" t     some years, turned his thoughts to the improvement of the
laws and police of his kingdom.
ti        The turbulence of his sons, however,. again (1183) disturbed his peace.  He had required Richard to do homage
for Guienne to his brother Henry. This violent youth refused, and a ferocious war, in which no quarter was given,
commenced between the brothers.  The king with some
difficulty made up the difference, but immediately his son
Henry began to plot against him.  A fever, however, seized
this young prince and carried him off, (June 11.) When
dying he was filled with remorse, and sent to entreat his
father to visit him; the king, fearing treachery, refused,
but sent him his ring by a prelate in token of forgiveness.
The dying prince pressed it to his lips; then, ordering
the bishops who were present to lay him  on a bed of
ashes, he in that position received  the sacraments and
expired.
As Richard was now heir apparent, the king called onI
him  o resign Guienne to his brother John.  Richard,
however, refused, and was preparing to have recourse to
arms, but, on the appearance of his mother in Guienne he




IENRY mI.                    119
quietly gave it up to her.  Scarcely was this feud ended
when Geoffrey demanded that Anjou should be annexed to
Brittany, and, meeting with a refusal, he fled to the court of
France and began to levy troops. He was killed, however,
soon after at a tournament, (1185,) leaving his widow
pregnant of a son, who when born was named Arthur, and
was acknowledged duke of Brittany.
The Christian dominion in the East was now at an end.
The great sultan Saladin had utterly defeated the Christians
at Hittin, or Tiberias, and reduced the Holy City and all
the towns except a few oil the coast. All Europe was filled
with grief and indignation; a new crusade, in which the
emperor Frederick Barbarossa and the kings of France
and England were to be the leaders, was preached, (1188.)
But while the preparations were going forward the French
king excited the restless Richard to invade the territories
of the count of Toulouse, and then, under pretext of defending the count, his vassal, he made an irruption into
some of king Henry's provinces.  The French nobles,
however, would not stand by their lord in such manifest
injustice, and a conference was held to treat of peace. But
Philip required that Richard should be crowned king of England, be put in immediate possession of the French provinces, and marry his sister Alice, who had been already sent
to England as his affianced bride. Henry, who was suspected of carrying on an illicit commerce with that princess,
refilsed. Richard then revolted and did homage to the king
of France, and the war was renewed.  In vain the papal
legates used their spiritual weapons on the side of Henry;
his barons rebelled, town after town surrendered to his
enemies, and he was obliged to yield to all the demands of
the French king.. To complete his grief, when he demand.
ed a list of the barons whom, as usual, he was to pardon,
the name of his favorite son John appeared at the head of it.
In the anguish of his soul he cursed the day on which he
was born, and'pronounced a malediction on his children,
which he never would revoke. He fell into a lingering fever,
of which he died, (July 6, 1189,) at the castle of Chinon,
near Saumur; his last moments being cheered alone by
the presence of his natural son Geoffrey. As soon as he
expired the barons and prelates departed; and the attendants stripped the corpse and carried off every thing of
valie.  A few days after king Henry was buried without
much pomp at the abbey of Fontevrault, his son Richard
and a few prelates and barons attending his obsequies




120              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Henry Plantagenet was handsome in person and polished
in manners. He was eloquent, affable, and courteous, a
lover of justice and. a friend to learning.  He was abstemious in his diet, and used a prodigious deal of exercise in
order to keep down his tendency to corpulence. He was
an indulgent parent and a kind master.  On the other hand
he was faithless to the marriage bed; passionate, vindictive, false, and regardless of his oaths and promises. The
extreme caution of his temper was often more injurious to
his interests than the opposite defect would have been, and
cupidity was the moving cause of some of his most bene.
ficial measures.  On the whole, however, he was possessed
of most of the best qualities of his race, and was one of
the ablest princes that *have occupied the throne of England.
Of his sons by queen Eleanor two alone, Richard and
John, survived him; his three daughters were married to
the kings of Castile and Sicily, and Henry the Lion, duke
of Saxony.  The best known of his natural children were
Geoffrey, who was first made bishop of Lincoln, and then
archbishop of York, and William  surnamed Longespef, or
Longsword, who espoused Ela the heiress of Salisbury, and
obtained with her that earldom and its estates.  The motiler
of'one or both of these sons was the Fair Rosamond, daughter of lord Clifford, a baron of Herefordshire.*
It is to the reign of Henry II. that most of the changes
usually ascribed to the Norman conquest are to be referred.
The origin of the Common Law may, it is thought, be
placed in this reign.  Itin-erant justices, (Justices in Eyre,)
for example, were appointed with six circuits, (nearlv corresponding to the present ones,) which they usually went
every year. For this institution, which has proved of such
inestimable value, we are, however, less indebted to the
king's love of justice than to his avarice; for the chief business of these judges was to look after the royal revenue,
and see that the crowvn lost none of its rights by fraud or
neglect.  It was also in this reign that trial by jury began
to assume its present form; for originally the jurors were
sworn witnesses of facts, and not, as now, judges of them.
But the measure for which Henry was most famed was
that of allowing trial by Grand Assize, that is, by jury in
civil suits, instead of the wager of battle, or single c:ombat,
* See Appendix (H.)




RICHARD I.                 121
which the Normans had introduced in addition to he An.
glo-Saxon ordeals of fire and water. This mode, front its
superior reasonableness and equity, was generally eceived,
and led the way to other important innovations. It was
at this time also that Latin became, instead of Anglo-Saxon,
the language of writs and charters.
CHAPTER II.
RICHARD I. (C(EUR DE LION.)
1189-1199.
THE title of Richard to the crown of England was so
clear that he remained for more than a month in France
after the death of his father, during which time the
orders which he sent over to England were punctually
obeyed. His first act was to direct the liberation of his
mother queen Eleanor from the prison in which she had
lain for some years, and he gave her permission to set at
liberty such other prisoners as she chose. To those who
had been faithful and loyal servants and subjects to his
father he manifested the utmost favor, while those who
had aided him in his own rebellion were forbidden even to
appear in his presence. Having received the ducal crow-i
of Normandy and done homage to king Philip, he at lengtn
sailed for England, and landing at Portsmouth, (Aug. 13,)
proceeded to London in order to be there crowned.
On the 3d of September king Richard was consecrated
in the abbey of Westminster, by Baldwin archbishop of
Canterbury.  He thence proceeded to the hall to hold his
feast. Some of the leading Jews, as deputies from their
afflicted race, (though, fearful of their magic arts, the king
had forbidden their presence by proclamation,) ventured
to enter the hall bearing gifts after the manner of the
East. A Christian struck one of them  at the door; the
courtiers then fell on them, robbed them, and drove thenr
out; the word flew that the king had given orders for
the massacre of the Jews; they were slaughtered in the
streets, their houses were burnt, their women and children
cast into the flames. The king directed a judicial inquiry
VOL. I.    11                      P




1.22             HISTORY OF. ENGLAND.
to be made, and a few of the ringleaders were taken and
hanged; but so many of the principal citizens had been
implicated, that it was not deemed prudent to search too
closely into the matter.
Richard had taken the cross, and his martial ardor and
chivalrous spirit of religion urged him to lead to the East
an army worthy the magnitude of his dominions. To raise
the needful funds was now his care.  In his father's coffers
he found 100,000 marks, besides plate and jewels. He sold
the manors and other domains of the crown; he put the
offices of the state to sale; the bishop of Durham purchased the office of justiciary for 1000 marks; the same
prelate also bought the earldom of Northumberland from
the needy king, who jestingly observed that he had made a
young earl of an old bishop; for the sum of 10,000 marks
he restored to his Scottish vassal the castles of Berwick
and Roxburgh, and released him from all agreements
which the late king had " extorted by new charters and by
means of his captivity."* To those who remonstrated with
him, the king replied that he would sell the city of London
if he could find a purchaser.  All these modes of raising
money not sufficing, he, with the pope's permission, took
money in lieu of service from those who, having assumed
the cross, preferred remaining at home: he borrowed large
sums from  his wealthy subjects, and he made those who
had committed offences pay dearly for impunity.
Richard appointed the bishop of Durham, and William
Longchamp, bishop of Ely, the chancellor and papal legate,
to govern the kingdom during his absence in the East.  He
sought to secure the fidelity of his brother John by heaping on him wealth and honors; he gave him eight castles
with their lands, and mado him earl of not less than six
counties, and he married him to Alisa the heiress of the
wealthy earl of Gloucester. For greater security he exacted from him and his natural brother Geoffrey, now archbishop of York, an oath to remain in Normandy till his
return; from which, however, he imprudently released them
before his departure.
Ere the king set out, the zeal of the warriors of the Cross
in England once more directed itself against the ill-fated
* This was no renunciation of feudal superiority, as has been erroneously supposed, for it is added, "So, however, that he shall filly and
entirely perform to 1 s whatever his brother Malcolm king of Scotland
did of right perforrm and of right ought to perform to our preqecesM~~~~~~~~~~~fB,') ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  ~     __________________ 




RICHARD I.                   123
people of Israel.  At Norwich, Stamford, and elsewhere
many of them were butcl3ered; at York they fled into the
castle for refuge after the wives and children of many had
been massacred before their eyes. When the governor,
who was absent, arrived,, they declined admitting him, alleging their necessity.  Hie broke out into a rage, and
cheered on the populace to the assault; the priests also
urged them; a hermit clad in white led them on, and the
castle was besieged for some days.  Seeing the hopelessness of resistance, a ralbi advised his brethren to make a
voluntary surrender of their lives to their God rather than
fall into the hands of their cruel foes. A few only dissented; the rest collected and destroyed their jewels and
other articles of value; they then set fire to the castle, and
while it burned, Jocen, the most honorable man among
them, cut the throat of his wife; his example was followed
by all; Jocen then destroyed himself, and the others did
likewise. The few who shrank from voluntary death met
their doom next morning from the people. All the bonds
of Christians to Jews which were deposited in the cathedral
were taken and burnt. Glanville the great justiciary was
sent to inquire into the affair, but three persons only were
punished.
Our limits do not permit us to enter into thetdetails of
king Richard's crusade. In the end of June, 1190, he and
the king of France reviewed their troops, 100,000 in number, on the plains of Vezelay. They thence marched to
embark at different ports, and they met again at Messina
in Sicily. The sister of Richard had been married to the
late king of this island, but his natural uncle Tancred, who
had usurped the throne, had refused to pay the queen her
dowry, and had even cast her into prison. Honor and
natural affection urged Richard to demand justice for his
sister. Tancred sought to sow enmity between him and king
Philip; but after a good deal of altercation Richard became reconciled to Tancred, who yielded to all his demands, and to whose daughter he engaged his nephew Ar.
thur in marriage. When Philip called on him to perform
his marriage with the princess Alice, he gave a positive refusal, offering to prove that she had borne a child to his
father; and Philip, probably aware of the truth of what he
alleged, forbore to press him. Shortly after queen Eleanor
arrived, leading with her Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez
king of Navarre, whom he had wooed while he was reside
ing in Guienne, and Philip gave his consent to the marriage




l 24             HISTORY Or ENGLAND.
Richard sailed from Messina, taking with him ills wife
and sister. On his way to Syria lie made the conquest of
the isle of Cyprus; he found the king of France and the
other Christian princes with a numerous army of pilgrims
beleaguering the city of Acre, while sultan Saladin lay close
at hand with his forces. In about a month after the arrival of the English king the garrison surrendered, two
thousand five hundred of them being to remain as hostages
till the sultan should release an equal number of Christian
prisoners and pay a sum of 200,000 byzants. The king of
France then went home, leaving a part of his troops behind, and some difficuity or delay arising about the payment of the ransom, king Richard had his prisoners brought
out and coolly massacred in view of the sultan's camp. He
then led his army along the coast toward Jaffa. Near
Arsoof he defeated the troops of Saladin, who then de.
stroyed Ascalon at his approach. Negotiations for peace
were carried on; a marriage between the queen of Sicily
and Malek-el-Adel, the sultan's brother, was proposed, but
no treaty could be effected; the Christian army came
within view of Jerusalem, and then retired, owing to dissensions among their chiefs.  At length a truce for three years
was made with the sultan, and, the pilgrims having visited
the Holy City, the king of England embarked with a small
retinue at Acre (Oct. 9, 1192) to return to his dominions.
During the sixteen months of his abode in the East he had
performed such feats of personal valor that his name long
continued to be a word of terror among the Saracens, but
the waywardness and inconsistency of his character had prevented him from gaining the esteem or respect of any.
We must now take a view of what was passing meantime in England.  Soon after the king's departure, Longchamp arrested his colleague the bishop of Durham, and
forced him to resign his earldom and his other dignities.
He assumed the greatest pomp and state, treated the kingdom as if it were his own, bestowed all places in church
and state on his relations and dependants.'In his progresses through the kingdom he was attended by a guard
of one thousand five hundred mercenaries, and nobles and
knights appeared in his train.  The king, hearing of this
con(lIlct while he was at Messina, appointed the archbishop
of Rouen, the earl of Strigul, and three other knights to be
his counsellors, in order to restrain him; but such was theii
dread of Longchamp that they did not even venture to
ihow him their commission.:At length he dared to drag




RICHARD I.                   125
Geoffrey, the archbishop of York, from the sanctuary of a
church, and cast him into prison; and while the general
indignation was strong against him for this act, prince
John summoned a great council at Reading, before which
ne was cited to appear.  He shut himself up in the towel
of London, but want of provisions forcing him to surrender he was deprived of his offices, and fearing to remain he made his escape to France in the dress of a woman.
The office of justiciary was now conferred on the archbishop of Rouen, a prelate of great moderation and virtue.
Longchamp, whose legantine commission had been renewed, kept threatening to lay the kingdom under interdict; and the king of France, who was now returned, though
he had sought in vain to prevail on the pope to release
him from the oath which he had made to Richard not to
make any attempt on his dominions during his absence, was
preparing to invade Normandy.  The refusal of his nobles
to aid him in so unjust an enterprise obliging him to desist, he tried to gain over prince John by the offer of the
hand of his sister Alice and the possession of king Richard's
dominions in France; but the influence of his mother and
the menaces of the English council retained that prince,
though unwillingly, in his allegiance.
News now arrived that king Richard lay a captive in
Germany.  Having suffered shipwreck in the Adriatic, he
was proceeding under an assumed name through Germany,
when (Dec. 20) he was discovered and arrested at an inn in
a small town near Vienna, by the duke of Austria, whom he
had grossly insulted when in Syria. The duke lost no time
in informing the emperor Henry VI. of his prize, and at
Christmas he proceeded with his captive to Ratisbon, where
the emperor kept that festival, and engaged to give him up
to him at the ensuing Easter.  The emperor sent forthwith
to inform the king of France, who now resolved to take
every advantage of Richard's calamity.  He offered the
emperor a large sum. of money t6 detain him in captivity;
by insisting on a calumnious tale of Richard's having procured the murder of the marquess of Montferrat in the
East, and even plotted against his own life, he induced his
nobles to join in an invasion of Normandy; and having
held a conference with prince John, he engaged him to aid
in stripping his captive brother and benefactor of his dominions. Their iniquitous project, however, fail,;d. Philip,
after mnaking himself master of a part of Normandy, was
forced to raise the siege of Rouen, and ct.clbjde a truce
11 *




126            rdISTORY OF ENGLAND.
with the English regency.  Jr&n, whose scene of operation
was England, having seized'he castles of Windsor and
Wallingford, proceeded to London to claim the crown, asserting that his brother was dead; but the nobles rejected
his claim with contempt, knowing what he said to be false;
and the justiciary, having assembled an army, forced him to
beg a truce; not thinking himself safe in England, he fled
to his ally the king of France.
When the English nobles heard of the captivity of their
king, they assembled in council at Oxford, (Feb. 28; 1193,)
and resolved that the abbots of Broxley and Pont-Robert
should proceed to Germany to learn his situation. The
abbots met the king in Bavaria on his way to Mentz,*
where he was given up (March 23) to the emperor by the
duke of Austria. In the mean while Richard's wife and
sister, who were at Rome, were urgent with the pope to
use his power in his behalf; queen Eleanor also wrote
pressing letters to him  in favor of her son. By her advice Richard offered to hold his crown in fee of the emperor and to pay him 50001. a year as tribute.
At Easter Henry brought the king of England before
the diet of the empire, and there accused him: of aiding his
enemy Tancred of Sicily; of having deposed the king of
Cyprus, a relative of the emperor; of having caused the
marquess Conrad, a vassal of the empire, to be assassinated;
of having ill-treated German pilgrims, insulted the banner
of the duke of Austria, betrayed the Holy Land to Saladin,
and committed sundry acts of disloyalty against his liege
the king of France. From all these charges Richard defended himself with spirit and dignity; his eloquence drew
tears from some of those who were present, and the emperor
embracing him promised him his friendship. He was assigned an abode at Mentz befitting his rank, and on the
29th of June his ransom was agreed on. He was to pay
down 100,000 marks of silver, and give sixty hostages to
the emperor and seven to the duke for the payment of a
further sum of 50,000, of which 20,000 were to go to tne
duke, to whose son he was to give his niece Eleanor of
Brittany in marriage. To raise the money a scutage of
twenty shillings was imposed on every knight's fee in
England, a tallage was laid on the towns, and the clergy
gave their plate, and otherwise contributed largely.  Before Christmas, queen Eleanor and the bishop of Roten
* See Appendir (I




RICHARD                       1 27
set out with the money for Germany; but new  difliculties were raised by the emperor, to whom the king of
France and prince John had made the most lavish promises to induce him to detain his captive for another year
But Eleanor appealed to the princes of the empire, and on
the 4th of February, 1194, after more than a year's captivity, king Richard was set at liberty, and on the 13th of
March he landed at Sandwich in his own dominions.  When
the king of France heard of his liberation he wrote to prince
John in these words-'" Take care of yourself; the devil is
unchained."
On king Richard's entrance into London, the citizens, we
are told, made such a display of their wealth to testify their
joy, that one of the Germans who were with him could not
help saying, " If our emperor had known the riches of Engand, thy ransom, O king, would have been far greater."
After passing but three days in London, Richard went to
lay siege to prince John's castle of Nottingham; and on its
surrender he held there a great council, in which all prince
John's possessions were declared to be forfeited if he did
not appear within forty days to justify himself.  It was
further resolved, that to wipe off as it were the stain of captivity, the king should be crowned anew.  The ceremony
was performed at Winchester, (April 17.)  Richard then embarked his troops on board one hundred ships for the war
against the king of France, and landed at Barfleur.
The war, like most of those of the time, consisted merely
of skirmishes and taking of castles on both sides.  Prince
John, who was at Evreux, resolved to throw himself on his
brother's mercy.  Ever base and treacherous, he invited
the officers of the French garrison to dinner, and massacred
them  while at the entertainment, then with the aid of the
townsmen he fell on and slaughtered the garrison.  He threw
himself at his brother's feet imploring forgiveness; queen
Eleanor interceded, and Richard pardoned him, saying, "I
forgive him, and.hope I shall as easily forget his injuries as
he will my pardon." Ile did not, however, as yet restore
him his possessions.
The war was terminated by a truce, (July 23d,) on the
expiration of which it was again resumed, and during the
short remnant of king Richard's reign it was only occa.
sionally intermitted.  That monarch's death occurred in
the following manner: Vidomar, viscount of Limoges, who
was his vassal, having found a treasure of ancient coins,
sent the king a part as a present; but Richard, as superior




28              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
lord, claimed the whole, and, on the viscount's refusal to
surrender it, he placed himself at the head of a body of
Brabanfons, and laid siege to his castle of Chaluz. As he
and Marcadee, the leader of his mercenaries, were one day
taking a view of the castle, one of the garrison, namned
Bertram de Gourdon, discharged a bolt from his crossbow
which hit the king in the left shoulder. Richard returned
to his tent and gave orders for the assault; the castle was
taken, and, as the king had menaced, all its defenders were
hanged except Gourdon, who was probably reserved for a
more cruel fate.  But the want of skill of his surgeon had
rendered the king's wound mortal, and feeling the approach
of death he summoned Gourdon to his presence. " Wretch! "
said he, "what have I ever done to thee, that thou shouldst
seek my life?"   "You have killed," replied he, " with
your own hands my father and two brothers, and you intended to hang me; I am now in your power, and you may
torment me as you will, but I shall endure with joy, happy
in having rid the world of such a pest." The king, struck
with his reply, ordered him a sum of money and his liberty;
but Marcadee, unknown to him, seized the unhappy man,
flayed him alive, and then hanged him. Richard died on
the tenth day, expressing great penitence for his vices, and
having undergone a severe flagellation at his own desire
from the clergy who attended him.
The epithet of Lion-heart (Cceur de Lion) which his courage
procured for him, has apparently been the cause of investing
this prince with qualities to which le had little claim; as we
(erroneously we believe) couple magnanimity and generosity
with an idea of the courage of the monarch of the woods.
But Richard was in reality selfish, passionate, cruel, revengeful, and capricious; he had all his father's bad, and few of his
good qualities.  Like him, however, he had a fondness for the
Gay Science, or lyric poetry of the South of France, and he
even practised that art himself; and like him too he had a
ready wit, and could express himself with eloquence.*  No
monarch drew larger sums from his subjects' purses, and for
this purpose he scrupled at neither violence nor meanness.
In the latter part of' this king's reign (1196) a riot took
* In his war with the king of France. the bishop of Beauvais. who
fought against him, was made a prisoner. The pope wrote requiring.him to pity his dear son. Richard sent him the prelate's coat of mail,
with these words," 1Lo! this we found; see if this be thy son's coat or
not." " No, not my son's," said the pontiffl " bit of some son of Mars,
who may deliver him if he can."




JOHN.                     129
place in London excited by one William Fitz-Osbert, surnamed Longbeard, "the patriarch," says Hallam, " of a long
line of city-demagogues," styling himself the advocate of the
people. The cause was the heavy taxes imposed by the king
for his war in France, which Longbeard asserted to be necessary, but maintained that they were eluded by the rich and
great, and thrown entirely on the poor. He went over to
France to the king; on his return he resumed his agitation,
and so inflamed the people by his speeches from St. Paul's
Cross, that no less than 52,000 persons bound themselves to
obey his orders. Archbishop Hubert, however, assembled the
citizens, and prevailed on them to give him hostages. Fitz.
Osbert clove with an axe the head of the officer sent to arrest
him, and then took refuge in the tower of the church of St.
Aary le Bow; but the church was set on fire, and as he
attempted to escape he was stabbed by the son of the man
whom he had slain, and was then dragged to Tyburn, and
there hung from the Elms.  Miracles were, as usual, said by
hli- partisans to have been wrought at his grave.
CHAPTER III.
JOHN  (LACKILAND.)
1199-1216.
KING Richard, it is said, left his dominions to his brother
John, though Arthur duke of Brittany, as representative of
his father Geoffrey, was, by the feudal law, the next heir, and
had already been regarded as such by the king his uncle.
But, as we have seen, the principles of primogeniture and
representation had been hitherto little attended to in the.
Anglo-Norman line, and Richard may have thought  his
nephew (who was but twelve years of age) too young, or, as
is more probable, he may have been influenced by queen
Eleanor,, who hated Constance, the mother of Arthur, and
feared the power she might acquire during the minority.
To secure England John sent thither his fast friends, Hubert archbishop of Canterbury, and the earl-marshal William
earl of Strigul, and he induced Robert de Turnham, who
held the castle of Chinon, where the late king's treasure was
deposited, to yield it up to him. Normandy, Poitou, and
_____________ _,_ _ i_




130             HISTORY OP ENGLAND.
Guienne submitted, but Anjou, Maine, and Touraine da
dlared for Arthur, whose side the king of France also took,
with the design of embarrassing John, and he sent the young
duke to Paris to be brought up with his own son Louis.
Meantime the primate and the earl-marshal had held a conference with the English nobility and clergy, and by presents
and by promises of good government had prevailed on them
to swear allegiance to John. On his arrival he was crowned
(May 27) by the primate at Westminster, and shortly after he
recrossed the sea to carry on the war against the king of
France.
The war, as usual, consisted in the taking of castles, and
the making of truces. William des Roches, the governor of
the young duke of Brittany, perceiving that Philip was
making the cause of that prince merely the stalking-horse to
his own ambition, carried him and his mother away, and
reconciled  them  with king John.   Erelong, however,
Constance, fearing for the life of her son, fled with him to
Angers. As John, by an alliance with the emperor of
Germany and the earl of Flanders, was now too powerful for
king Philip, who was also embroiled with the pope, the latter
gladly consented to a peace. Louis, son to the French king,
espoused Blanche of Castile, the English king's niece, whom
queen Eleanor conducted out of Spain for the purpose. He
was to receive Berri and Auvergne, and a dowry of 20,000
marks with her. Philip, on his part, abandoned the cause of
prince Arthur, who lost, in consequence, the provinces he
claimed, and had, moreover, to do homage to his uncle for
Brittany.
Being now secure in his dominions, John, who never knew
a moral or religious restraint, proceeded by his disregard of
justice to raise up new enemies for himself. He fell in love
with Isabel, the beautiful daughter of his vassal the count of
Angouleme, and though she was actually betrothed to the
count of La Marche, and his own wife the heiress of Gloucester was living, he resolved to espouse her. He therefore made
the discovery that himself and his wife were too near akin;
and the archbishop of Bordeaux and two other prelates, to
whom the pope committed the inquiry, declared the marriage
void. Her father having meantime stolen away Isabel from
the count of La Marche, the bishop of Bordeaux performed
the marriage ceremony. John conducted his bride it to
England, where she was crowned with him at Westminster,
(Oct. 8, 1200.) The count of La Marche, though John was
his superior lord, would not tamely brook the affront thus
offered to him. Aided by his brother the count d'Eu, and




JOHN.                      31
aecretly encouraged by the king of France,.-e induceu  le
Poitevins to revolt. John summoned his English barons to
cross the sea and reduce the rebels; they refused, unless he
engaged to restore and respect their privileges. They were,
however, forced to yield, and either serve or pay him two
marks for every knight's fee.  Soon after his landing he had
an interview with the king of France, in which they renewed
their treaty of amity, and at the desire of the latter, John and
his young queen went and passed a few days at Paris, where
Philip resigned his own palace to them. John then proceeded
against the rebels, but instead of attacking them he entered
into negotiations, promising them justice; and having thus
pacified them a little, he returned to Rouen, where he spent
the rest of the year in festivity.
The Poitevin barons, wearied with the duplicity of John,
appealed to Philip as the superior lord, (1202;) and this
prince being now on good terms with the church, flung off
the mask and declared himself their protector.  He also
espoused the cause of Arthur, (whose mother Constance had
lately died,) and knighted him and gave him his daughter
Mary in marriage. At an interview between the two kings,
Philip required that John should resign to his nephew his
French provinces, and make sufficient satisfaction to the
count of La Marche.  John refused these terms, and a war
ensued. Philip rapidly made himself master of several towns
and fortresses in Normandy. The young duke of Brittany
put himself at the head of two hundred lances and set out for
Poitou. On his way, hearing that his enemy queen Eleanor
was at a castle named Mirebeau, and but slenderly guarded,
he resolved to endeavor to secure her person. IHe carried
by assault the lower part of the castle, and was hard pressing
the queen, when John, who, on learning the danger of his
mother, had advanced rapidly with some troops to her aid,
was seen approaching. Arthur, who had been joined by the
count of La Marche and other nobles, advanced to give him
battle, but they were defeated and driven back to Mirebeau,
where they were miserably slaughtered, and Arthur, his sister
Eleanor, the count of La Marche, the viscounts of Limoges,
Thouars, and Lusignan, and two hundred knights were made
prisoners. The latter were laden with irons, tied on carts
drawn by oxen, and sent to different fortresses in England
and Normandy; twenty-two of them were actually starved to
death at Corfe Castle. The princess was sh it up in a convent
at Bristol, where she remained a captive for forty years; the
young duke was confined for the present at Fdlaise.'rhi




32             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
king of France, who was besieging Arques, retired on the
news of this disaster.
The fate of Arthur is involved in mystery; the belief of
the time respecting it seems to have been as follows: on his
return to Normandy John repaired to Falaise, where he had
an interview with his nephew, whom he required to renounce
his alliance with the French king, and be reconciled to his
uncle and natural friend.  The gallant but imprudent youth
replied with great spirit, demanding the cession, not alone of
the French provinces, but of England, to him as the rightful
heir. John retired, now fully resolved on his destruction.
Some of John's counsellors suggested the ordinary expedient
of blinding and mutilating him, but the king deemed death the
surest course. He proposed his assassination to William  de
Bray, who replied that he was a gentleman, not a hangman,
and refused. A ready agent was soon found and despatched
to Falaise, but Hubert de Bourg, the governor of the castle,
said he would execute the order himself, and then, to save the
prince, spread a report of his death. John, however, was not
to be cheated of his prey; he had the prince removed to the
New  Tower on the banks of the Seine at Rouen. One,t       nighlt (Apr. 3) Arthur was roused from his repose at midnight,' r      and ordered to come out of the tower in which he lay. The
king and his equerry Walter de Mauluc were seated in a
small boat at the foot of the tower; the prince entered the
he threw himself on his knees, and with floods of tears sued
for mercy; in vain! he was seized by the hair, and a dagger
pierced his bosom; but whether John himself or Mauluc
(who received the heiress of Mulgref and her estates as his
reward) was the actual assassin, remains in doubt. A stone
was fanstened to the body, which was then flung into the
Seine.*
This murder lost John a third of his dominions.  The
Breton barons met at Vannes, and sent deputies to accuse him
before his superior lord the king of France.  Philip forthwith summoned him to appear and answer before his peers
to the charge of having murdered an arriere-vassal of the
crown of France, his own nephew and vassal, whom he was
bound to protect, and who was son-in-law of the lord paramount to whom he owed honor as well as fealty. John
sent requiring a safe conduct.  Philip said, "Let him come
The murder of Arthur is certain; the manner or the agent is of
little importance.




JOHN.                     133
in peace." "But," replied the envoys, " a safe conduct to
return?"  "Be it so," said he, " if the judgment of his
peers allow it."  They urged that their master was also king
of England, and that his subjects there might not allow him
thus to expose himself.  "What is it to me?" said Philip;
" is not the duke of Normandy my vassal? If lhe has chosen
to gain a higher title, I am not thereby to lose my rights over
him."  As John did not appear, he was pronounced by the
court to be contumacious, condemned to death, and declared
to have forfeited all the territories he held of the king of
France.  Nothing could be more accordant with justice on
feudal principles than was this sentence, though Philip in
seeking it was probably actuated more by ambition than by a
sense of equity.  The following spring (1203) Philip assembled an army to carry the sentence into effect, and aided by the
remissness of John and the general horror which the murder
of his nephew had caused, he speedily stripped him of all his
continental dominions except Guienne.  Queen Eleanor
died during these events (1204) at an advanced age, having
lived to witness the decline of the monarchy, to whose greatness she had so largely contributed. The question whether
the Capetians or the Plantagenets were to predominate in
France was now finally settled in favor of the former.
It was the misfortune of this most worthless prince that
he always had to deal with enemies far superior to himself in
ability, and to whom his vices and crimes gave a considerable advantage over him. Philip Augustus was perhaps the
ablest man of the line of Capet that ever occupied the throne
of France; but had not John basely murdered his nephew,
he might never have found a pretext for stripping him of his
transmarine dominions.  In like manner the king's vices,
by depriving him of the affections and support of his nobility,
caused him to succumb in a contest with the Holy See, in
which right was clearly on his side.
The papal throne was now filled by Innocent III., the ablest
and most aspiring pontiff (Gregory VII. excepted) by whom
it had ever been occupied. He had lately humbled the king
of France and the emperor of Germany, and the death of
Hubert archbishop of Canterbury now gave him an opportunity of trampling on the pusillanimous king of England.
It had long been disputed between the suffragan bishops anti
the monks of St. Augustine, which had the right of electing
to the primacy. On the death of Hubert, (1205,) the junior
monks, anxious to anticipate the prelates, without even consulting their seniors, met at midnight in chapter, and conVOL..      12




134              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ferred the dignity on Reginald, their sub-prior, whom they
instantly despatched to Rome to receive the papal confir.
ination, strictly charging him to keep the matter a most profound secret till he arrived at the Holy See. Reginald's
vanity, however, got the better of his discretion; as soon as
he reached Flanders he assumed the title and state of an
archbishop; the news soon reached England; the king ano
the senior monks were incensed; the junior monks were
ashamed, and to accommodate matters the chapter unanimously electer. the bishop of Norwich.  Fourteen of the
monks were despatched to Rome to solicit the pontiffs
approval; the suffragans also sent an agent to maintain their
claims, and Reginald was now there in person. Innocent
saw his opportunity for advancing the claim  of the papacy
to appoint to spiritual dignities.  Setting aside the two elections as irregular, he ordered (1207) the monks to choose
for their primate the cardinal Stephen Langton, who was an
Englishman by birth, though educated abroad. They remonstrated, but in vain; they were forced to obey, one only,
Elias de Brantefield, having the courage to persevere in his
refusal.
~ To soothe the king, Innocent sent him a present of four
gold rings set with precious stones, accompanied by a letter
explaining their mystic meanings.  He also wrote him a letter extolling, and with truth, the virtues and the learning of
the new primate. John, however, was not to be soothed.
Suspecting the monks of having played him false, he sent two
of his knights to expel themn from their monastery and seize
their lands; and these knights, by threatening to burn their
dwelling over their heads, forced them  to depart and seek
shelter in Flanders.  John then wrote a very spirited and
angry letter to the nontiff. Innocent replied in very. bland
terms, but hinting at the story of Thomas a Becket; and this
was followed by an order to the bishops of London, Ely, and
Worcester to lay the kingdom  under an interdict if John
did not submit to the church.  When they notified this to
him, the other prelates with tears besought him to give way;
but he swore by the teeth uf God (his common oath) that
if the pope did so he would send him the whole body of his
clergy, bishops and all, and seize their estates to his own use,
and that if in future he caught any Romans in his dominions
he would pat out their eyes and cut off their noses, as a mark
by which they might be known.  The pope and his adherents
were, however* well aware that this Wasall idle vaunting; for
John had so alienated the minds of his people by heavy and




J0oIN.                     135
arbitrary taxation,'and of his nobles by seducing their wives
and daughters, that he could not reckon on any aid from
them.  The interdict accordingly was pronounced, (1208.)
John in return seized the estates of such of the clergy as
obeyed it; he banished the prelates, and he confined the
monks in their convents, giving them  a mere pittance from
their own revenues to support them. To gall the clergy still
more, he cast into prison the concubines or inferior wives
which they generally had, with the connivance of the Holy
See, and required large sums as the price of their liberty.
Such, we are assured, was the profligate desperation of John,
that he sent two knights and a priest, named Robert of Lon.
don, on a secret embassy to Malek-en-Nasir, the Almohade
prince of Morocco, offering to hold his kingdom of him, and
even, it is added, to embrace the faith of Islam, if he would
aid him in the conflict for his crown which he foresaw. The
Moslem, however, rejected the offer with contempt.*
After a year's trial of the effect of the interdict, the pontiff proceeded to the ultimate course of excommunication,
(1209.) But the bishops to whom the publication of it was
committed, feared the king too much to obey; and Innocent,
having waited a little, sent two legates, Pandolf and Durand,
to England, who, on John's spurning at the claim of the
church to his obedience in things temporal as well as things
spiritual, fulminated the sentence, (1211.) On the return of
the legates (1212) Innocent pronounced a sentence of depo.
sition against John, which he directed the king of France to
execute, promising him as his reward the crown of England,
and (what, perhaps, Philip valued less) the forgiveness of all
his sins.
Philip, having summoned all his vassals to his standard, as.
sembIed a large army at Rouen, and a fleet of seventeen
hundred' vessels was collected to transport it to England.
John, on his side.; prepared for defence; he directed his seaports to send their shipping to Portsmouth, and he issued
orders to all his vassals to appear in arms at Dover, for the
defence of the realm.  Such numbers came that provisions
ran short; and the king, having selected sixty thousand of
the best armed and appointed, dismissed the remainder. This
army, though brave, could not, however, be relied on: its
patriotism was chilled by superstition;' it hated and despised
the prince whose cause it sustained.  The agents of the
zourt of Rome (which wished to humble John rather than to
* The story is told by Paris, who had often heard Robert relating the
par ticulars




l 36             HISToRY OF ENGLAND.
aggrandize Philip) saw their advantage; Pandolf, who was it.
France, sent two templars to John to propose a private interview; the king agreed to it, and they met at Dover. The
artful legate then so worked on his fears by exaggerating the
power of Philip, and showing him the extent of the disaffection of his own barons, that John in his terror declared himself
ready to submit on any terms to the church.  Pandolf required that he should acknowledge Langton, restore the other
bishops, and make good all the temporal losses and damages
they and the clergy in general had sustained during the contest; and he finally recommended and required that, as a
means of securing his kingdom against Philip, he should put
it under the protection of the Holy See, by becoming its
vassal in due form. To all these demands John assented
without hesitation; he forthwith passed a charter, making a
surrender of England and Ireland to God, St. Peter and
St. Paul, and to pope Innocent and his successors, and agreeing to hold them of the see of Rome by the annual payment
of 1000 marks.  He then, (May 15,) in the church of the
templars, and surrounded by his prelates and nobles, paid his
homage in the usual manner to the legate, laying at his feet
a part of the tribute, on which the haughty priest insolently
trampled; and though all present were offended, the archbishop of Dublin alone dared to express his feelings.
Pandolf returned to France, and having congratulated
Philip on the success of his pious enterprise, commanded him
to dismiss his army, and not to molest a vassal of the Holy
See.  Philip, seeing that he had been made, at a great cost
to himself, the mere tool of the pontiff's ambition, remonstrated and complained, but to no purpose. He then appealed
to his barons; and their superstition yielding to loyalty, love
of fame and interest, they vowed to aid hifn in his attempt on
England. The earl of Flanders (a secret ally of John's)
having refused, Philip, swearing that France should be
Flanders or Flanders France, invaded that province.  But
Longsword earl of Salisbury, John's natural brother, went
over with the English fleet of five hundred sail, and attacking
that of the French as it was moving along the coast, destroyed one hundred and took three hundred ships.  Philip,
unable to save the rest, was obliged to burn them himself, and
thus abandon all hopes of the conquest of Flanders.
The court of Rome removed her anathenmas in order, as
she had laid them on in order. The sentence of deposition
was taken off by admitting John to do homage. When he
went to meet Langton and the prelates at Winchpter, on their




r — -
JOHN.                     137
return, he threw himself on the ground before them, and
with tears implored them to have pity on him and the realm.
The primate then led him into the chapter-house; and, having
administered to him an oath of obedience to the pope and
of good government of his kingdom, gave him absolution and
admitted him to dine with him, to the great joy of the people.
The interdict, however, was kept on till satisfaction for their
losses should have been made to the clergy; the bishop of
Tusculum, who came over as legate on this account, partially
relaxed it by allowing mass to be performed with a low voice
in the churches. When inquiry was made, the clergy rated
their losses at a sum which amazed the king; he offered one
hundred thousand marks for a receipt in full; they refused,
but the pope directed his legate to be content with forty
thousand. The result was that the superior clergy were
indemnified, while the claims of the inferior clergy were
treated with neglect. The legate at length (June 29, 1214)
took off the interdict, which had lain on the kingdom for
upwards of six years.
An extensive confederacy against the king of Franct
having been formed by the sovereigns of Germany and Eng
land, and the earls of Flanders, Toulouse, and othe.
princes, John landed an army at La Rochelle and recovered
Poitou. But'the battle of Bouvines, (July 27,) in which
Philip with a far inferior force defeated 150,000 Germans,
Flemings, and English, dissipated all the prospects of John.
On receiving the news of this disaster he reimbarked his
troops without delay, having obtained a five years' truce from
the king of France.
In his contests with the pope and the king of France,
John had met with nothing but loss, disgrace, and humiliation. It only remained for him to be humbled by his own
subjects. The author and prime mover of the resistance to
the arbitrary power of the crown, which laid the true foundation of English liberty, was the primate Langton; and
since it is not given to us to read the heart of man, and we
can only judge of his motives by his acts, we may not with;ustice deem the prelate to have been actuated by any motives but love of equity and sincere patriotism, and his name
should therefore be always held in veneration by the lovers
of their country.
Langton thus proceeded. In the oath which he administered to the king previous to his absolution, (July 20, 1213,)
he made him swear to restore the good laws of king, Edward
On the 4th of August following, in a count,ll held at St
12*                          ~
I:..




138:      HISTORY OF iENGLAND,
Albans under Fitz-Peters the justiciary, orders were given
that the laws of Henry I. sboullld be followed; and on the
25th of the same mnonth, at a meeting of prelates and barons
at St. Paul's in London, Langton showed them that monarch's
charter, and explained to thein its applicability to their
grievances.  John, on hearing of this, despatched an envoy
with a large sum of money to Rome, and Innocent, deerminglt
it to be for his interest to support his vassal against his barons,
sent, as we have seen, the bishop of Tusculum to England.
The affair of compensation to the clergy occupied the time
till the king's expedition to France; and shortly after his
return the barons held a large meeting at the abbey of S;.
Edmundsbury, (November 20, 1214,) where Langton again
exerted his eloquence, and they swore on the high altar to
make war on the king till he should confirm their liberties by
a charter. On the festival of the Epiphany (Jan. 6, 1215)
they repaired to the king at London and urged their demands,
and he promised to give them his answer at Easter. In the
interval he made some concessions to the church; he assumed
the cross to secure to himself the privileges of a crusader,
and he directed the sheriffs to make the freemen in their
counties take the oath of allegiance. Both parties had sent
to Rome, but the pontiff openly took the side of the king,
and wrote a circular to the barons, enjoining them to cease
from hostility.
In Easter week the barons, at the head of two thousand
knights with their esquires and other attendants, met at
Stamford, and on the Monday after (Apr. 27) advanced.to
Brackley, within fifteen miles of Oxford, where the-king then
lay. He sent the primate and the earls of Pembroke and
Warrenne to ascertain their demands. They were the same
as before; the king:with an angry sneer cried, " And why do
they not also demand my kingdom?"  He then in a fury
swore that he never would grant liberties which would make
him a slave.  He sent back the mediators with some offers,
which the barons regarding as evasions would not hearken to.
Pandolf and the bishop of Exeter:insisted that the primate
was bound to excommunicate the barons; he replied, that if
the king;did not dismiss his foreign troops, he should deem
it his duty to excommunicate them. John finally sent, offering to leave all matters to the decision of the pope, and of
eight persons to be chosen by the barons and himself.  This
also they refused; they proclaimed themselves to be the army
of God and: of Holy Church, appointed Robert Fitz-Walter
to be their general, and commenced operations by investing




:JOHN.                    139
Northampton. After spending fifteen days before it, they
raised the siege and advanced to Bedford, which Beauchamnp,
its governor, delivered up to them, and hither deputies came
inviting:them to London. They set out at once, marched
all night, and reached that city in the morning, (May 24.)
It being Sunday the citizens were in the churches, but the
gate named Aldgate stood open to admit them, and they
occupied the city without opposition.
They now summoned all those who adhered to the king,
or had not yet declared themselves, to join them, under the
penalty of being treated as public enemies. Numbers immediately flocked to them. "It is needless," say the writers,
"to name the barons who composed the army of God and of
Holy Church: they were the whole nobility of England."
John, who was now at Odihamn in Hampshire with a retinue of
but seven knights, seeing resistance hopeless, resolved to dissemble. While he in secret wrote to excite the pope against
them, he affected to yield to their demanlds with cheerfulness.
At Merton (June 8) he granted a safe-conduct to the deputies of the barons, who were to meet him at Staines, and on
Trinity Monday (June 15) both parties appeared on the mead
named Runnymead, on the banks of the Thames, between
Staines and Windsor. On the one side stood Fitz-Walter
and the flower of the English nobility; on the other the king,
attended by Pandolf the legate, eight bishops, and fifteen
barons and knights. The barons presented in writing the
heads of their grievances, and of the means of redress; these
were, according to usage, reduced to the form of a charter,
signed by the king, (June 19,) and issued as a royal grant,
and copies were sent all through the kingdom. Aware of
the king's perfidy, the barons further required that all foreign
officers and their families should be sent out of the realm;
the city and Tower of London be left in their hands till the
15th of August; and a committee of twenty-five barons be
appointed as guardians of the charter, with power to make
war on the king if he violated it. When the king had assented, the barons renewed their homage.
By the Great Charter, (Magna Charta,) as it is named, the
church was: secured in its liberties and rights, the barons
were relieved by the regulation of the feudal burdens of aids,
scutages, wardships, etc., and their sub-vassals were assured
the same advantages by their lords; London and the other
cities and boroughs were guarantied their ancient liberties
and usages, and secured against arbitrary taxation; foreign
merchants were protected; no man was to be imprisoned or




140             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
outlawed but " by the legal judgment of his peers or by the
law  of the land."  Again, says the king, "We will sell,
delay, or deny justice to none;" and to regulate fines it is
added, " A freeman shall be amerccd according to his offence
saving his freehold, a merchant saving his merchandise, and a
villain saving his wagonage." The court of Common Pleas
was to be stationary; the forest-laws were mitigated.
Such is a faint-outline of this celebrated charter, the foundation on which the noble edifice of English liberty was
raised; for it contains the germ of every subsequent improvement that has been made. The names of Langton, Fitz.
Walter, and the other eminent men who forced it from a
reluctant tyrant, must be held in everlasting honor; for they
thought not of themselves alone; they cast the shield of protection over the rights and interests of all, even of the stranger.
The blessings which have flowed from Magna Charta are
hardly to be appreciated.  To use the glowing words of a
philosopher and an historian: * "To all mankind it set the
first example of the progress of a great people for centuries,
in blending their tumultuary democracy and haughty nobility
with a fluctuating and vaguely-limited monarchy, so as at
length to form from these discordant materials the only form
of free government which experience had shown to be reconcilable with widely-extended dominions. Whoever, in any
future age or unborn nation, may admire the felicity of the
expedient which converted the power of taxation into the
shield of liberty; by which discretionary and secret imprisonment was rendered impracticable; and portions of the people
were trained to exercise a larger share of judicial power than
was ever allotted to them in any other civilized state, in such
a manner as to secure instead of endangering public tranquillity;- whoever exults at the spectacle of enlightened and
independent assemblies, who, under the eye of a wellinformed nation, discuss and determine the laws and policy
likely to make communities great and happy; — whoever is
capable of comprehending all the effects of such institutions,
with all their possible improvements, upon the mind and
genius of a people, is sacredly bound to speak with reverential
gratitude of the authors of the Great Charter. To have
produced it, to have preserved it, to have matured it, constitute the immortal claim of England on the esteem of
mankind."
* Mackintosh, History of England, i. 221. See also Hallam's jut,
aous remarks on this subject.




JOHN.                     141
John had behaved to his barons with the utmost courtesy,
and even signed the charter with a smile. But when they
were gone, he gave vent to his smothered rage; he cursed the
day of his birth, gnashed his teeth, rolled his eyes, gnawed
sticks and straws, acting like a maniac. He then began to
think on revenge; he sent to implore the aid of his liege
lord at Rome, and he despatched some of his friends to hile
for him bodies of the mercenaries now so numerous in France
and Flanders. Meantime the barons, in the exultation of
success, had appointed a splendid tournament to be holden
at Stamford on the 2d of July; when, to their surprise, they
learned that it was the king's intention to take advantage of
their absence at it, to seize the city of London.  They put
off the tournament, and sent to the king at Winchester, who
laughed at their suspicions. Various conferences were appointed; the king, who only sought to gain time, eluded
them: at length (September 1) he went to Dover to meet the
mercenaries, who now were flocking fast to his standard.
The barons in alarm directed William d'Albiney to occupy
the castle of Rochester; the king forthwith laid siege to it:
as the castle was unprovided with stores, Albiney was obliged
to surrender, (November 39.)  John was about to hang the
whole garrison, but the leader of his mercenaries, who feared
retaliation, prevented him.  However, though he spared the
knights, he executed their followers.
While engaged in the siege of Rochester, John learned
that, as he expected, the pontiff had declared in his favor,
and absolved him from his oaths. As the barons took no
heed of the Holy Father's mandates, he formally excommunicated them by name, (December 16,) declaring them to
be worse than Saracens. The king, on his side, having divided his army at St. Alban's, sent his brother, the earl of
Salisbury. with one part to ravage the eastern counties, while
he marched in person with the remainder northwards. The
northern barons at his approach (January, 1216) set fire to
their houses and corn, and fled into Scotland, to whose king
they did homage. John ravaged the country in a most
dreadful manner; the inhabitants were tortured, massacred,
and pillaged; castles, towns, and villages were burnt, the
king usually giving the example by setting fire in the morning to the house in which he had passed the night. He
penetrated to Edinburgh, wasting and destroying Scotland
also. Similar atrocities were perpetrated by the earl of
Salisbury and the hordes he commanded.
The barons, who were now at London, seeing the king at




142             HISTORY OF ENGLAND
the head of a force which they could not resist, their castles
taken, and their lands granted away to the leaders of lnercenaries, resolved, after some days' anxious deliberation, to call
in foreign aid; and they sent to offer the crown to Louis,
son of the king of France, the husband of the princess
Blanche. Louis, setting at nought the anathema launched
at him by the pontiff, sailed from Calais with a fleet of siy
hundred and eighty ships, and landed (May 30) at Sandwich
John, who lay with his army at Dover, had retired to Bristol
wasting the country on his way. Louis advanced to London,
where he received (June 2) the homage of his new subjects.
John's mercenaries now left him in great numbers; several
of his barons went and did homage to Louis; among them
was his brother, the earl of Salisbury, whose wife the tyrant
had debauched. He also lost his main support, the pope,
who died at this time, (July 16;) the legate Gualo, however,
was strenuous in his cause, and he still held all the fortresses
in the kingdom. Louis awaked the suspicions of the English
barons by grants to his own followers, and it was whispered
that he had a design to destroy them  as traitors.  John
made lavish promises; many barons went over to him; his
affairs were brightening, when, as he was crossing the Wash
on his way from Lyinn, the wagons containing his treasure
were swallowed up by the tide and the stream of the Welland.
He came with a heavy heart to the monastery of Swinestead,
where he was seized by a fever, caused by anxiety or a
surfeit, or as some said by poison; and four days after (October 19) he breathed his last at Newark, in the forty-ninth
year of his age, leaving behind him a character equally
odious, despicable, and atrocious, his numerous vices being
unredeemed by a single good or great quality.
With respect to John's surrender of his kingdom to the
pope, we must in justice observe that it derived much of the
odium which attaches to it from his personal character, and
from the future encroachments of the papal see.  His nobles
assented to it, and never made it a ground of reproach to
him. His father had at one time offered to do the same, the
king of Aragon had done it, so had the Norman monarchs
of Naples and Sicily, and his brother Richard had declared
himself a vassal of the empire. Vassalage, we must recollect.
was no dishonor in those days, even to the highest




HENRY III.                   143
CHAPTER IV.
HENRY III. (OF WINCHESTER.;
1216-1272.
HENRY, called of Winchester, the place of his bi th, the
heir to the throne, was but ten years of age when his father
died. The prelates and the barons of the royal party resolved on his immediate coronation, and the ceremony was
performed at Gloucester (Oct. 2S) in the presence of the
legate; the young monarch at the same time doing homage
and swearing fealty to the pontiff.  On account of his tender years, the care of his person and the government of the
realm  were committed to the earl of Pembroke, earl-marshal, with the title of Guardian of the Kingdom.
Henry, though a child, was a more formidable rival to
Louis than his father had been.  His tender years inspired
pity. " We have persecuted the father for evil demeanor,
and worthily," said the marshal at the coronation; "but this
young child whomn ye see before you, as he is in years tender,
so is he innocent of his father's doings." The marshal himself was a man of great probity, talent, and energy; the
legate had directions to uphold the minor's cause with all his
authority. The Great Charter was confirmed in a council
holden at Bristol, (Nov. 12,) and their liberties were secured
to all who should return to their allegiance; and soon the
earl of Salisbury, William  d'Albiney, and several knights
came and ranged themselves beneath the royal banner.
By the surrender of two castles the regent obtained
from Louis a truce titl the following Easter. On its expiration, (Aprii 30, 1217,) as the royalists had laid siege to
the castle of Montsorel, the troops of Louis and the barons,
numbering six hundred knights and twenty thousand men,
marched from London to its relief, wasting and plundering
the country on their way. The royalists retired at their approach; and they entered Lincoln in triumph, and laid siege
to the castle, which was defended by a heroine named Ni.
chola de Caniville. Pembroke assembled an army at Newark
and marched to her relief.  Deceived by the apparent magnitude of his forces, the hostile army remained in the town;
and while by way of bravado they were pressing the siege of
the castle, the regent's troops burst open one of the gates and
entered the town; a sally was at the same time made from




144             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the castle; assailed on all sides they were forced to give
way, the common men were massacred without mercy,
three earls, eleven barons, and two thirds of the knights
were made captives. The town was given up to pillage; the
women and children had sought refuge on board of the boats
in the river, but their weight sank them, and most of the fugitives perished.
This victory, named The Fair of Lincoln, secured the
crown to Henry. The only hopes of Louis now lay in the
troops which his wife was collecting for him in France.
These troops embarked (Aug. 24) on board of a fleet of
eighty large and a great number of small vessels at Calais;
but Hubert de Burgh, the justiciary, put to sea with but forty
ships, and boldly attacking them, gave them so total a defeat
that but fifteen escaped. Louis was now obliged to seek his
safety in negotiation. A treaty was signed at Lambeth,
(Sept. 11,) by which he and his foreign troops were allowed
to depart, and an amnesty was granted to his English adherents. The barons all returned to their allegiance, and the
Great Charter was again confirmed.
The death of the able and virtuous earl-marshal, which
occurred the very next year, (1219,) was a general misfortune. The custody of the royal person was then committed
to Peter des Roches, a Poitevin whom John had made bishop of Winchester; the exercise of the royal authority was
intrulsted to Hubert de Burgh, the justiciary.  These ministers were rivals; the one favored the native families, the
other united himself with the foreigners whom John had
introduced into the kingdom. Pandolf, who was returned as
legate, held the balance between them.
As a means of recovering the crown lands and the royal
castles from those who held them, the legate, at the desire
af De Burgh and the council, declared the young king of
age (1223) to dispose of his lands, castles, and wards. Hubert instantly required the surrender of the royal castles; the
earl of Albemarle and some others resisted, but IHubert levied
troops, the legate caused them to be excommunicated, and
they were obliged to submit.  One of John's foreign favorites, named Fawkes de Breaute, who held the castle of Bedford, having had several verdicts found against him for the
violent expulsion of persons from their lands, had the audacity to seize one of the judges, and imprison him at
Bedford. As he was a partisan of Des Roches, the justiciary resolved that he should not go unpunished.  Ile led a
force, in which the king was present in person, and besieged




HENRY II.                   145
the Iastle of Bedford.  After a brave defence it was forced
to surrender; and, to deter others, all in it but the archers
were hanged. Fawkes, who was at Chester, was forced to
give himself up to the king's mercy; he was stripped of his
property, and banished the kingdom with his family. Shortly after the bishop of Winchester also withdrew, under pretext of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Hubert now ruled without control for several years, and
he every day augmented his wealth by the grants which he
obtained from the crown. At length the aspect of his affairs
began to change; Des Roches returned and was received
with great favor by the king; complaints of Hubert's avarice
and ambition were poured into the royal ear, and finally,
(1232,) when, on occasion of an inroad of the Welsh, the
king complained of want of money, it was hinted to him
that, by making Hubert and his relations disgorge their gains,
his wants might easily be supplied.  Hubert was forthwith
called on to account for the wardships, royal rents, and other
revenues which had passed through his hands since he had
been made justiciary. Conscious of guilt, or despairing of
justice, he took sanctuary at Merton; by the king's orders
the mayor of London set out at the head of twenty thousand
citizens to drag him from the sanctuary; btut he changed his
mind, and gave him five months to prepare his defence.
fHubert took advantage of his liberty to go to visit his wife at
Bury St. Edmund's; a body of three hundred horse was
sent to fetch him back and place him in the Tower; Hubert,
who was in bed when he heard of their approach, jumped up
and fled undressed as he was to the nearest church, where
he stood on the steps of the altar, holding the host in one
hand and a cross in the other. But his pursuetrs seized him,
placed him on a horse, with his legs tied under the belly, and
thus led him to London.  The king, however, in awe of the
church, sent him back to his sanctuary, giving the sheriff of
Essex strict charge to seize himn if he attempted to escape.
A ditch and paling were made round the church, and on the
fortieth day Hubert was forced to surrender himself.  He
was placed in the Tower, and then brought to trial; he made
no defence, throwing himself on the mercy of the king. tie
was sentenced to forfeit the greater part of his property and
to be confined in the castle of Devizes. But the next year,
(1233,) on occasion of a quarrel between the king and his
barons, the charge of this castle being given to a retainer oe
the bishop of Winchester, Hubert, fearing for his life, let
himself drop down one night into the moat, and then took
VOL. I.      1 




146              HISTORV OF ENGLAND.
refuge in a church.  there he was instantly besieged by the
sheriff; but in a few days a party of horse came, who drove
off the sheriff and conveyed Hubert to the earl of Pembroke
in Wales; the next year, (1234,) when peace was made between the king and the barons, Hubert was restored to his
estates and horiors. It does not appear that he ever again
engaged in affairs of state.
The rising of the barons which restored Hubert to liberty
was caused by the insolence of the bishop of Winchester,
who now engrossed the king's favor. This prelate invited
over vast numbers of his countrymen; the chief offices of
state were conferred on them, and the royal revenues were
employed to enrich them.  The indignant barons refused to
attend the king's council unless the foreigners were dismissed; adding that, if the king persisted in favoring them,
they would drive both him  and them out of the kingdorn,
and put the crown on a head more worthy to wear it.'The
king and bishop, however, by detaching some of the leading
members, broke up their confederacy. William, earl-marshal,
having fled to Ireland, orders were sent to the lords justices
there, to send him. "dead or alive" to England.  As the
shorter mode, they engaged, it is said, a surgeon, who was
called in to cure some of his old wounds. to cauterize them
in such a manner as to cause his death. Peter des Roches
now went on in his violent course, dreading no opposition;
the influence before which he fell came from  a quarter
wuhence perhaps he least expected it. Edmund, archbishop of
Canterbury, attended by several other prelates, came to the
king, and having set before him the dangerous consequences,
both to himself and his people, of the course which he was
pursuing, insisted on the dismissal of the foreigners, menacing an excommunication, in case of refusal. The king was
terrified and submitted, the foreigners were banished, and a
ministry was formed, in which the primate, a man of great
prudence and integrity, was included.
A celebrated historian, and one who cannot be suspected
of an undue partiality to the clergy, has thus expressed himself on an occasion similar to the present; and their conduct
in this and the preceding reign amply confirms the truth of
his observation.
"It must be acknowledged that the influence of the prel
ates and the clergy was often of great service to the public.
Though the religion of that age can merit no better name
than that of superstition, it served to unite together a body of
men who had great sway over the people, and who kept th,




HENRY MI.                    141
community from falling to pieces by the factions and inde.
pendent power of the nobles. And, what was of great
importance, it threw a mighty authority into the hands of
men who by their profession were averse to arms and
violence, who tempered by their mediation the general disposition towards military enterprises, and who still inain..
tained amidst the shock of arms those secret links without
which it is impossible for human society to subsist."
But the evil fromn which the primate had delivered the
kingdom speedily re-appeared.  In 1236 the king married
Eleanor, daughter of the count of' Provence.  Nothing, we
are assured, could exceed the splendor of the queen's cor.
onation, and all ranks vied with each other in their demonstrations of joy and loyalty.  But a large number of foreigners appeared in her train, and the weak, good-natured king
soon began to shower his favors on them.  Her uncle
William, the bishop elect of Valence, became prime minister; Richard, another uncle, received the honor of Richmond and the rich wardship of earl Warrenne; and Boniface,
a third uncle, was made, on the death of Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury.  Young ladies were brought over from
Provence and married to the king's wealthy wards.  Henry's
own mother Isabella, who had married her first lover the
count of La M1Xarche, sent over her children by him, that they
might have their share of the good things that were going,
and the soft-hearted Henry took care to provide for them all.
The throne of France was at this time occupied by Louis
IX., the most just and uprig.mt of sovereigns.  His father
Louis VIII. had bound himself to restore Normandy and
Aljou; but so far from  doing so, he had invaded and conquered Poitou.  The troubles of the early part of Henry's
reign had prevented him from making any efforts to recover
his dominions; in 1239 he landed in person at St. Malo, and
advanced as far as Nantes, but nothing of any importance
occurred.  Twelve years after, (1242,) the count of La
Marche, having done homage to Alphonse, whorl his brother
the king of France had made count of Poitou, was so stung
by the reproaches of his wife, that lie returned to Poitiers and
bade defiance to Alphonse. A war was tile natural result;
Isabella applied to her son for aid.  Henry summoned a great
council and demanded a supply of men and money; the
barons told him it was his duty to observe the truce while
it was observed by the French king.  Isabella still urged
asserting that his presence alone would suffice. Henry there.




148             HISTORY' OF ENGLAND.
fore embarked with his brother and his queen, taking withhim three hundred knights and thirty casks of silver.
Henry landed at Royan on the Gironde, whither his Gascon
vassals repaired to him, and with a force of twenty thousand
men he advanced to the town of Taillebourg on the Charente.
Louis, who had hastened from Paris, reached that place at
the same time with a far superior force. The French with
their usual impetuosity attacked and carried the bridge which
the Gascons held, (July 19,) and passed over in great numbers. Henry's troops, however, maintained the fight bravely,
till news came that a large body of the enemy had crcssed
the river lower down. Fearing to be cut off they then broke
and fled for Saintes, and the king himself narrowly escaped
captivity. Next morning the French appeared before that
town; the count of La Marche sallied forth, and an indecisive action was fought.  But the count now saw the danger
of his situation, and he resolved to make terms for himself, if
possible, with Louis.  By means of his son he succeeded.
Henry was just sitting down to table when he heard what the
count had done, and at the same moment he learned that the
townsmen had agreed to admit the French troops in the night.
It was resolved to fly without delay to Blaye, and so rapid
was the flight that the military chest and the costly ornaments
of the king's chapel were left behind.  Louis did not pursue,
as a dysentery had begun to prevail in his army, and a truce
for five years was made shortly afterwards.  The conscientious Louis, doubting of the justice of the title by which he
held the English possessions in France, was most anxious to
obtain a renunciation of them  from Henry, who on his side
demanded an equivalent.  At length, (1259,) after many
years of negotiation, an arrangement was effected. Henry
made t're renunciation, receiving in return the Limonsin,
Perigord, and Querci, and the reversion of the Agenois and
part of Saintonge.  IHe then did  homage  as duke of
Guienne and a peer of France.
Tn all his difficulties at home and abroad the feeble king?a.-ced his chief reliance on the power and authority of the
pope, to whose ambition and avarice he in return yielded himself as a ready instrument.  This was in the main most advantageous to the cause of freedom, for the clergy, as sharers in
the common evil, united with the barons in their oppositior
to the crown. The pope, who, in consequence of the contest
which he had engaged in with the emperor Frederick II.,
was immersed in debt had recourse to every possible mode




HENRY Ml.                    149
of extracting money from the clergy.  By appeals to their
generosity and duty he obtained large sums; these not sufficing, he proceeded, in imitation of the temporal princes,
to levy tallages on them. The frequency of these exhausted
the patience of the English clergy; they remonstrated; the
barons and even the king took part with them, but still the
pope triumphed, and they were obliged to pay.  Another
grievance of the clergy was what were called Provisions, by
which the pope, regardless of the rights of patrons, assumed
the power of appointing to vacant benefices. In consequence
of this, a large portion of the richest livings were in the
hands of Italians, who, after providing at a sn1ll expense
for the performance of the duty, drew the rest of the income
out of the kingdom.  The pope himself acknowledged that
the benefices thus held amounted to 50,000 marks a year,
a sum exceeding the revenues of the crown; and the fact that
Mansel the king's chaplain held seven hundred livings, will
give an idea of the extent to which pluralism was carried.
An association, named the Commonalty of England, was
formed to oppose the Provisions: its head was a knight
named Robert Twinge, who had been deprived by a Provision of his right of nomination to a living.  The principal
of the barons and clergy secretly favored it, and though it
did not number more than eighty members, it became very
formidable to those against whom  it was directed.  The
papal couriers were murdered; the foreign clergy  were
seized, thrown into private dungeons, and obliged to pay
heavy ransoms; the produce of their farms was carried off
and sold by auction or distributed among the poor. After
this had continued for eight months, the king interfered.
Twinge went to Rome to plead his cause; the pope acknowledged his right to nominate, and declared that Pro.
visions should be in future confined to the benefices that
were in the gift of spiritual bodies; thus artfully seeking to
separate the interests of the laity from those of the clergy.
In this, however, he did not quite succeed; the spirited
conduct of Robert Grosseteste, the illustrious bishop of Lincoin, who (1253) absolutely refused to admit a Provision
into his diocese, gave a check to the practice.
The pope soon made a new attempt on the property of the
clergy and laity of England. At the time when the Normans
made the conquest of the kingdom of Naples, they had subjected it as a fief to the Holy See. It had passed by marriage
to the emperors of Germany, between whom and the popes
there had long been unceasing enmity, open or concealed
13'




150             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
On the death of Frederick II., the pope, as the superior lord,
and urged by his hatred of the German princes, made an offer
of the crown to Richard earl of Cornwall, king Henry's
brother, esteemed the richest subject in Europe. The earl,was too prudent to be ca ight by the dazzling offer; the pope
nen offered the crown to the king himself for his younger
son Edmund, and the thoughtless Henry at once swallowed
the glittering bait, (1254;) he engaged to land with an army
in Italy, and bound himself to defray the whole expenses of
the war. These soon became considerable, for success was
uniformly on the side of Manfred, the natural son of Frederick, who now maintained the imperial cause. Henry
applied to his barons to aid him, but they saw through the
designs of the. pope and refused to contribute a shilling.
[  Pope and king then fell on the unfortunate clergy. This
ormer granted the latter a tenth on all the benefices in Eng.
land for five years, the goods of all the clergy who died intestate, and the revenues of all vacant benefices and of nonresidents; he also placed at his disposal the proceeds of the
crusade which he ordered to be preached against Manfred.
The bishop of Hereford, who was at Rome, drew bills to
the atwount of 150,540 marks on the prelates and abbots of
England in favor of some Italian bankers; and as it was
expected that they would prove rather restive, the legate had
orders to exert his authority to the utmost over them. When
he called them together, and told them the pleasure of the
pope and king, their surprise and indignation knew no
bounds. The bishop of Worcester vowed he would sooner
die than yield; the bishop of London declared that if the
king and pope should take the mitre off his head, he would
put a helmet in its place. The legatetold them that all
their benefices belonged to the pope, and he might dispose
of them as he pleased. He finally menaced them with excommunication, and they were constrained to yield; all the
favor they could obtain was the being allowed to deduct the
amount of the bills out of the tenths they were to pay. Still
the money did not suffice for the pope, and as Henry could
e I      raise no more, the pontiff transferred the crown to Charles
i g      of Anjou, brother to the king of France, who slew Manfred
n battle, and gained the kingdom.
i          T'he high spirit of the English barons could ill brook the
manner in which the numerous grants which they had been
induced to give to their thoughtless monarch, had been
squandersi away in inglorious projects of ambition, or lavished on foreign favorites; and various attempts were made.___                      --                         -     




HENRY III.                  151
to restrain the royal extravagance. In 1242, when about to
grant a supply, they required that it should be placed in one
ot the king's castles, under the custody of four barons, to be
appointed by the great council; and in 1244, on a similar
occasion, they demanded that four barons should be declared
conservators of the Viberties of the nation, two of whoIn
should always attend the king and watch over the expenditure,
and control the administration of justice; and that the chancellor, the justiciary, two justices of the King's Bench, and
two barons of the Exchequer should be chosen by the council, and hold their places independent of the crown. The
king would only consent to renew the Great Charter, and
wnen he got the supplies he thought no more of.ais word.
In 1l4S, when he again demanded a supply, he met only
with reproaches for his breach of faith and oppression of his
people; money was positively refused.
Want of money again (1253) compelling him to beg a
supply, he took the vow of a crusader, under the sanctity of
which he deemed himself sure of some part of his subjects'
money. The clergy deputed the primate and the bishops of'Winchester, Salisbury, and Carlisle to remonstrate with him
on his oppression of both themn and the people.  Among
other grievances they noticed the improper mode of appointing to vacant dignities: the king, who wanted not for wit,
deficient as he was in good sense, replied, " It is true I have
in this been somewhat to blame: I obtruded you, my lord
of Canterbury, on your see: I employed both threats and
promises, my lord of Winchester, to have you elected; I
acted very irregularly, my lords of Salisbury and Carlisle,
when I raised you from the lowest stations to your present
dignities. But I will correct these abuses; and you too, to
make the reform complete, ought to resign and try to be reelected in a more regular manner." They said that the
question was not to correct past errors, but to prevent their
recurrence. The king promised as before; a supply was
granted, but it was required that he should confirm the Charter in a more solemn manner than had yet been employed.
The bishops and abbots all stood holding lighted tapers in
their hands; the Great Charter was read aloud: they promnounced the sentence of excommunication against whosoever
should violate it; then casting their tapers on the ground,
they exclaimed, "May the soul of him who incurs this sentence
thus stink and corrupt in hell "  The king, who during the
reading had stood with a calm and cheerful countenance,
fho!.ino his hand on hi s heart, replied, " So help me God as




152              HJSTORY OF ENGLAND.
I shall observe and keep all these things, as I am a Christian
man, as I am a knight, as I am a king crowned and anointed  "
Yet, incapable of energy enough to keep a promise, he immediately returned to his old courses.
Hitherto Henry had been supported by the advice and
influence of his brother the earl of Cornwall, a man of energy
and talent far superior to his own: but he now lost that
support. The earl, whose good sense had led him to reject
the diadem of Naples, was not proof against the offer of that
of Germany. He went to that country, taking with him his
immense treasures, which he speedily squandered in pursuit
of the splendid phantom; for though he was crowned king of
the Romans (1257) he never was able to make his authority
acknowledged. His absence from England left the king unsustained, and the barons confederated to limit and restrain
the royal authority.
The most eminent man among the barons at this time was
Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, a -Frenchman by birth,
and younger son to the cruel fanatic who headed the nefarious
crusade which Innocent III. had preached against the sect
of the Albigenses in the South of France.* De Montfort
was married to the eldest sister of the earl of Leicester, on
whose death without issue his estates went to his sisters.
The title of Leicester fell of course to the sons of the
countess de Montfort; and as the eldest would not for the
sake of it give up the dignities he held in France, he resigned in favor of his brother Simon, who thus became earl
of Leicester, and soon after (1238) espoused the king's
sister, the dowager countess of Pembroke. The barons were
highly indignant at this match, but the talents and address of
Leicester were such that he rapidly won their affections and
those of all orders of the people. Henry committed to him
the government of Guienne, which he ruled for some years
with great vigor. He was recalled to answer charges made
against him by the archbishop of Bordeaux and some of the
Gascon nobility. In the interview with the king, the latter,
giving way to anger, called him  a traitor.  "Ha! traitor! "
cried Leicester; "if you were not a king you should repent
that insult."  "I shall never," replied Henry, " repent any
thing so much as having let you grow and fatten within my.dominions."  The efforts of mutual friends, however, reconciled them for the present.
" A name," says Lingard, " celebrated in the annals of religious
warfare." So gently are a series of some of the most bloody massacres
in the annals of popery allud-d to by the candid historian 




HENRY I1.                    153
Leicester, who enjoyed a high degree of consideration with
all orders of the people, formed at length, in conjunction with
Humphrey de Bohun high constable, Roger Bigod earlmarshal, the earls of Warwick and Gloucester, and the other
great barons, a regular confederacy for limiting the royal
authority. When, in 1258, the king, in extreme want of
money for his Sicilian war, summoned a great council to
Westminster, the barons appeared at it in full armor. On
the entrance of the king they laid aside their swords.  " Am
I then a prisoner? " cried Henry, in alarm. "No, Sir,"
replied the earl-marshal, " but by your prodigality and your
partiality to foreigners the realm is plunged in mnisery.  We
therefore require that the powers of government be intrusted
to a committee of prelates and barons, who may correct abuses
and make good laws. After some dispute the king assented,
and it was agreed that a great council should be holden at
Oxford to make all the needful regulations.
The council, which from the consequences of its acts was
afterwards named the Mad Parliament, met at Oxford on the
11th of June. The barons came attended by their vassals in
arms, and as the king had no military force, he was obliged to
submit to their dictation.  A committee of twenty-four prelates and barons, one half selected from the king's council,
the other half chosen by the barons, was appointed. Each
cwelve then selected two out of the other twelve, and these
four had the selection of fifteen persons, who were to form the
council of state. This council consisted of seven of each
party, with Boniface the primate, the queen's uncle, at its
head; the king's brother and nephew, who were of the twentyfour, were carefully excluded from it, so that the influence of
the reformers was paramount. They forthwith removed the
chancellor, the justiciary, the treasurer, and the governors of
the principal royal castles, and replaced them by men devoted
to the barons. They then commenced their measures of
reform, which were as follows: the freeholders of each
county were to choose four knights to inquire into the
damages committed in it under the royal authority, and lay
them before the council. The freeholders were also to choose
a new high-sheriff for each county; the sheriffs and the great
officers of state were to give in their accounts annually, and
parliaments * to be holden thrice in each year. To secure
the obedience of parliament, it was directed, under pretext of
saving the members trouble and expense, that twelve persons
" This word was now come into use as equivalent to Great Council
T




154             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
should represent those who were to compose the parliament,
and that whatever these should enact, in conjunction with
the council of state, should be viewed as the act of the whole.
One of the first acts of the council was to force the king's
brothers to quit the kingdom; they then obliged the earl of
Warrenne, the most powerful man of the king's friends, and
his nephew prince Henry, and finally his son prince Edward,
now a spirited youth of eighteen years of age, to take an oath
of obedience to the ordinances of the council; and when in
the following year (1059) Leicester learned that the king of
the Romans was on his return, he sent to prohibit him from
land:ng unless he engaged to take the oath also, a mandate
which that prince found it necessary to obey.
By the original agreement, all the reforms were to have
been completed by Christmas. But those who held the
power were by no means willing to part with it so soon, and
under the pretext of further important reforms being needful,
they continued in office all through the next year, (1259.)
A quarrel between Leicester and Gloucester first shook their
authority; and when at length the promised reforms were
made public, they appeared so insignificant in the eyes of
the people, that a great change took place in their affections
toward the barons. Leicester, after his quarrel with the earl
of Gloucester, had retired to France, and so many of the
barons went over to the king that he soon found himself in a
condition to resume his authority, (1261.) A bull was easily
obtained from Rome, absolving him from his oath; he displaced the justiciary, chancellor, and sheriffs appointed by the
barons, and put others in their room, and exercised all the
functions of royalty. During the following year (1262)
various interviews took place between him and the barons,
and it was proposed to refer their differences to the king of
France and the king of the Romans. Leicester, who had
returned, went back to France, declaring that he would
never trust a perjured king.
Toward the end of the year Henry went over to visit the
king of France. Leicester then returned to England, where
the discontent of the barons had revived, in consequence, it
is said, of prince Edward's partiality for foreigners.  He
speedily reorganized the old confederacy, which was now
joined by-prince Henry and by Gilbert de Clare the young
earl of Gloucester. Henry on his return (1263) having ordered the barons to swear fealty to both himself and his son,
the earl of Gloucester objected to the latter part, and retired
to Oxford, where he was joined by the malcontent barons




HENtY IM:                    155
Leicester came and placed himself at their head. They took
Worceste and some other towns, ravaged the lands of the
royalists, and advanced toward London, where the people
were generally in their favor. The king shut himself up in
the Tower, prince Edward went to secure the castle of
Windsor, whither the queen his mother was proceeding by
water; but the populace assembled, assailed her with the
vilest epithets, flung all kinds of filth into her barge, and prepared to sink it with huge stones as it should pass the bridge.
She was obliged to have recourse to the mayor for protection,
by whom she was placed in safety at St. Paul's.
The king of the Romans now attempted to mediate, but
the power of the barons was so great that the king was forced
to resign nearly the whole of the authority he had resumed.
Various causes, however, having brought over many barons to
his side, he was able to take the field once more. On this
occasion Leicester was nearly made a prisoner. He had entered Southwark with a small body of troops; the royalists
secured the gates of London; the king appeared at one side
of Southwark, the prince at the other. Leicester, deeming
destruction certain, advised his followers to assume the cross
and prepare for death like Christians: but the king having,
in compliance with the usages of the time, sent a herald to
summon theim to surrender, the populace had time to learn
their danger, and, bursting open the city-gates, to come and
relieve them. Ttie forces now being nearly equal on both
sides, it was agreed to submit to the arbitration of the king
of France. Henry appeared in person before that monarch;
Leicester, on the plea of a fall from his horse, by attorney.
The award of Louis was that the provisions of Oxford should
be annulled, the king be restored to his full authority, and a
general amnesty take place. The pope confirmed the award
and directed the archbishop of Canterbury to excommunicate
all who refilsed to submit to it, (1264.) The barons, however,
as soon as they heard of it, exclaiming that it was partial and
unjust on the face of it, refused obedience and resumed their
arms. The city of London, the Cinque Ports and adjoining
counties were entirely in their favor; the parties were nearly
balanced in the midland counties and the marches of Wales;
while the North and West of England were decidedly royalist.  Leicester, by means of his devoted partisan FitzThomas, the mayor of London, caused the citizens to enrol
themselves in a military association, and a formal convention
for mutual aid and support was sworn to by them and the
principal barons.  On this occasion the unhappy Jewus 4




156             HISTORY OF ENGLLVD.
London and some other places were plundered and massacred - a measure which no doubt was of advantage to the
circumstances of some of the confederate nobles.  The
property of the Lomnbards or Italian bankers in London also
became a prey to the partisans of the barons. The king
being joined by the Scottish border-lords, Bruis or Bruce of
Annandale, Baliol of Galloway, and Comyn, and by the Piercies of the North, the great houses of Bigod, Bohun, Warrenne and others of his own subjects, took the field once more.
He took Northampton by assault; Leicester and Nottihgham
opened their gates; he then marched southwards to the relief of Rochester, to which Leicester -was laying siege. At
the approach of the royal army, the earl, fearing for London,. aised the siege and fell back to that city; the king, having
made an ineffectual effort to recall the people of the Cinque
Ports to their allegiance, led his troops to Lewes in Sussex.
Leicester now resolved to put the whole to the hazard of a
battle. Havinog united fifteen thousand Londoners to his
army, he led it toward Lewes. At Fletching he halted, and
sent a letter to Henry, stating that it was not against him, but
his evil advisers, that they had taken arms. The reply was a
defiance on the part of the king, the prince, and the king of
the Romans, with a challenge from the two last to Leicester
and Derby to meet them in the king's court and decide the
matter by single combat. Leicester then addressed his troops,
representing to them their cause as that of justice and religion; he directed them to fix a white cross on their breast and
shoulder, (as if they were Crusaders,) and to pass the night
in devotion. In the morning the bishop of Chichester pronounced a general absolution, assuring those who fell, according to usage, of immediate admittance into heaven.
On the 14th of May the baronial army appeared before
Lewes; the royal troops, in three divisions, led by the prince,
the king of the Romans, and the king himself, advanced to
give them battle. The prince, who led the van, fell with
fury on the Londoners, who occupied that post of. honor in
the opposite army, speedily routed them, and drove them oft
the field. In his eagerness to punish them for their general
turbulence, and for their insults to his mother, he lost sight of
the rules of prudence, and instead of falling on'he rear of
Leicester's troops, he pursued them for four mile,. Leicester,
taking advantage of the prince's error, directed his whole
force against the main body of the royalists, defeated them,
and took the king of the Romans prisoner; then charging
the third division, scattered it, and -obliged ~the king himself




HENRY III                    157
to surrender. Prince Edward, on his return from the pursuit
of the Londoners, three thousand of whom had strown the
field with their bodies, found the battle irretrievably lost.
As he traversed the field the baronial troops came out and
attacked him; the king's brothers, earl Warrenne, and about
seven hundred knights instantly fled to Pevensey, and embarked for the continent. The next morning a convention,
named the Mise of Lewes, was concluded, by which the
prince and his cousin Henry d'Allmaine agreed to surrender
themselves as hostages for their fathers; all prisoners taken
during the war were to be released, and arbitrators were to
be chosen to regulate all the points of difference between the
two parties.  The number of slain in the battle is said to
hate been five thousand on each side.
Leicester was now in effect the ruler of the kingdom; he
carried the king about with him as a pageant, treating him
with apparent respect, and employing his name and authority
for his own purposes; he kept, in breach of treaty, the more
energetic king of the Romans a close prisoner at Kenilworth,
and the young princes were confined at Dover. If we credit the chroniclers adverse to him and his cause, his rule was
a complete tyranny; his ambition and his avarice knew no
borinds. He seized, they say, for himself, the estates of not
less than eighteen of the barons taken at Lewes, kept the
ransom of the king of the Romans, (though he was the earl
of Gloucester's prisoner,) and that of all the other barons,
while he told those of his own party that they should be content with having their lives and properties secured by the
victory he had gained.  He is even accused of having encouraged the piracy to which, to the ruin of all foreign
trade, the people of the Cinque Ports betook themselves, by
receiving a third of their ill-gotten gains.
One of the earliest acts of Leicester's authority was to
send persons named conservators of the peace to each county, to execute the principal functions of the sheriffs, to whom,
however,. he left their offices. These conservators caused
four knights to be chosen in each county to represent it in a
parliament, which met on the 23d of June, and which was
consequently at Leicester's devotion.  It was enacted in it
that the king should for the present delegate the power of
choosing his council to three persons, who should choose
nine councillors, to be empowered to exercise nearly the
whole royal authority; and if in any case the agreement o
two thirds of the council could not be obtained, the matte
should be reserved for the committee of three.  As thib
VOL. 1.      14




158              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
committee was composed of Leicester himself, the earl of
Gloucester, and the bishop of Exeter, and the council was of
course selected from Leicester's creatures, it is quite plain
that all that was proposed by this state machinery was to
conceal the person of the real actor from the view of the
people.
Leicester's power was nevertheless far from secure; the
pope and the king of France were both hostile to him; the
latter favored the efforts of Henry's queen to raise an army
of mercenaries for the assertion of the royal cause; the
former directed the legate Guido to proceed to England and
excommunicate Leicester and the other enemies of the king.
Leicester having menaced the legate with death if he entered
the kingdom, the bull was committed to four English prelates,
with orders to publish it. As it was against their will they
received the bull, they easily let the officers at Dover take it
from them, and as anl appeal was made to Rome, where the
pope was just dead, nothing further could be done for some
time. Leicester was equally fortunate with respect to the
qlueen's armament. This princess had collected at the port
of Damme in Flanders a large body of troops, with shipping
to carry them, but adverse winds prevailed so long that her
troops at length disbanded and dispersed, and Leicester was
thus relieved from uneasiness on this account.
The commencement of the year 1265 is rendered forever memorable by a measure destined to have the most important influence on the development of the British constitution; and which, as it has been elegantly expressed, has
" afforded proof from experience, that liberty, order, power,
and wealth are capable of being blended together in a degree of harmony which the wisest men had not before believed to be possible."  Hitherto the great councils of the
nation had consisted only of the prelates, barons, and tenants
in chief of the crown; but Leicester, in the summons for a
parliament at this time, directed " the sheriffs to elect and
return two knights for each county, two citizens for each
city, and two burgesses for each borough in the county;'
thus establishing the principle of representation, and giving
the people of the towns, who had hitherto been taxed at will,
a slara in the legislature of the realm.  By a fortunate chance
also they were allowed to sit along with the knights of the
shire, and not in a separate chamber - a circumstance which
greatly contributed to give them dignity and importance.
That Leicester could have foreseen the effects of what he was
doing is not to be supposed; the meas.:'e was one which in




HENRY I II.                   159
the natural course of things must inevitably have occurred
within a few years; deputies of the towns had sitten for the
last century in the Cortes of Spain; towns were every where
rising into importance, and becoming of too great weight in
the balance of states to be ally longer subject to the arbitrary
power of princes and nobles. Leicester may doubtless have
seen much of this, but his probable motive was merely to
add to the parliament members whom he knew to be wholly
devoted to himself, and the ready agents of his will.
As Leicester had summoned to this parliament none of
the prelates and barons but such as were devoted to him,
every thing was done at his pleasure.  After some weeks'
conference, an arrangement was made with the king and the
prince preparatory to the liberation of the latter, in which
every precaution for securing the continuance of Leicester's
power was taken.  The prince was then  (March 13) declared free by the barons; but he found his liberty but
nominal, as he was still guarded by the adherents of Leicester.
The power of this nobleman, though thus great, could not
firom its nature be permanent.  He was a foreigner, and at
most but the equal of those proud nobles over whom he had
raised himself; and though a large portion of the clergy,
irritated by the frauds and extortions of the Holy See, sup.
ported him as the champion of religion, and the people of
the towns and the lower orders in general were his partisans,
their weight was not yet able to counterpoise that of the great
barons.  Yet he at first crushed all symptoms of resistance,
and he forced Roger de Mortimer and the other marchers
of Wales to surrender their castles and submit to the sentence of parliament, by whom  they were ordered to quit
the kingdom for various periods.  He then ventured to seize
and imprison the earl of Derby under a charge of treason,,
and he meditated seizing the earl of Gloucester at a tournament at Northampton: the earl, aware of his danger, retired to his own county, and there raised the royal standard.
Leicester hastened to Hereford with the king, prince, and a
large body of knights; negotiations were entered into, by
which each party sought to deceive the other. The great
Tbject of Gloucester was to liberate the prince, whose pres.
ence would be of the utmost importance to his cause, and
it was thus effected.  Edward, under pretence of taking an
airing, obtained permission one day after dinner to ride out
of Hereford; at some distance from the town he proposed ta
his keepers to run races with their horses: they agreed,
several matches were made and run, the prince and those in




160             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the secret taking care not to engage in them. By the time,he keepers' horses were pretty well tired, it being near sunset, a man mounted on a gray horse appeared on the summit
of an adjacent hill and waved his bonnet. The prince, knowing the signal, set spurs to his horse and galloped off, attended
by Gloucester's brother, another knight, and four esquires.
The keepers pursued, but when they saw Roger Mortirrmer
and a party of armed men issue from a wood and receive
the prince, they turned back.  Mortimer conducted the
prince to his castle of Wigmore, and next day Edward met
Gloucester at Ludlow. They mutually agreed to forget all
past injuries and exert themselves to restore the king, who
should bind himself to govern by law, and exclude foreigners from his councils.
The first care of the royalists was to gain the towns on the
Severn, and break down the bridges over that river. Leicester, being thus cooped up in Hereford, lay waiting for the
tenants of the crown, whom he had summoned by writs in
the king's name; and he formed an alliance with Llewellyn
prince of Wales, agreeing to sell him for 30,000 marks all
the king's rights over that country. When joined by the
Welshinen he attempted to get over to Bristol, but, being
attacked at Newport by prince Edward, he retired and
sought refuge in Wales. His son Simon de Montfort, who
was besieging Pevensey when he received the summons to
repair to his standard, having stopped for some days at
Kenilworth, the family mansion, was suddenly fallen on by
the prince while in his bed; most of his companions were
made prisoners, and he himself escaped naked into the
castle. *
Leicester, ignorant of the fate of his son, had crossed the
Severn and reached Evesham  on his way to Kenilworth.
The prince, who was at Worcester, set out in the night, and
early in the morning (Aug. 4) arrived in the neighborhood
of Evesham.  Hle made three divisions of his forces, of which
one led by himself stood on a hill on the road to Kenilworth;
the other divisions, led by Gloucester and Mortimer, occupiea
the two remaining roads. They displayed the banners captured at Kenilworth, which caused them at first to be taken
for the troops of Simon de Montfort, but when Leicestet
ascended an eminence and viewed their numbers and array,
he saw the mistake; he then said to those about him, " The
* Tney lay out of the castle, we are told, for the sake of bathing,arly in the morning.




HENRY mI.-  -                1161l
Lord have mercy on our souls, for our bodies are prince
Edward's.". Having, according to his usual custom, spent
some time in prayer, and communicated, he charged the
prince's division.  Being repulsed, he formed his men in a
circle, and thus for some ti.me.resisted all the efforts of the
royalists. The old king, whom he still had with him, was
placed in the,front, cased in armor. One of the royalists, not
knowing who he was, wounded and unhorsed him, and would
probably have slain. him, but that he cried out, " Hold,
fellow! I am Harry of Winchester!" and the prince, who
was at hand, hearing his voice, ran up and conveyed him
to a place of safety.  Meantime Leicester's horse was killed
under him; as he fought on foot, he asked if they gave
quarter: "Not to traitors!" was the reply, and he soon fell
slain over the body of his eldest son. Of all the barons and
knights who fought on his -side, but ten remained alive.
The victory of the royalists was complete and final.
The lifeless body of Leicester was brutally mangled by
the foot soldiers of the royal army, but his remains were
afterwards removed by the king's orders and interred at the
neighboring abbey.  His memory long lived among the
populace; the title of " Sir Simon the Righteous," shows
the estimation in which he was held, and though he was
excommunicated, even miracles were ascribed to him. Of
the superior talents of Leicester both as a statesman and a
warrior few doubts can be entertained; of the purity of his
motives we have not the means of speaking with any certainty,
for our authorities are his warm panegyrists or his zealous
adversaries. Those modern writers who are the partisans of
the papacy or of royalty, of course represent him as actuated
solely by interest and ambition.
The victory at Evesham completely broke the power of
the barons.  The king of the Romans, and the other prison.,
ers made at Lewes, were set at liberty by those who held
them, in hopes that they would prove intercessors in their
behalf. A parliament met (Sept. 8) at Winchester, by which,
amnong other matters, it was enacted that the estates of
Leicester's adherents should be confiscated, and the city of
London deprived of its charter.  These rigorous measures
only served to rekindle the flame, and partial risings took
place in various quarters.:Simon de Montfort, leaving a
stout garrison in Kenilworth,' took refuge in the isle of
Axholm in the fens of Lincolnshire; he was, however, compelled by the prince to submit, and, on the intercession of
the king of the R~ommans, he was allowed to. quit the kingdom.
14*                         u




1652            HIsTORY Of E1NGLAND.
and promised a pension of 590 marks. He, however, soon
after put himself at the head of the Cinque Ports pirates, bJt
the prince led his troops against these towns, and, having
taken Winchelsea by storm, forced them  to sue for peace.
An amnesty was granted, and they swore fealty to the king.'IThl prince then marched into Hampshire, where a bold
rebel nained Adam Gordon was ravaging the country.  He
cllnle un with him in a wood near Alton, and though he was
thie most athletic man of the time, engaged him singly,
wounded, unhorsed, and made him a prisoner. In admiration
of his valor he then gave him his liberty, and restored him
to his honors and estate, and Gordon ever remained attached to his benefactor.  The garrison of Kenilworth still
held out, though blockaded by the king in person with a
large force, and the fugitives from Axholm and other places
had secured themselves in the Isle of Ely, once the retreat
of the Saxons against the Normians.
Many being of opinion that the late parliament had dealt
too severely with the adverse party, a committee was formed
of twelve prelates and barons, during the blockade of Kenilworth, to devise more moderate measures.  They divided the
offenders into three classes, to whom they gave the option of
redeeming their estates from those to whom the king had
granted them; the first being to pay a sum equivalent to
seven years' income, the second to that of five, the third to
that of two or of one year. This Dictum of Kenilworth, as
it was named, was confirmed by the king in parliament: the
garrison of Kenilworth and those in the Isle of Ely rejected
it,' but famine forced the former to surrender after a siege of
six months, and measures were about to be adopted for redu
cing the others, when the earl of Gloucester, taking a sudden
disgust, retired to his earldom, and having levied troops there,
ostensively against Roger Mortimer, suddenly marched to
ILondon and made himself master of the Tower.  The. king
and prince appearing with a large force. he submitted on receiving a free pardon, and the royal forces being then directed
against the Isle of Ely, it was reduced by a plan similar to that
employed by the Conqueror.  Llewellyn of Wales was also
forced to submit and engage to pay tribute, and the king,
having thus reduced all his opponents, held (Nov. 18, 1267)
a parliament at Marlbridge, in which several of the provisions
of Oxford were confirmed, and some new laws enacted, which
are known by the name of the Statutes of Marlbridge.
The kingdom being now at peace, prince Edward resolved
to indulge his piety and love of adventure by joining the ey
isl~~~~~~~~~~~




HENRY III                    163
cellent king of France in a crusade to the Holy Land.  He
required that the earl of Gloucester should either accompany
or follow him; he gave liberty to the earl of Derby and a new
charter to the citizens of London; and then set out, accom.
panied by his wife Eleanor of Castile and his cousin prince
Henry. Finding that king Louis had died on the coast of
Africa, and that his son Philip had given up the crusade, he
stopped for the winter in Italy.  Having sent his cousin Henry
In business to England, that prince stopped at Viterbo to be
present at the election of a pope. Here one morning (March
13, 1271) he went into a church to hear mass, and as he stood
in meditation after it was concluded, he suddenly heard a
voice cry, " Thou traitor, Henry, thou shalt not escape! " He
turned and beheld his cousins Simon and Guy de Montfort  
in full armor and their swords drawn.  He sprang to the          I,
altar; its sanctity availed him nought; he fell pierced by a
multitude of wounds.  Two priests vainly interposed; the
one was slain, the other left for dead. The assassins muti-:  ~ 
lated the body and dragged it to the church-door, where they
mounted their horses and rode away.  The church excom-           )
municated them, but they were never brought to justice.
The king of the Romans did not long survive his son; he
died of paralysis in the April of the following year, (1272,)
and seven months after he was followed to the tomb by the
king his brother.  Hle fell sick at St. Edmundsbury, and being    i
conveyed to Westminster, expired there on the 20th of:
November, in the sixty-fourth year of his age and the fifty.      X
sixth of his reign.
To draw a character of so feeble a prince as Henry III.'
would be mere waste of time.  He had not energy enough to
be either good or bad in any eminent degree.  As a private       1
person he might have gone happy and blameless through life:;
seated on a throne he was an object of contempt.
~nrZ"K~~~~~~~r~~l~~C7P~~~~'Y 1~~~~4mV M ~ ~ ~ ~   e




.64            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
CHAPTER V.
EDWARD i. (LONGSHANKS.)
1272 1307.
EDWARD was in the Holy Land when the death of his
father gave him the crown of Englandi: Acre was all that
there remained to the Christians, and the small force of one
thousand men, which the English prince had brought, could
avail but little to effect its security. Yet during the eighteen
months that he remained in the East he upheld the fame of
the blood of the lion-hearted Richard, and at his departure
(1272) he procured for those whom he had come to aid a tenyears' truce from the Sultan of Egypt. The fall of Acre,
however, was only delayed; it opened its gates in 1291 to a
Moslem conqueror, and the Christian dominion in the East
expired.
During his abode in Acre, Edward nearly lost his life by
treachery. The emir of Jaffa, pretending a desire to embrace
Christianity, had gained his confidence, and messages passed
between them. The Moslem envoy was one day admitted
alone into the room in which Edward was lying on a couch
during the heat of the day. Finding the long-sought occasion
arrived, he drew a dagger and made a blow at the prince's
heart. Edward received the stroke on his arm, rose, cast
the assassin to the ground, and despatched him with his own
weapon. But the dagger was supposed to have been poisoned,
for the wound assumed a dangerous appearance.  The prince
made his will and calmly prepared for death; the skill, however, of his English surgeon, aided by the strength of a good
constitution, effected a cure, and he was completely recovered
at the end of three weeks. To make the story more romantie, one writer adds that Edward's faithful spouse Eleanor, at
the risk of her life, extracted the poison from the wound with
her lips.
At Messina, on his way home, Edward learned the death ot
his father. On the invitation of the pope he visited Rome,
(1.273;) the greatest honors were shown him there, and
wherever he passed through Italy and Savoy. He proceeded
to Paris, and did homage to Philip the Fair for his continental dominions. As there were some disturbances in Guienre,
he deemed it right to settle them before he went to England.




.DWARD  i,.- 165t
This caused him a; delay of an entire year, during which time
he ran, a great risk of losing-his life by treachery, as it was
said. The count of Chalons, being about to hJold a tournament, sent a challenge to theking of England to appear at it.
The pontiff, whowas then at Lyons, wrote to dissuade him
from accepting it, asserting that treachery was meant.. Edward's chivalrous spirit, however, would not suffer him to de.
cine.  He appeared on the appointed day with one thousand
men, horse, and foot;: the, count's array, it is said, displayed
doable the number. The tournament began;.it was at:first
conducted with the usual courtesy, but it soon presented the
appearance of a mortal conflict. Edward himself overthrew
the count and made him his captive, and the Petty Battle of
Chalons, as it was named, terminated in -favor of the
English.-;
After regulating some commercial differences with the
countess of Flanders, Edward at length (Aug. 2) embarked
for England, where he was received with the utmost joy, and
shortly after (Aug. 19) he and his queen were crowned at
Westminster.  The king was now in the thirty-sixth year of
his age; he bore a high and well-merited reputation for all
the civil and military virtues; he possessed the respect and
affections of his subjects; his realms were peaceful and prosperous.  A  field for his ambition to display itself would
naturally present itself somewhere, and chance determined
for the project of uniting the whole island of Britain under
one sceptre, instead of wasting, like his predecessors, the
national energies in contests with France.  Wales first, and
then Scotland, were attacked by his arts and his arms.
Llewellyn prince of Wales had, as we have seen, taken an
active part on the side of the barons in the late civil wars.
He had, however, after the battle of Evesham, renewed his
fealty to king Henry; but when summoned, on that monarch's
death, to swear it to his: successor, he had refused.  After the
return of Edward,: Llewellyn was thrice summoned to appear
and do homage to the English crown, but he declined under
the pretext of his life not being safe in England.  It: would
appear that he -still kept up an intercourse with the Monttfort
family, for he was betrothed to their sister Eleanor; but this
lady, on her passage from France to Wales, was taken by an
English vessel, and, was detained by orders of the king
Edward, having assembled an army, advanced (1276) to the
frontiers of Wales; he there offered.Llewellyn a safe-conduct,
but the Welshman insisted on the liberation of his affianced
bride, and the delivery of the king's son as a hostage for his




166              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
safety. He was then, as contumacious, pronounced a rebel by
parlianlent, and a subsidy of a fifteenth was granted for the
war against him. To add to the embarrassment of Llewellyn,
his own brother David, whom he had deprived of his patrimony, was active in the English interest, and Rees of Meredith,
the head of a rival family, took the same- side. Edward,
having assembled his forces, the following midsummer (1277)
crossed the Dee in Cheshire, and marching along the coast,
made himself master of Anglesea. As his fleet commanded
the sea, the Welsh were cooped up in the barren region -of
Snowdon, and famine soon obliged Llewellyn to submit. He!: g     agreed to pay 50,0001. for the expenses of the war, to cede,~ *     the country from the Conway to Chester, to hold Anglesea as
r! ifi   a fief of the English crown, to give ten hostages, and to do
homage. The king shortly after remitted the fine, restored
the hostages, and gave his consent to the marriage of Llewell: f     lyn with Eleanor de Montfort.
Edward retired, deeming the subjugation of Wales now
complete. But the insolence of the English on the one side,
and the rooted antipathy of the Welsh to the strangers on
the other, soon disturbed the tranquillity. The people of the
ceded districts could not endure the introduction of English
~ii X    law; deeming it, for example, a great hardship that the
justiciary should hang those who committed murder, when
I. t      they had offered to pay the fine imposed in such cases by
Welsh law.  A  prophecy ascribed to Merlin also excited
their minds at this time. This ancient Cymric seer had, it
seems, foretold that when English money became round, a
prince of Wales would be crowned at London; and as Edward had lately issued a new and circular coinage, and forbidden the penny to be cut any more into halfpence and
farthings, they deemed the time of Welsh dominion to be
arrived.
The insurrection was commenced by prince David, who
on the night of Palm  Sunday, (12S2,) amid the uproar of a
tempest, surprised the castle of Hawarden, in which the justiciary De Clifford resided, and put all in it to death except
De Clifford, who was conveyed a captive to Snowdon. This
was the signal for a general rising; the Welsh every where
pouted down on the marches, and Llewellyn came and laid
siege to the castles of Flint and Rhuddlan.  Edward lost no
time in collecting troops; he raised his standard at Worcester, and thence advanced to the relief of his fortresses.
Having constructed a bridge of boats on the Menai, broad
enough to allow forty men to march abreast, he passed a body




EDWARD 1.                    167
of troops over to Anglesea. But on the sudden appearance
of the Welsh, they took fright, and fled back to the shore.
The tide had now divided the bridge, and most of them
perished in attempting to escape by the boats. As the English were, assembling troops on the southern frontier, Liewellyn now  hastened to defend the passage of the Wye.
Here one day (Dec. 11) as he was reposing in a barn on a
hill near the bridge, which was held by his people, he was
awaked by a loud shout, and the English, who had passed by
a ford, were seen ascending the hill. A knight named Adam
Franktoni camne by chance to the barn, and Llewellyn, though
unarmed, engaged him, but was run through the body by his
spear arid slain.  After the defeat of the Welsh, Frankton
returned to the barn, and it was only then that the quality of
the slain was discovered. Llewellyn's head was cut off and
sent to Edward, by whose orders it was fixed on the Tower
of London, encircled with ivy, or, as some said, silver, in ridicule of Merlin's prophecy.
When Llewellyn's death was known, most of the Welsh
chiefs hastened to make their submission. David alone, despairiing of pardon, or it may be actuated by a generous love
of independence, still held out. But his treacherous countrymen hunted him for six months through the mountains,
and at length captured hinm and his family.  He was brought
in chains to Edward; a parliament was assembled at Shrewsbury to try him; and he was sentenced " to be drawn to the
gallows as a traitor to the king who had made him a knight;
to be hanged as the murderer of the gentlemen taken in the
castle of Hawarden; to have his bowels burnt because he
had profaned by assassination the solemnity of Christ's pas.
sion, and to have his quarters dispersed through the country
because he had in different places compassed the death of his
lord the king."  This sentence, perhaps the earliest instance
of what became the usual punishment for treason, was literally executed, and Da id's head was placed beside that of his
brother on the Tower.
Edward spent more than a year in Wales to regulate the
country. He divided it like England into counties and
hundreds, and formed corporations in the towns.  He raised
castles at Conway and Caernarvon, and gave the adjoining
lands to English barons; but he left all the remaining
lands in the hands of their original proprietors.  By accident
or design the queen was at this time delivered of a son at
C(aernarvon, whom the politic Edward, to the great joy of'us new subjects, declared to be prince of Wales: and as




1J68             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
this prince soon after, by the -death of his elder bro0..er, beo
came heir to the crown, the title of Prince of Wale-s hasever since been that of the heir-apparent to tne throne of
England.
Tradition told, that fearing lest the bards who flourished
in Wales, as in all Celtic countries, should, by their patriotic
strains, again awaken in the breasts of the people the love of
independence, Edward assembled all these sons of song, and
then barbarously put them  to death:; hoping, as the poet
says, " to quench the (poetic) orb;of day " in this " sanguine
cloud."  But such an act was totally repugnant to the character of Edward, anid the charge is unsupported by a single
particle of historic evidence.
The following year (1285) was devoted by Edward to the
labors of legislation, and the three succeeding years were
spent on the continent, where the fame of his justice and
wisdom had caused him to be chosen arbitrator between the
royal houses of France and Aragon. On his return the affairs of Scotland attracted his attention and gave him employment for the remainder of his reign.
In the year 1286, Alexander III. of Scotland died by a
fall from his horse. His children by his queen Margaret, the
sister of Edward, having all died before him, the succession
came to the Maid of Norway, as the infant daughter of Eric
king of Norway, by Margaret, the daughter of the Scottish
king, was named.  Edward proposed a marriage between the
young queen and his eldest son; her father and the states of
Scotland gave  a        ready consent, the popef granted a dispensation, and the princess embarked for Scotland.  Unfortunately she fell sick on the voyage, and she breathed her
ast on one of the Orkney isles, (1290.) Immediately no less
than thirteen claimants of the throne appeared; but as it was
manifest that only the descendants of David earl of Huntingdon, brother; of William the Lion, could have a right, and as
this prince had had none but daughters, the claim could only
lie among their descendants.  John Baliol; lord of Galloway,
was the grandson of the eldest daughter; Robert Bruce, earl
of Carrick and lord of Annandale, the son of the second; John
Hastings, lord {,f Abergavenny, the grandson of the- third
This last it is evident had no claim, and the question (a du.
bious one in that age) was, whether the more remote representative of the elder, or the nearer of the second sister wqs
the heir.  To avoid an: appeai to arms, it was determined oy
the nobles that the decision should be referred to the king
of England, whose reputation for wisdom and justice stood




EDWARD I.:  169
so high, and of whose right so to do, as feudal superior of the
realm, they were probably conscious, (1291.)
Edward readily accepted the offizce of arbitrator; he advanced with a large army to the frontiers, and summoned
the Scottish parliament to meet him at the castle of Norhamn
on the-southernl bank of the Tweed. The Scots assembled
on the opposite bank, and on the appointed day their states:
appeared in the church of Norham, where they were addressed by Brabazon the English justiciary, who required
them as a preliminary act to acknowledge Edward as their
feudal superior. ~ They hesitated. " By holy Edward, whose
crown I Wear," cried the king, " I will have my rights or die
in the assertion of them."  They-.required a delay. of three
weeks in order to consult those prelates and barons: who were
still absent.  The delay was granted; at the same time an
instrument containing various historical proofs of the king's
claim was delivered to them, and they were required to state
their objections, if any, to it.: On the 2d of June the bishop:
of Bath, the chancellor, passed over to the Scottish side
of the river, and stated that as no opposition had been made
to the king's claim, he would proceed to decide.; He then
asked Robert Bruce if he was willing to abide by the decision oi Edward as sovereign lord of Scotland. He replied
in the affirmative; the other competitors did the same. Baliol was absent, (probably on purpose,) but next morning he
gave his consent, though it is said with reluctance. They
all then passed over, and met king Edward in the church of
Norha;m, where they signed an instrument to that effect. It
was resolved that they should exhibit their claims before a
council of forty Scots chosen by Baliol and Cornyn, forty
more chosen by Bruce, and twenty-four English named by
king Edward, who also required that all the fortresses of
Scotland should be put into his hands, and the military tenants of the crown swear fealty to him, that he might be enabled to carry into effect the decision of the council,. Edward
then went southwards, leaving the council to sit at Berwick.
At the expiration of a year (June 2, 1292) *he returned to
hear their decision.  But as they had not yet determined, he
directed them first to examine the claims of Bruce and Baliol, and then to dispose of those of the others.. When they
made theirt report the king laid it before the united parliament of the two nations, who decided in favor of Baliol.
Bruce and' Hastings then required:that the kingdom should
be dividetd;; this proposal, though: so manifestly- for his
interest, Edward rejected; and (Nov, 17) he pronounced
VOL. I.     15                      V




110             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
judgment in favor of Baliol, to whom, on his swearing fealty
in the fiullest terms, he restored the royal castles and gave
complete possession of the kingdom.
If we except an apparent want of generosity in taking advan
tage of the confidence of the Scottish nation to exact a forma:
recognition of his feudal superiority, there is certainly little
to blame in the conduct of Edward. throughout this transaction. An unworthy motive, probably without justice, has
been ascribed to his subsequent behavior.  By the feudal
law an appeal lay from the sentence of an immediate lord
to the court of the common superior; and as duke of Aquitaine Edward had himself been often thus cited before the
court of France. Appeals were accordingly made by Macduff, earl of Fife, and others, from the sentence of Baliol to
the king of England. Baliol, when summoned to appear and
answer the charge of Macduff, took no notice of the summons; when cited a second time he appeared in person, and
not by attorney, as he might have done, and sentence was
given against him; and for his contempt of the authority of
his liege lord, it was adjudged that three of his castles with
their royalties should be sequestrated. Baliol asked time to
consult his subjects; the request was granted; and when
the time he had required was expired, adjournment after
adjournment was made.
While Edward was thus exercising his feudal superiority
over Scotland, he became himself the object of a similar
claim from the king of France. The occasion was as follows. The crews of a Norman and an English ship having
gone ashore to water at the same place, a quarrel arose in
which a Norman was slain. The Normans in revenge attacked the first English ship they met, took out of it a merchant of Bayonne, and hanged him with a dog at his feet
out of their yards. Retaliation followed; the English were
joined by the Irish and Dutch, the Normans by the French
and Genoese mariners. Neither sovereign interfered. At
length a Norman fleet of two hundred sail, having pillaged the
coast of Gascony, put into a port of Brittany, where they were
discovered by a fleet of eighty ships belonging to Portsmouth
and the Cinque Ports. The English challenged them to
come out; the challenge was accepted, and a bloody engage.
ment ended in favor of the English, who captured. the entire
hostile fleet. The king of France now summoned Edward
as duke of Guienne to appear before the court at Paris, and
answer for the various offences alleged to have been committed
by his vassals of Guienne against the subjects of his liege




,ord.  Edward sent the bishop of London to offer compensation to those injured, provided the like was made to the
English.  This being refused, he offered to refer the matter
to arbitrators or to tile pope. Finally he sent to Paris his
brother Edmund, who was married to the mother of the
French queen.  Edmund was assured by the two queens
that as Philip merely wanted to vindicate his honor, he only
required that Edward should resign Guienne to him for forty
days, at the end of which time he pledged himself to restore
it. Edward gave his consent; a treaty to this effect was
executed; the citation against him  was withdrawn; and
possession of Guienne was given to the officers of Philip.
At the end of the forty days Edmund applied to Philip for
the performance of his promise; he was put off for some
days, and when he renewed his application he met with a
positive refusal; and though the citation had been withdrawn,
sentence of forfeiture for non-appearance was passed against
Edward.
It seems strange that so politic a prince as Edward should
thus allow himself to be swindled out of one of his fairest
possessions. It is indeed said by some that his eagerness to
make himself master of Scotland rendered him careless of
Guienne; but there is no clear proof of his having any designs on Scotland at this time, and a more probable reason
is assigned by those who say that there was a treaty of marriage on foot between him, he being now a widower, and the
sister of Philip, and that he wished Guienne to be settled on
his issue by that princess; for which purpose it was necessary to surrender it to the superior lord in order that an enfeoffment to that effect might be executed.
Edward was not a man to submit tamely to such a flagrant
injustice.  He raised money, collected an army, sent to
excuse himself to his Gascon vassals for having given them
up, and formally renounced his allegiance to Philip. But
adverse winds detained him for seven weeks at Portsmouth,
during which time the Welsh, thinking he was gone, rose in
arms, slaughtered the English who were in their country, and
ravaged the marches. The king went in person against
them, and speedily reduced them to obedience. Their leaders were sentenced to confinement during pleasure in different
castles, and their estates given to their heirs.  Henceforth
Wales remained peaceable and quiet.
Edward was again about to set forth to recover his continental dominions, when he received information that the
Scots, impatient of his yoke, had concluded an alliance with
the king of France, and that a match had been contracted




HISTORY O-F.ENLAND).
between Philip's niece and Baliol's eldest son. - The Scots,
moreover, as they distrusted the timid temper of their king,
had given him a council of four bishops, four earls, and four
barons, in whose hands the government now really lay. This
intelligence determined Edward not to quit England; he
sent his brother Edmund with some troops to Guienne, and
then, to put Baliol to the test, he required him as his vassal:
to lid him in the recovery of Guienne; he next demanded.
that the castles of Jedbur.gh,'Roxburgh, and Berwick should
be put into his hands: by way of security-; and finally sum-.
moned him to appear before him  at Newcastle-upon-Tyne
the following March.: None of these demands being com.
plied with, Edward advanced-to Newcastle (March, 1296) at
the head:of thirty thousand foot and four thousand horse:
The Scots, who had concealed their king in the highlands, pre —
pared for defence. To draw away king Edward they made;
an inroad into Cumberland, but, regardless of this, he crossed
the Tweed at Coldstream, and sat down before Berwick:
which was carried by assault the next day; and its garrison of
seven thousand men put to the sword. Warrenne earl of
Surrey was then sent with a large force to besiege the castle
of Dunbar, whose garrison agreed to surrender if not relieved within three days. On the third day (April 27) the
Scottish army of forty thousand foot and five thousand horse
appeared on the hills beyond the town. Warrenne fell back
a little to prepare for battle.  A cry of " They run! " rose
in the Scottish lines, and the whole army precipitately
poured down into the valley to destroy the fugitives; but
here they encountered the firm, close-set lines of an English
army. The conflict was short; the Scots fled on all sides,
leaving ten thousand of their number dead on the field.
Scotland was conquered in this battle. Dunbar, Jedburgh,
Roxburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling opened their gates. Ba.
liol came in person to Kincardin, (July 2,) and made a formal
surrender of his kingdom.  Edward advanced as far as Elgin
without meeting any resistance.  He then returned to Berwick, where having held a parliament and received the hornage of the Scottish nation, he retired, leaving earl Warrenne
guardian of the kingdom. The principal offices of statewere
given to Englishmen, and the more potent Scottish nobles
were obliged to come and reside south of -the Trent.  Edward carried away with, him the regalia and the fatal stone.
chair at the  abbey of Scone, in which the Scottish. kings
were:wont to be crowned, and which was regarded.as:the
palladiuni of the kingdom: he deposited -it in Westminster
Obbey. It isr also said, but without any proof whatever. that




EDWARD i..'73
he ordered all ithe records which contained proofs of Scottish
independence to be destroyed.
Baliol was assigned the Tower of London for a residence,
and he was allowed the full range of a circuit of twenty miles.
round London. At the end of three years he obtained
permission to retire to his estates in Normandy, where he
spent the remaining six years of his life, more happy, probably,
than when ruling over the turbulent Scots.
While Edward was engaged in Scotland, the whole of
Guienne, except Bayonne, fell into the hands of the French
prince.  Edmund died soon after his arrival, and the earl
of Lincoln took the command. The king, on his return
from Scotland, made vigorous preparations for the war with
France.  His plan was to attack it on the side of' Flanders,
and with this design he had formed alliances with the emperor, the earl of Flanders, and other princes.  He. also intended to continue operations in Guienne, and he proposed
putting the forces destined for that province under the constable Humphrey Bohun earl of Hereford and the marshal
Roger Bigod earl of Norfolk. But to his surprise these nobles positively refused, alleging that their office only obliged
them to attend his person in the wars. " By God, sir earl,"
cried the enraged monarch to the constable, "you shall
either go or hang." "By God, sir king," replied the undaunted earl, " I will neither go nor hang."  They then retired from court with about thirty of the barons, and, as they
refused to execute their office in mustering troops, the king
appointed a temporary marshal and constable for the purpose.
As we shall return to the subject, we will here only observe
that the two earls were not disloyal to their sovereign on this
occasion; they only wished to set bounds to the arbitrary
conduct which he had strongly displayed in his mode of
raising money for his intended expedition.
At length the king crossed the sea with a large army, but
no action of any importance took place. A truce for two
years was concluded, and finally (1297) through the mediation
of the pope a peace was made; the French king restoring
Guienne to Edward, who himself married that monarch's
sister Margaret, and affianced the prince of Wales to his
uaughter Isabella.
While Edward was absent in Flanders, an insurrection
against his authority broke out in Scotland. Earl Warrenne,
being obliged to return to England on account of his health,
left the direction of affairs to Ormesby the justiciary, and
Cressingham the treasurer; the former was a harsh, austere
15 *




t74              HISTORYe OF ENGCLAND.
man; the latter was an ecclesiastic deeply infected with ava.
rice. By these men the Scots were made to feel keenly their
national degradation; several gentlemen were outlawed or
imprisoned for refusing or delaying to take the oath of allegiance. We need no proof that the subordinate English
agents faithfully imitated the insolence of their superiors.
One of these officers having offered an affront to William
Wallace, a gentleman of small fortune in the west of Scotland, the latter, who was a man of gigantic stature and great
strength and courage, struck him dead on the spot. Knowing then that he had no mercy to expect, Wallace fled to
the woods, the retreat of those who feared punishment for
their patriotism or their crimes.  His superior powers of
mind and body soon raised him to command, and he carried
on, with great ability and success, a guerilla-warfare (as it is
now named) against the English and their adherents.  In
concert with sir William Douglas, another leader of outlaws,
he made a bold attempt to surprise the justiciary at Scone;
but Ormesby, having had timely notice, fled into England.
Many of the other English officers followed his example; the
Scots rose in various parts and massacred such of the English
as fell into their hands.  The fame of Wallace and Douglas
increased every day, and they were joined at length by the
bishop of Glasgow, the steward of Scotland, sir Alexander
Lindsey, sir Andrew Moray', sir Richard Lundin, and other
chiefs.  The young earl of Carrick* hesitated how to act.
At first he went to Carlisle when summoned, and renewed
his fealty; then he changed and tried to raise Annandale,
and he finally repaired with his own retainers to the camp
of the patriots.
But meantime earl Warrenne had by Edward's orders
calied out the forces of the six northern counties, and two
English armies entered Scotland. At Irvine (July 9) one
of them, led by Warrenne's nephew Henry Percy, came up
with the Scottish forces. As dissensions had broken out
among the patriotic chiefs, and they feared the result of a
battle, they all, with the exception of Wallace and Moray,
hastened to make their submission and obtain their pardon.
These last two chiefs moved northwards with the greater part
of the forces, and they were joined by the tenantry of several
noblemen, secretly encouraged by their lords. Warrenne
advanced with a large army to Stirling, near which Wallace
* Bruce, the clainlant of the throne, was dead; his son was at this
time with Edward. This was his grandson.




EDWARD 1.                    1'5'a with forty housand men at a place called Cambuskenneth,
Oi thie opposite side of the Forth, over which river there was
oniy one bridge, of wood, and merely broad enough to allow
two men to go abreast. Lundin, who was now with Warrenne, strongly advised him not to attempt this passage in the
face of an enemy; but the earl, urged by the impetuous
Cressingham, took no heed of the admonitionl. ILed by Cressingham and sir Marmiaduke Twinge, the English began to
cross the bridge, (Sept. 11.)  Wallace waited patiently on
the hills, where he lay till about five thousand men were over,
and then having sent round a part of his force to secure the
head of the bridge, he gave orders to pour down on them;
and the whole were speedily slaughtered in the presence of'
their leader, who could give them no aid.  Cressingham was
amnong the slain, and the vindictive Scots, it is said, flayed
his body and made thongs for their horses out of the skin.
Warrenne lost no time in making  his retreat into England,
and toward winter Wallace and Moray crossed the borders
aid ravaged the northern counties during an entire month.
Wallace was made " guardian of the kingdom and general
of the armies of Scotland," under whic!h title he summoned a
parliament to Perth.  But the sun of his glory w-as soon to
set.  Edward, who had returned, was now (1-29S) on his way
to Scotland, and when he joined earl Warrenne at Berwick
he found himself at the head of seven thousand horse and
eighty thousand foot, chiefly Welsh and Irish. He advanced to
the Forth; want of provisions forced him to fall back; and,
hearing that Wallace lay with his army in the forest of Falkirk, in order to harass him  in his retreat lie moved in that
direction.  Having halted for the night on the moor of Linlithgow, the English, on advancing next morning, (July 22,)
found the enemy posted behind a morass.  Wallace had
drawn tp his pikemen in four circular masses, called Schiltrons, connecte(l by lines of archers from the forest of Selkirk.
lHe had stationed his cavalry in the rear.  Having made this
judicious arrangement, he cried, " I haif brocht you to the
king, hop (dance) gif ye can." One division of the English
got entangled in the morass; a second, led by the bishop of
Durham, went round it; the prelate then ordered his men to
halt till the other divisions came up. " To thy mass, bishop!"
cried a kaight, and dashed on against the Scottish cavalry,
who fled at the first charge. The line of archers was speedily
broken, but the pikemen stood firm, till the English archerr
and the military engines having played on them, and openings
being effected in their circles, the horse rushed into them




176             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and cut the brave Scots to pieces. The loss of the Scots is!ariously stated at from fifteen to fifty thousand men. Wallace escaped, but he could only resume his former predatory
courses.
After his victory Edward traversed the country in all direc.
tions without meeting any resistance.  Want of provisions,
however, soon obliged him to retire, and Galloway and all the
country north of the firths remained in the hands of the Scots,
whose affairs were now guided by the bishop of St. Andrews,
Bruce earl of Carrick, John Comyn, and John de Soulis
acting as regents in the name of John Baliol, (1299.) They
laid siege to the castle of Stirling, which, not being relieved
by Edward, was forced to surrender.
The Scots had applied to pope Boniface VIII. to interfere
in their behalf, and in the course of this summer the pontiff
wrote a letter to Edward, in which, after asserting that Scotland belonged in full right to the Roman see; he proceeded
to detail the proofs of its independence of the English
crown, with which the Scots had furnished him; and contluded by boldly reserving to his own decision every point
at issue between the king of England and the king or people
of Scotland. This bull was so long delayed that it did not
reach Edward till after his return from Scotland in the following summer, (1.300.)  A truce, at the desire of the king
of France, having been concluded with the Scots, a parliament
met (Feb. 1301) to take it into consideration. This assembly
in the strongest and most emphatic terms denied the right of
the pope to interfere in the temporal concerns of the crown of
England, and declared that they would not suffer the king.
even if so inclined, to yield to any of those pretensions contained in the pontiff's letter; for whose satisfaction as a friend,
though not as a judge, a long reply to that letter was drawn
up. In this reply the fabulous pages of Geoffrey of Monmouth
and his story of Brute the Trojan were treated as real history,
and quoted as authority. The Anglo-Saxon and Norman
periods were then gone through, and every instance of homage
done by Scottish princes was enumerated.  This reply, when
sent to Rome, was given by the pope to the Scottish agent,
and by him transmitted to the regency, who were not slow to
frame a counter-statement.  Here the mythic history of
Ireland was opposed to that of England; the Saxon history
was set aside, as Edward, being a Norman, could not claim
from  the Saxons: the Norman  instances were denied;
Edward's refusal to submit to the decision of the pontiff was
ascribe to his sense of the weakness of his cause; and it
1. ____________,,__,______________.,,,  _




EDWARD 1.                     177
was asserted that Scotland is the peculiar property ofthe Holy
See, Constantine having bestowed on it all the isles of the
West.
Whatever might be the strength or justice of the Scottish
arguments, Edward set them  at nought.  Having concluded
a peace with the king of France he prepared for tile final
reduction of Scotland.,In:,the: spring of 1303 John de
Segrave, whom he had made governor of that kingdom, set
out by his orders with about twenty thousand men for Edinburgh.  He led his forces without much precaution, and on
coming to Rosslyn he divided them into three parts, each of
which encamped separately.. Early next morning (Feb. 24)
the first division, under Segrave himself. was fallen on before
they were up by a body of eight-thousand Scottish horse, led
by Comyn the governor and sir Simon Fraser, and was completely routed, Segrave himself being made a prisoner. The
second division now came up; the Scots, having previously
put their prisoners to death, fell on and routed it also. The
third division now  appeared; again  the  prisoners were
massacred, and again the English were defeated.
This success raised the hopes of the Scots; but erelong
the king appeared with a force which it were folly to resist.
They hoped to defeat him like Warrenne at the bridge of
Forth, but he crossed that river by a ford.  The castle of
Brechin alone resisted; he traversed the whole North of
Scotland, and then took up his residence for the winter in the
abbey of Dumferline. Hither repaired Comyn the guardian
and the other nobles, and (Feb. 9, 1304) a treaty was concluded, securing them in their lives and estates, subject to
such fines as pl)rliament should impose.  Some of the more
turbulent or influential were required to leave the kingdom
for different periods.  Wallace was invited to submit with the
rest,* b7it actuated by patriotism or some less worthy motive,
he preferred the life of an outlaw.  Stirling castle, strong by
its position on a rock, still held out, and Edward was obliged
to invest it in person.  After a brave resistance of three
months a surrender was agreed on, and Oliphant the governor
and twventy-five of the garrison came down, as was the custom
in such cases, barefoot, in their shirts, with halters about
their necks.  Edward advanced to meet them; they fell on
their knees and implored his favor.  "  have none for you,"
* C Et quant a monsieur Gullliam de Galeys est accorde, qui'il se
mette en la volunte et et la grace nostre seigneur le Roy si luii semble
que bon soit." -Ryley, 70.
or




178              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
said the king; "you must surrender at discretion."  They
assented. " Then," said he, " you. shall be hanged as traitors."
" Sir," said Oliphant,-" we own our guilt; our lives are at
your mercy."  The rest also declared themselves guilty and
sued for mercy. The king.turned aside, and it is said dropped
a tear; he then ordered them to be conducted into England,
out not in chains. A few months after Wallace was betrayed
by his sern ant to sir John Monteith. He was brought up to
London, where he was arraigned for murder, robbery, and
treason. To the two first charges he pleaded guilty, but lihe
denied that he was a traitor, as he had never sworn fealty to
Edward.  He was found guilty and executed: his head was
placed on the Tower; his four quarters were sent to different
parts of Scotland for a similar exposure.*
The following year, (1305,) Edward, after consulting with
Wishart, bishop of Glasgow, Robert Bruce, and John
MIowbray, all Scots, and asserters of Scottish independence,
prepared to draw up a plan for the government of Scotland.
By this the places of trust were to be put into the handl, of
natives and Englishmen conjointly; the laws of Scotland
were to continue of force; and an amnesty was passed on
condition of fines being paid, which, however, were to be spent
in Scotland for the benefit of that kingdom, (Oct. 15.)
Edward now deemed that he had secured his dominion over
Scotland; but never was an expectation more fallacious, for
four months were hardly passed when Scotland was again in
insurrection.  Baliol being now dead and his son a captive iin
the Tower, the task of maintaining the rights of the family
had fallen to his nephew John Comyn of Badenoch, whom
we therefore have seen of late years acting as head of the
nation. Robert Bruce, the grandson of Baliol's competitor,
a young man about twenty-three years of age, was now the
head of the rival house. These two noblemen having
repaired to Dumfries, on what account is not certainly
known,t Bruce (Feb. 10, 1306) requested Comyn to give
him a private meeting in the choir of the church of the
Minorites.  They met; what their discourse was remains
unknown; high words arose, and Bruce drew his dagger and
plunged it into Comyn's bosom. Comyn fell; Bruce hurried
out of the church pale and agitated.  " I think I have killed
Comyn," said he to his friends whom he met without. " You
only think so! " cried sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, " I will secure
him," and he and the rest rushed into the church.  Seaton,
* See Appendix (K.)     t See Appendix (L.)




EDWARD I.                    179
Bruce's brother-in-law, there slew Comyn's uncle, who had
hastened to the spot, and Comyn himself, who was still alive,
was despatched by Kirkpatrick.
After this daring deed Bruce, despairing of pardon, assumed
the title of king. The people favored his pretensions, and he
was crowned (March 27) at Scone.  But erelong the English
ibrces poured into Scotland, where they were joined by the
adherents of Comyn; and Bruce being defeated (June 24)
at Methven near Perth, became a wanderer in Athol and
Breadalbane.  His little band was again dispersed, and,
having made his way to the coast, he sought refuge in the
isle of Rathlin, on the coast of Ireland, where he remained
concealed for the winter. King Edward, though broken b)
age and disease, had resolved to avenge the murder of Comyn.
He knighted the prince of Wales and a numberof the young
nobility. At the banquet held on this occasion he vowed
before God and the swans, which according to usage were
placed on the tabie, to punish the Scottish rebels; and he
prayed the cormpany, if he died, not to let him be buried till
his son had performed his vow. The prince and nobles also
swore, and the king then set out for Carlisle, where he issued
orders for the trial of such of Bruce's adherents as had been
made prisoners; and the earl of Athol and some others were
executed as traitors.
In the spring (1307) Bruce re-appeared and gained some
advantages.  The king, finding his health somewhat improved, assembled a large army at Carlisle, and put himself
at its head to enter Scotland  but he had only gone five miles
to a place named Burgh-on-the-Sands, when the violence of
his disorder obliged him to stop, and the next day (July 7) he
breathed his last, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and the
thirty-fifth of his reign.
It has justly been said of this great monarch, that he" is
the model of a politic and warlike king." In person, though
his linibs were too long and slender, (whence his name of
Lonogshanks,) he was imposing and handsome; he was skill.
ed in all martial exercises; his courage was undoubted; his
manners were courteous and affable. Though arbitrary in
temper, he was a lover of justice, and the money which he
raised by his sole authority from his people was employed
with frugality for national objects.  In a word, there was in
him much to admire, and, considering his times, little to
condemnl; for the maxims of feudal law justified in a great
measure his conduct toward Wale and Seclland. We may




180             HISTORY r'F ENGLAND.
perhaps venture to style him the greatest of the house of
Plantagenet.
By his first queen Eleanor of -Castile whom he tenderly
loved, Edward had four sons and eleven daughters, of whom
only one son, Edward, and four daughters, survived him; by
Margaret of France he had two sons, Thomas earl of Norfblk and earl marshal, and Edmund earl of Kent, and one
daughter who died before him.
In a legal and constitutional point of view the reign of
Edward I. is one of the most important in our history, in
which it on this account forms an epoch. The Confirmation
of the Charters, of which the following is the history was
the great constitutional measure of his reign.
Edward, as we have said, though he spent it frugally, exacted his subjects' money arbitrarily. He leaned very heavily on the church. The reigning pontiff, the ambitious Boniface VIII., had issued a bull menacing with excommunication any prince who taxed the church without his consent.
When therefore the king, on the occasion of his war with
France in 1296, demanded of the clergy a fifth of their movables, they pleaded the bull, and the primate Winchelsea
told him that they owed obedience to two masters, of which
the spiritual was the greater. The king, instead of applying
to the pope in the usual manner, told them that as they
would not support tile government they were not worthy of
its protection, and he forthwith outlawed them. They now
were robbed, plundered, and abused by every ruffian that
chose to do so, and the law would give them no redress.
They gradually therefore made their peace with the king,
vielding to all his demands.  But these supplies and those
granted by parliament not sufficing, he proceeded to seize
the wool and leather in the hands of the merchants, to force
the counties to supply him with corn and cattle, (for all which
indeed lie promised payment at a future day,) and finally required the personal service of every holder of land, to the
value of 201. a year. It wfas then that the constable and
marshal m-ade the bold stand against him above narrated,
finding that they were supported by the nobility, he sought to
make a peace with the church, and he appointed the primate
one of the tutors of his son, whom he was leaving guardian
of the realm. He even condescended to apologize publicly
for his exactions, ascribing them to necessity, and promis'.ig
amendment.  The two earls did not then venture any further




EDWARD I.LI. -8i
than to' draw up a remonstrance against his violations of the
Charters, which was presented to him as he was; embarking
at Winchelsea, and to which he gave an evasive reply   But
when he was gone they came up to patliarnent, when suinmoned, with a large body of both horse and foot, and refused
to enter the city till the gites were committed to their
custody. The primate, who was secretly in their interest,
advised the council to comply, and they thus became masters
of the prince and parliament. Their demands, however, were
most moderate; they only required that the charters should
be solemly confirmed, a clause be added securing the nalion forever against taxation without consent of parliament,
and pardon for their refusal to attend the king. The prince
and his council assented to these terms; they were sent over
to the king, who after so-me delay and with great reluctance:
gave them his confirmation. On his return the earls insisted
that he should confirm them anew, and- after evincing great
repugnance, and having recourse to every subterfuge, he was
obliged to yield. He afterwards obtained from the pope a
dispensation from his oaths; but the spirit of the people was
too strong for him or the papal bull, and the Great Charter
was thus finally and firmly established. The names of Humphrey Bohun and Roger Bigod must ever rank among those
of England's most illustrious patriots. In defence of the
rights of the people they withstood and overcame the most
able and energetic of her monarchs.
The present constitution of parliament was fully established in this reign, Edward finding it more for his interest in
general to let his people tax themselves, and grant a subsidy,
as it was now termed, than to employ the old mode of tallaging; not but that he still had recourse to that arbitrary mode
of raising supplies till the Confirmation of the Charters was
wrung from him. Scutage also now went out of use, the
tenants in chief paying a subsidy like the citizens and
clergy.
The improvements in the law which were mhade in his
reign have obtained for Edward the title of the English Justinian..The limits of Athe jurisdiction of the several courts
of law were fixed; the itinerant justices were directed to.
hold assizes thrice a year in each county.  By the celebrated
statute of Winchester effectual provisions were made for tk.e
public security. It enacts that every host shall be answerable for his guests; that the gates of towns shall be kept
locked from sunset to sunrise; that when a robbery is committed the hue and cry shall be made after the felon, and
VOL. 1.      16




182             HISTORY OF.ENGLAND.
every man be ready to follow it armed; the hundred to be
answerable for the damage if the robber is not taken. For
greater security to travellers, the trees and underwood were to
be cleared away for a space of two hundred feet on each side
of the highway. Officers named Conservators'were appoint-!,.'     ed to carry these provisions into effect, whose powers were
i~ l'      gradually extended and their title changed to that of Justices
of Peace.
The statute of entails, which so mainly contributes to
keep up the wealth and influence of the nobility, and to prevent the division or alienation of landed property, which is so
ii,I!    detrimental to the interests of an aristocracy, is also to be referred to this reign.  To check the clergy in their schemes
for the acquisition of land, Edward caused to be passed the
di tstatute of mortmain; this, however, they contrived to elude
Ki        by what were called uses; but the ingenuity of the common
law lawyers equalled theirs; each new device was met by an
appropriate remedy; and the law finally triumphed over the
church.
It is remarkable that Edward, who was so little of a bigot
in general, showed himself a fanatic in respect of the Jews.
One of the consequences of the Conquest had been the es-.*,.'    tablishment of this people in England, where they followed
it l       their usual trade of lending money, and were also the import-,i i      ers of the rare and precious commodities of distant countries.
Their rate of interest was enormous, owing to the insecurity
Ad i~i    of payment; the church had infused a prejudice  against
i: to,   lending at all on interest, and the Jews, on this account, and as
il l'     the enemies of Christ, were objects of hatred to the people.
But the crown protected them, though it made them pay dear
i: i0i     for its favor. They were in fact regarded as the property of
the king, and all that they possessed was his, and might be
seized at his pleasure.
In 1287 Edward threw the whole of them into prison till
i~         they paid a sum of 12,0001., and in 1290, he confiscated
their property avd banished them the kingdom.*'  * They did no eappear in England till the time of the Commnon
wealth.'I.




EDWARD II.                   183
CHAPTER VI.
EDWARD II. (OF CARNARVON.)
1307-1327.
EDWA.RD II. was twenty-three years of age when he suo
ceeded to the.throne. He was handsome in person and amiable in temper; but.he was weak in mind and fond of pleasure- in all things the opposite of his illustrious sire. He
was exceedingly.attached to a young man of his own age
named Piers Gaveston, the son of a Gascon knight, whom
the late king had given him as a companion. Gaveston,
though brave, witty, and accomplished, was dissipated and insolent, and the king, finding his society injurious to the
prince, had banished him the realm, and bound his son by
oath never to recall him without his permission.  This injunction he solemnly repeated when he summoned the prince,
who was going to London, to the side of his sick-bed at Carlisle. At the same time he charged him, in case of his own
death, not to intermit the Scottish war; and it is added,
made him swear that when he was dead he would cause his
body to he boiled in a caldron till the flesh was separated
from the bones, which last he should always have carried
btfore him when marching against the Scots.
The new king had not sufficient strength of mind to refuse
an oath, or to keep it when taken.  His first act was to issue
an order for the return of Gaveston; he buried the body of his
father at Westminster; and, after marching a little way into
Scotland, where he was joined by Gaveston, he retired and
disbanded his army. Even before the favorite's return the
royal duchy of Cornwall had been conferred on him; the
royal officers were now changed at his pleasure; he was
made lord chamberlain, and married to the sister of the earl
of Gloucester, the king's niece.  A large grant of lands in
Guienne was bestowed on him, and at Christmas, when Ed..
ward.was departing for France to do his homage for Guienne
and espouse tile princess Isabel, Gaveston was appointed
guardian of the realm. On the king's return with his lovely
bride, (Feb. 1308,) the guardian and the barons of the realm
came, as usual, to meet him; Edward, regardless of decorum, the moment he beheld Gaveston, rushed into his arms,
kissed him and called him his brother; of the other nobles




184              HISTORY:Or E NGLAND.
he took little heed.  At the coronation, (Feb. 24,) a the
mortal offence of the ancient nobility, the high honor of
carrying the crown before the king -was assigned to the favorite. Their indignation now knew no bounds, and three
days afterwards they met: and petitioned, the king to banish
him.  Edward put them  off till Easter, but he was then
obliged to comply.  Gaveston hinlself was made to swear
that he would never return, and the bishops pronounced him
excommunicate if he broke hi's oath.:''The' king made hTiim
new grants of land and accompanied nim to'-Bristol, where
he embarked, and the barons to their surprisesoon learned
that he was governor of Itdland.''         - 
The causes of the enmity of the nobles to Gaveston are'
to be sought not' merely in their p'atriotism, or their national
or family' pride: the personral vanity of many of them  had
been wounded on various occasions.  Gaveston, who excelled in martial exercises, had unhorsed the earls of Lancaster, Hereford, and'others in the tournaments, and his
biting wit had affixed nicknames, on many of them,* which
mortified more than serious injuries.  When'he was no
longer present, however, their resentment gradually cooled,
and the king found means to induce them to allow of his
return; the pope absolved him from his oath, and Edward
hastened to Chester to meet him, (1399.)  But, untaught by
experience, both the king and his minion went on in their
old courses.  The barons refused to attend a parliament
summoned to York. As the king's necessities were urgent,
Gaveston was obliged to conceal himself in Flanders, and
the parliament then met at Westm'inster, (Feb. 1310.'
The barons, as they were wont when intending to utimidate their sovereign, came attended by their armed vassals.
The king was obliged to consent to the appointment of a
committee of eight earls, seven bishops, and six barons, who
under the title of Ordainers were to regulate his household
and redress the national grievances.  He then prOceeded to
the north, where he was rejoined by (Gaveston, orn whom he
lavished more wealth and'honors, and in August he returned
to London to receive the' aiticles of.reform which had been
drawn up.'These articles tended'chiefly to limit the'ex:
cesses of the royal authority, and-to: give parliament a control in the appointm'ent of public'officers,' and it was ex* ie called Lancaster f' the old ihog)?" and "the stage-player
Pembroke, " Joseph the Jew;" Gloucester, ".the cuckold's bird -
and Warwick, " the black dog of the' wood." 




EDWARD IL.                   15
pressly provided that Gaveston should'be Eb nished the king's
dominions.  Edward after a long resistahce consented to
sign them; but;he previously made a protest, with a view'
probably to a future evasion. Gaveston and he parted with;
tears, (Nov. 1,) and the favorite retired to Flanders., The
king dissolved the parliament and returned to the horth, and
before, Christmas the barons learned with surprise and indignation that Gaveston had rejoined him' at York. By a
royal proclamation it was stated that he had returned  in
obedience to the king's orders,: and a new grant was made
him of his estates and honors.
The barons saw that there:was an end of'all hopes' of
weaning the king from Gaveston, and that they or the fa/vorite must fall. A new confederacy was formed, (1312,) of'
which the head was Thomas earl of Lancaster, grandson of
Henry III., the possessor of five earldoms; and the' primate"
gave it his countenance.  Having assembled' under the
pretext of a tournament, they proceeded to Yor k,'and finding
that the king was at Newcastle they followed him thither.
Regardless of the tears and entreaties of his queen, Edward
fled with his favorite to Tynemouth, and thence by sea to
Scarborough, where leaving Gaveston in the castle he returned
to York. Gaveston was besieged by the earls of Surrey and
Pembroke, and finding the place untenable he surrendered to
Pembroke on condition of being reinstated in it if no acconmmodation could be effected within two months. Meantime
he was to be confined in his own castle at Wallingford.  On
the way thither he halted at Pembroke's castle of Dedington
near -Banbury, where that earl left him  with only a few
servants.  He, went to rest without suspicion; before dawn
he was desired to dress himself'and come forth; at the gate
he found the earl of Warwick and a large force; he was
placed on a mule and led to Warwick castle, where shouts
of triumph and martal music greeted his arrival.  The confederate lords sat in'council; it was proposed to save his life,
but one of the party observed," You have caught the fox  if
you let him go,you will have to hunt him again."  His death
was resolved on; in. vain he threw himself at:the feet of
Lancaster and implored for mercy; he was taken to' an
adjacent: heath and there beheaded. The, intelligence of
this atrocious deed threw the king into a paroxysm of grief
and rage. Time and circumstances, however, gradually
cooted'his anger ot faiught-hihm to conceal it, and'toward the
end of the following year (1313):he -and'his:barOns Wiie  to
all appearance fully reconciled.
16*                        x




186             HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Scotland now claimed all the attention of the English king
While Edward had been engaged in supporting his insolent
favorite against his barons, Bruce had gradually made himself
master of all the strong places held by the English. News
arriving (1314) that the governor of Stirling had agreed to
surrender if not speedily relieved, Edward summoned his
military tenants to meet him at Berwick. But various difficulties being thrown in his way, and Lancaster, Warwick,
and other lords disobeying the summons, he did not reach
Stirling till the day before that of the promised surrender,
and with a force far inferior to what he' had calculated on.*
He found Bruce's army arranged in three square columns,
and extending from the burn, or brook, of Bannock to near
the castle, with pits having sharp stakes placed in them, and
covered with hurdles and sods, to protect its left wing. The
men of Argyle, Carrick, and the Isles formed a reserve under
Bruce himself. His entire force amounted to about fortythousand men, and fifteen thousand camp followers lay in a
valley at some distance, with directions to show themselves
during the conflict.
That very evening a skirmish took place between the advanced posts, in which Bruce clove with his battle-axe the
skull of a knight named Henry de Bohun. At daybreak
(June 24) the Scots, having heard mass from the abbot of
Inchaffray, formed in line of battle; the abbot again prayed,
and the whole army fell on their knees. "They kneel,"
cried some English, " they beg for mercy."  "Be not
deceived," replied Ingelram de Umfraville, "they beg for
mercy; but it is only from God."  The English infantry and
archers advanced; the Scots received them boldly; the
conflict was long and dubious; Bruce brought up his reserve;
some men-at-arms took the English in flank, and they broke
and fled. The earl of Gloucester then led on the horse to
renew the engagement, but the slight covering of the pits gave
way under their weight, and men and horses were overthrown.
The appearance of those who lay in the valley completed
the dismay of the English, and they fled in all directions.
Edward himself never halted till he reached Dunbar, where
he embarked for Berwick. His treasure, military stores, and
engines fell into the hands of the conquerors. Many knights
and esquires were made prisoners; these Bruce treated with
* According to the poet Barbour, the great Scottish authority foi
the details of this battle, he had. 100,000 men, of whom 40,000 were
cavalry and 50,000 arche's. (Tytler, His;. of Scotland, i. 296.)




EDWARD II.                    187
kindness and with courtesy; the common soldiery were
slaughtered without mercy.
The victory of Bannock-burn secured the independence of
Scotland. Nothing can be more natural than that it should
form a topic of proud exultation to writers of that nation;
but we, who have no national predilections, may ask what was
the real gain of Scotland; ana would it not hav.e been as well,
since the whole island was to be ruled by one sceptre, if the
union had taken place then, as three centuries later, after
Scotland had endured all the evils of feudal anarchy and of
a continued state of predatory warfare with England? *
A. famine succeeded in England; the dissensions between
the king and his barons were renewed. Bruce sent his
brother Edward with six thousand men over to Ireland (1315)
at the invitation of the native chiefs, numbers of whom joined
his standard, and (1316) he was crowned king of Ireland.
Robert Bruce passed over to his aid, and they advanced to
Dublin and Limerick. But the approach of winter forcing
them to fall back to Ulster, Robert returned home, and
Edward was afterwards (Oct. 5, 1318) defeated and slain
near Dundalk. Robert after his return reduced Berwick,
(1318,) and spread his ravages to the Humber; and Edward,
having vainly endeavored to recover Berwick, agreed to a
truce for two years, (1320.)
The feeble mind of Edward, incapable of self-reliance, felt
a favorite to be indispensable. The place of Gaveston was
therefore now occupied by Hugh le Despenser, the son of a
most respectable old gentleman of the same name.  Exclusive
of any insolence of his own, the very circumstance of his
being the favorite would have sufficed to render Spenser an
object of enmity to Lancaster and the other factious barons,
and an occasion soon occurred which set them at enmity with
him. Spenser, having married one of the co-heiresses of the
earl of Gloucester, had become possessed of a large property
on the marches of Wales. John de Mowbray, who had
married the daughter of the lord of Gower, whose estate lay
contiguous to that of the favorite, on the death of his fatherin-law entered into possession of it without the usual livery of
seizin from the crown. Spenser, who coveted the lands of
Gower, now maintained that they were forfeit.  The lords of
~ Mr. Tytler bids'us look at Ireland as a proof of what Scotland in
such case would havt been. We answer this by bidding him look at
Wales. There could be no analogy between Scotland and Ireland
l'The Scots differed little from the English: in language, manners
and laws.




188              HI.STORY'OF ENGLA'D.
the marches associated (132i) for the defence of the r rights'
With a large force they entered the fav6rite-s lands took his
castles and destroyed all-his property.''They then; marched
into Yorkshire'and formed -an alliance with:'Lancaster and
the barons of his faction against-the two Spensers; and
headed by Lancaster they advanced toward London, wasting
and destroying the estates of the elder Spenser on their way;
From St. Albans they sent'a message to the king requiring
the banishment of'the Spensers; Edward retituned a spirited
refusal: they advanced'and took up their quarters about
Holborn and Clerkenwell; whence after some delay' for consultation they proceeded with armed men to Westminster,
where the parliament was sitting, and: forced the king and
barons to assent to their demands.' They'then separated and
retired to their homes.   
But ere two months were passed the king -saw-himself able
to take vengeance on them.' As the queen was on her way
to Canterbury, she proposed to pass the night at the royal
castle of Ledes. Lord Badlesmere,'the governor, was absent;
his wife refused her adnlittaigce; some of her attendants even
were slain. The queen complained loudly of the insult, the
feelings of the nation were roused, and Edward was enabled
to assemble an army, and attack and take the castle. Feeling
himself now strong he recalled the Spensers: as being banished
illegally. The confederates had again recourse to arms; they
formed an alliance with Robert Bruce,' (1323.) The king
advanced northwards; at Burton-on-Trent- Lancaster held
the royal troops for three days in check, but when they had
forded the river -he retired into Yorkshire. On reaching
Boroughbridge he found the oppe site bank of the river occupied by sir Simon Ward and sir Andrew Harclay.  Hereford
was slain in attempting to force the bridge; Lancaster having
vainly tried a ford was obliged to surrender.' He was conducted to his own castle of Pontefract, where he was
arraigned before the king and some earls and: barons.  He
was not permitted to make' any defence; iii regard for his
royal descent, the sentence of hanging passed'on him was
commuted to decapitation: he was then set on a gray pony
without a bridle; his confessor walked'by his side, the
people insulted  and pelted  him  with'mud. "-King of
Heaven," cried the unhappy nobleman, " rant me mercy,
for the king of earth has forsaken ne,"'.n an eminence
without:,the town the cavalcade halted;the:earl knelt with
his face to the east;;he was mnade to tu rn  to the -ndrth, whence
he had looked for aid, and his head was then striidk'o




EDWARD Ii.                   189
Twenty-eight of the captive-knights were hanged as traitors;
others were fined or imprisoned.. The: elder Spenser was
created earl of Winchester, and several of the forfeited estates
were bestowed on him.
Among the most important captives was Roger Mortimer
of Wigimore, one of the lords marchers of Wales. Having
managed to corrupt one of the officers of the Tower, he got
to the river, where a boat was waiting for him; on the other
side he found his servants and horses; he eluded all pursuit
and reached the coast of Hampshire, where a ship lay ready,
and passing over to France-he entered the service of king
Charles, the queen of England's brother.  This prince, under
pretence of Edward's not having appeared at his coronation
to do him homage, was planning to deprive him of his foreign dominions. It was suggested that the queen should go
over to Paris to exert her influence over the mind of her
brother. She therefore visited France (1325) with a splendid retinue, and a treaty similar to that by which Edward I
had been cajoled out of Guienne was concluded. The king,
however, agreed to this treaty, and he was on his way to go
and perform homage, when he fell sick at Dover. A proposal then came from the queen that he should resign Guienne and Ponthieu to his son, who was then but twelve years
old, and that Charles would accept the young prince's homage. Edward assented; the prince departed, promising a
speedy return; the homage was performed, but there was
no sign of the return of the queen or her son. The king
wrote in affectionate terms to both; the queen replied, urging
her fears of Spenser.  Edward in his answer alleged that
this was a mere pretence, as she and Spenser had always
been on the best terms. He also wrote to the pope and to
the king and peers of France, but all to no purpose.
The fact seems to be that the queen was now living in
adultery with Roger Mortirner, whose person and manners
had gained her affections.  Her brother, who knew not or
affected not to know her dishonor, abetted her in her opposition to her husband, and Edward at length felt himself
obliged to declare war against him. Isabella, now meditating
nothing less than an invasion of England, and reducing the
power of the Spensers by force, retired to the court of the
count of Hainault, to whose daughter Philippa she affianced
her son. Being fuirnished by the count with a force of two
thousand men and joined by all the English exiles, she set
sail and landed (Sept. 24, 1326) at Orewell, in Suffolk. In
her train appeared the earl of Kent, brother to the king;




190              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
she was joined, on landing, by his other brother, the earl of
Norfolk, the earl of Leicester, brother of Lancaster, and the
bishops of Ely, Hereford, and Lincoln, all at the head of
their vassals.  Robert de Watteville, who was sent to oppose
her, went over to her with his troops. Their march was
directed to London; their sole object, it was declared, was
the liberation of the king from the tyranny of the Sptnsers
and of the chancellor Baldock. Edward, having vainly tried
to induce the citizens to arm in his defence, left the city;
and he was scarcely gone when the population rose, seized
and beheaded the bishop of Exeter, robbed and plundered
several other persons, forced the Tower, set at liberty the
prisoners, and declared for the queen.
The king, attended by his favorites, retired to Bristol, closely pursued by the earl of Kent and John de Hainault. Leaving
the elder Spenser to defend the castle of that city, he proceeded with the younger Spenser to the -narches of Wales, and
finding the people there little inclined to arm  in his favor,
he took shipping with his favorite for Lundy Island, at the
mouth of the Bristol channel.  The queen with her forces
soon reached Bristol, and Spenser, finding the citizens mutinous, surrendered the town and castle on the third day. He
was forthwith brought to trial on the charge of having unduly
influenced the royal mind, advised the execution of Lancaster, etc. Like Lancaster he was not allowed to make any
defence. The venerable old man of more than ninety years
was forthwith hanged as a traitor, and emboweled while alive;
his body was cut into pieces and thrown to the dogs.
The unhappy king was prevented by adverse winds from
reaching Lundy.  He landed at Swansea, and proceeding
to Neath sought to conceal himself in that neighborhood.
Meantime the barons of the queen's party, acting as a parlia.
ment at Bristol, declared the realm left without a ruler by his
absence, and named the young prince guardian of the kingdom.  Shortly after, Spenser and Baldock having been betrayed to Leicester, the king made a voluntary -surrender of
himnself, and was conducted to the castle of Kenilworth.
Spenser was arraigned at Hereford before Trussler, the
judge who had condemned his father. A string of the most
ridiculous and improbable charges was made against him
iHe was of course condemned, and was hung with a wreatn
of nettles on his head on a gallows fifty feet high. The earl
of Arundel and two others were beheaded as having coniented to the death of Lancaster. Baldock being a priest
was confined in Newgate, where he died.




EDWARDD I.                     191
From Hereford the queen returned to London, where a
parliament being assembled (Jan. 7, 1327) the crafty bishop
of Hereford, the aider of all her projects, having expatiated
on the vindictive character of the king, and the danger of
trusting the queen in his hands, bade the members retire and
come next day, prepared to say whether it were better to restore the king or appoint the prince to reign.  In the morning the place was filled with turbulent citizens; no one
ventured to speak in favor of the king; the prince was proclaimed by acclamation; and the peers, four prelates excepted, swore fealty to him.  A few. days after, (Jan. 13,) articles charging him with incapacity, indolence, cruelty, etc.,
were exhibited against the king, and he was deposed; but as
the queen burst into loud lamentations and affected great
scruples as to the legality of such a proceeding, to satisfy
these pretended doubts a deputation was sent to Kenilworth,
with directions, by promises and threats, to extort what should
be styled a voluntary resignation from the king.  It is needless to say that they succeeded, and on the day after their
return (Jan. 24) the accession of the new king was proclaimed by the heralds.
The deposed monarch was still left in the custody of the
earl of Leicester, but as that nobleman treated him with
attention and kindness, he was taken from him and committed to sir John Maltravers, by whom -he was carried to
Corfe, to Bristol, and finally to Berkeley; and it is said that
gross insults and indignities were offered to him in the hope
of finally disturbing his reason.*  The cause of this last
removal was that lord Berkeley had been joined in comrnmission with Maltravers. Berkeley, however, being ill, and away
from home, the charge of guarding the king had devolved
on two of his officers, Thomas Gournay and William Ogle.
One night (Sept. 21) shrieks were heard to ring through the
castle, and in the morning the neighboring gentry and the
citizens of Bristol were invited to behold the dead body of
the deposed king.  No marks of violence appeared, but the
features were distorted, and it was reported that death had
been caused by introducing a red-hot iron through a tube
into the intestines.  He was buried privately at the abbey
I It was said that one day when he was to e shaved, his keep)t,,,
fetched dirty water out of the ditch for the pulpose. He desired it to
oe changed; they refused; he burst into tears, and cried, that in spite
of their insolence, he would be shaved with clean and warm water.




192             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
church cf Gloucester, and no inquiry whatever was made at
the time.*
Such was the fate of this most unhappy prince. Too simple and innocent for the times in which his fortune was cast,
he perished the victim of his own weakness of character and
of the crimes of those who should have guided and protected
him.
CHAPTER VII.
EDWARD III. (OF WINDSOR.)
1327-1377.
THE reversal of attainders and the confiscation of the estates of the Spensers and their adherents were the first acts
of the new government. Of these estates the larger portion
went to Mortimer, now earl of March, and a sum of 20,0001.
a year was assigned to the queen. A council of regency
was appointed, the members of which were entirely under
the control of Mortimer and the queen.
Though the truce with Scotland was not expired, Bruce
seized the occasion of invading England; and poured a body
of twenty-four thousand men into the northern counties,
where they committed fearfill ravages.  The young king of
England, having assembled forty thousand men, marched to
Durham, and then crossed the Tyne with the design of intercepting the Scots on their return.  Having waited seven
days to no purpose, he repassed the river, and at length found
the Scots posted on a hill on the right bank of the Wear.
The twvo armies remained for some days opposite each other,
separated by the river. At length the Scots decamped in
the night, and the English army, finding pursuit hopeless,
returned to Durham.  It was disbanded a few days after at
York. The following year (1328) a peace was concluded
with Scotland, whose absolute independence was acknowledged in the most ample manner, and Edward's sister Jane
was betrothed to David the son and heir of Robert Bruce.
The odium of this peace, at which the people were highly
* See Appendix (M.)




EDWARD III.                   193
displeased, fell chiefly on Mortimer. This aspiring man, heedless of the fate of Gaveston and Spenser, far outwent them
in insolence, and the haughty barons, especially the princes
of the blood, could ill brook to see him in effect the ruler of
the realm. They took arms, but Lancaster, being deserted by
the earls of Kent and Norfolk, was forced to submit and sue
for pardon.  Mortimer, being determined to strike terror into
the princes, selected the earl of Kent as his victim.  His
agents persuaded this weak but well-meaning man that his
brother the late king was still alive, and he was led to form
projects for restoring him  to his throne.  When Mortimer
thought he had sufficient evidence against him, he caused
him to be seized and arraigned. The earl acknowledged
his own letters which were produced; he was found guilty,
and sentenced to die as a traitor, and he was beheaded the
following day, (March 19, 1330.) His estates were given to
Mortimer's youngest son Geoffrey.
Mortimer probably now deemed his power secure, but in
reality he had only reached the edge of the precipice. The
young king had attained his eighteenth year; his spirit was
high, and he could ill bear the restraint to which he was
subject. He secretly confided his thoughts to lord Montacute, who advised him to seize Mortimer at the parliament
which was to be held at Nottingham. The king assented.
and some persons who could be depended on were engaged
in the design.
In November the queen with her son and Mortimer took
up their abode in the castle of Nottingham.  For Morti.
mer's security a strong guard lay in it; the locks on the
gates were changed, and the keys were placed every night
under the queen's pillow.  Montacute informed sir Thomas
Eland, the governor, of the king's pleasure, previously
swearing him to secrecy; and Eland then told him of a
subterraneous passage, which was unknown to Mortimer, and
through which he would admit the king's friends.  Montacute rode with his friends into the country, and Mortimer,
who had received some hints of their design, attributed their
departure to their fear of discovery.  Before midnight Eland
admitted them through the passage; on the stairs leading to
the principal tower they were joined by the king; they ascended in silence till they heard the sound of voices in an
apartment adjoining that of the queen, where Mortimer was
in consultation with the bishop of Linealn and some other
friends.  They burst open the door, slaying two knights who
defended it. The queen in alarm cried from her bed, " Sweet
VOL. I.     17                        Y!L ~                                    _




194              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
son, fair son, spare my gentle [noble] Mortimer."  She then
rushed into the room, but.in spite of her efforts Mortimer
was made a prisoner. Next morning the king announced
that he had assumed the reins of government, and summoned
a parliament to meet him at Westminster.
When the parliament met (Nov. 26) Mortimer was accused
of having set enmity between the late king and his queen;
of having caused the death of the king and of the earl of Kent,
and of various other offences.  He was condemned without
hesitation, and hanged three days after (Nov. 29) at the
Elms at Tyburn, with his associate sir Simon Bereford.
The queen was confined at her manor of Risings near London, and her income reduced to 30001. a year, which the
king afterwards increased to 40001. He paid her an annual
visit of ceremony, but never allowed her to meddle in affairs
of state. In this retirement she passed the remaining twentyseven years of her life.
Scotland was the first object which attracted the attention
of the young king. The English and Scottish lords had
held lands in both kingdoms, and at the late peace little care
appears to have been taken for their interests.  As Robert
Bruce was now dead, the English claimants, finding that
their king would not interfere, resolved to endeavor to regain
their lands by the sword. They placed at their head Edward
son of John Baliol, and having collected about three thousand
men, embarked at Ravenspur and landed on the coast of
Fife, (1332.)  Baliol then sent his fleet to the mouth of the
Tay, and with his small army boldly marched into the iyiterior.
The earl of Mar, the regent, had assembled two armies each
of thirty thousand men, led by himself and the earl of March.
Baliol came up with that of the regent at Duplin, crossed the
river Earn in the night, and fell on and slaughtered the
Scots in their carnp. When the daylight showed the regent
iis enemies, he rallied his men and engaged them. A total
defeat was the lot of the Scots.  Mar himself, several of the
nobles, and it is said twelve thousand men, were slain.
Baliol then sped away to Perth, pursued by the earl of March,
who invested the town by land and by water; but the
English ships attacked and defeated his fleet, and want of
provisions obliged his army to disperse. The friends of his
family now resorted to Baliol, and he was crowned at Scone,
(Sept. 24,) having won a kingdom in less than seven weeks!
His opponents then solicited a truce for assembling a parliament, to which Baliol consented; but during the truce he
was suddenly attacked (Dec. 18) at Annan by the earl of




E IWARD I11.                  195
Moray, and was forced to seek refuge in the  English
borders.
Edward, who had perhaps given Baliol private encouragement, had in the month of November fortned two secret
treaties with him. By the one Baliol acknowledged the
feudal superiority of England; gave up the town of Berwick,
and offerea to marry the princess Jane, whose marriage with
David Bruce had not been consummated.  By the second
the two kings bound themselves to aid each other against all
domestic enemies.  As the Scots by their incursions gave a
pretext for charging them with a breach of the treaty of peace,
Edward prevailed on his parliament to consent to a renewal of
the war, and Baliol (1'33) laid siege to Berwick, which was
gallantlydefended by'he earl of March. The siege had lasted
two months when king Edward arrived; the operations were
now carried on more vigorously, and the garrison gave hostages
to surrender if not relieved by a certain day. The earl of Moray, the regent, camne with a numerous army and offered battle;
the English kept within their lines, and the regent, having
put some knights and provisions into the town, retired and
laid siege to Bamborough, where queen Philippa was residing.
Edward then required the garrison to surrender; they replied
that they had been relieved; he hanged one of the hostages,
and they then agreed to admit the English at the end of three
days unless the Scottish army should oblige them to raise the
siege, or pult in three hundred men-at-arms* between sunrise
and sunset of the same day. On the afternoon of the third day
(July 19) the Scottish army appeared and advanced to the
attack in four divisions.  Edward drew  up his troops on
Halidon-hill.  The Scots had to make their way through
mat shy ground at its foot, and in their progress they suffered
severely from the discharges of the English archers.  Weary
and in disorder they reached the spot where the enemy
awaited them.  After a brave struggle they were totally
routed; the regent himself and several nobles were slain on
the feld; the fugitives were slaughtered without mercy,
especially by the Irish in Edward's army; and the total
number of the slain is said to have been thirty thousand.
Berwick surrendered; the young king and his sister the
princess Jane, who were at Dumbarton, were conveyed to
France for safety. Baliol was acknowledged as king in the
Scottish parliament, the fealty to Edward was renewed, and
* The nh n-at-arms were the heavy feudal cavalry, consisting of the
knights ar- I their esquires.




1 9(6           HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
dll the country eastward of a line drawn from Dumfries to
Linlithgow was ceded to him. But the Scots soon rose again
against Baliol, and after a contest of some years David was
enabled' to return (1341) and resume his crown.
it is not unlikely that Edward would have conquered Scot.
land, but that his attention was diverted from it by the prospect
of a more brilliant though less solid acquisition.  He was
now induced to put forth a claim to the crown of France in
right of his mother. Her father Philip the Fair had left
three sons and this one daughter. The eldest son Louis
Hutin, who succeeded,'died, leaving an only'daughter; but
as the queen was pregnant, his brother Philip was made regent
till'she should be delivered. She brought forth a son, who
died within a few days, and Philip was then proclaimed king;
the duke of Burgundy asserted the rights of the young princess, who was his niece, but the states-general declared her
and all females incapable of inheriting the crown. Philip
died leaving three daughters, and his brother Charles succeeded, who also died leaving one daughter, and his widow
pregnant. His cousin-german Philip of Valois was made
regent, and when the queen was delivered of a daughter
he was placed at once upon the throne. This regulation of
the descent of the French crown was said, though improperly,
to depend on a law of the Salian Franks, hence called the
Salic law; but the notion had probably grown up from the
circumstance of the next heir, even from the time of Clovis,
having always happened to be a male; the states therefore,
when called to decide after the death of Louis Hutin, naturally supposed such to be the law, and regulated the succe.ssion accordingly.
Edward of England was the only opponent to the claim
of Philip of Valois.  He fancied, at least he asserted, that
though females could not inherit themselves, they could
transmit a right to their male descendants, and he therefore
claimed the crown of France in right of his mother. Nothing,
however, could be worse founded than this claim; for even
allowing the principle, the right of the king of Navarre,
son of Jane, daughter of Louis Hutin, was preferable to his.
Accordingly the twelve peers and the barons of France rejected his claim at once, and he was shortly after summoned
to do homage to Philip for Guienne, with which summons
he deemed it expedient to comply.  Still there was no cordiality between him and Philip, who kept possession of some
fortresses in Guienne, and aided the partisans of David in
Scotland, though Edward offered him a large sum of money




EDWARD Ill.                   191
for those fortresses, and made various proposals ot marliege
between their children.  At length Edward began to think
of reviving and asserting his claim to the crown of France,
to which, it is said, he was mainly impelled by the counsels
of Robert count of Artois,: who, being obliged to fly from
France for the forgery of public documents, had found a
refuge at the court of England.
The first object of Edward, when he had resolved on war,
was to form as many alliances as possible.  Through his
father-in-law the count of Hainault, and by means of large
sums of money, he gained the duke of Brabant and some
more of the neighboring petty princes.  He also formed an
alliance with the emperor of Germany. But he chiefly sought
to win the Flemings; and here a phenomenon, unique to
the north of the Alps, presented itself, - application was to
be made not to a prince, but to a leading demagogue. For in
Flanders the lower ranks had by trade and manufacture
acquired a degree of opulence and influence unknown elsewhere. They therefore would not tamely submit to the oppressions and extortions of their lords; they rose in tumults;
they had driven their earl into France, and, like the Grecian
and Italian cities in similar circumstances, they were ruled
with despotic power by their leaders. The tyrant, as in
the Greek sense we may call him, of Flanders, at this time
was James van Artaveldt, a brewer of Ghent, and to him
did Edward condescend to sue. Artaveldt readily embraced
his interests and invited him to pass over to Flanders without delay.  The king, having obtained a cheerful consent
and a grant from his parliament, and raised more mIoney by
forced loans, by pawning the crown jewels and seizing the
property of the Lombards,* sailed over to Antwerp in the
summer (1838.) But he found it impossible to excite his
allies to action, and all he could obtain was a promise to join
him the following summer, when the campaign should be
opened by the siege of Cambray.
At the appointed time (1339) Edward found himself at
the head of an army of fifty-thousand men, with which he
appeared before the walls of Cambray. He wasted its territory and then entered France; but here the counts of Namur and Hainault quitted him, alleging feudal scruples.: He
* When the Jews were expelled, the trade of banking and money
lending fell into the hands of the Italian traders, who were mostly
Lombards. Lombard-street (named from them) and its vicinity are
tll the great seats of banking.
174




198              dISTORY OF ENGLAND.
advanced then for twelve leagues, wasting and burning as he
went.  His other allies now refused to go any further in an
enemy's country. Philip soon appeared with a more numerous
host; the two armies were drawn up in battle-array near
ILaon, but no action resulted. Both then retired, and Edward
having thanked and disbanded his allies returned to England,
having thus to no purpose wasted so much money, and being
ill consequence now 300,0001. in debt. While he was in
Flanders, Edward, by the advice of Artaveldt, assumed the
title of king of France to satisfy the feudal scruples of the
Flemings.  He also received from the emperor the title of
Vicar of the Empire to enable him to command Germans.
The pope at this time vainly sought to mediate between
him and Philip.
The next year (1340) Philip assembled in the harbor of
Sluys an immense fleet in order to intercept his rival on his
passage.  Edward immediately collected all the ships in the
southern ports and sailed to engage it. He found it moored
in fbur lines across the passage into the harbor, the ships
being fastened together with iron chains, and having turrets
supplied with large stones at their heads.  Edward at first
put out to sea to get clear of the sun, which was in his eyes,
and then bore down with wind and tide.  After a, stout resistance all the ships in the first line were captured.  Just
then lord -Morley came up with a fleet from the northern
pcrts; the English advanced to attack the remaining lines,
of which the last alone offered any opposition. The loss of
the English was but two ships and about four thousand men;
nearly all the vessels of the enemy were sunk or taken, and
about thirty thousand men perished.
Edward landed next day; his allies crowded to his standard;and at the head of two hundred thousand men he ad}V|       vanced to lay siege to Tournay and St. Omer.  But those
sent against the latter place, fifty thousand Flemings under
Robert of Artois, were seized with a sudden panic before
they reached the town, and fled, leaving their arms and baggage behind them.  Tournay was defended by a large garrison, and all Edward's assaults were repelled. The king of
France -soon appeared with a nunmerous army, but as before
he declined coming to an engagement.  Edward, who desired a speedy issue, sent him a challenge to decide their
quarrel by a single combat, by one of one hundred on each
side, or by a general engagement.  As he addressed him
simply as Philip of Valois, the king of France replied that
it did not become him to take any notice of such letters; he




EDWARD III.                   199
Upbraided Edward with his breach of fealty, and assured him
he would chastise him when he thought proper. At length
Jane of Hainault, sister to the one king and mother-in-law
to the other, came from the convent to which she had re.
tired, and by her entreaties engaged them to consent to an
armistice for nine months, which was afterwards extended
under the mediation of the pope.
Disputes with his clergy and nobility occupied Edward's
thoughts for some time after his return home. He was immersed in debt; the emperor had been induced to withdraw
his title of Vicar of the Empire; and he was disgusted with
the lukewarmness and cupidity of the princes on whom he
had lavished his money. He would therefore have probably
given up all his designs on France, but for a new prospect,
that opened to him on another side.
John duke of Brittany, being without issue, had, with the
concurrence of the states, recognized as his heir Jane, the
daughter of his brother Guy, and had married her to Charles
of Blois, the French king's nephew. But on the death of
the duke, his half-brother, John earl of Montfort, though
he had sworn fealty to Charles and Jane, made himself
master of most of the strong places, and asserted his right
to the succession.  He then crossed over to England and
offered to do homage to Edward as king of France, if he
would aid him against Philip; for the peers of France had
decided in favor of Charles, and the king was preparing
to restore him by arms. Edward, though Montfort's claim
went on the very opposite principle to that by which he himself claimed the crown of France, readily made a treaty with
him.  Montfort returned to Brittany and threw himself into
the town of Nantes, where he was besieged by the duke of
Normandy, Philip's eldest son; the city was betrayed by the
inhabitants, and Montfort was made a captive and shut up
in the tower of the Louvre at Paris.
But though Montfort was a captive his cause was still
maintained. His wife Tane, sister to the earl of Flanders,
a woman of a most heroic spirit, when she heard of his captivity, assembled the citizens of. Rennes, and presenting to
them her infant son, implored them to defend the last male
issue of their ancient princes.. Moved by her tears and
eloquence, aided by a distribution of a large sum of money,
they swore to live and die in her cause. A similar spirit
was shown in the other towns which she visited. Having
sent her son for security to England, she shut herself up in
he fortress of Hennebon, where the following spring (1342)




o00             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
she was closely besieged by the troops of Charles.  The
countess herself; cased in armor, directed the defence and
inspirited her men. One day while the besiegers were busily
engaged in an assault, she sallied forth by the opposite gate
at the head of two hundred men, and attacked and set their
camp on fire. Finding her return cut off, she ordered her
men to disperse and make as best they could for Brest, and
soon after at the head of five hundred men she forced her
way through the hostile camp and re-entered Hennebon in
triumph. Fatigue and fatnine, however, were wearing away
the garrison, and the bishop of Leon was arranging the terms
of a capitulation, when the countess, who had ascended the
highest turret of the castle to look out to sea, saw sails in
the distance.  "The English!  I see the English!" she
cried aloud; the soldiers grasped their arms; the treaty was
broken off, and sir Walter Manny, who had long been detained by contrary winds, entered the harbor with a large
force, and sallying forth drove off the besiegers.
The countess soon after made a voyage to England to solicit more effectual succor.  She returned with a fleet of
forty-five ships, carrying troops commanided by Robert of
Artois. A French fleet met them; an action ensued, in
which the countess displayed her usual heroism. They took
the town of Vannes, but it was soon after recovered by some
of Charles's party, and Robert of Artois died of a wound
which he received. As the truce with France was now expired, Edward embarked in the autumn with twelve thousand
men and landed at Morbihan near Vannes, but he unwisely
made three divisions of his force and invested at the same
Aime Vannes, Nantes, and Rennes. On the approach of the
luke of Normandy with a large army, he drew his forces again
together, and both armies lay for some weeks of the winter
opposite each other. The papal legates then interposed
their good offices, and a truce was concluded (1343): for
three years and eight months. The liberation of Montfort
was stipulated, but Philip still detained him in prison. At the
end of two years he made his escape disguised as a merchant.
but he died shortly after at Hennebon.
The truce was of short continuance, mutual infractions of
it were complained of, and the very next year (1344) Edward
had the address to induce his parliament to advise him to renew the war. The king's cousin the earl of Derby, son of
the earl of Lancaster, one of the bravest, most virtuous and
accomplished noblemen of the age, was sent with an army to
Guienne  Landing at Bayonne he advanced to Bordeaux; he




EDWARD III.                  201
then entered Perigord and reduced several places.' A town
named Auberoche being now in the hands of the. English,
the count of Lisle, the French general, secretly assembled
twelve thousand men and invested it.; Derby with but three
hundred men-at-arlnls and six hundred archers: hastened.to its
relief. At -supper-time- helburst into the enemy's camp, took
or killed the general and principal officers, and dispersed the
troops.  He then attacked the camp at the other side of the
town;. the garrison at the same time made a sally, and of the
whole twelve thousand men but a few escaped.: Derby pursued his. career of victory, and -at length the French government found it necessary to send the duke of Normandy with
an overwhelming force to oppose him.
The king of England learning the danger of Guienne prepared to lead a large force to its relief. He had lately gone
over to Sluys to meet the deputies of the Flemish. towns,
whom he wished to transfer their allegiance from their own
count to his son prince Edward. Artaveldt gave him all the
aid in his power and gained over some of the cities: but in
his own town of Ghent the people had been turned against
him, and they burst into his house and murdered him. This
tragic event, however, did not break off the good feeling between the king and the Flemings, who engaged to invade
France in concert with him.
In the month of July, 1346, Edward embarked at Southampton with an army of four thousand men-at-arms, ten thousand archers, ten thousand Welsh and six thousand Irish
light troops, attended by the prince of Wales, now fifteen
years of age, and the principal nobility. He sailed for
Guienne, but at the suggestion of Geoffrey d'Harcourt, a
Norman exile, or perhaps such being his original design, he
suddenly changed his course and landed at La Hogue in
Normandy, (July 12.) He destroyed all the shipping in the
adjacent ports, his troops spread their ravages over the whole
country, and Carantony, St. Lo, Caen, and other towns were
taken. He advanced along the left bank of the Seine in the
hope of taking Rouen, intending then to march for Picardy
and join the army of forty thousand Flemings who were to
invade France. But he found the bridge at Rouen broken,
and king Philip lying with a numerous army on the opposite
side. He went further up the river, but ievery bridge fas
broken, and the French still moved as:he did. He burnet
the towns, his light troops even fired: St. Germain, St. Cloud,
Neuilly, and other places close to Paris; but Philip, whose
object was to surround and overwhelm him, would give no
z




202             BISTORY OF ENGLAND.
opportunity of fighting.  Edward then had recourse to
stratagem. Decamping early one morning from Poissy he
marched as if for Paris, and when he had ascertained that the
French were in motion he suddenly retraced his steps, crossed by the bridge, which workmen had meantime repaired,
and entered Pontoise. He then advanced rapidly, burning on his way the suburbs of Beauvais. On reaching the
Somme he found that all the bridges were secured, and that
Philip was at Amiens with 100,000 men. By the promise
of liberty and a large reward, a peasant, named Gobin Agace,
who was among the prisoners, was induced to lead the English to a ford at Blanchetaque near Abbeville, which might
be passed at ebb tide. They set out at midnight: the water
was not sufficiently low when they reached it, and while they
waited they saw Godemar du Faye come with twelve thousand men and occupy the opposite bank, and every moment
they expected to be overtaken by king Philip. At ten o'clock
the tide was out; the men-at-arms entered the river; the
French cavalry dashed in to meet them; the English fought
with the valor inspired by despair, and drove them off with
a loss of two thousand men, and all but a few stragglers were
safely over when Philip came up. The rising of the tide
prevented the passage of the French, and they were obliged
to go round by the bridge of Abbeville.
Edward nlarched to Crotoi on the coast, where he gave his
troops rest and refreshment, and great as was the disparity
of their forces he resolved to give Philip battle. He selected
for this purpose an eminence behind the village of Creci,
(Aug. 26,) where he disposed his troops in three divisions,
each composed of men-at-arms and archers, the latter placed
in front in the form of a harrow. The prince of Wales aided by the earls of Oxford and Warwick led the first; the
earls of Arundel and Northampton the second; the king
himself the third or reserve. Trenches were sunk on the
flanks; the baggage was placed in a wood in the rear; the
horses were all removed that the danger might be common.
The king, who, according to the custom of the age, had at
dawn heard mass and received the sacrament, rode alone the
lines cheering the men, and at ten o clock they took their
breakfast, each sitting down where he stood. The French,
who had: halted for a day at Abbeville, were now advancing.
Some knights who were sent forward, when they saw the firm
array of the English, advised the king not to give battle till
the next day. Philip assented: word was given to halt; but
the orders were not understood or were neglected, and the




EDWARD III.                  203
troops rolled on in confusion and disorder till they came in
view of the English.  Philip then, filled with rage and de-?arting fiom his usual caution, ordered the Genoese crossbow-men to form and begin the fight. These were a body
of six, or as some say fifteen thousand Genoese and other
Italians, led by two of their nobles of the Grimaldi and Doria families. They were followed by the king's brother, the
count of Alencon, at the head of a splendid body of cavalry 
the rest of the army succeeded in four divisions under the
king in person. The number of the French army is various.
ly given at from sixty to one hundred and twenty thousand
men.
The combat of men seemed to be preceded by that of the
elements. A partial eclipse had dimmed the sun; flights of
birds flew screaming over the two armies precursive of a
storm, and soon the thunder roared, the lightning flashed, and
the rain descended in torrents. At five in the afternoon the
sky cleared and the sun shone bright in the eyes of the
French. The Genoese then gave three shouts, levelled their
ponderous crossbows, and discharged their bolts. The English archers received the discharge in silence, then drawing
their long-bows from their cases, they showered their clothyard arrows thick as snow on the Genoese, who, as they required time to recharge their bows, fell into disorder. The
count of Alen(on, calling them cowards, ordered his knights
to cut them down. This but increased the confusion; many
of the knights were unhorsed by the archers, and the Welshmen ran forward and despatche3 them with their knives.
When clear of the Genoese the cavalry pressed on; the
prince and his men-at-arms were nearly surrounded when the
second line advanced; a knight was sent to Edward, who
viewed the fight from the summit of a windmill, praying him
to send more aid. ",Is my son slain or wounded?" said he.
"No!" replied the envoy.  "Then," said he, " tell Warwick he shall have no aid. Let the boy win his spurs. He
and they who have him in charge shall earn the whole glory
of the day." This reply gave fresh vigor to the: English;
the count of Alen-on was slain and his troops routed; the
king of France then advanced to the relief, but the showers
of arrows fearfully thinned his ranks; his horse was killed
under him; his friends in vain urged him to retire; at length,
when it was growing dark, John of Hainault laid hold of his
bridle and forced him to quit the field. They fled to Amiens,
but the fight was still kept up in various parts till terminated
by the increasing darkness.  When the prince approached




~204            HIST''oRY OF ENGLAND.
him Edward sprang forth to meet him: " Fair son," cried he
as he clasped him to his bosom,"' continue your career. You
have acted nobly and shown yourself worthy of me and the
crown." *
Next morning a dense mist covered the: sky, under which
a body of English fell in with and routed the militia of
Amiens and Beauvais, and a body of knights led by the
bishop of Rouen and the grand prior of France.  When the
sun dispelled the mist thousands of the French were seen,
who had passed the night under the trees and hedges, and
these unfortunates were slaughtered without mercy.  At.aoon the lords Cobharn and Stafford were sent with heralds
to examine the field of battle.  They:brought to the king
eighty banners, and reported the death of eleven princes,
one thousand two hundred knights, one thousand four hundred gentlemen, four thousand men-at-arms, and thirty thousand common men. The most illustrious of the slain was
John king of Bohemia. This prince, who was blind from
age, ordered four of' his knights to lead him into the thick of
the battle, "That I too," said he, "may have a stroke at the
English." They then interlaced his and their own bridles and
rushed forward, and all were speedily slain. His crest of
three ostrich feathers, and his motto, " Ich dien," (I serve,)
were adopted by the prince of Wales, and still are those of
the heir-apparent of England.
A few days after his victory, Edward advanced and laid
siege to the town of Calais, in order to have possession of a
port on the French coast.  As he resolved to trust to the
effects of blockade, he placed a numerous fleet before the
harbor, and he constructed a large number of huts for the
shelter of his troops during the winter. The governor,
John de Vienne, bent on making an obstinate defence, drove
all the useless mouths, to the number of one thousand seven
hundred persons, out of the town; the king generously let
them pass through the lines, and gave each of them two
pieces of silver.
The duke of Normandy being obliged to retire from
Guienne, the earl of Derby crossed the Garonne, laid waste
Ancenis, Saintonge, and Poitou, stormed the city of Poitiers,
and advanced to the Loire. In Brittany Charles was defeats
* According to the Florentine annalist G. Villani. Edward was
greatly indebted for his victory to his, cannon, now for the first time
employed in battle. It seems strange that so remarkable a circumstance should have escaped the notice of Froissart. Villani died within'two years after the battle; his testimony is, therefore. the stronger.




EDWARD III.                  205
ed and mnade prisoner by the countess of Montfort, but his
cause was sustained by his wife, also a heroine. *This was
in fact the age of female heroism. At the call of his ally
the king of France, David of Scotland made an inroad into
Cumberland and ravaged the country. The English collected in Auckland Park a force of twelve hundred men-at-arms,
two thousand archers, and seven thousand militia; queen
Philippa rode among them encouraging them to fight bravely;
they raised a cheerful shout, and having recommended them to
God and St. George, the queen retired. The armies engaged
at Neville's Cross near Durham, (Oct. 17;) the Scots were
defeated with the loss of fifteen thousand men, and the king
himself and several of his nobles were conducted prisoners to
London.
Edward meantime lay patiently before Calais, expecting
the sure effects of famine, which soon began to be felt.
De Vienne now turned five hundred more persons out of the
town, but no passage would be given through the English
lines, and they perished miserably from want of food and
shelter. Though a fleet with supplies contrived to enter
the port during the winter, the famine became more and
more severe; and when all the animals in the town had been
eaten, and they must surrender if not relieved, Philip at
length (July, 1347) appeared with an army of one hundred
and fifty thousand men. But the only roads by which he
could approach the English camp were secured against him;
and though Edward accepted his challenge to a general engagement, he retired on the eve of the appointed day. The
garrison immediately hoisted the ensign of England, and the
governor from the walls proposed to Sir Walter Manny, who
was at hand, to surrender on condition of their lives and
liberties being secured. Edward, however, would accept of
nothing short of unconditional surrender; at length he agreed
to be content with the lives of six of the principal burgesses.
The people met in the market to hear these terms. It
seemed to them dreadful to sacrifice their fellow-citizens,
but no other mneans of relief appeared. While they remained
in perplexity, Eustace de St. Pierre, one of the leading
citizens, stepped forward and offered his life for his townsmen;
another and another then appeared, and the number was so, n
complete. The gates were opened, and De Vienne issued
forth, mounted on a palfrey on account of his wounds, and followed by fifteen knights bare-headed with their swords pointed
to the ground; then came the six voiunxtary victims bare-headVOL. I.     18




206              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ed, bare-footed,in their shirts, with halters in their hands, sucn
being the usage in similar cases.  When they came before
Edward, the governor presented him his sword and the keys
of the town; then, falling on his knees with his companions,
implored his mercy, Edward was, or affected to be inexorable; he heeded not the entreaties of his barons; the
executioner appeared, and orders were given for their death,
when the queen came forth, and falling on her knees with
tears, interceded for their lives.  "Dame," said Edward,
" I wish you had been in some other place; but I cannot
deny you."  She took them to her tent, clothed and entertained them, and at their departure presented each with six
nobles." The king expelled most of the inhabitants from
Calais and peopled it with his own subjects, making it the;staple for the chief productions of his kingdom.
The capture of Calais was succeeded by an armistice,
which, under the mediation of the pope, was prolonged for
six years. During this period England suffered, (1348,) in
common with the rest of Europe, from the dreadful plague
which then spread its ravages over it, and thousands of her
people perished.
Edward was now conscious that he could not succeed in
making his claim to the crown of France good by arms;
he proposed to renounce it on condition of the provinces
which he held being ceded to him in sovereignty. This
proposal Philip indignantly rejected; but on his death,
(1359,) his son and successor John seemed willing to listen
to it. Envoys met at Guisnes; it was arranged that the
renunciations should be made irl presence of the pope; but
the prelates and nobles of France declared their determination
not to permit their king to part with the rights of the crown.
The war therefore was resumed, (1355;) the Black Prince
(as.the prince of Wales was called from the color of his armor)
opened the campaign by marching from Bordeaux at the
head of sixty thousand men toward the eastern Pyrenees,
wasting and destroying the country. Under the walls of
Toulouse he vainly offered battle to the French forces; he
then advanced and burned the cities of Carcassonne and
Narbenne.  He returned  to  Bordeaux after an absence
of but seven weeks, having in that short time destroyed.nrre than five hundred cities, towns, and villages.
The king meantime at the head of a gallant army had
it is not improbable that the whcln scene had been previously ar
%ang:d between the k.ag arnd queen.




EDWARD I11.                  201
advanced from Calais to near Amiens, but king JohIn would
give no opportunity of fighting, and want of provisions obliged
him to return. Tidings of the Scots having surprised Berwick
and crossed the borders, recalled Edward to England. oAt
Roxburgh he purchased fromn Baliol his title to the crown
for 500) marks and 20001. a year; he then (1356) marched
through the Lothians as far as Edinburgh, with the banner
of Scotland displayed before him, wasting and burning the
cou.ntry in all directions: want of provisions at length forced
him to retire. This destructive inroad was long remembered
in Scotland under the name of the Burnt Candlemas.
In the autumn of this year the Black Prince, at the head
of about twelve thousand ilen, of whom  but a third were
English, left Bordeaux on another plundering expedition.
He crossed the Garonne at Agen, overran Querci, the
Limousin, Auvergne, and Berri, slaughtering the peasantry,
destroying the corn, wine, and provisions, and burning the
farm-houses, villalges, and towns.  Having failed in attempts
on the cities of Bourges and Issoudon, he commenced his
retreat through Poitou.  But on comning to the village of
Maupertuis, within five miles of Poitiers, he suddenly fell in
with the rear of a large army led by king John in person;
for this monarch, on hearing of the ravages committed by the
prince, had summoned his vassals to Chartres, and crossing
the Loire at Blois had advanced rapidly in order to get into
his rear.  " God help us! " then cried the prince, " it only
remains for us to fight bravely."
The prince drew up his small army on an eminence, the
sides of which were covered by vineyards intersected by
hedges: a single lane, so narrow that only four horsemen
could go abreast in it, led to the summit. The men-at-arms,
with one half of the archers out before them in the usual
form of a harrow, were posted in front of the lane; the
remaining archers lined the hedges at its sides. The French
army, which was seven times as numerous, and mainly
composed of cavalry, was drawn up in three divisions, all
the horsemen, but three hundred knights and esquires,
having been made to dismount.  All now was ready for the
attack, when the cardinal Talleyrand Perigord appeared,
and with uplifted hands implored the Iking to spare the effu.
sion of Christian blood; and having obtained a reluctant
permission from him, he rode to the prince to propose a
negotiation.  " Save my honor and the honor of my army,"
said Eaward, "and I wil'earken to any reasonable terms."




208              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
He then offered to resign all his conquests, booty, and
prisoners, and to bind himself not to serve against France for
seven years. The surrender of himself and a hundred of ilis
knights was the only condition on which John would grant
a retreat to his army; this the prince indignantly rejected.
Night came on, and each side prepared for battle in the
morning.
At dawn (Sept. 19) the trumpets sounded on both sides,
and all hastened to their posts. The cardinal, having made
a final fruitless effort on the mind of the king, rode to apprize the prince, who replied with calmness, " God defend
the right! "  The minister of peace departed. The French
cavalry, led by two marshals, entered the lane unopposed;
but when they were advanced some way, the word was given,
and from both sides and with increasing rapidity the Eng
lish arrows were showered on them.  Men and horses fell
in heaps; some knights dashed through the lane, others
through the hedges, and emerged on different spots of the
open upper ground; but still the arrows flew, and one marshal
was slain and the other unhorsed and taken.  The rearmost retreated to their second division, which was led by
three of the king's sons; but the archers now advanced and
assailed it in front, while a body of six hundred men led by
the Captal de Buche came from an adjacent hill and fell on
its left flank. It wavered; the lords who had charge of the
young princes sent them off the field with a large escort;
the rest of the division then broke and fled. "Sir," cried
sir John Chandos to the prince, " the field is won; let us
mount and charge the French king   I know  him for a
dauntless knight, who will never flee from an enemy; the
attempt may be a bloody one, but, please God and St. George,
he will be ours." Instantly they mount, and, pouring down
the lane, emerge on the moor.  The duke of Athens, the
constable of France, advanced to meet them; he and most
of his followers were slain in a few minutes. A body of
German cavalry was next dispersed; the king, urged by de.
spair, then led up his division on foot. He long fought with
fruitless valor; his nobles had fallen by his side; he had
received two wounds in the face, and had been beaten to the
ground.  Every one was anxious to seize him; a young
knight advanced, and falling on his knee implored him to
surrender to save his life. " Where is my cousin the prince
of Wales? " demanded the king. " He is not here," replied
the knight.  "Who then are you?"  "Denis de Morbeque




EDWARD  III.                   209
bf Artois, one obliged to serve the king of England, being
banished from France."  The king gave him his sword; his
son Philip also became a prisoner.
In the battle the prince of Wales had shown the valor of
a hero; his conduct after the victory has gained him a fame
of a higher and purer order.  When the captive monarch
was led to the tent which he had caused to be pitched for
himself on the field of battle, he came forth to meet him with
every mark of courtesy and respect; his own victory he ascribed entirely to chance; the king, he said, had that day
won'the prize and garland' of chivalry. At table he waited
on him, declaring himself, as a subject, not entitled to the
honor of sitting with him.  He led his royal captive to
Bordeaux, and having concluded a truce for two years with
the Dauphin,* he embarked in the spring (1357) for England.
He landed with his prisoners at Sandwich, and thence proceeded to London.  As he approached, the people poured
forth to meet him; arches were thrown across the streets,
t:apestries and costly stuffs were hung from the windows.
The captive monarch rode on a cream-colored charmer
splendidly caparisoned, the victor appeared on a small pony
at his side.  The cavalcade at length reached Westminster
hall, where king Edward sat amidst his prelates and nobles.
He arose when John entered, embraced him and led him to
partake of a splendid banquet.  The Savoy palace, and
afterwards the castle of Windsor, was assigned as a residence
for the French monarch and his son.
The king of Scotland had been now eleven years a.aptive, and Edward, thus master of the persons of the two \nonarchs his rivals, and hopeless of conquering their kingdoms,
resolved to derive what advantages he could from their ptesent situation.  Negotiations had long been going on with
the Scottish king and nation, and it was finally arranged that
"sir David king of Scotland," as Edward now condescended
to call him, should be set at liberty, on his engaging to pay
109,00  marks in twenty half-yearly instalments, and giving
the heirs of his principal nobility as hostages.
The condition of France after the fatal battle of Poitier,
induced Edward to make larger demands on the other cap.
tive monaich. The authority of the Dauphin was little heed_
ed; the states-genreral when assembled  insisted on large
* The province of Dauphin6 had been left to the late king Philip by
its last prince, on condit-r,n of' the heir-apparent to the throne of Franca
being thenceforth styled the Dauphin.
18*                          A.A




210              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
measures of reform; the populace of Paris, headed by Marcek
their mayor, committed great ex:esses, and their example
was followed in the other great towns; the troops, left with.
out pay, divided into numerous bands, and ravaged and pillaged the towns and country in a terrific manner.  To complete the misery, the serfs or peasantry, long goaded and exasperated by the tyranny and cruelty of their lords, rose in
arms, and, as was to be expected from men who were brutally ignorant and maddened by oppression, committed every
atrocity that the foulest imagination can conceive.*
Under these circumstances king John, after much hesitation, consented to the terms which his captor imposed, namtely, the restoration of the provinces which had belonged to the
crown of England, to be held in absolute sovereignty.  A
treaty to this effect was made; but when it was transmitted
to France, it was unanimously and indignantly rejected.
Edward then, complaining of their insincerity, bade them
prepare for wvar at the end of the truce.
In the autumn of the year 1359, king Edward passed over
to Calais with a gallant army.  The mercenary  soldiery
crowded to his standard, and at the head of a force of a
hundred thousand men, arranged in three divisions, he entered the French territories.  Having ravaged Picardy, he
advanced to Champagne, where he laid siege to Rheims, the
city where the coronations of the kings of France were held.
intending to have that ceremony performed on himself; lhut
it was gallantly defended against him by the archbishop, and
he was obliged to retire.  He then led his host into Burgulldy, whose duke purchased a truce for 590,000 marks; then
following the course of the Seine he appeared before the
gates of Paris. But though it was now the sprin(g, (1360,) the
severity of the season was such that, joined with the want of
provisions, it forced him to retire with the precipitation of a
flight toward Brittany.  In the vicinity of Chartres the English army was exposed to one of the most dreadful tempests
of wind, hail, thunder and lightning on record; and the king
is said, in an agony of remorse, to have stretched his arms
toward the cathedral, and to have vowed to God and the Virgin to refuise no terms of peace compatible with his honor.
The negotiations, which had still been pending, now went
on with vigor, and at length (May 8) a treaty named the
Great Peace was signed at Bretigni, by which the king of
* This insurrection was named the Jacquerie, fron, tqucs, a commos
name among the peasants.




EDWARD II1.                    211
England agreed to resign all claim  to the crown of France
or to Normandy, Aijou, Maine, and Touraine, and to restore all his conquests except Calais and Guisnes; but he
was to retain Poitou and Guienne and their dependencies,
and Ponthieu the inheritance of his mother, in fill sovereignty; a ransom of three million crowns of gold was to be
p:aid for king John in the course of six years.  Edward then
set out for England, and John was sent over to Calais, at
which place (Oust. 24) the two kings mnet, and solemnly ratified the treaty, and John was restored to liberty. But though
John was enabled to put the king of England in possession
of' the ceded provinces, he could not readily overcome the
repugnance of his son and nobles to the renunciation of his
sovereignty over them, and the poverty of the country mrnreover prevented hiin from paying tip the instalments of his
ransom.  On these and other accounts he resolved to pay a
visit to England; and when his council endeavored to dissuade himn, he nobly replied, that if honor were banished
from  the rest of the earth she should find an abode in the
breast of princes.  lte w;as received with the utmost affection and respect by Edward, and lodged in the palace of the
Savoy; but he shortly after fell sick and died, and his remains were sent for interment with those of his ancestors
at St. Denis.
Charles the dauphin on succeeding to the crown adhered
to the peace of Bretigni, disadvantageous to him as some of
its provisions were.  lie also, when Charles of Blois was
slain at the battle of Auray in Brittany, acknowledged the title
and received the homage of the young count of' Montfort.
The chief difficulty which he had to contend with arose from
the mercenary troops which haid been in the service of king
Edward, and who now to the number of forty thousand divided into numerous bands, calling themselves the Free Companies, and under different leaders spread their ravages over
all parts of the kingdom.  They defeated the troops sent
against them; they set at nought the papal excomnmunications.  At length a flavora-ble occasion presented itself for
getting rid of these ferocious marauders.
Peter iV. of Castile, justly n:imned the Cruel, had, from the
time when he ascended the throne, been guilty of numerous
murders from various motives.  Among his victnims was his
f;bther's mistress, Leonora de Guzmian, and three of hei
sons' the two remaining sons escaped into France, and as
Peter was accused of having poisoned his queen, a French
1lricess, it was resolved to aid Henry, one of the exiles,




:212             HIISTORY OF'ENGLAND.
against the yrant.  The celebrated Breton knight Bertrand
du Guesclin was directed? to treat with the leaders of the
Companies; many French knights crowded to his standard;
and at the head of thirty thousand men he entered Spain,
and without a battle placed Henry on the throne of Castile.
Peter fled to Corunna and thence to Bayonne, whence he
proceeded to Bordeaux to solicit the aid of the Black Prince,
who under the title of prince of Aquitaine ruled from  the
Loire to the Pyrenees. The royal murderer met with a most
gracious reception; his lavish promises were gladly listened
to; secret orders were sent to the Companies, twelve thousand of whom under sir Robert Calverly and sir Richard
Knowles returned to Guienne.  Though  it was the depth
of winter, Edward entered Spain at the head of thirty thou.
sand cavalry, and on the 3d of the following April (1367)
he engaged and defeated the army of Henry on the plain of
Navarrete. All Castile submitted to Peter; but the ungrateful tyrant mocked at his engagements to his ally, and the
prince returned to Bordeaux, baffled in hope and with a constitution materially injured.  The crimes of the tyrant, however, did not go unpunished; he fell the following year by
the dagger of his brother Henry.
In consequence of the bad faith of Peter, the prince of
Wales was now deeply in debt. To raise money he imposed
a hearth-tax on his subjects, which some paid with great reluctance, while the count of Armnagnac and others appealed to
Charles as their superior lord, the renunciations having
never been completed.  After some delay this prudent monarch sent a summons to the prince, as duke of Aquitaine, to
appear before his court.  He replied that he would, but that
it should be at the head of sixty thousand men.  This, however-, was but an empty boast, for his power was gone.  War
was declared; the French troops entered Ponthieu, Poitou, and
Guienre; the people were generally in their favor Chandos
the constable of Guienne was slain in one action, his successor the Captal de Buche captured in another.  The state
of his health obliged the prince to return to England.  English armies to no purpose marched through and ravaged
various parts of France; nothing finally remained to the
English but Calais, Bordeaux, Bayonne, and some places on
the. Dordogne.
The brilliant reign of Edward closed in gloom.  The
Black Prince after his return finding all the powers of the
state in the hands of his brother the duke of Lancaster, and
oeing either jealous of him or really disapproving of his




EDWARD Ill.                    213
conduct, put himself at the head of the opposition, in what
was called the Good Parliament, from the number of reforms
which it endeavored to effect.  But after lingering a few
years this gallant prince died, (1376,) in the forty-sixth year
of his age, leaving behind him the character of a skilful
commander, a wise statesman, and an accomplished knight,0
rivalled by no man of the time except his illustrious father.
He was interred in the cathedral of Canterbury, where his
tomb may still be seen.
The Black Prince, who had espoused his cousin Joan,
called the' Fair Maid of Kent,' daughter of the earl of Kent,
and widow of sir Thonias Holland, (by whom she had children,) left by her an only son, named Richard of Bordeaux,
from  the place of his birth.  This young prince was declared heir to the throne.
The king himself soon followed his renowned son to the
grave.  He spent the closing years of his life in retirement,
first at Eltham and then at Shene. After the death of queen
Philippa, a lady of her bedchamber named Alice Perrers, a
married woman, had acquired great influence over him.  He
gave her all the jewels of the deceased queen, and she disposed of the royal favors in such a manner that an especial
ordinance of parliament was made to restrain her. This woman was with the king through his last illness. On the
morning of the day on which he died, she drew, we are told,
the ring from his finger and left him; his servants then fell
to pillaging the palace; the dying monarch lay alone and
unheeded till a benevolent priest came to his bedside, warned
him  of his situation, and bade him prepare to meet his
Creator; Edward had just strength enough to thank him and
to take a crucifix in his hands, which he kissed with tears,
and then breathed his last, (June 21, 1377.)
Thus terminated the life and reign of Edward III., the
most glorious (in the vulgar sense) which our history presents.  I'he monarch had lived sixty-four and reigned fifty
years.  Never was there a prince more fitted to gain the affections of a proud, high-spirited people; he was brave, chiv.
alrous, and generous; he delighted in the sports of the field,
and the martial conflicts of the lists; his domestic administration was at once vigorous and prudent, and his victories
in war cast a halo of splendor around his brows. As such
he appeared to his contemporaries; to us he perhaps shows
* See Appendix (N.)




214              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
with still more lustre in the picturesque pages of Froissartl
where he occupies so prominelt a station.
By his queen Philippa of Hainault, who died in 1369,
Edward had seven sons ard five daughters.  Of these sons
two died in infancy; the Black Prince and his next brother
Lionel duke of Clarence died before him; this last, who had
married the heiress of De Burgh earl of Ulster, left an only
daughter, who married Ednmund Mortimer earl of March.
Edward's remaining soils were John of Gaunt (Ghent) duke
of Lancaster, Edmund earl of Cambridge, and Thomas eari
of Buckingham.
Though, as we have already observed, we must morally
condemn the aggressions of Edward on France, and we see
that with all the waste of blood and treasure no acquisition
of importance was made, yet it is probable that the moral
effect on the nation was good. Great victories elevate the
tone of national feeling, and inspire a lofty consciousness
of strength.  They foster a spirit of noble daring and of
generous self-reliance, and possibly Creci had no mean effect
in forming the military character of England.  But however this may be, the constitution gained by the wars of
Edward.  To obtain the money which they required  he
was forced to convoke frequent parliaments.  With  each
grant of supply the commons, as was then the mode, sent a
petition for the redress of some grievance, and, though perhaps baffled at the time, they returned again and again to the
charge, and in most cases finally succeeded.  Three great
principles were now  fully established, namely, that money
should not be raised without the consent of parliament;
that no alteration of the laws should be made without the
concurrence of both houses; that the commons might inquire into abuses and impeach ministers.  The law of treason, passed in this reign, (25 Edw. III.,) and which is still
the law, was a measure of the greatest importance.  By it
treason is limited to three cases: Compassing the death of
the king; Levying war against him; Aiding his foreign
enemies within his kingdom.
According to a most competent authority, (sir Matthew
Itale,) " the law was in this reign improved to its greatest
height.  The judges and pleaders were very learned. The
pleadings are more polished than those in the time of Edward
II., yet they have neither uncertainty, prolixity, nor obscurity
So that at the latter part of this king's reign the law seemed
c_ _____- ___ ___ __   ___ ___   __                            j




EDWARD III.                    215
o be near its meridian."  By a statute, (36 Edw. III.,) it was
ordained, that in pleadings and public deeds the English
language should be employed in place of the French.
This great monarch may perhaps also be styled the father
of English commerce.  In 1331 lie invited over a number
of the Flemish artisans who were disgusted with the oppressive spirit evinced by their corporations.  He settled theim
in Norfolk, and they introduced the manufacture of the finer
woollen cloths, which had been hitherto unknown in England.
Edward had some difficulty in protecting them against the
selfish spirit of the English corporations.*
However pious Edward may have been, he was no Abject
slave to Rome.  He withheld the tribute of 1000 marks a
year extorted from John; the pope Urban V. threatened
the usual vengeance.  Edward laid the matter before his
parliament, who put a filial end to the matter by declaring
that John had no right to bind his kingdom without its consent, adding that they would stand by the king if the pope
attempted to enforce his claim.  Again, the Peterpence had
long since been commuted to a certain sum, but as England
was now become much more populous, the pope wished to
levy it in the original manner; he found, however, the resisttance too strong, and he gave up the project.  The rapacity
of' the papal court at this time exceeded all measure, and,
between first-fruits and other devices of its chancery, the
taxes levied by it in England, it was said, far exceeded those
paid to the crown; and as by what were called provisions
the pope assumed the right of nominating to vacant benefices, which he conferred on Italians and other foreigners,
the revenues of a large portion of the church were annually
remitted to these pluralists, who perhaps never set their foot
in the kingdom.  To remedy this evil the statute of Provisors
was passed, (27 Edw. III.,) making it penal to procure any
presentation from the church of Rome, and another outlawing any one who carried an appeal to Rome. Parliamentt
even went so far as to speak of expelling the papal authority
by force, and thus ridding themselves of its intolerable uppressions.
This was an age of architectural splendor.  The stately
* See Hallam, Middle Ages, iii. 379. " The History of Corporations,"
observes this able writer, "'brings home to our minds one cardinal
truth, that political institutions have very frequently but a relative and
temporary usefulness, and that what forwarded improvement during
one part of its course, may prove to it, in time, a most pernicious obstacle." This observation applies still more strongly to monasteries.




216              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
castle of Windsor was built by Edward. Each county was
assessed in a certain number of carpenters, masons, and
tylers, and thus the magnificent edifice rose by the compulsory
labor of the people, like the Pyramids of ancient Egypt.
In this reign (1349) England was desolated by the great
Dlague which then spread its ravages over the whole of Europe. It is said to have carried off a third of the population.
The supply of labor not equalling the demand after it ceased,
the natural result was a general rise of wages; but the comnions, grudging the poor this slight improvement in their
condition, had a law passed limiting wages to what they hac
been before the plague. It is needless to say that this law
was not and could not be observed.
The order of the Garter was instituted by Edward. The
tradition is that the countess of Salisbury having dropped her
garter when dancing, the king picked it up, and, seeing the
courtiers smile, he said, Honi soit qui mal ypense (' Shamed
be he who thinketh ill thereof,') which became th, motto
of the order.
CHAPTER VIII.
RICHARD II. (OF BORDEAUX.)
1377 -1399.
RICHARD was but in his eleventh year when the doath of
his renowned grandfather placed him on the throne of Eng
land. The principle of representation was now so fully
established, and the memory of his father was so dear to the
nation, that the slightest opposition to his succession wa.
not to be apprehended.  He was crowned with great solemnity (July 16) at Westminster. The following day a
council of regency was appointed; the duke of Lancaster.
contrary. to expectation, giving no opposition. The war
with France and Castile, which still continued, made it necessary to convene a parliament, and its proceedings show
clearly the influence which the commons were gradually acquiring.
The events of the war with France at this time offer little
to interest, for Charles the Wise was too prudent a man to
put any thing to hazard. It, however, brought on expense, and




RICHAD II.                    217:
he king was obliged to apply to his parliament for supplies.
instead of the old mode of granting tenths and fifteenths, it
was resolved to have recourse to the new expedient of a polltax of three groats a head for every person, male and female,
of fifteen years and upwards; but to ease the poor it was
directed that the aggregate sum in particular places should
be so apportioned as to be levied at from one to sixty groatsaccording to the substance of the parties.  The levying of
this tax, however, gave occasion to a dangerous insurrection
of the people.
For cienturies the condition of the inferior:ranks of the
people throughout-the greater:part of Europe had been that
of villanage, or predial bondage, somewhat similar to what
prevails at the present day in Russia. But knowledge had
been gradually shedding its light even on the low places of
society; the equal and beneficent spirit which the Gospel
breathes had'imperceptibly penetrated all ranks; kings and
nobles had been gradually emancipating their serfs; the
clergy, who were mostly of plebeian origin themselves, as
judges in the courts of law and equity, favored emancipation,
and, as religious teachers, frequently dwelt on the equality of
all portions of a sinful race in the eyes of a just and beneficent Deity. The extent of commerce, and the consequent
wealth of the inhabitants of towns, and their importance in
the eyes of monarchs and nobles, had given a kind of elevation
to all parts of the commonalty; and even the rude serfs of
the country felt their natural rights, and panted, beneath the
oppression of their lords, after a state of freedom, for which
they were not, perhaps, yet fully qualified. This general fer.
mentation had, in 1357, broken out in the atrocities of the
Jacquerie in France, and it now (1381) exhibited itself, though
in a less appalling form, in England, where, since the Norman conquest, the condition of the inferior ranks had gradually deteriorated, and the descendants of the free Saxon
ceorles had nearly sunk to the abject state of the serfs
of the continent.
The collection of the poll-tax was first resisted in Essex,
where the people rose under the guidance of a priest, who
assumed the name of Jack Straw. At Dartford in Kent, one
of the collectors demanded the tax for a young girl, the
daughter of a tyler.  Her mother asserting that she was
under fifteen, the brutal collector laid hold of the girl, anid
was proceeding to give a very indecent proof of the truth of
his assertion, when her father came in from his:work, and
raising the implement which he happened to have in his hand,
VOL. I.      19                      BE




218             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
struck the collector dead at a blow. His neighbors ap.
plauded and vowed to stand by him, and the surrounding
villages soon joined in the common cause. The whole of
Kent speedily rose. At Maidstone the people forced the
archbishop's prison and liberated a priest named John Ball,
who was confined in it for preaching against the wealth arid
corruption of the church. Wat the Tyler was now their
acknowledged leader; they were joined by the Essex insurgents under Jack Straw. They advanced toward London,
and at Blackheath their tumultuary bands had swollen, it is
said, to the number of one hundred thousand men. Here
Ball, taking for his text the following rimes, then highly
popular among them -
When Adam dalf (delved) and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?preached on the natural equality of man, and declared that
the archbishop, the earls, barons, judges, lawyers, etc., must
be all destroyed and all ranks abolished, and that then alone
all wouid be equally free and noble. The multitude loudly
applauded, and vowed that Ball himself should be archbishop of Canterbury and lord chancellor. The insurrection
rapidly spread through the eastern counties. The insurgents pillaged the houses of the gentry, burned the courtrolls, and cut off the head of every justice, lawyer, and juror
that fell into their hands.*
While the insurgents lay at Blackheath the king's mother..a1 to pass through them on her return from a pilgrimage
to Canterbury.  By her address and a few kisses bestowed
on the leaders, she passed uninjured, and then proceeded to
join her son in the Tower. Next morning the king went
down in his barge to receive the petitions of the insurgents,
who were now at Rotherhithe; but they set up such shouts
and cries when he appeared, that his attendants, fearirg for
his safety, carried him back to the Tower. Tyler then led
his men into Southwark, where they broke open the Mar.
shalsea and King's Bench and liberated the prisoners; they
also destroyed the furniture and burned the records in the
episcopal palace at Lambeth.
Next morning the insurgents passed London bridge and
entered the city, where they were joined by the populace.
After regaling themselves at the cost of the wealthy citizens,
they commenced their devastations. Newgate was speedily
broken open anid its inmates set at liberty; the duke of
See Appendix (O.)




RICHARD II.                 219
Lancaster's splendid palace, the Savoy, was plundered and
destroyed; the Temple with all the books and recoids it
contained was burnt. Strict orders were given that no one
should keep any part of the plunder, and one man who had
concealed a silver cup in his bosom was flung with it into
the Thames. The plate which they seized was cut into
small pieces, the precious stones were beaten to powder.
" With whom holdest thou? " was the question put to every
one whom they met, and if he did not reply, " Witlh king
Richard and the commons," his head was struck off. The
Flemings were the chief objects of their vengeance; they
dragged them even out of the churches and beheaded thenm.
So passed this day; the next morning their multitudes covered Tower-hill, loudly demanding the heads of the chancellor and the treasurer. A herald then made proclamation
for them to retire to Mile-end, where the king would meet
them and grant their demands. The ground soon was
cleared; the gates were opened; the young monarch issued
with a small train and rode to Mile-end, followed by sixty
thousand of the multitude. Their demands were: the abolition
of slavery; liberty to buy and sell in market-towns without toll
or custom; a fixed rent of fourpence the acre for land instead
of the services of villanage; and a general pardon. These
terms were at once acceded to, and thirty clerks were employed during the night in making copies of the charter
which was granted. The multitude, who were mostly men
of Herts and Essex, then returned to their homes, bearing
the royal banner.
While the king was at Mile-end, Tyler had burst with four
hundred of his men into the Tower, and murdered the archbishop, the treasurer, and some other obnoxious persons.
They forced their way into the apartment of the princess,
and even probed her bed with their swords to try if any one
was concealed in it. She fainted, and was conveyed by her
attendants over the river, where she was joined soon after by
her son.
The king next morning rode into the city with a train of
but sixty horsemen. As he was crossing Smithfield he met
Tyler at the head of twenty thousand men, who, making a
sign to them to halt, rode boldly up to the king to confer with
him. Tyler was observed as they spoke to play as it were
with nis dagger, and he then laid hold on the king's bridle.
William Walworth, the lord mayor, instantly drew a short
sword and stabbed him in the throat; he rode back a few
paces and fell, and Standish, one of the king's esquires, de



220             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
spatched him. The insurgents bent thei;.ows to avenge
him, when the king with wonderful presece of mind galloped up to them, crying, " What are ye about, my lieges?
Tyler was a traitor.  Come with me; I will be your leader.'
They followed him to Islington, whither sir Robert Knowles
soon came with a body of one thousand horse to protect the
king; they fell on their knees suing for mercy; some were
for falling on and slaughtering them, but the king steadily
refused his consent, and directed them to return to their
homes in peace.
The nobility and gentry, who. in their terror had at first
slut themselves up in their houses and castles, now took
courage and repaired to the king, who, finding himse if at the
head of forty thousand men, in compliance with the desires
of these lords,.- whose conduct justifies the severe remark
of a; modern historian, that "' the masters of slaves on. such
occasions seem anxious to prove that they are not of a race
superior in any moral quality to the meanest of their bondmen," — issued a proclamation revoking all the charters he
had granted. The hangman was instantly set to work; Ball,
Straw, and about fifteen hundred others were executed.
Straw it is said confessed before his execution that their
intention had been to massacre all the possessioners, that is,
beneficed clergy, and leave none but the mendicant friars,
who would suffice for all the purposes of religion.*
The energy and presence of mind shown by a youth of but
sixteen, on this occasion, gave great hopes of the king, and
his marriage the following year (1382) with the daughter of
the king of Bohemia, a lady of such eminent goodness and
virtue that she was long remembered under the name of the'good queen Anne,' helped to augment the pleasing illusion.
But the defects of the king's own character and the ambition
of his uncles gradually dispelled the hopes that were enter
tained of a prosperous reign.
In the year 1384, when the duke of Lancaster was on his
*eturn from an expedition into Scotland, the charges of disloyalty which had been more than once made against him
were renewed, and a Carmelite friar put into the king's hand
written proofs of a real or pretended conspiracy to place him
oh the throne.  Lancaster. swore it was false, and offered to
prove his innocence by wager of battle: the. friar was given
in custody to sir John Holland, the king's half-brother, and
* We must recollect that all these details are furnished by Walsing
ham and' Knyghton, two inveterate enemies of the insurgents.




RIC RARD II.                  221
on the morning that he was to be produced he was found
hanging dead in his chamber.  Some accused his keeper of
the deed, others said it was his own act. The lord Zouch,
whom the friar had named as the author of the memorial,
denied all knowledge of it. Lancaster went over to France,
and on his return shut himself up in his castle of Pontefract
till the king's mother brought about a reconciliation.  This
was followed by an expedition into Scotland; for as the Scots,
aided by a body of French auxiliaries, had crossed the
borders, the king entered Scotland with 80,000 men, and
laid it waste.
During this expedition the king made his uncles the earls
of Cambridge and Buckingham dukes of York and Glouces.
ter; and Henry son of the duke of Lancaster, and Edward
son to the duke of York, earls of Derby and Rutland. On
the other hand he created his favorite, Robert Vere earl of
Oxford, marquess of Dublin, and granted him the revenues
of Ireland for life on condition of his paying 5000 marks a
year into the exchequer; Michael de la Pole, the son of a
London merchant, whom he had made chancellor, was created earl of Suffolk. At the same time Roger earl of March,
grandson of Lioaiel duke of Clarence, was declared heir presumptive to the crown.  The affairs of the Spanish peninsula,
where the duke of Lancaster claimed the crown of Castile in
right of his wife, calling him over to that country, the king
willingly consented to his departure, and gave him one half
of the supply voted for the year by parliament.
But the king soon had reason to regret the absence of the
duke of Lancaster; for Gloucester, a man of strong passions
and great ambition, fomented the animosity of the nobility
against the favorites, and when a parliament met (1386) on
account of a menaced invasion of France, both lords and
commons united in a petition for the removal of the ministers.
Richard, having vainly tried to rouse the citizens of London,
retired to his palace at Eltham.  The parliament sent urging
their petition; he insolently replied that he would not at
their desire remove the meanest scullion in his kitchen.  He
was, however, obliged to give way and dismiss his ministers,
stipulating that none of them but Suffolk should be molested.
This nobleman was forthwith impeached by the commons.
On most of the charges he was acquitted, on others he was
found guilty, and he was sentenced to pay various sums and be
imprisoned during the royal pleasure. It was now proposed to
go a step further, and, as had been done in the times of John,
Uis son, and Edward II., to establish a council for the reform
|  ~~_~19*




E22             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
mation of the state. Richard steadily refused to part witl
his power, and threatened to dissolve the parliament; the
commons, to terrify him, directed the act of deposition of
Edward 11. to be produced. At length the king was assured
that if he continued obstinate the lords and commons would
separate and leave him to himself. He then gave way and
agreed to appoint a commission of fourteen prelates and
peers to regulate the affairs of the kingdom for twelve months.
The duke of Gloucester was at the head of the commission,
and nearly all the members of it were his creatures. At the
end of the session (Nov. 28) Richard made a solemn and
open protest against any thing done in that parliament to
the prejudice of the rights of the crown.
Richard, who was certainly a prince of spirit, could hardly
be expected to submit tamely to this virtual deposition.
Having vainly tried to induce the sheriffs of counties to
influence the next elections in his favor, he assembled the
principal judges at Nottingham, (Aug. 25,) and put several
queries to them respecting the legality of the late commission.
They pronounced it to be illegal, and those concerned
in procuring it to be traitors. They set their seals to this
answer and swore to keep it secret. The very next day,
however, one of them betrayed it to the king's brother the
earl of Kent, by whom the intelligence was conveyed to the
duke of Gloucester.
The commission being to terminate on the 19th of
November, the king entered London on the 10th to be ready
to resume his authority, and he had arranged measures for
taking vengeance on those who were obnoxious to him.
But next day he learned to his consternation that Gloucester
and some other lords were near Highgate at the head of
forty thousand men. Resistance was not to be thought of;
the five leaders, Gloucester, Arundel, Nottingham, Derby,
and Warwick, came before the king in Westminster-hall,
(Nov 17,) and appealed (i. e. accused) of treason the archbishop of York, the duke of Ireland, as Vere now was styled,
the earl of Suffolk, sir Robert Tresilian the chief-justice, and
sir Nicholas Bramber late lord-mayor of London, and casting
their gauntlets on the floor, offered to prove the charges by
single combat. Richard replied that he would summon a
parliament in which justice should be done, and he and the
appellants parted apparently on friendly terms. The five
accused persons, knowing their destruction to be inevitable,
sought to save themselves by flight. Suffolk got over to
France, where he died soon after; the archbishop concealed




RICHARD II.                   223
himself near Newcastle, Tresilian in London, Bramlber was
taken. The duke of Ireland retired to Cheshire, and having
raised a body of men advanced toward London; but he was
met and baffled at Radcot-bridge by the forces led by
Gloucester and Derby, and he fled first to Ireland and then
to the Low Countries, where he died. When Gloucester
returned to London a parliament met and the impeachments
were proceeded with. Tresilian, who had concealed himself
in the house of an apothecary opposite the palact, was
betrayed by a servant, and that very evening he was executed
at Tyburn. Next day Bramber shared his fate. The judges
who had answered the king's questions were then condemned
to death; their lives, however, were spared at the intercession
of the bishops, but they were banished for life to different
cities of Ireland. The same was the fate of the bishop of
Chichester, the king's confessor. Sir Simon Burley, sir John
Beauchamp, sir James Berners, and sir John Salisbury were
next impeached as aiders of the aforesaid traitors, and all but
the last were executed.  Burley had been appointed by the
Black Prince governor to his son, whose marriage also he
had negotiated.  Richard entreated Gloucester in his favor,
but he was told to leave him to his fate if he wished to keep
his crown. The queen fell on her knees before the tyrant
and supplicated in vain: even Derby could not move his
ruthless resolve. The only favor shown was the change of
hanging into decapitation.  The work of blood being ended,
the Wonderful (or as others called it the Merciless) Parliament was dissolved, (June 3.)
Gloucester and his party held the reins of government for
nearly twelve months longer; but their power was gradually
crumbling away, and by a bold effort the king at once overthrew it. At a great council holden after Easter (1389) he
turned suddenly to the duke of Gloucester and asked him
how old he was.  "Your highness," he replied, " is in your
twenty-second year." " Then," said the king, " I must surely
be old enough to manage my own affairs.  I have been
longer under tutors than any ward in my dominions. I thank
you, my lords, for your past services, but require them no
longer." No opposition was attempted; he appointed a new
chancellor and treasurer, and a proclamation informed the
people that he had resumed the government.
During eight years the king ruled without opposition.
He seemed perfectly reconciled to his uncles and their friends,
and, what was very remarkable in those times, he remitted
o his subjects some subsidies which had been granted to him.




224              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
On the death of the good queen Anne (1394) he was induced to seek to divert his- melancholy by visiting Ireland,
where, since the, weakening of the English power by the
invasion of Edward Bruce, the native tribes had greatly encroached on the British settlers, and many of these last had
abandoned their own laws. and language for those of the
Irish.  He landed at Wateoford with four thousand men-atarms and thirty thousand archers, a force not to be resisted, and thence marched to Dublin. All the native chiefs
and degenerate English submitted and were received to favor.
Grievances were redressed and oppressive officers removed.
He then returned to London and concluded a truce for
twenty-five years with the king of France. Early in the next
year (1396) he was married to Isabella the daughter of
that monarch, a child only in her eighth year, and the following January (1397) the infant queen was crowned at Westminster. -
This treaty and marriage were vehemently reprobated by
the duke of Gloucester, who, dilating on the glories of the
late reign, spoke sneeringly of the luxury and inactivity of
the present. He had never cordially cultivated the good will
of the king, who for his part had never forgiven his former
conduct. With his two other uncles and their sons Richard
was now on the best terms. York had never offended him,
and age had chilled the fire of Lancaster; the king had likewise lately obliged the latter by legitimating his children by
Catherine Swynford, the widow of a knight whom his duchess
had employed to educate her children, and who, during the
life of the duchess, had borne him three sons and a daughter.
The eldest of these children was created earl of Somerset,
but it was expressly stated in the act of legitimation that they
were to have no claim to the crown. Richard therefore felt
himself strong enough to take his long-projected vengeance
on Gloucester. He went himself in person to the duke's
castle at Pleshy; Gloucester and his family came out to receive him; the king directed the earl-marshal Nottingham
to arrest him and convey him to the Tower. But when they
reached the Thames on their way, the earl hurried his prisoner on board of a vessel which lay ready and conveyed him
to Calais, of which place he was governor. The earls of
Arundel and Warwick were arrested in the same treacherousnanner and confined in different castles.  To quiet the
people, proclamation was made that all had been done with
the assent of the dukes of Lancaster and York, their sons,
and other nobles.  At Nottingham, a few days after, the




RICHARD II.                  225
king made some of these noblemen appeal the duke and his
two friends of treason; and in about three weeks sir William
Rickhill, one of the justices of the Common Pleas, was
called up in the middle of the night and ordered to repair
instantly to Calais. On his arrival there a commission was
given him to interrogate the duke of Gloucester, whom he
had supposed to be dead, a report to that effect having been
spread.  He used the precaution of having two witnesses
present al his interview with the (luke, and he advised him
to::ive his answer in writing and to keep a copy. Gloucester
gavl  him what he called his confession, and bade him return
in the morning, but Rickhill was not permitted to see him
any more.
Richard had meantime returned with a strong force to
London.  The sheriffs had taken care to have a parliament
such as he required returned.  All pardons granted to the
accused were revoked.  They were appealed of having
forced the king to assent to the commission of regency in
1387, and for their subsequent acts.  Arundel pleaded both
a general and a special pardon; his defence was not admitted; he was condemned and beheaded that very day.
Warwick was also condemned to death, but the sentence
was commuted to exile in the Isle of Man; the primate,
Arundel's brother, was banished; lord Cobharn was exiled to Jersey; lord Mortimer, who had taken refiuge with
the native Irish, was outlawed.  Orders had been sent to
the earl-marshal to bring over the duke of Gloucester to
answer the charges made against him.  His answer came
that he could not do so, as the duke had died in prison.
the lords-appellant demanded judgment; the commons petitioned to the same effect; the duke was then declared a
traitor and his property confiscate.  Next day his confession, which had been taken by sir William Rickhill, was
read in parliament.
The very opportune death of the duke is certainly somewhat mysterious, such deaths in those times being rarely
natural. It was never supposed that he destroyed himself
Froissart was told that he was strangled.  Hall, a servant
of the governor, made confession in the next reign that he
was present when the duke was smothered between two
beds; and though doubt has been thrown on these accounts, the probability, we might say the certainty, still is
that the duke was murdered by order of the king his
nephew.
Having thus gratified his vengeance, in violation of all
cc




226              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
law and justice, the king proceeded to secure himself foi
the future in the exercise of his power. To attach the
princes he made his cousins Derby and Rutland dukes of
Hereford and Albemarle, (Aumale,) his brothers Kent and
Huntingdon dukes of Surrey and Exeter; Nottingham  was
created duke of Norfolk; Somerset marquess of Dorset;
the lords Despenser, Neville, Percy, and William  Scroop
earls of Gloucester, Westmoreland, Worcester and Wiltshire. To give the greater security to all concerned in the
late proceedings, the peers and commons were made to
swear at the end of the session to maintain all the acts of
the present parliament.  A standing commission of twelve
peers and six commoners was then appointed, who were to
exercise all the powers of the legislature.  " The king now,"
says Froissart, " began to rule more fiercely than before;"
he kept a guard of ten thousand archers; none high or low
dared to oppose his will; his ministers and favorites encouraged him  in all his excesses; he passed his days in
feasting and revelry, and in the enjoyment of low  and
trivial pleasures.  The people murmured at the proceedings.~      of the late parliament; and many of the nobles, when they
calmly reviewed the dissimulation and treachery of the
king in the case of his uncle, and the contempt of law and
justice which he had exhibited in that affair, felt rather uncertain of their own safety.  Of the lords-appellant in
138S6 Hereford and Norfolk alone remained.  In the month
of December, 1397, the latter overtook the former on the!'ii o   road from  Brentford to London, and as they rode along
he said to him, (as reported by Hereford,) " We are like
to be undone."  " For what? "  " For the affair of Radus? "  " Nevertheless our fate will be like that of others
before us; he will annul the record."  Norfolk then proceeded to declare that to his knowledge Surrey, Wiltshire,
and Salisbury were sworn to destroy them and some others,
and added that he could not trust the king's oath.  This
conversation, it is easy to conceive how, reached the ears
of the king. He sent for Hereford and charged him on
his allegiance to repeat it before the council. On the
opening of the next parliament (Jan. 30, 1398) Hereford,
who had already obtained a full pardon, appeared as the
i: i!'    prosecutor of Norfolk. This nobleman, who had not at-'i i     tended parliament, surrendered on proclamation, and before
the king at Oswaldstre he denied the charge and denounced
the accuser as a liar and a false traitor.  Richard ordered,, —______________________




RICHARD 11. I227
them both into custody; and as no witnesses could be pro.
duced, it was determined by a court of chivalry held at
Windsor that the decision should be left to the judgment
of God by wager of battle at Coventry on the 16th of Septetmber. On that day the combatants appeared in the lists,
in the presence of the king, the committee of parliament,
and a great multitude of the people. The lances were in
rest; the combat was about to begin, when the king flung
uawn his warder (truncheon) and forbade the battle. The
two dukes retired to their seats while the king engaged in
consultation. At length the royal pleasure was announced.
To prevent future quarrels, the duke of Herefbrd was to
quit the kingdom  and remain ten years in exile; Norfolk
was to remain in exile for life in Germany, Hungary, or
Bohemia, and to go as a pilgrim to the Holy Land, and his
lands were to be taken into the king's hands to pay his
debts to the crown, 10001. a year being reserved to him.
As a favor, both were allowed to appoint attorneys to receive any inheritances that might fall to them during their
exile. Iereford went to France; Norfolk visited the Holy
Land, and ow: his return died of a broken heart at Venice.
Richard was now in fact an absolute monarch; he had
oppressed or terrified all his opponents; a subsidy granted
for life relieved him from the necessity of meeting his parliaments, while the standing committee was ready to make any
ordinances he pleased.  But his brilliant position was tinstable; he had irretrievably lost the affections of the people
by his forced loans and other acts of oppression, and circumstances soon led them to turn their thoughts to his
cousin Henry the banished duke of Hereford. On the
death of his father (1399) Henry at once assumed the
title of duke of Lancaster; but when he claimed the estates,
Richard, asserting that exile, like outlawry, rendered incapable of inheriting property, seized them to his own use;
and the council pronounced the patents granted to him and
Norfolk illegal and void. This act of flagrant injustice was
Richard's ruin; the patience of the nation was now  exhausted; the friends of Henry were active; plans of insurrection were formed; the great lords were sounded.  As if
to hasten his destruction, the infatuated monarch, while
the political horizon boded a tempest, set out on another
expedition to Ireland to avenge the death of the earl of
March, who had been slain by the native Irish. Having
made the duke of York regent he sailed from Milford and
landed at Waterford, (May 31.)




~'28             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Shortly after, Henry, accompanied by the exiled prin:ate
and a few attendants, sailed with three small vessels from
Vannes in Brittany and landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire,
(July 4.) IHe was immediately joined by the earls of North
umberland and Westmoreland, to whom  he declared on
oath that he only sought to recover the honors and estates
which had belonged to his father.  The regent, when he
heard of his landing, summoned the vassals of the crown to,* i      St. Albans.  A numerous army assembled, but finding the
leaders mostly disinclined to act against Henry, who appeared only to seek his right, he turned and moved toward
Bristol, whither the earl of Wiltshire, and Bussy and Green,
(members of the committee,) who had been left in charge
of the young queen, had already fled.  Henry soon reached
London at the head of sixty thousand men, and after a delay of a few days he followed the regent.  An interview
between the uncle and nephew took place in the church of
the castle of Berkeley, which ended in their united forces
of one hundred thousand men appearing before the castle
of Bristol, the regent having been either intimidated or deceived.  The castle surrendered; Wiltshire, Bussy, and
Green, as was usual in such cases, were executed without
even the form  of a trial.  York then remained at Bristol
while Henry proceeded to Chester.
The state of the weather had hitherto prevented intelligence from being conveyed to the king.  When he heard
of what had occurred he sent the earl of Salisbury over
with as many men as the ships in Dublin could carry, while
he himself led the rest of his forces to Waterford.  Salisbury landed at Conway, where by summoning the Welshmen
to his standard he assembled a respectable force; but as the
kingl did not appear, they dispersed after waiting for a fortnight.  Richard  at length landed at Milford with several
thousand men, but when he arose next morning and looked
out of his window he saw that the greater part had already
deserted.   He held a council with his friends; some advised that he should fly to Bordeaux; the duke of Exeter
strongly objected to this course, and proposed that they
should proceed to join the army at Conway.  This was
agreed to, and in the night the king, disguised as a priest,
his brothers Exeter and Surrey, the bishop of Carlisle, and
some others, stole away and set out for Conway; but here
they found only Salisbury and a hundred men.  It was then
resolved that Slrrey and Exeter should repair to Henry
and learn what were his intentions.  They met him  at
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I.     __       _       _ __               _     __       __        _




RICHARD II.                   9.Q
Chester: Surrey was instantly thrown into confinen ert
Exeter was induced to lay aside the hart, the royal badge, arp
assume the rose, ti-at of Henry.  To secure the person of
the king, Northumberland was sent with a force of five hundred men-at-arms and one thousand archers; but these he
was not to let be seen, lest Richard should put to sea.
The earl, having secured the castles of Flint and Rhuddlan, and placed his men under a rock a few miles from
the latter, advanced to Conway with only five attendants.
When admitted to the king's presence he delivered a letter
from Exeter, declaring that full credit might be given to the
offers he might make. These were; that Richard should
promise to govern by law; that Exeter, Surrey, Salisbury,
and the bishop of Carlisle should stand their trial for having advised the assassination of the duke of Gloucester;
that Henry should be made grand justiciary, as his ancestors
had been. These terms being granted, Henry would come to
Flint, ask pardon on his knees, and accompany the king to
London. Richard accepted the terms, privately assuring his
friends that he would stand by them on their trial, and take
ample vengeance on his and their enemies% Mass was then
performed, and Northumberland swore on the host to observe these conditions.  He then departed, and after dinner
the king set out for Flint. On coming to a steep declivity
close to the sea, he dismounted, and began to walk it down.
Suddenly he stopped, and cried, "I am betrayed! God of
Paradise, aid me! See ye not banners and pennons below
in the valley?"  Northumberland now joined him, but affected ignorance.  "If I thought you could betray me,"
said the king, " it is not too late to return." " You cannot,"
said the earl, catching the king's bridle; " I have promised
to convey you to the duke of Lancaster."  By this time one
hundred lancers and two hundred archers were come up;
the king, seeing escape impossible, said, " May the God on
whom you laid your hand reward you and your accoinplices at the last day!"  Then turning to his companions,
"We are betrayed," said he, " but remember that our Lord
also was sold, and delivered into the hands of his enemies."
At Flint the king, when left with his friends, reproached
imself bitterly, it is said, with his former lenity to the man
who had now risen up against him. Three times, he averred,
he had pardoned him, once when even his own father would
have put him to death. He passed a sleepless night, in
the morning he ascended the tower and beheld Henry's
VOL. I.     20




HISTORY OF EN- LAND.
a'm; of eighty thousand men advancing.  He shuddered
ald wept. After dinner he was summoner. down to the
court to meet the duke, who, advancing, armed all save his
h ead, bent his knee. " Fair cousin of Lancaster," said the
king, "you are welcome." "My lord," replied the duke,
"I am come before my time.  But I will show you the reason. Your people complain that for twenty or two-andtwenty years you have ruled them rigorously, but if it please
God I will help you to govern better."  "Fair cousin, since
it pleaseth you it pleaseth me well," replied the king. Henry
then spoke to all but the earl of Salisbury.  The king's
horses were forthwith ordered; Richard and Salisbury were
mounted on two sorry jades, and thus amid the sound of
trumpets and shouts of the soldiers they followed the duke to
Chester.  Here the king was made to issue a proclamation
for assembling a parliament.  Henry then conducted him
toward London.  At Lichfield the captive monarch  attempted to escape by letting himself down from his window,
but he was taken in the garden. On reaching London he
was placed in the Tower.*
Henry's design on the crown was now  no longer concealed.  He wished to cause Richard to abdicate voluntarily,
and for this purpose assailed him with both promises and
threats.  The day before the parliament met, a deputation
waited on the king and reminded him of a promise he had
made at Conway to resign the crown; and on his expressing
his willingness so to do, he was handed a paper in which
he was made to absolve his subjects from their allegiance,
to renounce the royal authority, and to swear that he
would never act or suffer others to act in opposition to this
resignation. He read it, we are told, with a cheerful countenance, and added that if he were to choose his successor it
would be his cousin of Lancaster there present, to whom
he then handed his ring.t
Next day the two houses met in Westminster-hall.  The
throne stood empty, covered with cloth of gold. Henry
sat on his seat beside it. Richard's act of resignation was
read amid the shouts of the attendant multitude. The coronation-oath was next read, and then followed thirty-seven
articles of impeachment against Richard, whose deposition
* The preceding narrative has been given by Turner and Lingard,
from the manuscript accounts of two eye-witnesses.
t Such is the account entered on the rolls of parliament, but as the
entry was made in the reign of Henry, we may fairly doubt of its ac.
curacy




RICHARD II.                   231
A A voted unanimously, and eight commissioners mounting
a,ibunal pronounced the sentence.  Then Henry rose, and
maing the sign of the cross on his forehead and breast
thui spoke:' In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghoit, I, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge this realm of England, as I am  descended by right line of blood from the
good lord king Henry III.,* and through that right that
God of ns grace hath sent me with help of my kin and of
my frlenas to recover it; the which realm was il, point to
be undone for default of government, and undoing of the
good laws.   His claim was at once admitted; he produced
the ring of aRichard; the primate then took him by the hand
and led him to the throne; on the steps he knelt and prayed;
the two arctbishops seated him  on the throne.  The primate brietfy addressed the assembly: Henry then rose and
gave thanks to all, assuring them  he would disturb the
rights of pl'operty of no man; and having directed the parliament toe lmeet again in six days, and appointed new officers of the crown, he retired to the palace.
Such was t e mode in which the grandson of Edward Ili.
was deprived of his throne. Far from us be the remotest
thought of exenuating the baseness and treachery of the
Percies, or oi justifying the ambition of the duke of
Lancaster; bur truth compels us to declare that Richard
was rejected of his people, who saw no refuge from tyranny
but in depriving him of his power. That his deposition
was the act of the nation is not to be doubted, for no one
rose on his side; the means of Lancaster were feeble in
thernselves, and could have achieved nothing in opposition
to the wishes of a majority of the peop'e. We must therefore regard this event as similar to a much more famous
one which took place about three centuries later, and to be
Justified on the same grounds, and therefore view in the
house of Lancaster a line of rightful princes.
A spirit of innovation or reform in religion was at work
at this time in England; and John Wickliffe, the precursor
of, or pioneer to, those who overthrew the dominion of the
Papacy, flourished in the reigns of Edward and Richard.
* Hardynge, a contemporary chronicler, says, that he had often
heard the earl of Northumberland assert that John of Gaunt had
forged a chronicle to prove that Edmund, (from whom he was de.
scended in the female line,) and not Edward I., was the eldest son of
Henry III., but that he had' been set aside on e count of his deformity
H[enry seems here to allude to that story.




;3-2            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
We will give a brief account of this extraordinary man and
his labors and opinions.
Wickliffe was born in 1324. He graduated at Oxford,
where fromn his great knowledge of Scripture he acquired
the title of the Gospel Doctor; he was also perfectly skilled
in the scholastic philosophy then ir vogue. He first appeared as an author in 1356, when he put forth a tract in
which he found the moral cause of the great plague, with
which Europe had just been afflicted, in the vices and corruption of the church. Four years later he engaged in a
controversy with those pests of society (as they have always proved) the Mendicant orders. The insolence, the
rapacity, the shameless falsehood of these men had passed
all bounds. They swarmed over the whole country "as thick
as motes in the sonne beme;" they every where disparaged
the secular clergy and the monks, whose revenues they frequently diverted to themselves. As the universities suffered
much from their artifices, that of Oxford testified its gratitude for the exertions of Wickliffe by presenting him with
a living of some value, and he shortly after was made warden
of Baliol college. He was then made head of Canterburyhall by primate Islep, its founder, but he was deprived by
Langham, Islep's successor. Wickliffe appealed to the pope,
who decided, as might be expected, against him; and the
king, on receiving a present of two hundred marks from the
monks of Canterbury, in whose favor the decision had been
made, confirmed it. Wickliffe appeared as the champion
of the crown and parliament in the dispute with the pope
about the tribute yielded by John, and triumphantly refuted
the arguments of the papal advocates. In 1372 he obtained
a doctor's degree and the professorship of divinity, and in
1374 he was one of the commissioners sent to Bruges to
treat with the papal ministers on the subject of Provisions.
On his return he was presented by the crown with a prebendal stall in the diocese of Worcester, and with the rectory of Lutterworth in Leicestershire.
Wickliffe had returned from Bruges convinced, as he
says himself, that the pope was "' the most cursed of clippers and purse-kervers," and he went on fearlessly in his
exposures of the papal corruptions.  The heads of the
church thought they could no longer safely remain silent,
and he was therefore summoned to appear before the convocation at St. Paul's. On the appointed day (Feb. 19, 1377)
he came, accompanied by his patron the duke of Lancaster,
And by lord Henry Percy the earl-marshal. An altercation
Li- - -




RICHARD II.                   233
took place between these noblemen and Courteney bishop of
London, in which the advantage of temper and decorum
was clearly on the side of the prelate; and the citizens, who
disliked the duke, espousing the cause of their bishop, made
an uproar which caused the assembly to be broken up.
Next day the mob went to the duke's palace, the Savoy,
and reversed his arms, and they murdered a priest whom
they took for the earl-marshal.
The pope now fulminated four bulls against Wickliffe,
and the next year he had to appear at Lambeth before the
papal delegates. But the Londoners assembled in great
numbers, and even broke into the chapel where they were
sitting, menacing them  with destruction if any thing befell
the reformer, and a message came from the young king's
mother, the' Fair Maid of Kent,' desiring them not to proceed in the business. Wickliffe delivered a paper explanatory of his sentiments, in which he so enveloped them in
the scholastic jargon, that his judges affected to be satisfied
of his orthodoxy, and dismissed him. He returned to his
rectory; the great schism in the papacy succeeded, and the
court of Rome had no leisure to attend to him.  He therefore went on exposing its errors, and at length had the hardihood to assail its palladium, the astounding doctrine of
the real corporal presence of God in the host. The duke of
Lancaster, in dismay at his temerity, now abandoned him.
He was summoned before the convocation at Oxford, (1382,)
where he maintained his opinions. A mandate was obtained
from the king banishing him from that university, and he retired to Lutterworth, where he died of paralysis on the last
day of the year 1384. Thirty years after, by a decree of the
council of Constance, his remains were taken up and burnt,
and cast into the adjacent stream named the Swift.
The whole system of the church of Rome appears so
diametrically opposed to a simple interpretation of Scripture,
that it need not surprise us to find Wickliffe arriving at the
truth on most points when once he had the courage to search
the Scriptures for himself. His discoveries, like those of all
independent inquirers, were of course gradual; hence we
must expect to find in his writings, as in those of such as by
patient inquiry have endeavored to extricate themselves out
of the labyrinth of error, imperfect views and:even contradictions, bold assertions and unguarded expressions, poured cut
in the first fervor of discovery, but softened and restricted
on cooler consideration. This renders it difficult to state
with any certainty what his real opinions oa every point were,
20  D D




i34              HISTORY OF ENGL.AND.
and the difficulty is increased by the circumstance of only a
portion of his works having been printed.*
The two pillars of Popery are the doctrines of Merits and
rransubstantiation; in opposition to the former, Wickliffe
held the doctrine of justification by faith only, though perhaps not in such strong terms as some subsequent reformers have done; on the latter point he seems to have agreed
with the present Church of England in denying a bodily.
but acknowledging a real spiritual presence in the sacramental elements. To most of the other erroneous doctrines
then inculcated, rather than shock prejudices by denying
them, he tried to give a rational sense; but against pardons,
indulgences, and excommunications, those great implements
of clerical extortion and encouragement to sin, his invectives were trumpet-toned.  Viewing, with the Albigenses,
with Dante, Petrarca, and all the opponents of the church
of Rome, the pope as Anti-Christ, he unsparingly applied
that and similar terms to him and his supporters; and as his
was an age of coarseness and plain speaking, his language
frequently passes the limits set to controversy by the decorum of the present day.t
In opposition to the church of Rome, Wickliffe was strenuous in upholding the authority of the state over all orders of men. Tithes he regarded as alms bestowed on the
church, and he held that the state was justified in withholding them if the clergy neglected their duty; perhaps
he went even farther, and thought that in such case the individual layman might refuse tithe and dues. His own retention of a valuable living till his death is, we should suplose, a sufficient proof that he did not think that the clergy
should derive their only support from voluntary offerings.
Still his language on this point was ambiguous and very
liable to perversion.  It was equally so on another, the
right of wicked men to their temporal possessions, and
Wickliffe has been charged with holding the doctrine of
dominion being founded in grace. Yet here again the inference is belied by his life and conduct, and his language,
* The Germans have printed all the works and letters of their great
reformer. It is not to our credit that those of our reformer should
still remain in manuscript.
t The delicacy of Dr. Lingard is shocked at Wickliffe s coarseness.
Does it exceed the following, of the orthodox Walsingham? " That
old hypocrite, that angel of' Satan, that emissary of Anti-Christ, the
not-to-be-named John Wickliffe, or rather Wickebeleve, the heretic,'
&c. &c




HENRY IV.                    235
if righ:ly understood, is perfectly innocent and far less strong
than that of even St. Augustine on the same subject.  It is,
however, not impossible that, as is asserted, these principles
of Wickliffe, misunderstood, may have been used at the
time of the rising of the peasantry to justify the excesses
the) were urged to commit.
Fol owing the maxim that we may learn from the enemy,
Wickliffe sent his Poor Priests, as he styled them, as itinerant preachers through the kingdom, imitating in this his
foes the friars.  His doctrines were thus widely spread, and
they were embraced by numbers of both sexes. His followers, who were remarked for the purity and even austerity
of their morals, were named Lollards.*
But Wickliffe gave Rome a deeper wound than any she
had yet received, by translating the Bible into English, and
thus enabling even the unlearned to see how repugnant to
the Word of God were her doctrines and practices. This
is the weapon which, as the sword of the Spirit, Rome has
always dreaded, and which alone suffices to overthrow her
power
CHAPTER IX.
HENRY IV.
1399-1413.
THAT lenry of Lancaster was the choice of the nation is
an undeniable fact. The true heir of the throne was the
eari of March; but he was a child only seven years old, and
not a voice was raised in his favor.  So little fears had
Henr3 from his claims, that he contented himself with holding him and his brother in an honorable confinement at
Windsor.
When parliament met, the titles of prince of Wales, duke
of Cornwall, Guienne, etc., were conferred on Henry's eldest son - an indirect way of acknowledging the justice of
the king's title. The acts of the twenty-first year of Richard
were repealed, and those of his eleventh year were affirmed.
The lords appellant against the duke of Gloucester were
* From the Low Dutch lollen or lallen,' to sing,' it is said.




236              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
deprived of the titles and estates bestowed on them on tha
account.  Future appeals of treason were prohibited, as also
were delegations of the powers of Parliament to a comnlittee.  It was also forbidden under heavy penalties for
any one but the king to give liveries.*   Toward the close
of the session, the primate having previously enjoined all
the lords to strict secrecy, the earl of Northumberland delivered a message from the king requiring them to say what
should be done with the deposed monarch, whose life the
king was resolved to preserve. They replied that he should
be placed in sure ward in a place where there should be no
concourse of people, under trusty officers, and that none of
his friends should be admitted to him. The king then came
to the house, (Oct. 27,) and passed this sentence on his unhappy predecessor, whose fate it was evident was now sealed.
How long that fate might have been delayed had no conspiracy been formed in his favor, it is hard to say. But
five of the lords appellant had agreed among themselves to
invite the king to a tournament at Oxford, and there to
seize him and to proclaim Richard.  Rutland, however, who
was one of them, proved a traitor.  It is said indeed that
his father the duke of York insisting on seeing a letter he
had received, he went, finding concealment impossible, and
revealed the whole to the king. The conspirators, who had
altered their plan, seized the castle of Windsor; but Henry,
warned by Rutland, had left it and gone to London, where
he proclaimed them as traitors and commenced a levy of
troops. They retired to the west proclaiming Richard as
they went. At Cirencester, where they lay the first night,
the people rose under their mayor and attacked the quarters of the earls of Kent and Salisbury, whom they forced
to surrender, and beheaded them the next night; the same
fate befell the lords Lumley and Despenser at Thiistol;
and the earl of Huntingdon, falling into the hands of the
late duke of Gloucester's tenants at Pleshy, was put to death
by them. The death of the deposed monarch soon followed 
the lords had risen in the first week of January, and before
the: end of the month his death at Pontefract was announced.
He had refused food, it was said, when he heard of the
deaths of his brothers Kent and Huntingdon. To this, how-;* By giving their liveries or badges to a number of people, the nobles sought to sustain their power. They supported by their influence, and often protected from the punishment due to their crimes
those who wore their liveries, who in return lent them the service of
their arms in times of civil war or rebellion, or in- their private feuds.




IENRY IV.                   237
ever, few gave credit; the general opinion 4ns that he had
been starved to death by order of Henry, and that he had
lingered for fifteen days. Another account says that sir
Piers of Exton came from London with seven assistants to
murder him. Richard, when they entered his room, aware
of their design, sprang forward and snatched a battle-axe
from one, with which he killed some of them; but Exton
brought him to the ground by a blow on the back of the
head, and then with a second blow despatched him. The
body was brought to London and exposed in public with
the lower part of the face uncovered, which proved that
Richard was dead, but nothing more. Henry attended the
obsequits in person at St. Paul's, and the corpse was then
interred at Langley.
To set his own spirit and activity in opposition to the
inertness of his predecessor, Henry summoned the military
tenants to his standard, and marching to the Tyne sent to
claim  the homage of the king of Scotland.  On meeting
with a refuisal he advanced to Edinburgh, but he did not
waste and destroy the country. The Scots would give no
opportunity of fighting, and want of supplies forced him to
retire.  A border-war was kept up, the principal event of
which was the battle of Humbledown, (1402.)  The earl of
Douglas having passed the borders at the head of ten thou.
sand men to ravage the northern counties, the earl of North
utnberland and his son Henry Percy, named Hotspur, assembled their troops to intercept him on his return.  When
they met, (Sept. 14,) the Scots occupied the hill of Humbledown, the English an opposite eminence. The English archers descended into the valley and won the victory, while the
men-at-arms stood looking on. Douglas himself and many
nobles and knights were made prisoners.
The very next year, (1403,) strange as it may seem, Northumberland took up arms against the man whom he had aided
to seize the crown. Whatever the real cause may have been,
the occasion was as follows. There was a gentleman in
Wales named Owen Glendour, or of Glendourdy, descended
from its ancient prin es. He had received a legal education in England, an- had been in the service of either the
late king or the e:ir of Arundel.  Lord Grey de Ruthyn,
a relative of Henry's, seized some of Glendour's land which
lay contiguous to his own; the Welshman applied to parliament, but getting no redress he took advantage of the
king's absence in Scotland (1400) to right himseff by the
strong hand. Owen was declared an outlaw: in return he
* —-— ~~~-~ —--— ~ —---   -Y~I__~~~~~__~~CI^YUW IUIWIUV~~~~U f~l —----------




238             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
assumed the sovereignty of Wales.  His countrymen who
were studying or laboring in England, provided arms and
flocked to him, and the belief that he was versed in magic
arts augmented his influence. The king thrice led an army
in person into Wales, and thrice he had to retire, baffled by
the weather, the country, and the skill of Glendour. Lord
Grey and sir Edmund Mortimer were each defeated and
made captives, (1402.) The king, his son, and the earl of
Arundel invaded Wales in three different points; but the
heavens seemed to fight for the champions of independence,
as tremendous rains forced the invaders to retire, and Henry
actually ascribed his ill-success to the magic of Glendour.
Henry then gave permission to the relatives of lord Grey
to ransom him, but he refilsed those of Mortimer when
they applied for the same favor. This, we are told, irritated Hotspur, who was married to Mortimer's sister; his
father and his uncle the earl of Worcester shared in his discontent, and on their applying for advice to Scroop, archbishop of York, the prelate urged them  to proclaim  the
rightful heir and levy war on Henry as a usurper.  A secret
confederacy was formed with Douglas, to whom they gave
his liberty, and with Owen Glendour, who is said to have
given his daughter in marriage to Mortimer. Northumberland having fallen sick, Hotspur, joined by Douglas, led
his forces toward Wales, and when his uncle came up with
his troops in Cheshire, they put forth a manifesto accusing
the king of wasting the public treasure, and allowing his
favorites to exclude the great lords from access to him.
Henry, who was on his way to the north, replied that the
greater part of the late supplies had been paid to the Percies themselves, and offered them  a safe-conduct to come
and expose their griefs.  At Burton-on-Trent he learned
the route of the rebels, and turning westwards he entered
Shrewsbury just as they came in sight of it.  Hotspur halted
at Hartlefield, whence he sent a defiance to the king, calling
him false and perjured for having violated all the engagements made on his return to England, and having usurped
the crown. Henry, unable to refuite the charges, replied
that he had no timre for writing, and that the sword should
decide.
Next morning (July 21) the two armies, each about fourteen thousand men, were drawn out. The king sent the
abbot of Shrewsbury with proposals of peace, but by the
influence of Worcester they were rejected. The adverse
zries of " St. George!" and " Esperance Percy!" then rose




HENRY  IV.'239
the archers on both sides poured their fatal hail of arrows
Hotspur and Douglas, each with thirty followers, plunged
Into the centre of the English seeking the king; the earl of
Stafford, sir Walter Blount, and two others, all of whom
wore the royal arms to deceive the enemy, were slain; the
prince of Wales was wounded in the face. Hotspur and
Douglas now attempted to force their way back, but a chance
arrow pierced the brain of the former, and the latter was made
a prisoner.  After a conflict of three hours the insurgents
fled.  More than a third of the royal army was slain or
wounded, but the loss of the rebels was much greater.  Worcester, lord Kinderton, and sir Richard Vernon, who were
among the prisoners, were executed as traitors; Douglas was'
treated with all courtesy.  Northumberland, who was on his
way to join his son, when he heard of his defeat and death,
disbanded his forces and shut himself up in his castle of
Warkworth.  He came, however, and surrendered himself to
the king at York, and received a pardon for all offences in
the next parliament.
Though Henry was thus triumphant over his enemies, his
throne was by no means secure; Glendour was still in arms;
a false Richard was set up; * the favorers of the rights of
Mortimer were numerous; the young earl of March had
even been stolen out of Windsor castle, but he was speedily
retaken.  Soon, too, another insurrection broke out in Yorkshire, headed by the archbishop, Northumberland, and Mowbray earl-marshal, son of the late duke of Norfolk. A
writing was fixed on the doors of the churches charging the
king with perjury, rebellion, the murder of his sovereign, and
various other crimes; and eight thousand men, led by the
archbishop and the earl-marshal, assembled at Shipton-onthe-Moor near York.  Prince John (Henry's third son) and
the earl of Westmoreland came against them. A conference took place between the leaders; the prelate and earl
were induced (whether by guile or not is uncertain) to disband their forces, and they were then made prisoners and
conveyed to Henry at Pontefract. The king directed Gascoigne, the chief justice, to pass sentence on then. and when
he scrupled to do so, he gave the charge to a knight named
Fuilthorpe, who made no hesitation, and the prelate and the
earl were both beheaded. Northumberland fled into Scotland, and the king reduced all his castles. Some time after,
(1408,) the earl made an irruption into the north, but he was
* See Appendix (P.'




240              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
defeated and slain near Tadcaster (Feb. 2S) by sir Thomas
Rokeby, the sheriff of the county. Wales was gradually
reduced, but Owen Glendour still held out in the retired
fastnesses.  He was living in the following reign, and seems
never to have lost his liberty or his independence.
An accident, fortunate for him, but of which he did not
make the most generous use, gave Henry a control over the
councils of Scotland. The duke of Albany, brother of
Robert III., had seized on the power of the state; his eldest
nephew, heir to the crown, had perished in the prison in
which he had been confined, and Robert, to save his younger
son James, a child but nine years old, was sending him to
France. The ship, on board of which the prince was, being
captured by an English cruiser, Henry, though there was a
truce between the two countries at the time, refused to liberate
the royal captive.  Robert dying shortly after, Albany assumed the government, and Henry then was able, by the
threat of setting the rightful heir at liberty, to keep the
regent in a state of subserviency.  He, however, made
some amends to the prince for his loss of liberty by having
him carefillly educated.
The public events of the remainder of this king's reign, if
we except a slight interference in the quarrels of the French
princes, were of no importance. The wildness and levities
of the prince of Wales are said to have caused his father
some uneasiness. This prince, who had shown undoubted
valor in the field, in time of peace plunged into riot and
excess; but still gleams of right feeling broke through his
follies, which evinced that his heart was not corrupt. It is
said that when one of his riotous companions had been
taken up and brought before the chief justice Gascoigne, the
prince went and demanded his release, and when. refused
drew his sword on the judge. Gascoigne forthwith ordered
him  to prison for the offence, and the prince meekly submitted. " Happy the monarch," said the king when he heard
it, " who has a judge so resolute in the discharge of his duty,
and a son so willing to submit to the laws! "  A suspicion
was also instilled into the mind of the king that his son aspired to the throne. When the prince heard of this, he demanded an audience of his father, threw himself on his knees
before him, and handing him a dagger, besought him to
deprive him  of life, since  he had deprived him  of his
a vor.'I'hough the king was but in his forty-sixth year, the,ymptoms of approaching death were manifest. Violent




HENRY TV.                    241
uptions had broken out in his face, he was subject to con.
tant fits of epilepsy, and remorse, it is added, secretly
1preyed on his conscience.  We are told* that one day, as
lhe lay in a fit, apparently dead, the prince came in, and
aking the crown, which according to custom lay by the king
on a cushion, carried it into an adjoining room. The king
on recovering sternly asked what had become of it; the
prince instantly brought it back. " Alas! fair son," salid the
king, at the close of their conversation, " what right have
you to the crown when you know your father had none? "
"My liege," said the prince, " with the sword you won
it, and with the sword I will keep it." " Well," replied
the king, "do as you think best; I leave the issue to God,
and hope he will have mercy on my soul."  As he was
praying (March 20, 1413) in St. Edward's chapel, in Westminster abbey, he was seized with his last fit, and he expired
in the abbot's chamber.
Henry IV. was possessed of many estimable qualities, and
had he obtained the crown in a regular way would have
made an excellent sovereign.  Injustice, as we have seen,
drove him to crime; one act led to another, till the.y ended
in the murder of his unhappy kinsman and predecessor.
By his first wife Mary Bohun, coheiress of the earl of
Hereford, Henry had four sons, Henry his successor,''homas
duke of Clarence, John duke of Bedford, and Humphrey
duke of Gloucester, and two daughters, who were married
to the duke of Bavaria and the king of Denmark.  He had
no issue by his second wife Jane of Navarre.
Those who had given Henry his crown resolved to derive
advantage from  the  nature of his title.  The commons
strengthened most of their rights and privileges in this reign,
and acquired new ones.  Such, for instance, was freedom from
arrest, a privilege at that time necessary for the cause of
liberty, but which at the present day only serves to enable
poor or dishonest members to baffle their creditors, and thus
brings into or keeps in parliament men who should not be
there.
The clergy obtained in the second year of this king the
writ De comburendo haerctico, and thus partially introduced into
the kingdom the Inquisition with its horrible autos-da-fe
Instead of inquiring into such opinions of the Lollards as
j  Monstrelet, i 163. Lingard thinks this was an invention of the
rival family.
VOL..  E V
l.              -..




242              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
were rea ly injurious to society, they made the scholastic
absurdity of transubstantiation the test.  Primate Arunde
immediately began to act on this statute, and the first victim
to the metaphysical Moloch was William Sautre, parish priest
of St. Osithe; a tailor named Badby was also burnt in the
presence of prince Henry, who vainly urged him  to recant
and save himself:
CHAPTER X
HENRY V.
1413 —1422.
I HE joy of the nation at the accession of Henry V. was
extreme. It was indeed slightly shaded by the recollections
of his youthful follies, but all apprehensions were dispelled
by the conduct of the young monarch. He dismissed his
former companions with suitable presents, assuring them of
further favor when they should show that they were reformed.  He continued his father's honest servants and miinisters in their offices.  lie set the earl of March at liberty;
lie restored the Percy family to their estates and honors;
and he removed the remains of Richard II. (by whom he
had once been favored) from  Langley and deposited themr
in Westminster abbey, himself attending as chief mourner.
One cloud alone overcast this propitious dawn.  The
sect of the Lollards was represented to the king as holding
opinions alike subversive of church and state, and he was
induced to allow the zealous primate Arundel to put the
laws in force against them. Sir John Oldcastle, baron of
Cobham, (in right of his wife,) a man of distinguished military talents and high in the favor of the late king, was regarded as the head of the sect, and the primate, deeming him
the fittest person to commence with, applied to the king for
permission to indict him. Henry advised moderation, and
undertook himself to reason with the accused, but the zeal.
ous soldier was not to be moved by the royal arguments
The primate was then allowed to proceed; he was aided by
his suffragans of London, Winchester, and St. Davids.  The
knight was brought before them, and after a noble defence




HENRY v.                      243
of his opinions, in which he clearly confuted his adversaries,
and at the same time so explained his sentiments as to leave
abundant room for conciliation if his judges desired it, he
was declared guilty of heresy, and was delivered over to the
tender mercies of the secular arm.* He, however, made his
escape from the Tower, in which he was confined.  He and
his followers are now said to have formed the atrocious design of surprising the king at Eltham, where he kept his Christmas, putting him, his brothers, and the principal clergy and
nobility to death, and forming the realm  into a federal republic with Oldcastle for its president.  This scheme, it is
added, was frustrated by the sudden return of the king to
Westminster, and the insurgents then were directed to assemble at an appointed time in St. Giles's fields; but the
night before, the king occupied the ground with some troops,
having previously closed the city-gates to keep in the Lollards
of the city.  The first parties that arrived were made pris.
oners and the rest, who were coming when they heard this
ill news, dispersed and fled.
This account, which is given by the bitter enemies of the
Lollards, has a most improbable air, yet we know not what
violent projects men driven to desperation may have formed.
At all events the prisons in and about London were filled,
and twenty-nine persons, among whom was sir Roger Acton, a man of good property, were suspended by chains from
a gallows in Ficket Field, and then burnt alive as heretics
and traitors.  A reward of 1000 marks was offered for lord
Cobham  dead or alive, but he escaped into Wales, where
during four years he eluded his persecutors.  At length he
was discovered by lord Powis.  He defended  himself valiantly, and would probably not have been taken alive if a
woman had not broken his legs with a blow of a stool.  He
was carried to London in a horse-litter, where he was hung
by a chain and burnt alive as a heretic.t
It is said that the late king had, when dying, charged his
son, if he wished for domestic quiet, never to let the nation
* Read his trial in Southey's Book of the Church, i. 359-379.
" His conduct," says Lingard, "was as arrogant and insulting as that
of his judge was mi'd and dignified." By this we may estimate Dr.
Lingard's historic honesty, in matters where the reputation of his
church is concerned.
I  " Though the king offered the most tempting rewards for his apprehension, he eluded for several years the pursuit and search of his
enemies." Thus ends Lingard's account of nim. Not a word is said
of' the burning, as that might blemish the picture of the lamb like
Church




244              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ternain long at rest; it is also said that the primate, fearing
an attack on tile property of the church, to which parliament was urging the king, to divert his thoughts and those
of the nation to other objects, advised him to assert his claim
to the crown of France. Whether these counsels were given or not, the present distracted state of France offered a
fair field for ambition. The king, Charles VI., after some
years of the fairest promise, became subject to fits of mental
derangement.  The conduct of affairs was disputed between
his brother the duke of Orleans and his cousin the duke of
Burgundy. The latter having caused the former to be assassinated, the kingdom was filled with bloodshed and ruin by
the two contending parties; for the princes of the blood all
sided with the young duke of Orleans, whose party was named
the Armagnacs, from his father-in-law  the count of that
name. The late king of England had fomented the quarrel
by giving alternate aid to each party; the ardent spirit of
the present young monarch urged him to renew the claim to
the crown. This demand being at once rejected, Henry offered to be content with the fill sovereignty of Normandy,
Maine, and Anjou, and the places named in the Peace of
Bretigni, and one half of Provence; he required that the
arrears of king John's ransom should be paid, and the princess Catherine be given in marriage to him with a portion
of two millions of gold crowns. These terms were too extravagant to be entertained, but he was offered the whole of the
ancient duchy of Aquitaine and the princess with a dower
of 600,000 crowns.  Henry recalled his ambassadors and
began to prepare for war, his parliament cheerfully granting him two tenths and two fifteenths.  He, however, sent
again, giving up his claim of Normandy, Maine, and Anjou,
offering to take the princess with one million of crowns, but
insisting on all the other terms.  The French court offered
to raise the princess's portion to 800,000 crowns, but would
yield on no other point. Henry forthwith prepared for war;
by pawning his jewels and by loans he raised a sum  of
500,000 nobles, while his barons and knights were busily
engaged in levying troops.
When the army had assembled at Southampton the king
proceeded thither. Visions of glory floated before his imagi.
nation as he viewed the embarkation of his gallant troops;
but these visions were overcast with gloom by information
of a conspiracy among those of his own family and household
to rob him of life and fame. The objects of the conspirators,
the earl of Cambridge, brother to the duke of York, sir




HENRY V.'245
Thomas Grey, and lord Scroop of Masham, are obscure;
their plan is said to have been to conduct the earl of March
to the frontiers of Wales, and there proclaim him king in
case that Richard II. were really dead. They were condemned
and executed as traitors; the innocence of the earl of March
is proved by the circumstance of his sitting as one of their
judges. Yet such was the insecurity of life and honor in
those days, that he deemed it prudent soon after to obtain
from the king a pardon for all treasons and offences.
King Henry soon embarked, and a speedy voyage carried
his fleet of one tho(rsand five hundred sail to the mouth of the
Seine, where (Aug. 14) he landed a gallant army of 6(000
men-at-arms and 24,000 archers, and immediately invested
the town of Harfleur by sea and land. After a gallant but
brief resistance the town capitulated; the inhabitants were
expelled, being only permitted to take a part of their clothes
and fivepence each; the remainder of the property was
divided among the victorious army.  But this army was soon
sadly thinned by dysentery, and when the sick and wounded
had been sent home to England, and a garrison had been
placed in Harfleur, the king found his troops reduced to one
half their original number, and no longer adequate to any
enterprise of moment.  Still his chivalrous spirit would not
suffer him to re-embark without giving some further proof of his
knightly daring, and in spite of the remonstrances of his
council he resolved to lead his diminished forces to Calais.
The army marched in three divisions, (the usual English
mode;) supplies were hardly procured from the villages or,
the way; the enemy hung on them and cut off the stragglers
At length they reached Blanchetaque, where Edward III.
had crossed the Somme, but the ford was now secured with
lines of palisades with troops stationed behind them. The
king retired and moved up the river, but all the bridges were
broken and all the fords secured, and the enemy moved as
he moved along the opposite bank. At length, finding a ford
near Bethencourt unguarded, the English crossed and established themselves on the right bank.  D'Albret, constable
of France, who commanded the French army, fell back
toward Calais, sending orders to all the troops that were on
their march to join him  without delay.  Meantime in a
council- of war held at Rouen, at which king Charles was
present, it was resolved to give battle; orders to that effect
were transmitted to the constable, who communicated them
by heralds to king Henry, inquiring which way he intended
to march. The king replied, by that which led straight ta
21'




0A46            rIISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Calais, and dismissed the heralds with a present of one
aundred crowns.
The English leisurely pursued their march toward Blangi.
On reaching an eminence the duke of Yor& descried the
enemy making for Agincourt.  The king gave orders to
form in line of battle; but, as the enemy did not approach,
after remaining in their ranks till evening, the English advanced to a village named Maisoncelles, where they obtained
good provisions and remained for the night.  The French,
who now  amounted to at least 50,000 horsemen, took a
position in the fields before the village of Agincourt, through
which the English, who D'Albret was resolved should be the
assailants, must pass.  Though the night was dark and rainy
they assembled round their banners revelling and discussing
the events of the coming day, even fixing the ransoms of the
English king and his barons; for of victory they had not a
doubt.  The English passed the night far differently; they
made their wills and employed themselves in devotional
exercises; sickness, famine, and the thoughts of the paucity
of their numbers tended to deject them, but the recollection
of former victories and the gallant spirit of their king raised
their spirits.  The king took little rest; he visited all the
qluarters; made his dispositions for battle next day; bands of
music, by his orders, played all through the night; before
sunrise he summoned all the army to hear mass, and then led
them to the field, (Oct. 25.)
K; iThe English were drawn up in three divisions and two
wings, the archers, as usual, in advance of the men-at-arms.
Each archer had a long stake, sharp at both ends, to stick in
the ground before him as a defence against the charge of
the French cavalry. The king, mounted on a gray palfrey,
having his helmet of polished steel wreathed with a crown of
sparkling stones, rode from rank to rank cheering his men.
Hearing one officer say to another that he wished a miracle
would transfer thither some of the good knights who were
sitting idle at home, he declared aloud that he would not
have a single man more; as, if God gave them the victory, it
would be plainly due to his goodness; if he did not, the fewer
that fell the less the loss to their country; but of the result
lie had no apprehension.  The French army was similarly
arrayed, but its files were thirty, while those of the English
were but four deep.  The distance between the armies was
not more than a quarter of a mile.
As the French did not advance, the king directed refreshments to be distributed through the ranks, and he secretly




HENRY V.                    247
sent off two detachments, the one to lie in ambush in a
meadow on the enemy's left flank, the other to set fire to the
houses in his rear during the action.  Three French knights
hen came, summoning them to surrender. The king ordered them off, and forthwith cried, " Banners, advance." Sir
Thomas Erpingham cast his warder into the air; the men
fell on their knees, bit the ground, then rose and with a shout
ran toward the foe. When they had gone twenty paces they
halted and shouted again; those in ambush repeated the
shout; the archers fixed their stakes obliquely in the ground,
and, running beyond them, discharged their arrows; a body
of eight hundred horse appointed to oppose them was slaugh,
tered and dispersed, and in the confusion the archers slung
their bows behind their backs, and grasping their swords and
battle-axes, rushed on, killed the constable and his principal
officers, and routed the whole of the first division. The
archers formed again by the king's directions, who now came
up with the men-at-arms and attacked the second division,
led by the duke of Aleneon. Here the resistance was obstinate. The duke of Clarence being wounded and on the
ground, the king stood over and defended him till he was
removed to a place of safety.  Eighteen French knights,
bound by a vow to take or slay the king, now rushed on him,
and a blow from the mace of one brought him on his knees,
but his guards rescued him and slew all the assailants. The
duke of Alenvon reached the royal standard, killed the duke
of York, and cleft the crown on the king's head, but he
speedily fell, and his division turned and fled. Henry now
prepared to attack the third division; just then word came
that a large force was falling on the rear; in the hurry of
the moment the king gave orders to put the prisoners to
death; and numbers had actually perished when it was dis.
covered that the alarm was caused by a body of six hundred
peasants who had entered Maisoncelles and were plundering
the baggage. The slaughter was then stopped. Meantime
the houses in the rear of the French had been set on fire;
the third division began to waver, and only six hundred men
could be induced to follow their leaders, the counts Falconberg and Marle, in a charge on the English, where they found
captivity or death.
The victory was now complete.  "To whom," said the
king to Montjoy, the French king-at-arms, " to whom  doth
the victory belong? " To you, sir," was the reply. "And
what castle is that I see at a distance?'"  "It is called the
castle of Agincourt."  "Then," said the king, " be this




248             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
battle known to posterity by the name of the oattle of' Agin.
court."  A fatal battle it was to France! among the slain
were the dukes of Brabant, Bar, and Alen(;on, and the consta.
ble and admiral of' France, seven counts, and more than one
hundred bannerets and eight thousand knights and esquires;
and among the prisoners were the dukes of Orleans and
Bourbon, and the counts of Eu, Vendome, and Richemont.
The loss of the English was but one thousand six hundred
tmen, with the duke of York and earl of Suffolk. As thev
crossed the field of battle next morning on their way to
Calais, they killed such of the wounded as were still a.ive,
and when they were gone thousands of men and women
flocked from the surrounding villages and stripped the dead,
leaving them totally naked.
After a short stay at Calais Henry returned to England
leading his noble captives with him. He was received with
enthusiasm in London, where, after the manner of the age,
the streets were hung with rich tapestry, curious pageants
were exhibited, and the public conduits were made to run
sweet wines. The parliament too was most liberal in its
grants to the triumphant monarch.
The next year (1416) the count of Armagnac, who now
governed France, as the Dauphin was dead, made a vigorous
attempt to recover Harfleur, which he besieged by sea and
land. But the duke of Bedford, the king's brother, soon
appeared with a numerous fleet, defeated that of the French,
and relieved the town. Soon after, king Henry and the
emperor Sigismund, (who had visited England, where he
formed an alliance with the king,) passed over to Calais and
had an interview with the duke of Burgundy, under the pretext of seeking a remedy for the schism which now existed
in the church, but in reality to arrange the plan of war against
France, where matters were now in the utmost confusion.
Armagnac had induced the imbecile monarch to order the
seizure of the treasures of the queen Isabella of Bavaria,
whom he also accused of adultery and caused to be confined
at Tours. Isabella, a woman of a fierce, vindictive spirit, instantly proposed a league to the duke of Burgundy, whose
bitterest enemy she had hitherto been. Her offer was accepted; the duke, at the head of sixty thousand; men, marched
toward Paris, taking all the towns in his way. As the
Armagnacs held that city, he passed on to Etampes and
Chartres, and the queen, as was concerted, having prevailed
on her guards to accompany her to a church in the suburbs
of Tours, the duke, who was lying with eight hundred men




HENRY V.                   249
in an adjacent forest, appeared and carried her to Troyes,
where she assumed the title of regent, making him her
lieutenant.
Meanwhile king Henry had landed in Normandy (Aug. 1)
with an army of sixteen thousand men-at-arms and an equal
number of archers. Fortress after fortress and: town after
town submitted; Caen was taken by storm, Bayeux by compcsition; the campaign closed with the reduction of Falaise.
In the spring, (1418,) having received a reinforcement of
fifteen thousand men, he divided his forces and speedily
reduced the whole of Lower Normandy.  He then proceeded
to invest Routen, the capital of the province, which, though
defended by a brave garrison, was, after an obstinate-defence
of nearly six months, obliged to open its gates.
While the king of England was thus recovering what he
regarded as the patrimony of his ancestors, the two parties
into which the French were divided thought only of opposing
each other. One night (May 23) one of the gates of Paris
was secretly opened to a party of the Burgundians; they
were joined by thousands of the citizens; the count of
Armagnac, several ladies, and bishops, and lords, and members
of the parliament were thrown into prison; and on the night
of the 12th of June a mob of sixty thousand persons assembled, broke open the prisons, and massacred all in them
without distinction of sex or rank, and then slaughtered all
through the city those who were hostile to the Burgundian
faction. The present dauphin, the third son of the king,
was taken out of bed by a knight named Tannegui du Chastel, wrapped in a sheet and conveyed away. The queen and
duke entered Paris next day in triumph, where they now exercised the royal authority without opposition. The adverse
party retired to Poitiers and proclaimed the young dauphin
regent. Both parties made proposals to Henry, who, as was
his interest to do, only sought to play them off against each
other. At length, the fill of Rouen awakening them to a
sense of their danger, they renewed their negotiations, the
dauphin even soliciting a personal interview with the duke
of Burgundy. But he did not keep his appointment when
made: the duke then proposed an interview between the two
kings. It was arranged that Charles should come to Pontoise, Henry to Mante. In a plain near Meulant between
these towns, a plot of ground, washed on one side by the
Seine and enclosed by palisades on the other three, was
marked out for the conference. At a imast which was raised
in the centre stood two rich pavilions for the royal parties,
F v




250             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and tents were pitched on the right of the enclosure for the
attendants of Henry, on the left for those of Charles.
On the appointed day (May 30) the king of France, having an attack of his disorder, could not appear; but in the
morning the queen, the princess, and the duke of Burgundy
came, escorted by one thousand horse, and Henry and his
brothers of Clarence and Gloucester arrived, followed by one
thousand men-at-arms; they met in the centre; the king
bowed to the queen and princess, whom he had never seen
before Catherine, who was graceful and beautiful, employed,
as instructed by her mother, all her charms on the heart of
the king; and when, in spite of his efforts, the queen saw
they had taken effect, the princess was removed and appeared
no more. Henry's demands were Normandy and the provinces ceded by the peace of Bretigni in full sovereignty; the
Fredih ministers made no objection; the conferences were
extended on one pretext or another for an entire month; at
length Henry discovered that the whole was a feint, and that
Burgundy had been meantime negotiating with the dauphin
through a lady of the name of De Giac. They met soon
after (July 11) at Melun, and vowed to forget past injuries
and unite their forces against the English.  Henry for the
present could only avenge himself by the surprise and capture
of Pontoise.
It would appear that Henry's hopes of the conquest of
France were now at an end; yet, ere many months were
passed, he gained all he could desire. The duke and dauphin,
who still distrusted each other, agreed to a conference at
Montereau on the Yonne. They were to meet on the bridge
over that river, across which barriers were placed with gates in
them; each entered the intermediate space with ten attendants; the duke bent his knee to the dauphin, and was
addressing him, when he was struck in the face with a small
axe by Tannegui du Chastel, and he was despatched by
several wounds; one of his followers escaped, another was
slain, the rest were made prisoners. The dauphin constantly denied his previous knowledge of this foul deed, but those
who perpetrated it still retained his favor. It, however, ruined
his cause; all France was filled with horror and indignation;
and the heir of the murdered prince, thinking only of revenge,
hastened to conclude a treaty with Henry, the queen engaging
that Charles should ratify whatever was arranged. Henry's
terms were the hand of the princess Catherine, the regency
during the king's lifetime, and the crown on his death.
These terms were at once acceded to. Henry marched at




HENRY V.                   25 i
the head of sixteen thousand men-at-arms to Troyes, where
the court then was; the Perpetual Peace, as it was styled,
was sworn to, (MaVy 21, 1420;) the princess and he were
affianced, and after a short interval married, (June 2;) and
Henry then, accompanied by his bride, set out to conduct
the siege of Sens.
In the winter the two kings returned to Paris, where the
states-general met and gave their approbation to the treaty.
Henry then (1421) conducted his lovely bride to England,
and she was there crowned with a magnificence hitherto unknown.  While the king remained in England his brother of
Clare. ce, whom he had left in command in Normandy, made
an irruption into Anjou, which adhered to the dauphin. The
marshal La Fayette assembled what troops he could, among
which were seven thousand Scots under the earl of Buchan,
the regent's son. Clarence, advancing with only his men-atarms, fell in with them at a place named Beauj6, and, being
greatly outnumbered, his force was utterly  routed, one
thousand two hundred being slain and three hundred made
prisoners. The duke himself was wounded by sir William
Swynton, and then slain by Buchan, whom the dauphin for
this victory made constable of France. On the news of this
disaster Henry returned without delay to France, with four
thousand men-at-a-rms and twenty-four thousand archers, and
accompanied by the young king of Scots. He drove the
dauphin from Chartres and forced him to take refuge in
Bourges; then returning to Paris, he, to gratify the
Parisians, laid siege to Meaux, which he reduced after a
siege of five months; and now (1422) all France north of
tile Loire, except Anjou and Maine, obeyed him.
To crown his happiness, his queen, who had been delivered of a son, came over with her babe to join him. The
two courts met in Paris to keep their Whitsuntide, which
was celebrated with the utmost magnificence. But this was
the last of the glories of king Henry; a fatal disease was
secretly preying on him. On his march to raise the siege of
Cosne he felt himself so unwell (July 30) that he was obliged
to resign the command to the duke of Bedford and return to
Vincennes. He was soon aware that recovery was hopeless.
The infancy of his sDn gave him uneasiness, and on the day
of his death he strongly recommended. his queen and her
child to his brothers and his other nobles. He advised them
to cultivate the friendship of the duke of Burgundy, and to
offer him the regency of France, and never to release the
pr;nces taken at Agincourt; he charged them in the worst
Li__




252             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of cases not to make peace unless Normandy was ceded to
the crown of England. In a few hours after, he breathed his
last, with the utmost piety and resignation.  He was only
in the thirty-fourth year of his age and the tenth of his
reign.
This great prince was justly a favorite with his people.
He was handsome in person and affable in manners. His
valor was undoubted, and it was united wifrt skill and prudence. In the pursuit of his unfounded claim to the crown of
France he is as much to be admired in the capacity of the
statesman as in that of the warrior.
The queen-dowager Catherine afterwards married sir
Owen Tudor, a gentleman of Wa,s. They had two sons,
Edmund created earl of Richmond, and Jasper earl of Pembroke. As we proceed we shall behold their descendants
aeated on the throne of England.
CHAPTER XI.
HENRY VI.
1422-1461.
A MINORITY for the fourth time appears in the royal line
of England, the new monarch being an infant only nine
months old. The English parliament, regardless of the will
of the late king, refused the duke of Gloucester the title and
authority of regent; a council of regency with the duke of
Bedford, and during his absence the duke of Gloucester, at
its head, under the title of protector, was appointed, and the
parliament was then dissolved.
The duke of Burgundy having declined the regency of
France, it was conferred on the duke of Bedford by king
Charles.'This imbecile monarch followed his gallant son-inlaw to the grave within two months, and his death seriously
affected the English interest, by withdrawing from it the
semrblance of roval authority which it had hitherto possessed.
The dauphin forthwith assumed the regal title, and was
trowned and anointed at Chartres. Bedford, who equalled
is late brother in ability and valor, and surpassed him in
nianners, sought b? every means to attach the dukes of




HENRY V.                   253
Burgundy and Bri,tany; and at a conference held at Arras
the three princes bound themselves to each other by oaths,
cemented by the marriage of the dukes of Bedford and
Brittany to tile sisters of the duke of MIurgun(ly.  As the
Scottish government had lately sent Charles a reinforcemenlt
of five thousand men, aid it was feared that they might invade
the north of Enlgland, the English ministry offered kinlr
James his liberty on conlldition of his paying 40,0001. for the
expenses of his nineteen years' captivity, and forbidding his
subjects toenter the service of France.  These terms were
agreed to, and James, having espoused an English lady of
high descent to whom he had long beeni betrothed, returned
to his native kinigdom, where he proved the ablest and best
monarch that Scotland had ever possessed.
The war in France meantime was continued. The duke
of Bedford occupied himself in reducing such towns and
castles in the north as still held out.  An army of French
and Scots formed the siege of Crevent on the Yonne; the
earl of Salisbury joined the Burgundians, and led his troops
to its relief. The English forced the passage of the bridge,
the Burgundians followed; the enemy were totally defeated,
and their two commanders, the constable of Scotland and
the count of Ventadour, were made prisoners. The capture
of La Charite on the Loire opened a passage into the southern provinces. In the next campaign (1424) the duke of
Bedford, with two thousand men-at-arms and seven thousand
archers, laid siege to Yvri in Normandy, where the garrison
had raised the standard of Charles. The constable of France
with an army of eighteen thousand men came to its relief,
but despairing of success he turned aside, and surprised
Verneuil. The duke of Bedford advanced to attack the
enemy, who did not refuse the combat. The English menat-arms formed one compact mass with the archers, protected by their stakes on the flanks; a body of two thousand
archers were set to guard the horses and the baggage in
the rear, and they fastened the horses together by the heads
and the tails and mixed them through the baggage so as to
form an insuperable barrier.  After the battle had lasted for
an hour, without any advantage on either side, a body of
French and Italian cavalry fell on the baggage; but unable
to penetrate it they stood as marks for the arrows of the
archers, who, when they had slain or driven them off, ran
to the front and with a shout fell on the enemy. This decided
the battle; the French fled, with a loss of three thousand men:
sixteen hundred of the victors lay on the plain. The consta.
VOL. 1.     22




254              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ble of France, his countrymen earl Douglas and his son, and
other nobles were among the slain; the duke of Alen(on
and two hundred gentlemen were made prisoners.
The victory of Verneuil was productive of no consequences of importance; the blame has been laid on the
ambition of the duke of Gloucester. Jacqueline heiress of
Hainault, Holland, Zealand, and Friesland, having been
married to John, dauphin of France, was on his death
married to her cousin-german the duke of Brabant, a weak
minded youth, only in his sixteenth year. Jacqueline, a
woman of masculine spirit, soon learned to despise her feeble
Helpmate, and at length (1420) she left him and repaired to
england, where the duke of Gloucester, smitten with the'harms of herself and her heritage, sought her hand; after
soe death of Henry V. he openly espoused her, alleging that. er marriage with her cousin was *void, though the council
ci Constance had granted a dispensation.  The duke of
burgundy, who was cousin to the duke of Brabant, was
hIonly offended; the duke of Bedford was in the utmost
perplexity: it was proposed to leave the matter to the pope,
but Gloucester refused, and at the head of five thousand
men he took possession of Hainault, (1425.). The duke of
Burgundy sent aid to his cousin; a challenge passed between
him and Gloucester, but the duel did riot take place. Gloucester returned to England, leaving Jacqueline at Mons; she
was obliged to surrender, and was conducted to Ghent,
whence she made her escape in man's attire and fled to Holland, where she maintained the war for two years, but at
length was obliged to submit to the duke of Burgundy.
Gloucester meantime seems to have given up all thoughts of
her, for he married Eleanor daughter of' lord Cobham, who
had long lived with him as his mistress.
Gloucester also caused his brother much uneasiness by
his quarrels with their uncle, Henry Beaufort the bishop of
Winchester. This ambitious prelate was the second son of
John of Gaunt by Catherine Swynford, and he held the high
office of chancellor. Bedford was obliged to come over to
England (1426) to effect an apparent reconciliation between
them. The following year the prelate received a cardinal's
hat from Romte.
For three years, owing to want of means on both sides,
the war had languished in France.  Meantime the duke of
Brittany had yielded to the instances of his brother the count
of Richemont, whom Charles had made constable of France
and began to separate himself from his English alliance




HENRY  VI.                    255
Bedford immediately poured his troops into Brittany, de
feated the Bretons every where, and soon forced the duke to
renew  his engagements.  On his return to Paris (1428)
several councils were held, and it was resolved, contrary, it
is said, to the opinion of the regent, to carry the war beyond
the Loire. The campaign was to be opened by the siege of
Orleans, a strong, well-garrisoned city on the right bank of'
that river.  The English army of ten thousand men under
the earl of Salisbury, one of their ablest generals, crossed
the Loire, and carried by assault (Oct. ~23) the Tourelles, or
castle which defended the bridge on the left bank; but the
garrison had broken down one of the arches; and a few days
after, as Salisbury was Iooking out from one of the windows
of the Tourelles, he wa, struck in the face by a sho  from
the ramparts, and he died of his wound.  The command then
devolved on the earl of Suffolk; reinforcements arrived;
bastilles, or huts defended by intrenchments, were constructed
round the city, but the spaces between them were so great,
on account of the extent of the walls, that the enemy, who
had large magazines at Blois, found little difficulty in conveying in supplies.
In the beginning of the Lent (1429) sir John Falstaff set
out from Paris with one thousand five hundred men, and
four hundred wagons laden  with salt herrings and other
provisions for the besiegers.  At the village of Roveray
(Feb. t2) he learned that the earl of Clermont was advancing
with from four to five thousand horse to intercept him.  He
halted and formed round his men a circle of the wagons
leaving but two openings, each guarded by a strong body of
archers.  The commander of the Scots in the French army
advised that the men-at-arms should dismount; Clernmont refused, and it was finally agreed that each might do as they
pleased.  Before day the attack was made; the English arrows flew with their usual effect, and  erelong the enemy
fled leaving six hundred men slain.  After this' battle of the
Herrings,' as it was named, Falstaff reached the camp in
safety.  Lines were now run from bastille to bastille, and the
town was completely shut in.  The besieged offered to surrender the town into the hands of the duke of Burgundy, but
the regent insisted on its being given up to the English, whc
had won it with their blood.
The fate of Orleans now seemed decided; a general gloom
overspread the French court, and Charles even meditated
flight into Spain or Scotland; but his mistress, the fair Agnes
Sore, it is said, recalled him to more manly thoughts, and




256              HISTORY OF ENGLANPI
at length one of the most extraordinary appearances in his.
tory came to raise the fallen fortunes of France.
In the small hamlet of Domremy in Champagne dwelt a
peasant named Jacques d'Arc, among whose children was
a daughter whose name was Joan. The character of this
maiden was stainless; she was remarkable for her piety and
serious cast of thought. The misfortunes of her king and
country made a strong impression on her imagination, and
incessant solitary brooding soon produced visions; she fancied that the saints Margaret and Catherine used to appear
to her and urge her to undertake the defence of her country.
She addressed herself to Baudricourt, lord of the neighboring town of Vancouleur, requiring to be sent to the dauphin,
as she was appointed by Heaven to crown him. Baudricourt
laughed at her pretensions', but afterwards, either believing
in her mission or seeing the advantage that might be derived from it, he sent her with a small retinue to Chinon,
where the court resided. Joan appeared clad in man's attire
After some delay she was admitted to the presence of the
king, whom she assured that she was sent by Heaven to raise
the siege of Orleans and conduct him to Rheims to be
crowned. It is added that, though she had never before seen
the king, she recognized him at once among his courtiers
that she told him secrets known only to himself, and de
scribed and claimed a sword, in the church of St. Catherine
of Fierbois, whose very existence had been forgotten.  She
was examined by a council of lawyers and divines at Poitiers,
who pronounced her inspired. Mounted on a stately gray
charger, which she managed with a dexterity acquired in
her village, but which to those who knew not her origin appeared miraculous, and preceded by a banner, in which the
Almighty, represented as usual as a venerable old man, bore
a globe in his hand and was surrounded by fleurs-de-lis, the
maid was exhibited to the people, whose joy and enthusiasm
knew no bounds.  Care at the same time was taken that the
most exaggerated accounts of the heaven-sent deliverer
should reach the English camp, where, in despite of the
efforts of Suffolk and his officers, a secret terror soon began
to pervade the minds of the soldiers.
As want was now felt in Orleans, a large supply of provisions was collected  at Blois, to be sent thither under a
convoy of seven thousand men led by the able La Hire. lonn
repaired thither; she ordered the soldiers to confess themselves, and banished from the camp all the women of loose
life.  At the same time she wrote to Suffolk, ordering him




HENRY  VI.                   257
in the divine name to raise the siege. La Hire embarked
the provisions in boats his troops, headed by the Maid bearing her sacred banner, marched along the bank to protect
them; a sally from the town distracted the attention of the
English, and the Maid and the stores entered Orleans unopposed. A few days after she headed a party of volunteers,
and attacked and carried two of the bastilles.  She then assailed the Tourelles, and after an assault of fourteen hours,
during which she was wounded in the neck, that fortress
was carried.  rT'he hopes of the English now completely expired, and at dawn the next day (May 8) they set fire to their
line of forts and departed from before Orleans.
The earl of Suffolk was now besieged for ten days in
Jargeau, whither he had retired.  The Nlaid headed the attack and scaled the wall; a stone struck her on the head,
and she fell down into the ditch. " On, on! my countrymen,"
cried she as she lay; " fear nought; the Lord has delivered
them into our hands."  An unguarded place was discovered;
the French rushed in: part of the garrison were slain, the
rest made prisoners.  "Are you a knight?" said Suffolk to
the officer who demanded his sword: he replied in the negative.  "Then," said the earl, "I make you one," and he
gave him the blow of knighthood with his sword, which he
then surrendered.  Melun and other fortresses opened their
gates; lord Talbot led the dispirited remains of the English
army toward Paris, but at Patay he was overtaken by the
French.  Falstaff advised a retreat; Talbot disdained to
show his back to an enemy.  The English, however, made
but a feeble stand; twelve hundred men were slain, and Talbot and lord Scales were made prisoners.  Falstaff, who had
fled in the beginning, was deprived of the order of the garter,
but on his proving to the regent that it was little short of
madness to fight at Patay, his honors were restored.
The heroic Maid of Orleans had performed the first part
of her mission; she now  urged the king to set out for
Rheirns, that the whole might be fulfilled; and, though all
the intermediate country was in the hands of the English
and Burgundians, Charles and his ministers resolved to
hearken to her.  Attended by ten thousand horse, the king
set forth; at Auxerre the people, though they feared to- open
their gates, supplied him with provisions. Troyes and. ChaIons readily received'him; the people of Rheims expelled
their Burgundian garrison.  The holy oil, bro.uoght, as the
legend told, by a dove from heaven to the coronation of
Clovis, the founder of the monarchy, sanctified him in the
22                          C a 




X25              HISTORY O:F ENGLAND.
eyes of his people; and then the Maid, who held her bannei
at his side, fell on her knees, and declaring her mission ended,
craved with tears to be dismissed.  But, unhappily for her,
her further presence was deemed of too much importance;
she was induced to remain, and a patent of nobility for her.
self and her family, with a pension equal to the income of a
count, was conferred on her.'The duke of Bedford was now in a condition of great'difficulty; he could obtain neither men nor money from
home,:and disaffection was spreading all around him.  Yet
his abilities rose superior to his difficulties;  he kept the
duke of Burgundy steady, and having prevailed0 on the cardinal of Winchester to lend:him five thousand men whom
he was leading against the Hussites of Bohemia, he advanced to engage king Charles.  The armies came in view
near Senlis; but the French, though greatly superior in number, thought on Agincourt ard Verneuil, and feared to engage.  Bedford withdrew to Normandy, and Charles then
advanced to Paris.  An attack was made on the fauxbourg
of St. Honore; the Maid was wounded, and lay unnoticed in
the ditch till the evening, when she was found by a party
sent in quest of her.  Charles then returned to Bourges for
the winter.
The following spring (1430) the duke of Burgundy laid
blege to Compeigne.  A force led hby the Maid advanced
to its relief.  On her way she routed a Burgundian corps'
she surprised the post of Marigni, but reinforcements arriving she was forced to retire.  In the retreat she repeatedly
faced about on her pursuers; but at length an archer seized
and dragged her off her horse.  She surrendered to the
bastard of Vendome, by whom she was *conducted to John
of Luxembourg, who commanded the army. The greatest
rejoicings were made for her capture, the solemn Te Deuin
was sung at Paris, and Bedford purchased her at a large
price from her captors.
The bishop of Beauvais, a creature of the English, forthwith claimned a right to try her for sorcery and imposture,
as she was taken in his diocese; the university of' Paris also
demanded her trial.  She was removed to Rouen, where a
commission of prelates, among whom the cardinal of Winchester alone was English, aided by. the inquisitor-general,
assembled to try her.  She was produced before them  in
her male attire and laden with chains, (Feb. 12, 1431,) front
which she prayed to be relieved.  But as she had already
attempted to escape, and declared she would do so again,




HENRY Vi                     259
her request was refused.  She was brougnt sixteen times
before the court; she answered all the questions put to het
calmly and firmly; she maintained the reality of her visions
and the truth of her mission; she was condemned  as a heretic, and sentenced to be delivered over to the secular arm.
The natural love of life then operated in her bosom, and she
was induced to recant; she owned that her visions were
illusions of the devil, and swore never again to wear man's
attire.  Her sentence then was commuted to perpetual imprisonment.  But in her dungeon her visions returned, or,
as it is said, her enemies left men's clothes in her cell, and
being tempted at the sight to put them  on, she was caught
in them; and, as now guilty of a relapse, she was delivered
over to the secular arm (Dec. 39) in that form of mockery
and insult which had been devised by the church for such
occasions.  She was led to the market-place, where the pile
was formed.  When the fire was kindled she uttered loud
exclamations, and as the flames enveloped her she was seen
embracing a crucifix, and calling on Christ for mercy.
Thus perished, in the 20th year of her age, the admirable,
the heroic Maid of Orleans, to whom, as our philosophic
historian remarks, "the more generous superstition of the
ancients would have erected altars."  She perished, the victim of national enmity and of a sanguinary superstition.  In
excuse for her judges and enemies can only be alleged the
general belief in sorcery, in which they may have shared: for
the heartless neglect of her by the French king and his
nobles, after she had served their purpose, no excuse can be
offered.  It is but one instance among many of the selfishness
and want of generosity  which, we fear, form  a part of the
French national character.  Posterity, however, has done
justice to the noble Maid, and by none are her virtues more
fieely acknowledged or more warmly eulogized, and her hard
fate more sincerely deplored, than by the descendants of
those whom she deprived of dominion in France, and who
in their ignorance and bigotry were the authors of her
death.@
The execution of the Maid produced none of the good
effects expected from it; of as little effect was the coronation
of tile young king at Paris, (Dec. 17;) the petty warfare, to
which the want of means confined both parties, was mostly to
the disadvantage of the English.' The death of the duchess
of Bedford (1433) weakened the ties between the dukes of
Compare the Joan of Are of Southey with the Pucelle of Voltaire




;260             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Burgundy and Bedford, and the precipitate union of the
latter with Jacquette of Luxembourg, a vassal of the former,
greatly widened the breach.  Burgundy began to listen to
proposals for an accommodation with his sovereign; btut
as he had sworn not to make peace without the consent of
the English, a congress for a general pacification, under the
mediation of the pope, was proposed to be held at Arras.
This congress met, ( 1435;) but either from the high demands
of the English, or because it was not wished to conciliate
them, all their proposals were rejected; the cardinal of Winchester and the other English ministers withdrew, and peace
was then made between the king of France and the duke of
Burgundy.  To add to the ill fortune of the English, the
great duke of Bedford died at Rouen while the congress was
sitting at Arras.
Bedford was succeeded by the duke of York, but ere he
arrived tile Parisians had admitted the French troops into the
city; and lord Willoughby, the governor, having retired into
the Bastille, was there forced to surrender.  Lord Talbot sustained on various occasions the fame of the English arms;
and when the duke of Burgundy was induced to declare
against his former allies, and laid siege to Calais, (1436,) the
duke of Gloucester forced him to retire, and the following
year the brave Talbot obliged him to raise the siege of Crotoi.
A dreadful famine and pestilence then ravaged both countries
during two successive years; in 1440 the constable of France
took the city of Meaux, while Talbot and the earl of Somerset recovered Harfleur, which the French had taken in
143I. The next event of importance was the capture of
Pontoise by Charles in person, (1441.) In the two succeedilig years the war was prosecuted both in the north and south,
but nothing decisive occurred.  Negotiations were then- set
oU iot, and at length (1444) an armistice was concluded for
two years.
Having briefly traced thus far the events of the war ir
France, we now return to the internal history of England
As the young king advanced in years he developed a character the very opposite of that of his illustrious father.  He
was mild and pious, but of so slender a capacity and so
feeble a temper that it was evident he would never be able to
govern himself, much less to rule a great kingdom, and that
he would be nothing more than a mere puppet in the hands
of others. The court and parliament were divided into the
factions of the cardinal and his nephew; the former ambi.
tious. avaricious, and intriguing; the latter generous, open,




HENRY VI.                    261
and impetuous. The great wealth which the cardinal had
amassed enabled him to gain the favor of the needy king by
making him loans of money, and his influence visibly pre.
dominated over that of Gloucester.  HIe was the advocate of
peace with France, which Gloucester, filled with ideas of the
glory acquired in the late reign, strenuously opposed. The
question of the liberation of the duke of Orleans, one of the
princes taken at Agincourt, tried the strength of the two
parties, (1439,) but the arguments and the opposition of
Gloucester proved unavailing; he then stated his reasons in
a detailed protest on the rolls of chancery; and he entered
his barge, to avoid being present when that prince was taking
the oaths not to act against England.
About two years after, (1441,) the duchess of Gloucester
was accused of treason and sorcery. The charge was, that
with the aid of Roger Bolingbrooke, one of the duke's chaplains, who was said to deal in the black art, and Margery Jourdemain the witch of Eye, she had made a waxen image of the
king, to whom the duke was next heir, which was exposed
to a gentle heat; for, according to the rules of magic, as it
melted away the king's health and strength would decay.
She owned to having applied to the witch for love-potions to
secure the affections of her husband, and to having directed
Bolingbrooke to calculate the duration of the king's life. The
result was that Bolingbrooke and Southwell, a canon of St.
Paul's, were found guilty of treason; the latter died in prison,
the former was executed; the witch was burnt by the church
as a relapsed heretic; the duchess, after being made to walk
three several times through the city without a hood, and
bearing a lighted taper, was consigned for life to the custody
of sir John Stanley.  It is probable enough that the charges
made against the duchess were trule.  We have no direct
proof that the cardinal had any concern in the business, but
t is scarcely credible that any but the powerful faction of
which he was the head would have ventured to offer so dire
an insult to the first prince of the blood
The marriage of the young. king, who was now three-andtwenty, next came under consideration.  It was proposed to
match him with a daughter of the count of Armagnac, whose
territories bordered on Guienne; but this project, which had
the full approval of Gloucester, was counteracted by Suffolk,
and Charles hearing of it made the count and his family
prisoners. The cardinal and his party then cast their eyes
on Margar %t, daughter of Retne6, titular king of Jerusalem and
Sicily, and duke of Anjou, Maine and Bar, a woman of great




a  262          TaISTORY OF ENGLAND.                              j
beauty and accomplishments, and of masculine energy of mind.
j  That she would absolutely rule the feeble king was not to be
doubted; and as she was nearly related to Charles, who had
always shown much regard for her, it was perhaps hoped that
s ie would be the means of procuring all honorable peace.
William de la Pole, earl of Suffolk, was sent over to negotiate
the match, and of his own authority he not merely consented
that the princess should be taken without dower, a thing of
course to be expected, as Rene6 was but a royal pauper, but
actually agreed that Anjou and Maine, which the English
{i       still held, should be restored to him, that is, in effect, given
up to the king of France.  On Suffolk's return the majority
of the council sanctioned what he had done; he was created
a marquess, and sent back to espouse the princess as his
gi       royal master's proxy, and conduct her to England.  Henry
met and married her at Tichfield, and she was crowned with
great magnificence at Westminster, (May 30, 1445.)
The absolute power of Margaret over her husband was sooni
apparent. Suffolk naturally stood high in her favor, and, uni-.'       ted with the cardinal and his nephew the duke of Somerset,
l1       they overbore all opposition and ruled the kingdom.  We are
in ignorance of the details of affairs for nearly two years, but
on the 10th of February, 1447, a parliament met by sumlmons at
Bury St. Edmund's, to which the knights of the shire were
directed to repair in arms; guards were placed round the
king's residence, and the men of Suffolk were arrayed.
Gloucester came from his castle at Devizes; on the second
day (Feb. 11) he was arrested on a charge of high treason;
on the eighteenth (Feb. ~28) he was found dead in his bed.
His death was ascribed to apoplexy or chagtin  by those
who maintained that it was natural; others, however, asserted
that he had been murdered.  His body, like those of Edward
II., Richard II., and Thomas of Gloucester, was exposed to
public view, but these we know had all been murdered.
Certain it is that, at the present day and in free countries,
state-prisoners do not die thus suddenly and opportunely.  It
is remarkable that a great part of his estates went to Suffolk
and his relatives and fiiends, and that even before hiis death
his county of Pembroke had been granted to that nobleman
in case of his dying without issue. If he was murdered, Suffolk beyond doubt rwas guilty; his death; as the chronicler says,
may have been " not unprocured" by the cardinal, and not
unapproved by the young queen.  The unhappy duchess was
refused her dower.  Five' geitleinen of the duke's houschold
were sentenced to death as sharers in his treasons.  They
____        ___________________________________________ 




HENRY VI.                    263           I
wele hung up, but immediately cut down and marked for
quartering:  when Suffolk, who was present, announced the
king's pardon, and their lives were preserved.
The duke of Gloucester was generally lamented, and the
memory of the good duke Humphrey, as he was called,
was long cherished.  This prince had been honorably distillguishe, by his patronage of letters: his death, as we shall
see, proved the ruin of the house of Lancaster, by opening a
field to the ambition of a rival family.
The cardinal, whether guilty or innocent, followed his
nephew to the grave within six weeks, lamenting, we are told,
that money could not purchase life, and that he should be
thus cut off when, Gloucester being removed, he had hopes
of the papal crown.  It seems no doubt strange that such a
notion should be entertained by a man eighty years old, and
with a mortal disease on him; but both public and private
life yield abundant instances of similar fatuity.  It is curious
that, somewhat like the emperor Charles V., he caused his
obsequies to be celebrated in his presence a short time before
he died.  The character of this prelate is thus drawn by the
chronicler -Iall: "More noble of blood than notable in learning, haut of stomach and high in countenance, rich above
measure of all men, and to few liberal, disdainful to his kin
and dreadful to his lovers, preferring money before friendship, many things beginning and nothing performing."
The surrender of Maine and Anjou, the keys of Normandy, was speedily followed by the loss of that great province; town after town, and castle after castle, opened their
gates, or were taken by assault.  The French troops were
then led into Guienne; no resistance was offered, and at
length (1451) Calais'alone remained of all the English con-.
quests and possessions in France.
The popular indignation in England was high, and was
chiefly directed against the favorite, Suffolk, (now a duke.)
Moleyns, the bishop of Chichester, who had had the inglorious task of delivering up Maine to the French, was slain in
a popular commotion at Portsmouth, (1450;) and it was said
that before his death. he declared that Suffolk was a traitor,
who had sold Maine to the French, and boasted of having as
much influence in their council as in the English.  Suffolk
resolved to anticipate the stroke that he saw was aimed at
hihl   When parliament met, he rose, and, addressing the
king said, that his father and his four brothers had lost their
lives in the royal service in.France; that he himself had
served the king thirty-four years in arms; that he had been
_ _..... S~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~f




264              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
fifteen years of the king's council; that he had been born in
England, where all his inheritance lay; and that therefore it
was absurd to suppose he could be a traitor. lie then required that any one who would make a charge against him,
should come forward and do so openly.
A few days after, the commons having charged him with
supplying his castle of Wallingford with provisions and stores
for the purpose of aiding the king of France, he was cominmnitted to the Tower.  Ten days later, eight articles of impeachment were exhibited against him, of which the first and
chief was that of having a design to set the crown, with the
aid of the French king, on the head of his own son, whom
he had married to the heiress of the late duke of Somerset,
"presuming her to be the next inheritable to the crown."
After a month's delay the commons, probably aware of the
futility of these articles, sent up sixteen new ones, charging
him with embezzling the public money, advising the king to
make improvident grants, giving office to improper persons,
procuring pardons for traitors, etc. In his defence he treated the first article as ridiculous, since, as many peers then
present well knew, he had intended to marry his son to a
daughter of the earl of Warwick; as to the cession of Maine
and Anjou, he was no more guilty (if it was a crime) than the
other lords of the council or of parliament.  The other
charges he said were frivolous and vexatious; of the second
set of articles he took no notice.
As the commons seemed bent on his ruin, the following expedient was adopted to save him. The king, on his own authority, pronouncing him neither guilty nor innocent of treason, commanded him, on the second impeachment, to quit the
kingdom for the space of five years. The parliament was
then prorogued. The life of the duke was openly threatened,
and two thousand people met in St. George's Fields to intercept him; he however escaped down to his estates in Suffolk,
and on the appointed day (April 30) he sailed from Ipswich
with two small vessels.  He sen-t a boat into Calais to know
if he might land there; but the boat was detained, and the
Nicholas of the Tower, a large vessel of the state, carrying a
hundred and fifty men, came alongside his bark and orde"ed
him on board.  "Welcome, traitor, as men say," cried Lhe
captain as he came on deck.  He remained two nights in4he
Nicholas, his confessor being with him.  He was put to a
mock trial before the sailors, and condemned to death; and
on the second morning a small boat with a block, a rusty
sword, and an executionsr, came alongside. The duke way
I




HENRY VI.                   265
lowered into it; his head was severed fromn his body at the
sixth blow. His body was placed on the sands at Dover,
where it was watched by the sheriff of Kent till it was delivered to his widow by the king's order. No inquiry was
instituted into-this murder, as the parties who had planned
and executed it were probably too powerful to be brought to
justice.
The popular discontent caused by the feebleness and corruption of the government and the disasters in France, and
perhaps secretly excited by the partisans of the house of
York, had already broken out in several places.  But immediately after the murder of Suffolk, a body of twenty thousand
Kentishmen, led by a person of uncertain rank and origin,*
who was named John Cade, but assumed the name of Mortimer, appeared in arms at Blackheath.  Two papers, named
"The complaints of the commons of Kent," and "The requests of the captain of the great assembly in Kent," were
forwarded to the king. These contained sundry complaints
of oppressive government, and concluded by requiring that
the relatives of Suffolk should be banished from the court,
and the dukes of York and Exeter, and some others who were
named, be called to the king's councils; that those who had
caused the deaths of the duke of Gloucester, cardinal Beaufort, and the dukes of Exeter and Warwick, and occasioned
the loss of the dominions in France, should be punished;
that all extortions should be abolished, and the g eat extortioners be brought to justice.
The king having collected a force, the insurgents retired;
but when sir Humphrey Stafford came up with them at
Sevenoaks, with a part of the royal forces, they turned, and
defeated and slew him. Cade then arrayed himself in the
fallen knight's armor, and led his men back to Blackheath.
The king, finding his men not inclined to fight, disbanded
them and retired to Kenilworth, lord Scales with one thousand men undertaking the defence of the Tower. Cade then
advanced to Southwark, and, as the citizens had resolved to
make no resistance, he entered the city in triumph, giving
strict orders to his men not to pillage, and in the evening he led
them back to Southwark. Next day he returned, and, having
obliged the mayor and judges to sit at Guildhall, arraigned
before them lord Say, the royal chamberlain, who having
vainly pleaded his privilege as a peer, was beheaded at the
* He was said to have been an Irishman. In a letter written at this
time he is called Mr. John Aylmere, physician.
VOL. 3I 1.W HR




266             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Standard in Cheapside,: and his son-in-law Cromer, the sheriff
of Kent, shared his fate.
Some pillage having been committed on this day, the citizens grew apprehensive, and they agreed to join lord Scales
in defending the bridge. A  conflict ensued during the
night; the bridge was taken and retaken several times, but
finally remained in the hands of the citizens.  A short truce.
ensued, during which the two archbishops, who were in the
Tower, sent the bishop of Winchester over the river with
pardons for those who would return to their homes. The
pardons were gladly accepted, and the insurgents dispersed.
But Cade soon repented, and collected more men; as their
numbers however were not great, they retired from Southwark, and, quarrelling on the way, their leader left them, and
fled toward Lewes, pursued by an esquire named Iden, who
slew him in a garden after an obstinate defence. Iden roceived a reward of 1000 marks; several of the insurgents
were afterwards executed as traitors; some of whom, it is
said, confessed that it had been their intention to place the
duke of York on the throne.
The duke of York was now in Ireland, the government of
which country:had been given to him when he was deprived
of that of Normandy, which he had held for some years, in
order to gratify the duke of Somerset, who coveted it. But
the measures of this nobleman had been uniformly unfortunate; and his surrender of Caen, which belonged to the duke
of York, had exasperated the mind of that prince against
him. The queen's party resolved to oppose Somerset to the
duke of York; the latter, aware of their machinations, suddenly left Ireland and proceeded to his castle at Ludlow in
Wales; and having assembled his retainers set out for London, which he reached at the head of four thousand men,
though a force under lord Lisle was sent to intercept him.
He went to Westminster, knelt before the king, complained
of the state of the kingdom, and implored him to summon a
parliament. The king promised to do so, and the duke then
retired to his castle of Fotheringay, (Sept. 30.)  Somerset
returned to England the following month at: the desire of
the queen and her party.'When parliament met, (Nov. 6,) York andSomerset mutually accused each other; a bill at the same time passed
the commons to attaint the memory of the late duke of
Suffolk, and to remove from court the duchess of Suffolk,
the duke of Somerset, and some other lords. The king, as
instructe, refused his assent, and the duchess and some others




tiENRY Vi.                   26aaving demanded a trial, were tried and acquitted. For some
months altercations in parliament and acts of violence out of
it' succeeded. At length the duke of York repaired to his
castle of Ludlow on the marches of Wales, (1452,) raised
the tenants of the' house of Mortimer, and marched toward
London, demanding a reformation of the government and
the removal of Somerset.  Finding the gates of the city
closed against him, he turned into Kent; the king followed
at the head of a superior'force; the duke encamped at
Darftford, the king at Blackheath.  A parley ensued, Somerset was placed under arrest, and York dismissed his army
and visited the king in his tent unarmed, (March 1.)  Here,
as he renewed his charges against Somerset, that nobleman
stepped out from behind a curtain, and offered to maintain
his innocence, and York, as he retired, was arrested and
carried to London.  Somerset -advised an instant trial and
execution; but the king was averse from blood, and the,iews of the approach of York's son, the earl of March, with
an army, intimidated the council.  The duke was dismissed
on renewing his oath of fealty, and he retired to his castle of
Wigmore.
In the autumn'of this year the Gascons, weary of their
new masters, and finding the demand for their wines in
England on the decline, sent over a deputation, offering to
return to their allegiance.  The venerable Talbot, now earl
of Shrewsbury, was sent with a force of 4000 men; his son
lord Lisle followed with an  equal number.  The whole
Bordelais with Chatillon in Perigord submitted before the
winter.  The next year (1453) the count of Penthievre invested Chatillon with twenty-five thousand men; Talbot
hastened to its relief; the French retired to an entrenched
camp, defended by three hundred pieces of cannon.  Talbot
ordered all assault; in the action his horse was killed under
him, and his leg was broken, and as he lay he was slain with a
bayonet; his son lost his- life: in attempting to rescue him,
and the army dispersed and fled.  Bordeaux, defended by
six thousand citizens and four thousand English, held out
till famine compelled it to surrender,  The English were
permitted to depart with their property, the citizens were
received to favor, and Guienne was lost for ever to Eng-:lind.
Though this loss was a real gain, it was not so considered
by the nation, and it augmented the odium under which the
queen and hler party lay. The birth of a prince, however,
t Oct. 13,) extinguished the hopes the duke of York enter.




268              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
tained of a peaceable succession, and, instead of lightening,
only darkened the political hemisphere. It was openly said
bly the common people that he was not the king's son; " his
noble mother," says the chronicler, " sustained not a little
disclaunder of the common people." The duke, however, was
too moderate to take any direct advantage of such rumors,
and had his enemies been equally so, the subsequent disasters
might perhaps have been averted.  Unfortunately  for the
(lileen's party, the king, soon after the birth of the prince, fell
into such a state of bodily as well as mental debility, that he
could no longer be made to enact the royal pageant with any
propriety. This caused the return of the duke of York to
the cabinet, and Somerset was speedily committed to the
Tower.  Early in the following year, (1454,) a committee
of the peers having ascertained the total incapacity of the
king, York was appointed Frotector of the kingdom till the
king should recover or the prince be of age.
The following Christmas, however, the king having shown
some glimpse of reason, advantage was taken of it to make
him resume his authority; and he forthwith deprived York
of the protectorate, and released Somerse.t and restored him
to favor, (1455.) York retired to his estates, and soon after,
being joined by the duke of Norfolk and the earls of Salisbury and Warwick, he advanced toward London at the
head of three thousand men.  The royal phantom  moved to
meet them with a force of about two thousand men, and had
only proceeded as far as St. Albans when the banners of the
Yorkists were seen. The duke of Buckingham being sent
to demand the cause of their appearance in arms, they replied
by professions of the utmost loyalty, but required that Somerset and his associates should be given up to them as
prisoners. Henry was made to return a stern reply, commanding them  to disperse, and declaring his resolution to
die rather than surrender any lord who was faithful to him.
York forthwith assaulted the barriers, which were gallantly
defended  by lord Clifford.  Warwick  meantime  forced
his way through the gardens into the town, the barriers were
soon burst, and the royalists turned and fled.  This scuffle,
which is dignified with the name of the battle of St. Albans,
cost the king's party the lives of Somerset, Northumberland,
Clifford, and about six score others.* Buckingham and his
* We have here a glaring instance of how little the numbers given
by chroniclers are to be relied on. The number of the slain, in the
text, is from the letter of one who had been in the battle, whife lHatl
gives it at 8000, and Stow at 5000.




HENRY VI.                   C269
son were wounded, as also was the king himself in the neck;
he took refuge in the house of a tanner, where he was waited
on by York with all humility and conducted to the abbey.
Writs were immediately issued in the king's name for a
parliament, and when it met, the royal idiot appeared seated
on his throne, and pronounced York and his friends guiltless
of the slaughter of St. Albans, as their letters explaining
their views and motives had been kept back by the arts of
the late duke of Somerset.  The parliament was then prorogued. When it met again, (Nov. 12,) the duke of York,
at the instance of the commons, was once more declared
protector on the same terms as before.  But this protectorate was also of brief duration, for on the reassembling of
parliament (Jan. 14, 1456) Henry was so well that the
queen and her party had a sufficient pretext for asserting his
sanity., and he went in person to the house (Feb. 25) and
revoked the duke's commission.  This prince made no opposition, and the royal puppet and his authority were henceforth wielded by the queen and her party.
During two years the ill-blood continued to ferment on
both sides; the nation gradually divided into the two parties
of Yorkists and Lancastrians, and a civil war was evidently
on the eve of breaking out.  Still the primate Bourchier and
some other moderate men thought that the evil might be
averted, and the kilng, at their suggestion, directed that the
heads of both parties should meet in London to compose the
feuds caused by the affray at St. Albans.  They therefore
repaired thither with their retainers; the Yorkists were
quartered within, the Lancastrians without the city; the
mayor, with five thousand armed citizens, was to keep the
peace.  York and his firiends met every morning at the
Blackfriars, the other party at the Whitefriars; the primate
and other prelates went between them; and the proceedings
were communicated to the king and the judges at Berkhamstead in the evening.  An award was finally made, to which
both agreed, and next day Henry went to St. Paul's with
his whole court, the queen being led by the duke of York,
the lords of each party walking arnm-in-arm to exhibit the
reconciliation to the eyes of the people.
Small, however, is the force of reconciliations when ambition, revenge, and other strong passions are at work. Not
long after, (Nov. 9,) as Warwick was attending the court one
day, a quarrel arose between one of his and one of the
king's servants; the latter being wounded, his fellows armed
themnselves with swords, spits, and forks, and assailed War.
23 *




270                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
wick on his way from  the council to his barge, and he escaped with difficulty out -of. their hands.  Thinking that his
life was no longer safe and strongly suspecting the queen, he
retired.to his castle of Warwick, and thence went to Calais,
of which place he was governor. All confidence was now
at an end; both parties prepared for arms; and.a civil war,
which was to fill. England with blood and misery, was no
longer to be averted,
As the duke of York now first advanced his claim  to the
crown, we will pause in our narrative to examine the state of
the case between him  and the king.
The king derived his title from  Henry IV., who. was undoubtedly raised to the throne by the choice of the nation.
His house had now exercised dominion for sixty years, and
had received  repeated  and voluntary  oaths of allegiance,from the whole nation, and the successive heads of the house
of York; it had therefore everything  on its side but he-.
reditary  right'  but if sixty years' undisturbed  possession
did not suffice to efface any claims to the contrary, what
length of time would suffice?  And how therefore could any
descendant of Edward III. have a better or: so good a.claim
as the king of Scots, fbr instance, who was the representative
of the Saxon  line?'!    Nay, Wales might send forth de* [The relative claims of the houses of York and Lancaster, may,
to place the matter more clearly before the reader, be thus recapitulated. Edward III. had seven sons, (see ante, p. 214.)  Of these, two
died in infancy. Edward, the Black Prince, was the eldest of the survivors, and his son, Richard II., succeeded Edward III. Lionel. duke
of Clarence, was second; his only representative was a daughter, who
was married to Edmund Mortimer, earl of March; and thus the clainms
of her father became vested in March's descendants. John of Gaunt,
duke of Lancaster, and Edmund, duke of York, were the next, but
which was the elder was disputed, (see Note, ante, p. 231:) in some
pedigrees (see Petavius Rat. Temp. vol. i. p. 694) Lancaster is placed
as elder; in which case, his hereditary title was clearly superior to that
of' York. The claim of the house of York did not, however, rest on
this disputed point, but on the marriage of Richard, son of Edmund,
and father of the claimant mentioned in the text, with Anne Mortimer,
daughter of the earl of March, and sole representative of' Lionel, duke
of Clarence. The fiact is, however, as stated in the text, that the
house of Lancaster, in the person of Henry IV., was chosen, and freely
elected, by the people, and, therefore, held the crown by the only just
right; and it was only when the strength of that house was weakened
by bodily infirmity and civil dissension, that the house of York assumied any pretension to the right. The claims of both houses were
united in the person of Henry VIII.; his father, Henry VII., being
the representative of the house of Lancaster, and his mother, Elizabeth, (daughter of Edward IV..) of that of York. Thomas, duke of
Gloucester, was the fifth son of Edward III. —J. T. S ]




|HENRY VI.                     271:
scendants of British princes to assert a right of still mrore
remote antiquity, of which force alone had deprived them
To reasoning of' this kind the Yorkists had only to oppose
the doctrine of indefeasible hereditary right; but their chief
reliance was on the amiable and popular character of their
chief, and on the odium which the queen and her party had
drawn  on themselves by  their  arbitrary  and oppressive
government, for the innocent king was to the last an object
of popular favor.  The strength of the Yorkists lay in
London and the adjoining counties; the duke's main supporters among the nobility were his brother-in-law, Neville
earl of Salisbury and his son the earl of Warwick, ant
Mowbray earl of Norfolk; but the larger portion  of the
nobility were faithful to the king, and " the rose of Lancaster blushed upon the banners of the Staffords, the Percies,
the Veres, the Hollands, the Courtneys,"`: the Cliffords, the
Talbots, and other illustrious names.  As the red rose was
the cognizance of the house of Lancaster, and the white of
that of York, the war is named that of the Roses.
To return to the narrative. A plan for a simultaneous rising
was arranged between York, Salisbury, and Warwick.  The
court, aware of the coming contest, distributed in profusion
collars of white swans, the badge of the young prince, and
invited the king's friends to meet him  in arms at Leicester.
The winter was spent in preparations on both sides; the ensuling spring and summer (1459) passed away in inactivity.
At length Salisbury set out from his castle of Middleham to
join the duke of York at Ludlow.  Lord Audley lay with ten
thousand men at Bloreheath in Staffordshire to intercept him.
Salisbury, whose force was small, feigned a flight; Audley
pursued; $Salisbury crossed a rapid stream  in a valley, and
when one half of the pursuers were over it, he turned and
completely defeated them, (Sept. 23.)  Audley  and  two
thousand men were slain, lord Dudley and several others
were taken.  Salisbury met the duke at Ludlow, where they
were soon joined by Warwick with a large body of. veterans
from Calais under sir John Blount and sir Andrew Trcllop.
The royal army of sixty thousand men meantime was adv.ancing from  Worcester.  Offers of pardon if they submitted
|  Hallam, Middle Ages, iii. 293. This author's judicious remarks
on this point should be read, and also those of Mackintosh. See also
a valuable note in Turner's History of England, (vol. iii. 171, 8vo.
edit.,) showing how almost every dynasty since the Conquest, has
reigned by parliamentary, [that is, by'opular choice,] in opposition tc
hereditary, right.




272             HISTORY OF ENGLAND
were sent to the Yorkists, who replied that they had only
taken up arms in their own defence and were loyal to the
king. Both sides prepared for action; but in the night
(Oct. 13) Trollop went over to the king with his veterans,
and his defection caused such distrust and dismay in the
Yorkists, that they separated without striking a blow. York
retired to Ireland; his son the earl of March, Salisbury, and
Warwick fled to Devon and thence to Calais
A parliament was held shortly after at Ccventry, and an
act of attainder was passed against York, Salisbury, their
wives and children, and Warwick, lord Clinton, and some
others.  Their party however did not remit in its activity;
and the following June, (1460,) when Warwick landed in
Kent with a small force of fifteen hundred men, he was joined
by the primate, by lord Cobham, and most of the gentry of
the county.  By the time he reached London he found himself at the head of twenty-five thousand men; the city gladly
received him; he then set out to engage the royal forces
which lay at Northampton.  Lord Grey de Ruthyn having
betrayed his post to the Yorkists, they obtained (July 10) an
easy victory; the duke of Buckingham, the earl of Shrewsbury, lord Beaumont, and about three hundred knights and
gentlemen were slain on the royal side.  Henry, who was
found in his tent, was treated with every mark of respect
by the victors; the queen and the prince escaped into Wales
and thence sailed to Scotland.
Henry was conveyed to London, where he was made to
issue writs for a new parliament. It had hardly met and reversed the acts of that of Coventry, when the duke of York,
who had returned from Ireland, reached London at the head
of five hundred horsemen, and, going straight to Westminster
and passing through the hall, entered the upper house, and
there stood with his hand on the throne. The primate asked
him if he would not visit the king; he replied, "I know no
one in this realm who ought not rather to visit me."  He
then went and occupied the royal apartments.  Six days
after, (Oct. 16,) the duke sent to the chancellor a statement of
his claim to the crown, as representative of Lionel duke of
Clarence, requesting aspeedy answer. The chancellor asked
if this paper should be read; the peers replied that it should;
but not be answered without the king's command. Next day
they went in a body to the king, who, having briefly and
strongly stated the foundations of his rights, directed them
to search for proofs against the claim of the duke. The
lords then sent for the judges, but they declined to inearfere




HENRY VI.                     273
as by their office they were not to act as counsel between
party and party.  The king's serjeants and attorney also
sought to excuse themselves; but their excuses were not
admitted, and they were ordered to draw up an answer. In
this were urged the oaths of fealty taken to the present family,
and the various acts f parliament and entails of the crown.
The duke's counsel replied, that unlawful oaths are not binding, and that acts of parliament and entails are of no force
against the rightful heir.  The lords finally proposed a compromise, that the duke's claim should be acknowledged, but
that Henry should retain the crown for his life, and at his
death it should pass to the duke and his heirs  To this both
agreed; the royal assent was given to a bill to.his effect,
and the king then, wearing the crown, went in state to St.
Paul's, the (lduke attending as heir-apparent.                      |
The high-spirited queen, however, would not thus tame.
surrender the rights of her son; she was now in the north,
where the earl of Northumberland and the lords Clifford,
Dacres, and Neville had armed their followers in her cause;
and at York they were joined by the duke of Somerset and
earl of Devon, with their tenants from the west.  The duke of
York seu out with about five thousand men to oppose them,
and a few days before Christmas he arrived at Sandal castle
near Wakefield.  Here Salisbury and his other friends advised him to wait till the earl of March should arrive with
succors; but, whether urged by his chivalrous spirit, or from
some other cause, he accepted the challenge of the enemy
and marched into Wakefield Green, (Dec. 30,) where he was
instantly assailed on all sides.  The rout of the Yorkists was
speedy and complete; upwards of two thousand men lay on
the Green; the duke himself was taken prisoner; his captors
led him to an ant-hill, and, placing him on it as on a throne,
set a crown of twisted grass on his he.d, and, bending the
knee to him in derision, cried, " Hail, king without a kinddoni i Hail, prince without a people!"  They there struck
off his head, which Clifford presented on a pole to the queen,
saying, 1" lMadam, your war is dione; here is the ransom of
youl.r king."  She burst into laughter, and, when she had
glutted her eyes with the sight, sent it to be fixed on the
walls of York.. Salisbury and twelve other leaders who were
captured were beheaded the next day at Pontefract, In the
pursuit lord Clifford overtook on the bridge the earl of Rut.
sand, a boy of but twelve years of age, whom his tutor, a
venerable priest, was conveying to a place of safety; struck
by his appearance and attire, heloudly demanded who lie was;
I                        4X




____                   _  -  --- v -   -  - - — w —--          - -    I
274               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the terrified boy fell on his knees to sue for mercy "' Save
him," cried the tutor,'" he is the son of a prince, and may.
hap may do you good hereafter."  " The son of York!"
shouted the ruthless savage; " as thy father slew mine, so
will I slay thee, and all of thy kin!" and plunged his dagger
into the bosomn of the helpless child.
The earl of March was at Gloucester when he heard of
the defeat and death of his father.  As lhe had with him
a force of twenty three thousand men, he was're)paring
to march against the queen, but the earls of Paeinbroke
and Ormond hung on his rear with a body of W elsh and
Irish.  He therefore turned and gave them  battle and a
total defeat (Feb. 1) at Mortimer's Cross near Ht-lreford.
Ormond and Pembroke escaped, but Owen Tudor the rather
of the latter was taken, and with some other leaders behqtaded
next day at Hereford, in retaliation for the executions at
Wakefield.  The queen meantime advanced toward Lol'4on
with her borderers, to whom their leaders had promised the
pillage of the country south of the Trent.  Warwick  and tlie
duke of Norfolk, taking the king with them, placed thpmnselves at St. Albans to oppose her.  An engagemnent ensued,
(Feb. 17,) which ended in the defeat of the Yorkists, who
lost two thousand men.  Henry was left in his tent with
lord Bonville and sir Thomas Kyriel, to whom he had roImised his protection; but Margaret little heeded hi:i promises
and they were beheaded the next day.  Her troops pillaged
the country round; but London and the adjacent counties
remained steady to the cause of York.  Edward advanced
and united his forces with those of Warwick, and the queen
found it necessary to return with all speed to tile north.
Edward entered London (Feb. 25) in triumph.  A few days
after, (March 3,) the lord Falconbridge and the bishop of Exeter harangued the people assembled ill St. John's Fields,
Clerkenvell, on the bad title of Henry and the good one of
Edward to the crown.  Falconbridge then asked them if they
would have Henry of Lancaster for their king; loud cries of
"No, no!" arose: he then asked if they would love a(nd
obey Edward earl of March as their sovereign lord; " Yea,
yea! " cried they, "King Edward! " and shouted and clapped
their hands.  Next day, (4th,) in a great council, it was resolved that H-lenry, by joining the queen's forces, had violated
the award, and therefore forfeited the crown, and Edward
was forthwith proclaimed king.




EDWARD  IV.                    275
CHAPTER  XII.
EDWARD  iV.
1461-1483.
THne new monarch found it necessary to take the field again
in a few days.  The Lancastrians, to the number of sixty
thousand men, having taken their station at York, Edward
and Warwick left London to engage them; and when the)
reached Pontefract their forces amounted to forty-nine thou
sand men.  As it was of importance to secure the passage
of the Aire at Ferrybridge, lord Fitzwalter was sent forwarn
for that purpose; he effected his object, but shortly after he
was attacked and slain by lord Clifford, who in his turn was
within a few hours slain by lord Falconbridge, and the passage recovered. The Yorkists then crossed the river, and
next morning (March 29) in the plain, between the villages
of Towton and Saxton, a general engagement commenced,
under a heavy fall of snow, which drove in the faces of the
Lancastrians.  Both sides fought with obstinacy till toward
evening, when the Lancastrians gave way;  they retired ill
good order till they reached the river Cock, where they
broke and fled in all directions.  Edward had issued orders
to give no quarter, and nearly one half of the Lancastrians
perished.t  The earl of Northumberland and six. barons
were slain; the earls of Devon and Wiltshire were taken inll
the pursuit; the dukes of Somerset and Exeter reached
York, whence they conveyed the king and queen to the
borders.
The morning after this decisive victory, Edward entered
York.  The heads of his father -and friends were taken down
from the gates by his orders, and replaced by those of Devon
and Wiltshire.  Thence he proceeded to Newcastle, and
then returned to London, where he was crowned with great
magnificence, (June 29.) On this occasion he created his
* According to the fragment published by Hearne, the action began
at 4 o'clock in the eveningf of Saturday, (March 29,) was continued
through the night, and was decided next day (Palm Sunday) at
nloonl, by the arrival of the duke of Norfolk, with a reinforcement to
Edward.
t The number of the slain on both sides was stated variously at from,0,000 to 37,000




276              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
younger brothers George and Richard dukes of C.arence
and Gloucester.  A p)arliament met immediately; the last
three kings were declared usurpers; their grants, with a
few exceptions, were revoked, but their judicial acts and the
nonors conferred by them were ratified.  A bill of attainder was then passed against Henry, his wife and son, Sornerset, Exeter, Northumberland, Devon, Wiltshire, and other
nobles, knights, esquires, and priests, to the number of one
hundred and fifty. The avowed object was the annihilation
of the Lancastrian party; it may also have been intended
to provide rewards for the victors.
Meantime Margaret was making every effort to renew the
contest.  By the surrender of Berwick the aid of the Scots
was obtained, and the queen then sailed (1462) to the continent to try to raise men and money.  From  the duke of
Brittany she obtained a present of twelve thousand crowns,
and Louis XI. of France lent her twenty thousand on the
security of Calais, and gave Breze the seneshal of Normandy
permission to aid her with two thousand men.  After an
absence of five months she landed with her French auxiliaries in Northumberland. Both English and Scottish borderers repaired to her standard; the castles of Alnwick,
Bamborough, and Dunstanburgh were taken, and fortune
seemed to smile.  But when Warwick appeared with twenty
thousand men, and rumor told of the approach of Edward
with a larger force, her troops lost courage and dispersed to
garrison these three fortresses.  The queen embarked with
the French; a storm scattered her fleet; and she and Breze,
after witnessing the loss of her treasure in the tempest, escaped in a fishing-boat to Berwick.  Edward advanced to
Newcastle, and then returned to London, leaving Warwick
to besiege the fortresses.  After an obstinate resistance they
were surrendered, on condition of the duke of Somerset, sir
Richard Percy, and some others being pardoned and restored
to their estates and honors, and the garrisons being conducted to Scotland.
During this winter-campaign, as Margaret, her son, and
Breze were riding through a forest, they were seized and
robbed by a party of bandits.  While the robbers were quarrelling about the booty, the queen contrived to steal away
with the prince, and plunged into the depths of the wood.
While she rambled there she encountered a single robber.
escape was hopeless; she boldly went up to him  and said,
"Friend, I commit to thy care the son of thy king." The
outlaw was not withou''elings of generosity; he accepted




EDWARD IV.                    2 m
the charge, and conducted them  in safety to theit friends.
In the spring (1463) the queen, the duke of Exeter, Breze,
and two hundred others sailed to Flanders.  She thencei
proceeded to her father's duchy of Bar, where she remained
watching the progress of events.  Henry meantime was
protected by a Welsh knight in his castle.
Still the spirit of the Lancastrians was unbroken, and the
next year (1464) Henry was summoned from his retreat to
put himself at the head of a body of'exiles and Scots.  Somerset and Percy, heedless of their oaths to Edward, resumed
their arms; and sir Ralph Grey, a Yorkist, thinking himself
ill used by Edward, seized the castle of' Alnwick.  But lord
Montague, Warwick's brother, warden of the east marches,
defeated and killed Percy at Hedgeley-moor, (April 25,) and
then at the head of four thousand men advanced against
Somerset, who was encamped with a small force of not more,
it is said, than five hundred men on the banks of the Dilswater near Ilexham, (May 15.)  The defeat of the Lmcas-          ~!
trians was immediate; Somerset was taken and beheaded
the same day; a similar fate befell the lords Roos and Hungerford, and others.  Grey was taken at Bamborough, and::
was executed as a traitor at Doncaster.
The unfortunate Henry, who had been at Hexham, had
fled before the arrival of Montague.  He was closely pursued; three of his servants were taken in their gowns of blue
velvet, one of them bearing his cap of estate, which was embroidered with two crowns and adorned with pearls.  He,            i
however, escaped into Lancashire, where he was concealed' 
by his friends for more than a year.  At length a treacherous monk gave information to sir Jamnes Harrington, who
seized him as he was sitting at dinner at Waddington-hall.
He was forwarded to London.  At Islington he was met
by Warwick; orders were given that no respect should be
shown him; his legs were tied under the belly of the horse
on which he was placed; he was led thrice round the pillory,
and then consigned to the Tower, where, however, he was
treated with humanity.  The services of Montague werea
rewarded by the earldom of Northumberland.  Fresh at-.
tainders w.ere passed against the Lancastrians, whose estate,, 
went to reward the victors; but these were followed by
an act of amnesty: treaties of alliance were formed with
most foreign princes; and Edward, deeming himself secure
on the throne, launched into pleasure, leaving the charge of
affairs to the Nevilles, namely, Warwick, Northumberland,
VOL. 1.      24
_ _   _ _ _                                                           - J~




278             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and their brother George, archbishop of York and chanr.lor.
* The Nevilles were urgent with the king to marry some
foreign princess, but it was not now in his power to comply
As he was one day hunting in Northamptonshire, he called
to visit Jacquette, duchess-dowager of Bedford, who had
given her hand to a knight named sir Richard Woodville
of Grafton in that county.  While he was there the duchess's
daughter Elizabeth, the widow of sir John Gray of Groby,
I        who had fallen on the Lancastrian side in the second battle
of St. Alban's, came and threw herself at his feet, imploring
i        him to reverse her husband's attainder in favor of her innocent children.  Edward was moved to pity; though the
countenance of the fair suitor was not beautiful, her manners were graceful and winning, her form elegant, and her
language and sentiments distinguished by wit and propriety.
Her suit was listened to with favor.  Love soon took the
place of pity: the virtue, the prudence, or the ambition of
Elizabeth was proof against temptation; the wishes of the
i; it    monarch could only be gratified under the sanction of marriage, and to this he resolved to stoop. About the end of
April (1464) he repaired to Stoney Stratford, and early in
the morning of Mayday he stole over to Grafton, where a
[ t;     priest united him to the fair relict in the presence of his
clerk, the duchess, and two of her female attendants.  He
staid an hour or two, and then returned to Stratford, and
went to bed pretending to be fatigued with hunting.  Two'~   days after he invited himself and his train to Grafton, where
he remained four days, never entering the chamber of his
bride till the duchess had ascertained that all were retired
to rest. He then set out for the north, but the days of Hedgeley-moor and Hexham had occurred before he arrived.
On his return Edward resolved to acknowledge his wife as
queen.  A general council of the peers having met on his
summons at Reading abbey the following Michaelmas, Elizabeth was led in by the duke of Clarence and the earl of
Warwick, and was by all saluted as queen. In the May of'
the following year (1465) her uncle James of Luxembourg
having been invited over to give her dignity in the eyes of
those who objected to the hurnbleness of her birth, the ceremony of her coronation was performed.  Her influence over
the king was soon apparent in the advancement of her family:
her father was created earl Rivers andn made first treasurer,
and then lor. high constable: her five sisters were married.
_                            _




EDWARD IV. I2V
to young noblemen of the highest rank; her brother Antony
to the heiress of lora Scales; and her brother John, a youth
of twenty, to the wealthy dowager duchess of Norfolk, now in
her eightieth year!  To the queen's own sonil Thomas was
given the king's niece, the heiress of Exeter, and he was
created marquess of Dorset.
These promotions of the upstart Woodvilles naturally excited the jealousy of the Nevilles, who had expected to have
a monopoly of power under the prince whom they had placed
on the throne; and the king on his side, urged by the Wood.
viiles, became gradually estranged from them.  The change
was first manifested on the occasion of the marriage of the
king's sister Margaret, (1467.)  It was proposed to give her
to the son and heir of the duke of Burgundy.  Warwick, who
was the avowed enemy of that prince, was for an alliance
with one of the French princes.  He was let to go over to
Rouen to treat with Louis XI. for the purpose; but during
his absence negotiations were carried on with the court of
Buraundy, which ended in the marriage of Margaret into
that house.  Warwick on his return retired in discontent to
his castle ot Middlehamrn; a reconciliation, holwever, was efected betwken the king and him, and when the princess
was conductd by her brother to the coast she rode behind
the earl of Warwick.
The next transaction of importance which we meet is the
marriage of the duke of Clarence with the daughter of Warwick, in spite of the efforts of the king to prevent it, (1469.)
The marriage took place at Calais, (July 11,) and it is singular that at this very time an insurrection of the peasantry
broke out in Yorkshire.  By a law of king Athelstan, the
hospital of St. Leonard's near York had a right to a thrave
of corn off each ploughland in the county.  The peasantry
complained of abuse of these funds, and at length refused
payment: the officers distrained and imprisoned them; they
flew to arms, and to the number of fifteen thousand, under
one Robert Hilyard, commonly called Robin of Redesdale,
marched against York. They were there, however, attacked
and routed by the earl of Northumberland, and their leader
was taken and executed.  But the insurrection now changed
its character; the sons of the lords Fitz-Hllgh and Latilner
the nephew and cousin of Warwick, aided by the advice l-'
sir John Conyers; ain experienced officer, placed thel-selvte=;tt the head of it. The removal of the Woodvilles, the fancied
authors of all the taxes and oppressions of which the peopi(le
complained, was the ostensive object.  The name ol War.




280             HISTORY O1 ENGLAND.
wick was freely used, and in a few days the insurgents
amounted to 60,000 men.
The king was in great perplexity; he wrote to Clarence
and Warwick to hasten from Calais to him; lord Herbert advanced from Wales with eight thousand men, and lord Staf
ford joined him at Banbury with five thousand; but a dispute
arising about their quarters at an inn, Stafford retired to some
distance, and the rebels next day (July 26) fell, at Edgecote,
on Herbert and killed him and five thousand of his men.  In
the pursuit the victors found lord Rivers and his son John
in the Forest of Dean, and brought them to Northampton,
where they were executed by a real or pretended Drder from
Clarence and Warwick.
These two noblemen were now arrived; they met the king
at Olney, and they actually placed him in confinement at
Middlehain under the custody of the archbishop of Ycrk.
But a rising of the Lancastrians on the borders * obliged
them to come to terms with him and set him at liberty. This
was followed by a general pardon, and by the promise of the
king's eldest daughter to George son of Northumberland, and
presumptive heir to the three Nevilles, who was created duke
of Bedford to raise him nearer in rank to the young princess.
Yet it would seem that the reconciliation was any thing but
sincere; for not long after, (1470,) when the king went to
an entertainment given by the archbishop at his seat, the
was whispered to him that one hundred men were lying in
ambush to seize and carry him off. Without any inquiry he
btole tothe door, mounted his horse, and rode to Windsor.
Under the mediation of the king's mother, however, a new
reconciliation was effected.
Just at this time occurred a rising in Lincolnshire, headed
by sir Robert Welles. The extortion of the royal purveyors
was the ostensible, probably the real ground; whether Warwick had any thing to do with it cannot be said with certainty.
Lord Welles, the father of sir Robert, fled to sanctuary when
summoned to the royal presence: he and sir Thomas Dynmock, his companion, however. came forth on the promise of
a pardon; but, as sir Robert did not lay down his arms, the
king, in violation of his word, beheaded them both. He gave
It was headed by sir Humphrey Neville. After the battle of Hex.
ham, this knight had remained for five years concealed inl a cavern
opening into the-river Derwent.




EDWARD  IV.                  285
the insurgents a defeat at Erpingham  Au Rutlandshire,*
(March 12,) and their leaders, Welles and sir Charles Delalaunde, were taken and beheaded.
Clarence and Warwick, who had been commissioned by
the king to raise forces, had in reality intended joining the
rebels. On their defeat they moved toward Manchester, in
hopes that lord Stanley, who was married to Warwick's sister,
would join them. On his refusal they turned southwards,
and being proclaimed traitors and pursued by the royal forces,
they embarked at Dartmouth (April 15) anda made sail for
Calais.  But Vauclerc, a Gascon whom Warwick had left in
command there, had resolved to play a double game; and
while he turned the guns on them, and even refused to allow
the duchess of Clarence, who was ill, to land, he sent secretly
to assure Warwick of his own fidelity, but that the garrison
could not be depended on; at the same time he sent protestations of his loyalty to the king. Warwiclk, feigning to be
satisfied, sailed for Normandy, capturing what Flemish
vessels he met; and landing at Harfleur, he and Clarence
proceeded by invitation to the French court at Amboise,
whither Louis also invited queen Margaret; and though she
and Warwick hated one another mortally, and had most
abundant reason so to do, the able monarch at length effected a reconciliation between them. Prince Edward, the son
of Henry VI., married Warwick's second daughter Anne;
it was agreed that all should unite to restore Henry to the
throne, and if the prince should die without issue the crown
was to go to Clarence. This prince, however, who had hoped
to wrest the sceptre from his brother, was by no means
pleased with this new arrangement; and he listened readily
to the secret proposals made to him by king Edward, through
a lady of his duchess's train who had been left behind in
England, and engaged to prove a loyal subject on due occasion.
Preparations were now made for the invasion of England
where Edward was passing his time in thoughtless gayety.
His more active brother-in-law of Burgundy sent a fleet to
blockade the mouth of the Seine; but a storm dispersed it,
and the exiles effected their landing at Plymouth, (Sept. 13.)
Warwick proclaimed king Henry, and summoned in his
name all men from sixteen to sixty to his standard.  He
marched in a direct line for Nottingham, (his forces increas* This was popularly called the battle of Lose-coat Field, because
the fugitives threw away their coats-of-mail to escape;
24*                        J




~82              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ing at every step,) as Edward had been drawn to the north
by a pretended rising of Warwick's brother-in-law the lord
Fitz-Hugh.  Edward had summoned his friends to Doncaster; few came, and many of these soon went away again
One night, while he was in bed, intelligence came that War.
wick was at hand; this was followed by tidings of six thousand of his troops having at the instigation of Montague flung
away the white rose, and, tossing their bonnets into the air,
shouted, ":God bless king Harry!"  No time was to be lost.
Hie mounted his horse and rode to the town of Lynn, where
finding three ships he embarked with about eight hundred
followers, and making the mariners set sail for Holland,
(Oct. 3,) landed near Alkmaar, whence he proceeded to the
Hague.
Warwick and Clarence hastened to London; king Henry
was taken from the Tower, and walked in procession with the
crown on his head to St. Paul's, (Oct. 13.) A parliament
was summoned, which among other acts confirmed the treaty
of Amboise, and restored the Lancastrian lords who had
lost their lands and honors. The Nevilles of course were
reinstated in their former posts and offices, but their triumph,
to their credit, was not sanguinary.  No blood was shed but
that of Tiptoft earl of Worcester, whose cruelty in his office
of constable had earned him the title of butcher; he was
taken in the top of a tree in the forest of Weybridge, and
was tried before the earl of Oxford and executed. This
nobleman was distinguished by his cultivation and patronage
of literature, but letters did not produce on his mind the hu.
manizing effect perhaps too indiscriminately ascribed to them
It was not long, however, till Edward was again in arms,
(1471.)  The duke of Burgundy, afraid to assist him openly,
sent him in secret 50,000 florins, and hired ships in which
he and his followers embarked for England. Repulsed on
the coast of Suffolk, he steered for the Humber, and landed,
like Henry IV., at Ravenspur, (March 14.)  Imitating that
prince he pretended that he came only to claim the estates
of the house of York, and his followers shouted " Long live
king Henry  " as they passed through the towns and villages
At York he swore on the altar that he had no design on the
crown.  He passed near Pontefract, where Montague lay
with a large force.  Messages passed between them, and he
went on unimpeded: his partisans flocked to him, and at
Nottingham he saw himself at the head of more than fifty
thousand men. He now flung off the mask; Clarence did
the same; he ordered the men whom he had raised in the




EDWARD IV.                   283
name of Henry to place the white rose on their gorgets, and
joined his brother. Warwick, who had advanced to Coventry,
having declined the proffered combat, Edward pushed on for
London, where his party was strong; for most of the wealthy
citizens were his creditors; the city dames too were all in the
interest of the gay and gallant monarch, and there were about
two thousand of his partisans in sanctuary ready to break out
when necessary.  Trhe archbishop of York, wno had charge
of the city, caused him to be admitted. Edward, taking
Henry with him, advanced to Barnet to meet Warwick, who
was now approaching. Clarence sent to his father-in-law,
offering to mediate: " Go tell your master that Warwick,
true to his word, is a better man than the false and perjured
Clarence," was the indignant reply. Next morning, (Easterday, April 14,) before sunrise, both armies were drawn out.
The battle lasted six hours: at one time the Yorkists had
the worst of it, and tidings of their defeat were conveyed to
the city, but a mistake is said to have decided the fortune of
the day. Edward's men wore on back and breast his badge,
a sun; the earl of Oxford's men wore his, a star with rays,
and Warwick's men taking them for enemies charged and
drove thern off the field.  Warwick and Montague were both
slain, Exeter was left for dead, Oxford alone of the Lancastrian leaders escaped. Important as was this victory, we are
told by an eye-witness that the whole number of the slain
did not exceed eleven hundred.  Edward returned to London
in triumph; Henry was once more consigned to his prison
in the Tower; the bodies of Warwick and Montague, after
being exposed to public view for three days at St. Paul's,
were buried at Bilsam  abbey. Thus at length perished in
battle the renowned earl of Warwick, the King-maker, as he
was called, it being the popular belief that the crown would
always fall to the side which he espoused. It has been truly
said of Warwick, that " he was distinguished by all the good
and bad qualities which shine with most lustre in a barbarous age."
But another contest awaited Edward. The very day of
the battle of Barnet, queen Margaret landed at Plym.outh.
When she heard of that fatal event, her firm spirit gave way,
she sank to the ground in despair, and then took sanctuary
with her son at the abbey of Beaulieu. But the earl of
Devon, the lords Wenlock and St. John, and others, recalled
her to energy. She advanced to Bath, where many resorted
to her standard, and it was resolved to try to effect a junction
with the earl of Pembroke, who had a large force in Wales
S _ _ _ _ _ _,._                           _ _ _ _...




284               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But the peolea of Gloucesttr had secured the only bridgrre
over the Severn, and when she came to Tewkesbury she
learned that Edward was at hand with a more nurmerous
army. The Iancastrians took their post in a strong enclosure
without the town, (May 4.)  Edward on coming up ordered
his brother the duke of Gloucester, who led the van, to attack
them; they gallantly repelled the assaults of the Yorkists.
But the duke of Somerset sallying forth with a part of the
troops, while lord Wenlock kept back the remainder, his
men were driven back and cut to pieces; the Yorkists rushed
in; Somerset in his rage rode up to Wenlock and clove his
skull with his battle-axe.  The queen and prince were made
prisoners; the latter, it is said,, being led before Edward in
his tent, the victor demanded what had brought him to England. " To recover my father's kingdom and heritage from
his father and grandfather to him, and from him to me, line.
ally descended," replied the undaunted youth. Edward
struck him in the face with his gauntlet, and Clarence,
Gloucester, Hastings, and Dorset instantly despatched him
with their swords.*  The queen remained a prisoner.
The earl of Devon, sir Edniund Hampden, and about
three thousand soldiers, fell on the side of the Lancastrians.
Somerset, St. John, and some others sought refuge in the
church of the abbey; and when Edward entered it to return
thanks for his victory, he granted a free pardon to all who
were in it.'wo days after, however, he repented of his
mercy; they were dragged out, tried before a military tribunal, and beheaded.
Edward reentered London on the morning of Ascensioneve, (May 22,) and that evening the life of Henry was terminated by grief, as it was given out, but more probably (nay,
we might say certainly) by order of Edward, who wished
to put a complete end to the hopes of the Lancastrians.
The reason why he had not done so before is plain,-it would
have been a useless crime as long as prince Edward lived.
The actual guilt of the murder has been charged on the
duke of Gloucester, but without any proof. The body,
having been exposed like those of other murdered princes, was:nterred at Chertsey, and it soon was given out that miracles
In the Harleian MS., followed by fir. Turner, it is said that he
was taken and slain as -he was flying to the town. Another MS. says,
that he fell in battle, (ceciderat belligerens) We do not think, however, with Mr. Turner, that these are positive contradiLtions of the
common story.




EDWARD IV.                   28t
were per Formed at the tomb of that pious, innocent monarch,
who was revered as a martyr by his partv.
Victorious over the Lancastrians,  Edward now resolved
on a war with France, and a league for this purpose was
formed with the dukes of Burgundy and Brittany. Parliament was always liberal on occasion of these unjust and
ridiculous claims to the croNwn of France: but their liberality
not sufficing, Edward had recourse to a novel expedient;
he summoned the most wealthy citizens before him, and pretending to be very poor, begged they would supply his wants.
None of course dared to refuse, and the king facetiously
named these compulsory gifts benevolences. In 1475 he
passed over to Calais with fifteen hundred men-at-arms and
fifteen thousand archers, and summoned the duke of Burgundy to join him. But that prince had already exhausted
his resources, and Louis, who had no desire for a war, learning that lords Howard and Stanley, and others, were as little
inclined to it, and Edward himself not extremely anxious
for it, sent proposals of peace, and a truce was concluded
for seven years. Edward was to be paid 75,000 crowns
down and 50,000 crowns a-year; the dauphin was to marry
his eldest daughter; queen Margaret was to be liberated,
on the payment of 50,000 crowns by Louis.  The two monarchs then had a personal interview on the bridge of Pecquigny near Amiens.  A grating of wood was placed across
it to prevent any treachery, and they conversed familiarly for
some time. To keep up his influence in the English councils and avert future wars, Louis settled pensions on lord
Hastings, lord Dorset, and others of the kipg's ministers and
favorites.
The duke of Clarence had perhaps never recovered the
place which he had held in the king's mind previous to his
union with Warwick, and he had now also a powerful enemy
in his younger brother Richard.  For this ambitious youth,
in order to gain a share of the immense possessions of Warwick, had formed a plan to marry the young widow of the
late prince of Wales; while Clarence, who grasped at the
whole inheritance, strove as much as he could to conceal his
sister-in-law, who after a search of some months was found
disguised as a cook-maid in London. Richard then espoused
her, and arbitrators appointed by the king divided the property between them; but hatted still rankled in the bosoms
of the brothers, (1474.)  After the end of the French war
the king, to avoid the odium of taxation, resumed most of
"he grants made of late years.  Clarence by this regulatiop




d86              HISTORY OF ENGI,AND.
lost several estates, and he withdraw in anger from court.
Some time after, his duchess died, (1476;) and as the duke
of Burgundy had been slain at Nanci, and his daughter AMary
oy his first marriage became the heiress of his dominions,
Clarence, aided by his sister the dowager duchess, sought
the hand of the princess; but the king, from dislike and
jealousy of himn, gave every opposition in his power. It is
also said that the queen was hostile to him on this account,
as her own brother lord Rivers aspired to the hand of the
heiress of Burgundy. Ile thus had powerful enemies and
few friends.
It happened one day, it is said, that as the king was hunt.
ing at Harrow  in Warwickshire, the seat of a gentleman
named Thomas Burdett, who was, in the service of Clarence,
he killed a white stag, the favorite of the owner.  Burdett, on
hearing of the death of his stag, in his grief and anger wished
that its horns were in the belly of him  who killed it.  It is
not clear whether he knew that the king was the person  he
was, however, thrown into prison, tried, and executed for
treason."  About this time too one Stacey, a clergyman and
chaplain to Clarence, was accused of magic and executed for
this offence.  Clarence loudly asserted the innocence of his
friends; his words were. repeated with exaggeration to the
king, who committed him to the Tower, and then summoning
a parliament, (147S,) accused him before it of high-treason.
He was found guilty, sentence of death was passed on him,
and lie was recommitted to the Tower.  His death was announced about ten days after; the manner of it is uncertain;
the common report was that he was given his choice, and
selected drowning in a butt of malmsey.  His brother, it is
said, afterwards regretted his severity to him.  As the chief
gainers by the death of Clarence were the queen's family, it is
not unlikely that ththey had stimulated the cruelty of the king.
The remaining events of Edward's reign were of little
implartance.  While, enraged at the perfidy of Louis respecting the marriage of the dauphin to his daunglter, he was
meditating war against him, he was seized with a disease
which proved fatal.  He died (April 6, 1483) in the fortysecond year of his age, and  wenty-third of his reign.  On
his death-bed he directed that restitution out of his treasures
* Such is the common story as told by More, Hollingsh:d, and
others. The indictment against Burdett says nothing of it; it charges
hint with conspiring with Stacey and another to calculate the nativities
of the king and his son, to know when they should die, and of distributing seditious verses in Holborn.




F.DWtARD V. V28
should be made to those whom  he had wr nged, or from
whom he had extorted benevolences.
Edward was remarkably handsome in person, though
toward the close of his life he became extremely corpulen'
lie was addicted to pleasure and indulgence of every kind. lr
his family he was kind and affectionate, and though notoriously
faithless to his queen, he was lavish in his grants to her and her
relations.  Like AMark Antony, whom he resembled in many
points, he united with his love of pleasure a great capacity
for business, a dauntless valor, and much skill in the field;
but his conduct after victory was generally tarnished by
cruelty.  His manners were showy and popular, and he
retained to the last the affections of the people.
CHAPTER  XIII.
EDWARD  V.
1483.
Trfe new king was a boy only in his thirteenth year, an i
therefore unable to assume the government.  The court wav.s
split into two parties, the one composed of the family of the
queen, of whom the principal were the accomplished earl
Rivers her brother, and the marquess of Dorset her son.
The other party consisted of the lords Hastings, Howard,
Stanley, and other memnbers of the ancient nobility, who,
though sincerely attached to the person and cause of the
king, could ill brook the favor of the upstart Woodvilles.
While Edward lived he kept both within bounds, but he 
feared lest the scenes of the nminority of H-enry VI. might be 
renewed; and when he found himself (lying, he summoned          I
both parties to his chamriber, and made them embrace in his
presence, fondly deeaming thus to extinguish their long-cher]
ished enmity.
The young king was proclaimed in the usual manner,
(April 9.)  He was now residing at Ludlow with his uncle
Rivers andl his uterine brother lord Gray, under the pretext
that his presence would restrainr the turbulent Welsh, but
in reality that he might become attached to his mother's
family.  The queen proposed that directions should be sent




288             HISTORY OF ENGLAND..
to lord Rivers to raise an army, and conduct his nephew te
London; but Hastings and his friends, taking alarm, strenuously opposed this course, and the queen in an evil hour
consented that her son should travel with an escort of only
two thousand horse.
The two first princes of the blood were Richard duke of
Gloucester and Henry duke of Buckingham, who was descended from the youngest son of Henry III. The former,
who was at this time commanding an army on the borders
of Scotland, when he heard of his brother's death repaired
to York, and summoned the gentry of the county to swea
allegiance to his nephew, himself setting them the example.
He wrote in terms of the utmost friendship to the queen
and her family, arid then moved toward London to be present at the coronation, which was fixed for the 4th of May.
Meantime secret messages, of the exact import of which we
are uninformed, passed between him, Hastings, and Buckingham.
On the same day (April 29) that the young king reached
Stoney Stratford, Gloucester arrived at Northampton, distant about ten miles.  When Rivers and Gray heard he was
there, they turned back to salute him in the name of the
king.  He received them with the greatest cordiality, and
invited them to dinner.  In the evening Buckingham  arrived with three hundred  horsemen.  Rivers and Gray
stopped for the night, and in the morning rode with the tw6,
dukes to wait on the king; but just as they were entering
Stoney Stratford, Gloucester turned and charged thern with
alienating from him the affections of his nephew; they denied the charge, but were arrested and conveyed to the rear.
The two dukes then waited on the king, and with bended
knee professed their loyalty, assuring him that the marquess
his brother and Rivers his uncle had compassed to rule the
realm and to destroy its noble blood.  "What my lord marquess," replied he, " may have done in London I cannot say,
but I dare answer for my uncle Rivers and my brother here,
that they be innocent of any such matter."  The dukes then
arrested sir Thomas Vaughan and sir Richard Hawse, two
ot his principal attendants, and commanded the rest of his
retinue to disperse.  They led the king back to Northamp.
son, and sent the four prisoners northwards.
When intelligence of what had occurred at Stratford
reached London, the queen in alarm  and terror took sanctuary at Westtminster, with her five daughters, and her sons
the marquess of Dorset and the duke of York. On the 4te




EDWARD V.                     289
of May, Gloucester led the young king to London, where
he was lodged in the bishop's palace, and received the
homage of all present. A few days after, on the motion of
Buckingham, he was removed to the Tower; the coronation
was fixed for the 22d of June; Gloucester was named protector, and many of the great officers of state were displaced
to make room for his creatures.
So far, the conduct of Gloucester is at least suspicious;
as we proceed it gradually darkens.  Finding Hastings,
Stanley,' and others, though hostile to the Woodvilles, firmly
attached to the young king, he divided the council, letting
them and their fi'riends sit at the Tower, while he and his
partisans met at Crosby-place, his own residence. When his
secret plans were matured he went one day (June 13) to
the Tower, and took his seat at the council-board.  He assumed a gay and cheerful humor; arid praising the strawberries which grew in the bishop of Ely's garden at Holborn,
requested to have a dish of them for dinner. The bishop
sent a servant to fetch them; the protector withdrew, as if
on business; in about an hour after he returned, with an
altered countenance, and sat down in silence.  At length he
cried, "Of what are they worthy who have cornpassed the
death of me, the king's protector by nature as well as by
law?" " To be punished," said Hastings, " as heinous traitors."  " And that," replied he, "' hath that sorceress my
brother's wife, with others her accomplices, endeavored to
do."  " See," continued he, "in what a miserable manner
that sorceress, and Shore's wife, with others their associates,
have, by their sorcery and witchcraft, miserably destroyed my
body." He then unbuttoned his sleeve, and showed them
his left arm shrunk and withered.  As those present knew
that his arm had always been so, they saw that he wanted
to quarrel with them.  Hastings, however, whose mistress
Shore then was, replied, " Certainly, my lord, if they have
indeed done any such thing, they deserve to be both severely
punished."  "Do you answer me with ifs and anc.s, as if
I charged them falsely?" cried the protector, in a rage  " I
tell you they have done it, and thou hast joined with them
in this villany."  He struck the table with his fist; a man
without shouted Treason! armed men rushed in. "I arrest
thee, traitor," cried Richard to Hastings; Stanley and the
bishops of York and Ely were also arrested and sent to sep
arate cells; to Hastings he said, " Shrive thyself apace, for
by St. Paul I will not dine till I see thy head off! "  He took
a priest at a venture, and having made short shrift, was then
VOL. 1.    25.                        K K




290              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
led dGon to the green before the chapel, and his head waa
struck off on a log of wood that was lying there. After his
dinner Richard summoned the principal citizens to attend
him. He and Buckingham  came   forth in rusty armor,
(suddenly taken as it were in the Tower for their defence,)
and told them that Hastings had intended murdering him
and the duke; that he had not discovered this design till ten
o'clock this morning, and had thus been obliged to provide
for his defence.  lHe requested them to inform their fellowcitizens of the truth of the case. A proclamation to the
same effect was also issued, which was so neatly composed
and fairly written that it was plain to most people it could
not have been drawn up after the death of Hastings.
The ultimate object of Richard must have been now apparent to every one, and each day added confirmation to
suspicion.  On the 16th he entered his barge with seveial
nobles and prelates, and followed by a.large body of armed
men, and proceeded to Westminster in order to obtain the
duke of York by force, if not by fair means.  He first sent
a deputation of nobles, headed by the primate, to demand
him  from  the queen,,and Elizabeth, knowing the inutility
of resistance, affected to acquiesce cheerfillly.  She called
for her son, gave him  a last embrace, and, turning about,
burst into tears.  The child was conveyed in great pomp
to the Tower, and the two innocent, destined victims naturally received much delight at meeting again, little suspecting the fate that awaited them.
The protector now  appeared in a new character, that of
the rigid censor of morals.  Among the mistresses of the
late king was a woman named Jane Shore, the wife of a
young and opulent citizen, whose virtue, however, had not
been proof against the (assaults of a king.  " Proper she was
and fair," says sir Thomas More, "yet delighted not men so
l  much in her beauty as in her pleasant behavior; for a
proper wit had she, and could both read well and write'
ready and quick of answer, neither mute nor babbling.
1  Many mistresses the king had, but her he loved; whose favor, to say the truth, (for sin it were to belie the devil,) she
never abused to any man's hurt, but often employed to
many a man's relief."  After the death of the king she had
become the mistress of Hastings, and she was now arreste d
as a participator in his conspiracy.  The protector cormi —,     mitted her to prison, seized her goods to the value of 300{f
i        Imarks to his own use, and then had her, tried in the spir.
itual court for lewdness and adultery.  She was sentenced.,~~______           ___~__~~~_____~~_ _~_~~_____~_~_ ___




EDWARD V.                       291
to perform  public penance; and, stripped to her kirtle, with
her feet bare, carrying a lighted taper, and preceded by the
cross, she was made          al  to  St. Paul's through the
crowded streets.@
Having thus revived the memory of the licentious habits
of his brother, Richard next proceeded  to arraign the legitimacy of his children.  On the 22d of June, Dr. Shaw,
an Augustine fiiar, brother to the lord-mayor, preached at
St. Paul's cross.f  His text was, " Bastard slips shall not
strike deep roots," (Wisdom iv. 3;) and taking occasion to
notice the profligate habits of the late king, who made no
scruple of promising marriage to seduce a woman, he proceeded to say, that in this manner he had actually at one
time caused a tnarriage to be celebrated between himself and
Eleanor the widow of lord Boteler of Sudely, by Stillington,
now bishop of Bath, who had since declared the same; and
that consequen tly  his marriage with  Elizabeth Gray was
illegal, and the issue illegitimate.  It was even, he hinted,
doubtful if Edward himself and the duke of Clarence (who;
however, had been attainted) were the children of the duke
of York, to whom they bore no resemblance.  "But," cried
the preacher,   mny lord the protector, that very noble prince,
the pattern of all heroic deeds, is the perfect image of his
father; his features are the same, and the very express likeness of that noble duke."  It had been arranged that the
protector should have emade his appearance at these words,
and it was hoped that the people would be thus induced to
cry, " God save king Richard! " but it was badly managed:
Shaw was too quick, or the duke too slow.  lie did not enter
till after the words had been uttered; the maladroit preacher
repeated themrn; the people easily saw  through the device
and remained silent.  The protector gave a look of anger,
and the baffled divine slunk away to his own house, which
it is said he never again left, dying shortly after of pure
chagrin.
This plan having failed, it was resolved to employ a ino* Jane afterwards lived with the marquess of Dorset. Lynom, the
solicitor-general, was then about to marry her, and there is a letter
extant from Richard to the chancellor on the subject, which is rather
creditable to his feelings. The marriage, however, does not seem tc.
have taken place. Jane lived to a great age in poverty and neglect,
for she died in 1527. -The popular tale of Richard's forbidding any
one to relieve her, etc., is a popular tale, and nothing more.
t This cross, which we shall find so often mentioned, was a large
ornamented cross in front of St. Paul's cathedral. It was the great
preaching-place on public:ccasions.




292,ISTOiI OF ENGLAND.
Wler advocate.  On the following Tuesday, (a une 24,, Buckinghanm harangued the people at Guildhall, and, having alluded to the topics h'andled in the sermon on the last Sunday,
maintained that the right to the crown lay with Richard.
Still the people were silent; he then demanded an answer
one way or the other; a few hired voices from the end of
the hall cried, "King Richard!" He gave them his thanks,
and requested them to accompany him next day to the protector,
Next morning Buckingham, the mayor, and several lords
and principal citizens, repaired to Baynard castle, where
Richard resided, and demanded an audience.  Richard, affecting  terror, would only show himself from  a window:
Buckingham then read an address, as from the estates of the
realm, imbodying the charges made against the late king
and his marriage, and calling on the duke of Gloucester to
assume the crown, to which he was lawful heir.  Richard
pretended great reluctance, spoke of his affection for his
nephews and of his aversion to royalty.  " Sir," said Buckingham, " the free people of England will never submit to
the rule of a bastard, and if the lawful heir refuses the sceptre,
they know where to find one who will' gladly accept it."
Richard paused at this bold language, and then declared
that he felt it to be his duty to obey the voice of his
people.  The farce thus terminated; next day a bill was presented to the parliament, claiming the crown for him, and
on the following day (June 26) he took possession of the
throne.
About this time Ratcliffe, one of Richard's principal confidants, came to Pontefract, where Rivers and his three
friends now were.  A court, presided over by the earl of
Northumberland, was formed for their trial, and they were
found guilty of conspiring the death of Richard. Their heads
were struck off forthwith. The aged sir Thomas Vaughan,
appealing when on the scaffold to the tribunal of God
against this murder, Ratcliffe said with a sneer, " You have
made a goodly appeal,- lay down your head "   " I die in
the right," replied he, " take heed you die not in the
wrong!"   words proved by the event to be prophetic.*
* More gives it as a report that these executions took place on the
very same day with that of Hastings, and Lingard lays great stress
on the circumstance. Turner refers to Rivers's will, dated on the M3d
of June, at Sheriff Hutton.
______   ________________________                               ___




RICHARD U11.                 293
CHAPTER XIV.
RICHARD 1IlL
1483-14S4
RICHARD lost no time in giving the sanction of a cor naLion to his title.  He and nis wife, the lady Anne Neville,
were crowned (July 6) with great magnificence.  He then
proceeded to reward his adherents, and to seek to gain by
clemency his opponents.  Lord Stanley was set at liberty..
and made steward of the household; his wife, the countess
of Richmond, bore the queen's train at the coronation; the
archbishop of York also was set free, and the bishop of
Ely was committed to the charge of Buckingharn.  The
king then set forth on a progress through the kingdom; he
visited Oxford, Gloucester, and Worcester, whence he went
to Warwick, where he remained a week, and thence proceeded through Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, and Pontefiract to York, where, to gratify the people of the north, his
most faithful adherents, he caused himself and his queen to
be crowned over again with the same pomp as in London.
It was while he was in this progress, that he filled up the
measure of his guilt.  He sent orders from Warwick to sir
Richard Brackenbury, lieutenant of the Tower, to put the
two princes to death. Brackenbury, however, refused; sir
James Tyrrel, master of the horse, was then sent with orders
to receive the keys and custody of the Tower for one night.
Brackenbury dared not refuse, and that very night Tyrrel
went with Dighton, one of his grooms, and Forest,' a noted
ruffian,' to the chamber where the princes lay; he himself remained outside, while his agents went in and smothered the
sleeping children with the bed-clothes.  They then called in
Tyrrel to view the dead bodies, and by his command buried
them  at the foot of the staircase. All concerned were
amply rewarded by the king: Brackenbury got manors and
pensions; Tyrrel was made steward of the duchy of Cornwall and governor of Glamorganshire; Forest was made
keeper of the wardrobe at Baynard castle; Dighton was appointed bailiff of Aiton in Staffordshire.*
At this very time there was an extensive conspiracy on
* See Appendix (Q.)
25 




294             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
foot to dethrone the usurper, and to selt the rightful prince
in his place; and, what may excite surprise, the duke of
B3uckingham  was at the head of it. What his motives for
so sudden a change could have been, it is difficult to say
He had been Richard's chief supporter all through; but he
had been most amply rewarded, and he had no ingratitude
to complain of. He may have grown suspicious and fearful of the king whom he had set up; he may have been urged
by mortified vanity, or, as it is said, the eloquence of his
prisoner Morton, bishop of Ely, may have wrought a change
in him; he was moreover married to a sister of the queen
Elizabeth, and we know not what the influence of his wife
may have been: at all events he resolved to restore the
young prince. Richard, however, when he discovered the
plot, caused the death of the princes to be made public.
This somewhat disconcerted the conspirators; but as they
could not now recede, they gave ear to the proposal of the
bishop of Ely on the part of the Lancastrians, that they
should offer the crown to Henry earl of Richmond, the head
of that party, on condition of his espousing Elizabeth, now
the heiress of the house of York, and thus uniting the rival
claims.  All being agreed on, a messenger was sent to the
earl in Brittany, to hasten his return to England, and the
18th of October was appointed as the day for a general
risin g.
On the appointed day the marquess of Dorset proclaimed
Henry at Exeter, the bishop of Salisbury did the same
inl Wiltshire, the gentry of Kent met at Maidstone, those of
Berks at Newbury, and Buckingham  assembled his Welshmen at Brecknock.  Richard, who had already proclaimed
the duke a traitor, joined his troops at Leicester, (Oct. 2S,)
where he issued another proclamation, vaunting his zeal for
morality, calling his enemies " traitors, adulterers, and bawds,"
whose chief object was " the letting of virtue and the damnable maintainance of vice," and offering pardon to those
who! should leave, and rewards to those who should take
them. Fortune moreover stood his friend; Henry, who had
sailed with forty ships from St. Malo, was driven back by
tempests; and Buckingham, when he had led his men through
he Forest of Dean to the Severn, found the bridges broken,
and the river so swollen by the rains as to be nowhere fordable. His followers lost spirit and dispersed; he himself
and Morton took refuige at Webly, the seat of lord Ferrars,
whence the latter made his way in disguise to the Isle of
Ely and thence to Flanders; the duke also made his way....




RICHARD IIi.                    295
in disguise to the house of one Ralph Bannister, his servant, near Shrewsbury, but he was discovered through the
perfidy of his host, or the imprudence of those who knew
of his retreat.  He was taken and led to Richard, who was
now at Salisbury;. his solicitations for an audience were rejected,$  and his head was struck off instantly in the market,
(Nov. 2.)  Dorset and the bishop of Exeter made their
escape to Brittany, most of the others concealed themselves,
and very few executions took place.
Richard thought he might now  venture to summon a
parliament.  Whether, as is said, fear was the motive or
not, no more obsequious assembly could be than that which
met, (Nov. 11.)  His title was fully reconized, and the
succession settled on his son Edward prince of Wales.  An
act of attainder and forfeiture was then passed against the
heads of the late insurrection.
Though Richard had caused the marriage of his brother
to be declared null, and had deprived his widow  of her
dower as queen, he knew that the validity of that marriage
was generally acknowledged, and that the Yorkists now regarded her eldest daughter as the rightful heir to the crown.
He had also learned that at the festival of' Christmas five
hundred of the Yorkist exiles had sworn fealty to Henry
in Brittany, on his pledging himself to make her his queen
in case of his defeating the usurper.  To counteract this
plan he addressed himself to the queen-dowager, and having
pledged himself by a solemn oath that they should be treated
with all due respect as his kinswomen, he induced her and
her daughters to quit the sanctuary and come to court,
(March 1, 1484.)  It seems to have been his' intention to
have married the princess Elizabeth, whom  he treated with
marked attention, to his son Edward.  But the very next
month this young prince died suddenly, to the extreme grief
of both his parents.  The king's favor to Elizabeth, however, continued unchanged, and she v Is attached to the
person of the queen. John earl of Lincoln, son to the king's
sister the; duchess of Suffolk, was declared heir presumptive
to the crown.
At Christmas the king held his court at Westminster with
extraordinary magnificence, and it was remarked that his niece
always appeared attired like the queen.  Soon after, the lat* Buckinaham's son declared that it had been his father's intention,
had he been admitted into Richard's presence, to rush on him and stab
him with a knife which he had concealed about him.




296              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ter fell sick, and Richard immediately offered his hand tc
Elizabeth, assuring her that the queen would die in February,
and that he would then procure a dispensation from Rome
for their marriage. To the disgrace of the queen-dowager
she gave a ready consent to the union of her daughter with
the murderer of her brother and her three sons; and an extant
letter of the princess shows the indecent impatience which she
felt for this unnatural marriage.*  Queen Anne did in effect
die before the end of February, (1485,) and there are grounds
for suspecting that he who foretold her death took means to
cause his prophecy to be fulfilled.  But now an unexpected
difficulty arose; when he communicated his project to Ratcliffe and Catesby,t his chief advisers and confidants, they
opposed it in the strongest manner, representing how the
moral feeling of the nation would be shocked by this incestuous union, which would convert to certainty the suspicion
people had of his having removed his queen by poison; and
this might deprive him of the support of the men of the north,
who were attached to him chiefly on her account as the
daughter of Warwvick. It is said that their secret motive was
fear lest Elizabeth should take vengeance for the murder of
her family: their arguments, however, prevailed, and in the
hall of the Temple Richard solemnly declared before the
mayor, aldermen, and commoners that he never had thought
of such a marriage.  He wrote to the same effect to the cit.
izens of York.
The mind of the king is now said to have become a prey to
terror and anxiety, and he was haunted, we are told, by fearful
dreams caused by his crimes.  His money too was all expended; he -could not venture to apply to parliament, and he
was therefore obliged to levy benevolences (which had been
abolished in his preceding parliament) on the citizens, under
another name, which lost him their faivor.  Many now deserted to Henry; the lord Stanley, whose influence was great,
and who was married to Henry's nmother, caused him great
uneasiness, though he had lavished favors on him, and Stanley
had never given him the slightest ground for suspicion. To
secure the fidelity of that nobleman, he retained his son lord
Strange at court by way of a hostage.
At length, being assured that the king of France had given
* See Appendix (R.)
t " The Cat. the Rat, and Lovel our dog,
Rule all England under the hog,"
(the " bristled boar" was Richard's cognizance,) was a popular distich
at this time. It cost its author his life.




RICHARD IlL.                  29A
Henry permission to hire troops, and that a fleet lay ready at
the mouth of the Seine, Richard put forth a proclamation,
(June 23,) calling the exiles " murderers, adulterers, and ex.
tortioners," and asserting that Henry meditated unheard-of
slaughters and confiscations, etc., and calling on all true
Englishmen to aid him in the defence of their wives and
properties.  He then fixed his head-quarters at Nottingham,
(July 24,) and erelong he received intelligence of the landing of Henry at Milford Haven, (Aug. 7.)
Henry marched through North Wales, where, though none
opposed, few joined him, and when he reached Shrewsbury he
had but four thousand men.  Urged by the secret assurances
of many who could not yet declare themselves, he still pressed
on toward Leicester, where Richard now lay with a numerous army, having been joined by the duke of Norfolk, the
earl of Northumberland, lord Lovel, and Brackenbury, with
their levies. Lord Stanley had excused himself under the
pretext of illness; but his son being detected in an attempt
to escape, he was obliged, in order to save him, to hasten to
join the royal standard.
On the 1lst August, Richard moved from  Leicester, and
encamped about two miles from  the town of Bosworth.
Henry, having been joined by the Stanleys, moved from Tamworth to Atherston, and next morning both armies advanced
to Redmore.  Henry had now six thousand men, his rival
double the number. Richard was dismayed when he saw
the Stanleys opposed to him, but he roused his wonted courage; the vanguards, under the duke of Norfolk and the earl
of Oxford, engaged for some time; Richard then, seeing
Northumberland inactive and the rest of his troops wavering,
spurred his horse and rushed, crying " Treason, treason!"
to where he espied Henry; he killed sir William Brandon the
standard-bearer, unhorsed sir John Cheney, and had made a
furious blow at Henry himself, which was warded off by sir
William Stanley, when he was thrown from his horse and
slain. Lord Stanley, taking up the crown which he wore,
placed it on the head of Henry, and shouts of" Long live
king Henry!" were instantly raised. The duke of Norfolk,
lard Ferrars, Ratcliffe, and Brackenbury, with about three
thousand men, were slain; the victors lost but one hundred
men. The body of Richard was stripped, thrown across a
horse, and carried to Leicester, where it was interred in the
church of the Gray friars. The blood of Catesby and two
others alone was shed after the victory.
Richard was but two-and-thirty years old when he thtu
L hI




298              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
perished, the victim of his ambition.  In his person he vas
small, and the defect in his left. arm and an elevation of r-ne
shoulder deformed him  in some measure, but his face was
handsome and like his father's.  There is no foundation for
the common tale of his being born with teeth, and only what
we have stated for that of his being humpbacked.  He was
brave, loved magnificence, and justice also, when it did not
interfere with his ambition, but in the gratification of this
passion we have seen that he would stop at no crime.  Had
he come honestly by his crown, he would probably have worn
it to his own honor and to the advantage of his people.
With Richard ended the Plantagenet dynasty, which had
ruled England nearly three centuries and a half; and the
battle of Bosworth terminated the Civil Wars of the Roses,
which, with intermissions, had lasted for a space of thirty
years.  It was a remarkable feature in these wars that the
evils of them fell chiefly on the nobility; for with one exception the slaughter in the. field was not considerable, and there
was none of that petty warfare in different parts of the country by which, in civil wars which interest the feelings and
passions of the middle and lower orders, so much more
blood is shed than in regular battles.  Successive generations
of the houses of Neville, Pole, and Clifford were cut off on
the field or scaffold: many were reduced to the most abject
state of poverty.*  "I myself," says Comines, " saw the duke
of Exeter, the king of England's brother-in-law, walking
barefoot after the duke of Burgundy's train, and earning his
bread from  door to door."  "In my remembrance," says
the same writer, " eighty princes of the blood royal of England, perished in these convulsions; seven or eight battles
were fought in the course of thirty years; their own country
was desolated by the English as cruelly as the former generation had wasted France."  In this., however, there seems to
be some exaggeration; there certainly did not fall that number of princes of the blood.
We have thus biought our history to the end of the Plantagenet dynasty, a racq of princes not excelled in intellectual
* The story of the shepherd lord Clifford, to which Wordsworth's
poetry has lent additional attraction., strongly resembles that of e ri
toon, in the romantic annals of Persi,.




THE  CONSTITUTION U]NDERTHE PLXNTAGENETS. 29%
vigor by any line of sovereigns.  As with them  the feudal
and papal period. of England  may be said to terminate, the
next period being one of transition to the present altered condition of society, we will conclude it by a sketch of the poitical and religious state of the country at this time.
The constitution of England under the Plantagenets was
a monarchy li-nited by law, which law the king could  iot
alter at his will.  " A king of England," says sir John Fortescue, writing to the son of Henry VI., " cannot at his pleasure make any alterations in the law of the land, for the nature of nis government is not only regal but political."  Yet
the king was not merely an hereditary executive magistrate;
he had extensive prerogatives annexed to his dignity, and the
great object of the patriots of this period was to limit these
rights and restrain their abuse.  Some of the principal prerogatives of the crown have been already enumerated, and
the modes of restraining them described.  Such were the
feudal rights and the power of arbitrary taxation.  The principal remaining grievances were the abuse of the rights of
purveyance and of pardon.  Purveyance was the right of
taking, without the consent of the owner, but at a fair price,
provisions and whatever else were necessary for the use of the
royal household, also that of impressing horses and carriages
for the king's journeys.  This invested the purveyors with a
very high degree of arbitrary power, and it was a subject of
constant complaint.  The royal privilege of pardon, too, was
frequently found to operate against the best interests of society, as pardons were sold or granted to interest; and the
criminal, when convicted, often eluded justice by producing
the royal pardon, which had been bought or procured beforehand. The redress of these and other abuses was usually a
matter of bargain between the king and the parliament, they
giving a subsidy, and he engaging to correct what was complained of. Still the kings would, when they had the power,
go on in their old course; but the parliament, by perseverance, and by taking advantage of foreign wars, disputed
successions, and other circumstances, gradually set limits to
prerogative; and an able writer of the present day has with
reason thus expressed himself: " I know not whether there ate
any essential privileges of our countrymen, any, findamental
securities against arbitrary power, so far as they depend upon
positive institution, which may not be traced to the time when
the house of Plantagenet filled the English throne."
The great cause of this rational limitation of power and
establishment of the principles of true liberty seems to have




3OG               HISTORY OF'ENGLAND
been the peculiar situation of the English aristocracy. The
nobles were not, like those of the continent, the lords of extensive continuous territories, who might singly set the crown
at defiance.  Their manors lay scattered through various
counties; the power of the sovereign could at once crush
any refractory vassal; it was only by union among themselves, and by gaining the people to their side, that they
could maintain their rights and limit the royal prerogative.
In this manner the interests of the nobility became identified
with those of the people, and hence their names are associated with every struggle for liberty throughout our history.
This was further increased by the remarkable circumstance
that the English was the only nobility which did not form
a peculiar class, or caste. In England the actual holder of
the title alone was noble; his sons and brothers were simiple
commoners, and ranked with the people. Hence arose that
melting into one another of the various grades of our society:
and as our nobles never claimed any exemption from taxes
and other burdens, their privileges have never excited jealousy or hatred: For all these advantages we are mainly indebted to the high power of the crown established by the
Anglo-Norman monarchs, combined with the free principles
of government transmitted by our Saxon forefathers.
The religious aspect of England at this time is of a darker
hue. The mighty tree of papal supremacy had spread its
capacious shade over the whole of Europe, excluding the
brightest beanis of the Sun of Righteousness, and beneath it
flourished a rank crop of baleful superstitions.  We are far,
however, from viewing Popery as a system purely pernicious;
on the contrary, we deem that it was productive of much good,
and was perhaps that which was best suited to the times in
which it flourished.  But since it has of late years, by audaciously perverting history, sought to represent itself as without
stain or blemish, and the Reformation as in every sense a
misfortune to the world, we will briefly state what the reli.
gion of England really was in the fifteenth century.
At the head of the doctrines taught by the clergy stood the
portent of transubstantiation, which, for the sake of ulnderstanding literally one of the simplest of metaphors, sets reason
and the testimony of all the senses at defiance, and establishes
an absurdity hardly to be paralleled in the Brahminism of
India or the Lamaism of Tibet. By this the creature creates
the Creator, and the same body is actually and entirely pres
ent in the most distant regions at the very same instant of
i_         _     _     _             _




RIELIGION OF THE FIFTEENTH  CENTURY.    301
time! Gregory VII. either rejected this doctrine or shrank
from establishing it by the papal authority; but the intrepid
Innocent III., in the fourth council of Lateran, (1215,) declared it to be the doctrine of the church, and it still remains
the badge of Rome, a standing proof that she sets reason
and sense at nought.  Our fathers we:-e further taught to believe that the priest who could thus create his Maker, and
offer him up in sacrifice on the altar, possessed the power of
removing or mitigating the penalties of sin in the future
world. There was a place, they were told, on the confines
of hell, and so situated as to receive a moderate portion of
its flames.  It was named Purgatory from  its nature, and
thither after death were sent the souls of all but the innocent
baptized babes, the perfect saints, or the incorrigibly wicked,
to purge away by fire the stains of sin.  The period of their
sufferings might, however, be shortened by prayers and masses;
and the dying sinner, if wealthy, could, by leaving money
to the church, obtain a relaxation or remission of his generally
well-merited torments.  He might also at any time during
his life, by paying money or by visiting some place of devotionl, obtain an indulgence to exempt him from the punishmeat due to one or more of his transgressions: for one drop
of Christ's blood, it was said, sufficing to redeem  the whole
world, all the rest of His merits, which were infinite, together
with all that the Saints had done beyond what was necessary
for their own salvation, went to compose a great magazine
of merits for the benefit of sinful men.  The custody of this
was committed to the pope, and money was the key that
usually oped the holy treasure-house.
The church had adopted most of the practices and principles of the ancient heathenism.  A system, equally tasteless as false, of accounting for the origin of the elegant
polytheism  of Greece, by supposing its gods to have been
m-rely deified men, had been deviseql, and this the Fathers
of the church adopted.  But soon it became the belief that
what was fabled of Jupiter and Apollo was true of Peter
and Paul, and the other apostles, martyrs, and confessors.
A new Olympus speedily appeared.   The courts of heaven
were thronged with the beatified saints, who saw in God all
i The Romnish saints are always termed Divi; thus Divus Thomas
is the style of Thomas'a Becket. " Deos," says a heathen, (Servils
on EAn. xii. 139,) "' eternos dicimus, divos vero qui ex hominibus
fiunt." In another place, (En. v. 45,) he adds, "unde divos etiam
imperatores vocamus." How closely papal Rome imitated heathen
[tome!
VOL. 1.      26




8092               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
that took place on earth, and heard the prayers addressed to
them  by their votaries below for the exercise of their power
or their mediation in their favor.  High above all in rank
and power stood the queen of Heaven of the new mythology,
the Virgin, born without sin, dead without pain, and trans.
lated bodily, like her divine Son, to heaven, where she still
exercises over him  the mild authority of a mother.  Such
were the Virgin and the Saints in heaven; on earth churches
and festivals were dedicated, and prayers were offered to
themn; their relics, that is, their bones, their hair, the very
parings of their nails and the fragments of their garments.
or the implements of their torture, were enclosed in costly
shrines, adorned with precious gems, and worshiped by the
people.  Their images, especially those of the Virgin, were
also the objects of adoration; pilgrimages were made to them
and rich offerings deposited on their altars.   Thus, while
the ancient heathens directed their worship to beings whom
they regarded as superior to man in nature, the Christians
of the middle ages adored their fellow-mortals; their idolatry
wa~s as gross as that of the ancient world; the legends of
their saints were fiequently of a far more immoral tone
than the mythes of Greece, and, what these (properly under.
stood) were not, often highly impious.*
This system of polytheism  and idolatry was, however, not
without its bright spots.'The aspect of the court of heaven,
presented in the Romish books of devotion, is very magnif
icent and attractive.  But by far the most seductive portion
of the syste-n is the worship of the Virgin, the most beautiful
piece of superstition ever devised! The idea of the " pure
god," Phmbus Apollo, in the Grecian system, was certainly
beautiful, and, we may add, elevating; but who could think
of comparing it with that of the Virgin?  The Crishna of
fHindoo, the Balder of Scandinavian polytheism, fall still
more short of it.  A woman lovely, gentle, pure, and stainless, whose heart wells forth streams of holy love and benevolence, exalted to supreme power in heaven and eartlh, must,
in the eyes of the pious votary, have been invested with a
radiance of mild, tempered divinity not to be conceived by
H* allanm, (Middle Ages, iii. 349,) after relating some of the impious
legends of the Virgin circulated by the monks, thus expresses himself:';-'Whether the superstition of these dark ages had actually passed that
pint when it becomes more injurious to public morals and the welfare
of society, than the entire absence of all religious notions, is a very
complex question, upon which I would by no means pronounce an
Affirmative decision."
___ ___ __ ___ __   __ ___ __ _  _ __ __; ~,,, _ __ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _




RELIGION OF THE FIFTEENTH  CENTURY.    303
those who are not themselves believers.  Unfortunately the
beautifhl conception was but too often spoiled by the vulgal
and impious legend which made the divine object partial,
revengeful, vain, and venal.  A~mong the attractions of this
system  rmust also be enumerated the sensible ones of the
splendid habits of the clergy; the well-marshalled processions,
bearing  crosses and  banners; the  nsmagnificence of arrhitecture; anld the noble strains of music that pealed througo        I
the aisles of the stately cathedral and adorned the service
of even thie most humble chapel.
The clergy themselves, it is probable, believed imnplicitly
in the popular religion.  But their belief stood not in the
way of their inventing the most monstrous and atrocious
fables of the miracles performed by the Saints or their reiics, and thus extorting money or lands from the credulous
vottaries.  By means of these, and of the doctrines of purgatory and merits, the church had gradually contrived to
gain possession of one fifth of the lands of the kingdom.
The morals of the clergy were in general profligate, though
beyond question there were among them in all au-es shining
models of goodness and piety.  In tie year 1449) the clergy
had a petition presented in parliament, stating that many
priests, secular as well as relicious, had been grievously
vexed(  and troubled wrongfully  by divers indictments of'
felonly, and praying that every priest might be pardoned for
all manaer of felonies of rape done before the Ist of Junle
next coming, and from  all forfeitures of taking excessive.alaries, provided a noble (6s. Sd.) for every priest in the
kingdom were paid to the kin.   WVIhat, we may ask, o-ust
ilave been the morality of the clergy who could present such
a. petition?
lnoorannce and immorality are usual, though not neces-,;sary, companions.  We may therefore not be surprised to
Snd that the great bulk of the clergy were grossly ignor at.  But few of them  knew the nreaning of the prayers
they muttered daily in an unknown tongue; and to re ad
and stuldy the Scriptures, even in the Latin  version, was
re.,g-rdled as needless to those whose religion was almost
totalTly made up of forms and ceremonies.  The ignorance ol
~the laity was of course greater if possible than that of theis
ophritual guides.
We are not, however, to suppose that the mind of Eu!
i trope was totally enthralled to superstition in these times:  Rolls Parl., vol. v. p. 153; Turner, Hist. of England, iil. 140




104               HISTORY OF ENGLA".
It was far otherwise, as the dreadful crusade against tbhe
Albigenses, and the persecution of the Lollards and other
heretics, as they were styled by the church, too clearly prore.
Though the clergy exerted themselves to the utmost, though
they filled the prisons with those who dared to think, and
kindled the piles for those who refused to recant, the truth
still continued to spread, and more and more was sown
every day of the seed which was to yield such an abundant
harvest of mental liberty.  We have now  strong grounds
for believing that Dante, Petrarca, and their fellows, whose
genius sheds such a lustre on the middle ages, were but the
organs of an extensive sect or party, whose bond of union
was hostility to the papacy, its claims, its doctrines, and its
practices.*   The middle ages thus rise in moral dignity
while we view in them the struggle of man's intellectual
nature against superstition, upheld by fraud and cruelty;
and we learn to acknowledge our debt of gratitude to the
men whose unremitting efforts achieved the victory of which
we now enjoy the benefits.
* The writer here alludes to what he regards as the extraordinary
discoveries of his most valued friend, Professor Gabriele Rossetti, in his
" Comento Analitico " on Dante, his " Spirito Antipapale de Classici
[tahlni,"  and his 1" Mistero dell' Amor Platonico," a work which has
not yet appeared, but of which the present author has had the advau!,age of seeing all that has been as yet printed




HI S TORY O F EN GL AND I
HOUSE- OF TUDOR.
CHAPTER L
HENRY VII.
1485-1509..rHE first act of the new king was to direct that the prin
cess Elizabeth and her cousin, the earl of Warwick, whom
the late tyrant had placed at Sheriff-Hutton in Yorkshire,
should be conveyed to London, the former to be restored to
her mother, the latter to be immured in the Tower.  He
then proceeded by easy journeys to the capital. The lord
mayor and aldermen met him without the city, (Aug. 28;)
he passed through the streets in a close litter to St. Paul's,
where a Te Deumn was chanted, and he then took up his
abode at the house of the bishop. While there he solemnly
renewed his engagement'to marry the princess Elizabeth,
but declined espousing her till after he should have been
crowned and have held a parliament.
The coronation would have taken place immediately but
for the prevalence of the disease named the Sweating Sickness fromn its nature. It was a rapid fever, carrying people
off in four-and-twenty hours, which time if they got through
they were almost sure of recovery. It lasted but a month,
and was regarded as being in the atmosphere, and not an
epidemic or contagious malady.
The king was crowned on the 30th of October by the
primate.  He was frugal of his honors on this occasion,
only making twelve lbirlnerets, and raising his uncle, Jasper'26'                        MM




306)              HISTORY OE' ENGLAND.
earl of Pembroke, to the dignity of duke of Bedford,.ord
Stanley to that of earl of Derby, and sir Edward Courtenayv
to t;hat of earl of Devon.  He appointed a body of archers to
attend him in future, under pretext of imitating the state of
foreign princes.  Tlhey were named Yeomen of the Guard.
WIhen parliament met, (Nov. II,) the matter of mnost imnportance that occupied it was the settlement of the crown.
Henry's title rested on three grounds: his pledged marriage with Elizabeth; his descent from  the house of Lancaster; the right of conquest.  The last was too odious to
be put forward prominently; the first was disagreeable to
his own prejudices and those of his Lancastria,  adherents,
and would only secure the succession to his issue by Elizabeth.  " He, therefore," says Bacon, " rested on the title
of Lancaster in the main,- using the marriage and the
victory as supporters; " and in the act of settlement it was
merely enacted, that " the inheritance of the crown should
be, rest, remain, and abide in the most royal person of the then
sovereign lord king Henry VII., and the heirs of his body
lawfillly coming:"  As all mention of the princess seemed
studiously avoided, those of both parties who had looked
forward to the termination of the differences between the
White and the Red Rose grew alarmed. Shortly after, (Dec.
10,) the commons took occasion to petition the king to take
the princess to wife; the peers readily expressed their concurrence; Henry gave a gracious promise, and during the
recess he espoused Elizabeth, (Jan. 1S, 1436.)
In this parliament an act of attainder was passed against
Richard III., the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Surrey, the
lords Lovel, Zouch, Ferrars, and about two dozen of others
all grants made by the crown since the 34th of Henry VI.
were resumed; and a general pardon was issued in the
king's name to all the adherents of the late usurper.
After the dissolution the king set out on a progress through
the kingdom, and as the North had been most attached to
Richard, he proceeded thither first, hoping to gain the people by spending the summer among them.  While he wvas
reping his Easter at Lincoln, he heard that lord Lovel had
left the sanctuary  at Colchester, and when he reached Pontefract he learned that Lovel had raised a force and intended
* No title coiud be weaker than this. Henry claimed through his
mother, (who was still alive,) the sole heiress of the duke of Somerset,
descended from one of the children whom Catherine Swynford bore to
John of Gaunt before marriage, and who, when legitimated, were ex
pressly excluded from all claim to the crown.




HENRY  VII.                   3o1
surprising him on his entry into York.  But this lord, finding the royal army too numerous, gave up his project, and
having permitted his followers to disperse, made his own
escape to Flanders.  The king remained three weeks in
York, and he then returned to London by way of Worcester,
Gloucester, and Bristol.  During his absence the queen held
her court at Winchester, with her mother and sisters, and
her mother-in-law the countess of Richmlond.  Here, in her
eighth month, (Sept. 20,) she was delivered of her first child,
a son, who was named Arthur, after the famous British
hero, from  whose lineage the king affected to be sprung
on the father's side.
The evident favor shown by the king to he Lancastrian
party gave great offence to the Yorkists; they were also
displeased at the want of respect shown to the queen in de.
ferring her coronation; the manners of the king too were
cold and repulsive, totally different fiornom those of the former
kings of England.  This state of discontent was taken advantage of for introducing the most extraordinary imposture
recorded in history; for though many have personated dead
or missing princes, who ever knew of an impostor pretending to be a prince who was known to be alive, and could be
produced at any time?
There was a priest at Oxford named  Richard Simons,
or. Symmonds, a man of a subtle, enterprising temper.  He
had a pupil about the age of fifteen years, named Lambert
Simnel, the son of a baker, or, as others said, of an organma-ker.  This youth was of a handsome, engaging countenance; and the priest, whether actuated by hopes of great
advantages to himself if the imposture should succeed, or,
as is more probable, acting merely as the agent of higher
persons, instructed him to assume the character of Richard
duke of York, who, it was rumored, had escaped from the
Tower in the late reign.  But on a report of the escape of
the young earl of Warwick, Simons, or his directors, changed
the plan, and it was agreed that Simnel should personate
this prince.  As, during the abode of the duke of York in.
Ireland as chief governor in the time of Henry VI., the
Anglo-Irish had become strongly attached to his person,
fatily, and cause, it was resolved that the drama should open
in that country.  Accordingly Simons and his pupil landed
in Dublin, where the earl of Kildare, the lord deputy, without hesitation or inquiry, at once acknowledged the pre.
tended Plantagenet.  His example was followed by the
nobilit, and people in general. The Butlers of Ormond, a




308              HISTORY OF E GGLAND.
few of. the prelates, and the citizens of W aterford alot e ad.
hered to the cause of king Henry.
When these events reached the ears of Henry, he summoned a great council of peers and prelates, and by their
advice published a full pardon to all his former opponents,
for the preceding one had been so clogged with conditions,
and had been violated in so many points, as to have failed
of its great object.  He then had the earl of Warwick led
from the Tower to St. Paul's, and thence brought to the
palace of Shene, where the nobility and all others had daily
opportunities of conversing with him.  The king next (and
this is a measure that has never been accounted *for at all
satisfactorily) seized the goods of the queen-dowager, and
confined her in the convent of Bermondsey.  The pretext
assigned is, that she had put her daughters into the power
of the late usurper; but surely if she did so to make her
daughter a queen, it was not to be thence inferred that she
would now engage in a plot to dethrone her!
The earl of Lincoln, whom Richard had declared heir to
the throne, and whom  Henry had treated with favor, now
took the side of the pretender, and having established a
correspondence with sir Thomas Broughton of Lancashire,
went privately to the court of Margaret the duchess-dowager
of Burgundy, who, as Bacon observes, " having the spirit
of a man and the malice of a woman, abounding in treasure
by the greatness of her dower and her provident government, and being childless and without any nearer care, made
it her design and enterprise to see the majesty royal of
England once again replaced in her house; and she bare
such a mortal hatred to the house of Lancaster, and personally to the king, as that she was no ways mollified by the
conjunction of the houses in her niece's marriage, but rather
hated her niece as the means of the king's ascent to the
crown and assurance therein."   This may account for
Margaret's readily engaging in the project; as for Lincoln,
he may have hoped, if the present king was overthrown, to
make good his title against the pretender, the real Warwick, and the daughters of king Edward.
Mlargaret having furnished Lincoln and lord Lovel with
a body of two thousand German veterans, commanded by
an able officer named Martin Schwartz, they sailed for
Ireland and landed at Dublin.  By the advice of Lincoln
the impostor was crowned (Mlay 24) as Edward VI. by the
bishop of Meath, a crown for the occasion being taken from
the statue of the Virgin  the new king was then borne from
i




HENRY  V11.                     309
the cathedral to the castle on the, shoulders of a gigantic
chieftain of English blood, named Darcy.  A  parliament
was summoned, and immediate preparations were made for
invading England, and but teon days after (June 4) the troops
of the pretender effected a landing at Furness in Lancashire,
where being joined by the tenantry of sir Thomas Broughton
they pushed on for Yorkshire.  Trhe king meantime had
assembled his troops at Kenilworth, whence he advanced
to Nottingham; every day he was joined by additional troops,
while Lincoln found all his efforts vain to rouse the partisans of the house of York.  lIe resolved to make himself
if possible master of the town of Newark, but the king got
between him  and that place, and at Stoke the two armies
came in sight, (June 16.)  Urged by despair, though his
troops did not exceed eight thousand men, Lincoln accepted
the proffered combat.  The battle lasted but three hours,
and ended in the destruction of the rebels, one half of whom
were  slain.  Most of their  leaders  perished;  Lincoln
Schwartz, sir Thomas Broughton, the earl of Kildare, and
his brother, Maurice Fitzgerald, remained on the field.
Lord Lovel was seen to escape, but he was never seen or
heard of after.*  Simons and his pupil were taken prisoners;
the former, being made to confess the imposture, was thrown
into prison and was heard of no more; the latter was made
a scullion in the royal kitchen, and he was afterwards raised
to the more important office of one of the king's falconers.
Thus ended this strange insurrection.
The king, who always felt or affected great devotion, caused
a Te Deum to be sung at Lincoln, whither he proceeded
after the battle; and he sent his banner to be offered to Our
Lady of Walsingham, to whom  he had made his vows.
He then made a progress, or rather judicial circuit, through
the North, where he punished the aiders and abettors of the
rebels, in a few cases with death, in most by fines and ransoms, which mode was more congenial to his feelings, as it.
brought money into his coffers.  On his return to London
* " Toward the close of the 17th century, at his seat at MinsterLovel, in Oxfordshire, was discovered a chamber under the ground, in
which was the skeleton of a man seated in a chair, with his head reclined on a table. Hence it is supposed that the filoitive had found
an asylum in this subterraneous chamber, where he was, perhaps,
sltarved to death through neglect."  (Lingard, from West's Furness.,
p. 210.) This incident has acquired additional interest from the use:lade of it in a romance, of which the scene ~is in the same neigh.
borhoot.




310               HISTORY OF ENGLAND
aware of the impolicy of having so long deferred the qucel's
coronation, he caused that ceremony to be perfobrmed with
great magnificence.  For this purpose, having been lodged
according to custom  in the Tower, she was conveyed on
Saturday, November the 24th, to Westminster in a litter,
over which four knights held a canopy of cloth of gold.
Shie was attired in white cloth of gold darmask, with a
mantle of the same furred with ermine. " Her faire yelow
haire," says our authority, " hung downe pleyne byhynd her
bak with a calle of pipes over it."  Several other litters, and
four baronesses mounted on gray palfreys, followed.  On
Sunday she was crowned, and she then dined in state in the
hliall.  The lady Catherine Grey and mistress Ditton went
ad sat at her feet under the table, and the countesses of
Oxford and Rivers knelt at each side of her, holding a
kerchief at times before her.  The king viewed the whole
from behind a lattice.
Henry was now able to turn his attention to foreign affairs,
and as the Scots were the people who could give him greatest
annoyance, he took advantage of the fiiendly feeling which
their king, Jamies III., had toward him, to establish a truce
for seven years between their respective kingdoms; to
strengthen their amity, it was arranged that James, who was
now a widower, should marry the queen-dowager, and his
two sons two of her daughters.*'his project, however,
was frustrated, as the king of Scots was murdered the
Vi if1following year by his turbulent subjects.  Henry renewed the
truce with his son and successor.
The affairs of Brittany were at this time in a very ticklish
aondition.  It was the only one of the great fiefs except Burgundy which had not been reunited to the crown of France;
its duke was far advanced in years, and his only children
were twc daughters.  The eldest, Anne, who was now in
her thirteenth year, was sought in marriage by Maximilian
king of the Romalns, by the duke of Orleans, and by the
lord d'Albret of Bearn.  But the young king of France,
Charles VIII., who, as being contracted to the daughter of
Maximililn, could not seek the hand of Anne, was resolved
to assert some ancient feudal claim and take possession of the
duchy. Some time after the French troops entered Brittany;
both sides applied to Henry; his parliament gave him funds,
* Rymer, xii. 329. This fact, first adverted to by Lingard, seems ta
disprove corpletely the cornmmon notion that Henry treated his mothe?
in-law with great and unnecessary harshness.




HENRY VII. l 
and urged him to aid the duke; but though he took their
money, he heeded not their advice.  The French arms still
advanced, (148S,) and the duke was obliged to sign a treaty
allowing Charles to retain his conquests, and binding himself not to marry either of his daughters without the consent
of his superior lord.  A few weeks after, the duke and his
youngest daughter both died; Charles then claimed the
succession, and renewed the war, and he soon made himself
master of one half of the duchy.
The English nation was eager to take the part of the
persecuted princess. The parliament, when summoned again,
freely granted supplies; " yet," says Bacon, "the subsidy
granted bare a fruit that proved harsh and bitter.  All was
inned at last into the king's barn, but it was after a storm. 
The people of Durham and Yorkshire refused to pay it; tl t
collectors appealed to the earl of Northumberland, who
wrote to court for instructions; the king wrote back that
he would not abate a penny; the earl assembled the freeholders and delivered the harsh mandate in a harsh manner;
the people became irritated, and, attacking the earl's house,
slew himself and some of his servants.  An insurrection
now broke out, headed by sir John Egremont and a low
%ellow named John a Chamber. The king sent troops
dgainst them under the earl of Surrey, whom he had pardoned
and released from the Tower, and the insurgents were
speedily routed. Egrernont escaped to the duchess of Burgutldy; Chamber was taken, and executed at York.
A body of six thousand men, however, under lord Willoughby de Brook, was sent to Brittany; but as they were
forbidden to act on the offensive they proved of little use, and
as soon as the six months of their service were expired they
returned home.  The duchess afterwards (1491) married
Maximilian by proxy, but the king of France having gained
over her counsellors, and supporting their arguments by the
terror of his arms, forced her to rescind that contract and
become his queen.
Henry, seeing Brittany thus lost, resolved, since he could
do nothing else, to make money of the affair.  He summoned
a parliament, and pretending great indignation, declared his
determination to make war on France; the parliament, always
liberal on these occasions, readily granted two tenths and
two fifteenths, and the king himself renewed the practice
of extorting money under the title of benevolence.  We are
told of a dilemma used by the chancellor Morton on this
occasion, and which some called his fork, others his crutch




d 12              HISTORY OF ENGLANj,.
HIe directed the commissioners, that " if they met with any
that were sparing, they should tell them that they must needs
have because they laid up; and if they were spenders, they
must needs have because it was seen in their port and manner
of living."  So, as the historian says, neither kind came
amiss, and the king, having thus gotten plenty of money, at
ength'landed at Calais, (Oct. 6,) with a force of sixteen hunired men-at-arms and twenty-five thousand foot, whence he
advanced in a few days and laid siege to Boulogne. But this
was all mere sham and pretence, for* negotiations for peace
were going on all the time; a treaty of peace and amity
was finally concluded, (Nov. 3,) Charles engaging to pay, at
the rate of 25,000 francs a year, the sum  of ]49,G0001. in
satisfaction of all claims on his queen, and of the arrears of
the annuity due to Edward IV.  Henry then:returned to
England; his counsellors, who had all gotten presents and
pensions from  Charles, praised his wisdom  and policy;
but his nobles, many of whom had sold or pledged their
estates to furnish them  for the war, were discontented, and
said that " the king cared not to plume his nobility and people
to feather himself."
The duchess of Burgundy was, by the classic fancy of the
age, styled the king's Juno, as being to him what that god.
dess was to the " pious AEneas."  She was unremitting in
her hostility, and " at this time," says Bacon, "the king
began again to be haunted with spirits by her magic and
curious arts."  For just as he had declared war against
France, a vessel from Portugal arrived at Cork in Ireland,
on board of which was a young man of engaging mien, and
aged about twenty years.  A rumor soon spread that he
was Richard duke of York, who had escaped from the Tower.
Tihe answers he made when questioned satisfied his credulous
aiuditors.  The citizens, induced by O'Water, their late
1m-1ayor, declared for him; the earl of Desmond, the great
soiuthern chief, did the same; but the earl of Kildare, when
applied to, returned an ambiguous answer.  Ere the pretender advanced any farther, he received an invitation from
Charles to repair to France, which he accepted, and on his
arrival he was treated as the true heir to the English crown; a
guard of honor was assigned him, and the exiles, to the number of one hundred, offered him their services.  Henry hurried on the peace, and Charles then ordered the pretender
to quit his dominions, having now made the use of him he had
proposed. He sought refuge -with Margaret of Burgundy,
by whom he was received with open arms; she styled him




HENRY  VI1.                  313
the White Rose of England, and gave him a guard of thirty
halberdiers.  The English Yorkists, anxious to ascertain
the truth, sent over sir Robert Clifford as their secret agent,
and he reported that he was the real duke of York.  The
king also despatched his emissaries, in order to find out who
he really was; and the result of their inquiries is said to have
been, that his name was Peterkin, or Perkin, (i. e. Little
Peter,) Osbeck or;Warbeck, the son of a converted Jew of
Tournay; that by frequenting' the society of the English
merchants in Flanders he had acquired their language and
manners; that the lady Margaret had fixed upon him as a
proper person to personate her nephew; and that fearing he
would be suspected if he came direct from Flanders, she had
sent him to Lisbon in the service of lady Brompton, the wife
of one of the exiles. The king now required of the archduke Philip, the sovereign of Burgundy, to banish or surrender Warbeck; but he replied that he could not control the
duchess in the lands of her dower.  Henry, in revenge, withdrew the mart of English cloth from Antwerp, and forbade
all intercourse between the two countries.
The gifts and promises of the king had gained Clifford,
who communicated to him the names of the leading English
Yorkists who were in correspondence with the partisans of
the pretender; and on the same day the Lord Fitzwalter and
several others were arrested on a charge of treason. Sentence
of death was passed on them.  Sir Simon Mountfort, sir
Thomas Thwaites, and Robert Radcliffe were executed at
once; Fitzwalter was imprisoned at Calais; the rest were
pardoned.  But a greater victim was to fall. After celebrating his Christmas, Henry removed his court to the Tower,
(Jan. 7, 1495,) where Clifford was brought before him and
received his pardon on his knees.  Being required to reveal
all he knew of the conspiracy, he named the lord chamberlain
sir William Stanley, he who had saved the king's life at Bosworth. The king affected great horror, and refused to
believe him; Clifford persisted, and Stanley, when examined
the next day, actually confessed the:charge.  He was tried,
condemned, and some time after beheaded; and as his personal property, much exceeding 40,000 marks, and his lands,
yielding 30001. a year " of old rent, a great matter in those
times,'" fell to the king, they were thought to have stood in
the way of his pardon. ~ It is, however, probable that he was
really guilty of some words: or acts inconsistent with perfect
o:alty.-  The chief charge against him. seems to have been
VOL. 1.     27                      N N




314              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
his having said, "If I were sure that that young man were
king Edward's son, I would never bear arms against him."
The pretender had now lain idle for three years, and the
Flemings and the archduke were complaining of the losses
which he caused them.  He therefore found it necessary to
make an effort, and while Henry was spending some time
with his mother at Latham in Lancashire, he landed (July 3)
a few hundred adventurers at Deal in Kent. But the people
of the country rose and killed several of them, took one hundred and fifty prisoners, and drove the rest to their boats.
The prisoners were led to London, "all railed in ropes, like
a team of horses in cart," and by the king's order they were
all hanged there or on different parts of the coast.  Perkin
returned to the Netherlands, but the great treaty of commerce,
which was signed the next year between them and England,
having deprived him of his asylum  there, he put to sea once
more.  He now sailed to Cork, but he found no countenance
there, as Henry had secured the obedience of the Irish.  He
therefore departed, and directed his course to Scotland,
where having, it is said, presented to king James letters from
the king of France and the lady Margaret, he was received
with all due honor, and the king gave him in marriage the
lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of the earl of Huntley, and
a near relation of his own. In the winter the king assembled
an army of borderers and invaded Northumberland; the adventurer, who had a body' of about fourteen hundred English
and other outlaws with him, issued a proclamation calling on
his loyal subjects to arm in his cause, and enumerating the
crimes of Henry Tudor, as he styled the king.  But the English took no heed; the king of Scots then began to burn
and waste the country, at which Perkin, it is said, was, or
affected to be greatly moved, declaring "that no crown was
so dear to his mind as that he desired to purchase it with the
blood and ruin of his country;" the king, half in jest, made
answer, " that he doubted much lie was careful for that was
none of his, and that he should be too good a steward for his
enemy to save the country to his use."
The king used the pretext of this inroad to call a parliament and obtain a subsidy. The tax was paid in most places;
but in Cornwall the people, excited by the harangues of one
Michael Joseph, a blacksmith or farrier of Bodmin, and one
Thomas Flammock, a prating lawyer, assembled in arms
to the number of sixteen thousand men, and marched for London, to petition the king to punish the primate Morton and




HENRY vrr.                   315
sir Reginald Grey, whom they regarded as the authors of this
impost.  At Wells they were joined by the lord Audley, whom
they made their leader; they then advanced into Kent, and
encamped on Blackheath, within view of London.  The
king, who had his troops assembled, prepared to give them
battle. He divided his army into three parts, of which one,
under the earl of Oxford, was to get in the rear of the hill on
which the rebels were posted; the second, under D'Aubigny
the lord chamberlain, was to attack them  in front; while
the third, under himself in person, was to remain as a reserve
in St. George's Fields. On Saturday, June 22d, (the king's
lucky day, as he esteemed it,) the attack was made. The
advance guard of the rebels defended Deptford-bridge at first
stoutly, but they were driven back to their main body;
D'Aubigny then gained the hill, and they scattered, and fled
in all directions. About two thousand of them were slain,
and fifteen hundred taken, among which last were their
three leaders. Lord Audiey was beheaded; Flammock and
Joseph were hanged at Tyburn; all the rest were pardoned.
Meantime the king of Scots again poured his light troops
over the b6rders, and scoured the country as far as the
Tees.  But on the approach of the earl of Surrey he retired,
and soon tier, under the mediation of the Spanish ambassador, a truce for seven years was concluded. The pretender
then left Scotland, and having made another ineffectual
attempt at Cork, sailed over to Whitsand bay, whence he
advanced to Bodmin and raised the banner of Richard IV.
The Cornishinen to the number of three thousand repaired
to him, and his army was doubled by the time he reached
Exeter, to which town he laid siege. But the citizens defending themselves valiantly, and the nobility and gentry of
the county coining to their aid, he retired, and led his men
toward Taunton, at which place the royal army had now
arrived. During the day (Sept. 20) he made all ready for
battle with great alacrity; but about midnight he secretly
departed with about sixty horse and took sanctuary at Bewdley, or Beaulieu, in the New Forest.. The rebels next day,
finding themselves abandoned, submitted, and were all par,
doned except a few of the ringleaders.  Some horsemen
were sent to St. Michael's Mount to take the lady Catherine
Gordon, who had been left there by her husband, "whom
in all fortunes she entirely loved, adding the virtues of a wife
to:the virtues of her sex."  When she was brought to the
king he treated her with great kindness: he afterwards




~3 1 tHI{STORY OF ENGLAND.
placed her about the queen, and assigned her an honorable
pension. The name of the White Rose, originally "given to
her husband's false title, was continued in common speech to
her true beauty."                         -
A guard was placed round the sanctuary to prevent the escape of Perkin; and, seeing that he had no hopes remaining,
he consented to leave it on promise of a pardon.  The king
did not admit'him into his presence, but *he had his liberty,
and on the return to London he rode in the royal suite.
On the way multitudes flocked to gaze on him.  When they
came to London he was led on horseback through the city
to the Tower and back to Westminster.  He was ordered
not to quit the precincts of the palace, and he was repeatedly examined about his history, and a portion of his confession
was made public.  After six months, being weary of restraint,
he contrived to escape, and made for the coast, but he was so
closely pursued that he took sanctuary once more at the
priory of Bethlehem at Shene.  At the request of the prior
the king granted him  his lifei; but he was made to stand an
entire day in the stocks at Westminster-hall, and the next
day in Cheapside, and read aloud the confession which he
had made and signed.  He was then committed to the
Tower.
In the Tower Warbeck soon contrived to form an intimacy
with the unhappy earl of Warwick.  This ill-fated youth had
spent nearly his whole life in prison merely because he happened to be a real Plantagenet.  Being secluded from  all
society his faculties were never developed, and his ignorance
was such that, as the chronicler says, "' he could not discern
a goose from a capon."  He gave in to the projects of the
pretender for their escape; four servants of the lieutenant, it
is said, were gained, who were to murder their master and
then convey the prisoners to a place of safety;  But the plot
was discovered in time; Perkin was then tried and convicted
of treasons committed by him after his landing in the kingdom, and he was executed at Tyburn, where he once more
read his confession and averred its truth.t  Warwick was
arraigned before the house of peers for conspiring with Perkin
to raise sedition and to destroy the king; the poor innocent
youth pleaded guilty, and was beheaded on Tower-hill, (Nov.,28.)
* She afterwards married a Welsh knight named sir Matthew Ctad
dock, (Caradoc,) and lies buried in the church of Swansea.
t See Appendix (S.)
_________."I.   




hIENRY VI.                     3 [1
Such was the end of the last male ( the Plantagenets.
His fate was lamented by the whole nation, and people did
not hesitate to say that the late plot had been only a device
of the king to have a pretext for destroying him; for he felt
that as long as Warwick lived he had no chance of peace.
Even this very year, a young man of' Suffolk, named Ralph
WTilford, aided by one Patrick, a friar, had personated the
young earl in Kent, and though they had no success, and the
former was executed and the latter imprisoned for life, the
attempt might be renewed.  Those odious reasons of state
which are held to justify every crime, might therefore have
induced the king to seize, if not make, the pretext for freeing
himself from  apprehension by shedding guiltless blood.  But
we are assured that it was not so much anxiety for his own
safety, as the desire of procuring a high alliance for his son,
that actuated Henry.  He had been for some time in treats
with Ferdinand, king of Aragon, for a match between his
eldest son and the infanta Catherine, and he caused, it is said,
letters out of Spain to be shown at this time, in which Ferdinand had written to him " that he saw no hopes of his succession as long as the earl of Warwick lived; and that he was
loath to send his daughter to troubles and dangers;" and
many years after, that princess, on a sad occasion, declared
"that she had not offended, but it was a judgmnent of God,
for that her former marriage was made in blood."@'rhe king now had rest for the remainder of his reign.
The state of almost constant hostility with Scotland was terminated by a marriage between the king of Scots and Henry's
eldest daughter Margaret.  When some of his council expressed their fears that in case of the failure of the male line
England might fall to the king of Scotland, the more sagacious monarch replied, "that if that should be, Scotland
would be but an accession to England, for that the greater
would draw the less."  Time has verified the prediction.
The long-projected marriage between prince Arthur and
the Spanish infanta took place (Nov. 14, _1511) as soon as
the prince had passed his fifteenth year.  There were splen" Lord Bacon," says Mackintosh," a witness against Henry above
exception, positively affirms that the flagitious correspondence had
been seen in England, and that it was shown by the king to excuse
his assent to a deed of blood." Lingard, who would not willingly
hear any thing bad of Ferdinand the Catholic, speaks of it as a mere
"report to remove the odium from the king."  Cardinal Pole, however,
Warwick's nephew, seems to have believed it, for his biographers Bee.
catelli and Dudith both assert it, and evidently on his authority.
27 
_ _    _ _ _                                     _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _




318              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
did festivities on the occasion, and Ludlow in Shropshire was
fixed on as the abode of the young couple.  But their connubial felicity was destined to an early blight, for the amiable
and accomplished nrince fell sick and died in the spring of
the following year, (April 2.)  The king, as soon as he overcame his grief, which was great, began to think how he
still might retain the Spanish connection, and get the princess's portion, which was 200,0900 crowns; and for this purpose, when it had become apparent that the late marriage had
been firuitless,t it was arranged that his second son, Henry,
who was now twelve years old, should espouse his brother's
widow when he attained the age of fifteen. The primate
Warham strongly objected to this course, as contrary to the
divine law, but his scruples were not regarded, and the necessary bull of dispensation was easily procured from pope
Julius II.
The following year (15103) Henry lost his queen, who died
in childbed in the Tower. As the dowager queen of Naples
had been left an immense property by her husband, he had
thoughts of seeking her hand; but when he learned that the
reigning king refused to let the devise be executed, he laid
his plan aside.
On the death of Isabel queen of Castile, her crown devolved
to her daughter Joanna, who was married to the archduke
Philip.  As the new king and queen were sailing from the
Netherlands to Spain, (1.506,) stress of weather drove them
into Weymouth.  As soon as Henry heard of their arrival he
sent to invite them to his court at Windsor, where he detained
them for three months: in which time he made Philip consent to a treaty of commerce more to the advantage of England than the former one, and offered to marry his sister the
dowager duchess of Savoy.:He also took advantage of the
captivity, as we may term it, of the archduke, to get into his
power a man of whom he had his apprehensions.  This was
Edmund de la Pole, younger brother of' the earl of Lincoln,
who was slain at Stoke.  On the death of his father, the duke
of Suffolk, Edmund claimed the title and property, but Henry
would only give him (and that?s a boon) the title of earl and
a small part of the property.  When he afterwards had the
misiortune to kill a man, the king granted him a pardon, but
commanded him to plead it openly in the court of' King's
Bench.  Suffolk's pride was wounded, and he retired to his
Henry was not given th! title of Prince of Wales for some month,
after Arthur's death.




HENRY  VII.                    313
aunt the duchess of Burrundy. Henry, however, induced niit
to return, and he was present at the marriage of prince Arthur; on which occasion the splendor of his equipages and
other expenses involved him deeply in debt. Soon after, he
raln away again, and the king then, suspecting a conspiracy,
directed sir Robert Curson, captain of the castle of Hammes,
near Calais, to pretend to desert to him, and if possible to
earn his secrets.  On the information sent by Curson, the
king arrested his own brother-in-law the earl of Devon, Suffolk's brother William, sir James Tyrrel, sir'William Windharn, and some others.  The two first, against whom  there
was no charge but their kindred to Suffolk, were detained in
prison  the two last were executed for having aided the king's
enemy,~ (1502.)  This crushed the conspiracy, if there was
one, and Suffolk was now living in penury in the archduke's
dominions.
One day Henry drew the archduke into a private room,
and( laying his hand on his arm, said, " Sir, you have been
saved upon my coast; I hope you will not suffer me to wreck
upon yours."  Philip asked what he meant.  "I mean it,"
said he, " by that same harebrain wild fellow, my subject, the
earl of Suffolk, who is protected in your country, and begins
to play the fool when all others are weary of it."  "'I had
thought, sir," replied Philip, " your felicity had been abonv
these thoughts, but if it trouble you I will banish him.
These hornets," said the king, " are best in their nes i,
and worst when they do fly abroad; my desire is to have h.m
delivered to me."  Philip mused and said, " That can I not
do with my honor, and less with yours; for you will be
thought to have used me as a prisoner."  " Then," cried
Henry, " the matter is at an end; fir I will take that dishonor
upon me, and so your honor is saved."  It was finally agreed
that Suffolk should be induced to surrender, the king pledging himself not to touch his life.  He came, therefore, and
was committed to the Tower, and Philip then departed.
The king's avarice naturally increased Nwith his years, and
_he scrupled at no means of extorting nmoney from his subjects.
lHis chief agents were two able but unprincipled lawyers,
Edmund Dudley and Richard Empson; the former a ma:n of
good family, the latter the son of a sieve-maker. These men,
(whon-im he made barons of the exchequer,) by reviving dor-.
mant claims of the crown, by taking advantage of various:
It was on this occasion that Tyrrel confessed the murder of the
two prino.s in the Tower.




820              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ancient and nearly obsolete statutes, which had created num.
berless offences punishable by fine, etc., and other modes,
and by encouraging a host of informers, drew large sums
into the royal coffers, and at the same time enriched
themselves enormously, while they shared with the king in
having the maledictions of all classes of the people.
If we may credit the following story, the king himself
equalled his agents in the art of taking advantage of the letter
of the law, without regard to good feeling or justice. He
was one time entertained by the earl of Oxford, a man who
had always been active and zealous in his cause.  As he was
departing fromn the castle, the earl's servants and retainers,
dressed in his liveries, stood drawn up in two rows to do the
monarch  honor.  "My lord," said the king, "I have heard
much of your hospitality, but it is greater than the speech.
These handsome gentlemen and yeomen that I see on each
side of me are surely your menial servants."  " That, may it
please your grace," replied the earl, " were not for mine ease;
they are most of them my retainers, come to do me service at
a time like this, and chiefly to see your grace." Henry gave
a start.  "By my faith, my lord," said he, " I thank you for
your good cheer, but I may not endure to have my laws
broken in my sight. My attorney must speak with you."
A n act had been passed against this practice in the beginning
of his reign, and the earl had to pay.a fine of 10,0001. for
having thus honored his king.
Henry had been for some time subject to the gout; every
year the attacks became more severe, and he was finally
carried off by one of them, (April 22, 1509,) in the fifty-third
year of his age. On his death-bed he desired his son to put
the earl of Suffolk to death; he also, it is said, charged him
not to marry his brother's widow. Hle forgave all offences
against the crown except murder and felony, and directed
that reparation should be made to all who had suffered by the
injustice of his ministers.  His remains were deposited in the
splendid chapel founded by himself at Westminster Abbey,
which still remains, a noble monument of the king's munificence, and of the taste and skill of our forefathers in the art
of architecture.
Henry VII. was personally brave, but he was a lover of
peace. He was sagacious and circumspect, could conceal
his own designs and fathom those of others. He was by
nature distrustful; he appears to have been nearly incapable
of friendship or any strong attachment.  His clemency to
rebels on various occasions shows him not to have been of




HENRY vTIi.                   321
a cruel or sanguinary temper; while his murder of the earl of
Warwick proves that he could even shed innocent blood out
of policy. But the great blemish of his character was ava
rice; this low and grovelling passion tinged all his acts, led
him to commit numerous deeds of oppression, and caused
hirn to leave the world laden with the maledictions of his
people.  From the charge of studied neglect of his queen
we think he has been cleared; he seetns to have treated her
with as much affection as it was in his nature to show to alny
woman, perhaps with as much as she deserved, when we consider her indecent haste to marry her uncle, the murderer of
her brothers.
The court of Star Chamber, which afterwards became
such an instrument of oppression, was invested by parliament
in this reign with authority for suppressing the dangerous
practice of maintenance, or giving of liveries.  Its members,
like those of the old Curia Regis, were the principal officers
of state, with a power of adding two to their number; their
powers were discretionary.
The New World was discovered while Henry VII. occupied the throne. He commissioned Sebastian Cabot, a Venetian who was settled at Bristol, to fit out vessels for discovery and conquest in the lands beyond the western ocean.
Cabot discovered (1497) the coast of North America, from
Labrador to the gulf of Florida.
CHAPTER II.
HENRY VIII.
1509-1526.
TiTsI new monarch was just eighteen years of age, hand.
some in person and popular in manners.  The claims of the
White and Red Roses were united in him, so that all chances
of a disputed title were removed.  The unpopularity of the
late king, through his avarice, made men look with joyful
anticipation to the reign of a young and gallant prince; and
he treasures amassed by that avarice enabled him to fulfil
hese expectations.
Acting under the advice of his grandmother, the venerable
00




322               HISTORY OF1 ENGLAND.
countess of Richmond, Henry retained all his father's faithfui
and experienced ministers.  His next care was to celebrate
his marriage with the princess Catherine, which the crafty,
interested policy of their fathers had hitherto held in suspense.  The ceremony was performed two months after his
accession, (June 24;) the joint coronation immediately succeeded, and for two years pleasure and amusement formed
the sole occupation of the court of England. The king,
who excelled in martial exercises, loved to display his address
and vigor before his consort, her ladies, the nobility, and the
foreign ambassadors; and he frequently fought at barriers,
and gained the prize in their presence.
On the very day of his accession, to gratify the people, he
had ordered Empsoii, Dudley, and their chief agents or promoters, as they were termed, to be arrested.  The latter were
pilloried, and then led on horseback through the city, with
their faces to the horses' tails, and finally imprisoned for different terms, thbf former were charged before the council
with having usurped the authority of the courts of law, kept
heirs out of their lands, etc.  Empson made an ingenious
and eloquent defence; and these charges not proving tenable,
and it being resolved not to let them  escape, an absurd one
of a design to secure the person of the young king on the
death of his father, and maike themselves masters of the government, was brought against them.  On this, which every
one must have known to be false, juries readily found themr
guilty.  They were respited, however, and might perhaps
have been suffered to linger out their lives in prison, but
that the king was so harassed with complaints against them
in his progress the following summer, (1510,) that lie signed
the warrant for their execution, and they suffered on Towerhill.
Our restricted limits will on this and on future occasions
prevent our entering into details on the affairs of the continent, in which England now began for the first time to take
a part.  A very slight sketch of them must therefore suffice
at present. The great scene of political contention at this
period was Italy, where the republics, with the exception of
Venice and Genoa, had, after their brilliant but unquiet
career, sunk under the despotism  of petty princes.  These
little potentates, by their marriages and alliances with the
transalpine royal houses, had caused them to have claims on
various parts of Italy; thus Charles VIII. of France, and Ferdinand of Aragon, had had a pretext for making the conquest
of Naples, from  which the latter afterwards expelled the.   _.  <..._. He. _~



HENRY VI1.                     3~
forlner; and Louis XII. of France had lately, in right of his
mother, made himself master of the duchy of Milan.  The
emperor of Germany had a claim of feudal superiority over
the different Italian states; while the valiant and turbulent,
yet perhaps patriotic pontiff, Julius II., sought only to ext&nd
the papal domilions, to hurnble the pride of the Venetians,
and then to drive the Ba2rbarians (as the Italians styled the
transalpine nations) out of Italy.  The League of Cambray,
(1508,S) in which the pope, the emperor and the kings of
France and Spain united against the Venetians, sufficed to
humble their haughty aristocracy before the pontiff; but it
gave occasion to hostilities between him  and the king of
France.  Ferdinand, and at his desire his son-in-law  of
Engl;nd, took the side of the pontiff, which party was also
after some hesitation embraced by the emperor M:aximilian.
Ferdinand, who never knew  a generous sentiment, and
thought only on his own interests, proposed to his son-in-law
a joint invasion of Guienne, to which Henry now  asserted
his right.  The Spanish monarch's real object, however as
will appear, was the acquisition of the little kingdom  of
Navarre, which was held in right of his wife by John d'Albret, lord of Bearn,.a vassal of the crown of France.  It was
agreed that Henry should send a force of six thousand five
hundred men, Ferdinand one of nine thousand; while a fleet.
to be fuirnished in equal proportions, should keep the sea.
Accordingly in the month of June (151.2) the marquess of
Dorset landed with the English army in Gluipuscoa; while a
fleet, under the lord admiral sir Edward Howard, cruised
tall the summer in the Bay of Biscay.  Dorset proposed
marching at once against Bayonne, but Ferdinand pretended
that it was not safe to leave Navarre in their rear.  A joint
embassy was then sent to the kling of Navarre to demand
his neutrality; to this he agreed, but Ferdinand, affecting to
distrust him, required the surrender of his fortresses; this was
refused.  The duke of Alva forthwith entered Navarre, and
laid siege to Pampelulna, its capital, which was speedily reduced.  The whole kingdom then submitted, and the king
was obliged to seek a. refuge in France.  The Spanish general
then called on Dorset tojoin in the invasion of Guienne; but
the latter was now grown mistrustful; his troops were suffering from  disease, a spirit of mutiny had spread among
them, and they demanded to be sent home; and though, at
the desire of the Spanish envoy Windsor herald was sent ou
with orders for them to remain, they obliged their leaders to
embark and they landeO. at Portsmouth inDecember.  Henry




*'3124          HISTORY OF FENGLAND.
was at first greatly displeased, but he was at length satisfied
with the explanations of the marquess.
While the army was lying thus inactive in Spain, sit
Edward Howard made frequent descents on the coast of'
Brittany. At length (Aug. 12) he fell in with the French
fleet of twenty sail, commanded by admiral Primauget
Sir Charles Brandon, without waiting for orders, bore down
on the admiral's ship, the Cordelier of Brest. As this last
was of great size, carrying a crew  of one thousand six
hundred men, her fire quickly disinasted the English vessel,
to whose aid sir Thomas Knyvett hastened with the Regent,
the largest ship in the English navy. The combat had lasted
more than an hour, when another vessel came to the aid of
Knyvett; Primauget then, to save the honor of his flag, set
fire to the Cordelier; the flames spread to the Regent, and
both were consumed, and all on board of them perished. The
rest of the French fleet escaped into Brest.  Sir Edward
Howard then made a vow never to see the fac.e of the king
till he had avenged the death of sir Thomas Knyvett.  A
still larger ship, named the Henry Grace Dieu, was built to
replace the Regent.  The following year (April 25) sir
Edward Howard, (whose maxim was that a seaman should
be brave even to madness, to be good for any thing,) while
blockading Brest, attempted, with two galleys and four boats,
to cut out a squadron of six galleys, moored in a bay between
rocks planted with cannon.  Followed by no more than
eighteen men, he leaped aboard the largest vessel; but his
own galley chancing to fall astern, he and his companions
were left alone, and the crew with their pikes pushed them
overboard, where they were drowned. The English fleet
retired, and the French in return insulted the coast of Sussex, till sir Thomas Howard, who succeeded his brother,
chased them into Brest.
The king had now assembled a gallant army of twentyfive thousand men for the invasion of France.  Two divisions
sailed under the earl of Shrewsbury and the lord Herbert;
Henry himself followed (June 30) with the third, leaving
the queen "rectrix and governor of the realm," and having
previously given orders for the execution of the earl of
Suffolk, who lay in the Tower.  We have seen that the late
king had enjoined him to rid himself of him if he would be
safe; and as Suffolk's brother had been so imprudent as to take
a command in the French army, and assume the title of the
White Rose, the wrath of the king may have been thus
excited against the unhappy prisoner. The envoys at foreign




HENRY Viii.                   3 25
courts were instructed to declare that a traitorous corre.
spondence between the brothers had been discovered.
The king loitered for some weeks at Calais, spending hisp
time in festiviiy, while his generals invested the city of
Terouenne.  At length (Aug. 4) he entered the camp, where
he was jointed by the emperor Maximilian with four thousand
horse; and this monarch, so high in dignity, to flatter the',
vanity of his young ally, styled himself his volunteer, wore
the red rose and St. George's cross, and accepted  one
hundred crowns a day as his pay.  The French king had,
on his part, advanced as far as Amiens for the relief of
Terouenne.  He mustered his cavalry, renowned in the
wars of Italy, at Blangi, (Aug. 16,) and it advanced in two
divisions on the opposite banks of the river Lis. Maximilian
led out. his German horse and the English mounted archers,
while Henry followed with the infantry.  A sudden panic
seized the French; they turned, though greatly superior in
numbers, and fled without striking a blow, leaving prisoners
in the hands of the enemy their commander the duke de
Longueville, Bussi d'Amboise, the chevalier Bayard, Clermont, La Fayette, and several other men of distinction. This
rout was named the battle of Guinegate; from the place, but
more usually that of Spurs, as the French made more use
of their spurs than of their swords.  Terouenne now surrendered, and the English army then advanced and laid
siege to Tournai, which opened its gates on the eighth day,
(Sept. 29;) and Henry, having devoted sorne days to festivity, returned to England for the winter.
Though the king of Scotland was Henry's brother-in-law,
he shared, to the misfortune of himself and kingdom, in
the war against him. The union between the two British          Ci
sovereigns had never been cordial: James had in vain de.
manded the jewels left by will to his queen by her late fa.
ther; to as little purpose had he required that the bastard
Heron of Ford should be tried for the murder of sir Robert
Ker, warden of the Scottish marches; and, with far less
justice, he insisted on satisfaction for the death of Andrew 
Barton. For having granted letters of reprisal against the
Portuguese to three, brothers of this name, they took not
merely Portuguese but English ships, under pretence of
their carrying Portuguese property.  On the repeated com.
plaints of his subjects, Henry pronounced the Bartons pirates,
and two of their ships were captured in the Downs; on
which occasion Andrew Barton received a wound of which
he died.  To James's demand of satisfaction, Henry scorn., i.        2               -l28




322?.          mHISTORY; OF "NGLAND.
);~!ly Replied, that the fate of a pirate was beneath the notice
of kings, and that the matter might be settled by commis- 
sioners on the borders.  When Henry joined in the league
against Louis, the latter sought earnestly to gain the Scottish
a king, to whom he sent many large sums of money; while
lhis queen, Anne of Brittany, named James her knight, and
sent him a ring fronm her own finger.  The English envoys,
on the other hand,- required him to remain neuter.  Much
d(iplomnatic finesse., seasoned with the usual proportion of
falsehood and insincerity, was employed on all:sides; but
when Jamnes found that the English had actually invaded
France, he summoned his vassals to meet him at Burrowmoor, and sent his fleet with a force of three thousand men
to the aid of Louis.  At the head of a numerous army the
king of Scotland then. crossed the Tweed, (Aug. 22,) near
its confluence with the T'ill, and turning northwards laid
siege to the castle of' Norharn, which held out for six days
against hii  it then surrendered, and its example was
followed by the castles of Wark, Etall, and Ford. The Scots
crossed the Till, and encamped (Sept. 6) on the hill of Flodden, the last of the Cheviot range, bordering on the dale of
the Tweed.
The earl of Surrey, to whom  Henry had committed the
Scottish war, was at Pontefract when James crossed the
Tweed; he had summoned the gentry of the north to meet
him at Newcastle, and when'they repaired to his standard
his forces amounted to twenty-six thousand men.  He then
advanced at their head (Sept. 7) to Wooler-haugh, within
tive miles of the enemy. When:he saw -their position, forified by nature on all sides but' one, and that defended by
tannon, he feared to attack, and. sending a herald to James,
iequired him to descend into the plain, and engage on equ al
terms.  The monarch refused.  Surrey then, by the advice
of his son, resolved to march toward Scotland, and then
return and take the army in the rear.  The English therefore crossed the T-ill, and marched till evening up its right
bank.  At sunrise next morning (Sept. 9) they crossed it by
the bridge of T'wissel, and going down the left bank approached the Scottish camp.  James, who now saw their
object, ordered his men to fire their huts and retire to the
hill of Brankston, more to the north. The smoke filled the
entire valley, and when it cleared iway the vanguard of the
English found themselves at the foot of the hill, on which
i  the Scots were posted in five solid masses.  They halted till.he rearguard came up, and. both then advanced in one




HENRY VIII.                  3'7
fine; the Scots meantime began to descend in good order
and in perfect silence.
The right wing of the English vanguard was assailed by
a body of' Scottish spearmen under the lord Home. It gave
way, and its leader lord Edmund Howard was unhorsed, and
lay on the ground expecting to be slain or taken, when the
bastard Heron came with a body of outlaws and restored the
battle; and the lord Dacre, with a reserve of fifteen hundred
men, took the Scots in the rear and put them to flight.  A
body of seven thousand Scots under the earls of Huntley,
Errol, and Crawford, was meantime hotly engaged with the
remai..ider of the English vanguard, till, after an obstinate and
bloody conflict, Errol and Crawford fell, and their men broke
and fled. The king in person, followed by a numerous
body of gallant warriors cased in armor, assailed the rear
guard, and bearing down all resistance had nearly reached
the royal standard, when sir Edward Stanley, who had defeated and chased over the hill the earls of Lennox and
Argyle, who were opposed to him, returned and took the
body led by the king in the rear. James was slain by an
unknown hand, within a spear's length of Surrey.  The
battle, which began after four in the evening, lasted but an}
hour. The approach of night and the want of cavalry caused
the pursuit not to exceed four miles. The loss of the Scots
was ten thousand men, Anong whom were their king, his
natural son the archbishop of St. Andrews, two bishops, two
abbots, twelve earls, thirteen barons, and fifty gentlemen of
distinction. The body of the Scottish king was conveyed to
London to be there interred.  To reward the victors, Surrey
was created duke of Norfolk; his son, lord Thomas, earl of
Surrey; Brandon lord Lisle, duke of Suffolk; lord Herbert,
earl of Somerset; and sir Edward Stanley, lord Mounteagle.
When the Scots had-recovered a little from the consternation caused by this calamitous defeat, they proceeded to regulate the affairs of the realm. The queen was allowed to retain the regency as guardian to her infant son James V.; but
when, shortly after the birth of her second son, of whom she
had been left pregnant, she gave her hand to the earl of Angus, a young nobleman who had little but his personal beauty
to recommend him, the regency was transferred to the duke
of Albany. A deputation was sent to France, where he resided, to invite him over; and though Henry obtained from
the French government a solemn promise that he should not
be permitted to depart, he made his way to Scotland (1515)
and assumed the royal authority.  When he learned that




328              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Henry was tampering with the queen to bring her children
to England, he besieged her in the castle of Stirling, and
forced her to surrender the two princes.
To return to continental affairs.  While Henry during the
winter was making every preparation for renewing the war
with vigor in the spring, Louis was no less strenuous in his
exertions to procure a general peace. The present pontiff,
Leo X., a lover of pleasure rather than of war, was easily
propitiated; the permission to retain Navarre rapidly infused
pacific notions into the mind of Ferdinand; and even Maximilian listened readily to a proposal for the marriage of a
daughter of Louis, with Milan for her portion, to his grandson Charles, though this prince was already engaged to the
princess Mary, sister of the king of England.  Louis lost nD
time in making Henry aware of this arrangement, which at
first he could hardly credit. When he could no longer doubt
of it he began to lend an ear to proposals for peace, and
Louis's queen happening to die at this time, he offered his
hand to Henry's sister Mary.  Though Louis was fifty-three
years old and the princess but sixteen, and her affections
moreover were engaged to the accomplished duke of Suffolk,
she was induced to give her consent.  The marriage was
celebrated by proxy at Greenwich and at Paris. The young
queen was then conducted to Abbeville by the duke of Norfolk, where Louis met her, and the ceremony was renewed
in the cathedral, (Oct. 9.)  Next day, to the grief and surprise of the bride, all her English attendants, except Norfolk's
niece Anne Boleyn, a child but seven years old, and two,
others, were ordered home. Louis then conducted her to
St. Denis, where she was crowned.  The amorous monarch
was enraptured with the charms of his youthful bride; but
his constitution had been enfeebled, the change in his habits
and mode of life was more than he could bear, and in less
than three months (Jan. 1, 1515) the bride became a widow.
Louis was succeeded by Francis count of Angouleme, the
next male heir. The new monarch was naturally anxious
that Mary should not espouse the archduke Charles. As
Suffolk was at the head cf the embassy sent by Henry to convey her back to England, Francis, who knew of his love,
urged him to seek her hand at once; and Mary herself gave
him a challenge which few men could refuse, by asking him
if he had now the courage to marry her at once, and fixing
the day by which he must resolve to marry her or lose her
forever.  Suffolk accepted the challenge; they were private.
ay married in the month of March; Francis communicatea




HENRY VII1.                    329
the affair to Henry, interceding for the lovers; and Mary
wrote taking the whole blame on herself: Henry was, or
affected to be, extremely angry, but at length he relented and
forgave them. Perhaps he was aware of the whole from the
very commencement, as Suffolk had written to the favorite,
Wolsey, in order to sound the king's disposition.*  Indeed,
from his fixing on Suffolk to convey his sister to England,
and from the whole progress of the affair, it is not unlikely
that Henry, who was far from being devoid of generosity,
may have secretly wished to promote the union of the lovers,
whom he ever after treated with the greatest affection.
It was about this time that the great power and influence
of Wolsey attained its height, and during fifteen years he
ruled the kingdom with a power nearly dictatorial. We will
therefore sketch his history and character.
Thomas Wolsey, the son, as was said, of a butcher at Ipswich, having received a learned education, entered the
church.  He became tutor in the family of the marquess of
Dorset, who, pleased with his talents, recommended him to
Henry VII., by whom he was made one of the royal chaplains.
The king employed him in a secret negotiation respecting
his marriage with Margaret of Savoy, and was so pleased with
his conduct in it, that he bestowed on him the deanery of Lincoln.t  Soon after the accession of Henry VIII., Wolsey was
made almoner, a situation which brought him in constant intercourse with the king; and the polish and gayety of the almoner's manners, and the readiness with which, though in orders,
and nearly forty years of age, he entered into the royal pleasures, — even, it is said, singing, dancing, and carousing with
the youthful courtiers, — quickly won him the heart of Hen.
ry, who was also aware of his talents for business and delighted with his skill in the theology of the schools. Preferments
rapidly flowed in upon him. On the taking of Tournai he
was made bishop of that see; he then became dean of York,
then bishop of Lincoln, and finally archbishop of York, within the one year, (1514.)  He was. now courted by foreign
princes, and even the pope, to secure his influence, sent him
a cardinal's hat, (1515;) and the same year, on the resigna.
* On a subsequent occasion Wolsey told Suffolk that if it had not
been for him he would have lost his head.
t Wolsey used such extraordinary despatch, and was so favored by
circumstances, that, quitting the king at Richmond at noon, he went
to Brussels, arranged all matters with the emperor, and was back at
Richmond by the ii ght of the third day. (Cavendish's Life of Wolsey,p. 10-.14.)
28*                               r P
I;,.




330-             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
tion'of archbishop Warham, the king conferred on him tha.
office of chancellor. The pontiff finally (1518) invested him.
with the dignity:of papal legate, and his ambitious mind now
aspired even to the: papacy itselfThe wealth of Wolsey was enormous.  Beside his arch..
bishopric, he:farmed the revenues of the sees of Hereford
and Worcester, which were held by foreigners; he held in'
commendam the abbey of St. Alban's and. the see of Bath,
which he; afterwards exchanged for that of Durham, and this
again -for the more wealthy see of Winchester.  His legatine
court and the chancery brought him in large emoluments,
and he had pensions from the pope, the emperor, and the
king of France. Bound to celibacy by his order, profuse and
vain by nature, he hoarded not his wealth; he lived in a
style of princely magnificencej and barons and knights were
among the officers of his household; palaces, abbeys, colleges,
rose or were enlarged from-his munificence; the learned men
of all countries tasted of his bounty. At the same time, in
his office of chancellor he was just and upright, and his improvements in the administration of iustice entitled him to
the gratitude of the people.
England was now in tranquillity both externally and internally.- The king of France had recovered the Milanese; and;
on the death of the emperor Maximilian, he and Henry, and;
the late emperor's grandson Charles, who had already succeeded his maternal grandsire, Ferdinand, in his dominion
over Spain, Naples, and the New World, became candidates
for the vacant dignity.  The contest in reality lay between'
Francis and'Charles, and the decision of the electors in favor
of the latter laid the foundation of a-lasting enmity between.
the two imonarchs.  Each was -solicitous to gain to his side
the king-of England and his powerful favorite.  Francis, in
reliance on his own address and powers of:persuasion, eagerly desired a personal interview; he therefore (1520) sum-;
moned -Henry to perform an article in the last treaty between
them, by;:which it was stipulated that they should'meet in!
person on the borders of their dominions..Henry, -acting under the- influence of the Spanish cabinet, sought to evade
compliance; but Francis was too adroit for him, and the
arrangement being committed by both monarchs to Wolsey,
he appointed an interview to take place on the last day of
May between Ardres and Guisnes, within the English territory; on which occasion a tournament should be held, in
which the kings of France and England, each with eighteen




aENRY  VIII                   33i
companions, should answer all opponents at tilt, tourney, and
barriers.
Henry and his court set out for Calais, (May 21.)  On
reaching  Canterbury, he learned that the emperor with a
squadron of ships had cast anchor at Hythe; for Charles, in
consequence (as he pretended) of most urgent affairs, being
on his way from Spain to the Netherlands, and hearing' as he
came up the-channlel that the English court was so near the
coast, could not,: he said, omit the opportunity of paying his
respects to his uncle and aunt.  He came to court and remained for four days, during which short time he completely
gained the affections of Henry, and he also secured the interest
of Wolsey by assurances of the papacy on the next vacancy.
On the very day of his departure (May 31) the king and court
of Fngland passed over to Calais.
A temporary palace of frame-work, which had been sent out
from England, had been erected near.the castle of Guisnes.
it contained a stately chapel and numerous apartments, whose
walls were hung with tapestry and the ceilings covered with
silk.  A similar edifice had been erected for Francis near
the town of Ardres.  When the two monarchs had arrived
at their respective pavilions, Wolsey visited Francis, and
an additional treaty for the marriage of the dauphin with
Henry's only child Mary was concluded, Francis binding the
crown of France to the payment of 100,000 crowns a year to
that of England in case of their issue being seated on the
English throne. When this arrangement had been made, the
two monarchs rode (June 7) to the vale of Andern, within the
territory of Guisnes; and while their attendants halted on the
opposite eminences, they rode down into the valley, met and
embraced, andl then walred arm in arm into a pavilion which
had been prepared for their reception, where they:held a
secret conference on the late treaty.  
Serious business being now at an. end, the martial exercises began. During six days the kings tilted with: spears
against all comers; the tourney with the broad-sword:on
horseback occupied two more, and on the concluding day
they fought on foot at barriers. The queens and their ladies looked on from their galleries and awarded the prizes;
and whether it were owing to their own superior skill and
prowess, or to the flattering courtesy of their opponents, the
monarchs were invariably the winners. The heralds duly
registered the names, arms, and feats of the knights.  The
French and English nobles, like their sovereigns, vied with
each other in the display of magnificence on the Field of the




332               HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Cloth of Gold, as the place of meeting was romantically
styled; and debts were incurred which the frugality of a
whole life proved in many cases unable to clear off:-'
Yet, amidst all the gayety and courtesy of the tournament,
mutual distrust still prevailed. The number of guards and
attendants on both sides was duly counted; when the kings
would visit the respective queens, each set forth at the signal
of the discharge of a culverin; they passed each other in
the middle spot, and when Henry entered the French, Francis
entered the English territory.  At length Francis, open and
generous by nature, grew disgusted with these precautions;
mounting his horse, he rode one morning with but three
attendants to Guisnes, and entering the chamber where HIenry
was abed, told him  he was his prisoner.  Henry rose and
embraced him, and Francis, saying he should have no valet
but himself, aided him to dress.  Next day Henry returned
the compliment, yet, still dubious of treachery, he always
disguised himself and his attendants on his ir.turn from
Ardres.  On the last day, (June 24,) when Francis was on
his return from taking leave of queen Catherine, he met
a body of niaslkers; Henry, who was one of them, discovered
himself, and flung a collar of pearls, worth 15,000 angels,
round the neck of Francis, who in return presented him
with a costly bracelet.  They then embraced, and bade
each other farewell.
So ended this memorable but useless interview.  Useless,
for Henry forthwith visited the emperor at Gravelines. and
any impression made by the more generous Francis was
quickly effaced by the arts of his young bhut calculating
rival, who made Wolsey mere than ever his own by renewed
assurances of the papacy, and by immediate possession of
the revenues of three Spanish bishoprics.  Charles, having
conducted his uncle back to Calais, and spent three days
with him there, returned to his own dominions.
The following year (1521) an event occurred in England
which cast the first stain on the hitherto sufficiently blameless administration of Henry. Thomas duke of Buckingham,
son of him who was put to death by Richard III., was one
of the wealthiest subjects in England; he was, moreover, of
the blood-royal, and held the great office of lord high constable. It is said that he incurred the enmity of Wolsey by
complaining of the great expense caused by the interview
"'Many,' says Bellay, "carried on their shoalders their mills
tht ir fbrests, and their meadows.




HENRY VIII.                  333
it Guisnes, and by laying the blame on the cardinal.  He
had certainly excited the king's suspicions and jealousy by
hiis imprudence.
Buckingham, possessed with the usual folly of desiring to
pry into futurity, had formed an intimacy with one Hopkins,
a Carthusian friar, who pretended to the gift of prophecy;
and the lucky guesses of this man on one or two occasions
had confirmed the duke in his belief in his skill. Hopkins
at times darkly intimated that Henry would leave no issue,
and that great things were portended for Buckingham's son.
What the effect of these hints'may have been on the mind
of the duke cannot be said positively, but he augmented
his household, and sir'William Bulimer, among others, quitted the king's to enter his service.  For this offence Bulmer
was brought before the star-chamber just before the king
went to France, and Henry on pardoning him  used very
enigmatic language respecting Buckingham.  Some time
after, the duke discharged a relation of his own named
Knevett, whom he had made his steward; and this man out
of revenge went to Wolsey and revealed all he knew, with
additions, as usual, of the projects of Buckingham.  The
duke was summoned (1521) to court, from  his seat in
Gloucestershire.  On his way he observed that he was closely
followed by three knights; at Winds:or he met with insult;
at York-place the cardinal refused to see him; and as he
proceeded down the river in his barge to Greenwich, he was
arrested and conveyed to the Tower.  He was soon after
arraigned for high treason before the duke of Norfolk, lord
high steward, and a jury of twenty-one peers.  Knevett,
Hopkins, and his confessor and chancellor, were examined
as witnesses against him. He defended himself with elo.
quence and spirit; all the charges made against him did not
amount to an overt act of treason, yet he was found guilty.
The duke of Norfolk with tears pronounced his sentence;
he replied with dignity, declaring his forgiveness of them
and his resolution not to sue for mercy. He suffered on
Tower-hill, (May 17,) amnidst the lamentations of the people,
who vented their rage on Wolsey, the supposed author of
his death, by crying out " The butcher's son!"
Meanwhile the war had been renewed between Charles
and Francis.  Both parties, however, accepted the mediation
of the king of England, and Wolsey being appointed arbitrator repaired to Calais to try to effect a peace  His commission, however, ended, as perhaps it was intended to do,
in a league between the pope, the emperor, and the king of




334              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
England, against France.  The princess Mary was engagedf
to the emperor, and the allies were simultaneously to invade
France the following spring.  The vacancy of the papal
throne, by the sudden death of Leo, (Dec. 1,) raised Wolsey's
hopes to their height; his own sovereign favored his aspirations; the emperor was bound to him  by promises and
obligations; he possessed in abundance that which was omnipotent at Rome - money; yet the duplicity of the emperor,
the jealousy of the French cardinals, or the arts ot the
cardinal Julio de' Medici, foiled his projects, and the choice
of the sacred college fell upon Adrian of Utrecht, the emperor's tutor.  As, however, the new pontiff was advanced in
years, Wolsey readily listened to the excuses and the renewed
promises of Charles, who on his way back to Spain landed
at Dover, (May 25,: 1522,) and passed five weeks at the
English court.
As the invasion of France had been arranged at this in
terview, the earl of Surrey passed over in the autumn to
Calais with twelve thousand men of paid troops and four
thousand volunteers, and being joined by one thousand Ger.
man and Spanish horse, made an inroad into the French
territory, (Aug. 31.)  He wasted and plundered the country
as far as Amiens; but as the French would as usual give no
opportunity of fighting, and a dysentery broke out among
his troops, he was obliged to lead them  back to Calais,
(Oct. 16.) The Scottish regent meantime, at the impulse
of Francis, as the truce was expired, assembled an army of
eighty thousand men for the invasion of England; but, deceived and terrified by the vaunts of lord Dacre, warden of
the west marches, who menaced him with an army which
actually did not exist, he disbanded his forces, glad to obtain
a month's respite from  war.  The following year (1523)
Surrey entered Scotland and burned the town of Jedburgh;
the regent assembled a force of sixty thousand men on the
Burrow-moor, and soon after formed the siege of Wark,
(Nov. 1.)  Surrey, whose forces had been increased fromi
nine to fifty thousand, advanced to give him battle, but the
Scottish army decamped at midnight and re-crossed the bor.
ders.  Albany soon after left Scotland, never to return; the
scandalous familiarity of queen Margaret with the son of
lord Evandale alienated her friends; her husband, the earl
of Angus, assumed the regency under the protection of
Henry, and for eighteen years tranquillity prevailed on the
borders.
Again was Wolsey doomed to meet with disappointmen




HENRY  VII.                    335
in his suit for the papacy.  On the death of Adrian (15'2)
HIenry called ont Charles to perfo)rm  his engagementts to thel
cardinal; the EEnglish minister at'Rolme was directed t,:
spare neither money nor promises;  some members of the
sacred college were gained. but the same causes operated
against him  as before, and by one of the manceuvres familiar to the conclave the election tell on Julio de' Medici, the
nephew of Leo X., who took the name of Clement VII. Woisey was at length fully convinced of the insincerity of the
emperor, for the papal throne was now occupied by a man
much younger than himself.  Dismissing, therefore, all his
dreams of ambition, he began to think of the true interests
of England; secret negotiations were entered into with
tbe king of France, and when the defeat at Pavia (1525)
had placed that monarch a. captive in the hands of the emperor, Henry hastened to conclude an alliance offensive and
defensive between the crowns of France and England.  rThe
lollowing year the match between the emperor and the princess of Wales was broken off, and a marriage between her
and Francis hinmself, or his son the duke of Orleans, was
proposed.  HIis domestic affairs, however, now  began to
occupy the attention of Henry, and as they were productive
of most important results, we must devote ourselves for sonme
tirne to them exclusively.
The character of Henry will now undergo an apparent
changte; the festive, jovial monarch will gradually display the
lineaments of the barbarous, capricious tyrant, and deeds
will be -perpetrated deserving of the severest censure of the
historian, and the reprobation of all good men.
CHAPTER  III.
HENRY VIII. (CONTINUED.).15 -27-1535.
EUROPE had now for centuries bowed beneath the system
of polytheistic idolatry taught by the papal hierarchy.  The
time was at length arrived when reason was to resume hei
rights, and forms of religion more in accordance with the
spirit of the Gospel were to be established.  The RefJrma.




336              HISTORY OF ENGL&ND.
tion marks one of the most important aras in the history of
mankind: as it speedily extended  to England, and there
produced its best fruits, we wvill here give a sketch of its
commencement, and a slight account of the early life of the
man who was the great agent in emancipating the humas
mind.
Among the mighty plans of pope Julius IH. was one for
erl3ting at Rome a magnificent temple in honor of the apostIe from  whom the popes pretend to derive their authority.
When Leo X., of the tasteful family of the Medici, ascended
the papal throne in the thirty-seventh year of his age, -his
ambition excited him to continue and complete this noble
edifice.  But his generosity and extravagance had nearly
drained the papal treasury, and, being perfectly ignorant of
and careless about religion, he without any scruple had recourse to the old practice of selling indulgences.  The arch.
bishop of Mentz was the person selected for managing the
holy traffic in Germany; and this prelate chose as his principal
agent a Dominican friar named Tetzel, who filled the office of
inquisitor, a man of scandalous life, ignorant, and matchlessly
impudent.  Tetzel, who had been already similarly employed,
selected suitable assistants from  among the brethren of his
own order; and soon, from press and pulpit, streamed forth
currents of declamation on the pains of purgatory and the
sovereign power of indulgences, for the remission of sins,
past, present, and to come, however deep might be their dye..The simple, good-hearted Germans gladly purchased the remission of their own sins, and those of their deceased kindred
now languishing in purgatory.  The per-centage allowed to
Tetzel and his brethren was therefore considerable, and the
tavern and the brothel vie are assured shared'largely in their
gains.  His ill-fortune at length led Tetzel to the neighborhood of the newly founded university of Wittemberg, in Saxony; and here Providence had prepared an overthrow not
merely for indulgences, but for the whole system  on which
the papacy had been erected.
The professor of theologv at this time at Wittemberg
was Dr. Martin Luther.  This extraordinary man was bcrn
it Eisleben, in the county of Mansfeld, in the year 1483.
His father, who was engaged in the mines of that country,
7ave him a good education, intending him for the study  of
~the civil law.  He had made some progress in this science
when an accident changed the whole current of his thoughts
and his future life.  As he was walking alone one day in the
fields, there came on a dreadful storm of lightning and thunr.




_HENRY VIIl.                  337
der; in his terror he flung himself on the ground, and made
a vow to enter a monastery if he escaped.  This vow  he
kept, notwithstanding the grief and entreaties of his parents,
and he became an Augustinian friar in the year 15905.  Two
years after he found, by chance, in the library of his convent
a Latin Bible, and thus to his surprise discovered that there
were more Scriptures than those portions contained in the
ordinary books of devotion.  About this time too, as he was
suffering under the distress of conscience incident to pious
minds, he was comforted by an aged brother of his order, who showed him, from the Creed and a sermon of St.
Bernard, that remission of sins was to be had by faith only.
He applied himself diligently to the Scriptures, and to the
writings of St. Augustine, and was soon regarded as the
most learned man of his order in Germany.  He was ordained in 1507, and Frederick the Wise, the elector of
Saxony, by the advice of Staupitz the vicar-general of
the Augustine order, made him  professor of philosophy at
Wittemberg.  Three years after, Luther visited Rome on
the affairs of his convent, and he returned with no very favorable impressions of the zeal and piety of the Italian clergy.
After his return, he applied himself diligently to the study
of the Scriptures, and in 1512, having taken his doctor's degree, he expounded the Psalms and the Epistle to the Romans.  He held the doctrines of election and of justification
by faith only, and he had begun to view the scholastic theology
with indifference or contempt, on which account he was even
then suspected of heresy.
While Luther was thus engaged in the search after and
coimmunication of truth, Tetzel came into his neighborhood.
Some of those who mlade their confessions to Luther acknowl.
edced sins of no common magnitude, for which they boldly
demanded absolution.  Luther refused, alleging that since~re
contrition and heavy penance must precede.  They produced
the indtilgences they had purchased from Tetzel.  HeJ bide
them beware how they trusted to such things, and still, refused
then absolution.  They complained to Tetzel, who prom
nounced Luther a heretic, against whom, in virtue of his
office of inquisitor, he was bound to proceed.  Luther then
set himself to examine the authority for this power of granting
indulgences, and finding that there was none, he began to
preach openly against them.*  The warfare between him
* The common story of Luther's opposition to Tetzel having arisen!om,, the disappointed avarice of the Augustinians, and their jealousy
vOL 1.     Q29 
iI~~-       _____                                 ___              -___
l ~ ~ ~   ~    ~    ~ ~ ~ -----   -                           --—:




33S               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and the papacy thus hegan, but its progress and its g]orious
results fall not within the limits of a history of England.
In this country the doctrines of Wiciliffe, in spite of the
efforts of tle clergy, an. i the terrors of the stake, had secretly
spread to a great exte.nt.  The books of the Saxon reformer,
whose tenets were so nearly akin to his, were speedily transd
lated, and were eacerly purchased.  The bishops, however,
exerted themselves to -uppress the reformed practices and
opinions.  They actec on the slightest suspicions, and it
sufficed to bring a man to the stake that he should have taught
his children the Creed, Lord's-prayer and Commandments in
the vulgar tongue.  To damp the spirit of the reformers still
more, the king himself came forward as the literary champion
of the chulrch.  His course of studies had lain much among
the schoolmen; and the writings of that extraordinary genius
qThomas Aquinas, named the Angelic Doctor, were his chief
favorites.  As Luther, in his "Babylonish Captivity," had vi.
olently assailed these works, which formed the great armory
of the Romish party, the choler of the royal theologian was excited, and he resolved to enter the lists with the Saxon friar
With the aid of his bishops and of the learned sir Thomas
More he produced (1521) a " Defence of the Seven Sacra|  ments," respectable both in matter and style.  It was dedicated to the pope, by whom it was received with gratitude, and
the title of Defender of the Faith was bestowed on its royal
author.  Luther, however, treated it with little respect; and
as Henry, after the usage of the time, had given him  hard
names, he repaid the compliment in kind and with interest.
l1He afterwards, however, wrote an ample apology; but, with un~.
courtierlike simplicity, excused himself on the ground of his
having been assured, that the work was not. the king's own,
but that it was the production of the cardinal of York, "that
object of hatred to both God and man —-that pest of the
English realm."  It may easily be supposed that an apology
like this tended little to mollify the sceptred controversialist,
of whose zealous cooperation the pope and clergy now felt
quite assured.  Yet a deadly enmity and a final separation
were to take place between the papacy and its champion; the
occasion was as follows..i I        Though Henry VII., in his anxiety to retain the Spanish
portion and Spanish alliance, had disregarded the scruples of
at the sale of indulgences being given to the Dominicans, is utterly
Xi: f     devoid of' foundation. Yet D' Lingard cannot refrain from insinus
ting it.!I




Warham,   and had obtained the papal dispensation, he was
not at ease in his mindtI about the matter; and he obliged the
prince, when Ihe atained the age of fourteen years, to make
a formal protest against the consummation of the marriage,
and, when dying, conjured him to break it off.  Catherine,
however, had won the affections of young H-enry, and of the
people, by her amiable temper and her blameless manners,
and he espoused her with general approbation.  She bore
him three sons and two daughters, but they all died in infincy, except the lady Mary, born in 1515.  The queen now fell
into ill health; her temper, naturally melancholy, became
peevish, and though she retained the king's esteem, she lost
her hold on his affections.  Nature  in fact had destined
Catherine for the convent rather than the court;':~ and, though
Henry had not been strictly faithful to the marriage-bed,t his
attachment to her for so many years is not undeserving of
praise.
Henry, who ardently longed for male isque, now gave up
all hopes, and he therefore caused his daughter Mary to be
proclaimed princess of Wales, (15S1.)  Tbie early deaths of
his offspring, who had but blossomed to die, probably led him
to reflect on the nature of his marriage; he consulted the
pages of the Angelic Doctor,  and there found:that the pope
has not the power to dispense with the laws of Go.d; among
which is to be reckoned, as moral and eternal, that in the
law of Moses prohibiting mlarriagre with,, brother's widow;
an(l the very curse (that of childlessuess) there denounced
seemed to have fallen on him.  It is not known when these
scruples first began to affect him, but according to his own
assertion t he ceased in 1524 to cohabit with the queen
In  15 27, when a marriage was agreed on between the
princess Mary and the king of France or his son, the bishop
of Tarbes, the French amtbassador, expressed some doubts as
to her legitimacy.  The king then mentioned his scruples to
his confessor Longland, bishop of Lincoln.  It is asserted by
many writers, and it is perhaps the truth, that Wolsey, who
* See in Sanders (De Scism. Anglic p. 5) the account of her devotional exercises. Few, we fancy, would covet so,vry devout a wife.
Ht  e had a natural son by Mary Blount, whom he created duke of
Richmlond. That he violated, and then retained as his mistress, Mary
the elder sister of Anne Boleyn, rests on the very dubious authority of
cardinal Pole, ann is very improbable.
+. He so said to Grineus; as the latter tells Bucer in his letter of
September 10. 1531. See Burnet, i. 59. This may have been on ae
count of the queen's infirmities, though Henry said otherwise, for ht
was not a man of strict veracity.




340              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
hated the queen because she rebuked him for his ill life, anti
ardently longed for revenge on the emperor for his conduct
about the papacy, was at the bottom of the whole proceeding;
that he first instilled doubts into the king's mind, and then
engaged the bishop of Tarbes to raise objections.  Whether
he were the original author of the scruples or not, the cardinal entered warmly into the project of procuring a divorce,
and thus avenging himself on the queen and the emperor;
at the same time he planned a French connection for his royal master.  The person on whom he fixed was Renee, daught,:r to the late king Louis XII., and he went over himself to
France in the summer of this year on that project.  But
while Wolsey was thus pursuing his schemes of ambition and
revenge, a person of whom he little dreamed had acquired an
invincible power over the heart of the king.
When the young widow of Louis XII. returned home
from France, the daughter of sir Thomas Boleyn remained
behind.  She was taken into the service of the queen of
Francis I., and on her death in 1524 she passed to that of
the duchess of Alencon, the king's sister, a favorer of the new
religious opinions. She returned, however, to England in the
beginning of the year 1527,*$ and became one of the maids
of honor to the queen.  Anne Boleyn, now in her twentieth
year, was beautiful in person, accomplished in manners, sensible, witty, and animated in conversation.  She soon became
the object of general admiration, and lord Henry Percy, the
heir of Northumberland, who was then in the family of the
cardinal, paid his addresses to her.  His suit was favorably
received; but the Iking had also felt the charms of the fair
maid of honor, and the cardinal was directed to prevent the
match.  He accordingly reminded Percy of the inferiority of
An r.e's family; but the lover, looking to her mother's side
alone,t asserted that her lineage was equal to his own, and
refused to give her uip.  The cardinal grew angry, and said
he would send for his father out of the north, who would
soon make him break it off; and when the old earl arrived,
he used such arguments as convinced his son of the inutility
of opposition, and he obliged him to espouse the lady Mary
Talbot, daughter of the earl of Shrewsbury. Anne was removed for some tine from court,t but her exile was not of
*" "There is not," says Turner, "the least evidence that she canme
oi it earlier.'
i  Her mother was sister to the duke of Norfolk.
t "Whereat she smoked, (fumed,) for all this while she klnew
nothing of the king's intended purpose." (Cavendish, Life of Wol.
sey, p. 67.)




HENRY VIIl                   341
long continuance, and very soon after the king revealed his
passion to her.  She fell on her knees, and said that he must
be speaking only in jest and to prove her, and she concluded
with these words: " Most noble king, I will rather lose my
life than my virtue, which shall be the greatest and the best
part of the dowry that I shall bring my husband."  Henry
replied that he would still hope.  "I understand not, most
mighty king," said Anne, "how you should retain any such
hope; your wife I cannot be, both in respect of my own unworthiness, and also because you have a queen already, and
your strumpet I will not be."' Erelong, however, she yielded
so far, that she agreed to accept Henry's hand in case of his
obtaining a divorce.  Such conduct was indelicate, according
to our present notions; her own times do not seem to have
regarded it in that light.
Henry was now  resolved on obtaining a divorce from
the court of Rome.  This he judged would be a matter of
little difficulty, as divorces had been granted in much less
dubious cases; and, moreover, the pope had a good excuse,
the bull of Julius II. having been obtained under false
pretences. By orders from the king, archbishop Warham
assembled the bishops, and they all, except Fisher of Rochester, signed an instrutnent, expressing their doubts of
the validity of the king's marriage.  Dr. Knight, one of the
royal secretaries, was then despatched to Rome, (July, 1527.)
But the pontiff, Clement VII., was at this time shut up in
the castle of St. Angelo, a captive to the troops of the em.
peror, w'ho had lately taken and sacked the city of Rome.
Knight found great difficulty in communicating with him,
and Clement, a timid, vacillating man, trembled at the idea
of offending the emperor.  Henry meantime exerted him.
self for the pontiff's release; and when Clement at length
made his escape to Orvieto, Knight had a personal interview with him, in which he was profuse in terms of gratitude to Henry, but implored for delay lest he should be
ruined by the incensed emperor.  He gave it, however, as
his private opinion, to Cassali, one of the English agents,
that the best course for Henry would be to marry another
wife, and then to sue for a divorce.  The king, however,
and his advisers saw too much difficulty in this course, and
it was resolved to send Stephen Gardiner, Wolsey's secretary, and Edward Fox, the king's almoner, to Italy.  On
their way (1528) they obtained, as directed, a promise'rom
" Turner, from the Sloane MS. No. 2495
29 "
____________________




83s42            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the king of France to use his. influence wity  he -pope
They found Clement still at Orvieto, (March 2C ) he shuf.
fled, as usual, but on hearing that the French arims had had
some success in Naples, he took courage, and issued a conmmission to the cardinals Wolsey and Campeggio to try the
cause in England.  Nothing could be more pleasing to
Henry than. this, for he reckoned that: both would equally
stand his friends, as he had given to Campeggio when he
was in England (1,524) the wealthy see of Salisbury.. Campeggio, acting in concert as we may suppose with the pope,
made all the difficulty and delay possible, pleading his lega.
fine commission at Rome, and the gout, with which he was
afflicted. Wolsey wrote, urging his departure in the strongest
terms, and at length Campeggio set out. He travelled, however, leisurely, and did not reach England. till October. He
was received by Henry with the utmost respect, but his
instructions were to procrastinate.  He advised the king to
live with the. queen: he counselled the queen, to retire into a
nunnery.  But Henry wanted to marry Anne Boleyn, and
Catherine had too much; spirit to: surrender her rights.
All hopes of accommodationubeing at an end, and all his
subterfuges being exhausted, Campeggio was obliged to
consent to the opening of the legatine court.  It sat, (May
3-1, 1529:,) in a hall of the con-vent of the Black Friars.  The
royal pair took up their abode in the adjoining palace of
Bridewell, to be at hand.  After going through the prelimInary forms, the legates cited' the king and queen to appear
on the 18th of June.  On. that day Henry appeared by his
proctors, the queen in person.  She protested against the
competency of the court as the cause had been evoked to
Rome by the pope. This her nephew was exerting himself
to effect, and with the delay of a few days she pledged herself to prove that it had been done. The court was then
adj )urned to the 21st, when both parties appeared in person.
On their names being called, the king answered,' Here;"
but the queen rose up, and going over knelt down before
the king, and- said, " she was a poor womran. aind a stranger
in his dominions; she had- been his wife for twenty years
and more, and, had borne him  several children, and ever
studied. to please him; he had found her a true maid, as his
own conscience could witness.  If- she had done any th ng
amiss she was willing to. be plut away with shame. Their
parents were esteemed very wise. princes, and no doubt had
good and learned counsellors when the match was agreed
on. She would not therefore s-ubmint to the court, as her




HENRY VIII.                    34a
IAwyers durst not speak freely for her; she therefore desired
to be-excused till she heard from  Spain."  She tlhn rose
and left the court, and would never again appear.  The
king publicly bore testimony to her virtues, and declared
that nothing but the uneasiness of his conscience, and the
doubts cast by. foreign powers on the legitimacy of his
daughter, could have induced him to take a step which thus
wounded her feelings.  At the desire of Wolsey he further
declared- that, instead of urging him to this course, as was
reported, the cardinal had at first opposed his scruples.
The court sat again on the 25th; the queen, not appearirng when summoned, was pronounced contumacious, and the
legates proceeded on this and other days to hear the evidence on the king's part.  The proofs given of Arthur's,
consummation of his marri'age were such as can leave, we
apprehend, little doubt on any reasonable mind,  and the
king was in full expectation of a sentence in his favor,twhen Campeggio (July 23) suddenly adjourned the court
to the 1st of October, alleging that the vacation of the consistory at Rome, of which this court he said was a part, had
commenced, and would last till that day.  The dukes of
Norfolk and Suffolk, and other peers who were present,
were greatly enraged at this artifice, and Suffolk, striking
the table, cried, " By the mass, I see that the old saw is tlue;
never was there legate or cardinal that did any good in
England."  Wolsey rebuked him with firmness for his conduct, and reminded him  of the obligation which he had
once been under to a cardinal.  The court then broke up.
The king, who was in an adjoining room, took the matter
with wonderful patience, expecting a favorable sentence in
October; but his hopes were crushed when, on the 4th of
August, a messenger arrived with citations for him  and the
queen to appear in person or by proxy at Rome.  The erna
peror had by this time, by his threats and promises, comnpletely gained over the pontiff, from whose thoughts nothing
now was further than any idea of gratifying Henry.
To Wolsey nothing could be more calamitous than the' A:ummary of the depositions will be found in Herbert. See also
the discourse between Wolsey and the queen's almoner, in the Illustrative Documents in Singer's edition of Cavendish's Life of Wolsey.
With all our respect for the piety and virtue of Catherine, we find itimpossible to credit her assertion to the contrary.
f For Campeiggio had brought over and shown him a bull for the divorce, in case the consunimation of the former marriage should be
proved.




344              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
turn things had taken. The queen and her friends lookeds
on him as the source and origin of all the evil; Norfolk,
Suffolk, and the other lay lords had long been envious and
jealous of him, and they now took occasion to instil doubts
and suspicions of him into the mind of the king and Anne
Boleyn, with which last he had been on terms of great corintentions with respect to her, he threw himself on his knees
and earnestly endeavored to turn him from them, when he
found him unalterable he entered in appearance cordially
into his views. It is, however, likely that Anne was informed by her lover of his efforts to prevent her elevation,
and this may have disposed her to join with the cardinal's
enemies. It was therefore probably owing to her influence,
that when. about the end of September, Wolsey accompanied Carilpeggio to Grafton, in Northamptonshire, (where
the king then was staying,) on his audience of leave previous to his return to Italy, though he was received with
tolerable civility, there was an absence of Henry's former
kindness. This was his last interview with the king.
An actor destined to be of great importance now makes
his first appearance on the scene.  As the king was returning to London he stopped for a few days at Walthamn to
take the pleasure of the chase. Fox and Gaidiner, who
were in his train, were there entertained by a gentleman
named Cressy.  Here they met an old college acquaintance,
Dr. Thomas Cranmer, a lecturer in theology at Cambridge,
and well versed in the Scriptures, the Fathers, and the religious controversies at this time prevalent. At supper the
king's case, the common topic of conversation, was introduced.  Cranmer said he thought the opinions of universities anld eminent divines and canonists should be taken, and
the matter be thus decided.  Fox and Gardiner were pleased
with the idea, and when next day the court returned to
Greenwich, and the king began to ask them what was now
to be done, Fox mentioned this plan, honestly naming the
author, for which Gardiner afterwards reproved him, as
they might, he said, have taken the credit of it to themselves. The king was struck with it, and asked if Cranmer
was still at Waltham.  They said they had left him there.
"Marry, then," said he, "I will surely speak to him. Let
hinm be sent for out of hand.  I perceive that thwls man hath
the sow by the righ ear.  If T had but known this device
two years ago, it had been in rmy way a great piece of money,
snd had also rid me of much disquietness.'  Cranmer, who




HENRY VIII.                  345
had returned to Cambridge, was brought up to London.
The king was greatly pleased with his modesty and his
learning; he opened his mind to him, and desired him to
put his sentiments on the case in writing, for which purpose
he directed the lord Rochfort, Anne Boleyn's father,* to
take him home to his house and furnish him with books and
every thing else he required.
The fall of Wolsey was now at hand. At the opening of
the Michaelmas term he proceeded to the court of chancery with his usual pomp and state. Three days after he
was waited on by the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, ivith an
order to resign the great seal and retire to Esher, in Surrey,
where was a house belonging to his see of Winchester.  He
refused, alleging that he held the seals by patent; a warm
altercation ensued; the two dukes, finding him inflexible,
rode to Windsor, and next day returned with a letter from
the king, at the sight of which Wolsey submitted. The
seal was offered to archbishop Warham, but he declined it
on account of his advanced age; the king then gave it to sir
Thomas More. Wolsey, having caused an inventory to be
made of his immense quantity of plate, linen, hangings, furniture, etc., at York Place, (afterwards named Whitehall,)
the whole of which the king required him to give up, entered his barge to proceed toward his destination.  The
river was covered with boats, full of people expecting to
see him taken to the Tower, but to their disappointment his
barge went up the stream. At Putney he landed, and
mounted his mule to go on to Esher. He was not quite
clear of the village when he was met by Norris, groom of
the stole, bearing him a ring and a kind message from the
king. Abject in adversity as he had been insolent and
haughty in prosperity,* he threw himself from his mule,
took off his cap, and knelt in the mire to receive the communication.  He then proceeded in better spirits to his
place of exile.
The king now summoned a parliament for the first time
for seven years. The house of lords forthwith voted a tong
and vague charge, in forty-four articles, against the failen
favorite; but when- it was sent down to the commons,
Thomas Cromwell, a servant of the cardinal, who had proHe had been created viscount Rochfort in 1525, and lie was raised
to the dignity of earl of Wiltshire in this or the following year.
Ht ow different from the noble-minded Becket! The times, how
ever, were altered.
RR




346             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
cured a seat in parliament for the express - tirpose, defendea
his patron with such fidelity and spirit as stopped the
bill in that house, and laid the foundation of his own future
favor with the king, who knew how to value worth and
honesty.  Wolsey was also indicted on the statute of provisions for having exercised his legatine authority. Though
he had obtained the royal license for that purpose, he did
not venture to plead it, and a sentence of prcemunire was
passed on him. The king, however, who, it would appear,
only wished to humble him, hearing that he had fallen sick,
directed his own physician to attend him; he also sent him
another ring, accompanied by kind messages from  himself
and Anne Boleyn.  He further (Feb. 12, 1530) granted
him a full pardon; allowed him to retain the see of York,
with a pension of 4000 marks a year out of that of Winchester; he made him a present of plate and furniture to
the value of 60001., and gave him permission to remove to
Richmond. But his enemies would not allow him to remain so near the court, and he received orders to go and
reside in his diocese.  He alleged his poverty; money was
then sent him, and in Passion-week he set forth for the
north in melancholy mood. His train consisted of one
hundred and sixty servants, and seventy-two carts laden
with provisions and furniture.  He stopped till midsummer
at Southwell, a house belonging to his see, and then moved
to Scroby, another of his houses further north, and finally,
about the end of September, fixed himself at Cawood, a
village within a few m:iles of York.  At these places he
endeared himself to all classes of the people by his affability, his charity, and his strict discharge of his religious
duties.  The ceremony of his installation in the cathedral
was fixed for Monday, the 1st of November, but on the
preceding Friday his former servant Henry Percy, now
earl of Northumberland, arrived, and arrested him  on a
charge of high treason.  As he was departing, the peasantry
assembled, crying, " God save your grace! God save your
grace! The foul fiend take them that have thus hurried you
from us! We pray God that every vengeance may light
upon them!"  He staid for a fortnight with the earl of
Shrewsbury at Sheffield Park.  Here he was seized with a
dysentery; but he resumed his journey and got as far as
Leicester, when the abbot of the convent of that place came
forth with his monks to receive him. F- ather abbot," said
the dying cardinal, "I am come to leave my bones among
you." He was then conveyed to a chamber, which he never




HENRY VIII.                   347
eft. When he found himself dying, he addressed sir Wiib
liami Kingston, the lieutenant of the Tower, who had him in
charge, praying him to recommend him to the king.  " He
is," said he, "a prince of a most royal carriage and bath a
princely heart; and, rather than he will miss or want any
part of his will, he will endanger the one half of his kingdom.  I do assure you that I have often kneeled before him,
sormetirnes three hours together, to persuade him from his
will and appetite, but could not prevail.  Had I but served
God as diligently as I have served the king, He would not
have given me over in my gray hairs.  But this is the just
reward that I must receive for my indulgent pains and study,
not regarding my service to God, but only to my prince."
Shortly after uttering these words he breathed his last,
(Nov. 28.)
On the fall of the cardinal, the duke of Norfolk, Anne's
uncle, became the leading person in the cabinet; Gardiner
was made secretary, and sir Thomas More chancellor.  As
the pope and emperor were to meet at Bologna for the coronation of the latter, an embassy headed by Anne's father
(lately created earl of Wiltshire) was sent thither to attend
to Henry's interests: Cranmer and other divines" accoinpanied them.  Charles, on their introduction to him, said to
the earl, " Stop, sir; allow your colleagues to speak; you
are a party in the cause."  The earl replied with spirit that
he was there not as a father but as his prince's minister, and
that the emperor's opposition should not prevent his sovereign from demanding and obtaining justice. From the pope,
however, no satisfaction could be obtained.  Henry finally
resolved to put Crianmer's: pan into execution, and measures
were adopted for collecting the opinions of universities,
theologians, and canonists.
The king first applied to his own universities: of Oxford
and Cambridge, and, not without great difficulty and able
management on the part of Fox and Gardiner, obtained
from them an opinion that his marriage was unlawful; but
they would say nothing respecting the power of the pope
to dispense.  The truth is, they feared the progress of the
new opinions, and wished not to weaken the papal authority.
Agents were also employed on the continent to procure
the- opinions of the universities and of eminent divines and
"' "Among whom was Thomas Cranner, a clergyman attached ta
the Boleyn family," says Lingard. The )bject of this first notice of
Cranmer is evident.




348              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
civilians, and the result was highly favorable to th!e views
of Henry.  Not only the French unliversities (which might
be suspected to be under the influence of their king) but
those.of Italy, even Bologna, which was in the dominionls
of the pipe, included, decided in favor of the divorce; the
principal divines and canonists did the same, though Henry's
agents, it is said, gave no money but the usual fees to the
canon lawyers, while the emperor showered preferments on
those who gave sentence against it.* The Jews when consuited declared the prohibition in Leviticus to be universally
binding, while the case of exception in Deuteronomy was
restricted to Judaea.  Zuinglius and the Swiss reformers
Pronounced the marriage unlawful: the German reformers
in general took the most rational and moderate view of the
case; they said that the marriage should not have taken
place originally, but that since it had been contracted it
should not now be dissolved. It may, therefore, be said that
the general opinion of Europe was, that marriage with a
brother's widow was against the law of God.
The whole question in effect comes to this: Was the law
in Leviticus of universal obligation, or merely peculiar to
the Hebrew  nation; was the exception in Deuteronomy
coextensive with the former prohibition; had the pope the
power of dispensing with the divine law? At the present
day the answer would be simple: it is now generally agreed
that both the prohibition and the exception were for the
Israelites alone, though the former has very properly been
adopted in the codes of Christian nations; we should therefore say with the German reformers, that a man in Henry's
case would not be justified in putting away his wife.  But
in Henry's time men had not generally arrived at this rational mode of viewing the Mosaic law.  The prevalent
opinion undoubtedly was, that such a marriage was incestuous, and should be dissolved. At all events, had Catherine
not been aunt to the emperor, the holy father, who had always been so ready to oblige his royal children in these
matters, would have granted Henry a divorce without hesi.
tation.t
A memorial, signed by Warham  and Wolsey, and by four
The natural, we might say inevitable, supposition is, that bribery
was employed on both sides; but the emperor and pope had certainly
the means of giving much higher rewards than Henry.
t Only a few years before, Louis XII. of France had been divwrced
in order to enable him to marry Anne of Bretagne. In our ow.  day
we have seen a similar favor conferred on Napoleon.




HENRY VIII.                  349
bishops, twenty-two abbots, and several of the temporal no.
bility, was now transmitted to Rome, praying his holiness to
attend to the opinions of so many eminent men, and to
decide the question; but hinting that if he did not, it would
be decided in England without him.  Clement was in the
utmost perplexity; he feared lest England might follow the
example of the north of Germany, and cast off her allegiance
to the holy see; at the same time he stood in awe of the
emperor, who steadfastly maintained the cause of his aunt,
and would only consent to Henry's espousing Anne by what
is termed a left-handed marriage, thus reserving all their
rights to Catherine and her daughter.  But Henry spurned
at this when it was hinted to him; he would be regularly
divorced, and would have no compromise.
Thomas Cromwell, who had so honorably distinguished himself by fidelity to his patron Wolsey in his fall, was now in the
service of the king.  He was of humble origin, being the son
of a fuller or a blackstnith at Putney.  He served as a private
soldier in Italy, and was then for somle time in a mercantile
house at Venice. On his return to England he commenced
the study of the law, and Wolsey, who knew so well how to
appreciate talent, having had occasion to notice his abilities;
took him into his service.  In a conversation one day with
Reginald Pole, Cromwell spoke slightingly of the notions of
vice and virtue held by men who dwelt in academic shades
away from the world, and said that the business of the man
who would rise was to divine if possible the real thoughts and
wishes of his prince, and gratify them in such a manner as
to save all appearances.  He also praised Machiavel, and
offered to lend him that writer's Prince.  Pole, who was
really an upright, virtuous man, and who cordially detested
the principles that work appeared.to inculcate, and which
he inferred were those on which Cromnwell acted, instantly
conceived the worst opinion possible of him; and that
cpinion has been of course propagated by all the writers of
his communion, while Protestants are, perhaps, too anxious
to justify the conduct of so important an agent in the Reform ation.  Cromwell was in fact an ambitious man, and little
scrupulous about means, provided he: could gratify the wishes
of his royal master.
Cromwell, who had been appointed by Wolsey to manage
the revenues of the monasteries which that prelate had dissolved with the papal approbation, had imbibed no very high
notions of the rights and authority of the holy see.  He now
boldly advised Henry to take to himself the supremacy over
VOL. I.     30




350             HIlSTORY OF ENGLAND.
the church and clergy of England.  Henry listened with
approbation.  As Wolsey had not pleaded the royal permission for exercising his legatine authority, the whole, of
the clergy were liable to the penalty of a prcemunire for
having submitted to it, and proceedings accordingly were
instituted against them. Flagrantly unjust as this proceeding was, they sax4 no remedy but that of purchasing indemnity; and when the convocation met (1531) they voted the
king 100,0001., under the name of a benevolence for his services in writing against Luther and protecting the church.
But this peace-offering did not suffice, and after some  p-l
position, they were obliged to acknowledge him as " supreme
head of the church of England, as far as the law of Chrisd
allowed."  A formal indemnity was then granted to them
The connection between the papacy and the English clergy
was thus nearly dissolved; and in the parliament of the
following year (1532) a further blow was given to the influence of the court of Rome, by a bill reducing the first fruits
to be paid by bishops to five per cent. on the net income
of the see, and adding that, if the bull of consecration was
withheld on account of them, the bishop-elect should be
consecrated by a mandate from the crown, and al interdicts
and other censures be disregarded.  Other measures against
the papacy were proposed, but the appearance of the plague
caused a prorogation.  At this time sir Thomas More, who
was sincerely devoted to the church, seeing whither the king
and parliament were tending, desired, and with some difficulty obtained, permission to resign the great seal.  It was
lthen given to sir Thomas Audeley.
But while the clergy were thus made to infiinge on the
claims of the head of the church, they were left full power to
persecute those who rejected the real presence and derived
their religion from the Scriptures.  At this time Thomas
Bilney, a fellow of Trinity-hall, Cambridge, was burnt as a
heretic at Norwich; and Richard Bayfield, a Benedictine
monk, James Bainham, of the Middle Temple, and a tradesman named Tewksbury, underwent the same fate in Smith
feld.
For a person of his temper, and in love with one whose
virtue was invincible, Henry had shown marvellous patience.
Btlt that patience was now nearly exhausted.  Hitherto he
nad treated Catherine with all due respect as his queen; but
when she could not be induced to withdraw her appeal to
Ron.c, it ivas signified to her, (July 14, 1531,) that she mus,
leave Windsor, where the court then was, and retire to one




HENRY VIII.                   351
of three abodes which were specified.  She replied,' that to
whatever place s'le might remove, nothing could remove her
from being the king's lawful wife."  She went from one
place to another, and finally fixed at Ampthill in Bedford&
shire.  The pope wrote to expostulate with Henry for thus
putting away his queen; but he received rather a sharp reply.
It was then proposed to cite Henry again to Rome.  On
hearing of this the king sent thither as his ezcusator sir
Edward Karne, who was accompanied by one Edmund
Bonner, afterwards so notorious.  Karne  purchased over
some of the leading cardinals; but still the pope shuffled and
twisted; and at length Karne told him that,'as the church of
England was an independent church, the matter could be
decided without any reference to him whatever.  Henry
himnself had an interview with the king  of France, to confirlm
their friendship and alliance; and on the death of that estimable prelate archbishop Warham, (Aug. 22,) he resolved to
confer the see of Canterbury on Cranmer, who had now been
for some time in Germany.
Cranmer had by this time embraced most of the reformed
doctrines; he had moreover formed a matrimonial union
with the niece of Osiander, one of the German divines.
He saw the difficulties which environed him, and would most
willingly have declined the proffered honor; but he had to
deal with one who would not lightly suffer his will to be
disputed.. He made all the delay he possibly could, and did
not reach England till the month of November.  -lHe tried
to turn Henry fr'om his purpose, by stating that if he received
the dignity it must be from the pope, which he neither would
nor could do, as the king was the only governor of the church
in all causes, temporal or spiritual.  Henry, unable to overcome this objection, took the opinion of some  eminent
civilians on it, and they advised that the prelate elect should,
previous to taking the oath to the pope, make a solemnn
protest that he did not consider himself thereby bound to do
any thing contrary to the law of God or his duty as a subject.
Cranmer, whose modesty and diffidence always led him to
receive with deference the opinions of those learned in their
profession, ceased from opposition.  The king applied at
Rome for the pall and the usual bulls.  Clement, aware of
Cranmer's principles, hesitated at first, but he finally sent
them.  The consecration was appointed to take place on
the 3gth of March in St. Stephen's chapel at Westminster.
On that day Cranmer went into the chapter-house, and in
the presence of five most respectable witnesses made his pro.




.352             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
test; he then proceeded to the chapel, where the bishops of
Lincoln, Exeter, and St. Asaph's stood ready to perform the
ceremony.  He there again declared that he would take the
oath only as limited by his protest, and on receiving the
pall he made this declaration for the third time. Cranmer
thus attained the highest dignity in the English church in the
fo-rty-fourth year of his age, and within four years of the
time when he became first known to the king.
Opinions are divided with regard to the conduct of
Cranmer on this occasion; we ourselves highly condemn
the principle, and agree with Dr. Lingard that " oaths cease
to offer any security if their meaning may be qualified by
previous protestations made without the knowledge of the
party who is principally interested." 0  But at the same
time we are fully convinced that Cranmer was satisfied in
conscience of the rectitude of his proceeding, and that
Clement must have known in his heart that the new prelate would not and could not take the oath of canonical obedience unreservedly.
Either the virtue of Anne had at length yielded, and its
consequences would soon be apparent, or the passion of the
king would brook no longer delay.  In the autumn of the
preceding year he had raised her to the dignity of marchion.
ess of Pembroke; he now resolved to advance her to the
throne. Early in the morning of the 25th of January, 15:3,
he was secretly married to her by Dr. Rowland Lee, one of
his chaplains.
On Easter-eve Anne appeared as queen, and on the Sth of
May Cranmer and those appointed to act with him repaired
to Dunstable, within six miles of Ampthill, to hold a court
for trying the question of the divorce. As Catherine took
no notice of the citation she was pronounced cuntumacious;
the former evidence was all gone through again, and on M1 ay
the 23d the marriage between Henry and Catherine was
pronounced to have been null and void from the commencerient. On Whit-Sunday (June 1) Anne was crowned by the
primate.  Neither menaces nor promises could ever induce
Catherine to forego what she deemed her right, and she
insisted to the last on being treated as queen by all who approached her.
When the news of what had been done reached Rome, the
* In 1526, Francis I., before signing the treaty of Madrid, made a
secret protest against it, and the pope felt no hesitation in freeing him.
from the oath.
V c...-__.Yi.,..                                         _           __.v -— i% vex..




HENRY VIII.                  353
conclave were furious; but the wary pontiff would go no farther than tc declare Cranmer's sentence null, and Henry's
second marriage illegal: a threat of excommunication was
added, if he did not replace matters on their former footing.
Clement's thoughts were now engrossed by a project for
marrying his niece, the famous Catherine de' Medici, to the
duke of Orleans, son of the king of France, who was on
terms of great amity with Henry, and whom he was loath to
offend. At the interview which took place in the following
October between the pontiff and the king at Marseilles, when
the marriage was celebrated, Francis exerted himself to
effect an arrangenments between the pontiff and the king of
England.  Clement seemed inclined to gratify Henry, ptovided he returned to his obedience; Bonner, however, who
was Henry's agent there, when he found that he could get
no definite answer from the pope, presented an appeal to a
general council, with which he was intrusted.  Clement was
highly indignant, and rejected it as being unlawful.
On the 13th of September Henry's new queen had been
safely delivered of a princess, who was baptized with great
pomp by the name of Elizabeth, after her paternal grandmother, the primate and the duchess-dowager of Norfolk and
marclhioness-dowager of Dorset standing sponsors. Soon
after she was declared princess of Wales, as her sister Mary
had been, though she was only presumptive heiress to the
throne.
It is melancholy to observe how the sanguinary spirit of
the church of Rome still continued to prevail in England.
On the 4th of July the flames consumed two more victims
offered to the popish Moloch.  The one was John Frith, one
of the Cambridge men whom Wolsey had removed to Oxford,
and the intimate friend of Tyndal, who was now engaged in
translating and printing the Scriptures at Antwerp   Frith
d nied both transubstantiation and purgatory; he had put
his sentiments on the former subject in writing, and the paper
was treacherously conveyed to sir T. More, who attempted
to refute it; and this drew forth a masterly reply from Frith,
who was now a prisoner in the Tower.  He was brought
(June 20) before Stokesley bishop of London, who was assisted
by Gardiner, (lately raised to the see of Winchester,) and
Langland of Lincoln.  He maintained his opinions.  His
judge delivered him over to the secular powers, " most earnestly requiring them, in the bowels of our Lord Jesus, that this
execution and punishment worthily to be done on thee, may
be so moderate that the rigor thereof be not extreme, nor yet
30                        ss




354              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
the gentleness too much mitigated, but that it may be to the
salvation of the soul, to the extirpation, terror, and conv ersio n
of heretics, and to the unity of the catholic faith;" the plain
meaning of which hypocritical and blasphemous cant is, that
he was to be roasted to death with all gentleness and mnodera ion.  Frith suffered with the greatest constancy in Smithfield; and with him was burnt a tailor's apprentice, Bnamed
Andrew Hewit, whose natural sense had revolted against the
corporal presence in the sacrament.
In the succeeding parliament (1534) rapid progress was
made in casting off the yoke of Rome; provisions, bulls, etc.,
were abolished; no money was to be sent to Rome; mnonasteries were subjected to the king alone; bishops were to De
elected on a conge d' elire from the crown. A law was passed
to regulate the succession to the throne.  In this the nmarriage
with Catherine was declared unlawful and void, and that
with Anne was confirmed; the crown was to descend to the
issue of this marriage, and any person who did any thing in
derogation of the lawfulness of the king's marriage fwith
queen Anne, or to endanger the succession as thus limited,
was to suffer death as a traitor.
An oath was enjoined to be taken by all persons to maintain this order of succession, under penalty of the conse
quences of misprision of treason.  Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and sir T. More were the only persons of note who
refused to take this oath; but they only objected to the
preamble, asserting the inullity of the king's former marriage
and offered to swear without reservation to the succession as
proposed.  They were both committed to the Tower.
Fisher had already been punished for the countenance hp
had given to a notorious imposture.  There was a woman at
Aldington in Kent, named Elizabeth Barton, who was subject
to hysterical fits, in which she used to utter much incoherent
rhapsody.  The priest of the parish, one Masters, thought
that these ravings might be turned to a profitable account
H-3e affected to regard them as inspirations of the Holy Spirit,
and going to primate Warham, who was at that time living,
reported the case, and received directions from the pioushbut
credulous prelate to watch her future trances and give him an
account ofthem.  Masters gradually induced the poor woman 
to counterfeit these trances, and to utter in themn what he
should direct her.  His great object was to make an image
of the Virgin which stood in a chapel of his parish an object
of pilgrimage, and consequently of emolument to himself,
VElizabeth, therefore, was instructed to say that the Virgin had
_..     




HENRY V[I.                  355
appeared to her, and declared, that if she went to the chapel
of Court-at-Street she would be cured. The news was spread,
and on the appointed day more than two thousand persons
assembled to witness the miracle, which took place in due
form, and they went away satisfied of the sanctity of the imnage.
Elizabeth was now removed to Canterbury, where she took
the veil, and Dr. Hocking, a monk of Christ-Church and. confederate of Masters', became her ghostly director.
Others were now taken into the confederacy; the visions
and revelations of the seer became more numerous, and one
Deering made a book of them, which the primate put into
the hands of the king, who showed it to sir Thomas More,
by whom they were pronounced to be silly stuff  No further
notice was taken of her till the question of the divorce and
separation from  ornome came to be warmly agitated.  She
was then put forward again; a monk wrote a letter in gold
characters, which she was to pretend had been given her by
Mary Magdalen, and she was also ta.ught to assert that when
the king was at Calais in 1532 she was invisibly present as
he was heiring mass, and an angel had brought her the holy
wafer from the priest.  These fictions were merely intended
to gain her credit with the people, and then the visions of
real importance were to be produced.  An angel now came
to her, desiring her to go to the infidel king, and order him to
do three things: to leave his rights to the pope, to destroy
the folk of the new opinion, to keep his lawful wife.  She
also declared that if the king married Anne Boleyn he would
not retain the throne more than a month, and would die a
villain's death. Two agents of the pope now countenanced
her, and bishop Fisher was so weak as to become one of her
secret advisers.  More, too, had an interview with her, in
which he asked her to pray for him, and he expressed his
belief that heaven was working'; some good and great things
by her."  Queen Catherine's chaplain Abel also communicated with the seer. It would also seem that the Observant
Friars, whom Henry VII. had greatly favored, were engaged
in the conspiracy.  It was in their chapel at Sion House that
More saw her; and when in the summer of this year Henry
was at Greenwich, father Peto of their order preaching before
him. likened him and the queen to Ahab and Jezebel, and
bade him beware lest the dogs should lick his blood. Henry
bore this insolence with patience, and only directed that Dr.
Curwin should preach the following Sunday in reply. In his
sermon Curwin called Peto abundance of foul names, when
another friar nanmed Elstow, who was sitting in the rood




HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Poft,+ burst out into a torrent of invective, and was only
silenced by the voice of the king The next day the two
friars were summoned before the council and reprimanded.
Cromwell told them they deserved to be tied in a sack and
flung into the Thames.  "Threaten such things," said Elstow, "to rich and dainty folk which are clothed in purple,
fare delicately, and have their chief hope in the present world;
we esteem  them not when for the discharge of our duty we
are driven hence. Thank God, we know the way to heaven
to be as near by water as by land; nor care we therefore by
which of these two roads we travel thither."  Who can question the sincerity of these men?
It was deemed advisable to arrest the Holy Maid of Kent
and her accomplices. By the efforts of Cranmer, Cromwell,
and a zealous divine named Hugh Latimer, their arts were
traced out, and when brought before the star-chamber they
made a voluntary confession.  They were transmitted to
Canterbury, and there during sermon-time exposed on a stage
in the churchyard and rebuked by the preacher. They underwent a similar exposure at St. Paul's cross in London,
and were made to read out a confession of their imposture.
They were then sent to the Tower, and as it was found that
the popish party was tampering with the nun to get her to
deny all she had said., they were attainted of treason.  The
nun, Masters, Bocking, and three others were executed at
Tyburn, (April 21, 1534.)  She owned her guilt, but justly
said that her accoumplices, who were learned nrien, were
more to blame than she, "a poor wench without learning."
As the Observants persisted in assailing the king's divorce,
their order was suppressed in the course of the year.
The king's supremacy was now generally acknowledged,
and the rupture with Rome may be regarded as complete.
But the regular clergy were highly dissatisfied with the change.
The first symptoms of resistance appeared at the COharterhouse
in London, the inmates of which, persuaded that the admission of the papal supremacy was necessary for salvation, had
sought to instil this belief into the minds of their penitents.
These monks prepared themselves for martyrdom in what
they believed to be the cause of truth; the priors of two other
houses came and joined them; the system of resistance to
the government was gradually organized, and if not checked
in time might spread over the whole kingdom.  The three
* The plan, where the rood or Aroes was placea: it is now tlhe
organ-1oft,




HENRY V111.                  351
priors and three others were therefore arrested and tried for
high treason; the jury hesitated to find such holy men guilty,
but Cromwell forced them by menaces to give the verdict he
desired. They were executed at Tyburn, (May 4, 1535.)
Three more Carthusians at London and two at York suffered
the same fate shortly after. About the same time, fourteen
Dutch reformers, who had taken refuge in England, were
burnt as anabaptists.
More illustrious victims were now to bleed.' Fisher and
More had lain for upwards of a twelvemonth in the Tower.
The former, a man far advanced in life, would perhaps  have
been suffered to end his days in prison, were it not that
Paul III., the successor of Clement, thought fit to subject
him to the suspicions of the government by raising him to the
dignity of cardinal, (May 21.)  Fisher, now on the verge of
eternity, made light of the honor. " If the red hat," said he,' were lying at my feet, I would not stoop to pick it up."
The king, on the other hand, is said to have declared that
"the pope might send him a cardinal's hat, but that he should
have no head to wear it."  He was arraigned (June 17)
before the chancellor, the judges, and some of the peers, on a
charge of having denied the king's supremacy, and was sentenced to die as a traitor. On the morning of his execution
(June 22) he had himself dressed with great care.  " My
lord," said his servant, "surely you forget that after the short
space of some two hours you must strip off these things and
never wear them more."  " What of that," replied he; "dost
thou not mark that this is my wedding-day?."  On account
of his infirmities he was carried on a chair to the place of
execution.  He held in his hand a New Testament, which he
opened at a venture and lighted on this passage: "And this
is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hastsent. I have glorified thee
on earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to
do."  He closed the book, saying, " Here is learning enough
for me to my life's end."  He mounted the scaffold without
aid, briefly addressed the spectators, telling them he came to
die for the faith of Christ's holy catholic church, then meekly
laid his head on the block, and it was severed from his body
at a single blow; and thus perished this venerable, uprigh!,
and pious prelate, a martyr to the rights of conscience.
It had probably been hoped that this severity toward Fisher
would have the effect of intimidating More, whose acquiescence in the new order of things it was thought of the
utmost importance to gain.  But as no such result followed,
P~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




d58.             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
he also was arraigned (July 1) for imagining to deprive the
king of his title and dignity.  His refusal to answer some
iisnaring questions which had been previously put to him,
was pronounced to be malicious; Rich, the solicitor-general,
was base enough to give in evidence such expressions as he
had drawn from him in a confidential interview, the truth of
which, however, the prisoner denied, and which two persons
who were present said they did not hear.  He was, -notwithstanding, pronounced guilty.  When asked what he had to
say why judgment should not be given against him, he asserted that the act on which he was indicted was repugnant
to the laws of God and his holy church, the supreme government of which no temporal prince might presume to take on
himself, it being granted by our Savior himself only to St.
Peter and his successors, bishops of the same see.  The
chancellor observed that, seeing that the bishops, the universities, and best learned men in the realm had agreed to it, it
was much marvelled that he alone should oppose it.  More
replied that, if numbers were to decide, most bishops and
good men, both of those who were now alive and those who
were glorified saints in heaven, would be found to be on his
side.  Sentence was then passed on him, and he was reconducted to the Tower.
At the Tower wharf his favorite daughter Margaret Roper
was waiting to meet him.  When she beheld him she rushed
through the guards, threw her arms about his neck and kissed
him.  He gave her his blessing and comforted her.  She
retired, but overcome by filial affection she ran back, took
him again by the neck and kissed him several times " most
lovingly."  She then finally departed with a heavy heart, most
of the bystanders shedding tears at this beautiful instance of
natural affection.
On the 6th of July his friend sir Thomas Pope came to
him early in the morning, with directions fiom the king and
2ouncil to prepare himself to die by nine o'clock.  " Master
Pope," said More," I have been always much bounden to the
king's highness for the benefits and honors that he hath still
from time to time most bountifully heaped upon me; and yet
more bounden am I to his grace for putting me into this
place, where I have had convenient time and space to have
remembrance of my end.  And, so help me God, mnct of
all, master Pope, am I beholden to his highness that it pleaseth
him so shortly to rid me out of all the miseries of this wretched world, and therefore willlI not fail earnestly to pray for
his grace both here and in the world to come-"  Pope then
________-  ____ --   _____________________________  ____-. I




HENRY VIII.                  359
told him that it was'the king's wish that lie should not make
any address at his execution.  More requested him to intercede with the king to allow his daughter Margaret Roper to
be present at his burial; Pope assured him that the king
was content that his wife and his fanmily and friends should
be present at it.  " 0, how much beholden then am I unto
his grace," said More, " that unto my poor burial vouchsafest
to have so gracious consideration!"  Sir Thomas Pope then
took leave of him with tears.
More now put on his best apparel, " aa one that had been
invited to a solemn feast," but at the sugrgestion of the lieutenant he changed it.  On coming to the scaffold, observing
it to be weak and shaking, he said in his usual jocose mans
ner," I pray you, master lieutenant, see me safe up, and for
my coming down let me shift for myself." He called on the
people to pray for him, and to bear witness that he suffered
death in and for the faith of the Catholic church. He then
knelt down and prayed; when he rose the executioner, as
usual, asked his forgiveness.  "Pluck up thy spirits, man,"
said he, " and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is
very short; take heed therefore thou strike not awry, for
staving of thy honesty," (honor.)  As he knelt at the block
he bade the executioner to stay till he had put his beard
aside; " for," said he, "it never committed treason." He
prayed to himself, and the axe descending terminated his
mortal existence in the fifty-fifth year of his age.
None of the many violent acts which Henry committed
has brought such obloquy on him as the execution of sir
Thomas More. For, exclusively of his having suffered in
the cause of the papacy, More was a scholar and a distinguished member of the republic of letters.  A  general
outcry was therefore raised by the friends of literature and
the papacy. Erasmus published under a feigned name an
interesting narrative of his martyrdom, while Reginald Pole,
seized with avidity the occasion of pouring forth a torrent
of declamation against Henry, whom the historian Giovio
compares for this deed to Phaleris.  The emperor told sir
Thomnas Elliot, the English ambassador, that he would rather
have lost the best city in his dominions than such a counsellor.  The English resident in Spain wrote that the greatest horror was felt there at the fate of the " thrice greatest"
More and the holy maid of Kent - a union which does no
great credit to More. Posterity have echoed these censures, and the judicial murder of More (as it certainly was)
passes for one of the blackest deeds ever perpetrated.




360               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Let is endeavor without prejudice to es; mate the char.
acter of this eminent man.  More was in private life the
pattern of every social and domestic virtue; his piety was
sincere and void of ostentation; in integrity and firm  adherence to the dictates of conscience no man ever exceeded
him.  He was a good speaker, an elegant writer, and a wellread scholar; his conversation abounded with innocent pleasantry. Such were his merits. On the other hand, his jocu-.arity frequently bordered on buffoonery;" his religion was
akin to abject superstition, and he persecuted those who
presumed to differ from the church.t  In his controversial
writings he indulged in the grossest scurrility.  His greatest
work, the Utopia, has we think been well described as giving us " the impression of having proceeded from a very ingenious rather than a profound mind," and such in fact his
mind was. Perhaps this is evinced by the circumstance that
More alone, among the lay scholars of his time, seems to
have had a sincere belief in the doctrines of popery. To
sum up his character, he was a devout, upright, sincere,
amiable, learned, and ingenious man, good rather than great.
What the poet says of Wolsey, that " his overthrow heaped
happiness upon him," may be applied to More. If he had
not died the victim of a tyrant his fame would never have
attained its present eminence.
CHAPTER IV
HENRY VI1I. (CONTINUED.)
1535 —153S.
WHTEN intelligence of the deaths of M, re and Fisher
reached Rome, the indignation of the pope and cardinals
was boundless; and on the 30th of August, a" terrible thun* " I cannot tell," says Halle, " whether I should call him a foolish
wise man, or a wise foolish man; for undoubtedly he, beside his learning, had a great wit; but it was so mingled with taunting and mocking,
that it seemed to them that best knew him, that he thoughtnothing to
be well spoken of, except he had ministered some mock in the conmunication.'
t See Appendix (T.)




HENRY VIII.                   361
Jering bull," as it is termed by Father Paul, waas prepared.
By this, if Henry did not retrace his steps, he and all his
abettors were cited to appear at Rome within ninety days,
under pain of excommunication; he was to be dethroned, his
subjects released from their allegiance, his kingdom placed
under interdict; the issue of Anne was declared illegitimate;
all commerce with foreign states was forbidden, and all treaties with them annulled; the clergy were ordered to depart
the kingdom, the nobility to take arms against their king!
Such is the spirit of popery; it fosters rebellion, it commands bloodshed and carnage, sooner than yield even one
of its impious pretensions.  Henry took due precautions to
prevent the bull from getting into his dominions; he drew
more closely the bonds of alliance with France, and Ie entered into relations with the German Protestants,@  whose
leading divines he invited over to England. The vacant dioceses of Salisbury, Worcester, St. Asaph's, Hereford, and
Rochester were respectively conferred on Shaxton, Latimer,
Barlow, Fox the almonier, and Hilsey, superior of the Black
Friars in London, -all professors of the new opinions.
The monks and friars, who saw their own ruin in the new
state of things, were -strongly opposed to the separation from
Rome, and both secretly and openly excited the people
against the changes.  The suppression of at least a large
number of their convents, - a measure of which Wolsey,
with the pope's permission, had already given the example,
- was resolved on.  The king, as head of the church, appointed Cromwell his vicar-general for the visitation of the
religious corporations, with power to nominate his deputies;
and in October the visitors, armed with most ample inquisitorial powers, set out on their mission. They found, as was to be
expected, feuds, and factions, and disorders of every kind, and
In many the grossest immorality, lewdness, and debauchery,
while pious frauds and false relics beguiled the credulity of
the people.  At the same time many, especially the larger
abbeys, were quite free from all gross irregularities.  Some,
terrified by a consciousness of guilt, made a voluntary surrender of their revenues; that of Langden, whose superior
the visitor had, we are told, caught in bed with a young woman, setting the example.  In all the convents of both sexes
the inmates under the age of four-and-twenty were set *a
liberty, if they desired it, of which permission many victims
* They were so named from having" protested " against tle decree
of the Diet at Spire, in 1529, forbidding innovation in religion.
VOL. I.      31                       T T




362               HISTORY OF ENGLAND
of avarice and family pride took advantage; for heie, as
wherever mnonachism prevails, the younger children of a
family were compelled to take the vows, in order that the
fortune of the eldest son might not be diminished.  The report of the visitors was soon after published, and the crimes
of the religious exposed, with perhaps some exaggeration; a
feeling was thus excited against them, and when parliament
met (Feb. 1536) an act was passed for suppressing all monasteries possessing less than 52001. a year, and giving their
property and estates to the king. The number suppressed
was three hundred and seventy-six; their annual income was
32,0001., and their property was valued at 100,0001.  The
universities also were visited, and the course of study in
them was changed.
On the 8th of January, 1536, queen Catherine breathed
her last at Kimbolton, in Huntingdonshire, in the fiftieth
year of her age.  A little before her death she dictated a
letter to the king, styling him " her most dear lord, king,
and husband," advising him to attend to his spiritual concerns, assuring him of her forgiveness, commending their
daughter to his care, and making a few trifling requests.
She thus concluded: "Lastly, I make this vow, that mine
eyes have desired you above all things." Henry was moved
even to tears with this last proof of the affection of one
whom he once had loved, and whom he had never ceased to
esteem.  He gave orders that her funeral should be suited
to her birth, but he would not permit her to be buried, as
she desired, in a convent of the Observants; the ashes of
the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabel repose at Peterborough.  Her character remains the object of respect to all
parties as that of an upright, pious, and virtuous matron,
with the single drawback, in the estimation of the unprejudiced, that she persisted to her death in the assertion of a
talsehood.
It could not be expected that queen Anne should feel
much grief at the death of one whom she must have regarded
as a rival, but she might have abstained from an indecent
expression of joy at it.*  How  short-sighted are mortals!
She probably deemed her state now secure, yet she was
standing on the brink of the precipice over which she was
so be erelong precipitated.
On the 29th of January, Anne was delivered of a stillborn
* " Anne Boleyn wore yellow for the mourning of Catherine of
Aragon." (Halle, Sanders.)




HENRY VIlf.                  363
-nale child, for which misfortune Hellry is said to have re.
proached her brutally. She had in fact.ost his capricious
affections, which, as in her own case, had been transferred
to one of her attendants, Jane, the daughter of sir John
Seymour; and as it was a peculiarity in the character of
this tyrant to marry instead of trying to seduce the women
to whom he took a fancy, he was now on the look-out for
a pretext to divorce his queen. Anne, who was aware of
his passion for her maid, had reproached him with it on
more than one occasion.  The king's desire to frame a
plausible charge against her was well known at court: the
sprightliness of the queen's temper bordered on levity; some
little matters which resulted from it were reported to him
with exaggeration, and by him greedily received. A corn.mission was issued (April 25) to several noblemen and judges,
among whom was her own father, to investigate the affair.
On May-day there was a tilting-match at Greenwich before
the king and queen, in which her brother lord Rochfort, and
Norris, groom  of the stole, were principal actors.  In the
midst of it something occurred which disturbed the king;
he rose abruptly, quitted the gallery, and set out with a few
attendants for Westminster.  The queen also rose and retired to her apartments, where she remained in great anxiety.
Next day she entered her barge and was proceeding to Westminster; on the river she was met by her uncle the duke of
Norfolk, and some other lords of the council, and'conducted
to the Tower on a charge of adultery and treason.  She
asserted her innocence in the strongest terms.  At the gate
of that fatal fortress she fell on her knees and said, "0
Lord, help me, as I am guiltless of this whereof I am  accused!"  When the lords were gone she said to the lieutenant, "Mr. Kingston, shall I go into a dungeon?"  " No,
madam," said he, "you shall go into your lodging that you
lay in at your coronation."  "It is too good for me," she
replied; "Jesu, have mercy on me!" and she knelt down
and wept, and then burst into laughter, the usual effect of
hysterics, for such appears to have been the effect of her
sudden misfortunes on her frame.  Her aunt lady Boleyn,
and Mrs. Cousins, with both of whom she was on ill terms,
lay in the room  with her, with directions to draw her into
discourse,' and to report all that she said.
Cranmer had been directed by the king to come to Lambeth, but not to approach the court. His constitutional timidity
did not prevent him from making an effort for his lovely and
unhappy patroness, and on the 6th he wrote a persuasive let.




364              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ter to Henry. On that same day Anne herself wrote to her
hard-hearted lord that beautiful letter which is still extant,
every line of which breathes the consciousness of innocence
and the purity of virtue; but justice or mercy had now no
room in the heart of Henry.
At the same time with the queen were arrested her
brother lord Rochforf, and Norris, with sir Francis Weston
and Williamn Brereton, gentlemen of the priivy charmber, and
Mark Smeaton, a musician, who had been made a groom of
the chamber for his musical talents.  On the 10th an indictment was found by the grand jury at Westminster against
the queen and them for high treason, as, by a forced interpretation of the statute 25 Edw. III., the adultery with which
they were all charged was made out to be.  On the 125th the
four commoners were tried before a common jury and found
guilty.  The three gentlemen affirmed the queen's innocence
and their own; Smeaton pleaded guilty, most likely induced
so to do -by some promise of mercy. When the king heard
that Norris refused to confess, he cried, "Hang him  up
when! hang him up then!"
Three days after (May 15) the queen and her brother
were tried in a temporary building within the Tower.  Their'mncle of Norfolk presided, and nine-and-twenty other peers
(among whom, it is to be reared, was their father) sat in
judgment.  Rochfort was first tried   "'There was brought
against him  as a witness," says Wyatt, " his wicked wife,
accuser of her own husband to the seeking of his blood."
He made a noble defence, but to no purpose, for his destruction was resolved on. The queen had no counsel; she
was only attended by her ladies: her countenance was cheerful and serene. When directed to lay aside the insignia of
her rank, she complied, saying that she had never misconducted herself toward the king.  She' readily answered all
the charges made against her; those not in the secret anticipated an acquittal, but a majority of the peers, on their
honor, pronounced the brother and sister guilty of incestuous
adultery, and she was sentenced to be burnt or beheaded, at:the king's pleasure.  When she heard this sentence, she.raised her hands, and cried, "O Father and Creator! O
thou who art the way, the truth, and the life.! thou knowest
that I have not deserved this death."  She then addressed
her judges, and with dignity and calmness solemnly pro.
tested her innocence.*
* The records of her trial and conviction have perished," says
Lmngard " perhaps bv the hands of those who respected her memory."
P   J                  SP-~I-      I-_~_ 




HENRY VIII.                  365
And what was the evidence on which a queen of England
was thus sentenced to an ignominious death? Lady Wingtield, who had been in her service, was said when on her
death-bed to hrve made some communications to some one;
as if any one when well paid could not swear that any thing
was said by a dead person.  According to the disgusting
language of the indictment, the queen was in every case the
seducer.  The act of criminality with Norris was placed
in October, 1533, that with Brereton in the following December, with Weston in May, 1534, with Sineatopr in April,
1535, with her brother in the last November; and although
all remained in her service, no proof was offered of any repetitions of the offence. Such evidence would not be attended to in the present days by any honest jury.
On the 17th Rochfort and the others were led to execution.  Rochfort exhorted his companions to die with courage: he warned the bystanders not to trust in courts, states,
or kings, but in Heaven alone, and he prayed for the king a
long and happy life. They all died protesting their innocence, except Smeaton, who was executed last, and may
therefore still have had hopes of mercy.  He said that he
well deserved death; but this might only mean that he had
calumniated others.  When the queen was told next day
what he had said, she indignantly exclaimed, " Has he not
then cleared me fiom the public shame he has done me?
Alas, I fear his soul will suffer from his false accusation."
An attempt, the true motive of which we cannot assign,
to make the earl of Northumberland acknowledge a precontract with the queen, having failed, she was taken to
Lambeth, (May 17,) where the unhappy primate had (with
anguish of heart we make no doubt) to endure the mortification of pronouncing the marriage of his innocent friend
utterly void, in consequence of certain just and legal innpediments then confessed  by her.  What these were we
know not, or how she waas induced to confess them.  She
was taken back to the Tower, where granmler, who was appointed her confessor, was allowed to visit her. It was
thought, even by herself, that she would only be banished,
but her tyrant would not be so contented, and the fatal
order came.  All doubt and fear was now at an end.  "I
-Had he read Burnet with any care," observes Hallam, " he would
have found that they were seen by that historian." - See this able
w/riter's just strictures on the Inalignity of Lingard toward Anne
3o.eyn. (Constit. Hist., i. 43.)
31*




366              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
have seen," says Kingston, "many men and also women
executed, and that they have been in great sorrow, to my
knowledge this lady hath more joy and pleasure in death.'"
She reviewed her past life, and it appearing to her that she
had been rather harsh in her treatment of the lady Mary,
she made lady Kingston sit in her chair of state, and kneell
ing before her, with tears expressed her sorrow and remorse,
and made her promise that she would thus kneel before
the princess and implore her forgiveness.  " Mr. Kingston,"
said she, "I hear say I shall not die afore noon, and I am
very sorry therefore; I thought to be dead and past my
pain."  He told her " it would be no pain, it was so subtle."
She replied, "I heard say the executioner was very good,
and I have a little neck," and she put her hand about it,
laughing heartily.
Next day (May 19) a little before noon she was led
to the scaffold, which was erected within the Tower: all
strangers were excluded. There were present the dukes
of Suffolk and Richmond (the king's natural son,) the
chancellor, secretary Cromwell, the lord mayor and aldermen.  She addressed her auditory in these words, probably
suggested by Cranmer: "Good Christian people, I am come
hither to die, for according to the law and by the law I am
judged to die, and therefore I will speak nothing against it;
I am come hither to accuse no man, nor to speak any thing
of that whereof I am accused and condemned to die, but I
pray God save the king and send him long to reign over you,
for a gentler [nobler] nor more mercifill prince was there
never, and to me he was ever a good, gentle, and sovereign
lord; and if any person will meddle with my cause I require
them to judge the best.  And thus I take my leave of the
world and of you all, and I heartily desire you all to pray
for me. O Lord, have mercy upon me! To God I commend my soul."  Then calmly removing her hat and collar,
she knelt down and said, " To Jesus Christ I commend my
soul.  Lord Jesu, receive my soul! "  One stroke ternminated
her existence. Her remains were thrown into an elm box and
interred without ceremony in the chapel.@
Thus was completed this barbarous judicial murder, not
to be paralleled in imperial Rome or the despotic East.
That no doubts might remain as to his rea' motives, HIenry
married Jane Seymour the very next day. The lady Mary
was now admitted to favor, on her signing articles acknowl
See Appendix (U.)




HENRY Vill.                   367
edging the king's supremacy and her own bastardy; gut she
honorably refused to give up the names of her friends and
advisers, nor did the king insist on it.  A parliament was
summoned, which ratified all the late proceedings, and
enacted whatever the king required.
In the convocation, where Cromwell presided as the king's
representative, ten articles of faith were agreed on.  It was
an attempt to take a middle course between the two parties,
and was therefore pleasing to neither.
The suppression of the monasteries, which was effected
in this summer, caused great discontent among the people
The loss of the alms distributed at them was felt by the
poor and idle; the many associations of superstition as;well
as piety connected with them were harshly broken asunder;
the prospect of the decay of these sacred edifices, or their
conversion into secular dwellings, was unpleasing, and more.
over, then, as at all times, the clergy had been the most lenient
of landlords.  The sight of the ejected brethren, many of
them advanced in years, wandering about the country, moved
them to pity; and they were assured that this was only the
first step toward depriving them of all religion, and subjecting them to an unheard-of tyranny.
These discontents having fermented in their bosoms all
through the summer, as soon as the harvest was completed
the peasantry of Lincolnshire assembled in arms to the
number of twenty thousand.  Their leader was Dr. Mackrel, late prior of Barlings, who assumed the title of captain
Cobler.  They sent to the king a statement of their grievances, which included all the late changes made in the
church; and complaining of the admission of low-born persons to the royal councils, (meaning Cranmer and Cromwell,) they prayed the king to assemble his nobility and devise remedies.  The answer returned was the appearance of
the duke of Suffolk, with a body of troops, preceded by a
royal reproof of the presumption of "the rude commons of
one shire, and that the most brute and beastly of the whole
realm," in attempting to find fault with their prince for the
electing of his counsellors and prelates, and commanding
them to surrender their leaders and one hurdred others,
and then to go to their homes.  By Suffolk's advice, however, a milder proclamation was put forth, a-ad the insurgents finally dispersed.
The cause of this mildness was the breaking out of a
far more formidable insurrection in the counties north of
the Humber, where the people were more ignorant and
k _.,       __..._.~. __.        _,___.__ ___._




368              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
superstitious than in the southern parts.  The clergy had
secretly instigated them, and the harsh collection of the
subsidy granted in the late parliament gave the occasion.
The gentry, who shared their feelings, hesitated to risk their
lives and fortunes by coming forward openly, but they found
an efficient leader in one Robert Aske, a lawyer of some
property in Yorkshire.  The insurrection was named the
Pilgrimage of Gracq; priests bearing crosses appeared in
the van; their banneer displayed on one side the Redeemer,
on the other the host and chalice; on the sleeve of every
pilgrim  were wrought the five wounds of Jesus, with his
holy name in the midst of them.  Aske first laid siege to
Pontefract, in which the archbishop of York and the lord
Darcy had taken refuge.  The gates were opened, throulgh
the influence of the prelate -and peer, who secretly wished
well to the insurgents, and after a decent show of reluctance
took the oath by which the pilgrims were bound. York and
Hull surrendered; the castles of Skipton and Scarborough
alone resisted.
The earl of Shrewsbury, though without orders, commenced levying troops to oppose the rebels. The royal
commands to this effect were obeyed by the marquess of
Exeter and other nobles; and at length the duke of Norfolk,
as general of the royal forces, advanced to Doncaster.  His
army, which did not exceed five thousand mien, was divided
from that of the rebels, of forty thousand, by the river Don,
which could only be passed by the bridge in the town, or a
ford at a little distance. The rebels, relying on their numbers, resolved to attempt to force the passage of the ford,
but there fell so much rain in the night that it became impassable. The duke then sent a herald to Aske, who received him sitting in a chair of state, with the archbishop
on one side of him  and lord Darcy on the other. It was
agreed that they should send two gentlemen to the king to
learn his pleasure.  After being detained for some time, the
deputies returned with an offer of pardon to all but six who
were, and four who were to be, named. These terms were
rejected; new negotiations were then opened, but to no
effect. The rebels once more prepared to force the ford,
and again the rains swelled the stream.  Their superstitious
minds saw in this a withdrawal from them of the favor of
fHeaven; they began to despond and to disperse, and the
arrival of an act of amnesty caused them to retire to their
homes. Aske was invited to court, where he was kindly
treated, but lord Darcy, who made some delay when sum.




HENRY VIII.                   369
moned, was on his arrival cast into the Tower, as also was
lord Hussey, who was charged with favoring the Lincolnshire rebels.
The people of the north were, however, soon again in
arms, (1537,) and eight thousand men, headed by Nicholas
Musgrave and Thomas Tilby, gentlemen of Cumberland,
attempted to surprise Carlisle.  They failed, and in their
retreat were met and defeated with great slaughter by the
duke of Norfolk.  Musgrave escaped; the other leaders
were taken and hanged, with seventy inferior persons, on
the walls of Carlisle.  An attempt on Hull by sir Francis
Bigot and a Mr. Halem  had a similar success.  Aske, who
made his escape when he heard of the rising, was taken
and hanged at York: several other gentlemen were executed at other places.  The venerable lord Darcy was beheaded on Tower Hill, and lord Hussey at Lincoln.  Six
priors, among whom was Mackrel, were hung for their share
in the rebellion.  In the month of July a general amnesty
was issued.  One of the demands of the rebels was cornplied with, for a court was, by patent, erected at York for
the decision of lawsuits in the north.
To the joy of the king and kingdom, queen Jane was
delivered (Oct. 122) of a son, who was named Edward; but
within a few days that joy was damped by the death of the
mother, who died of a puerperal fever.  The grief of the
king was considerable, but it gave way to his satisfaction at      I
the dangers of a disputed succession being now terminated.
To the queen herself it may have been a fortunate event that
nature, not the axe of injustice, terminated her mortal life,
as a pretext would surely have been found for destroying
her, if the despot's eye had been caught by some other
object.  The young prince was created prince of Wales;
his uncle, sir William  Seymnour, earl of Hertford; sir William Fitzwilliamir earl of Southampton; sir William Paulet,
lord St. John; sir John Russel, lord Russel.
Toward the close of the year a book, entitled "The God-.
ly and Pious Institute of a Christian Man," compiled by the:
bishops and revised by the king, was published by the roya,
authority.  It was divided into sections, treating of the
Creed, the Sacratments, Decalogue, Lord's Prayer, Ave
Maria, Justification and Purgatory, and contained as much
of the reforted opinions as Cranmer and his friends were
able to introduce into it.  This year was also signalized by
the publication, with the royal sanction, of the Bible, transe
lated into English by Tyndale and Coverdale.
i.1~                                                1yE      ~        __    _




370               HISTORY OF ENOLAND.
The suppresslonl of the remaining monasteries was noit
finally resolved on.  Their wealth made them  an obiecr, of
cupidity to the king and his rapacious courtiers; the reformers viewed them  as the strongholds of popery, wvhichl
they' thought could never be eradicated while they were
let to remain; the convents of the north had openly aide(d
the late rebellion, and those of the south had secretly furnished the rebels with money.  The visitations were renewed; threats arnd artifices were employed, frequently with
success, to obtain surrenders.  The religious themselves, in
anticipation of the coming storm, had been making prepara-.
tions to meet it; they embezzled the movable property of
their convents to a great extent; they renewed leases of the
lands at low rents on receiving large fines.  They had therefore often but little reluctance to give up their monastic
seclusion; many of them were even glad to escape from the
irksome monotony of a conventual life.  The crown therefore met with but little opposition.  Pensions, varying according to their rank and good conduct, were settled on the
monks till they should receive livings in the church of equal
dignity and value." The suppression was effected in the
course of two years, and the annual income which thus feli
to the crown amounted to more than 130,0001.
The abbots of Glastonbury, Reading, and Colchester
were executed on charges of having aided the northern
rebels; the vices of others were made public, but still the
people said these were the crimes of the individuals, niot
of the order.  It was then determined to expose the false
relics and the'lying wonders' to be found in even the
most respectable convents.  Eleven houses, it was found,
possessed a girdle belonging to the Virgin; eight had somine
of her milk to show; one exhibited some of the coals that
roasted St. Laurence; the ear cut by the sword of St. Peter
from the head of Malchus gave fame to one, and the parings
of the toe-nails of St. Edmund to another, in which also thie
penknife and boots of St. Thomas of Canterbury assured
pregnant women of A safe delivery.  The teeth of St. Apollonia, which curer  ne toothache, were so multiplied that
The pensions to the superiors appear to have varied from 26(61.
to 61. per annum. The priors of cells received generally 131.; a few,
whose servi es merited the distinction, obtained 201. To the other
monks wer -dilotted pensions of 61., 41., 21., with a small sum to each
at his dep,.Ature to provide for his immediate wants. The pensions to
nuns ave. aged about 41.'- Linyard. He acknowledges that mone.
was of a!,out ten times the value then that it is now.




HENRY VIII.                   37 l
when collected they filled a tun.  At Reading there was the
wooden iniage of an angel, with but one wing, which had
flown. into England with the spear-head that pierced our
Savior's side.'The monastery at Hales in Gloucestershire
had a vial containing a portion of the Redeemer's blood, to
behold which pilgrims floclied from  all quarters; but the
votary often looked in vain for the beatific vision; his penitence, he was told, was incomplete; he had not purchased
enough of masses;. more money was paid, and at length
perhaps his eyes were blessed with a sight of the divine
blood.  The secret was found to be that the vial, which
contained the blood of a duck, was opake on one side, and
was -turned about by the priests to suit their purpose.  At
Boxley in Kent was the crucifix named the Rood of Grace,
which moved -its head, eyes, lips, etc., all effected by secret
cords and wires.  These various impostures were exposed at
St. Paul's, whither also were brought other idols from various
parts of the country, among which came a huge one from
Wales, nalmed Darvel Gatheren, to which large offerings
use(l to be Inade; an old prophecy had said that it should
burn. a forest, and in cruel mockery it was made to form
part of the fire that consumed one friar Forest, who denied
the supremacy.,"
St. Thomas of Canterbury was proceeded against, and
condemned as a traitor; his name was struck out of the
calendar; his office was expunged from the breviary, and
his bones were taken up and burnt; the skull was found
with the rest, though the monks used to exhibit it to the
pilgrims.  His shrine was broken  up, and the gold and
jewels it contained filled two chests, and required eight
men to carry them.  There was a festival called the translation o his body celebrated every year, and a jubilee of
fifteen days every fiftieth year, which drew  a great concourse of pilgrims'to Canterbury, one hundred thousand
being known to have been there at one time; the offerings
therefore were numerous, for the saints, like eastern kings,
were not to be approached without a present.  On  his
own ground this " holy blissful martyr" so far eclipsed
the Savior and the Virgin, that of the three great altars
there, that of Christ received one year only 31. 2s. 6d., that
of the Virgin 631. 5s. 6d., while the martyr's share was 8321.
1'2s. 3d.   but the next year it was still worse; on Christ's'We search the pages of Lingard in vain for any allusion to theae
pious frauds.




J372             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
altar nothing was offered, on the Virgin s but 41. Is. 3d
ahile St. Thomas's displayed 9541. 6s. 3d.!
While the evils and frauds of the monastic institutions
were thus sedulously displayed, care was taken to persuade'he nation that the transfer of their revenues to the crown
would be productive of inestimable public benefits. There
would be an end of pauperism and taxation, as the revenues
which the crown would now posses.s would enable it to
maintain fleets and armies, to build fortresses, execute public works, maintain the court, and form institutions for learning and charity, without applying any more to the purses of
the subjects.  Fortunately for the public liberties these
splendid anticipations, as we shall see, were never realized.
With respect to the legal and moral character of the
transaction, there are many points to be considered.  If
the Reformation was to proceed, the monasteries must be
destroyed, as they were the strongholds of the dominant
superstition.  Property no doubt is sacred, of whatever
kind it may be, and should not be touched without the
most urgent state necessity, to which even the rights of
private and much more those of corporate property must.
give way. In the latter case it is, however, a principle, that.
the rights of the actual possessors, and of those who have
a reasonable certainty of succeeding them, should be regarded; hence it is said that the abolition should have been
gradual, that the convents should have been prohibited to
receive any mnore members, and that as the actual members
died off the revenues should fall to the crown. But this
would have been inconsistent with the success of the great
object proposed, as the popish party would thus have retained for many years the means of checking the progress
of' the Reformation, and the claims of justice were perhaps
sufficiently satisfied by giving pensions, as was done, to the
members of' the suppressed convents.  Again, it is said that
the monastic lands should have gone to the Representatives
of the original donors; but where were they to be found?
Who could prove himself, for instance, to be the heir of the
baron or knight who, in the reign of Henry I. or II., gave
lands to a monastery for the good of his soul?  Besides,
such a right of reversion is hardly ever contemplated; those
who make grants or bequests of this kind part with all rights
over them, which thus become subject to the control of the
legislature.  Lastly, it is said that the entire of these rev.
enues should have been devoted to the support of religion
and learning; but a fifth of the lands of the kingdom was




HENRY VIII.                    373'
by far too much for this purpose, though we will not say
that it might not have been better if tithes had been abolished, and lands to the same amount been retained for the
support of the church.  Yet many difficulties would probably
have attended this plan, and perhaps under all circumstances
no plan was preferable to the one which was adopted, that
of sharing the lands among the nobility and gentry of the
realm.*r
This is said to have been a suggestion of Cromwell's,
who, aware of the selfishness of human nature, knew that
the surest way to make men adverse to Rome was to make
it their interest'to be so; and this effect was produced.
One cannot, however, contemplate without disgust the un-:
principled cupidity  and rapacity of the vultures of the
court, (though they were the founders of some of the noblest
and wealthiest families now in the kingdom,) or the reckless
prodigality of the monarch himself, who, for example, set a
peal of church bells on a cast of the dice; gave, it is said,
the revenues of one convent to a woman who made a pud-'
zing to please his palate; and those of another to the man
who set his chair in a commodious position for him  before:
the fire.  Some abbey lands were bestowed on the courtiers,
others were sold or exchanged at such low rates as to differ
little from gifts; and after all the magnificent prospects that
had been held out, parliament was called upon, the very year,
(1540) after it had vested the monastic property in the king,
for a large subsidy, on account of the great expense of reforming the religion of the state - so completely had the voracious'.
courtiers carried off the spoils of the church I
When we view the ruins of Fountains and other magnificent piles, the glory of architecture and pride of our island,
It is impossible to suppress a sigh at such Vandalic devattation as was then committed, or to avoid wishing that some
more of these stately edifices had been preserved, and a portion of their revenues appropriated to their maintenance.
But the very lead which roofed them  sufficed to attract the
royal cupidity.  The abbot's house and offices were left standing for the use of the grantee or purchaser; the church and all
the other buildings were stripped and let to go to ruin. The do
* Latimer and other reformers pleaded in vain for the preservation
of some of the convents. Hume justly thinks that many of the nunneries might have been retained as places of honorable retreat for single
women. In vain the gentry of the county pleaded for the blameless
nunnery of Godstow near Oxford; purity and innocence were no de
fence against the rapacity of the king and his courtiers.
VOL. I.      32




374               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Wtrruction ot books too was lamentable: the convent library
was always given in with the' bargain to him who obtained the
house and lands.  The books were torn up and used for the
basest purposes, or they were sold to the shopkeepers; whole
shiploads of vellum   manuscripts were sent over sea'fot
the use of the bookbinders.  We are told by a contemporary
that one tradesman purchased two libraries for forty shillings,
and that the contents had lasted him in his business for ten
years, and were likely to last him  as much longer.  Much
j i      loss  has  thus  been  sustained  by English  history, and
perhaps by classical literature.  But the greatest injustice
perpetrated at this time was in the case of the impropriated
tithes.  The regular clergy had gradually contrived to deprive the secular clergy of their tithes to the amount of two
fifths of the whole, appointing vicars with paltry stipends to
do the duty.  In all justice these should have reverted to
~ A?      their original destination, but they shared the fate of the
other monastic revenues, and went, -where they still remain,
>e i,     into the possession of laymen.  The more, in fact, we view
the mode in which this secularization of monastic property' (.       was effected, the more we are disgusted with the scandalous!k 9       rapacity of those who were the principal gainers; for their
i $     subsequent conduct proved that religion was not their motive,
as -when a popish sovereign mounted the- throne they readily
returned to the ancient superstition on being secured in
their lands. It certainly ill becomes the descendants of these
men to look with contempt on the possessors of estates acquired by ability', prudence, and honorable diligence.*
In order to fulfil some part of the magnificentplromises
which had been made, Henry erected and- slen'derly endowed
five new bishoprics.  He completed Christ Church College
at Oxford, anid King's College at Cambridge, where'-he also
founded Trinity  College.  A  few  grammar-schools and
hospitals were established, and some money was laid -out in
public works.
When the' intelligence of the suppression of the monasteries reached the Vatican, it excited the-most unbounded
wrath and indignation.  Libels without nunuber appeared at
Rome, in which the impiety of the' king of England was'described as surpassing that of all the tyrants in history, sacred
or profane: Julian alone was-at parallel, as'like himIn he was
learned and a persecutor of the church he bad left.  Finally,
* It will not, we trust, be deemed; invidious, if we contrast Woburv
l-bbey and Dravton' Manor.




HENRY VIII.                   375
the bull which had been prepared three years before, but
had only been held over him  in terrorera, was now issued,
and all hopes of an accommodation were thus terminated.
One of the most active agents in the cause of the papacy
at this time was a member of the~ blood-royal of England.
Reginald Pole was the fourth son of Margaret countess of
Salisbury, the daughter of George duke of Clarence, and
therefore first cousin of Henry's mother.  Henry had always
treated this his young kinsman with the greatest affection; as
he designed to enter the church and had a turn for literature,
he supplied him with ample means for pursuing his studies
at home and at Padua.  In the affair of the divorce, Pole's
opinion was adverse to the king's wishes, and he had the
manliness, in spite of the entreaties of his family to the
contrary, to state to him  both orally and in writing his
reasons against it. This Henry took in good part, and at
his request allowed him to return to Padua. He was residino
there when Henry was declared to be the supreme head of
the English church; the books which Gardiner and Sampson
wrote on this occasion were transmitted to him, and Pole,
who was now devoted body and soul to the papacy, determined to answer them. Early in the following year he composed his work " Pro Ecclesiasticae Unitatis Defensione,"
addressed to his benefactor, assailing him with a virulence
of scurrility hardly exceeded by Luther in his worst moods.
This w6rk was communicated as he wrote it to two of his
Italian friends and to the pope, by whose permission it was
read by some other persons.  His friends advised him  in
vain to soften the personalities.  All this time, we may
observe, Pole was receiving his pension from  Henry, and
continued mnaking piofessions of his intentions to serve him.
in. the May of the next year he sent his book to Henry, by
whom  it, was received jLust four days after his murder of
alnne Boleyn.  T'hle kilg cotented hinmself with directing
his prelates to,draw up a refutation of the facts whlich it set
forth.  A second  edition, of Gardiner's book' De Vera
Obediletia" wwasl published, to w hich Bonner put a preface
in whiclh the pope was ab-used in the most virulent terms.
At the sanme timne the kini- invited Pole to come over to explain some,parts of his book: }but hl- was not to be thus
cIurghlt, aitd: he was' therefore deprived of his dignities and
pe llSi 011s.
In the winter Pole wvent to. RPome by the invitation of the
9ope, who offered- him  a cardinal's hat; this however, he




376              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
declined, and his reasons satisfied the pontiff. But the irm.
perial party had particular reasons for wishing him to be
invested with this dignity; the papal orders, which on his
own principles he could not disobey, were sent to him, and
on the 22d of December, 1537, he with an unwilling heart
became a member of the sacred college.
There is something remarkable in Pole's strong repugnancy to accept the highest dignity the pontiff could bestow,
and in the efforts of the imperial ministers to have it forced
on hirn. Is it not possible that Pole secretly aspired to the
hand of the princess Mary and the throne of England?  The
princess had been committed to the care of his mother the
countess of Salisbury; and Pole's friend and biographer
Beccatelli tells us that queen Catherine, on whose conscience
the murder of the innocent earl of Warwick to secure the
succession to her offspring weighed heavy, had projected
with the countess, who was Warwick's sister, that by way
of reparation one of her sons should marry the princess and
thus obtain the throne. Pole was one of the youngest of
these sons, and he was Mary's favorite. The same biograpier actually assigns this as a reason why the imperial
ministers were so eager to have him made a cardinal.  One
of the charges made against his relations in 1539 was that
of having devised to "maintain, promote, and advance him,
and to deprive the king."  In 1540, Damiano A Goes, writing
to Pole, says of him, " Whom, if there be any truth in my
auguries, we shall yet see king of England;" and Pole in
his reply does not absolutely reject the augury.  Finally,
whet, Mary mounted the throne her marriage with Pole was
in contemplation, and might have taken place but for his
advanced age and infirmities and the acts of the emperor.
Be this, however, as it may, Pole was now a member of the
sacred college, and when the intelligence of the risings in
England had reached the Vatican, the office of legate beyond
the Alps was conferred on him, and he was directed to proceed
to Flanders to be at hand to foment the rebellion. On reaching Lyons he heard of its suppression and of his being proclaimed a traitor by Henry, who had set a reward of 50,000
crowns on his head. Though the king of France would no*
surrender him, he would not admit him to his presence; the
queen-regent of the Netherlands acted in a similar manner,
and he was obliged to fix his abode at Liege, whence after a
stay of three months he returned to Rome; for, though he
had opered communications with the disaffected, he found








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HENRY VIII.                  377
that nothing could be accomplished. He now remained for
a year in Italy, and at the close of it (Nov. 153S) he was
sent as legate to Spain to try to excite the emperor to a crusade against his country. He, however, met with but a cool
reception; and he seems to have come to the conclusion that
the papacy had in reality more to apprehend from Charles
than Henry.
The cardinal, who was out of Henry's reach, might pursue
his treasonable course in safety, but he thereby drew the monarch's vengeance on his family. At the time of his mission
to Spain his brother lord Montague, Courtenay marquess of
Exeter, and sir Edward Neville were committed to the Tower
on a charge of treason, (Nov. 3.) On the last day of the
year the two peers were arraigned on a charge of devising to
maintain and advance one Reginald Pole, the king's enemy,
beyond the seas, and to deprive the king of his royal state
and dignity. The chief witness against them was sir Geoffrey
Pole, who having been arrested on some other charge had
attempted suicide, and when he failed in his attempt had in remorse (probably the result of the weakness caused by loss of
blood) revealed the treason of his family. They were found
guilty and executed, as three days after were Neville, two
priests, and a sailor. Sir Geoffrey was tried and convicted with
these last, but his life was spared for his services, and he was
pardoned in the next reign. About three months later sir
Nicholas Carewv, master of the horse, was convicted and executed, as an accomplice of the marquess. Though conviction in this reign is no certain proof' of guilt, there seems to
be little reason to doubt of the reality of this conspiracy.
CHAPTER V.
HENRY VIII. (CONTINUED.)
1538-1547.
WHILE Henry was thus warring with the papacy on points
of authority, lie was strenuous in maintaining its most revolt.
ing doctrines, and another victim was at this time offered to
he real presence.  This was a man named Lambert, who..




37'8.     HISfORi OF ENGLAND.
had adopted theview. of Zuinglius, that the euchal -t was
merely commemorative.  Hearing one day Dr. Taylor preach
on the subject of transubstantiati'on, he went to him  and
offered to argue the matter.  Taylor, pleading want of leisure,
desired hilm to put. Dis thoughts in writing.  Lambert was
so: incautious as to do so. -Taylor showed the paper to Dr.
Barnes, who like himself held the reformed opinions, but still
believed in the real presence., and Barnes advised him to proceed against Lambert- for heresy in the archiepiscopal court.
On the trial Lambert appealed to the king, to whom Gardiner
suggested that this was a good opportunity, for clearing himself from the charge; of encouraging heresy. Westminster
Hall was prepared, the nobles were summoned from all parts.
The king took his seat, the bishops on his right, the temporal
peers on; his left; the hall was filled with spectators; the prisoner came surrounded by armed men.  Bishop Sampson
having made a speech,: the king put a few questions to the
prisoner in a haughty tone.  Cranmer, Gardiner, Tunstall,
Stokesly, and six other bishops then argued successively with
him.  He became exhausted; the king demanded whether
he would live or die;. he said he threw himself wholly on the
royal mercy.  Henry replied that he had none for heretics.
Lambert persisted in his opinion, and Cromwell by the royal
order read the sentence of death.  He was burnt shortly
after (Nov. 20, 1538) in Smithfield.  Two Dutch1 anabaptists
suffered also in the. same place about this time.
It was, as we may have observed, the practice of HIenry to
carry all his measures under form of.law, and indeed he found
parliaments so very compliant, that it would have been mere
folly and wantonness in him to pursue any other course. The
parliament met on the 28th of April, 1539, and its acts perfectly accorded with -the royal wishes.
An act of attainder against the marquess of Exeter and
those executed with him was easily obtained, but the king
wished to extend his vengeance to the whole of the cardinal's
family. Cromwell was therefore directed to ask the judges
whether a person- might not be attainted without trial or confession.  They replied that, though such a thing might not
be done by the lower courts, a sentence passed by the high
court of parliament would be good in law. This was enough;
Pole's mother the venerable countess of Salisbury, his nephew
the son of lord Montague,: the marchioness of Exeter, sir
Adrian Fortescue,: and sir Thomas Dingley, were all included
Ln a bill of attainder, and as it would seem without any proof:




HENRY VIII.;379
thle two knights were executed, the countess was reprieved,
the marchioness was pardoned.
Au act was passed confirming the surrender of the monasteries.  By another a formal surrender of the national liber
ties was made, for the legislature gave, to the king's procla
mations: the force of statutes -of parliament.
But the great measure of this parliament was that respecting religious doctrines.  As soon as it met, a commission
was appointed, consisting of Cromwell, the two archbishops,
and the- bishops of Durham, Bath, Ely, Bangor, Carlisle, and
Worcester, to prepare such articles of doctrine as might put
an end to religious controversy.  But as the two parties were
nearly equal,in the committee there was no rational chance
of their agreement.  On the 16th of May, therefore, the duke
of Norfolk proposed six questions to the house as:necessary
to be previously determined.  Cranmer and his-friends argued
them vigorously on the reformed side; the opposite view was
supported by Lee, Tunstall, and the Romish party.  Parliament was prorogued on the:24th: when it met again, on the
-30th, each party was directed in the king's name to prepare
a bill against the following Sunday.  That of the Romish
party received the royal approbation, and the lords were directed to discuss it.  Henry himself came down to the house;
his presence, and most probably his words, silenced all opposition, and the Act of Six Articles,'the bloody statute, or
whip- with six strings,' as it was commonly called, was passed
June 10.
These articles were as follows: 1. The natural. body of
Christ is- present. in the eucharist under the forms, but without the substance, of bread and wine; 2. Communion in both
kinds is not necessary; 3. Priests may not marry; 4. Vows
of chastity: are to be kept; 5. Private masses should be retained; 6. Auricular confession is expedient and necessary
The penalty of opposing! the first was death without mercy,
the violation of the others was to be punished as felony.
"Such," says Lingard, "were the enactments of this severe
and barbarous statute."  Latimner and Shaxton immediately
resigned their sees, and they were both committed to the
Tower.  Vast numbers of other clergymen -were cast into
prison for having spoken. against the.popish doctrines.  But
it is extraordinary to remark Henry's steadiness to Cranmer;
he assured him of his. constant friendship, and at his desire
the lords of parliament were entertained by him- at Lambeth
The:primate, however, bent before the storm, and sent his
wife: and children to Germany.




38St             HISTORY iOF ENGLAND.
Henry was nlow in the second year of his widowhood, but
the whole of this time he had been engaged in matrimonial
treaties. The first was with the emperor -for his niece the
duchess-dowager of Milan, daughter of the king of Denmark;
but this was broken off, and Henry turned his views to France.
It has generally been observed that in love people affect their
opposites; in Henry's eyes it seemed fitting that his wife
should be of large dimensions to suit his own corpulence.
He fixed his fancy on the duchess-dowager of Longueville,
daughter of the duke of Guise; but she was already contracted to the king of Scots, and Francis, refusing at Henry's solicitation to break off the match, sent her to Scotland.  He
offered him, however, Mary of Bourbon, daughter of the duke
of Vendome; but as Henry heard that the Scottish king had
refused her, he would not listen to this proposal. Francis
then offered him his choice of the sisters of the queen of
Scots, who fully equalled her in size. Henry proposed
that they should have a conference at Calais, to which Francis
should bring the finest ladies of his court; but the delicacy
of the French monarch would not allow him to treat the
-:dies of France as men, he said, did nags at a fair, where;hey were trotted out that the purchaser might choose. The
negotiations therefore were broken off.
Henry now turned his thoughts to an alliance with one of
the protestant princes of Germany, and Cromwell proposed
to him Anne, daughter of the duke of Cleves. A picture
of her by Hans Holbein having satisfied him of her beauty, he
made his proposals, which were accepted, and the princess
was sent over to England. She landed on the last day of the
year at Dover. On New Year's Day (1540) she reached
Rochester, whither the king's impatience had brought him to
meet her. Great, however, was his consternation when he
beheld her! Tall she was and large, no doubt, but her features were coarse, her manners ungraceful, and she only spoke
her native German.  As he had viewed her unseen, he had
time to compose himself before he was announced. She knelt;
lie raised her and kissed her cheek, but he could not prevail
on himself to deliver the presents he had brought.  He retired
to consult with his friends, to whom he swore that they had
brought him a great Flanders mare. Next morning he rode
back in melancholy mood to Greenwich.  He here directed
Cromwell to devise some: mode of breaking off the marriage,
but none could be found, and there was danger of offending
the protestant princes.  " There is no remedy," said the
king in a sorrowful tone; "I must put my neck into the




HENRY VIII.                  381
yoke."  The marriage ceremony was performed (Jan. 6) by
Cranmer, but the bride could make no progress in gaining
the affections of her capricious lord.
Within his heart Henry had determined on divorcing his
queen, and destroying Cromwell, whom he regarded as the
author of his calamity. Yet never, apparently, was Cromwell
higher in his favor; he had made him knight of the garter
and lord great chamberlain, an office hereditary in the family
of Vere earls of Oxford; and on the second day after the
meeting of parliament, (April 14,) which Cromwell had
opened as usual, he received the earldom of Essex, which
had just become extinct, and the estates belonging to it.
But his enemnies were numerous; the ancient nobility hated
him as an upstart; the people regrarded him as the cause of
the high taxation; the Romish party viewed him with abhorrence on account of the dissolution of the monasteries; the
reformers blamed him for suffering the act of Six Articles to
pass. It seems too that the party opposed to him  and the
queen adopted the same tactics as had been employed against
Catherine and Wolsey.  At a dinner given to the king by
Gardiner, one of the company was Catherine Howard, niece
of the duke of Norfolk, a young lady small in person, not
remarkably handsome, but extremely agreeable in manners.
She contrasted favorably with the coarse Anne of Cleves,
and her conquest of the royal heart was immediate.  The
king's hatred of Cromwell was thereby augmented, and by
his directions the duke of Norfolk arrestedl the minister (June
10) at the council-board as a traitor.  The iniquitous mode
of proceeding by attainder, which he himself had been
the instrument of introducing the last year, was adopted.
He was charged with encroaching on the royal authority in
divers ways, with holding and favoring heretical opinions,
and with declaring that he would fight even against the king
in defence of them.  Cranmer alone proved faithful to the
fallen minister; he wrote to the king in his favor, but that
availed him nought. The bill was rapidly passed through
the lords: in the commons it met with some opposition, but
was finally carried.
The great object, the divorce of the queen, was now proceeded with speedily.  She was sent to Richmond for the
benefit of the air, as it was pretended, and while there she
was waited on (June 25) by the duke of Suffolk, the earl of
Southampton, and sir Thomas Wriothesley, and acquainted
with the king's intention of divorcing her on account of an alb
eged precontract with the duke of Lorraine.  Apathetic as




382              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
she was, she fainted at the, intelligence.  When she recovered
she was prevailed on to consent to refer the matter to the
clergy, to relinquish the title of queen, and in lieu to accept
that of the king's adopted sister; and she consented to write
a letter to him to this effect, and another to her brother, acknowledging the justice of the whole proceeding; and she
further engaged to show all the letters she should receive
from her family.
In the mean time a very pretty farce was enacted by the
legislature.  A member of the upper house rose, and having
lamented the hard fate- of his majesty in being bound to a wife
who had been affianced to another, and the dishonor thereby
brought on him a id the country, moved that he should be
petitioned to refer his case to the consideration of the clergy.
The motion was agreed to; the commons were equally alive
to the interests of the king and nation; the joint address
was most graciously received; the case was submitted to the
convocation, (July 5;) Gardiner expatiated on the causes
which urged the king to seek their interference; a committee, composed of the two archbishops, the bishops of London,
Durham, Winchester, and Worcester, and seven inferior clergymen, was appointed to receive and report on the evidence.
The marriage was declared null and void, as the precontract,
it was alleged, had not been, satisfactorily explained, as the
king did not and could not consummate it, as it would be for
the public good if he were to marry again, etc., in short, as
Henry disliked his wife and wanted to marry another, and as
his divines were most obsequious to his wishes. Parliament
confirmed this sentence, and made it high treason to question
it. The palace of PRichmond and 39001. a year, with precedence of all but the queen and the king's children, consoled
Anne for the loss of a capricious husband.  She had spirit
enough to refuse to return to Germany: she died about sixteen years after this time, in the reign of queen Mary.
Henry had never been known to forgive, -lAd Norfolk and
the other enemies of Cromwell were now high in his favor.
It was therefore in vain that he wrote in such piteous terms,
imploring mercy, as even drew tears from the despot's eyes;
no mercy was to be found. The warrant for his execution
was sent, and on the 02th of July he was beheaded on Towei
Hill.  Aware of the king's temper, and actuated by affection
foir his son he acted like Anne Boleyn, and made no assertion of his innocence.  He said he was by law condemned
to die, and thanked God for bringing him to that death for
his offences  He acknowledged his sins against God, and
his offences against his prince, who had raised him  fromE




bHENRYE VIII.                 383
|  base degree.  He died, he said, in the catholic faith, not
doubting of any article of faith or of any sacrament of the
church; he had not been a supporter of those who held ill
opinions; but he had been seduced, and now died in the
catholic faith; and he desired those present to pray for the
lking, the prince, and himself. He then prayed f)r remission
of his sins and admittance into heaven,- and givi.g the sign,
his head was cut off in a bungling, barbarous rnanner.
But two days after the death of Cromwell, therekindling of
the fires of Smithfield taught the reformers their loss of him.
The victims were Dr. Barnes, and two clergymen named Jerome and Gerard; their offence was preaching the doctrine
of justification by faith only; their persecutor was Gardiner.
As they could not be brought within the Six Articles, the
convenient mode of attainder was employed, and they were
sentenced to be burnt as heretics; at the same time three of
the other party, Abel, Powel, and Featherstone, were attainted
for denying the supremacy.  To prove the king's thorough
impartiality, they were drawnv on hurdles, one of each party
on each, to the place of execution, where the reformers were
burnt as heretics, the Romanists were hanged and quartered
as traitors.
On the Sth of August, Catherine Howard was introduced
at court as queen, and the Romish party now viewed their
triumph as complete, forCatherine, according to the lords of
the council, had entirely won the king's heart by " a notable
appearance of honor, cleanness, and maidenly behavior."
In the following month of April (1541) the people of the
northern counties were again in arms against the government;
the cause was probably religion: the leader was si' John
Neville, but the insurrection was speedily suppressed, and
Neville and some others were executed at York.  Whether
it were that her son the cardinal had instigated it, or that she
h ad herself given some offence, or from the mere wantonness
ot barbarity, Henry now gave orders, for the execution of
the countess of Salisbury.  The venerable matron of seventy.;., years, when placed on the scaffold, (May 27,) refused to
lay her head on the block, saying, " So should traitors do,
and i am none:" she added that if the executioner would have.
her head, he must take it by force.  When held down she
still kept moving it, and he was thus, says Herbert, "s constrained to fetch it off slovenly."
When the insurrection in the north was quelled, Henry
made a progress thither in person, in order to quiet the minds
of the people; he had also in view a personal meeting with
i.L.._,, _~_,~ _~~"F'l~iir-~i~ ~~~~~_~~~II~~I~I~Y     ~~_.~~L~i~IIIYS~PIT. ~




384              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
his nephew the king of Scots, in whose realm the Reformation had likewise commenced, and whom he was urging to
follow his example in seizing the property of the church
But his queen and the clergy had too much influence ovei
the mind of James, and he sent excuses to his royal uncle,
who was now at York. Henry, breathing vengeance, returned to London, where a trial he little anticipated now
awaited him.
On Allhallows day, when the king was "receiving his
Maker," he gave most humble and hearty thanks for the
good life he led and trusted to lead with his queen, and he
requested his confessor, the bishop of Lincoln, to join with
him in prayer and thanksgiving. Next day, after mass,
Cranmer put into his hand a written statement of charges
against his supposed immaculate consort.
It seems that while the king was in the north, a man named
Lascelles had waited on the primate, and told him, that having been down to Sussex to see his sister, who had lived in
the service of the old duchess of Norfolk, who had brought
the queen up, he had advised her to apply for the situation of
one of her women; she replied that she would not, as the
queen was " of light living and conditions." She then went
on to say that one Francis Derham, who had been also in
the duchess's service, had lain with Catherine more than one
hundred timess; and that another servant, named Mannock,
knew a private mark of her body. The archbishop on hearing this was in great perplexity, and he deemed it his wisest
course to communicate it to the chancellor Audley and to
the earl of Hertford; and after maturely weighing the matter
they decided that he should inform the king.  Henry was
thunderstruck at the information, which he asserted was
forged; he, however, summoned the lord privy seal, the lord
admiral, sir Antony Brown, and sir Thomas Wriotheslev, and
directed that inquiry should be made.
The lord privy seal examined Lascelles, and when he was
found to persist in his statement, the same nobleman went
into Sussex, under pretence of hunting, and thus contrived to
nave an interview with Lascelles' sister, who confirmed the
statement of her brother.  Wriothesley meantime arrested
Mannock and Derham, and they both confessed to the charges,
the latter even naming three womnen who had lain in the
same bed with him and Catherine.  When this was all laid
before the king, his rugged nature gave way, and after a long
silence he burst into a copious flood of tears. The primate.
the chancellor, the duke of Norfolk, the lord chamberlain




and tt]e bishop of Winchester, were sent to examine the queen
She at first stoutly denied every thing, but being pressed by
the weight of evidence, she made that night a full confession
to the primate, and put her subscription to it.  She acknowledged her incontinencei before marriage, but asserted that
she h.-ld been faithful to the king.  But it appeared that shehad  taken Derham  as well as- one of- those women into her
service, and;that during the late progress a gentleman named
Culpepper (related to her on the mother's side) had been secretly introduced into her chamber at Lincoln by lady Rochfort, where hlie remained from eleven at night till three in the,
nmornino.
Culpepper and Derham both pleaded guilty when they were
arraigned; the former was beheaded, (Nov. 30,) the latter
hanged, (Dec. 1.0.)  The old duchess ofNorfolk, lord William
Howard the queen's uncle, his wife, and several other persons
were charged with misprision of treason for not revealing her
guilt, and were sentenced to imprisonment for life.  When
the parliament met, (Jan. 1542,) bills of attainder against the
queen, lady PRochfort, and all the above-namedpersons were
rapidly passed.  On the 13th of February the queen and lady
i  ochfort were beheaded  within  the  Tower.  They  expressed great contrition for their sins, but the queen persisted
in affirming that she had never been faithless to the royal bed.
Neither was much pitied.  It was well remembered thatlady
Rochfort had been a principal agent in the murder of her
husband, and his sister Anne Boleyn.*
In the act of attainder of Catherine it was enacted, that
any woman who was about to be married to the king should,
if she was not a maid, inform him of the fact, under penalty
of treason; any other person who knew of this fact, and did
not disclose it, should b,  held guilty of misprision of treason;
* The misrepresentations of Lingard in this and the three succeed-.
irn reigns are so numerous that it is impossible. for us to notice tile,
yet we cannot let him pass here  He first of all says, without even the
authority of Sanders, that "a plot was woven by the industry of the
reformers which brought the young queen to the scaffold;" and finally, he says of her and lady Rochfort, "' I fear that both were sacrificed
to the manes of Anne Boleyn."  "Ifear, that is," says Hallam, "'L
w fish to insinuate."  Then again, Derharm is styled a'grentleman in
the service of her grandmother," but Norris and Weston were only
men-servants when Anne Boleyn was to be injured by insinuation.
This is almost beneath contempt. [Notwithstanding the bitter remarks
of Mr. Keightley and of Mr. Hallam, there is too much reason to suppose that the supposition of Lingard is correct>, ad that the whole'was
in truth, a plot of the reformers. - J. T. S.]
VOL.          3a                            w w
jI




386             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
if the queen or the prince's wife induced any one to commit
adultery with her, they should be all punished as traitors.  it
was jestingly said that the king need not now expect any re.
puted maid to marry him.
In the convocation this year great complaints-were ma.de,
by the  Romish party, of the inaccuracy of Tyndal's and
other translations of the Bible, and a new version was projected, in which Gardiner artfully proposed to retain about
one hundred Latin words, the true meaning and force of wlich
lie said the English language was unable to express.  As the
people could not now be debarred the use of the Scriptures,
it was reckoned that by means of a piebald version of this
kind they might still be kept in the dark on many important
points. Cranmer, however, saw through the artifice, and the
project fell to the ground.
Many years had elapsed since the English nation had
been engaged in foreign war, but hostilities were now to
commence with both Scotland and France. In consequence
of the insult offered him, as he conceived, by his nephew of
Scotland, Henry ordered the duke of Norfolk to raise an
army and invade that kingdom.  The duke crossed the
Tweed with twenty thousand men, and advanced along it to
Kelso, but he re-crossed the river at that place and returned
to England. King James, who had assembled an army, proposed to his nobles an inroad into England; they, however,
refused, and a body of ten thousand men, whom he sent
into England by Solway Firth, took panic and fled at the
appearance of a party of but five hundred English, leaving
several men of rank captives in their hands. James fell
sick from chagrin, and he died just as he had learned the
birth of his first child, a dactghter.  Henry, on hearing of
this event, proposed to his prisoners and some other Scottish
nobles a match between his son Edward and the infant
princess, and he gave them their liberty on condition of
their aiding him to effect it. But Beaton archbishop of St
Andrews, whom the pope had made a cardinal, had forged a
will by which the king left the regency to himself and three
other noblemen during the minority. He was the head of
}1 1,    the Romish party, and the queen-dowager joined interest
with him. On the other hand, the earl of Arran was the
nearest akin to the young queen, and he was supported by
the refornmers. The cardinal's forgery being suspected, he
was deprived of the regency and put in confinement; but
he obtained his liberty, and by appealing to the national and
religious prejudices of the people, he turned them completely
t~~~~~~~~,




HENRY VIII.                  381 
against the English match, and triumphed over his rival,
(1543.)
As the king of France had favored the. party hostile to
his interests in Scotland, Henry now listened to the overtures of the emperor, and entered into a league with him
against France, (1543.)  The Romish party in England
were now elate, but the reformers gained perhaps a more
than countervailing advantage in the king's marriage (July12)
with Catherine Parr, the widow of lord Latimer, who inclined to the new opinions.
Henry crossed the sea the following year, (July 14, 1544 )
with his principal nobility and a gallant army of thirty thousand men.  He was joined by fifteen thousand imperialists
but instead of nmarching direc to Paris, as good policy and
the desires of his ally required, he laid siege to Boulogne
and Mont.real, because Charles had taken some towns and
was besieging St. Dizier.  The king of France in alarm
made proposals of peace to the emperor, which were at once
accepted, and Henry now, as ever, the dupe of his ally,
having  taken and garrisoned Boulogne, raised the siege of
Montreal, and returned home, (Sept. 30.)  The war with
France and Scotland was continued through the following
year, but in a languid manner, and it was terminated by a
peace in 1546.
In the year 1543 a new exposition of faith and morals was
put forth, under the title of " A Necessary Doctrine and
Erudicion for any Christian Man," but it was commonly
called " The Kinog's Book."  Like the Institution on which
it was founded, it was of a motley character, with too much
of popery to content the reformers, with too much of
scriptural truth to please the Romanists.  In the next parliament (1544) Cranmer succeeded in obtaining a mitigation
of the provisions of the Act of Six Articles.
The cause of the reformers lost in 1545 two of its most
powerful supporters in the persons of the duke of Suffolk, the
king's brother-in-law, and the lord chancellor Audeley, who
both died in this year; and Audeley's successor, Wriothesley,
(now ennobled,) sided strongly with the opposite party.  It
was not long till an attempt was made to ruin the primate.
The king was informed " that the primate, with his learned
men, had so infected the whole realm with unsavory doctrine
as to fill all places with abominable heretics," and that
the throne was in danger.  Henry asked how it were best
to proceed; and he was advised to commit him at once tq
the Tower.  He objected to this as a harsh measure; he was




388              HISTORY  OF: ENGLAND.
assured that the primate; was so unpopular thai charges in
abundance would be brought against him whet, he was in
confinement.  He. at~ length  consented that t e prelate
should be summoned; next day before the council, and be
committed if they deemed it advisable.
Before midnight the king sent sir Anthony Denny to
Lambeth to summon the primnate to his presence.  Cranmer,
who was in bed, rose; and came to WVhitehall.  Henry told
him what he had done: Cranmer declared himself indifferent about the committal, as he could easily clear himself.
"0  Lord God!" cried the king, " what fond simplicity
have you, so to permit yourself to be imprisoned that every
enemy of yours may take advantage against you! Do you
not know that when they have you once in prison, three or four
false knaves will soon be procured to witness against you'
and condemn you i"  He then went on to tell -him that he
had taken better measures for his safety; he desired him to
claim his right, as a privy councillor, of being confronted
with his accusers, and if that was refused, to produce the
ring which he then gave him, and appeal to him.
Cranmer returned home, and the next morning at eight
o'clock he was summoned to appear before the council.
When he came he was obliged to rernain sitting in the
anteroom  among the servants.  At length he was brought
before the board and informed of the charges against him;
his demand to be confronted with his accusers was at once
refused.  " I am sorry, Amy lords," said he, "that you drive
me to such a step, but seeing myself likely to obtain no fair
usage from you, I must appeal to his Majesty."  He produced the ring, they gazed on it and each other for some
time in silence; at length lord Russel said, with an oath,
" Did I not tell you, my lords, what would come of this
affair?  I knew right well that the king would never permit
my lord of Canterbury to be imprisoned, unless it were for
high treason."  They then took the ring and: papers to the
king, who rated them well for their treatment of the primate.
"I would have you to know," said he in conclusion, "that
I account my lord of Canterbury as faithfull a man toward me
as was ever prelate in this realm, and one to: whom I am
many ways beholden by the faith I owe to God." The duke
of Norfolk replied, that their only object had been to give
the primate an opportunity of refuting the charges made
against him.  " I pray you," said the king, " use not: my
friends so. I perceive now well enough how the world goeth
among your" At the royal command they all then shook hands




Rn;sity viii.                 389           i
with the placable prnimate, and ai few days after were enter        3
tained by him at Lambeth.
Shortly  alter, at Cranmer's desire,, the king: suppressed
some:popular superstitions, such as ringing bells and keepilng watch the whole night before Allhallows' day; veiling
the cross and the images in churches all through Lent, and
unveiling them on Palm  Sunday, and kneeling before the
cross on that day.  But the king: himself went still further,
and he forbade the practice of creeping to the cross- and
adoring it.
The king's last parliament:met on the 23d of November:
its chief business-: was to- relieve his pecuniary difficulties,
It granted large subsidies, and suppressed all the hospitals
and other charitable foundations, transferring their revenues
to the king.  It even went so far as to empower him to seize
those of the universities, he making a solemn promise " that
all should be done to the glory of God and common profit to        Ithe realm."  It further legalized all the transfers of property
which the church:dignitaries had been forced to make to-the
crown.  The king then dissolved the parliament, (Dec. 24.)
He made on this.occasion a speech, which he concluded by
complaining of the religious dissensions which prevailed. Of
the clergy he said, "Some were so stiff in their old numpsimucs, and others so busy with: their; new sumrpsimus,"* that      l. A
they did nothing but rail at each other; while the laity cen.l -!
sured the conduct of the clergy and debated Scripture in ale-:! 
houses and taverns. He exhorted both parties to give over calling one another ill names, and to live in peace and charity.
The next year (1546) showed how well the king's advice': i"
was attended to, for the flames of Smithfield blazed once
more.  The principal victim was a lady named Anne Askew,
daughter of a knight of Lincolnshire.  She had been married
to a gentleman named Kyrne, to whom she bore two children;
but having adopted scriptural sentiments, her husband, a
furious papist, turned her out of doors.  She resumed her
maiden name, and came to London, in hopes of obtaining a
divorce.  Here she transgressed the Six Articles, and she
was also suspected of conveying religious books to:the queen
and some ladies at court.  She was taken before Bonney
bishop of London; a recantation was proffered to her to sign,
T* he origin of this phrase is as follows: A priest had long read in
his breviary mumpsimus for sumpsimus; his error was at length pointed out to him, but he angrily declared he would not change his old
iumpsi2mus'br their new sumpsimus.
33*




390              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and she wrote that she believed " all manner of things con.
tained in the faith of the catholic church," and though this
was ambiguous, Bonner was obliged to let her go on bail.
This year she was again arrested; she was examined before
the council by Gardiner aud Wriothesley; they could not
move or refute her; she was sent to Newgate, tried before a
iury for heresy, and sentenced to die.  It was hoped by
means of the rack to get her to implicate some persons of
rank.  She was taken to the Tower, and placed on that
norrid instrument.  She bore the torture with the utmost
firmness, not uttering even a cry.  The lieutenant refusing
to allow his man to torment her any further, Wriothesley and
Rich threw  off their gowns and worked the instrument
themselves.  When taken off she fainted, but on her recovering she maintained a conversation with them  for two
hours, sitting on the bare ground.  She was carried in a chair
to the stake, (July 16:) with her were John Lascelles, a
gentleman of the royal household, Nicholas Beienian, a
Shropshire clergyman, and John Adams, a poor tailor -  all,
like Anne Askew, deniers of transubstantiation. Wriothesley
sent to offer them a pardon if they would recant.  "I came
not hither," said Anne, "to deny my Lord and Master."
The others were equally firm, and all were burnt
It was commonly said at this time of the bishop of Win
chester, that " he had bent his bow in order to shoot some
of the head deer."  He had covertly shot at Cranmer; he
now openly aimed at the queen.  Henry, who was grown
peevish and irritable from disease, was annoyed at her urging
him on the subject of religion; and one day as she left the
room he fretfully noticed it to Gardiner, who was present.
The artful prelate saw his opportunity, and he succeeded
in prevailing on the king to let articles of accusation be
drawn up against her. When prepared they received the
royal approbation; but, luckily for the queen, the paper was
dropped (probably by design) by the person who was carrying
it, and was picked up by one of her friends.  Her alarm at
her danger brought on an attack of illness; the king came
to visit her; she expressed her regret at seeing so little of him,
and her fear of having given him offence.  They parted on
good terms.  Next evening she visited the king; he asked
her opinion o011 some points of religion; she modestly replied,
that the man was the woman's natural superior, and her
judgment should be directed by his. " Not so, by St. Mary,"
said the king; "you are become a doctor, Kate, to instruct
us, as we take it, and not to be instructed by us."  Shc




HENRY VIII.                  391
assured him that in arguing with him her only Tbject had
been to divert his mind and to derive information.  "And
is it even so, sweetheart?" cried he; " then perfect friends
are we now again.  It doth me more good to hear these
words of thine own mouth than it would have done had I
heard the news of a hundred thousand pounds fallen unto
me." 9He embraced and dismissed her, and when she was
gone, highly extolled her to those who were present; and yet
the capricious tyrant had been on the point of sending her
to the'Power, perhaps even to the stake!
Next day he sent for her to the garden.  While they were
there, the chancellor came with forty men to arrest her.
The king frowned; the queen retired; the chancellor knelt;
the words " Knave, fool, beast, avaunt, from my presence!"
reached her ears, and she came forward to interpose.  " Ah,
poor soul," said Henry, "thou little knowest how evil he
hath deserved this grace at thy hands. Of my word, sweetheart, he hath been toward thee an arrant knave, and so let
him  go."  Orders were now given that Gardiner should
appear no more in the royal presence; the king also struck
his name out of the list of executors named in his will.
The days of the monarch were now fast drawing to their
close.  He was become so corpulent and unwieldy that he
could only be moved about in a chair, and an ulcer in one
of his legs was at this time so fetid as to be hardly endurable
by those about him.  One more act of injustice and cruelty
was, however, to be perpetrated.  The head of the Romish
party and of the ancient nobility was the duke of Norfolk,
a man who had on several occasions done good service to the
crown; his son, the. earl of Surrey, was the most accomplished nobleman of the age.  The Seymoulrs, the uncles
of the young prince, may be regarded as the chiefs of the
reformed party, and there was a jealousy between them and
the HIowards, who despised them  as upstarts.  Whether it
proceeded from the intrigues of the Seymours, or from the
king's own caprice or apprehensions, the duke and his son
were committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason.
Feebler or more ill-supported charges never were made than
on this occasion. Surrey's principal offences were his having
quartered the arms of the Confessor with his own, a thing
in which he was warranted by the heralds; his having
spoken contemptuously of the new nobility; and his having,
two Italians in his service, whom one of the witnesses susr
pected to be spies. Being a commoner, he was tried by a
Nry at Guildhall, (Jan. 13,) before the chancellor *and other




392              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
commissioners.  lHe defended himself with eloquence and
spirit; but vain was all defence in this reign; he was con
deminned as altraitor, and was beheaded on Tower Hill, (Jan
19, 15417.)
The duke of Norfolk was accused of various trifling acts
of treason, and every effort was made to get up evidence
against him.  A good deal of the misfortune of himself
and his son originated in family dissension; the duchess,
who was separated from her husband, actuated by jealousy,
wrote to the lord privy seal, accusing him; and his daughter,
the duchess of Richmond, was one of the witnesses against
her brother.  Mrs. Holland, who was supposed to be the
duke's mistress, testified all she could against him.  The
duke was- induced to sign a confession of having divulged
the king's secrets, concealed his son's treason in quartering
the arms of the Confessor, and having himself quartered
those of England.  But all availed not; a bill of attainder
was hurried through parliament, the royal assent was given
on the 27th, and he was ordered for execution the next morning. Fortunately for Norfolk, the king died in the night,
and a respite was sent to the-Tower.
The king had gradually been growing worse, but his
friends feared to apprize him of his danger. At length sir
Anthony Denny ventured to inform him of his approaching
dissolution.  He received the intelligence with meekness,
expressing his reliance on the merits of his Savior.  Sir
Anthony asked if he would have any divine to attend him; he
said, if any, it should be the archbishop- of Canterbury;* but
"Let me take a little sleep first," said he, " and when I awake
again I shall think more about the matter;" When he awoke,
he directed that Cranmer should be fetched from Croydon.
The prelate came in all haste, butfound him speechless.  He
desired him to give a sign! of his faith in the merits of Christ;
the king pressed his hand, and expired.
Nothing can be more injudicious than the conduct of
those Protestant writers who, identifying Henry with the
Reformation, seem to think themselves bound to apologize
for and even justify the various enormities with which his
memory is charged.  A  slight knowledge of history will
suffice to show that the worst instruments are often employed
to produce the greatest and best results. We may, therefore,
allow Henry to have been a bad man, and yet regard the
-Reformation, of which he was an instrument, as a beinefit to
mankind.  It is, on the other hand, weak in the Romnanisth
to charge the Reformation with the vices of Henry; it would








4.3.  Edw-ard the Sixth.
7 1t
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4/1. Eurilc~ hel n Siladi.




-EDWARD:VI..393
be equally so in us were we to impute to: their -religion ithe
atrocities of pope Alexander VI. and his children Cwesar and
Lucretia Borgia.
Thorough selfishness.formed the basis of-Henry's char-;acter.  Hie inever. was-known to sacrifice an inclination t' (
the interest or happiness.of another.  "He spared no man in
-his. anger, no woman in his lust; ", every thing must yield to:his will. -He was rapaciQus- and profuse, vain and self-sufficient.   At the same- time he was courteous: and affable,
and when in good humor had a gay, jovial-manner highly
captivating;-in a ruler.  — His people remiembered the magnificence of his early reign, his handsome person; his skill
in:martial -exercises, and lip was.-popular with:them to the
very last.  The -constancy of his -friendship to Cranmer is
the most estinmable trait- in his character; but the primate
never had dared to oppose his will. Henry's patronage -of letters was also. highly- commendable: he was skilful in selecting those whom he;employed in church and state,- and rarely
promoted -an inefficient person.
CHAPTER VI.
EDWARD V1.
1547-1553.
THE:new monarch being only in his tenth year, Henry
had in his will nominated a council of sixteen persons to
administer the government till he should  have completed
his eighteenth year.  A  second council of twelve persons
was appointed to aid them. in cases of difficulty.  Hertford
and his friends formed a majority in the council of regency,
and one of its first acts was to invest him with,the office of
* See W.olsey's opinion of him, (p. 347.)  He went to dine one day
with Sir T. More, at Chelsea. After dinner he walked for an hour in
the garden with him, with his arm round his neck. -Wien More's
son-in-law-Roper congratulated him on the favor he seemed to be in,
" I thank our Lord, son, (quoth he,) I find his Grace my very-good lord
indeed, and I believe he doth as singularly favor me as any subject
within this realm; howbeit, son Roper,- I mnlay tell thee, I: have no
cause to be proud thereof, fbr if ilmy head w uld win him a castle i:
France it should not fail to go." -This was in Henry's jovial days
X




394             HISTORY O, ONGLAND.
protector of the realm  and guardian of the king's person,
The chief, or rather sole opponent of this measure was the
chancellor Wriothesley', who, being from his office next in
rank to the primate, whom he knew to have little talent or
inclination for public affairs, had reckoned that the chief
direction of them woulld fall to himself.
The members of the council next proceeded to bestow
titles and estates on themselves, sir Anthony Denny, sir
William  Paget, and sir William  Hertford having deposed
that such was the late king's intention.  Hertford was
created duke of Somerset; Essex, (the queen's brother,)
marquess of Northampton; lord Lisle, earl of Warwick;
Wriothesley, earl of Southampton; and Seymour, Rich,
Willoughby, and Sheffield, barons of the same names.
Manors and lordships were to be bestowed on them out of
the church lands, to enable them to support their new dignities. Meantime Somerset and others took to themselves
the revenues of sundry deaneries and prebends.  When
they had thus provided for themselves they proceeded to
the ceremony of the young king's coronation, which was
performed with the usual magnificence, (Feb. 20.)
The chief obstacle in the way of Somerset's ambition being the chancellor, he was on the watch for a pretext to get
rid of him, and Southampton's imprudence soon furnished
him with one. In order to be able to devote himself more
exclusively to politics, he had, without consulting his colleagues, put the great seal into commission, and appointed
four lawyers to hear and decide causes in chancery.  Complaint was made to the council; the judges, on being consulted, declared the act illegal.  The chancellor, when
summoned before the council, defended himself, but he * as
obliged to surrender the great seal, and to remain a prisoner
in his own house till the amount of the fine to be imposed
on him should be settled.  Southampton's opposition being
thus removed, Somerset proceeded to enlarge his own authority, and he procured letters patent under the great seal,
now held provisionally by lord St. John, making him Protector, with full regal power. He appointed a council,
composed of the members of those nominated in the late
king's will, but he reserved the power of increasing their
number, and did not bind himself to follow their advice.
By this plain usurpation Somerset was invested with more
power than had ever yet been p'aced in the hands of a
subject.
The Protestants, as we shall henceforth style the re



EDWARD Vi.                    389
formers,* now looked forward to the rapid spread of their
principles.  The young king had been brought up in them,
the protector and the members of the council, with the exception of the bishop of Durham, were, from  various mlotives-partly pure partly interested-in favor of them.  It
was a great advantage -that Cranmer, to whom the protector
much deferred in these matters, was a man of extreme
moderation and caution.
Crairnmer commenced by petitioning the council (Feb. 7)
to restore him to his ecclesiastical jurisdiction; for, as lie
argued, it, had proceeded fiom  the crown, and therefore
had expired with the late king. The other bishops were
obliged to follow his example, and they were thus brought
under obedience to the council. A royal visitation of all
the dioceses in the kingdom  was next appointed.  The visitors received directions to suppress sundry superstitious
practices, such as the sprinkling of beds with holy water,
using blessed candles for driving away the devil, etc.; and
to see that the clergy performed their functions in a decorous and proper manner.  A book of homilies and Erasmus's
paraphrase of the New Testament were to be provided for
each church, and one of these homilies (which were mostly
drawn up by Cranmer) was to be read on Sundays and holidays.  Images which had not been objects of pilgrimage,
and so forth, were to be retained, and every precaution was
taken to shock the prejudices of the people as little as possible.  To these innovations Bonner made some opposition
at first, but he afterwards submitted.  Gardiner, a man of
more firmness and authority, resisted them  vigorously, for
which he was committed by the council to the Fleet.
In the autumn the protector invaded Scotland; his chief
object was to endeavor to force the Scottish nation to agree
to the measure (so evidently advantageous to both countries)
of their union by the marriage of the two young sovereigns;
but the queen-mother and the Romish party were strongly
opposed to it, and the Scottish reformers had lately dis* We will call the other party Catholics, at the same time protesting
against their claim to the exclusive right to this title. Catholic signifying universal, no church can have less right to it than the one which
denies salvation to all without its pale. Roman Catholic (though, as
Milton says, " one of the pope's bulls signifying particular universal ")
is, perhaps, appropriate enough as denoting the Romish branch of the
church. We cannot see any reasonable objection to the term Papist,
it merelv denotes one who maintains the authority of the Pope, and i;
like Imiperialist, etc.
K_



-396             HISTORY O- oENGLAND.
graced their cause by one of those atrocities which distinguish, their- religious zeal -from. that of the English. The
cardinal-primate having, by engaging the earl of Bothwell
to break his faith, got into his hands a gentleman of -the
name of Wishart, a zealous preacher of the new doctrine,
had him tried and condemned to the flames for heresy; and
when Arran, the regent, refused to concur in the sentence,
he of his own authority had caused him to bei burnt, himself witnessing the  execution from  a window.  Some of'Wishart's-friends determined.on vengeance; they contrived
early one-morning (May 28, 1546) to enter the castle of
St. Andrews,-and they murdered the cardinal in his bedroom. Their friends'then repaired to them, and they sent
to London seeking aid from Henry, who promised them his
protection.:By means of the -supplies forwarded to them
from England they were enabled to hold out against the regent for more than a twelvemonth, but he at length reduced
them by the aid of a fleet of French galleys.
Somerset, taking with him the earl of Warwick as second
ill command, crossed the Tweed (Sept. 2) at- the head of
twenty thousand men; whilst a fleet under lord Clinton
moved in view along the coast.  He had previously put forth
a manifesto stating all'the reasons for the proposed marriage,
but the ostensible cause assigned for his invasion were the
depredations committed by -the Scottish borderers. Arran,
on the other hand, summoned all the: fighting. men to his
-standard, and having selected a force, nearly double that of
the English, took his post on the banks of the Esk, about
four miles from Edinburgh.  A skirmish of cavalry took
place, in which the Scots had the worst; Somerset then
proposed assailing their camp, but finding it too strong he
sent, offering to evacuate the kingdom  and make good all
the damage done, provided -the'Scots would -engage not to
marry their queen to any foreign prince, and to keep her
at home till she was of age to choose for herself.  The
moderation of these demands caused them  to be -rejected;
the priests, who had flocked to the camp, inflamed the bigotry
of the Scots against the. English heretics; when they saw
the protector move toward the sea they thought he intended
to embark his troops and thus escape; and confident of victory'they quitted their camp; crossed the river, and: advanced
in order of battle into the plain. In the engagement which
ensued, the Scots, in consequence of their imprudence and
impetuosity, found themselves exposed at once to-the fire
from the English shi)s and their artillery, and to the flights




EDWARD VIT.;                  397
of arrows from their archers.  They soon broke and fled;
the space thence to Edinburgh was, strowed with the bodies
of the slain, the priests especially finding.no mercy.  TheI
loss of the Scots in the battle of Pinkey, as it is named, was
more than ten thousand slain and fifteen hundred prisoners;.
the victors lost not two hundred men.  The protector might
now, by following up his successes, have imposed what terms
he pleased; but intelligence of intrigues against him at court
determined him  to return to London without delay; and,
leaving Warwick at Berwick, with full powers to treat of
peace with Arran, he quitted Scotland, in which he had
been all together  but sixteen days.  The negotiations, however,: came to nothing, and the following year the young
queen was conveyed to France, where she was soon after
betrothed to the Dauphin.
On the return of Somerset a parliament met. The law
of treason was brought back to the statute of 25 Edw. III.,
and all the late laws, extending the crime of felony, and
those against Lollardy,  and that of the Six Articles, were
repealed.  Heresy, however, remained a capital crime, and
was to be punished as heretofore by burning.  The act
making the king's proclamation of equal force with a statute was also annulled.  An act was passed restoring the
communion:in both kinds to the laity, at the same time.
prohibiting all contempt and reviling of the eucharist -  a
practice to which the reformed were too much addicted.
Those who sought to batten on the property of' the church
carried, in spite of the opposition of Cranmer and the
other prelates, an act for vesting in the crown the revenues
of such colleges, chantries, etc., as had as yet escaped'the
royal grasp.  On the prorogation of parliament a general
pardon wsas announced; Gardiner was therefore set at
liberty.
On the approach of Lent (1548) an order of council was
issued prohibiting various superstitious usages common at
that season. It was directed that candles should not be
carried about on Candlemas-day, ashes be presented on AshWednesday, or palms be borne on Palm-Sunday.  Orders
also were given for the removal of all images, without exception, from the churches; for it was found to be impossible
to separate the use from  the abuse of- them.  As many of
the reformed preachers were very intemperate in their language, none were henceforth to preach who had not received
a license for the purpose.  A new communion service was
|ut forth (May 8) by the royal authority.  In the preface the
VOL. I.      34




398              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
practice of auricular confession was left optional with the
communicants.  " A prelude," says Itume, " to' the entire
abolition of that invention, one of the most powerful engines
that ever was contrived for degrading the laity, and giving
their spiritual guides an entire ascendant over them."  In
the course of the year Cranmer, aided by several of the
ablest divines among the reformers, compiled a liturgy in
English.  They proceeded with great moderation and judg-ient, selecting and translating such portions of the mass as
were agreeable to Scripture, and making no innovation for
the wm ere sake of change   This liturgy, the basis of the
beautifiul service still in use, and in which no pious catholic,
we should suppose, could scruple to join, having been aporoved of by parliamente was ordered to be used in all the
churches.  By another act, permission was given to the
clergy to follow the dictates of nature and enter into matrimony like other men.
The protector's brother had, as we have seen, been created a baron by the title of Seymour of Sudeley. War.
wick had also resigned the post of high-admniral in his favor.
Seymour was a haughty, aspiring man; he had been paying
his addresses to Catherine Parr when Henry chose her for
his queen; neither dared oppose the despot's will, but her
heart was Seymour's, and the king was hardly consigned to
the tomb when, with rather indecent haste,* she gave him
her hand.  Her death, however, in childbed, (Sept. 1548,)
put an end to any hopes he might have formed of advancing
his ambitious views through her wealth and influence; he
therefore directed his thoughts to the lady Elizabeth, now
fifteen years of age, his attentions to whom had excited the
jealousy of the dowager-queen, under whose care she lived.
IIe also sought to wrin the affections of the young king by
supplying him secretly with money, and by insinuating that
lie was old enough to take the  government on himself.
Sharington, vice-treasurer of the mint at Bristol, had en.
gaged to furnish hiin with funds to a great extent, and he
was said to have taken a large body of men into his pay, to
have fortified his house of Holt in Denbighshire, and to have
intended to carry oIff the young king.  He also engaged
several of the discontented nobles to enter into his p.ans. Information of what he was about being laid before the council,
" It was said in the articles against Seymour, with ridiculous ex
aggeration. that had she borne a child within the usual period, it could
aot have been said with certainty who was the father.




EDWARD VI.                     399
he was committed to the Tower, (Jan. 19, 154t9.)  A charge
consisting of thirty-three articles was drawn up against hima
l o three of these, when exhibited to him, he replied, but he
would not sign his replies; of the rest he took no notice,
but persisted in demanding an open trial.  On the 25th of
February a bill of attainder against him was brought into
the upper house; the judges declared the acts with which
he was charged to be treasonable, and evidence was heard
in proof of them.  The bill passed the lords rapidly; in the
commons it encountered much opposition, many expressing
their dislike to this mode of proceeding by attainder, and
saying that the admiral ought to be heard in his defence.
A message from the king was brought, saying that all the
evidence should be repeated before them  if they desired it.
This was not required, and the commons passed the bill,
only ten or twelve members opposing it.  It received the
royal assent, (March 14,) and three days after ('March 17)
the warrant for the execution was signed by the council,
Somerset and Cranmer being among those who affixed their
names to it.  On the 2Oth the admiral was beheaded.  He
declared that " he had never committed or meant any treason
against the king or kingdom."  One of his last acts was to
write letters to be secretly delivered to the ladies Mary and
Elizabeth, urging them  to avenge his death.  It certainly
does not appear that the admiral's guilt amounted to treason;
it was against his brother, not the king, that he conspired;
he was, however, a dangerous man, and he was evidently
sacrificed to expediency.?
No one yet had thought of putting down heresy in any
way but by violence, and the reformers would as little bear
any attacks on such articles of faith as they retained, as the
catholics themselves.  In April a commission was issued to
Cranmer, and other prelates and laymen, to take cognizance
of anabaptists, heretics, and contemners of the common
prayer.  Several such were brought before them, who recanted and bore fagots according to the cust. m.  A woman
of good birth and education in Kent, named Jaoan Bocher,
was charged before the commissioners with maintaining an
old, exploded lheresy, 1namely, that Christ did not take flesh
of the Virgin.  Her words were, " Christ was not truly in.
carnate of the Virgin, whose flesh being sinful lhe could take
* The upright Latimer, in a sermon which he preached at this'ime
asserted Seymour's guilt in the most positive terms, from his own
knowledge.




400                HISTORY OF- ENGLAND.
none of it; but the Word, by the consent of the inward'nan
in the Virgin, took flesh of her." C  On her refusal to recant
Cranmer'pronounced sentence on her, and she was delivered
over to the secular arm.  "It is a goodly matter," said she
to her judges, "'to consider your ignorance.  Not long ago
you burnt Anne Askew for a piece of bread, and yet came
yourselves to believe and profess the same doctrine for which
you burnt her-!  And now, forsooth, you will burn me for a
piece of flesh, and in the end you will come to believe this
also, when you have read the Scriptures and understand
them."  These words ought to have made Cranmer and
Ridley at least, who were probably the persons chiefly meant,
doubt of their own infallibility.t  The poor woman was kept
an entire year in prison; Cranmer and Ridley had frequent
conferences with her to no purpose.  The young king had
the greatest repugnance to signing the warrant; it was only
the authority of:Cranmer that at length overcame his scruples, and he signed it, saying, that the guilt, if any, must be
on the primate's head.4  She was consigned to the flames in
Smithfield, (May 2, 1559.)  Dr. Scory preached on the occasion; she cried to him, "You lie like a rogue; go search
the Scriptures."  She died of course with constancy. About
a year after, a Da.z.hman named Van Parr was burnt for
Arianism.
In the course of this summer insurrections broke out in
various parts of the kingdom; the causes were partly religious, partly civil and domestic. Evil always has its attendant good; and monachism  therefore, though injurious to
the best interests of man, had its beneficial results. The
-monks were if England, as in all countries, the best and
most indulgent of landlords.  Restricted  to a particular
mode of life, and not having families to provide for, they
had no motives to urge them  to be griping and oppressive;
and we may fairly suppose that they felt both pride and
pleasure at seeing those under them  flourishing and happy.
| They  also resided constantly  on their estates; they re4 Dr. Lingard calls this "unintelligible jargon," and so it is; but
the doctrine it expresses is far more intelligible than that of the real
presence.
f In 1545, Ridley. from studying the work of Ratramn on the subject, was led to reject the doctrine of the real presence. He communicated his ideas to Cranmer, who, on inquiry, came to coincide with
him in opinion.
it Foxe, 1179. Soames (Hist of Reformat. iii. 544) attempts tc
throw doubt on the story. We wish he had succeeded; for, aftel
making all due allowanlce, it is a blot on Cranmer's character;




K  EDWARD VI.                 401
eeived their rents mostly in kind; they spent them  on the
spot, thus giving encouragement to the industrious, while
the more indigent gentry were glad to share their liberal
hospitality,: and the poor in general derived relief from
the food distributed at the convent-gate.  But all this was
changed when the abbey-lands passed by gift or nominal
purchase into the hands of the Russels, Paulets, Petres,
and  other vultures of the court.  The tenantry were
obliged to surrender their leases, and take out new ones at
double or treble the rent; the new landlords neglected the
injunction imposed on them  to maintain hospitality; they
lived mostly in London, leaving their tenants to be oppressed by their stewards.  Further, as wool was found
to be more profitable than corn, they pulled down farmhouses and villages, converted the arable land into sheepwalks, and in their griping spirit took in and enclosed the
commons.  The peasantry, whose numbers had rather increased in consequence of the long period of internal tranquillity which the kingdom had enjoyed, and whose occupation was thus diminished, felt the pressure of want severely,
they had not the charity of the monasteries now to look to;
and to add to their distress, in consequence of the harvest
of the precious metals now poured into Europe from the
New World, and the frequent debasements of the coin in
the late reign, the money prices of most articles had risen
considerably, while, owing to their numbers and the changes
above mentioned, the supply of labor exceeded the demand
for it, and they were thus unable to raise their wages in
proportion.  These causes, however, being in general far
beyond their ken, they fixed on the one most apparent, and
ascribed, not without some justice the deterioration of their
condition solely to the changes made in tehe national religion.
The people rose almost simultaneously in most of the midland, southern, and eastern counties, but they were quieted
by' the efforts of the gentry, and of some of the " honest men
amrong themselves."''  The protector, who was a man of humanity, seeing the justice of their complaints, issued, again1st
the consent of the council, a commission of inquiry respecting enclosures, and directed that such as were found to be
illegal should be destroyed; the people thus encouraged begarn
of themselves to level the enclosures in sundry places, while
the landowners exclaimed against the protector, as sacrificing
their interests to his passion for vulgar popularity.
The most formidable risings were those in Oxfordshire, Devon, and Norfolk; the lir'st, however, was easily suppressed by
34-                           y Y*




402              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
lord Grey de Wilton; the insurgents fled at the approach of
his troops, leaving two hundred prisoners, twelve of whom
were hanged as examples.  The rising in Devon was much
more formidable; it broke out on ~Whit-Monday (June 10)
in the parish of Sampford Courteney, where the new liturgy
had been read for the first time the day before.  The people
compelled their priest, who was probably nothing loath, to
read the old service.  The insurrection then rapidly spread;
the insurgents soon numbered ten thousand men; many of
the gentry joined them, and the command was given to:ulniphrev Arundel, governor of St. Michael's Mount. Lord
Russel, who was sent against them  with a small force, tried
the way of negotiation; they required that the mass should
be restored; the Six Articles be again put in force; the sacrament be hanged up and worshiped, and those who refused
be punished as heretics; the sacrament be only given to the
people at Easter, and only in one kind; that holy bread, holy
water, and palms should be again used, and images be again
set up; that the new service should be set aside; that preachers in their sermons and priests in the mass should pray for
the souls in purgatory; that the Bible should be called in,
since otherwise the clergy could not easily confound the heretics; that cardinal Pole should be restored and made one of
the council.  They also required that half the abbey and
church lands should be resumed, and that every gentleman
should have but one servant for every hundred marks of
yearly rent.  To these demands, evidently dictated by their
priests, Cranmer, by direction of the council, drew up a reply;
a proclamation was issued, in high terms, ordering them to
disperse; but they advanced, the sacred wafer preceding
them, to lay siege to Exeter.  The citizens made a vigorous
defence; the rebels having tried to take the town by escalade
and by mine converted the siege into a blockade, but lord
Russel when reinforced attacked and routed them.  Arundel,
the mayor of Bodmin, and other leaders were taken and executed: the vicar of St. Thomas was hanged from his own
steeple in his sacerdotal robes.
The insurrection in Norfolk was headed by one Kett, a
wealthy tanner of Wymondham.  Having collected about
twenty thousand of the peasantry, he took his station on
Moushold-hill, which overhangs Norwich, and there, seated
beneath an old oak, which was thence named the Oak of
Reformation, he summoned the gentry before him, and made
what decrees he pleased respecting enclosures anrd other mat.
lers. The marquess of Northampton first went against the




EDWARD VI.                   403
rebels, but he was routed, and lord Sheffield was among the
slain. Warwick was then sent with six thousand men, who
had been levied for the war with Scotland; the rebels imprudently des. ended into the plain to engage himn: their rout
was speedy and total; two thousand were slain, Kett was
taken.  He was hanged at Norwich, and nine others were
suspended from the boughs of the Oak of Refobrmation.
The protector was now beset with difficulties on all sides;
the war with Scotland languished, the French had resumed
hostilities and taken some places about Boulogne, and they
menaced that possession; but when he proposed a peace in
council the members objected to it. The nobility and gentry
were hostile to him for his having taken the part of the people,
and yet the people were not his friends, because he was not
of the old faith.  The execution of his brother had alienated
many; the great estate he had acquired at the expense of the
crown and church displeased others, and the palace which he
was building for himself in the Strand brought great odium
on him from the means he employed.  To procure a site and
materials for this edifice he pulled down the church of St.
Mary-le-Strand and three bishops' mansions.  He was proceeding to demolish St. Margaret's, Westminster, but the parishioners rose and drove off his workmen.  Hle then turned
eastwards and seized on Pardon churchyard and the buildings
about it on the south side of St. Paul's; the materials were
conveyed to the Strand, the bones of the dead were carried
away to Finsbury Fields, and there covered up in unhallowed
earth.  He finally blew up with gunpowder the steeple and
part of the church of St. John of Jerusalem near Smithfield.
Somerset's chief opponent was Dudley earl of Warwick,
an artful, unprincipled man.  He was son to the notorious
agent of Henry VII.; but the late king finding him a young
man of ability had restored him in blood?and taken him into
his service. In pursuance of his plan of forming a new nobility out of the gentry, Henry had created him viscount
Lisle; he was made earl of Warwick in the beginning of the
present reign.
On the 6th of October, Warwick, Southampton, (who had
been restored to his place in the council,) St. John the president, lord Arundel, and five others met at Ely House, and
taking on themselves the whole power of the council, wrote
to the chief nobility and gentry, calling on them to aid; and
to the lord mnavor and aldermen of London, and the lieutenant
of the Tower, directing them to obey their orders, and not
those of the protector.  Next day they were joined by Rich




404              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the chancellor and several other councillors.  Secretary Petre
also, who had been sent to treat with them, was induced- to
remain.  Somerset removed the king from Hampton Court to
Windsor, but finding himself generally deserted, (Cranmer.
Paget,: and a few others only remaining faithful,) he began to
parley.  Lord Russel and some others who had hitherto remained neutral now declared against him. On the 10th he
invited Warwick and his friends to come to Windsor.  They
proceeded thither, and the next day they committed the duke's
secretary, Cecil, and four others, to the Tower, and two days
after the protector himself was sent under a strong guard to
the same fortress. Twenty-nine articles of accusation were
draiwn up against him, in which, though the losses incurred
in the war and his assumption of power were objected to him,
the chief complaint was his having sympathized with the people and wished to do them justice.  He was brought before
the council, (Dec. 23,) and on his knees confessed his guilt
and subscribed the charges against him.  His life was spared,
but he was deprived of all his offices and of lands to the value
of 20001. a year.  Somerset's spirit having revived when he
found his life was safe, he ventured to remonstrate against the
severity of his sentence, but he was forced to sign a still
humbler submission.  He was then liberated (Feb. 6, 1550)
and pardoned.  Soon after his property was restored, he was
i admitted into the council, and a marriage (June 3) between
his daughter lady Anne Seymour and Warwick's eldest son
lord Lisle seemed to have reconciled the rival statesmen.
The successful party now took care to reward themselves
with places and titles.  Warwick became great master and
lord high admiral; the marquess of Northampton was made
great chamberlain, and the lords Russel and St. John were
created earls of Bedford and Wiltshire: to reward  lord
Wentworth, the manors of Stepney and Hackney were torn
from the see of London. The catholias expected that their
cause, to which Warwick was thought to lean, would be now
triumphant.  But it was not of them or their cause that
Warwick thought; and finding the young monarch devotedly
attached to the principles of the Reformation, he would not
risk his power by any efforts in their Favor. Southampton,
finding himself thwarted in his projects, withdrew from the
council; and his death in the following year deprived the
Romanists of one of their ablest supporters.
A peace was now (March 24) made with France, in which
Scotland was included. Boulogne was restored to the French
king on his paying for it a sum of 400,0)00 crowns.  A nego,:     __    __       _          __     __   __  _ ____        _ _   __ _




EDWARD VI.                    405
tiatioyi was then set on foot for the marriage of Edward with
a princess of France.
Whatever might be Warwick's private sentiments, it was
resolved to carry on the lReformation.  Many of the bishops        i 
were, if not hostile, at least lukewarm  in this matter; and
as they had at the accession acknowledged that they held    
their sees at the royal pleasure, an easy mode of proceeding
against them presented itself.  Bonner of London had been
already deprived.  At the close of the insurrections in the
preceding year he had been directed to preach at St. Paul's
Cross, and to inculcate the wickedness of rebellion, tne superiority of holiness of life over ceremonial observances, and
the competence of a minor king to make laws binding on his
subjects.  The two first he discoursed of in a: sort of way,
taking good care to advocate the doctrine of the real presence; on the third he was perfectly silent.  Two of the reformed clergy, Hooper and W. Latimer, who were present,
deemed it their duty to denounce his sermon to the council.!
A commission was issued to two prelates, Cranmer and Ridley,. the two secretaries of state, Petre and Smyth, and May,
dean of St. Paul's, to examine into the charges.  Nothing
could well exceed Bonner's impudence when before them;
his language was vulgar ribaldry.  After several hearings.
his defence not being deemed sufficient, it was resolved to
withdraw  from him the trust which -he was held to have
abused.  A sentence of deprivation for various causes was
pronounced, and he was deprived of his see and confined in
the Marshalsea.  Ridley was then translated from Rochester!
to London.                                                         i'
Gardiner had been now lying in the Tower for two years,
for having preached a sermon nearly similar to that of Bon-        I
ner on a similar occasion.  The duke of Somerset and some.:
other members of the council were sent (June 8) to try to
induce him to express sorrow for the past and- to promise future obedience.  No decisive answer, however, could be ob-::
tained from him.  On the 10th of July, six articles relating to
the royal authority in matters of religion and the book -of
Common Prayer were offered to him  to sign.  He objected 
to the preamble, which contained an -acknowledgment that           i
he had acted wrong, and an expression of his sorrow for.ha
ing done so.  A new series of articles expressive ofapprobation of the late- changes were next offered to him, but as the
preface was: still the same he refused to sign these also.  The
revenues of his see were then sequestered, and when this!produced no effect on him, a commission was appointed to tryv 
i




1|06             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
him; he appealed to the king, but his appeal was rejected
and sentence of deprivation was passed.  Day of Chichester,
heath of Worcester, and Voisey of Exeter, were also deprived
or noncoinpliance with the new order of things.
It has been justly observed, that if any person had a right
o hate the Reformation it was the lady Mary.  It was associated in her mind with her mother's injuries and her own.
She inherited her father's firmness and her mnother's rnel.
ancholy; she had been sedulously brought up in the doctrines
of the church of Rome, and she now clung to them with
characteristic obstinacy.  The young king, equally bigoted., f     in his own creed, viewed her adherence to the mass with
t horror; but the influence of the emperor prevailed with the
council, and she had her private masses.  Two of her chaplains, however, Mallet and Berkley, having celebrated mass
~, >      where she was not present, were committed to the Tower.
" Letters and messages passed between her and the council.
She declared herself ready to endure death for her religion,
and only feared that she was not good enough to suffer martyrdom in so good a cause. With true Romish perverseness,
i i-     that will not even look on the proffered light, she added, that
"As for their books, as she thanked God she never had, so
i b       she never would read them."  The emperor menaced war if
she was molested any further, and as this would at the time,' l      be very injurious to the commercial interests of the country,
the council prudently resolved to connive at her disobedience
to the law; but it required all the influence of Cranmer and
Ridley to overcome the scruples of the young king at thus
tolerating idolatry.
In the course of this year the Book of Common Prayer
underwent a new revision and improvement, and articles of
religion, forty-two in number, were drawn up; several of the
Lutheran divines, particularly Bucer and Peter Martyr, were
now in England and had aided the English divines with the.r
advice.  They had sought a refuge from the persecution of
the emperor, who, though he could plead the rights of conscience in the case of the lady Mary, refiused to allow even
the king of England's ambassadors to use in their own
houses within his dominions the " communion  and other
divine service according to the laws of this realm." 
The ambition of Warwick now began to display itself more
fully; the title of Northumberland having become vacant by
the death of the late earl without heirs, he caused the greater
* Proceedings of the Privy Council, 32.
L _ _ _ _ _ _. _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _   __ _




AJ WARD VI.                 407
[art of the ample possessions of that noble house to be granted
to himself, with the title of duke of Northumberland.  His
frienld Paulet earl of Wiltshire, the treasurer, was at the same
time created marquess of Winchester; the marquess of Dorset duke of'Suffolk, and sir William Herbert earl of Pembroke.
He was resolved to ruin Somerset, whom, though fallen in
power and reputation, he still regarded as an obstacle in the
path of his ambition; for this purpose he sought to gain over
the friends and servants of that nobleman, and thus surround
him with spies; he provoked him by menaces and insults,
anid when the duke broke out into passionate expressions
or formed vague projects of revenge, which were usually abandoned as soon as conceived, the information was
conveyed to Northumberland.  When he thought he had
thus obtained matter enough for a plausible accusation, he
resolved to proceed to action without further delay.
On the 16th of October (1551) the duke of Somerset and
his friend lord Grey were arrested and committed to the
Tower; next day the duchess and several of her favorites
were also thrown into prison; shortly after, the earl of Arundel and the lords Paget and Decies were arrested.  On the
1st of December, the duke, having been previously indicted
at Guildhall, was brought to trial in Westminster Hall; the
newly created marquess of Winchester sat as high steward:
Northumberland, Northampton, and Pembroke were among
the judges, who were twenty-seven in number.  The charges
against So:nerset were his having intended to depose the king,
and having plotted to seize and imprison the earl of Warwick,
(Northumberland.) The witnesses were not produced, but
their depositions made the day before were read; according
to these it was arranged that Grey should levy forces in the
north, that Paget should invite Northumberland, Northamnpton, and Pembroke to dine with him at his house in the Strand,
and that Somerset's band of one hundred horsemen should
intercept them, or, if they were too well attended, assassinate
them when at table; and that the duke should meanwhile
raise the city and attack the gens d'armes of the guard.  All
this Somerset positively denied; but he owned that he had
spoken of the murder of these lords, though he had at once
abandoned that project. The peers, after retiring for some
time, acquitted him of treason, but found him guilty of felony;
their verdict was unanimous; he acknowledged its justice,
asked pardon of the three lords, and expressed his hopes that
his life would be spared.  When the people saw him come
forth without the axe being borne before him, as was usual




408              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
in the case of peers charged with high treason, they thought
he was acquitted, and set up a loud shout of joy.
Perhaps this proof of the unfortunate duke's popularity determined Northumberland not to spare him.  The utmost
pains were taken to impress his royal nephew with a beliel
of his guilt; and the prisoner was deprived of all means of
communicating with the king, who, as it was now the season
of Christmas, was kept engaged in a constant succession of
amusements.
The 22d of-January (1552) was the day appointed for the
execution. Though orders had been issued for the citizens
to keep -their families and servants within doors till after ten
o'clock, Tower Hill was crowded by day-break. At eight
the duke ascended the scaffold with a- firm  step and a cheerful countenance; he knelt and prayed, then rose and addressed the people, asserting his loyalty, rejoicing in the state
of purity to which he had been instrumental in bringing the
national religion, and exhorting them to accept and embrace
it thankfully.  A movement, of which the cause did not immediately appear, now  took place among the people, and
several were thrown down and crushed; it turned out to be
a troop of horse, who being behind their time now came galloping up; when they came in view the people fancied they
brought a reprieve, and they flung up their caps, shouting
"A pardon, a pardon! God save the king! " When the truth
was ascertained, Somerset resumed his address, and having
concluded it and read a paper containing his profession of
faith, he knelt down and received the fatal stroke; several
persons then pressed forward and steeped their handkerchiefs
in his blood, as in that of a martyr.
Like many other unfortunate persons in history, the duke
of Somerset was unequal to the situation in which his-destiny
placed himn  his talents were ill matched with his ambition,
and he thus fell into errors, and even stained himself with a
brother's blood.  In more tranquil times his mild and humane
disposition and his religious feelings might have caused him
to pass a life of peace and happiness.  Somerset stands
almost alone in these times as a nobleman really caring for
the rights and interests of the inferior classes of the people.
Four of Somerset's friends were executed.  The earl of
Arundel and lord.Paget were never brought to trial, but they
were obliged to make submissions and confessions, resign
their offices and pay fines.  Lord de Grey and some others
were discharged.
The next of Northumberland's victims was Tunst all, the es........ _.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



EDWARD VI.                   40O
tlmable prelate of Durham.  As Tunstall's firm adherence tvi
Romanism had made him adverse to the new order of things,
a person named Menville had written to him proposing a plan
for an insurrection in the north.  The bishop incautiously
answered-the letter; -Menville then gave information to the
council, who summoned Tuinstall before them; but his letter
to Menville could not be found, and nothing therefore could
be proved against him.  Somerset, it would appear, had conceaied this letter out of regard to the bishop, for after his
death it was found in one of his caskets. The proceedings
were now resumed; a bill of attainder was introduced into
the house of lords, and it was passed, none opposing it but
Cranmer and lord Stourton, a zealous catholic.  The commons, more just or more courageous, insisted that the bishop
and his accusers should be confronted, and this being refused
they threw out the bill. -A commission was then appointed
to try him; he was deprived, and his goods were confiscated.
Tile regalities of the see were transferred to Northumberland,
and but for subsequent events, much of its property would
also have gone into his possession.
In the month of April -of the- following year (1553) the
young king had an-attack of the measles, which was followed
by the smallpox; his constitution, originally delicate, was
mtuch shaken, and there seemed little prospect of his life being
prolonged for many years. If the lady Mary. should succeed,
Northumberland had every thing to apprehend; he therefore
represented to Edward the-dangers likely to result to true
religion should the supreme power of the state come to one
so bigoted to the ancient superstition; and-he reminded him
that the act of parliament bastardizing her was still in force
and might be employed to exclude her. Although the print
cess Elizabeth was a protestant she came under the same act,
and must therefore be also excluded; there only remained
therefore the descendants of the daughters of Henry Vi1.,
the queens of Scotland and France. -But the- former. were
excluded by the latei king's will; the marchioness of Dorset,
eldest daughter of the queen of France by the duke of Suffolk,
was therefore the next in order of succession, and she would
willingly transfer her rights to- her eldest daughter. the lady
Jane Gray, of whose attachment. to protestantism there could
be no -doubt. -To -these suggestions Edward listened with
approbation-.
The ambitious Northumberland -aimed not merely at-ex.
cluding the lady:Mary, but hoped to bring a crown matrimo.
nial into his own house.  At this -very  time his -residence
VOL. I.     35                       z 




4]0              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Durham House, was the scene of connubial festi.iles; the
ady Jane Gray became the bride of his fourth son, lord Guilford Dudley, her sister Catherine was married to the eldest
son of the earl of Pembroke, and the lady Catherine Dudley
to lord Hastings, eldest son of the earl of Huntingdon.
On the 11th of June sir Edward Montague, chief justice
of the common pleas, was summoned, with two of the other
judges and the attorney and solicitor general, to attend the
king at Greenwich. When they came Edward apprized them
of his intentions respecting the devise of the crown, and putting into their hands a draft of the measure signed by him in
six different places, desired them to draw up a legal instrument to that effect. They attempted to remonstrate, but he
would not hear them, and only granted them some delay to
examine the various settlements of the crown.  Two days
afterwards they came, and informed the council that such an
instrument would subject both the drawers and the advisers
of it to the penalties of treason. Northumberland, who was
in an adjoining room, when he heard what they said, came
out in a rage, and calling Montague a traitor said, "I will
fight in my shirt with any man in this quarrel." They retired, and soon after all but the solicitor-general were again
summoned to appear before the king, who asked them in an
angry tone why they had not obeyed his command. The
chief justice explained the reason, and when the king expressed his intention of calling a parliament, advised that
the matter should be deferred till it met.  But Edward
insisted on its being done immediately, and the lawyers finally consented on'condition of receiving a commission under
the great seal and a pardon. When the instrument was
drawn up, Northumberland resolved that it should be signed
by all the privy councillors, and by the judges and law officers.
Among the judges sir James Hales, a zealous protestant
alone refused, and Cranmer alone among the councillors, but
with his wonted weakness he swerved in his resolution.  He
had all along advised the king against the measure; he earnestly sought but could not obtain a private audience, in the
hope of dissuading him from it. When called on to sign,
like the rest, he said, "I cannot set my hand to this instrument without committing perjury, for I have already sworn
to the succession of the lady Mary, according to his late
majesty's testament."  He was then required to attend the
king. " I hope," said Edward to him, "that you will not
stand out and be more repugnant to my will than all the rest
of my council.  The judges have informed me that I may




MARY.                     411
lawfully bequeath my crown to the lady Jane, and that my
3ubjects Imay lawfully receive her as queen, notwithstanding
the oath which they took under my father's will."  Cranmer
asked permission to consult with the judges: their explanations seem to have removed his scruples, and he put his signature to the devise.
The young king was now taken from under the care of
his physicians, who declared that their skill was baffled, and
committed to the charge of a woman, who pretended to have
somne specific for his disease. But he rapidly grew worse,
and on the 6th of July, 1553, he breathed his last. Almost
his closing words were, " O my Lord God, defend this realm
from papistry, and maintain thy true religion, that I and my
people may praise thy holy name for Jesus Christ's sake."
Edward died so young that his character had not developed itself sufficiently to enable us to appreciate it. He
has, however, been the subject of unlimited panegyric to
the pens of zealous protestants, who identify him with the
progress made by true religion in his reign.  He was certainly amiable in his disposition, his piety was fervent and sincere, but it showed symptoms of degenerating into bigotry
and intolerance.  His abilities were more than moderate,
and they were carefully cultivated. It is to the glory of Edward's reign, and to the honor of his advisers, that it was
free from bloodshed on account of the contest between the
old and new religions.  "Edward," says Dodd, a catholic,
"did not shed blood on that account. No sanguinary, but
only penal, laws were executed on those who stood off."
The blood-thirsty zealots of the succeeding reign could not
say that they only followed the example set them by those
whc'-,i they murdered.
CHAPTER  VII.
MARY.
1553-1555.
NORTHUMBERLAND intended to keep the death of king
Edward for some time a secret. His object was to get the
princesses into his power. for which turpose they had been




412              HISTORY OF -ENGLAND.
summoned to Londoni to- see their brother.  The lady Mary
had reached; Huuntsdon in Hertsthe. evening of the: king's
death; but having-received secret intelligenceof that event
from Arundel, she mounted her horse. and rode with all speed.to Kenninghall in Norfolk.
The council spent three days in making the necessary arrangements for securing the succession of lady Jane. During
this time they communicated the death. of the king to the
lord mayor. and. some of the aldermen and citizens, under
the seal.of secrecy.  On the fourth day they proceeded to
make that event public, and the chief of them rode to Sion
-louse to announce her: dignity to the young queen.
The lady Jane. Gray was now but sixteen years of.age 
her person was pleasing,. her disposition amiable and gentie, and her talents of a superior order. Of the extent of
her acquirements and the serious turn of her mind we have
a proof: in the following anecdote, related by the learned
Roger Ascham': — Going. one day to Bradgate, the residence
of her famnily, he learned that the other members of it were
hunting-in the park, but he found the lady Jane at home
deeply engaged.in the perusal of Plato's Phedon inll the
original Greek.  When,he expressed his surprise at her
thus -foregoing the pleasures of the park, she replied with a
smile, "I fancy all their sport is but a shadow to the pleasure
that,  Ifind in Plato.  Alas! good folks, they never felt' what
true pleasure means."  Besides the classic languages, she
is said to have been acquainted with French and Italian,
and even to have acquired some tincture. of the Oriental
lan guages.
Her usual residence since her marriage had been. at Sion
House; but she had lately removed to Chelsea.  An order
of the council to return to her former abode, and there
to await the commands of the king, was now conveyed to
her by her husband's sister, lady -Sydney.  Next morning
-he was visited by Northumberland, Northampton, Arundel,
-Huntingdon, and Pembroke. They addressed her in terms
of unwonted respect; her mrother,:.hermother-in-law and the
marchioness of Northampton then entered. and th.e duke informed her of the death of:her ro,.a: cousin, and his devise
in her favor, in order to' preserve the realm  from papistry.
The lords then fell on their: knees,: and swore that they were
ready to shed their blood in her right.  At this unexpected
intelligence Jane burst: into a flood of tears dand -fell senseless
on,the. ground.,When she recovered,, she - bewailed her
cousin's death, and expressed.-her sense:of her unfitness to




MARY.                      413
supply his place, but added, looking up to heaven, "If the
right be truly mine, O gracious God, give me strength, I
pray most earnestly, so to rule as to promote thy honor and
my country's good."
A barge was prepared next day, and Jane was conveyed
to the Tower, the usual residence of the kings previous to
their coronation.  As she entered it her train was borne by
her own mother; her husband walked at her side, his cap in his
hand; all the nobles bent the knee as she passed.  Her
succession was now  proclaimed; but the people, whose
notions of hereditary right were strong, and who hated
Northumberland, listened with apathy.  A vintner's boy
who ventured to express his dissent was set in the pillory
and lost his ears for his offence.  Many of the reformed
clergy preached in favor of the present change in the succession.  Bishop Ridley exerted his eloquence in the same
cause at. St. Paul's cross, but with little effect.  For this
he has been blamed; and it may be with reason, but he had
had recent experience of Mary's unyielding bigotry, and
doubtless he deemed that there was no safety for the Reformation but in her exclusion.
Though the partisans of Jane had the government, the
treasures, a fleet, an army, and the fortresses in their hands,
the cause of' Mary was strong in the popular notion of her
right, and still stronger in the popular aversion to Northumberland.  The people of Norfolk, who had suffered so
much at his hands in their late insurrection, were therefore
disposed to favor her, and she was proclaimed at Norwich,
(July 13.)  She had previously written to the council, demanding why they had concealed her brother's death, and
requiring them  to have her instantly proclaimed; a denial
of her right was returned, and she was called on to "surcease
to molest any of queen Jane's subjects."  Her letters to
divers of the nobility and gentry were better attended to;
the earls of Bath and Sussex, and the heirs of lords Wharton
and Mordaunt joined her at the head of their tenantry; and
sir Edward Hastings, who had been sent by Northumberland
to raise four thousand men for the cause of Jane, led them
to the support of Mary.  This princess had now removed
to the duke of Norfolk's castle of Framlinuhan, on the coast
of Suffolk, that she might escape to Flanders if necessary
A fleet had been sent to intercept her, but the crews were
induced to declare in her favor.  So many of the nobility
and gentry nad now joined her that she found herself at the
nead of an army of thirty thousand men.  Sir Edward Has35 




414              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
tings and some other leaders were preparing to march froim
Drayton to Westminster with ten thousand men.
On receiving this intelligence, the council directed the
duke of Suffolk to advance with the troops, which had been
ccl.ected against the lady Mary; but Jane with tears implored them not to deprive her of her father.  As Suffolk's
incapacity was well known, the council called on Northumberland himself to take the command.  He complied, though
with reluctance it is said, for he feared their treachery.  He
sent his troops forward, and on receiving the assurances of
the nobles that they would join him  with their forces at
Newmarket, he set forth with his train, (July 14.)  The indifference shown by the assembled populace was such as
to cause him to observe to lord Gray, as they rode through
Shoreditch, "The people press to look on us, but not one
saith God speed ye."  lHe proceeded to Cambridge, whence
he advanced (July 17) at the head of eight thousand foot
and two thousand horse in the direction of Framlingham;
but at Bury St. Edmund's he found it advisable to retreat,
and he returned to Cambridge, whence he wrote to the
council requiring them to send him reinforcements without
loss of time.
But things in London had meantime taken a new direction.  On the 19th the lord treasurer and lord privy seal, the
earls of Arundel, Shrewsbury, and Pembroke, sir Thomas
Cheney and sir John Mason met at Baynard's Castle, where
they were attended by the lord mayor, the recorder, and some
of the aldermen.  Arundel, who had all along been in secret
correspondence with Mary, advised them to acknowledge her;
he met the main objection by saying, " How  doth it appear
that Mary intends any alteration in religion?  Certainly, having been lately petitioned on this point by the Suffolk men, she
gave them  a very hopeful answer.""  Pembroke then drew
his sword, and exclaimed, " If the arguments of my lord of
Arundel do not persuade you, this sword shall make Mary
queen, or I will die in her quarrel." t  All, however, gave a
willing assent; they rode forth and proclaimed Mary at St.
Paul's cross amid the acclamations of the populace, to whom
" Which indeed was true," adds bishop Godwin, as of his own
knowledge. As it appears to have been only verbal, it was easy for
Mary and her partisans afterwards to deny it.
i This fervent loyalist had beer. one of those who signed the devise
of the crown to Jane, and he hat sworn a few days before to shed his
Iloed in her cause!




MARY.                       415
beer, wine, and money were then distributed, and the nigh
was ushered ill by bonfires and illuminations.
A.rundel and Paget having set forth with the news to Mary,
Pembroke took the custody of the Tower from Suffolk.  Tihe
lady Jane, after a brief reign of only ten days, laid down her
royalty, and retired to Sion House.  When her father announced o her the necessity for her resignation, she replied
that it was far more agreeable than his late announcement
had been, and expressed her wish that her cheerful abdication
might atone for the offence she had committed in accepting the
crown, in obedience to him and her mother.  Northumberland, when he found the turn matters were taking, proclaimed
queen Mary at Cambridge; but he was arrested by Arundel,
and comniitted to the Tower,' as also were the duke of Suffolk and twenty-five more of their friends.
Mary now  advanced toward London.  At Wanstead in
Essex she was met by the lady Elizabeth, at the head of a
stately cavalcade of knights, ladies, gentlemen, and their servants. Four days after, the two sisters, followed by a magnificent train, rode through the city to the Tower, - Mary small,
thin, and delicate; Elizabeth tall, handsome, and well-formed,
carefully displaying her beautiful hands.  In the Tower Mary
was met by fbur state prisoners of rank, the duke of Norfolk,
the duchess of Somnerset, Courtenay, son of the late marquess of Exeter, and Gardiner, bishop of Winchester.  She
raised them  fiom  the ground where they knelt, kissed them,
and gave them their liberty.  Next day she released Trunstall
and Bonner.  When formingc her council she bestowed the
oflice of chancellor on Gardiner, who soon showved that his
captivity had not subdued his haughty, overbearing spirit.
Paget was next in influence and importance in the cabinet.
Though Mary had hitherto led a life of seclusion, the love
of splendid apparel, which seems to have been inherent in
her family, was seated deep in her heart, and she gave loose
to it in such a manner as to surprise even the French ambassador, who imust have been well used to the pomp and display
of dress at his own court.  She required all about her, both
lords and ladies, to be similarly arrayed, and  gray-haired
dames of sixty were now to be seen in the gayest hues, and
laden with jewels and ornaments, — unlike the perhaps too
* As he was led through the city, a woman displayed one of the
handkerchiefs (lipped in Sonlerset's blood. " Behold," she cried, " the
blood of that worthy man, the good uncle of that worthy prince, whiice
was shed by thy mnalicious practices! It plainly now begins to revenge
itself on thee,"




416              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
sober court of Edward VI.  Her coronation was celebrated
(Sept. 30) with all possible splendor. It was performed in
the ancient manner; her clothes were all blessed; she was
anointed on various parts of her head and body; Gardiner
chanted mass; the crown was borne by Elizabeth, who
with Anne of Cleves afterwards dined at the queen's table.
A -general pardon to all but sixty persons, who were named
was proclaimed the same day.
On the 1Sth of August Northumberland, his son lord
Warwick, the marquess of Northampton, sir John and sir
Henry Gates, sir Andrew Dudley, and sir Thomas Palmer
were brought to trial.  Norfolk presided as lord high steward
for the trial of the three peers.  Northumberland submitted
these questions: could a man be guilty of treason who obeyed
orders given him by the council under the great seal? and
could those who were involved in the same guilt with him
sit as his judges?  Hie was told that the council and great
seal of which he spoke were those of a usurper, and that
those against whom there was no sentence of attainder were
qualified to sit as judges.  They all then pleaded guilty.  The
commoners, who were tried the next day, did the same.
Northumberland, sir John Gates, and sir Thomas Palmer
were selected for execution.
Abject in adversity as insolent in prosperity, Northumberland sought an interview with Gardiner, and implored his
interest to save his life. " Alas," cried he, "let nme live a
little longer, though it be but in a mouse-hole."  Gardiner
expressed his wish to serve him, but could not venture to give
any hopes.  He then prayed that a learned priest might be
sent, to whom he might confess, adding that he had never
been of any religion but the bishop's own, though for ambitious motives he had pretended otherwise, and that so he
would declare at his death. Gardiner, it is said, shed tears,
and there is reason to believe did apply to Mary on his behalf;
but the emperor had strictly enjoined hler not to spare him,
and indeed there was no reason why she should.  Bishop
-4Heath was sent to give him spiritual comfort.  On the 21st
the dnake and his fellow-prisoners attended mass; he received
the eucharist in one kind, and he addressed those present,
expressing his regret for his share in putting down the mass,
and his intention of restoring it, which, he said, " I could
not do at once, because it was necessary for my ends to win
the hearts of the Londoners, who love new things."  Before
evening it was announced to him that he was to die the next
miorning.  He wrote in the most supplicatory terms to Gar




MARY.                      417
diner and Arundel, but in vain. Next morning he was led
with GEates and Palmer to the scaffold on Tower-hill.  The
duke, talking ofbfhis damask gown,'leaned over the railing on
the east sidle, and addressed the spectators.  He acknowledged his guilt, but said that he had been incited by others
whom he would not name; he exhorted the people to return
to the ancient faith, without which they could not hope for
peace.  "By our creed," says he, " we are taught to say,'I
believe in the holy catholic faith,' and such is my very
belief, as my lord bishop here present can testify.  All this
I say not from having been commanded so to do, but of my
own free will."  He then prayed, and laid his head on the
block.  His two companions died with penitence and couff
age, but made no recantation.
Such was the well-nierited end of this bold bad man. His
confession, it has been finely observed, "was not attended
with those marks of penitence which might render it respectable; it served only to strip his conduct of any palliation
which the mixture of a motive, in its general nature commendable, might have in some degree afforded."  It matters little
whether he were sincere or not; he certainly. seems to havelooked for a reprieve up to the moment when he laid his head
on the bloci.*"
The other prisoners, with the exception of lady Jane and
her husband, were set at liberty.  But notwithstanding all
this clemency, the prospect for the protestants -was gloomy
and cheerless.  The queen made no secret of her attachment
to the church of Rome, though she still pretended that she
would not interfere with the religion of the people.  The
Romish priests, now imboldened, ventured to celebrate mass
openly in some places. Bourne, one of the royal chaplains,
when preaching at St. Paul's cross, dared to attack what had
been done in the late reign.  The people became excited, a
cry of " Pull hihm down  " was raised, stones were thrown, and
some one flung a dagger, which hit one of the pillars of the
pulpit.  i-e might have lost his life but for Bradford and
Iogers, two reformed preachers, who calmed the fiiry of the
people, and conveyed him into St. Paul's school.  The queen
took advantage of this to forbid all public preaching, the great
weapon of the reformers.
No one could plead better the rights of conscience in her
own case during the late reign than AIary, but in the case of
her sister she seems to have forgotten them  all. Elizabeth
* Foxe asserts that he had been promised a pardon
AAA
i1




418.HISTC,RY OF ENGLAND.
found it necessary for her safety to attend mass, anc  -mle wai
even obliged to stoop some time after to the ipl)f 3risy of
writing to the emperor to send her a cross, chalice, and other
things for the celebration of mass in her private chapel.
Ridley was already in the Tower; 1-ooper bishL4p of Gloucester and others were also in prison.  Cranmer had hitherto
been suffered to remain at Lambeth; but when the suLbdean
Thorndon had the audacity to have mnass celebrated in',le
cathedral of Canterbury, the primate felt it his duty to show
that this was without his participation.  He drew up a paper
containing  his sentiments on the mass. Bishop Scory, having
called on him, saw it, and obtained a copy; from this several
other copies were made, one of which was publicly read in
Cheapside.  Cranmer was summoned before the council; he
acknowledged the paper to be his, and said his intention had
been to enlarge it, affix his seal to it, and put it upon the doors
of St. Paul's and other churches.  He was committed to the
Tower (Sept. 14) on a charge of treason. Latimer had been
sent thither the preceding day for his " seditious deineanor," as it was termed.  As -the venerable man was led
through Smithfield, he anticipated his fate, and said, "Thls
place has long groaned for me."  Most of the leading protestants were now in prison, many fled the kingdom: Peter
| Martyr and the other foreigners were ordered to depart.
When the men of Suffolk sent to remind the queen of her
promises, they met with insult, and one of them namrned Dobbe
was set in the pillory.  The intentions of the queen and her
council could now be no secret to any one.  When the news
of her accession reached Rome the pope instantaneously appointed Pole papal legate for England, and soon after a  tomish envoy named Commendone, who had gon0le over ta,
England, and had had private interviews with the queen,
arrived with a letter to the pontiff in her own hand-writing, inl
which she engaged for the return of herself and her kingdoml
to their obedience to the Holy See.  Pole was impatient to
proceed at once to England, but Gardiner feared he would
precipitate matters too much; the emperor too apprehended
his opposition in a matter he had much at heart, and impediments were thrown in his way.
The parliament which had been summoned met on the 5th
of October.  It is said, but without proof, that violence had
been employed to procure a majority favorable to the court;
but the simple court influence, added to the prejudices of a
large number of the electors, the eagerness of the catholics
tr, obtain seats, and the fears or despondency of the protes,




MARY'.                      419
tarnts, are fully sufficient to.account for the effects.-n open
violation of the existing law, a solemn mass of ti:e Holy
Ghost was celebrated in Latin before both houses. and wher
Taylor bishop of Lincoln refused to kneel at it, he was thrust
out of the house.  The archbishop of York had,een committed to the Tower the day before for " divers his offences,"
and Harley, the only remaining protestant prelate, was not
allowed to take his seat because he was a married man.
The most important measures passed in this parliament
were, an act abolishing every kind of treason not contained
in the statute 25 Edw. III., and all felonies that did not exist
anterior to I Hlenry VIII.; one declaring the queen's legitimacy, and annulling the divorce pronounced by Cranmer;
one repealing all the statutes of king Edward respecting religion: it was enacted that after the 20th of December next
ensuing, no service should be allowed but that in use at the
death of king Henry.  An act of attainder was also passed
against those already condemned for treason, and against lady
Jane Gray, her husband, lord Ambrose Dudley, and archbishop Cranmer: these four were arraigned at Guildhall,
(Nov. 13,) and they all pleaded guilty.  Cranmer, urged
probably by the natural love of life, wrote to the queen a full
explanation of his conduct in the affair of altering the succession, and seeking for mercy; he did not remind her, as he
might have done, that she had been indebted to him  for
safety in her father's time.  No notice, however, was taken
of his application, but it does not appear that Mary had as
yet any decided intention of taking his life.
Trhe marriage of the queen was a subject which had for
some time engaged the attention of herself and her council.
The plan of a match between her and cardinal Pole, whom
a papal dispensation could restore to a secular condition, was
again brought forward; but the cardinal was now fifty-four
years of age, his health was delicate, his habits were bookish
and studious, and as the queen seems to have desired an active, young consort, that project was abandoned.  The general
opinion was that she would marry young Courtenay, whom
she had created earl of Devonshire, and whose mother she
had selected for her bedfellow, according to. the usage of the
age.  Of foreign princes, the king of Denmark, the infant
of Portugal, and others were spoken of; but the imperial am.
bassador had his directions to hint to her, as from himself,.
match with the prince of Spain, who was now in his twenty.
seventh year, and a widower.  She did not seem to give any
attention at the time, but the idea sank in her mind.  Her
affection for Courtenay was observed visibly to decline; she




420             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
began to talk of his youth and inexperience, and she felt or
tflected great horror at the excesses into which he ran, and
which were but too natural to a young man long secluded, on
the first acquisition of liberty. Presently came a letter fiom
the emperorhimself, gallantly regretting that age and infirmity
prevented him from offering her his own hand, but proposing
to her that of the prince of Spain.  Her pride was gratified
by the prospect of such a high alliance, her vanity was flattored at her hand being sought by a man eleven years her
junior, and she secretly. resolved. on the Spanish match.
In the council Norfolk, Arundel, and Paget were in favor
ot it; Gardiner was opposed to it, as also were the bulk of
the people, catholics as well as protestants; the French and
Venetian ambassadors also exerted themselves strenuously
in favor of Courtenay. On the 30th of October the commons voted an address praying that she would select a husband out of the nobility of the realm. But she would not
be thwarted; she said she would prove a match for all the
cunning of the chancellor.  She sent that same night for the
imperial ambassador, and taking him into her oratory knelt
at the foot of the altar before the hallowed wafer, which she
believed to be her Creator, and having recited the hymn
"Veni, Creator Spiritus," called God to witness that she
took the prince of Spain for her husband, and never would
have any other.  When the commons waited on her with
the address, she told them  it was for her, not for them, to
choose in this matter.
On the 2d of January, 1554, four ambassadors extraor.
dinary arrived from the emperor, and made a formal offer
to her of the prince of Spain. Gardiner, who had given
up his opposition when he found it useless, had already arranged the terms with the resident ambassador Renard, and
he took all possible precautions for the honor and independence of England.  The appointmert. to all offices was to
rest with the queen, and be confined to natives; Philip was
to bind himself by oath to maintain all orders of men in
their rights and privileges; he was not to take the queen
abroad without her consent, nor any of her children without
that of the nobility; not to claim  a right to the succession
if he survived her; not to take from the kingdom  ships,
ammunition, or any of the crown jewels; and not to engage
the nation in the war between his father- and France.
Gardiner recommended this treaty with all his eloquence
to the lords of the council, who were willing auditors, but
to the people the Spanish match was odious. Treaties and
itT~_- __-_____ __




MARY.                      42t
promises they knew were as easily broken as made; sup.
ported by foreign troops, Philip might easily trample on
the constitution, and establish the diabolical tribunal of
the Inquisition.  These murmurs soon ripened into conspiracies, which were secretly encouraged by Noailles, the
French ambassador.  It was proposed to effect risings in
various parts, and to marry Courtenay to Elizabeth, and
establish them in Devonshire, where his family interest lay.
There does not, however, seem  any sufficient reason for!elieving that the princess was aware of these plans. It
was the intention of the conspirators to wait till the actual
presence of Philip in the kingdom should have still further
excited the dissatisfaction of the peol)le; but Gardiner drew
the secret from  the fears or the simplicity of Courtenay,
and the very next day (Jan. 21) finding they were betrayed,
they resolved to have recourse to arms, unprepared as they
were, before they were arrested. The duke of Suffolk and
his brothers, the lords John and Thomas Gray, went down
to Warwickshire to raise his tenantry there; sir James
Croft went to the borders of Wales, where his estates lay;
sir Peter Carew and others to Devonshire.  But all their
efforts to raise the people proved abortive.  The duke, after
being defeated in a skirmish near Coventry by lord Huntmngdon, who was sent in pursuit of him, was betrayed by
one of his own tenants, and was recommitted to the Tower:
Croft was surprised and taken in his bed before he could
raise his tenantry: Carew fled to France at the approach
of the earl of Bedford.
In Kent affairs assumed a more serious aspect.  Sir
Thomas Wyat, a man of great skill and courage, raised the
standard of revolt at Maidstone, (Jan. 24 ) he was; instantly
joined by fifteen hundred men, and five thousand more were
ready to rise.  He fixed his head-quarters at the old castle
of Rochester, and he obtained cannon and ammunition
from some ships that were lying in the river.  The duke
of Norfolk, at the head of a part of the guards and five
hundred Londoners, advanced to attack him, but when he
gave orders to force the bridge, Bret, the commander of the
Londoners, addressed his men, urging them  not to figh!
against those who only sought to save them  from the yoke
of foreigners.  A cry of "A Wyat! a Wyat!" was raised,
and Wyat came out at the head of his cavalry; Norfolk and
his officers fled toward Gravesend. and Wyat soon reached
Deptford at the head of fifteen thousand men.
T'he council were now greatly alarmed for the personal
VOL. I.      36




|  422           HISI OIRY OF ENGLAND.
safety of the queen.  This, however, is one of the few
moments in her life in which we must admire her; she ex.
hibited all the courage of her race, and resolved to face the
l  danger.  When the lord mayor had called a meeting of the
ni itizens, she entered Guildhall with her sceptre in her hand,
followed by her ladies and her officers of state, and addressed the assembly in such animated terms that the hall
resounded with acclamations: twenty-five thousand ~of the
citizens forthwith enrolled themselves for the protection of
the city.
Wyat meantime was at Southwark with a force dimin,lshed
to two thousand neil, for his followers slank away wicen
they fiJund that the Londoners would oppose them.  Finding
that they were exposed to the guns of the Tower, he led
them up the river to Kingston, and having there repaired thc,.
i ~       bridge, which had been broken, and crossed, he proceeded
rapidly toward London in the hope of surprising Ludgate
before sunrise.  But the carriage of one of his cannon happening to break, he most unwisely delayed for an hour to
repair it.  This gave time for information to be conveyed to
ji:    kthe court.  The ministers on their knees implored the queen
to take refuse in the Tower, but she scorned the timid
| ~       counsel.  A force of ten thousand foot and fifteen hundred
i         l horse, under the lords Pembroke and Clinton, was ready to
1;        oppose the rebels.  At nine o'clock Wyat reached Hyde|i  p      ark.  Though exposed to the fire of the royal cannon at
St. James's, he forced his way up Fleet-street with a few
followers, and reached Ludgate, where being refused admittance he turned and fought his way back to Temple Bar; but
here, finding further resistance hopeless, he surrendered to sir
Maurice Berkeley.  His followers meantime had been routed, one hundred being slain and about four hundred made
prisoners.
If Mary on the former occasion had neglected the advice
of the emperor and acted with lenity, she resolved to do
so no longer.  The very day after the capture of Wyat,
(Feb. 8,) she signed a warrant for the execution of "Guilford Dudley and his wife," as it was insultingly expressed.
Feckenham, the former abbot of Westminster, was sent to
endeavor to convert the lady Jane to the catholic religion,
but all his arguments failed against her sound sense and
steady piety.  On the morning appointed for the execution,
(Feb. 12,) lord Guilford, whom Janle had refused to see lest
their feelings should overcome their fortitude, was led out
and beheaded on Tower-hill in the presence of a great mul.
__  -     I____ ________.   _ ______________    __  - ________  __. ___-  _. __ii




MIARY.                    423
ltude of people.  Jane from her window saw him go forth,
and she aftVrwards beheld his bleeding trunk as it was
broughl-lt back in a cart.  HIer own execution was to take
place within the precincts of the Tower, either on account
of her royal extraction, or more probably from fear of the
effect the sight of her youth and innocence might have on
the minds of the spectators. She ascended the scaffold with
a firm step, and then addressed those present, saying that
she was come there to die for the commission of an unlawful act in taking what belonged to the queen; but adding
that, as to the desire or procurement of it, she washed her
hands ill innocency, and she called on them to bear witness
that she died a true Christian, and hoped for salvation only
through the blood of Jesus.  She then knelt down and repeated the fifty-first psalm in English.  As she was placing
herself before the block, she said to the executioner, " I pray
you despatch me quickly."  She then asked him, " Will you
take it off before I lay me down? " " No, madam," replied
he. Her eyes being bandaged she groped about for the
block, and not finding it she became a little agitated and
said, "What shall I do? where is it? where is it?"  Her
head was then guided to the right spot.  She stretched forth
her neck saying, " Lord! into thy hands I commend my
spirit," and one blow terminated her existence.
Even the popish historian, who seems to regard it as his
duty to suppress all sentiments of sympathy and compassion
whien a protestant is the sufferer, says that " it would perhaps
have been to the honor of Mary " if she had abstained fiom
this deed.  A more humane and enlightened historian says,
"The history of tyranny affords no example of a female of
seventeen, by the command of a female and a relation, put
to death for acquiescence in the injunction of a father sanctioned by the concurrence of all that the kingdom could
boast of what was illustrious in nobility, or grave in law, or
venerable in religion.  The example is the more affecting as
it is that of a person who exhibited a matchless union of
youth and beauty with genius, with learning, with virtue,
with piety; whose affections were so warm, while her passions were so perfectly subdued. It was a death sufficient
Lo honor and dishonor an age."
The duke of Suffolk was executed shortly after.  He met
with less commiseration than he would have done had he
not been regarded as the chief cause of his admirable
daughter's death.  Ile was a weak, well-meaning man, and
seems to have been actuated more by religious feeling than




4-24              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
by ambition.  Iis brother lord Thomas Gray, a bolder man
shared his fate.  Sir Nicholas Throgmorton Was the most
fortunate of those who were brought to trial; for he proved
to thee satisfaction of the jury that his case did not come
within the statute of Edward III., and they acquitted him.
But the court had no idea of being balked of its prey by the
consciences of jurors.  They were all summoned before the
council, committed to prison, and made to pay fines of from
1000 marks to 20000. apiece.  This made other juries more
pliant, and sir John Throgmorton and others were found
guilty at once.  Wyat was reserved for some time, and
efforts were made to prevail on him  to accuse the'ady
Elizabeth and Courtenay.  He partly yielded, but what he
htad been induced to say not being deemed sufficient, he was
sent to the scaffold. At his execution (April 11) he declared that, led by a promise of his life, he had been induced
to charge then falsely with a knowledge of his enterprise.
According to the accounts of both the French and the
Imperial ambassadors, upwards of four hundred persons
were hung. Our own writers would seem to limit this
number to little more than sixty.*' On the 20th of February
four hundred others were led, coupled together with halters
round their necks, to the tilt-yard, where the queen from her
gallery pronounced their pardon, and the poor men went
away shouting " God save queen Mary!"
But the great object of' Mary and her council was to get
the lady Elizabeth into their toils, as the emperor strongly
urged her execution.  In'the beginning of December she
had with difficulty obtained permission to retire to her house
at Ashridge.  It is very probable that she had received some
intimation of the designs of the conspirators, and that,
knowing her life to be in constant danger from the bigotry
of her sister, she may have secretly approved of them, but
there is no reason to suppose that she ever committed herself by giving her consent to them.  BRut whether the court
had evidence against her or not, the very moment Wyat's
insurrection was suppressed, a body of five hundred cavalry
* The accounts may, perhaps, be reconciled. Noailles writes on the
12th of March, that above 400 had been hung, besides 50 captains and
gentlemen; Renard on the 17thi of February, that 200 men, taken at
the fight at St. Jamnes's', had been executed with-their officers:; and or.
the 24th, that 100: had suffered in Kent. Stow says, that on the 14th
and 15th of February about 50 of Wyat's faction were hanged. May
not these have been only the 50 officers mentioned'by the ambas
sadors? 




MARY.                       42-5
waas sent to Ashridge, whose commanders had orders to
bring her up "quick or dead."  She was at this time very
unIwell, and was retired to rest when they arrived at ten at
nigkt.   She requested not to be disturbed till morning; but
tley ins-ited on seeing her immediately, and followed her
Iady irte her chamber.  Two. physicians having reported
that sk  might travel without danger to her life, she was
placed next morning at nine o'clock in a litter, and her
weakress was such that she did not reach London till the
fitsh day.  As she passed along the streets she caused the
litter to be opened, and she appeared clad in white, but pale
arnd swc en with her disease, yet still displaying that air
o. majvesty and dignity which nature had impressed on her
features.  She was kept for a fortnight a close prisoner at
her own residence; it was then determined to send her to
the Tower.  She wrote to her sister, asserting her innooence
in tke strongest terms, and claiming a personal interview on
the grounds of a promise the queen had mn:,,e her.  TIer
letter was unheeded, and on Palm Sunday shle was led wi a
baige in order to embark for the Tower.  As she passed
alcing she cast her eyes up to the windows, hoping to - e
her sister, but the queen was probably engaged at her dcvotions.  She ventured to say that she wondered the nobility
of the realm would suffer her to be led into captivity.  She
objected to landing at Traitors' Stairs, but one of the lords
said she must not choose, and offered her his cloak, as it was
raining.  She flung it from her, and stepped out, saying,
"Here lands as true a subject, being. a prisoner, as ever
landed at these stairs.  Before thee, 0 God! I speak it,
having no other fiiends but thee alone."  The warders who
came to receive her knelt down and prayed for her safety,
for which they were dismissed: next day.  She passed on
and sat on a stone to rest herself; the lieutenant begged of
her to come in out of the rain; she replied, "Better sitting
here than in a worse place.".  She was then led to her
apartment; the doors were locked and bolted on her, and
she remained there to meditate oxn the fate of her guiltless
mother and the innocent Jane Gray - a. fate which, she. had
little doubt awaited herself
Mary, in whose bosom  fanaticism  had stifled all natural
feeling, was willing to shed her sister's blood.; the emperor,
acting perhaps on the principles of his grandfather irn the
case of the earl of Warwick swas urgent to have hem cxe?
cuted, if possible; Arunrdcl an. Paget were for the iamn
course; but Gaidirnic  saw  p aSily that neitihe  she. noi
36                       B B B




426              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Courtenay could be brought within the provisions of 25
Edw. III., nova the only law  of treason.  It may be that
motives of humanity had some influence on the chancellor.s
mind, but there is nothing to prove it.  The queen feared
to take on herself the responsibility of executing her sister
contrary to law.  The rigor of Elizabeth's confinemn;nt was
so far relaxed that she was allowed to walk in a small garden
within the Tower.  On the 19th of May, sir Henry Bedingfield came with one hundred soldiers and conveyed her to
Riclhiond, and thence to Woodstock castle, where she was
confined as strictly as when in the Tower. Courtenay, who
was a close prisoner in this fortress, was sent on the 22d to
Fotheringay.
The queen, meantime, lay on no bed of roses.  Phe -waJ
in a state of constant apprehension; she distrusted even
those who were about her, and did not venture to,ove.
without a large body of guards.  She is said to hai,-i had
thoughts of ordering a general muster of the people, and
thten seizing their arms and laying them up in the fortresses.
At this time great numbers of the gentry, apprehensive of
t!he persecutiout which they saw coining, sold their properties
arind went over to France.
A parliament met on the 4th of April; a sum of 400,000
crowns, sent for the purpose by the emperor, is said to have
been employed to gain over the members; and Mary, to
quiet the apprehensions which might be felt about the
church lands, resumed the title of supreme head of the
church.  The object proposed was to get a bill passed, enabling the queen to dispose of the crown and appoint a successor.  But the parliament easily saw who the successor
would be, and that, in her blind folly and hatred of her
sister, the queen would make England but a province of
the Spanish monarchy.  All the arts of Gardiner, therefore,
failed; they would not even make it treason to compass
the death of the queen's husband.  Bills for reviving the
law of the Six Articles and other statutes against heresy,
were introduced to no purpose, and the queen, finding the
parliament not to answer her ends, dissolved it.
If we believe the malicious, but probat.y true, statements
of the French ambassador, the queen manifested her impatience for the arrival of her young husband in a very ridiculous manner.  She frequently complained of his delsay, regarding it as intentional, and remarked that thoughl slhe
brouzlttl him  a kingdom  a-; i-.ei,.owaer, he hadl not favored
her with a aingle letter; ar d as Jhe -vewed her:ordinary and




MARY.                     427,3treworii features in her glass, she feared lest she might fail
~f inspiring him with affection.  At length, to her great
joy, Philip landed at Southampton, (July 19.)  He was received by the lords of the council and presented with the
order of the Garter  After a short delay he rode to Winchester, where he was met by the anxious queen; and on
the feast of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, (July 25,)
the marriage ceremony was performed by Gardiner, the
bishop of that see.  The royal pair remained there for some
days, and then proceeded to Windsor.  They visited the
metropolis, where they were received with those very dubious mnarks of affection, shows and pageants; but the character of neither was calculated to gain the popular favor.  The
queen was anxious to have her husband all to herself, and
his own Spanish pride contributed to fence him round with
pomp and etiquette.
But the object nearest the queen's heart was to bring her
kingdom a gain into the bosom of the church.  As this could
never be effected while the nobility and gentry had to fear
for their property in the church lands, the pope yielded to
the representations of Gardiner, and signed a bull empower
ing the legate to " give, alienate, and transfer" to the present
possessors all the property taken from the church in the two
late reigns.  It was now deemed advisable to convene a new
parliament; and as the queen knew she might depend on the
compliance of the degenerate or upstart nobles, who never
dreamed of opposing the royal will, no matter who possessed
the crown, her sole care was to obtain a pliant house of commons.  Orders were therefore sent to the sheriffs to halve
those who held the ancient faith elected; the protestants
were dispirited, and consequently a house containing probably not a single one of them was returned. On the first of
November the parliament \was opened by a speech from the
chancellor in the presence of the king and queen, whose expectation he said it was that they would accomplish the reunion of the realm with the catholic church.  One of the
first measures for this purpose was to introduce a bill for reversing the attainder of cardinal Pole. It was passed of
course without hesitation.
The cardinal meantime was on his way to England; lord
Paget, sir Edward Hlastings, and sir William Cecil had been
sent to meet him at Brussels. At Dover he was received by
the bishop of Ely and lord Montague; as he advanced, the
gentry of the county joined him on horseback. He entered
a barge at Gravesend, where the earl of Shrewsbury and the




428              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
bishop of Durham presented him with the act reversing his
attainder  then, fixing his silver cross in the prow, he pro.
ceeded tk Westminster.  The chancellor received him as he
landed; the king at the palace gate, the queen at the head
of the staircase.  After a short stay he retired to Lambeth,
and occupied the archiepiscopal palace, which had been pre.
pared for his abode.
Four days after, the legate returned to court, whither the
lords and commons had been summoned.  He thanked them
for reversing his attainder, and assured them of his readiness
to aid in restoring them to the unity of the church.  They
then retired, and next day they unanimously voted a petition
to the king and queen, expressing their sorrow for the defection of the realm, and hoping through their mediation to be
again received into the bosom of the church. A gracious
reply could not be withheld. On the following day the
queen came and sat on her throne, the king on her left, the
legate on her right.  The chnnceilor read out the petition:
the king and queen spoke to the cardinal, who then rose, and
after addressing the assembly at some length, solemnly absolved them and the whole realm, and restored themr to the
holy church.  They rose and follo'wed the king and queen
into the chapel, where the Te Demu was chanted.  The next
Sunday the legate made his public entrance into the city.
Gardiner preached at St. Paul's cross, lamenting his conduct
in the time of Henry VIII., and exhorting all to follow his
example, and repent and amend.
The present parliament readily passed the bill against
heresy, and the others which had been rejected by the last.
They also. made it treason to compass or attempt the life of
Philip during his union with the queen; but even they would
go no further, refusing to consent even to his coronation,
An act, however, was passed, giving him the guardianship of
the queen's expected issue,'" if it should happen to her other.
wise thdan well in the time of her travel,."
The lovesick Mary actually fancied at this time that her
longing desires for issue were about to be gratified.  At the
first sight of Pole she felt, as she thought, the babe, moving in
her womb; this by some of the zealous was likened to Johr
the Baptist's leaping in his, mother's womb at the salutation
of the Virgin.  The council wrote that very night to Bonner
to order a Te Deunm to be sung, in St. Paul's and the other
churches. Prayers were composed for the safe delivery., of
the queen, one of which ran partly thus.: "Give therefore
unto thy- servants Philip and Mary a male issue, which may




MARY.                       429
sit in the seat of thy kl,igdoin.  (ive unto our queen a little
infant, in fishion and body comely and beautiful, in pregnant
wit notable and' excellent." Public rejoicings were made,
and the household of the prince (for so it was to be) was arranged.  But all was mere illusion; the pregnancy, as afterwards appeared, was but the commencement of dropsy!
To ingratiate himself with the nation, Philip caused those
who were in confinement in the Tower for treason to be sdet
at liberty.  Through his means the same favor was extended
to Courtenay.'-  But his most popular act was obtaining pardon for the princess Elizabeth.  As we have seen, she was
now   a prisoner at Woodstock, and sir Henry Bedingfield
proved so rigorous a jailer that, it is said, hearing one day
the blithe song of a milkmaid, she could not refrain fromn
wishing that she were a milkmaid too, that she might carol
thus gay and free from care.  Her situation was a precarious
one; as the daughter of Anne Boleyn, and as a protestant in
her heart, she was an object of aversion to the queen, who,
according to Elizabeth's own assertion, actually thirsted for
her blood. Gardiner is said to have been urgent for her execution.  He used, we are told, when the punishment of
heretics was spoken of, to say, " We may shake off the leaves
and lop the branches; but if we do not destroy the root, the
hope of heretics, (i. e. the princess,) we do nothing."  And
he was right; for had she been cut off, and had the queen
of Scots succeeded it is impossible to say-what might; have
been the injury to true religion.  The Spanish match alone
saved Elizabeth; for it became the interest of him who had
the power to do it to protect her.  Nobler motives too may
have actuated Philip; lie may have shrunk from the idea of:
seeing the blood of a princess shed to gratify revenge and
bigotry.  Such motives operated at least on his Spanish attendants.  Foxe tells us that whenl lord Paget said that the
king would not have any quiet commoonwealth in England
unless her head were stricken  fiorm  the shoulders, the
Spaniards answered, "God forbid that their king and master
should have that mind to consent to such a mischief; " and
he adds that they never ceased urging Philip till he had her
released from prison.  To this is to be added Elizabeth's extreme prudence, which prevented her enemies from gaining
any advantage over her, and her feigning to be a catholic.
Something also must be ascribed to the mild temper of carPThis young man went to the Continent, ind he died soor after at
PNdua




130              HISTORY OF ENGLANDI
dinal Pole, his gentlemanly feeling, his respect for royal and
kindred blood, and his influence over the queen.
Hatfield was now assigned to Elizabeth as a residence,
under the charge of sir Thomas Pope, a gentleman of honor
and humanity, and she was frequently received at court.  It
was proposed to marry her to some foreign prince, but she
steadfastly declined all the offers made to her. She spent her
time chiefly in reading the classics with the learned Roger
Aschamn.
CHAPTER VIII.
MARY. (CONTINUED.)
1 555 —1558.
THE year 1555 opened with dismal prospects for the protestants. The queen had already, even before the parliament
met, made this reply to the lords of the council in writing:
-" Touching the punishment of heretics, methinketh it
ought to be done without rashness, not leaving in the meantime to ro justice to [i. e. execute] such as by learning would
seem to deceive the simple; and the rest so to be used that
the people might well perceive them not to be condemned
without just occasion; by whlich they shall both understand
the truth, and beware not to do the like. And especially
within London! would wish none to be burnt without some of
the council's presence, and both there and every where good
sermons at the same time."  On the 2.3d of January all the
bishops went to Lambeth to receive the legate's blessing and
directions. Pole, whose natural temper was mild and whose
character was virtuous, desired them to return to their sees
and endeavor to win back their flocks by gentle methods.
On the 25th (St. Andrew's day) there was a solemn procession through London.  First went one hundred and sixty
priests, all in their copes; then came eight bishops, and
lastly Bonner, bearing the host; thanksgivings were offered
to God for reconciling them again to his church; bonfires
blazed all through the night, and this day was appointed to
be annually observed under the name of the Feast of Reconciliation.  On the 28th, the chancellor, aided by the bishops
Bonner, Tunstall, Heath, l'hirlby, Aldrich, and other prel



MARY.                       431
ates, and the dluke of Norfolk and the lords Montague and
Wharton, opened his court under the legratine authority for
the trial of heretics at St. Mary Overy's in Soulthwark.
The late bishops Hooper and Ferrar, and Rogers, Taylor
and some other divines had been brought on the 22d before
the chancellor and council; they had to undergo the ill language and browbeating of Gardiner, but they persisted in
ma.zintaining their principles.  Hooper and Rogers were now
put on their trial.  The former was charged with marryingt,
though a priest; with maintaining that marriages may be legally dissolved for fornication and adultery, and that persons
so released may marry again; and with denying transubstantiation.  He admitted the truth of all.  Of the last he said,
"I have done so; and I now affirm that the very natural body
of Christ is not really and substantially present in the sacrament of the altar.  I assert, moreover, that the mass is idolatrous, and the iniquity of the devil."
Rogers was asked if he would accept the queen's mercy
and be reconciled to the catholic church.  He replied that
he had never departed from that church, and that he would
not purchase the queen's clemiency by relapsing into antichristian doctrines.  Gardiner charged him  with insulting
his sovereign.  " The queen's majesty, God save her grace 
would have been well enough," said Rogers, " if it had not
been for your counsels."  "'The queen went before me,"
said Gardiner; "it was her own motion." "1 I never can nor
will believe it," was the reply.  Bishop Aldrich then said,
" We of the prelacy will bear witness to my lord chancellor
in this."  Yea," replied Rogers,' that I believe well'"
which reply caused a. laugh among the by-standers.  Gardiner made a long speech, and then he and his brethren rose
and took off their caps, and he asked the fatal question, did
le believe that the body of the Lord was really present in
the sacrament.  Hle answered that he did not.  The passing
of sentence was deferred till the next day, under the pretence
of charity, and the two prisoners were conducted to the
Counter in Southwark.  Next morning they were brought
up again, and as they refused to recant, they were condemned
on the charges already mentioned.  Rogers requested that
his poor wife, being a stranger, (she was a German,) might
come and speak with hin while yet he lived.  " She is not
thy wife," said Gardiner.  " Yea, but she  is, my lord,"
replied Rogers, " and hath been so these eighteen years."
His request was refused.  The two prisoners we:e ther
committed to the sheriffs, with directions to keep them  ir




HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the Clink till night, and then to transfer them to Newgate
In order that the city might be enveloped in darikness, orders
were given that the coster-mongers, who then, as now, sat
W.ith candles at their stalls, should put them  out.  But the
people stood with lights at their doors, and greeted, prayed
for, and praised the confessors as they passed.
Some days after, Bonner came to Newgate, and in the
chapel performed the ceremony of degrading them, on which
occasion he rejected the renewed request of Rogers to be
allowed to see his wife.  On the 4th of February Rogers
was led forth to be burnt in Smithfield.  Immense crowds
were assembled in the streets, who cheered and applauded
him as he went along repeating the fifty-first Psalm.  Amono
them he beheld his wife and his ten children, one of them
an infant iatthe breast.  At the stake a pardon was offered
him if he would recant; he refused it, and died with constancy, England's protestant protomartyr.
As we shall unfortunately have more of these horrible
auntos dafe to narrate, we will here describe the manner of
them. A large stake or post was fixed in the ground, with a
ledge or step to it, on which the victim was set, standing
stripped to his shirt, that he might be visible to all the spectators. He was fastened to the stake with chains, but his
arms were left at liberty.  Fagots and bundles of reeds were
then piled around him, to which fire was set, and he was
thus consumed.
The next day (Feb. 5) Hooper, whom it was unwisely
determined to burn in his own diocese, was taken to near
St. Dunstan's in Fleet-street, where he was committed to the
charge of six men of the royal guard, who were to conduct
him to Gloucester.  Having eaten a hearty brealkfaist at the
Angel, St. Clements, he mounted the horse prepared for him.
To prevent his being recognized on the road, he was made
to wear-a hood under his hat, which covered the greater
part of his fare; and he was never taken to any of the inns
at which he had been in the habit of stopping.  H-is coming
being known, a large multitude of people met him witlin a
imile of Gloucester, who loudly lamented his fate.  H- is
guards took him to a private house, and kindly allowed him
to pass the next day in solitary devotion.  Sir Anthony
Kingston, one of his former hearers, and now one of those
appointed to conduct his martyrdom, came in and saluted
nim, but he was so absorbed in prayer that he did not hear
him. Kingston burst into tears, and when he drew his at.
}entioni  urged him to save his life and recant; hut his




MARY.                      433
arguments were of no avail, and he retirea thankir,g God
that he had known the bishop, who had been the means
of reclaiming him  from sin.  In the evening the mayor,
sheriffs, and  aldermen  came to receive  him  fronm  his
guards.  They saluted him kindly, and were going to take
him away to the city gaol; but the guards, whose hearts he
had wvon on the journey, interceded, offering to be answerable
for him if left for this last night inl his present lodging; to2
this the magistrates consented.  HIle retired to rest at five
o'clock, and, having slept soundly for some hours, arose
and employed himself in fervent devotion.
At nine the next morning (Feb. 9) the sheriffs came with
armed men to conduct him to the pyre.  He walked between them, leanling on a staff, on account of the sciatica
which had come on himn in prison.  As it was market-day,
about seven thousand people were assembled, but strict
orders from the council not to permit him to address the
people had been received.@  The stake had been fixed near
a great elm tree in front of the cathedral where he was wont
to preach.  The spectators filled the place around, the houses,
and thie boughs of the tree; the priests of the college stood
in the chamber over the gate.  When he arrived he knelt
down and prayed: lord Chandos, who presided at this martyrdom, observing those who were nearest listening attentively to his prayers, ordered them to remove to a greater
distance.  A box containing his pardon was set before the
victim.  "If you love my soul, away with it! " said lie twice.
" There is no remedy then," said Chandos; " despatch,
quickly."  Hcoper then threw off his gown, desiring the
sherifis to return it to his host, to whom it belonged.  He
would fain have retained his hose and doublet, but the sheriffs,
whose perquisites they were to be, would not suffer him,
" such was their greediness."  When he was fixed to the
stake, one of his guards came and kindly fastened some be._os
Df gunpowder about him to shorten his torments.  The pyre
was then inflamed, but most of the wood was green, and the
wind blew the flames from him.  At length it blazed up, but
it sank again, leaving hinm  all scorched; even the explosion of the powder did him  little injury.  His sufferings
lasted for three quarters of an hour, during which he was
seen to move his lips constantly in prayer, and to beat his
The martyrs were usually enjoined not to speak. Foxe says that
the council used to threaten to cut out their tongues if they did not
oledge themselves to be silent.
VOL. I.         7                      c c c




434               HISTOIRY OF ENGLAND.
breast, which he continued to do with one hand after his
other arm had dropped off.  At length his agonies came to
their close.
Our limits do not allow us to enter into the interestiig
details of the martyrdom  of Taylor, Saunders, Bradfobrd,
and others, who at this time sealed their testimony t9 the
tx, th with their blood.i-   Suffice it to say that they all died
with the utmost constancy, especially those who were mare
ried, thus nobly refuting the slanderous assertions of their
adversaries, that sensual pleasure was the bait which allured
them to the reformed creed.
It is remarkable that after the condemnation of Hooper
and Rogers, the chancellor sat no more, but resigned the
odious office to Bonner, of whom it has been truly said,
that he " seems to have been of so detestable a nature, that
if there had been no persecution he must have sought other
means of venting  his cruelty."  What Gardiner's motive
could have been it is not easy to say; perhaps, as small
matters often produce great effects, it was the shame and
annoyance caused by the constant references of his victims
to his own writings, and his own oaths, that induced him to de
volve the task to one untroubled with shame or compunction.
Certainly it was not humanity that actuated hir.  Another
notable circumstance is this: — On the 10th of February,
Alfonso de Castro, a Franciscan friar and confessor to the
king, preached  a sermon  in  which he condemned these
sanguinary proceedings in very strong terms, as contrary to
both the text and the spirit of the Gospel.  Whether the friar
in doing so acted from conscience or the directions of Philip
cannot be ascertained.  If the latter was the cause, it must
have been that Philip, seeing the horror caused by these barbarous executions, and knowing that they would be laid to
his charge, and that he would thus lose all chance of obtaining
the government of England, took this mode of clearing himself.  But the stratagem, if it was such, was of no avail; in
a few weeks the piles were rekindled, and every one knew
that he had such influence over the queen that he could have
ended the persecution at his pleasure.
The  possessors of the church lands, as we have seen
seem  to have cared little about religion or conscience ir
Lingard disposes of Hooper and all these martyrs in the colmpasa
of half a page. " To describe the sufferings of each individual," says
lhe, " would fatigue the patience anid torture the feelings of the reader."
Though it may seem uncharitable, we suspect there were other reasons'bor this silence.




MARY.                       435
comparison with their houses and manors; but they now ran
some risk of seeing their rights of possession disputed.  A
splendid embassy, headed by lord Montague, Thirlby bishop
of, Ely, and sir Edward Karne, was sent to Rome to lay the
submission of England before the papal throne.  But while
they were on the road, pope Pius died; and his successor
Mlarcellus, or e of' those excellent men whoim chance rather
than design stems to have placed on the seat of St. Peter,@,
followed him  to the tomb within a few days after his elevation.  The choice of the college now fell on the cardinal
Caraffa, a man hitherto distinguished for the austerity of his
manners.  But, when placed on a throne, under the name
of Paul IV., he displayed his real character, and in pomnp,
in arrogance, and in nepotism  he yielded to none of his
predecessors.  This haughty pontiff condescended to forgive
the English nation the sin of their defection, and he con.
firmed the erection of Ireland into a kingdom; but he spoke
strongly of the guilt of detaining any portion of the church
property, and seemed determined to insist on its restitution.
| tis pride, however, yielded, for a time at least, to the considerations of expediency.
While England was thus brought again within the papal
fold, and the tortures of the heretics proved how sincerely
her government had imbibed the spirit of Rome, Cranmer,
| Ridley, and Latimer lay in prison expecting the foate which
they knew awaited them.  In the beginning of March in
the preceding year, they had been transmitted to Oxford
where they were required to dispute with a commission,
presided over by Dr. Weston, on the subject of the eucharist and the mass.  This disputation lasted for three days.
The prisoners met with little but sophistry, insult, and derision; and as they steadfastly maintained their opinions,
they were condemned as heretics, " themselves, their fautors
and patrons."  A grand mass was celebrated on the following Sunday, to which succeeded a procession, Weston carrying the deified wafer under a canopy.  The commissioners
then quitted Oxford; Cranmer, probably being regarded as
an attainted traitor, was confined in the common jail, which
was named Bocardo; the other two prelates were kept in
separate houses.
As there was no law at this time by which deniers of the
* "  could not believe," wrote the archbishop of Salerno, " that
Santa Croee could be made the pope; because all his manners, and the
path in which he walked, seemed to me to be the'contrary to that by
which the papacy is obtained."




|1|V{36         HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
real presence could be burnt, the government v,ts obliged tc
wait till parliament should have armed them with powers for
I.he purpose.  The prelates were, therefore, left in their
nrisons till the autumn of the following year, (1555,) when
Brookes bishop of Gloucester came down, by commission
from the legate, as papal sub-delegate, attended by two
civilians, Martin and Storey, as the royal proctors.  He
opened his commission (Sept. 12) in St. Mary's church,
seated on a scaffold, ten feet high, over the high altar. Cranmer was led in, habited. in his doctor's dress; he took no
i notice of Brookes, but saluted the royal proctors.  Brookes
observed that his present situation entitled him to more respect.  Cranmer mildly replied that he meant no personal
disrespect to 7irz, but that he had solemnly sworn never to
re-admit the bishop of RPome's authority into the realm.,-}(     Brookes then addressed him, charging him  with heresy,
perjury, treason, and adultery.  Martin followed in the same
strain.  Cranmer, being permitted to enter on his defence,
knelt down and repeated the Lord's prayer; he then rose,
and reciting the creed, proceeded to deny the authority of
the pope, and to inveigh against the practice of saying
prayers in a foreign language.  Speaking of his book on the
eucharist, he maintained that it was conformable to the
decisions of the church for the first thousand years.  "If
from any doctor who wrote within that period," said he, " a
passage can be brought proving the authorized prevalence
of a belief in the corporal presence, I will give over."  He
objected to the witnesses who appeared against him, as being
perjured men, who had before sworn to renounce the pope.
The next day he was cited to appear in person before the
pop)re within eighty days, and was then sent back to Lis
prison.
On the 30th of September Brookes sat again, aided by
White of Lincoln and Holiman of Bristol.  Ridley was
brought before them.  He took off his cap, but when the
commission in the name of the pope and egate was read he
put it on again.  He was remonstrated with, and on the
whole was treated with civility.  Five articles, two of which
related to transubstantiation and the mass, were offered to
him to subscribe.  He refused, and he repeated his protest
against the authority of the court.  Ridley was then re
moved, and Latimer was brought in. The venerable man
was clad in a threadbare frieze gown, fastened round his
hips by a common leathern girdle; he had a nightcap on his
head, covered by a handkerchief, over which was a trades
I  i__                                                                   -




MARY.                      437
man's cap with flaps buttoned'under his chin.  His Testament was suspended frorn his girdle, and his:spectacles
from his neck; he held his hat in his hand.  White treated
him with courtesy, and exhorted him  to be reconciled to
the church; Latimer, having obtained permission to sit,
proceeded to refute his arguments, and he quoted from  a
sermon lately published an instance of the manner in which
Scripture was perverted in support of the church of Rome.
" What clipping of God's coin is this!" added he in his'
usual manner.  These words caused a laugh, which increased when it was made known that Brookes himself was
the preacher.  "Was it yours, my lord?" said Latimel
" Indeed I know not your lordship, neither did I ever see
you before, neither yet see you.now through the brightness
of the sun shining between you and me."  The merriment
was redoubled at this Simple address; Latimer, who felt its
unsuitableness to the occasion, then said, "Why, my masters, this is no laughing matter, I answer upon life and death.'Woe unto you that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and
weep!'"  After some more conversation he was required to
subsci'ibe the five articles.  He refused, protesting at the
same tiriie, like Ridley, against the authority of the court.
The next morning Ridley was again brought before the
court.  He remained covered, but his cap was taken off by
order of bishop White.  He gave in a written answer on the
subject of the five articles, and, having again refused to subscribe them, he was excommunicated as an impugner of the
real presence, transubstantiation, and the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass. Latimer was next brought in; he was
exhorted to return into the bosom of the catholic church; he
asserted that he never was out of it, but he reprobated those
who artfully confounded it with the Rornish church, which
last he said ought rather to be called diabolical.  He then
refused to subscribe, and was excommunicated.
Some days after, the mockery of degradation was under
gone by the two martyrs.  When Ridley was forced to pu
on the Romish vestments, he said, alludingto the indignities
offered to Christ, "The disciple is not above his master, nor
the servant above his lord."  When it was over, he gave
Brookes a supplication, which he requested him to present
to the queen.  It was on behalf of some tenants of the see of
London, to whom he had given leases which Bonner refused
to allow, and of his sister, whose husband he had placed in a
situation of which Bonner had deprived him.  At the name
37 *




438              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of his sister, tears checked his utterance.  "This is naiure
that moveth me," said he, " but I have now done."
The following morning (Oct. 16) the martyrs were led
from their prisons to the pyre in the old city-ditch, opposite
Baliol college.  As Ridley passed by Bocardo, he looked up,
hoping to catch a last view of Cranmer; but he was at that
moment engaged in an argument with De Soto, a Spanish
lominican, and some others.  He afterwards, it is said,
went up to the roof of the prison, whence he had a view of
the pyre, and on his knees with outspread hands prayed tc
God to give them constancy of faith and hope in their agony.
When the prisoners arrived at the fatal spot, they embraced
each other, and Ridley said, " Be of good heart, brother, for
God will either assuage the fury of the fire or else strengthen
us to abide it."  They kissed their stakes, knelt and prayed,
and then conversed together.  Dr. Smyth, a man who always
thought with those in power, then mounted a pulpit, and
preached from the text " Though I give my body to be burned,
and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing;" and the sort
of charity which his discourse contained may be easiiy conjectured: when he had concluded, Ridley craved permission
of lord Williams of Thame, who presided, to make a reply.
Permission was refused, and they were ordered to make
ready for death.  Ridley distributed parts of his clothes and
various little articles among his friends.  When Latimer was
stripped he appeared arrayed in a new shroud, and he who had
lately been enfeebled by age and infirmity now " stood bolt
upright," says Foxe, " as comely a father as one might lightly
behold."  When they were fastened to the stakes, Ridley's
brother-in-law  attached bags of gunpowder to them.  A
lighted fagot was then thrown at their feet.  "Be of good
comfort, master Ridley," then said Latimer, " and play the
man.  We shall this day, by God's grace, light in England
such a candle as I trust shall never be put out."  He washed
his hands, as it were, in the flames, and then stroked his face
with them, and crying, " Father of heaven, receive my soul!
speedily expired.  Ridley's sufferings were greatly protracted; the bottom of the pyre being composed of furze, with
fLigots heaped upon it, the flame beneath was at first strong,
and it burnt his lower extremities, but it then subsided.  In
agony he cried, " 0, for Christ's sake let the fire come unto
me!" His brother-in-law heaped on more fagots; the victim
became enveloped in a dense smoke, when he kept crying,
I" cannot burn; 0, let the fire come unto me!" Some of the




MARY.                     439
fagots were then removed; tile flame sprang up, the smoke
cleared off, and it was seen that on one side his shirt was not
even discolored.  He turned eagerly to the flame, the gunpowder exploded, and he ceased to exist.
The arch-persecutor Gardiner soon followed his victims to
the tomb.  He had been suffering from disease of late.  On
the 21st of October, when the parliament met, he addressed
it, and displayed even more than his usual powers.  But the
effort was too much for him; he returned to his house, where
he died on the 12th of Noveimber.  He is saidl to have shown
sotme penitence; for on our Savior's passion being read to
him, when they caine to St. Peter's denial he bade them stop
there, for said he, " I have denied with Peter, I have gone
out with Peter, but I have not yet wept bitterly with Peter;"
words, however, rather ambiguous.  He was, as his whole life
shows, a worldly-minded, ambitious man, of unscrupulous
conscience, proud and arrogant, false and artful.  The reformers charged him with looseness and incontinence of living.
He was, however, an able statesman, and there is something
not unworthy of respect in his conduct during the late reign.
The parliament, owing either to the want of Gardiner to
manage it, or to the horror caused by the late sanguinary
proceedings, or aversion to the Spanish alliance, was much
less compliant than was wished. The queen's zeal had already
led her to give back to the church such portions of its lands
as were in the possession of the crown; but she wished to do
more, and to restore the tenths, first-fruits, etc., which had
been transferred from the pope to Henry VIII. by the act
which made him supreme head of the church. This measure
passed the lords without opposition, but the resistance in the
commons was vigorous, the numbers being 193 for, 126
against it. As a revenue of 60,0001. a year was thus abandoned, the commons were naturally indignant at being 
called on to grant considerable supplies.  " What justice is
there," said they, "in taxing the subject to relieve the
sovereign's necessities, when she refuses to avail herself of
funds legally at her disposal?"  The ministers were finally
obliged to be content with much less than they originally demanded. The commons refused to pass a bill of penalties
against the duchess of Suffolk and those who hal sought
refuge abroad against persecution, and another to disable
certain persons from acting as justices of peace; for it was
known that their aversion to persecution was their offence.
Parliament was dissolved on the 9th of December.
When Philip found that the queen's pregnancy had been




440              EISTORY OF ENGLAND.
all an illusion, and that there remained little or no hope of
offspring, and saw the utter impossibility of his ever ac(uirinr
the affections of the nation, he readily complied with his
father's desire of returning to Flanders.  He took his leave
of the queen on the 4th of September, and on the 25th of the
following month the emperor made to him the famous resignation of his dominions.  Mary meantime  beguiled the
tedium of his absence by persecuting her heretical subjects
and by reestablishing the friars in their houses; the Gray
Friars were replaced at Greenwich, the Carthusians at Shene,
and the Brigittins at Sion.  Westminster again became an
abbey, and the house of the Knights of St. John rose from
its ruins.  She doubtless, in her blind fanaticism, reckoned
it as not her least merit in the sight of God that in the course
of this year not less than sixty-seven impugners of the real
presence, of whom foul were bishops and fifteen were priests,
had perished in the flames.
Cranmer still lay in prison.  He had written a very manly
letter to the queen, wherein he stated his reasons for denying
the pope's authority.  To this, by her direction, Pole wrote
a reply; it was in his usual vague, declamatory style, well seasonied with invective, but containing a memorable attestation
of Cranmer's merciful exercise of his authority.  "Nor does
it at all avail," says he, "to excuse you, that you have
slaughtered no one, but have been benign and gentle to all;
for I hear this asserted by some. But these know not what
they say, nor do you perhaps know whether you have slain
any one, because you did not enter Christ's fold with this
design, nor, after you entered it, are conscious to yourself of
having sought the blood of any."  The pontiff, meantitne, as
soon as the eighty days were expired, condemned him, collated Pole to the primacy, and issued a commission for Cranmer's degradation.
On the 14th of February, (1556,) Bonner of London and
Thirlby of Ely took their seat in the chloir of Christ-church
at Oxford, as papal commissioners.' Cranner was led in; the
commission was read, dwelling as usual on the papal impartiality, and stating what ample time had been given to the
accused to proceed with his appeal and defence.  " My
lord, cried Cranmuer," what lies be these! thai I, being con.
tinually in prison, and never suffered to have counsel or advocate at home, should procure witness and appoint counsel
at Rome.  God must needs punish this open and shameless
falsehood."  When the commission was read, the various
Romish vestments, made of canvass by way of insult, Were




MARY.                     441
produced, and he was arrayed in them; a mock mitre wat
placed on his head, and a mock crosier in his hand. The
brutal Bolner then began to scoff at him.  " This is the
man," cried-he, "that hath despised the pope, and now is to
be judged by him! This is the mnan that hath pulled down
so many churches, and now is come to be j dged in a church!
This is the man that contemned the blessed sacrament, and
now is come to be condemned before that sacrament!"
And so he ran on, though Thirlby kept pulling him by the
sleeve, to remind him of a promise he had made him to treat
the archbishop with respect.  When they went to take the
crosier from him, Cralnmer held it fast, and drew from his
sleeve an appeal to the next free general council.  Thirlby,
who was a man of gentle nature, and had been very intimate
with the primate, shed floods of tears, declared that he sat
there against his will, and implored him to recant; but the
vulgar-minded Bonner could not conceal his exultation
when he saw his metropolitan degraded.  "Now you are no
longer My Lord," said he; and he continued to speak of
him as "this gentleman here."
Cranmer was now civilly degraded, and might be burnt;
but his enemies would have him  morally degraded also.
Every engine was therefore set at work to induce him to recant.  The dean of Christ-church visited him, and invited
him to the deanery.  He was there treated with the greatest
courtesy, and was induced to play a match at his favorite
game of bowls. The conversation, in which John de Villa
Garcia, a Spanish friar, lately made professor of' theology,
bore a leading part, turned much on his condition and prospects; he was assured that the queen felt favorably toward
him.  "But then," it was added, "her majesty will have
Cranmer a catholic, or she will have no Cranmer at all."
To these various temptations he at length yielded, and he
certainly was induced to make. a recantation of somie kind;
but the matter is involved in great obscurity.
There are, in fact, not less than six recantations preserved
which Cranmer is said to have subscribed.  Of these, the
fifth alone contains an unequivocal assent to the doctrines of
popery; and it has been well asked, if he signed this, why
require him to sign the last,- a vague, inflated document,
evidently the composition of Pole? Most of these papers
were, from the ambiguous. terms (such as "catholic church")
employed in them, such as might have been subscribed with
some reserve of conscience; but sure we are, that Ridley and
Latimer would never have put their hand to them. The love
DDD




442              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of life, it is not to be denied, led Cranmer into duplicity,
and we have his own assertion that he had written or signed
papers containing " many things untrue."
Aware of his duplicity, or determined that it should not
save him, the government had sent down the writ for his execution; but his fate was concealed fiom him.  On the (ay
before he was to die, Dr. Cole, who was to preach at his
death, visited him. " Have you continued," said he, " in the
catholic faith wherein I left you? " " By God's grace," replied Cranmer, still dissembling, "I shall be daily more confirmed it: the catholic faith."  Early next morning (March
21) Cole came again, and asked if he had any money; being
answered in the negative, he gave him fifteen crowns. He exhorted him to constancy in the faith, and Villa Garcia then
came and urged him to sign a seventh recantation, which he
would be required to make in public. Cranmer wrote two
copies of it, one for himself and another for the friar, but he
signed neither. Between nine and ten o'clock he was led
forth to be burnt in the place where his friends had suffered,
but as the morning was wet the sermon was to be preached
in St. Mary's church.  He walked thither-now, it would
seem, aware of his fate- between two friars, who mumbled
psalms as they went; and as they entered the church they
sang the.Aunc dimittis, which must have assured him that
his time was come.  He was placed on a platform opposite
the pulpit, " and when he had ascended it he kneeled down and
prayed, weeping tenderly, which moved a great number to
tears, that had conceived an assured hope of his conversion
and repentance." Cole then commenced his sermon, by
assigning reasons why, in the present case, a heretic, though
penitent, should be burnt; and when he had gone through
them, he added, "c There are other reasons which have moved
the queen and council to order the execution of the person
here present, but which are not meet and convenient for
erery man's understanding."  He then exhorted Cranmer,
and assured him that masses and dirges should be chanted
for the repose of his soul. He concluded by calling on
all present to pray for the prisoner.  All knelt.  " I think,"
says the writer, " there was never such a number so earnestly
praying together; for they that hated him before aow loved him
for his conversion and hope of continuance; they that loved
him before, could not suddenly hate him, having hope of his
confession again of his fall. So love and hope increased devo.
tion on every side." Cole then called on Cranmer to perform
his promise and make a confession of hils faith, so that al




MARY.                        443
might understand that he was a catholic indeed.  "I will do
it," said Cranmer, " and that with a good will."
Hie rose, put off his cap, and briefly addressed the people;
then drawing from  his sleeve a written prayer, repeated it
aloud.  Having concluded it, he knelt down and repeated
the Lord's prayer, in which. all joined, kneeling also.  He
then rose, and calmly and gravely addressed the people, exhorting them " not to set overmuch by the false glosing
world, to obey the king and queen, to love one another like
brethren and sistren, to give unto the poor."  He then declared his belief in the creed, and in all things taught in the
Old and New  Testaments. "And now;" said he," I am
come to the great thing that troubleth my conscience more
than any other thing that I ever said or did in my life, and
that is the setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth;
which here now I renounce and refuse, as things written with
my hand, contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart,
and writ for fear of death, and to save amy life if might be;
and that is all such papers as I have written or signed since
my degradation, wherein I have written many things untrue;
and forasmuch as my hand offended in writing contrary to
my heart, my hand when I come to the fire shall first be
burned.  And as for the pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy, and Antichrist, with all his false doctrine."  At these
words murmurs were heard.  Lord Williams charged him
with dissembling. " Alas, my lord," said he, " I have been
a man that all my life loved plainness, and until this time
never did I dissemble against the truth; I am most sorry for
this my fault, but now is the time in which I must strip off
all disguise."  He would have spoken more, but Cole cried
out, " Stop the heretic's mouth, and take him away."
He was now hurried away to the stake; he stripped himself with haste and stood in his shirt; when he tookl off his
caps his head appeared quite bald, his beard was white and
flowing.  He again declared " that he repented his recantation right sore; whereupon the lord Williams cried,' Make
short, make short!' Fire being now put to him, he stretched
out his right hand and thrust it into the flame, and held
it there a good space before the fire came to any other part
of his body, when his hand was seen of every man sensibly
burning, crying, with a loud voice,' This hand hath offended.' " IHis sufferings were short, as the fire soon blazed fiercely; his heart was found entire amtidst the ashes.  " His patience in the torment," adds this writer," his courage in dyinig,
if it had been for the glory of God, the weal of his country,
or the testimony of truth, as it was for a pernicious error, 1




444               HISTORY OF ENGLANIA.
could worthily have commeninelded the example, and marked it
with the fame of any father of ancient time.  IIis death
much grieved every man,- his friends for love, his enemies
for pity, strangers for a common kind of humanity whereby'we are bound to one another." 
Thus terminated the mortal career of Thomas Cranmer, a
man possessed of every virtue but firmness.  His talents
were not of a high order, and thie modesty of his temper
made him defer too implicitly to the -opirnions of' others; but
we doubt if he ever, except in the matter of his recantation,
acted against his conscience, though, as in the case of Joan
Bocher, his conscience was not always well informed.  His
recantation we feel hardly inclined to regret, it afforded such
occasion for the display of the dignity of virtue and the ennobling influence of sincere repentance. " Let those," s::ys
a writer, whose beautiful reflections we love to quote, " let
those who require unbending virtue in the most tempestuous
tines condemn the amiable and faulty primate; others who
are not so certain of their own steadiness will consider his
fate as perhaps the most memorable example in history of a
soul which, though debased, is not depraved by an act of
weakness, and preserves an heroic courage after the forfeiture
of honor, its natural spur, and in general its inseparable
companion."
The very day of Cranmer's martyrdom Pole, who had now
at length taken priest's orders, said his first mass, and the
next day he was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury.
Out of decorum he had deferred the ceremony while Cranmer lived, and surely the same feeling might have induced
him to defer it a little longer.  Many people applied to him
the words of the prophet to Ahab concerning Naboth:
"tHast thou killed, and also taken possession?"   Along
with the primacy Pole retained for some time the see of
Winchester; and when at length he gave it up to White, he
made him  covenant to pay him  10001. a-year out of it.
Money is said to have been employed at Rome to have this
contract, which savored of simony, allowed.  The queen
also gave him several estates belonging to the crown.  The
following year the vindictive pontiff, who was Pole's per
sonal enemy, revoked his legatine commission, and pro.
posed transferring it to old fri'ar Peto, who was now the
queen's confessor, and whom he made a cardinal for the
purpose.  But MAary firmly supported Pole; the pope's mes* The extracts above are from the narrative of a catholic who was
present: it is; given by Strype in his Life of Cranmer.




MARY.                     445
_!enger, with the hat and letters, was stopped at Calais, and
lhe course of public events at this time impeded the pro.
ceedings.
Philip, who was now at war with France, was anxious
to obtain the aid of England.  For this purpose he came
over in March, 1557.  He assured the queen that it would
be his last visit if he was refused.  Mary was of course
most desirous of gratifying him, but Pole and other members
of the council were decidedly opposed to engaging England
in a war for Spanish interests.  Fortunately for Philip, just
at tlis time Thomas Stafford, grandson to the last duke of
Buckingham, sailed with a small force firom Dieppe, landed
and seized the old castle of Scarborough, and put forth a
proclamation stating that he was come to deliver the nation
from its present thraidom to the Spaniards.  But no one
joined him, and he was obliged to surrender on the fourth
day (April 28) to the earl of Westmoreland.  He was
brought up to London and beheaded, after being made to
confess that the king of France had aided and encouraged
him in his enterprise.  The resistance of the council, whom
the queen had in vain menaced even with a dismissal, was
now overcome, and war was declared against France.
The queen, who two years before had had recourse to suns
dry unjust and violent modes of raising money, put some of
them now again in practice, especially that of privy seals,
that is, letters addressed to persons of substance requiring
them to lend the sumns specified in them to the crown. To
victual a fleet she seized all the corn that could be come at
in Norfolk and Suffolk; and having by the aid of impressment raised an army of ten thousand men, she sent it under the earl of Pembroke to join that of Philip in the Low
Countries. In order to secure herself against disturbances
at home, she put into the Tower such of the gentry as she
most suspected, and they were taken thither either by night,
or muffled up, that they might not be recognized.
The Spanish army, when joined by the English auxiliaries, numbered forty thousand men. The duke of Savoy,
who commanded it, laid siege to the town of St. Quintin.
The constable Montmorency advanced to its relief; but
failing in his attempts to throw succor into the town, he
was attacked on his retreat by the besieging army, and de.
feated (Aug. 10) with a loss of three thousand men. The
English fleet meantime made descents on various parts of
the coast of France.  The French, however, soon had ample
revenge on the English queen for her share in tbe war.
VOL..      38




I   446           HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The duke of Guise, who had been recalled from Italy, ie.
solved to attempt a plan, which had been suggested by tile
admiral Coligni, for surprising Calais.  In the month of
December he assembled at Compeigne an army of twenty.
five thousand men, with a large battering train; and while
it was expected that he would attelmpt the recovery of St.
Xuintin, he suddenly marched for Calais, and on New Year's
Day (1558) he was seen approaching that town.  Calais
was surrounded by marshes, impassable during the winter,
except by a (like defended by two castles, St. Agatha and
lNewnam-bridge.  The French carried the former by a vigorous assault, and the latter was soon also obliged to surrender; the same was the fate of another castle named the
Risbank, which guarded the entrance of the harbor.  Batteries were now opened on the town and castle, and the gov
ernor, lord Wentworth, was obliged to capitulate, (Jan. 7.)
Guisnes surrendered shortly after; and thus, after a possession of two hundred years, was lost the only acquisition of
Edward IIl.  The loss was in truth a real benefit to England, but neither the queen nor the people viewed it in
that light; it was regarded as a stain on the national character, and it augmented the already great unpopularity of
Mary.  She was herself so affected that, when on her deathbed, she said to her attendants, " When I am  dead and
opened, ye shall find Calais lying in my heart."
Parliament when assembled (Jan. 20) made a liberal grant..A fleet was equipped, and sent to make an attempt on the
port of Brest in Brittany; but it failed to achieve its object.
A small squadron of ten English ships, however, lent such
valuable aid to count Egmont, in his attack at Gravelines on
a French force which had invaded Flanders, as enabled him
to give it a total overthrow.
Th te inauspicious reign of Mary was lnow drawing to its
close.  She was suffering under disease; she felt that she
had lost the affections of even that portion of her people
who agreed' with her in religious sentiments, by her subserviency to the Spanish councils and by her arbitrary taxation, while her cruelties had drawn on her the well-merited
hatred of the protestants.  She had also the mournful conviction that she had exercised cruelty to little purpose, as
the heresy had been hardly checked by it; and she knew
that her successor, however she might now dissemble, secretly held the reformed doctrines, and would probably reestablish them.  Finally, her husband, for whom  she had
forfeited the affection of her subjects, and for whom she felt




MARIY.                       44'
auch extravagant fondness, was negligent, if not unkind.
Her mind is also. said to have been kept in a constant ferment by the paper-war that was carried on against herself
and her religion by the exiles at Geneva.
While such was the state of her mind and body, she was
attacked by the epidemic fever then prevalent, and after lana
guishing for three months she breathed her last, (Nov. 17,)
during the performance of mass in her chamber, in the fortythird year of her age.  Cardinal Pole, who was ill of tiie
same fe\,er, died the following day.
These two exalted personages are striking examples of the
evil influence of false religion on the mind and heart. Mary
was a woman of virtue, and not devoid of mental powers.
On Fmore than one occasion she had exhibited great energy
of character.  She was constant and sincere in friendship;
K'e was devout, charitable, and just.*   But unfortunately
her religion was a gloomy, sanguinary superstition, which
taught that the offering of holocausts of those who dared
to use the noblest faculties which the Deity had given them,
was an acceptable service to a God of mercy, and that promises made to such persons were not to be observed.  And
hence her character will evermore remain in history as that
of a cruel, sanguinary bigot.  Apart, however, from religion,
the death of the innocent and amiable Jane Gray will always prove that the nature of Mary was harsh and unrelenting.
The cardinal was a man of letters, polished in manners
and virtuous in mind, generous, humane, and to a certain
extent liberal in feling.  Yet religion made him  a traitor
to his sovereign and benefactor, a scurrilous libeller, anrd a
persecutor even unto death of those who dissented from his
creed.  For though it may be true that he did not urge,n
the persecution, he always assented to it, and not a week
before his death, five persons, the last of the victims whom
his own certificate had given over to the secular arm, were
burnt in his diocese.
* In 1557, lord Stourton. a zealous catholic, seized two gentlemen
named Hargil, father and son, with whom he was at variance. and with
the aid of his servants put them privately to death in his own house,
and buried them in a pit fifteen feet deep. The murder, however, came
to light, and he and fbur off his servants were fbund guilty. All the
interest made with the queen to save him was of' no avail; she would
only grant him the favor to be hulfng with a silken rope. It is to be
Dbserved that Lingard takes no notice of this act, so creditable to Marv,




$A8                 IISTORY OF ENGLAND.
With the deaths of  Mary, Pole, and Gardiner, ended for.
ever the dominion of popery in England. The cruelties per.
petrated by them were even of advantage to the reformed
faith. The English nation is naturally averse from cruelty,
and  the sight of the  constancy and even exultation with
which the martyrs met their fate, while it caused pity and
admiration for the sufferers, inspired a natural favor toward
the religion which enabled men to die thus cheerfully, and
raised doubts as to the truth of the system  which required
the aid of the stake  and  fagot.  Hence  many who were
catholics at the commencement of Mary's reign, were protestants at its close;  and  hence  her successor found so
little  difficulty  in  establishing  the reformed  faith.  The
number who perished in the flames during the four years
of the persecution was little short of three hundred,@ of
whom more than a sixth were women, and some were
children  and even  babes.t  There were five prelates and
twenty-one  of the other clergy among  the victims.  We
find eight gentlemen noticed, but none of the nobles or
knights who had obtained the spoil of the abbeys.
Speed says 274, Burnet 284, Collins 290. Lord Burleigh (Strype,
Eccles. Meem. chap. lxiv.) states the number who perished in this reign
by imprisonments, torments, famine, and fire at 400, of whom 290 were
burnt. We should be glad to know on what authority Dr. Lingard says
that " almost 200 persons perished in the flames for religious opinion."
It is not his usual oracle, the veracious Sanders, for he exultingly says
there were some hundreds: his words deserve to be quoted' "Legibus etiam antiquis," says he, " de puniendis hslreticis iteruri zelo prin
cipe Christiano dignissimo renovatis non solum ille [Cranmer] sed.liquot pseudoprophetarum cenzurice sunt sublatto." p. 231.
Lord Burleigh fi.lurther says, that there were more than 60 women
antu 40 childien among the sufferers, and that of the formei!' some
were great with child, out of whose bodies the child by fire was expelled alive, and yet also cruelly burnt." Dr. Lingard rejects this as
resting solely on the authority of Foxe, who he says was refuted by
Harding' id Persons: he does not notice lord Burleigh's testilony.




ELIZABETH.                     449
CHAPTElR  IX,
ELIZABETH.
1558 —1565o 
EIlZABETIT was proclaimed immrediately on the death of
her sister.  Bonfires and illuminations testified the joy of
the people, and their hopes of happier days.  A deputation
of the council repaired next day to Hatfield, to convey to the 
new  queen the tidings of her accession.  She fell on her            i
knoes, and said, "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellonu in our eyes."  Acting under the advice of sir William
Cecil, who had long been in communication with her, shlt
declared her intention of continuing most of the late queen's        It
counsellors in their offices.'-  The necessary regulations were
forthwith made respecting public affairs, and on the 23d the
queen set out for London.  She was met at Highgate by the
bishops, to all of whom, except Bonner, she gave a gracious
reception.  She lay that night at the Charter-house, the
residence of lord North, and proceeded next day (Nov. 25)
to the Tower.  The thoughts of the change in her condition
since she had entered that royal fortress a prisoner, awoke
her religious feelings, and she fell on her knees and returned
thanks to Heaven.
One of the earliest measures adopted had been to send to
inform foreign princes of the death of the late and the accession of the present queen.  Lord Cobham was appointed
to convey the tidings to lking Philip, expressing at the same
time the queen's gratitude for the friendship he had shown
her during the late reign. Philip in return, through his
ambassador the duke of Feria, offered his hand to Elizabeth,
assuring her that he would obtain the requisite dispensation
from  Rome.  But every motive, both public and private,
operated in the queen's mind  against this match.  The
nation was so adverse to the Spanish connection, that by con.
tinuing it she would forfeit her popularity; and as Philip
* Those whom she retained (who of course were catholics) were
archbishop Heath, chancellor; marquess Winchester, treasurer; earls
Arundel, Shrewsbury, Derby, Pembroke; lords Clinton and Howard
of Elinghllam; sirs T. Cleyney, W. Petre, J. Mason, Rich. Sackville;
and I)r. N. Wotton. To thebe she added the following Protestants
marquess Northampton; earl Bedford; sirs T. Parr, E. Rogers, A
Ca-vt, F Knolles, W. Cecil, N. Bacon.
EE E




450              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and she were related in the same degree as her father and
Catherine of Aragon had been, it would be in effect ac.
knowvledging that her mnother's marriage was not valid, and
her own birth not legitimate.' She therefore declined the
proposed union in the most civil terms.
Her accession was also notified at Rome, but the intemperate old man who occupied the seat of infallibility replied,
that as England was a fief of the Holy See it wais great presumption in her to assume the title and authority of queen,
and that being illegitimate she could not inherit.  However,
if she would renounce all title to the crown and submit entirely to his wvill, she should be treated with all the lenity
consistent with the dignity of the Hloly See.  These impotent
assumptions were of no effect; Elizabeth heeded little the
authority of the pontiff, and she had commenced the changes
she intended in religion long before his answer could arrive.
The prudence of Elizabeth, and of her chief adviser Cecil,
led them to proceed very cautiously. The first step was to put
an end to the persecution; those therefore who were in prison
for their religion were released on their own recognizances.
On the other hand, the late queen's obseqties were performed (Dec. 13) according to the rites of the Romish
church.  White, bishop of Winchester, who preached the
funeral sermon, took occasion to deliver an inflammatory
discourse, and he received an order to keep his house. When
intelligence arrived (Dec. 23) of the death of the emperor
Charles V., a solemn dirge and requiem were ordered to be
performed for the repose of his soul.  But Elizabeth forbade
the host to be elevated in her own chapel, and she directed
that a part of the service should be performed in English.
Many of the reformers had already returned from exile; they
were favorably received at court, but preaching was prohibited without the royal license.  Archbishop Heath, seeing
the course matters were taking, resigned the seals, which
were committed to sir Nicholas Bacon, with the title of lordkeeper.
The 15th of January, 1559, was the day appointed for the
coronation.  On the 14th the queen left the Tower and
proceeded through the city in a splendid carriage, preceded
by the trumpeters and heralds, and followed by a train of
nobles, ladies and gentlemen on horseback, all richly attired in crimson velvet.  The shouts of the ioyous multitudes
filled the air as she passed along, and the companies of the
city display ed their feelings and their taste in the manner of
the age by erecting gorgeous pageants, as they were named.




ELIZABETH.                     451
across the streets. On one appeared the eight Beatitudes,
suitably habited, each of which was appropriately ascribed
to the queen.  At the conduit in Cheapside, another exhibited the opposite images of a decayed and a flourishing
commonrwealth; from a cave beneath issued Timne, leading
forth his daughter Truth, who presented an English Bible to
the queen; Elizabeth took the book, pressed it to her
heart and lips, and said she thanked the City more for it than
for all the cost that had been bestowed on her, and that she
would often read it over.  At the end of Cheapside the recorder met her, and presented her with a purse containing
1000 marks in gold, which weighty gift she received in
both her hands.  The giants Gog and Magog reared their
huge forms over Temple Bar, holding out to her their
Latin verses; and a child, " richly arrayea  as a poet,"
pronounced a farewell in the name of the corporation of
London.
The coronation took place next dlay.  Heath and some
other bishops did not appear, but the greater part gave their
attendance, arrayed in scarlet like the temporal nobles, and
the ceremony wasperformed in the usual manner by Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle.  On the following morning, it
being usual on such occasions to release prisoners, as she
was on her way to her chbapel one of her courtiers presented
to her a petition, beseeching her that now this good time
four or five principal prisoners more might be released;
these were the four Evangelists and St. Paul, who had been
long shut up in an unknown tongue, so that they could not
converse with the common people.  She replied with great
gravity that it were better first to inquire of themselves whether
they would be released or not.
The queen was now twenty-five years of age. In person
she was above the middle size, well formed and majestic.
Her skin was fair, her hair yellow, her eyes bright and
lively, her nose rather aquiline.  Her manners were affable,
graceful and dignified; her mind was ihighly cultivated; she
could express herself with grace and ease in Latin, French,
and Italian, and in the school of adversity she had learned
wisdom.  Such was the woman whose destiny it was to,
sway the British sceptre with a dignity unknown to antecedent or succeeding monarchs.*
* [Mr. Keightley is one of those writers who, ardently attached to the
Protestant religion, and overlooking the naturally p?rogressive aspect of
the times, are apt to ascribe theegreat advances made at a point of time
writh which Elizabeth was accidentally contemporary to the individual




$52CR              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
On the 25th the parliament met. The same causes, namey, influence on the part of the government, the zeal of those
who favored it, and the depression of those of opposite sentiments, which had given a catholic parliament in the beginning of the late reign, now returned one zealous for the
iR ieformation.  Its first act was a recognition of Elizabeth as
the' lawful, undoubted, and true heir to the crown," lawfully descended from the blood-royal according to the order
ffi j      of succession settled in the 35th Hen. VIII.  The queen, in
all things superior to her predecessor, did not, like her, ostentatiously seek a declaration of the validity of her mother's
marriage, and thus throw  obloquy on her father, and revive
the memory of events that were better forgotten.  All that
was requisite was implied in the words " lawfully descended
of the blood-royal." Bills for restoring the tenths and firstfruits to the crown, and for reestablishing the supremacy,
were introduced and carried in spite of the strenuous opposition of the bishops.  By the last, the queen, who was styled
Governess (not Head) of the Church, was invested with the
whole spiritual power, to make or repeal canons, alter discipline and ceremonies, suppress heresies, etc., without consulting  parliament or convocation.  Whoever refused  to
acknowledge  the supremacy  was declared  incapable of
holding office; whoever denied it, or sought to deprive the
queen of it, was to forfeit his goods and chattels for the first
offence, to incur a praemunire for the second, the third was
treason.  The queen was to nominate directly to bishoprics,
and the bishops were forbidden to alienate the revenues of
their sees or make leases for more than twenty-one years.
But as an exception was made in favor of the crown, the
church  derived but little advantage  from  this well-meant
measure.
A bill for restoring the English liturgy was next brought
influence of' that queen. It is, however, to be feared, that her character was little more estimable than that of Mary. She was as little taught
as her sister, in the school of adversity, the lessons of charity, or toleration. She was a bigot, as every page of her history shows, and in
heart a very tyrant. Her efforts were most zealously, though, happily,
unsuccessfully directed to restrain the expanding efforts of the human
mind, as manifested in the independent spirit of' the Commons' hous{e
of parliament. Persecution, in numberless forms, of those differing
from herself and counsellors in religious opinion, marked her reign.
She deserved, as fully as Mary, the title "bloody."  She was blessed
with counsellors who, more clear-sighted than herself, took advantage
of the advancement of the age, to elevate their country to a position
which she has ever since retained. Hence the chief, and real, glory of
E izabeth s reign.-. T. S.]




ELIZABETH.                   453
in; but the matter was considered of so much importance,
that it was deemed advisable that it should be previously diSputed between the two religious parties. Eight champions
were chosen on each side; the most distinguished of the Ro.
manists were bishops White and Watson, dean Cole, and
archdeacon Harpsfield; of the protestants, Scory, Jewel,
Aylmer, Cox, Grindal, and Horne.  The archbishop of York
and lord-keeper Bacon presided; the place was Westminster
Abbey; the questions proposed were: Whether it is not
against the Word of God and the custom of the ancient
church to use an unknown language in the public service of
the church; whether every church has not a right to appoint
rites and ceremonies, so it be done to edification; whether it
can be proved from  Scripture that there is a propitiator)
sacrifice in the mass.
On Friday, the 31st of March, the dispute began in the
presence of the privy council and both houses of parliament.
Though it was to be managed in writing, and ten days' notice
had been given, the Rornish party said they had nothing written, alleging want of time; but they offered to give some
extemporary arguments for the retention of a foreign language.  Though their motives for acting thus were obvious, their offer was accepted.  Dean Cole then rose,
well provided with papers of notes, and, prompted by his
colleagues, delivered some of the poor arguments by which
this absurd practice is defended, well seasoned with abuse
of the reformers; he concluded by observing, that nothing is
more inexpedient than to bring religious rites down to the
level of the vulgar, for that ignorance is the mother of dlevotion. An able reply was read by Dr. Horne, which drew
forth great applause. The Romanists saying they had mor(
arguments to urge, the debate was adjourned to the followingo
Monday, on which day they raised various objections; they
refused to begin, alleging that the protestants would have the
advantage by speaking last; the assembly broke up; White
and Watson were committed to the Tower for contempt; three
other bishops and three of their divines were heavily fined,
in conformity with the arbitrary mode of proceeding which
extended to all matters in that age.
The Act of Uniformnity, as it is styled, was now introduced
and passed; the bishops and eight temporal peers alone dissenting.  This act directs that king Edward's second servicebook, as -altered by the committee of divines appointed for
the purpose, should alone be used. The penalties imposed
on those ministers who should use any other service were, -




454             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
forfeiture of goods and chattels for the first offence, a year's
imnprisonment for the second, imprisonment for life for the
third. A fine of one shilling was imposed on those who should
absent themselves from church on Sundays and holidays.
The Reformation was thus finally and effectually established.  The parliament cone uded its labors by the grant of
a subsidy, followed by a respectful but urgent address to
the queen, praying her to make choice of a husband.  She
thanked them for their zeal, but assured them that she regarded herself as solemnly espoused to her kingdom  at her
coronation, and that she viewed her subjects as her children,
and desired no fairer remembrance of her to go down to posterity than this inscription on her tomb: " Here lies Elizabeth, who lived and died a maiden queen."
The new liturgy came into use on St. John the Baptist's
day. The oath of supremacy was tendered to the bishops
and clergy. Of the prelates, Kitchen of Llandaff alone
would take it; the others were deprived of their sees, as also
were about one hundred dignitaries and eighty parish priests:
the great body of the clergy took the oath without hesitation.  No fires were kindled for the recusants; they remained at their liberty till the following winter, when they
began to attack the reformation openly.  For this several of
them were committed to prison.  Bonner was confined in the
Marshalsea, where he remained for the rest of his life, indulging to the last in the pleasures of the table, to which he was
devoted.  Tunstal passed the short remnant of his days at
Lambeth, where he met with every attention; the same palace was the domicile of Thirlby; Bourne was sent to reside
with the dean of Exeter; Heath spent the remainder of his
life at his estate at Cobham in Surrey, where the queen often
visited him. Some died, others went abroad. The places
of' the deprived prelates were supplied by the most eminent
protestants.  Dr. Matthew Parker, a man of great learning
and piety, who had been chaplain to the queen's mother, was
selected for the see of Canterbury.  He was consecrated
(Dec. 17) by four of the bishops who had been deprived in
the late reign.
Having thus brought the domestic affairs of the country to
the close of the first year of Elizabeth's reign, we will now
turn our eyes to its foreign relations.
The late queen had left her successor a legacy of a way
with both France and Scotland; but negotiations for a general peace had been commenced at Cercamp, and were now
continued at Cateau-Camnbresis.  The differences between




ELIZABETH.                   455
the kings of France and Spain were easily arranged, but
Philip, as bound in honor, insisted on the restitution of 
Calais to his English ally. To this the French cabinet was
Dy no means disposed to assent, and Philip's zeal cooled
wien he found he had no prospect of the queen's hand; he,
however, offered to continue the war on accoulit of it, provided she would engage not to make peace for six years.
But to the prudence of Elizabeth and her ministers the pos.
session of Calais, even if it could be recovered, seemed so
inadequate to the cost likely to be incurred, that they reject- -
ed the proposal, and the English envoys were directed to
make peace on any reasonable terms. It was therefore
agreed that Hlenry should retain Calais for eight years, and
if he did not then restore it, he should pay 59t0,000 crowns,
and the queen's title should remain; but that if during that
time Elizabeth made war on France or Scotland, she should          |
forfeit Calais, which Henry should restore immediately if he
were the first to break the peace. It was plain that this was
only a decent pretext for abandoning Calais, and the judi-       |
cious saw in it grounds for admiring the queen's good sense      I
and prudence.  A general peace was now concluded, (April
c,) and Philip, giving up all thoughts of the queen of England, married the French king's daughter Elizabeth, who          |
had been betrothed to his son Don Carlos.
One difference of no small moment remained between 
Elizabeth and the king of France.  Following the unnatural
practice then common among crowned heads, he had caused 
the dauphin and the queen of Scotland to be married in 1]558,
though the prince had not passed his fifteenth year, and on
the death of Mary he made them assume the arms of England.  For according to the papal rules, Elizabeth was illegilimate, and the queen of Scots was the next heir on the
hereditary principle. When Elizabeth's ambassadors complained, it was replied that Elizabeth styled herself queen of
France, and that Mary, as being of the blood-royal of England, had a right to bear its arms.  But this was all mere
evasion; the quartering the arms of France with those of
England was no new device of Elizabeth's, and at most it
could only be regarded as a piece of national vanity, whereas
the act of the dauphin and queen, as it was not done in
Mary's reiagn, evidently showed an intention of disputing the
throne of' England with Elizabeth.  The settlement of this
point, however,.was reserved, and the young royal pair signed
as partiog the peace of Cateau CGambresis.
i, izabeth was fully aware that it was the secret. intention




456               HISTORY,iF ENGLAND.
of the court o France to endeavor to make good the claim
of Mary to the crown of England.:She knew that application had been made at Rome to have her excommunicated,
which had only been prevented by the influence of kirng
Philip.  As it was reckoned that her catholic subjects would
aid her rival, policy suggested the expediency of forming a
connection with Mary's protestant subjects.  Hence arose
the great interest which the court of England found it neces-'sary to take in the internal affairs of Scotland. -We!must
therefore enter somewhat rminutely into the history of that
country at the present conjuncture.
The moderate temper of the queen-regent of Sotland
made her indisposed to persecute.  The reformed doctrines
therefore gradually advanced, and many of those vhio ifled
from  the tyranny of the fanatic queen of England found a
-refuge:in the northern kingdom. There is a sternness and
a self-sufficiency in the Scottish character unknown to the
English, and nowhere is this more manifested than in:the
progress of the Reformation in the two countries. In England it was conducted with mildness and decorum, mereley
cutting off superfluities and abolishing unscriptural rites and
practices; in Scotland it was wild, destructive, and fanatic
Moreover, while the English protestants only sought toleration froml their' bigoted queen, their Scottish brethren wvoulk
be content with nothing short of the utter abolition of the
old religion. On the 3d of December, 1557, their leaders, the
earls of Argyle, Morton, and Glencairne, and other nobles,
met at Edinburgh and entered into a private association
styled the Congregation of the Lord, and bound themselves
to struggle to the uttermost against " Satan in his members,
the antichrist of their time."  This convention remained for
some time a secret.  Meantime the primate Hamilton seized
a priest named Mill, and had him tried and condemned for
heresy at St. Andrew's; but it was with difficulty a civil judge
could be got to pronounce sentence on:him, and on the day
of the execution the shops were all shut; no one would sell a
rope to tie him to the-stake, and the primate was obliged to
furnish one himself.  Mill died of course with constancy;
the people raised a pile of stones on the spot in commemoration of him; the clergy removed the stones, but still,the
pile was renewed.  Soon after, when the image of St. Giles,
the patron-saint of Edinburgh, was carried in procession,
the people, as soon as the queen-regent withdrew, fell on and
drove off the priests, seized the idol, threw  it in'the mire,
afnne broke it to pieces.
I_ _ _ _.. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. _..:. - _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.




ELIZABETHI.                   457
The lords of the Congregation, emboldened by these manifest indications of the popular feeling, and by the tidings of.the death of Mary and accession of Elizabeth, ventured to
petition the regent for the reformation of the church and of
the " wicked, scandalous and detestable lives " of the prelates
and clergy.  The regent temporized till she had obtained the
matrimonial crown for the dauphin, and might have conceded
some of their demands, but that she received directions from
her brothers, the Guises, who now directed every thing at the
court of France, to check the new opinions.  As usual, sihe
submitted her own good sense to their will.  She had the
principal reformed teachers cited before the council at Stirling, Such numbers of their followers came to protect them
that she feared an insurrection; but on a promise, as is said,
that no harm  should befall their ministers, the people dispersed.  Sentence, however, was passed on them as rebels on,their non-appearance. The people, enraged, resolved on opposing the regent and the clergy with arms.
While fmatters were in this state, the celebrated John
Knox returned to Scotland.  Knox, a man of stern, unbending nature, actuated by principle alone, far above all sordid,
selfish considerations, but narrow in mind and only moderately learned, had adopted, in their utmost extent, the rigid
principles of Calvin, the apostle of Geneva.  Gospel truth
(in:his own sense of the term) he held to be paramount,to
all considerations, and all the laws of society should yield
before it.  Hence Knox was -found to vindicate even the
murder of cardinal Beaton. This daring man now (May
11) ascended the pulpit at Perth and poured forth a torrent
-of declamation against the tenets and practices of the church
of Rome.  When %he concluded, a priest had the folly-to
prepare to celebrate.mass, but the people, who had been
wrought up to a high degree of fanaticism by the eloquence
of Knox, rushed forward, seized and destroyed his holy implements, then tore the pictures, broke the images, and overthret
the altars. They thence proceeded, their numbers increasing
as they:went, to the convents of the gray, black, and white
friars, where they drove out the inmates and pillaged and de-:stroyed the buildings.  The precedent was followed at Cupar
in Fife, which was reformed, as the phrase was, in asimilar
manner,
The regent -on receiving the intelligence advanced with
what troops she had toward Perth.  She was joined by Arran, (now duke of Chatelherault in France,) Argyle, James
Stuart, prior of St. Andrew's, and other lords of the -reformed
VOL. I.      29                     F F




458              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
party, while Glencairne and others led their retainers to the
support of the Congregation.  They were so formidable ill
numbers, and evinced such a determined spirit of fanaticisml
and intolerance, that the regent, dubious of the event of a
conflict, agreed to an accommodation.  She was then admitted into Perth.  But it was soon asserted that she had violated the conditions; the Congregation, now joined by Argyle
and the prior, again took armms; Knox became their animating spirit, and Anstruther, Scone, Stirling, and other places,
were reformed, as Perth had been. They advanced to Edinburgh, where they were admitted by the people, who had
already reformed their city. The queen took refuge at
Dunbar; but the usual causes having acted to increase her
strength and diminish that of her adversaries, a new accommodation was agreed to, and she regained possession of Edinburgh, (July 12.)  Soon after troops came from France to
her support, and she stationed them at Leith, which she had
fortified.
Henry II. lost his life by an accident at the tournament
celebrated in honor of his sister's marriage with the duke of
Savoy. He was succeeded by the dauphin, under the title
of Francis II., and the power of the Guises was now without
limits. The young sovereigns styled themselves king and
queen of England. The design of making Scotland and
eventually England a dependency of France, and of putting
down the Reformation, was still retained.  Additional troops
were collected to be sent to the former kingdom.  The Congregation saw that if not supported by England they ran risk
of being crushed; they therefore sent Maitland of Lethington
and Robert Melvill in secret to London.  Cecil stated to
his royal mistress the various reasons which not only justified
but rendered imperative on her the support of the applicants.
Her scruples about treating with the subjects of another
prince gave way. She concluded a treaty with the lords of
the Congregation, promising never to desist till the French
had evacuated Scotland. Winter was sent with a fleet of
fifteen sail to the firth of Forth, and an army of eight thousand
men was assembled on the borders.
The French troops had surprised Stirling and were laying
Fifeshire waste when the appearance of Winter's fleet forced
them to return to Leith, where they were besieged by the
Congregationalists. A treaty for peace was now set on foot
at Newcastle, whither Elizabeth sent Cecil and Wotton to
meet the French ministers.  While it was going on the
queen-regev.: died, (June 11, 1560.)  It was then removed to




ELIZABETH.                   459
Edinburgh, and it, was finally agreed that the French should
evacuate Scotland; that twelve persons, seven to be selected
by the queen, five by the parliament, should govern the kingdomrn, and that war or peace should not be made without the
consent of the parliament.  By a separate treaty with Elizabeth, Francis and Mary were to renounce the title of king
and queen of England.  These princes, however, refused to
ratify the treaty, under pretext that the Scots had not fulfilled
the conditions, and that Elizabeth continued to support them.
In France itself at this time the protestants formed a numerous party. Their heads were the prince of Conde6, the
admiral Coligni, and his brother Andelot.  The persecution
against them, which had been begun by Francis I., was still
kept up, and from the furious bigotry of the Guises was likely
to be aggravated.  Comrnmunity of' interest naturally made
them look to the queen of England, and Throgmorton her
ambassador entered into communication with them.  An
attempt was made to seize the young king at Amboise, but
it failed, and the hones of the reformers were crushed for a
time.  But the aspect of affairs in France soon underwent a
considerable change.  Francis, who was a puny, delicate
youth, died, (Dec. 5,) and the queen-dowager, Catherine de'
Medici, became regent for the minority of her son,Charles
IX.; the king of Navarre, whom the Guises had thrown into
prison, was made lieutenant-general of the kingdom; the
prince of Condfe, who had been condemned to death, was set
at liberty; the constable Montmorenci was recalled to court,
and a counterpoise to the power of the Guises was thus
formed.
The widowed queen, finding the court where she had ruled
no longer an agreeable abode, retired to that of her uncles in
Lorraine.  She still persevered in refusing to ratify the treaty with Elizabeth.  Her subjects sent praying her to return to her own kingdom; her uncles urged her to the
same course; the ill-feeling which prevailed between her and
the queen-mother assured her that she could never expect
happiness in France.  She assented to a departure, and her
minister D'Oysell was sent to England to ask a safe passage
for himself and for his royal mistress to Scotland.  Elizabeth
received him in the presence of her whole court, and in a
tone of strong emotion refused both requests unless the treaty
of Edinburgh were ratified.  " Let your queen," said she,
" ratify the treaty' and she shall experience on my part, either
by sea or by land, whatever can be expected from a queen,




460              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
a relation, or a neighbor."  When Mary was informed of
this refusal she remonstrated in very spirited terms with
-Throgmorton against the conduct.of Elizabeth. Anothei
envoy was sent to London, and as Mary intimated her intentions of being guided by the advice of lter council in. Scotland, Elizabeth declared herself content to "suspend her
conceit of unkindness; " and in answer to the report that
was made of her having sent a fleet to intercept her, she assured her that she had only, at the desire of the king of Spain,
sent two or three small barks to sea in pursuit of some Scottish pirates.
Mary, accompanied by her uncles and many lords al.d
ladies of the court of France, proceeded to Calais, where
she embarked, (Aug. 14, 1561.)  Just as she was leaving the
harbor a vessel was lost in her sight.  "Good God," cried
she, "what an omen for a voyage! " She stood leaning with
both arms c.i the poop, and the tears streamed from her eyes
as she regarded the country she was leaving.  She co ntinu.
ally repeated, " Farewell, France! farewell, France! " When
it was growing dark and she was summoned down to supper,
her tears flowed more plenteously, and she cried, " It is now,
my dear France, that I lose sight of thee; I shall never see
thee more."  A bed was prepared for her on the poop, and
she directed the steersman to awake I-er at daybreak if the
coast of France were still in sight. The man called her, as
desired.  She gazed till the coast receded from her view.
"' Farewell, France," said she; " it is over: I shall never
see thee again." The English squadron met and saluted her.
It searched the baggage ships for pirates, and detained one
which was suspected.  On the third day a dense fog came
on which obliged them to cast anchor in the open sea, and
the next day (Aug. 19) the queen landed at Leith.  Though
she came before the appointed time, and the due preparations
had not therefore been made to receive her, the people all
crowded down to the port to evince their loyalty; but the
queen and her retinue could get no better conveyances to
the palace of Holyrood than the paltry horses of the country,
and these ill capa.risoned. -"Are these," cried she, "the
pomps, the splendors, and the superb animals on which I used
to ride in France?" In the evening a concert of barbarous
and discordant music, performed before her windows to testify the joy of her subjects, grated the ears of Mary and her
French attendants.
The young queen was now in her nineteenlh year.  Her




ELIZABETH.                     461
pemron was tall and elegant, her face handsome, if not beau.
tiful;   her abilities were considerable, her manners were
highly polished.  She had been brought up in a court where
the serpent too frequently lurked beneath the roses; treachery, falsehood, and cruelty, hiding themselves under the
-overt of honeyed words and wreathed similes, and where.
dissoiuteness of manners prevailed to a degree elsewhere un-.known.  She had also been reared in a bigoted adherence to
the tenets and practices of popery.  She was come to a country poor and semi-barbarous, where deeds of violence and
treachery were openly enacted; where the Reformation had
breathed its sternest spirit, little mitigated  by the Gospel
precepts of peace and charity; where the reformed clergy,
led by the fanatic Knox, sought to deprive mankind of most
of the innocent pleasures of life, and viewed the masks, the
dances, the banquets in which the queen naturally took delight, as sinful abominations.
Between a sovereign and a people of such opposite characters, long-continued harmony could hardly be expected to
prevail.  Yet Mary's reign was f)r some years happy and
prosperous.  For this she was indebted to her following the
advice of her uncles, and giving her confidence to her halfbrother the prior of St. Andrew's, (whom  she raised to the
dignity of earl of Mar, and soon after to that of Moray or
Murray,) the head of the protestant party, and a man of honor,
probity, and ability.  She also held occasional conferences
with the rugged Knox, and bore his uncourteous animadversions wnith no little patience.  Yet all the while her fixed design was the overthrow  of the reformed religion.  In 1532,
when some zealots presented a petition for the suppression of
the Romnish worship, she angrily replied that she hoped before another year to have the mass restored throughout the
whole kingdonm.  On the 10th of MIay, in the following year,
(]563,' her uncle, the cardinal of Lorraine, read her letters
to the counci' of Tre-nt professing her submission to lts authority, and prornisiun i' she succeeded to the throne of England
to subject both kingdoms to the Holy See.  We shall further
find that she was a subscribing party to the famous Holy
League concluded at Bayonne in 1565 for the extermination
of the protestants. Surely it is not possible that the intentions
of Mary with respect to religion could have escaped the
knowledge of Elizabeth and her wise minister Cecil; and
* We express ourselves thus. because in some undoubtedly genuine
jportrai.ts of Mary, her face is not by any means beautiful.
389*




146                HISTORY OF ENGLAND
was it not therefore their duty to guard agains  her hayting
the power to carry-these designs into effect?
Trhe queen of Scots, we have seen, laid claim to the throne
of England; and supposing the divorce of Henry VIII. not
to have been legal, and the powei of parliament to limit the
succession not paramount, her claim was irresistible.  The
catholics in general took this view of the case.  On the other
hand Henry, by his will, sanctioned by parliament, devised
the crown, after his own children, to the issue of iis younger
sister the queen of France  by the duke of Suffolk; and
nany of the protestants, such as Cecil and Bacon, favored
this line.  The general feeling, however, was on the side of
the elder or Scottish branch, and Elizabeth herself seems to
have viewed the queen of Scots as her true heir, though she
was probably secretly determined to keep the matter in uncertainty as long as she lived.  By an act of' great harshness
and even cruelty she at this time put it nearly out of her own
power to exclude the queen of Scots.
The lady Catherine Gray, next sister to the lady Jane, had
been married to the son of the earl of Pembroke, but on the
fall of her family that time-serving  nobleman had them  divorced.  Catherine was afterwards privately married to the
earl of Hertford, son of the Protector.  Her pregnancy revealed the secret, and Elizabeth, who could not bear that
others should enjoy those delights of love from which she
excluded herself, sent the lovers to the Tower.  As they
were unable to prove their marriage, the primate pronounced
a divorce.  But their keepers allowing them  to meet, the
birth of a second child was the result.  Hertford was heavily
fined, and detained in prison till his unhappy wife sank under
the ill-treatment she received, and died.  The legitimacy of
their children was acknowledged in a subsequent reign.*`
Shortly after her arrival in Scotland, Mary sent Maitland
to Elizabeth to propose a friendly alliance, but at the same
time requiring to be declared successor to the throne.  ElizI
abeth insisted on the execution of the treaty of Edinburgh,
she declared that in such case she would do nothing to
prejudice the rights of Mary; but she said that her own
experience when she was at Hatfield had convinced her how
dangerous to the present possessor of power it was to have' [Candor would seem to require, that the same remarks should be
made on the conduct of Elizablcta, in this instance! as on that of Maary
in the case of Lady Jane Gray. (See anlte, p. 423.) Elizabeth had
wach less justification for her conduct - J. T. S.1
_______________ - _ *~________ ___________   _____                  _____




ELIZABE'THI.                   463
a designated successor, who would thus become a rallying
point for the disaffected.  This was a subject on which all
through her reign Elizabeth was remarkably jealous, and
though, as we have said,- she secretly favored the hereditary
principle, she never would declare herself.  The two queens,
notwithstanding, kept up an amicable intercourse by ietter:s,
and at one time proposed a personal interview  at York,
which, however, did not take place, in consequence of E!izabeth's vanity and jealousy, according to tlose writers who
take a delight in assigning little paltry,motives to the actiones
of this great princess.   To us the conduct of Elizabethi
toward Mary at this period seems to have been as cordial
and friendly as was consistent with her station as the head
of the protestant party in Great Britain, and the obstinate retention by Mary of her claim to the crown of England.
It was a curious circurmstance that the rulers of the two
British kingdoms should be both young women, both handsome, both single.  Their hands were therefore naturally
objects of ambition to foreign princes, and the disposal of
them  matter of solicitude to their subjects.  The Englis.b/
parliament were particularly  anxious that their sovereign
should marry, as her having issue would secure a protestant
succession  and preclude the collision which might ensue
between the hereditary clairms of the descendants of Margaret and the parliamnentary title of those of Mary Tudor,
the daughters of Henry VII.  But the masculine and arbitrary temper of Elizabeth had early brought her to a secret
determination never to give herself a master, and though she
gave her parliament fair words and coquetted with some
of her suitors, there does not appear any reason to suppose
tnh.t she seriously thought on marriage.  We will here enunmierate her principal suitors at this time.
When Philip of Spain had given up all hopes of obtaining
the hand of Elizabeth himself, he put forward the pretensions
of his cousin'harles archduke of Austria, in the design
of counterbSalanucino the influence of France in the British
island.  Some of Elizabeth's leading irobles were strongly
in favor of this match, and it continued for some years to be
the subject of discussion. Eric king of Sweden, Adolf duke of
Holstein, and some other princes also sought her hand.  The
Scottish parliament in 1569 prayed her to marry the ear] ot
Arran.  Catherine de' Medici at a later period offered her
son the duke of Anjou to the English queen.
The females of the royal family in England had at all
times mnatched with subjects, and we have seen the parlia




164              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ment petition the late queen to marry a subject.  It neea
not surprise us therefore to find nobles aspiring to the hana
of Elizabeth. The earl of Arundel, though several years her
senior, long cherished hopes; sir William  Pickering, a man
possessed of beauty of person, cultivation of mind, and great
taste in the arts, was for some time thought to stand high in
be favor of the maiden queen. But all were eclipsed by
the charms of lord Robert Dudley.
Dudley was son to the infamous Northumberland.  He had
been committed to the Tower with the rest of his family, but
he was early set at liberty; and by the graces of his manners?.
and his ready assiduity he won the favor of both Philip and
Mary, by whom he was frequently employed.  At Elizabeth's,
entrance into London he appeared in her train as master of
the horse, and wealth and honors were gradually showered
on him.  Dudley, we must observe, was at this time a married man, having espoused the heiress of sir John Robsart;
and few, perhaps, will ascribe wantonness to Elizabeth.
With all her dignity and greatness of mind, however, she
was by nature a coquette; she loved admiration, and she
had inherited her father's partiality for handsome attendants;
like him too she was fond of indulging in a coarse and what
might seem  to us an indelicate familiarity in language and
action, which malicious minds could  easily misinterpret.
But at this time she had not the remotest thought of
marrying.
Of this Dudley probably was not aware, and he may have
thought that his wife was the only obstacle to his gaining the
hand of the queen.  This throws great suspicion over the
death of that lady, which occurred at this time, (!560.) 
Hie sent her, on what account is not known, under the charge
of sir -R.ichard Verney, one of his retainers, to a mansion
named Cumnor Hall in Be:rkshire, held by another of his
dependants named Anthony Foster.  Her death took place
shortly after, owing, it was said, to an accidental fall down
stairs.  Suspicions of foul play naturally arose, and Lever,
a prehendary of Coventry, a pious minister who resided
near the place, wrote to secretaries Cecil and Knowles,
praying that inquiry might be made.  Whether it was done
or not we have no certain infornmation, but Dudley appears to  have been fully cleared in the queen's mind,
though by his enemies and the public he continued to be iln
some sort " infamed for the death of his wife," as Cecil expressed it.
The hand of the other British queen was also sought by




ELIZABETH.                     465
man).  The archduke Charles was a suitor to her also,
Philip offered her his son Don Carlos; the king of Navarre
would, it is said, willingly have divorced his heretical queen
Jane d'Albret to marry the queen of Scotland, to whom
Catherine proposed a union with another of her sons.  Some
of the petty princes of Italy also aspired to the widowed
queell.
1Mary was differently situated from  Elizabeth; the latter
had only her own inclinations to consult, while from  the
circumstance of differing in religion from  the Agreat bulk of
her subjects, who looked up to Elizabeth as their protectress,
Mary could not safely venture on any match which would
not meet the approbation of that princess, who, as well as
the Scottish reformers, was extremely adverse to her marryl
ing any one but a protestant.  It was a delicate matter for
Elizabeth to manage, as it seemed almost unwarrantable interference in the concerns of an independent sovereign.
Still the safety of England and of the protestant religion
was paramount to all considerations.  In November, 156'3,
Cecil drew up instructions on this subject for Randolph, the
English minister at Edinburgh, in which he stated the
reasons that ought to influence Mary in her choice, viz., the
mutual affection of the parties; the approval of her own
subjects; the friendship of Elizabeth, who he said would
not be satisfied at a foreign match.  He was desired to hint
that " nothing would content Elizabeth so much as Mary's
clhoice of somne noble person within the kingdom of England
having the qualities and conditions meet for such an alliance,
and therewith be agreeable to both queens and both their
nations."   Acscordingly Randolph suggested lord Robert
Dudley, accompanied, it would seem, with some favorable
prospects respecting the succession.  Mary made an evasive
reply, alleging that her friends would hardly agree that she
should " ernbase herself so far as tlat.'"  Dudley himself,
who aspired to the hand of Elizabeth, felt no great inclination for the Scottish match; but the negotiations for it still
went on, and on the 5th of February, 1.565, Randolph wrote
that Mary was inclined to marry him.  But now Elizabeth
began to fluctuate. " I see," writes Cecil, " the queen's matesty very desirous to have rmy lord of Leicester t the Scottish', At this part is added in Elizabeth's own hand-writing, "' Yea, per
chance such as she could hardly think we could agree unto."
t In 1.564, Elizabeth, with a view to his marriage with Mary, created
Dudley earl of Leicester and baron Denbigh. "It was done," says
Melvill, " with great solemnity, the queen herself helping to put rn his
G G G




466               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
queen's husba:d; but when it cometh to the conditions vwl.,ich
are demanded I see her then remiss of her earnestness.i  In
these words, written from  one minister to another, where
there could be no intention to deceive, we have the key to
Elizabeth's conduct in this intricate business.
In the meantime iMary had turned her thoughts to another
English subject.  Margaret Tudor, queen of Scots, had by
her second husband the earl of Angus a dautghter, whom
Henry VIII. gave in marriage, with an estate in England, to
Matthew Stuart earl of Lennox, when he was driven out of
Scotland by the regent Arran.  Lord  Darnley, tbereftre,
Lennox's eldest son, was on the father's side of the blood
royal of Scotland, on the mother's of that of E}!.?;llud, andl
being a protestant might prove a formidable rival to Mary for
the English crown.  Mary, with a view  to this, had kept
up a correspondence with the earl and countess of Lennox.
In the autumn of 1564, probably by Mary's invitation, the
earl went to Scotland to try to obtain a reversal of his attainder and the restoration of his estates and honors; Elizabeth
not merely giving her permission, but recommending him
strongly to Mary, whom at the same time she warned to take
care of offending the Hamiltons, the present possessors of Lenm
nox's estates.  Lennox was received with great distinction
by his royal 1kinswoman; she effected an accommodation between  him  and Chatelherault, the head of the house of
Hamilton; and by inducing lady Lennox to drop her claim
on the earldom of Angtus, she prevented any opposition fiomt
the potent house of Douglas.  In the month of Deceember
Lennox was restored by act of parliament to his titles and
estates.
A marriage between Mary and Darnley had been for some
time in treaty between the former and Lennox; rumors of it
were instantly spread, and it may also be that the English
ministers and possibly Elizabeth herself were not displeased
at it.  Mary was desirous of seeing Darnley, and Elizabeth,
ceremonial, (mantle,) he sitting upon his knees before her with a great
gravity. But she could not refrain from putting her hand in his neck,
smilingly tickling him; the French ambassador and I standing by.'"
Could this be any thing but playfulness, like her father's putting his arim
round sir T. More's neck, like Napoleon's pinching his favorites' ears.
She had said of him to Melvill a little before that " she esteemed him
as her brother and best friend, whom she would have herself married
had she ever minded to have taken a husband. But being determined
to end her life in virginity, she wished the queen her sister mig'ht marry
him as meetest of all others with (for) whom she could find it in her
heart to declare her second person."




F;'-                                                     X -    -  -  -  - -
ELZ.ABETH.                   467
when applied to, riade no difficulty of letting him  go to
Scotland.  He reached Edinburgh on the 13th of February,
1565, and on the 16th he waited on the queen at Wemys
castle in Fife. "  Her majesty," says Melvill, " took well with
him, and said he was the lustiest (handsomest) and best-proportionied lang man that she had seen; for he was of high
stature, lang and small, even and brent up, (straight;) well
instructed from his youth in all honest and comely exercises."
He was in effect a tall, well-made youth of nineteen years,
who danced, played the lute, and had the showy accomplishments of the age. He pleased the eye of Mary; she took
no time to ascertain the qualities of his mind, but fell
violently in love at once. He offered her his hand and heart
without delay; she affected anger at his presumption, but
secretly determined to espouse him,
There was a man named David Rizzio or Riccio, an
Italian, who had come to Scotland in the suite of the amrbassador of Savoy.  He remained in the queen's service on
account of his skill in music; she raised him to the post of
her French secretary, and made him her favorite.  As the
graces of the crown mostly passed through his hands he was
courted by the nobility; wealth came to him from variout 
sources, which he displayed with the usual vanity of an up.
start, and his insolence augmented in proportion.  The
nobility therefore hated and despised him at the same time;
a suspicion also prevailed that he was a secret agent of the
pope.
With this man did Darnley condescend to ally himself, in
order that he might employ his influence over the queen's
mind in his favor.  This indisposed the protestant nobles
to Darnley;. the open indifference which he manifested on
the subject of religion alarmed them. Murray prognostic ited
that unkindness to England would be the result, and in sorrow withdrew from court. The queen, however, was resolved
to persevere  an agent was despatched to Rome for a dispensation, and Lethington was sent to inform Elizabeth and
ask her consent.  But the knowledge which the council had
now of the state of feeling in both kingdoms made them
view the match as fraught with peril, and letters of recall
were sent (April 23d) to Lennox. and his son, which they
treated with neglect, almost with contempt.  On the 1st of
May the council met and determined that this marriage
would be dangerous to the protestant religion and to the
queen's title, and that it was necessary to provide for war
with Scotland if need should be. The able Throgmorto-l




468              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
was sent to Edinburgh to make known these resolutions, anid
in case of failure he was to urge the protestants to oppose
the marriage unless Darnley promised to adhere to the protestant religion.
Murray had withdrawn from  court in disgust; but the
queen, who knew of what importance it was to gain his
approbation of her marriage, ordered him to repair to her at
Stirling. She there employed all her arts and eloquence to
induce him to sign a paper recommending the marriage.
He hesitated to do so, alleging that he feared Darnley would
be an enemy to Christianity.  " She gave him," says Melvill,
"many sore words; he answered with humility, but nothing
could be obtained from him."  A convention of nobles met
a few days after, (May 14;) the gifts and blandishments of
Mary had more effect on them than on her brother, and
many gave their assent to her marriage. As, however, some
hesitated, another convention was appointed to meet at Perth.
Darnley now mortally hated Murray as the chief obstacle
to his ambition; and religious and political motives caused
Murray to resolve to prevent the marriage if possible.  The
former is said to have formed a plan to assassinate the latter;
Murray is charged with a design, in conjunction with Chatelherault, Argyle, and other nobles with whom he was associ.
ated, to seize Darnley and his father, and deliver them up
to the warden of the English marches. Each party, it is added, received information of the designs of the other, and Mary,
taking advantage of the popularity which the good government of Murray had procured her, assembled a force, and
advancing to Stirling, where the confederate lords were,
obliged them to disperse and retire to their homes.
Mary had conferred on Darnley the titles of earl of Ross
mnd duke of Albany, dignities appropriated to the royal
family, and the dispensation being now  arrived, and the
banns duly published, she gave him her hand (July 29) in the
chapel of holyrod House.  The ceremony was performed
according to the rites of the Romish church; Darnley,
however, withdrew during the performance of mass. She
had agreed to give him the title of king, but wished to defer
it till parliament should meet or till he should have attained
his 21st year; but the vain, headstrong youth would have it
then or never, and she was obliged to consent to his being
proclaimned the evening* before the marriage-day. On the
*" She can as much prevail with him in any thing that is against his
will," writes Randolph to Leicester, "as your lordship may with me to
persuade that I should hang myself."




ELIZABETH.                     469
day succeeding it, he was again proclaimed, and though all
the lords were present, no one said Amen; his father alone
cried, " God save his queen!"
Immediately after her marriage Mary outlawed Murray
she set at liberty lord' Gordon and made him earl of' Huntley
and she recalled Sutherland  and. Bothwell, who were ii
exile- all sworn foes to Murray.  When Thomworth came,
sent by Elizabeth, to insist that she should do nothing.
against the Reformation in England, she gave an ambiguous
reply; she did the same when warned not to make any
ch nge in Scotland; and when, as instructed, he urged her
to drop  her displeasure against Murray, she desired that
there might be no meddling in the affairs of Scotland.  She
was in fact inveterate against her brother.  She lost no
time in collecting a force, and she drove hiam and the other
lords to seek refuige in Argyle. They soon after appeared in
arms in the western counties'; the queen in' person led her
forces against them, riding at the head of her troops with
loaded pistols in her girdle.  The lords made a rapid march
to Edinburgh, but as the people there did not join them as
they had expected, and the queen pursued them closely, they
retired to Dumfries, still followed by their implacable sovereign, and finding assistance hopeless, they crossed the borders and sought refuge inl England.  Murray and Hamilton
abbot of Kilwinning repaired to London. In the presence of
the French and Spanish ambassadors, Elizabeth, it is said,
made them declare that she had not excited them to take arms
against their sovereign.  When they had done so, she called
them  traitors, and ordered them  to quit her presence.*
They  retired to the northern marches, where Elizabeth
secretly supplied them with money, and interceded for their
pardon  with their queen.  Chatelherault was forgiven on
condition of his retiring to France, but Mary declared to
Randolph that she would rather lose half her kingdom than
show mercy to Murray'.  The king and her chief counsellors, Huntley, Athol, and Bothwell, were all hostile to him;
so also was Rizzio, though he had, says'Melvill, " sued him
* Such is the account given' by Melvill and the other Scottish writers
Lord Burleigh (Raumer, p. 70) says Elizabeth asked Murray " if he
had ever undertaken any thing against the person of his queen. This
he most solemnly denied, and implored her to conserve the amity between her' majesty and his sovereign." In conclusion, "she spoke
ve-ry roundly to him before the ambassadors, that whatsoever the world'
said or reported of her she would by her actions l1t it appear that -she
would not for the price of a world maintain any svubject in any disobe.
ilence aga nst a prince."
voL,. 1.     40




470              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
earnestly and more humbly than could be believed, with the
present of a fair diamnd," fbr his interest in his behalf.
But what most weighel with the queen was a message from
her uncles, desiring her not to pardon the banished lords
This was brought by Clernau, the bearer of the treaty lately
concluded at Bayonne for the extirpation of protestantism, to
which she readily affixed her signature.  A parliament was
summoned for the 12th of March, 1566, in order to attaint
the rebel lords and to take steps toward the redstablishment
of popery.
CHAPTER X.
ELIZABETH. (CONTINUED.)
156 —1571.
FTHE execution of those projects, however, was prevented
by the perpetration of a deed which proved pregnant with
calamity to the royal house of Scotland.  Mary had now
-eased to love her husband; the first fervor of her affection
being over, she saw that he was devoid of every estimable
quality, brutal in temper, and addicted to the grossest intemperance.  She therefore gave no heed to his urgent
demand of the crown-matrimonial; she treated him  with
neglect and even aversion; all her favor was monopolized by
Rizzio, with whom the jealous Darnley now suspected her
of improper familiarity.  "It is a sore case," said he one
day (Feb. 10) to his uncle Douglas, " that I can get no help
against that villain David."   "It is your own fault," was
the reply; "you cannot keep a secret."  Soon after, a league,
confirmed by the king's oath and signature, was formed
between him and the lords Ruthven, Morton, Lindsay, and
M aitland of'Lethington: they were to put Rizzio to death;
and procure him  the crown-matrimonial; lhe was to bear
them' scathless,' to obtain an amnesty for the banished lords,
and to secure the protestant religion.
IThis compact was made on the 1st of March, and on the
night of the 9th (Saturday) Ruthven, having risen from  his
bed of sickness for the purpose, and cased himself in his
armor, the associates were brought by Darnley up a private
staircase which led to the apartment where Mary, now six
i   -,  ---              - --.    




ELIZABETH.                   471
months gone with child, was sitting at supper with Rizzio
and lady Argyle.  The king went in and stood by her chair
with his arm round her waist. Ruthvenr entered, pale andt
haggard, supported by two men. He desired that Rizzio
should quit the room; the queen said it was her will he
should be there. Rizzio ran behind her for safety; a tumult
ensued; the table was overturned; Rizzio was dragged out
and despatched in the antechamber with fifty-six wounds.
The queen meantime was interceding for him, and a very
indelicate conversation took place between her and her hus
band, in the presence of Ruthven, respecting his resunrptior
of his conjugal rights.  She then sent to learn the fate of
Rizzio, and when she found that he was dead, she said, "No
more tears; I must think of revenge;" and she never was
heard to lament him more.  Bothwell and Huntley, when
they learned what had occurred, made their escape from the
palace by a window.
On Monday (the 11th) Murray and his friends came to
Edinburgh.  Mary embraced and kissed her brother when
she saw him, saying that " if he had been at home he would
not have allowed her to be so discourteously ha,-dled."  He
was affected even to tears.  Mary now tried her arts on her
weak, unstable husband, and she actually succeeded in prevailing on him to abandon his confederates and make his
escape with her the following night out of the palace. They
fled to Dunbar. The king issued a proclamation denying all
knowledge of the conspiracy.  Bothwell, Huntley, and other
nobles repaired with their followers to Dunbar, and on the
19th the queen reentered Edinburgh at the head of eight
thousand men. The murderers of Rizzio were obliged to
fly into England.  The contempt and hatred which Mary
felt for her worthless husband she could not conceal; her
whole confidence was now given to Bothwell, between whom
and Murray she effected a reconciliation.
On the 19th of June the queen was delivered of a son.
Sir James Melvill was immediately despatched with the
tidings to Elizabeth. When he arrived, the queen, who had
just recovered from a severe illness, was at her favorite palace of Greenwich.  She was dancing after supper; Cecil
whispered the news to her; she instantly stopped and sat
down, resting her cheek on her hand. At length she gave
vent to her feelings in these words:" The queen of Scots
is mother of a fair son, while I am but a barren stock."
Wh-at could be more natural, what more blameless than such
language?  Yet those who will see nothing but duplicity in




472              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
her conduct, ascribe to dissimulation the cheerful' counte.
nance with which she received Melvill next morning, and
the readiness with which she assented to his request that
she would be godmother to the infant prince.
The alienation between Mary and her husband ih..reased
from day to day.  He found. himself generally shunned; for
to show him any attention was a sure. mode of losing the
queen's favor. In his vexation he formed the absurd' project
of quitting the kingdom. and going to the continent; but the
silly plan came to no effect.  Mean:time the' queen's visible
partiality for Bothwell; gave occasion to rumors injurious to
her character, and an incident which occurred in the following October added strength to suspicion.  She went to Jedburgh to: hold a justiciary court for suppressingu the disorders ofthe borders.  Bothwell, whom slie had made warden
of the marches, preceded her by some days, and being
wounded in the hand in a scuffle with 6ne of the borderers
named. Elliott, was conveyed to his castle'of Hermitage.
The queen, having passed some days in great anxiety on his
account, took the sudden resolution of going herself to see
him. Though the weather was bad and the roads in a
wretched state, she rode with- a few attendants to Hermitage,
a distance- of twenty miles, and having. assured herself that
his life was in no danger, returned the same day to Jedbudrgi.
Her bodily exertion, combined' with mental uneasiness, threw
her the next day into a fever, and for some days her life was
despaired of; the vigor of her constitution, however, triumphed over the. disorder.
After her recovery the queen took up, her abode at the
castle of Craigmillar near Edinburglh, and here the measure
of a divorce was discussed by Maitland and others.; she
made no objection but her unwillingness to prejudice her
son.  On the 1-7th of December the ceremony of the young
prince's baptismtl was performed at Stirling, and though the
king was in the castle, owing to his own caprice or to the
coldness of the queen, he was not present at it.  On the
other hand Bothwell. was appointed to receive the French
and English ambassadors, and to regulate the ceremonial of
the christening.  Through his influence Morton and the
other murderers of Rizzio were pardoned on the 24th,
on which day. the king left the court and retired to his
father's house at Glasgow, where in a few days he was attacked by the sin all-pox.  The queen, when she heard of his
Illness,, sent her own- physician to attend him.
On the 20th of January (1567) Bothwell and Lethington




ELIZABETH.                   4d3
went to Morton's residence at Whittingham, and Bothwell
proposed the murder of the king to him, saying " it was the
queen's mind that he should be taken away." Morton objected, being, as he said, but just come out of trouble on a
similar account; but finally agreed, provided he had the
queen's hand-writing for his warrant. This, however, they
were:unable to procure; either they did not venture to propose such a thing to Mary, or she was too prudent to commit
herself.
From the time of Rizzio's murder up to the present date,
the queen had shown no affection to her husband, and on
the 20th she wrote to her ambassador at Paris complaining
of him and his father. The next day she set out for Glasgow. While there she feigned the utmost fondness for the
king, yet her letters at the same time to Bothwell display
the most ardent love for that nobleman.  Her object was
to get her husband into her power; in this she succeeded,
and she brought him back with her to Edinburgh, (Jan. 31.)
Pretending that the situation and' noise of Holyrood House
would be injurious to him in his delicate state, she placed
him in a lone house without the city, named Kirk of Field,
and she had a chamber fitted up for herself under his, in
which she sometimes slept. On Sunday night (Feb. 9) she
staid with him till ten o'clock, and then recollecting that
she had promised to give: a mask at the palace on the occasion
of the marriage of one of her servants, she took leave of
him. At two in the morning a loud explosion was heard,
and daylight revealed the Kirk of Field in ruins.  The
dead body of the king was found: at a little distance in the
fields without any marks of violence; the house it appeared
had been blown up with gunpowder.
On the 12th a proclamation was issued offering a reward
of 10001. for the discovery of the murderers.  A paper was
found fixed on the gates of the Tolbooth (Feb. 16) naming
Bothwelli and his accomplices, and accusing the queen of
being privy to it; voices to the same effect were heard in
the silence of the night-. The council called on the accuser
to appear; a second placard announced that he would, and
that with four witnesses, if- Bothwell and two of the queen's
servants, who were naned, were taken into custody   The
council made no reply. Lennox wrote to Mary urging that
the persons accused should be brought to trial.  She evaded
compliance; and though every tongue. named Bothwell as
the murderer, she continued to give him daily proofs of
ner favor.  She bestowed on him (Feb. 15) the superiority
40 *                   H H I




4714            H-ISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of the port of Leith, and (March 19) made him governor
of the castle of Edinburgh.  Still the popular voice was
so strong, and a letter from her envoy at Paris, archbishop
Beaton, showed her so plainly the ill report there was of
her on the continent, that she saw no way of eluding the
demand for a trial. It was therefore fixed for the 12th of
April, thus giving Lennox but fourteen instead of forty, days,
the usual time to prepare for the prosecution.  The accused
meantime were at liberty, and Bothwell himself actually
sat as a member of the privy council which arranged the
manner of the trial!
It was evident that any thing but impartial justice was intended. Lennox, feeling his weakness, had applied to Elizo
abcth for aid, and that princess, in a letter which does her
honor, entreated of Mary not to precipitate the proceedings
in this manner: "For the love of God, madam," says she,
"use such sincerity and prudence in this matter, which concerns you so nearly, that the whole world may have reason
to declare you innocent of so enormous a crime; which if
you committed it, you would be justly cast out of the ranks
of princesses, and not without reason made the reproach of
the vulgar; and sooner than that should befall you I would
wish you an honorable grave than a spotted life. You see,
madam, that I treat you as my daughter," etc.  All was in
vain; Lennox did not venture to appear; no witness or evidence was produced, for Bothwell came to his trial so well
attended by armed men that it had been dangerous to do so;
he was of course acquitted. Mary then affected to legard
him as fully cleared, and when she went to open the parliament he bore the sword of state before her. Lennox fled into
England.  Still numerous placards showed that the public
were by no means satisfied of Bothwell's innocence.
The strongest possible proof of Bothwell's influence over
the queen's mind was given at this time.  Mary, a most
bigoted papist, who never for a moment had swerved from
her purpose of destroying the protestant religion, who had
lately subscribed the treaty of Bayonne, assented to an act
of parliament repealing all laws adverse to the reformers
and giving their religion the safeguard of law. Bothwell's
object evidently was to gain the support of the protestants,
whose creed he had always professed.  He now went a
step further: on the day of the dissolution o)f parliament
he invited all the nobles to sup at a tavern.  He had the
house filled and suirounded with his armed dependants;
afte-r iNlper he opened to them his design of marrying the




ELIZABETH.                   475
queen; he said he had her own consent, and he wished them
to subsc'ribe a bond recommending the marriage and pledging
themselves to maintain it.  Some were already in the secret,
some were gained by promises, others yielded to fear; all,-rbscribed the bond.
Three days after, (April 22,) Mary went to Stirling to visit
her son; as she was on her return she was met near Linlithgow by Bothwell, at the head of a large body of armed men;
he dispersed her train, took the bridle of her horse and led
her and some of her attendants, among whom were Huntley,
Lethington, and Melvill, to Dunbar: the person who conducted Melvill told him it was done with the queen's consent, and
her own letters prove that it had been all arranged between
ier and Bothwell. It may increase our disgust at this proceeding to know that Bothwell was at this time the husband
of Huntley's sister; but means had been devised to dissolve
the union. The queen had restored the archbishop of St.
Andrew's to his jurisdiction, and to quiet her catholic scruples
dothwell had commenced a suit for a divorce on the ground
of consanguinity in his court, while lady Jane Gordon was
prosecuting a collusive one against him for adultery in the
protestant court; sentence  was easily procured in both
courts. A report was also put forth that Bothwell had offered
personal violence to the queen at Dunbar; and when Craig,
a minister at Edinburgh, was commanded to publish the
banns, (for she now was going to marry Bothwell,) he refused
on that ground, and when obliged to do so he declared from
the pulpit that " he abhorred and detested the marriage as
hateful in the sight of the world."
Mary was conducted by Bothwell to Edinburgh, (May 3;)
she appeared before the court of session, and declared that
though Bothwell's insolence in seizing her had at first excited
her indignation, his subsequent conduct had been so respectful that she forgave him.and was resolved to raise him to the
highest honors.  She then created him earl of Orkney, and
on the 15th she was married to him publicly according to the
rites of the protestant church, by the bishop of Orkney, and
then in private according to those of that of Rome.
We need not inform our readers that the question of Mary's
participation in Bothwell's crime (for of his guilt no one has
ever doubted) is one which has been disputed from her own
time down to the present.@
* [The editor has taketn the liberty to erase the passage expressive
of Mr. Keightley's decided opinion; since, on a moot question confess.




476                  STORY OF ENGLAND
fBut her gui.t [if she were guilty] was not to go unpunished,
the Reformation had exalted the moral sense of the people,
and the dead silence which prevailed when she appeared in
public showed what were their thoughts.  Bothwell too was
not kind; he surrounded her with his creatures and exercised
dhe whole royal authority.  His great object was to get the
young prince into his power, (doubtless for the worst of purposes,) but the firmness of the earl of Mar, who had charge
of the royal infant, and whom Melvill conjured to save him
"ifrom the hands of those who had slain his father," prevented
him from  accomplishing his boast, "that he would warrant
him from avenging the death of his father."
The insolence of Bothwell, the danger of  t       he prince, the
reproaches of foreign nations, at length roused the Scottish
nobles.  Argyle, Athol, Morton, Lindsay, Glencairn, Mar,
Lethington, and others met at Stirling and entered into an
association for the defence of the prince.  The queen on her
side put forth a proclamation (May 2S) calling on her subjects
to arm  and meet her husband on an appointed day; they
came but slowly and ill-affected; the queen, fearing for her
safety, was conducted by Bothwell to Borthwick Castle, from
which, however, he was soon forced to fly to Dunbar on the
appearance of Lord Home with a body of troops.  Mary
accompanied his flight in male attire.   Having collected
what troops she could, she advanced to Carberry Hill near
Edinburgh, (June 15;) the lords led their forces out against
her.  Le Croc, the French ambassador, vainly sought to mediate.  She offered pardon.  " We will be satisfied," said
Morton, "with the punishment of the murderer of the late
king."  " As to pardon," said Glencairn, " we have not come
here to ask pardon for any offence we have done, but rather
to grant pardon to those who have offended."  Finding such
to be their temper, and failing in her efforts to rouse her
own troops to action, Mary took a farewell (a final one ~) of
edly so difficult to determine, the expression of such opinion, where
the means of the reader's forming a judgment for himself are not
given, can only be productive of prejudice, instead of promotive of
candid truth. It is extremely easy for either side tc mnake out a fair
case.  Di-spluted documents and trivialities of conduct constitute the
whole evidence; but the same considerations of latitude, for what
appear to our age indelicacies, which Mr. K. claims for Elix-htbeth,
ought certainly to be extended to Mary. The prejudices and interested assertions of' her contemporary enemies do not prove Mary to have
been, guilty.- J. T. S.]
* They had been exactly a month married. So little did they gain
by the death of Darnlev.,I~ —.                                _   ___,_   _ _   I




ELIZABETH.                     477
Bothwell, arid surrendered to a chief named Kirkcaldy of
Grange, who had assured her of the obedience of the lords
provided she dismissed Bothwell and would engage to govern
by their advice. The lords received her with great respect,
and conducted her to Edinburgh.  The unhappy woman was
assailed as she went along with maledictions and the foulest
epithets; for the Scots are a stern, unrelenting people, and
the populace had not a doubt of her guilt.  When she rose
in the morning the first object that met her view was a white
flag displayed before her window, on which was portrayed
the body of her husband beneath a tree, as it had been found,
and her infant son on his knees, saying, " Judge and avenge
my cause, O Lord!'" 
Mary had pledged herself to give up Bothwell, yet that
very night a letter from her to him was brought by the bearer
to the lords, in which she called him her " dear heart, whom
she would never forget nor abandon for absence."   They
s;aw she was not to be trusted, and next day (June 16) they
sent her a prisoner to the castle of Lochlevin, situated on
a small island in a lake; its owner, William Douglas, was
related to Morton and married to Murray's mother.
To restore Mary to power was out of the question.  Some
and retired to France or England; others required her trial
and condemnation, but would have been satisfied with her
perpetual imprisonment; a third party, more stern, demanded
her capital punishment as the penalty due to her crimes, and
as the only mode of assuring the safety of the realm.  It was
finally concluded to be content for the present with her resignation. Lord Lindsay, a man of rough, brutal manners, was
sent to her, (July 25,) and under the threat of instant death
if she refused, he made her sign her own abdication and consent to the coronation of her son; an appointment of Murray
to the regency; and that of certain others if he should refuse.
She subscribed with tears, but Lethington and some of her
other friends had secretly directed sir Robert MAelvill to assure her that hbr resignation was void and might be revoked
when she was at liberty.
Four days after, (July 29,) the prince was crowned at Stirling by the title of James VI.  On the 11th of August, Murray returned from  France, whither he had retired  some
* "The women be most furious and impudent against the queen,
and yet the men be xlad enough," writes Throgmorton to Elizazbeta,
July 14.
i —^ —---— L-Y!i-i~~_~   ~_~-_ICIil~~~~I.~~




478              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
months before; he visited his unhappy sister; she burst intc
tears at the sight of him.  He spoke the truth fieely and
plainly.  " Sometinmes," says Melvill, "she wept bitterly,
sometimes she  acknowledged her misgovernment; some
things she did confess plainly, some things she did excuse,
some things she did extenuate."  He could only then leave
her to God's mercy, but next morning he assured her of life
and of the preservation of her honor as far as in him lay;
liberty it was not in his power to give her, nor would it be
good for her to have it at present.  She then took him in her
arms and kissed him.  On the 22d he was proclaimed regent.
It may be asked, Htow did the queen of England act all this
time? The reply is highly to her honor. Elizabeth's notions
of the majesty of kings were high, and she was little pleased
with the example of subjects rising up against their sovereigns.  She moreover regarded Mary as a kinswoman and
as the presumptive heiress of her crown. On the intelligence,
therefore, of her captivity, she despatched Throgmorton to
Scotland to exert himself in her behalf; she menaced; she
even proposed to the French government to put a stop to
all traffic with the rebels, as she styled them, and their abettors.  " No counsel," writes Cecil, " can stop her majesty
from manifesting hler misliking of the proceedings against the
queen of Scots."  She ran the risk of seeing the lords throw
themselves into the arms of France, and when the Hamiltons, Huntley, and others confederated against the regent and
in favor of the queen, she gave them encouragement through
Throgmorton.
We must now relate the fate of Bothwell.  He fled to his
dukedom of Orkney, where he hired some ships with the intention of passing over to Denmark; but Kirkcaldy of Grange
and Murray of Tullibardine, who were sent in pursuit of him,
captured all his vessels but one, in which he escaped to Norway; where (as lie had no papers to produce and his ship
had once been commanded by a noted pirate) he was detained
a prisoner, and when his portfolio containing the proclamations of the council for his apprehension, etc., was found, he
was sent to Copenhagen.  He was imprisoned in the castle
of Malma5 in Scania, where he died bereft of reason in
1576.
On the 15th of Decenmber, the Scottish parliament rmet;
all the late proceedings were pronounced lawful, and were
confirmyed.  Mary was declared to have been accessory to the
murder of her husband.  The acts of 1560 in favor of the




ELIZABETH.                     479
protestant religion were ratified, and it was now finally established.
But though Huntley and several of Mary's partisans attend.
ed this parliament and supported the measures introduced,
their jealousy of the regent soon arrayed them again in arms.
They opened a communication with Mary, who appointed the
duke of Chatelherault to be her lieutenant.. Murray meantime visited her again, and she proposed, in order to quiet
all fears respecting Bothwell, to marry his half-brother George
Douglas, son to the lady of Lochlevin, a youth of eighteen
years of age, for whom she had begun to spread her snares.
Murray objected to his humble birth, so far beneath her rank
It was all, however, but a scheme of Mary's to conceal her real
design.  She had given amorous encouragement to Douglas
to induce him to aid her to escape.  On the 25th of March,
1568, having changed clothes with the laundress who used
to come from a village near the lake, she got into the boat;
she had nearly reached the shore when one of the boatmen
went to raise her'muffler,' saying, "Let us see what sort of
a dame this is!"  She put up her hand to prevent him; its
whiteness raised their suspicions; they refused to lanld her,
and carried her back to the island, but did not betray her.
On the 2d of May she was more fortunate; while lady Doug 
las and her eldest son were at supper, a youth called the
Little Douglas stole the keys of the castle.  Mary hastened
to a boat that lay ready  Douglas locked the castle gate on
the outside and flung the keys into the lake as they rowe(
across it.  On the shore Mary was met by George Douglas,
lord Seaton, and others.  She mounted a horse and rode to
lord Seaton's house of Niddry, and having rested there for
three hours, she mounted again and rode to Hamilton, where
she was received by the nobles of her party at the head of
three thousand of their followers.  Her first act was to protest against the instruments she had been compelled to sign
when in prison, which were pronounced illegal by the nobles
present, many of whom had declared the direct contrary in
the late. parliament.
Murray was meantime at Glasgow with only his ordinary
train; some of his friends advised him to fly to Stirling, but
he was too prudent to take such a course.  He amused the
queen for a few days by negotiation, during which time he
assembled a force of about four thousand men, with Lwhich
he resolved to give her battle.  Though the royal troops
were double the number, their leaders wished to wait the
return of Huntley and Ogilvie, N4who were gone to  the




I80              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
north to assemble their vassals.  Meantime they proposed to
place the queen for security in the castle of Dumbarton; but
on their way thither (May 13) thie regent brought them to
action at a place named Langside Hill, and routed them in
the space of a quarter of an hour.  Mary, who from an adjacent eminence viewed the fight, saw at once that all was
lost; she turned, urged her horse to speed, and having failed
in an attempt to reach Dumbarton, rode without halting to
Dundrennan Abbey, near Kirkcudbright on the Solway Firth,
a distance of sixty Scottish miles. Lord Herries and a few
others, among whom was the French ambassador, accompanied her flight.
What was this wretched princess now to do?  To make
her escape to the Highlands was difficult if not impossible,
and the toils and privations she might have to undergo when
she reached them, were not easy to appreciate; to escape to
France was equally difficult, and pride forbade to appear as
a fugitive where she had reigned a queen, and the prospect
of being shut up in a nunnery (the course which the French
government had proposed for her) was probably not an
agreeable one; an ignominious death in all probability
awaited her if she fell into the hands of her enraged subjects
There remained but one course — a flight into England.
Elizabeth had of late exerted herself warmly in her favor, and
might be disposed to assert her cause; she therefore directed
Herries to write (May 15) to Mr. Lowther, the governor of
Carlisle, to know if she might come thither in safety.  She
did not, however, venture to wait for a reply; fearing to fall
into the power of her enemies, she embarked next day with
lord Herries and about twenty attendants in a fishing boat,
and landed at Workington.  The gentry of the vicinity conducted her with al.l due respect to Cockermouth, whence
Lowther brought her to Carlisle.  She had little or no
money, and not even a change of clothes when she landed in
England.
Mary lost no time in writing to Elizabeth; assuming, as
she did on all occasions, herself to be an innocent and injured person, she required to be admitted to Elizabeth's
presence and to be restored to her authority by force.  The
English council took the case into most grave and solemn
consideration; they weighed the arguments on all sides;
they viewed the dangers likely to arise to England and to
protestantism in general; they saw equal peril iii suffering
Mary to go to France or Spain or return to Scotland; they
decided that she should be detained for the present in Eng;




ELIZABETH.                        481
land.  They may have been swayed by secret prejudice, they
may have fancied danger that was but imaginary, but beyond
question they did what they believed to be right, and they
must have known what the dangers to be apprehended really
wiere far better than we can do.  Leaving then declamation
to the advocates of AMary, we hesitate not to say that in our
opinion the council acted wisely and well.
To  lary's request of a personal interview it was replied,
that, till the murder of Darnley and the subsequent events
were explained, Elizabeth could not with honor admit her
into her presence, but that if Mary cleared herself on a judicial inquiry, she would chastise her rebellious subjects and
restore her by force of arms.  Mary and her fast friend lord
Herries long  struggled  against the proposed  inquiry; at
ength she consented that Elizabeth "should send for the
noblemen of Scotland that they might answer before such
noblemen of England as should be chosen by her, why they
had deposed their queen."   Mary was now (July 28) at lord
Scroop's castle of Bolton in Yorkshire, whither she had been
removed from Carlisle.
It may be here noticed  as an instance of the duplicity
of which Mary was capable, that she, the most bigoted of
catholics, who when in power would not even listen to the
Scottish reformed clergy, now  affected great veneration for
the English liturgy, was often present at the protestant worship, chose a protestant clergyman for her chaplain, listened
with attention and apparent pleasure while he exposed the
errors of popery, and seemed on the point of becoming a
iI cornvert'                                                               I
- Robertson says it is impossible to believe she was sincere, but he
adds, " nor can any thinF mark more strongly the wretchedness of her
condition and the excess of' herfears'than that they betrayed her into
dissimulation, in a matter concerning which her sentiments were at all
other times scrupulously delicate."  Whatfears could those have been
but the dread of the proofs which she knew could be given of her share
in the murder of her husband?  Robertson would seem to hint that,
like Elizabeth in her sister's reign, she feared death on account of her
religcion. This is quiteuidle, and is an instance of the desire of even this
writer to make a suffering saint of the queen. [It is difficult to understand how Mary's profession of protestautism could destroy any proofs
of hler guilt, if' they existed  It would be much more natural to sup-ose. that when she found tat Elizabeth,  who had professed such
fiieudship for her, was now detaining her a prisoner, in defiance of all
good faith, her fears were excited (rmost justly, as the event proved) as
to the designs of the English queen; for she well knew Elizabeth's
jealousy of her and her claims to the English. crown. Mary's duplicity was, at an) rate, not e reater than that of Elizabeth during the reign:f her sister.  -J. T. S.]!: I       VOL. I.       4                           I I I




482              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
On the 4th of October the Conference, as it was termed,
was opened at York.  The duke of Norfolk, the earl of
Sussex, and sir Ralph Sadler were the English  commissioners; Mary was represented by Lesly, bishop of Ross,
lord  Herries, and five other persons; on tile part of the
king  and parliament of Scotland appeared the regent, the
lords Morton and Lindsay, and others; among  their assistants were Lethington and the illustrious George Buchanan.
Mary's agents commenced by demanding justice for the
various indignities and injuries offered to her, from the first
revolt to her flight into England.  Murray was now in a
difficult situation; if he produced the proofs which he [pret6nded to have] of the queen's guilt, he cut off all hope of
reconciliation; if he did not, he in effect allowed that he
was a rebel.  He took refuge. in forms and verbal distinctions; his defence therefore was feeble, and Mary's advocates
had plainly the advantage.  Finding that he must advance, he
was anxious to ascertain if Elizabeth would secure him against
the consequences, in case of his making the accusation and
proving its truth.  With this view he privately laid before
the commissioners the letters, sonnets, and marriage contracts of Mary to Both-well.  Of the genuineness of these
documents they declared themselves convinced, and they
wrote to that effect to the queen.  Elizabeth now deemed it
advisable to have the conference more at hand; it was removed to Hampton Court with Mary's fill approbation,
who still reckoned that Murray would not venture to produce his strong evidence.   Cecil and Bacon, with lord
Clinton and the earls of Leicester and Arundel, were added
to the commission.  Lennox. now came forward and openly
charged the queen with the murder of his son.  Murray was
obliged to proceed in his charge and produce his proofs.
When Herries and Lesly saw the blow which they had long
warded at length struck, they refused to answer unless their
mistress "' were allowed to justify herself in the presence of
the queen of England, the whole nobility of the kingdom, and
the ambassadors of foreign states."  But it was now too late
to object to the present mode of proceeding.  They in effect
confessed that the evidence now  produced  could not be
refuted.*  "The objections," says Hlume, "made to  the
[This does not, by any means, appear. The reader must again be
cautioned against the bias existing in the writer's mind, and must
separate the facts stated from the inferential a/lusions as above. It
need hardly be stated that the genuineness of the documents above
mentioned is by no means so certain or undisputed a fact as may ap.




ELIZABETH.                     483
authenticity of these papers are, in general, of small force;
but were they ever so specious they cannot now be hearkened
to, since Mary, at the time when the truth could have been
fully cleared, did, in effect, ratify the evidence against her
by recoiling from  the inquiry at the very critical moment,
and refuising to give an answer to the accusation of her
enemies.
We may now assume that Elizabeth and her ministers had
not the slightest Aoubt of Mary's guilt.  Still, though the
queen dismissed Murray with kindness, and gave him a loan
of 50301. for the expenses of his journey, she would n ft
sanction the principle of the right of the people to depose
their sovereigns, by treating with him as regent, or acknowledging the young king of' Scotland.  As Bolton was in a
part abounding with  catholics, Mary was now  removed
to Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire, the seat of the earl of
Shrewsbury; but liberty Was offered to her if she would
resign her crown, or associate her son with her in the government, Murray to have the regency during the prince's
minority.  She refused, justly  alleging that such an act
would be a confession of her guilt  She demanded to be
allowed to go to France; but Elizabeth was too well aware
of the (langer of that course, and though she knew that
Mary's presence in England might cause much mischief, she
chose it as the lesser evil, in reliance on her own fortitude and
address.
Yet at this very time some of the leading English nobility
were engaged on the side of Mary.  During the conference
at York the subtle Lethington hinted to the duke of Norfolk
a match between him, now a widower, and the queen of
Scots.  Norfolk listened to the offer, but he stated that the
letters which he had seen with Murray imade him hesitate.
A  communication seems to have been opened with Mary,
who showed no disinclination to the proposed alliance. At
Hampton Court Murray himself made the same proposal to
Norfolk.:-  Those who will allow the regent no virtue say
pear frorn the mode in which they are mentioned. It must be obviocs
that there was every inducement and opportunity for the Scottish rebel
lords to forge such documents, while every disadvantage, in the way
of disproof, was on the side of Mary. The conduct of Herries and
Lesly seems to have been a very justifiable one, and implies any thing
but a fear of the results of the investigation. So, also, does that of
Mary throughout. - J. T. S.]
[This might, certainly, with much more justice than the conduct
of Herri s and Lesly, be ascribed to a consciousness, on the part of
Murray of the weasriess of his charges.- J. T. S.J




484              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
that he was insincere, and that his only motive was to secure
his life, as Norton, one of Norfolk's partisans, intended to
waylay and murder him on his return home through the
north.  But we may surely as well suppose that he was also
actuated by an honest desire to see his sister married to an
English nobleman of the highest rank, and a protestant, and
the peace and happiness of the two kingdoms thus permanently secured.
After Murray's departure Norfolk associated himself with
the earls of Leicester, Arundel, Pembroke, and others, both
catholic and protestant; sir Nicholas Throgmorton also
engaged warmly in the project.  A letter was written by
Leicester to the queen of Scots, and signed by the rest,
recommending Norfolk to her for a husband, but stipulating
for a renunciation of all claims to the throne of England
during the lives of Elizabeth and her heirs, for a perpetual
league between the two kingdoms, and for the establishment
of the protestant religion in Scotland.  Mary returned a
favorable reply, and the confederates went on strengthening
themselves. It is said too that the kings of France and
Spain were secretly consulted, and gave their approbation.
The previous consent of Elizabeth, however, was all along
supposed; but they seem to have reckoned on making their
party so strong that she would not venture to refuse it.
It seems strange to see so many of her principal nobles
(even Leicester included) thus as it were in a conspiracy
against Elizabeth.  But jealousy of Cecil and Bacon, who
were known to favor the claims of the house of Suffolk, was
at the bottom of it with some; others, and even Norfolk
himself, may have thought the measure really good; the
catholics looked to the reestablishment of their religion by
means of it.
The affair, however, could not be expected to remain long
a secret from the queen and Cecil. Elizabeth took the duke
one (day (Aug. 13, 1569) to dinner at Farnham.  " Be careful," said she to him, " of the pillow on which you are about
to lay your head."  He understood the allusion, and replied,
"I will never marry a person with whom I could not be
sure of my pillow."  Soon after, Leicester (whom Norfolk is
said to have urged in vain to reveal the whole to the queen)
fell sick, or feigned sickness, at Titchfield, and when Elizabeth came to visit him he told her all he knew.  The queen
then taxed Norfolk with his designs, and charged him to
abandon them.  He readily promised, spoke disparagingly
of the Scottish match, affirming that his English estates
I'




ELIZABETH.                   485
were nearly as valuable as the kingdom of Scotland, and
that when he was in his own tennis court at Norwich he
thought himself a petty prince. Finding himself looked
coolly on he soon after left the court without permission, and
retired to Norfolk.  He soon, however, repented of this step,
and was returning, but he was arrested and sent to the Tower, (Oct. 9.) Pembroke, Arundel, Lumley, and Throgmtor
on were also put in custody.
Meantime rumors of a meditated rising in the north prevailed. Sussex, the lord president, summoned the earls of
Northumberland and Westmoreland before him; their excuses, however, satisfied him, and he dismissed them. Thls
reports growing stronger, the queen wrote, (Nov. 10,) sum,
moning the two earls to court; but they had gone too far in
treason to venture on that course. In conjunction with
Radcliffe, Sussex's own brother, with Leonard, uncle of lord.Dacres, and the families of the Nortons, Markenfields, Tempests, and others, they had been in constant communication
with Mary and with her friends in Scotland; they had also
arranged writh the duke of Alba, Philip's vicegerent in the
Netherlands, for the landing of a body of Spanish auxiliaries; and one of his ablest captains, Ciappino Vitelli, had
been sent over to London on some trifling embassy, to be on
the spot to take the command of them when they should
land.
Northuimberland being a timid, irresolute man, his mo. e
energetic followers employed the following expedient to
rouse him.  At midnight one of his servants rushed into his
chamber, crying out that his enemies Oswald, Ulstrop, and
Vaughan were surrounding the place with armed men.  He
rose in a hurry and fled to a lodge in his park; next night he
went to Brancespeath, a seat of the earl of Westmoreland's,
where a large number of those who were in the secret were
assembled.  A manifesto was immediately put forth in the
usual style, expressive of the utmost loyalty to the queen, but
declaring their intentions to rescue her out of the hands of
evil counsellors, to obtain the release of the duke and other
peers, and reestablish the religion of their fathers.  They
marched to Durham, (Nov. 16,) where they purified the
churches by- burning the heretical Bibles and Prayer-books.
At Rippon they restored the mass; on Clifford-moor they
mustered seven thousand men. Richard Norton, a venerable
old gentleman, who had joined them with his five sons, raised
in their front a banner displaying the Savior with the blood
streaming from  his five wounds. Finding that the catholics
4l*'




486              HISTORYe OF ENGLAND.
in general were loyal to the queen, and that Sussex was col
lecting an efficient force at York, they fell back to lIexham,
(Dec. 16.)  Here the footmen dispersed; the earls, with the
horse, about five hundred in numnber, fled to Naworth and
thence into Scotland.
Northumberland was taken and delivered to the regent,
who confined him in Lochlevin Castle, and some years after
he was given up to the English government, and was executed at York. Westmoreland made his escape to Flanders,
and he died in 1584, commandant of a'Spanish regiment.
Many executions, as was to be expected, took place. The
queen of Scots was, for greater security, removed from Tutbury to Coventry.
Soon after Leonard Dacres collected about three thousand
men at his castle of Naworth; lord Huntsdon advanced from
Durham with an equal number against him.  They engaged
on the banks of a stream named the Chelt, (Feb. 22, 1570,)
and about three hundred fell on each side. The rebels were
defeated; Dacres escaped to Scotland and thence to Flanders, where he died in poverty.
Elizabeth and Cecil were now fully conscious of the danger of having Mary in England, for, as that wise minister
plainly saw, the horror inspired by her guilt would gradually
soften down and give place to pity. Negotiations were therefore set on foot with her and with the regent for her return
to Scotland: indeed it is said there was a private treaty with
Murray for giving her up to him. But the regent's sudden
death put an end to all these projects. He was assassinated,
(Jan. 23, 1570,) as he was riding through Linlithgow, by
one Hamilton of Bothwell-haugh, from motives of private
revenge.
Like all other personages at this time, Murray appears in
two opposite lights in the narratives of the opposite religious
parties. His great abilities are, however, acknowledged by
all; by the people he was long remembered as "the good
regent," and his moral virtues were extolled by his catholic
countrymen who were abroad.  His zeal for the protestant
religion seems to have been sincere, and he was altogether
as free from defect as it was possible for a public man to be
in those times and in such a country as Scotland'. "ut the
advocates of his sister have, from his own down to the present day, sought to make him the scapegoat for her sins, assuming, as Mackintosh says, " that she did nothing which she
appears to have done, and that he did all that he appears to
have cautiously abstained from doing."




ELIZABETH.                     487'I'he sc, dl nd Kers border chiefs and partisans of Mary
nhaving made an inroad into England, Sussex invaded Scot.
land.  The regency was soon after committed to the earl of
Lennox, the young king's grandfather.
We can hardly conceive it possible for any one who reads
with attention the various collections of state papers relating to this period of our history, to escape the conviction
that there was an extensive conspiracy of the pope Pius V.,
the king of Spain, and the duke of Alva, his vicegerent in
tihe Netherlands, and in which the court of France also
partly shared, of which the object was the dethronement and
probably the death of Elizabeth, the elevation of Mary in her
place, and the overthrow  of the protestant religion.  It is
also probable that Mary knew  and fully approved of this
conspiracy, and secretly corresponded with the heads of it;
that her catholic partisans in both England and Scotland
were ready to take arms in support of it; that Norfolk was
aware and approved of the measure, at least as far as related
to the liberation of the queen of Scots and his own marriage
with her; and it is probable that Arundel, Pembroke, and
other nobles also knew of and favored it. It is very remarkable that not two months after Mary's flight into England
the English ministry got secret information to that effect;
for sir Henry Norris " wrote to Cecil from  Paris, (July 7,
156S,) that the night before he had had a private meeting
with the French provost-marshal, (at the desire of the latter,)
who said, " he wished I should advertise that the queen's
majesty did hold the wolf that would devour her.  And that
it is conspired betwixt the king of Spain, the pope, and the
French king, that the queen should be destroyed, whereby
the queen of Scots might succeed her majesty; " with more
to the same effect, mentioning particularly the name of Arundel.  There is every reason to suppose that it was Catherine de  Mfledici herself who caused the information to be
thus conveyed to Elizabeth, out of jealousy to Mary, or
through fear of seeing Britain under one head and perhaps
closely united with Spain.t
* He was son to Norris who suffered death on account of Anne
Boleyn. One of Elizabeth's first cares had been to promote this
family.
t "The cardinal (of Lorraine) showed the queen-mother how hurtful to the crown of France would the union of t'le isle of' Britain be;
and thought meet that she should advertise the queen of England to
take order thereto, which the queen-mother ftti'ed not to do. This the
queen (Mlary) told me herseyf, complaining of the cardinal's unkindly
dealing." — Melvill, p. 239.




i488              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
We have noticed these particulars (and we could increase
them to a great extent) to show that Mary was not the meek,
suffering saint that her admirers make her.4  They will
also serve to prove that Elizabeth was not actuated by pure
malignity and female petty revenge in her treatment of her;
she only did hold the wolf that would devour her, and acted
from,the great principle of self-preservation.t The zealous
and intolerant Pius V., just at this very time, as if to prove
to the world that Elizabeth was justified in acting as she
did, published (Feb. 25) his celebrated bull Regnans in
ezcelsis, in which, in the tone of a Gregory or an Innocent,
he pronounced " the pretended queen of' England " excomi
municate and deprived of all title to her pretended kingdom,
absolved all her subjects from  their allegiance, and forbade
them, under pain of excommunication, to obey her.  Copies
of it were forwarded to the duke of Alvaj for distribution in
the seaports of the Netherlands, and  by him  some were
transmitted to the Spanish ambassador at London.  On the
morning of the 15th of May one of them was found affixed
to the bishop of London's gate.  Strict search was made;
a copy of the bull was found in the chambers of a student of
Lincoln's Inn, who confessed that he had gotten it from a
gentleman of good property named John Felton, who lived
in Southwark.  Felton when arrested gloried in the deed:
he was tried, found guilty, and executed as a traitor; by
himself arid the more zealous Romnanists he was viewed as
a martyr. The bull, however, produced no immediate effect.
"The time," says Lingard, "was gone by when the thunders of the Vatican could shake the thrones of princes;"
a change for which, we may observe, the world is indebted
to:the reformers. Elizabeth is said to have applied to the
emperor to use his influence to have it revoked, as she knew
not what its effects might be on enthusiasts and bigots.t
The love of power and the passion for revenge we. leading traits
in Mary's character. " She told me," writes Knolles in 1568, " she
would rather that all her party were hanged than submit to Murray,
and if she were not retained she would go into Turkey rather than not
De revenged on him."  Her dissimulation too was extreme; while she
was writina to Elizabeth in this strain, " I wish you knew what sincerity of love and affection are in my heart.fbr you," she prays the
pope "to forgive her for writing loving and soothing letters to Ellzabeth; she desires nothing more than the reestablishment of the catholic religion in England."
t [This remark might, with much greater justice, be applied to the
acts of Mary. It is absurd to talk of Elizabeth acting from the principle of self-preservation. - J. T. S.]
$ "She persuaded herself," says Lingard, "that it was connected




ELIZABETH.                    489
The very day that Felton was arraigned, the duke of Norfolk was released from the Tower, and was suffered to reside
in his own house, under the mild custody of sir Henry
Neville. He expressed his sorrow for what he had done, and
bound himself not to proceed in the affair of his marriage
without the queen's knowledge.  Yet even while in the
Tower he had carried on a correspondence with Mary, and
now that he was at large he still kept it up.
Elizabeth, urged by the foreign ambassadors, and anxious
herself to get rid of her dangerous captive, if it could be
done with safety, sent Cecil and sir Williarn Mildmay in
October to Chatsworth, where Mary now was, to try if any
accommodation could be effected.  It was proposed that she
should resign all claim to the throne of England during the
lives f Elizabeth and her issue; marry no Englishman without Elizabeth's consent, and no one else without that of the
states of Scotland; send her son to be educated in England,
etc.  The earl of Morton and some others came to England
as commissioners on the part of the young king.  But nothing could be finally arranged, and the two queens and their
friends moade mutual charges of insincerity.
In the beginning of the year 1571, Elizabeth rewarded, in
some slight degree, her most able and faithful minister sir
William Cecil, by raising him to the peerage under the title
of baron Burghley or Burleigh.
CHAPTER XI.
ELIZABETH. (CONTINUED.)
1571-1587.
THE important relations between the queens of England aia
Scotland have hitherto occupied our attention almost exclusively.  We must now take a view of the state of religious
parties in England and on the continent.
The first ten years of Elizabeth's reign were termed her
with some plan of foreign invasion and domestic treason." She knela
very well it was. [-It has never been difficult to know of treason where
justification for tyranny has been desired. - J. T. S.]
JJJ




390             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
" halcyon days," as being free from disturbance, domestic or
foreign. From the moment of the arrival of the queen of
Scots in England this tranquillity was at an end.  Henceforth the authority, and even the life, of Elizabeth was assailed by conspiracies renewed without ceasing.
In those days religion was a matter of paramount importance in politics, and the strength of parties in a state was
to be estimated by the number and influence of those who
agreed in religious sentiments. There were three parties of
this kind now in England; the catholics, the churchmen, and
the puritars, as those who affected an extreme purity in religion, and held that the reformation had not gone far enough,
were named.
It is the opinion of Hume, that "of all the European
churches which shook off the yoke of papal authority, no one
proceeded with so much reason and moderation as the church
of England."  " The fabric," he adds, " of the secular hierarchy was maintained entire; the ancient liturgy was preserved so far as was thought consistent with the new prin-.iples; many ceremonies, become venerable from  age and
Preceding use, were retained; the splendor of the Romish
worship, though removed, had at least given place to order and
decency; the distinctive habits of the clergy according to
their different ranks were continued; no innovation was
admitted merely from spite and opposition to former usage.
And the new religion, by mitigating the genius of the aricient superstition and rendering it more compatible with the
peace and interests of society, had preserved itself in that
happy medium which wise men have always sought, and which
the people have so seldom been able to maintain."
The advantages of this moderation were felt in the early
part of Elizabeth's reign; the catholics in general made little
scruple of attending the church service, where, though they
might regret the absence of some things, there was little to
offend them.  Had they been left to themselves they would
probably have been gradually weaned from their superstitions; but the court of Rone on the one hand, by sending
missionary priests about to assure them that such conduct
was impious, and the rigid, intolerant puritans on the other,
by urging measures of severity against them, equally contributed to make them remain in their old faith.
The puritans, though as a party they first acquired strength
in the present reign, may be regarded as coeval with the
Reformation. They were those men of an ardent, uncompromising (often self-sufficient) temper, who thought they




ELIZABETH.                     491
could never recede too far from the church of Rome.  The
clerical habits, the surplice, tippet, and square cap, retained
in the Anglican church, were abominations in their sight;!
they viewed with equal horror the use of the sign of the cross
in baptism, of the ring in marriage, of the organ in the divine service, and the practice of kneeling at the communion.
When the excellent fooper was to be raised to the see of
Gloucester in Edward's reign, he positively refused to put on
the episcopal robes; and he was committed to the Tower ac- cording to the practice of the age.  Bucer, Peter Martyr, and
other foreign divines were consulted on the occasion.  At
length he consented to wear the robes at his consecration
and during cathedral service, but only on these occasions.
When the Marian persecution forced so many of the reformers to fly, they were received with great kindness by the
Calvinists abroad, and this confirmed them  in their desire
for simple, anti-Romish forms.  The more learned and pious
portion of the clergy in Elizabeth's reign may be reckoned
of this party; the better part of the protestant gentry belonged to it, as was evinced by the composition of the houses
of commons; it was favored by Leicester and Walsingham
among the ministers, and Burleigh himself was not adverse to
it. The puritans were in fact the main support of protestantism in England, and the most determined foes of the queen
of Scots.  But archbishop Parker unwisely employed persecution against them; they gradually seceded from the church,
and many of them maintained the supremacy of the spiritual
over the civil authority in terms more befitting a Gregory or
an Innocent than the asserters of the rights of conscience.
The church party was the weakest of the three.  Its main
supports were the queen herself and the primate.  Elizabeth
regarded her spiritual supremacy as the brightest jewel in her
crown, and would not be dictated to on that head.  She was
also partial to the splendor of public worship, and she had a
lurking tendency to some of the Romish doctrines.  She long
kept a crucifix with tapers burning before it in her chapel,
she inclined much to the doctrine of the real presence,* and
she was with difficulty restrained from prohibiting the marriage of the clergy.
* This throws doubt on the story of her eluding Gardiner in her si,
ter's reign by these well-known verses:
"Christ was the word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it,
And what that word did make it,
That I believe, and take it."




192              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Such was the state of parties in England: in France and
Flanders the protestar-ts, though the minority, were numerous
and active. Persecution to no small extent had been em
ployed without effect against them; Charles V. had " hanged,
beheaded, buried alive or burnt" 50,000 protestants according to Father Paul, 100,000 according to Grotius, in the
Netherlands; and Francis I. and his successor had labored
to suppress the Reformation in France.  In the summer of
the year 1565 a meeting at the desire of the pope took place
at Bayonne between Charles IX. and his sister the queen of
Spain; the former was accompanied by his mother, the latter
by the duke of Alva. Festivities occupied the day; at midnight Catherine and Alva sat in secret conclave to discuss
the mode of suppressing protestantism.  To cut off its chiefs
openly or secretly was Alva's plan.  "One salmon's head,"
he would say, " is worth a thousand frogs."  The principle
was agreed on between them; the mode was left to the course
of events.
In  1568 Alva was sent with a large army to the Low
Countries, where he exercised such tyranny and cruelty as
eventually drove the people to insurrection.  In France the
protestants, named Huguenots, were headed by the king of
Navarre, the prince of Cond6, the admiral Coligni, and other
nobles; the Guises were at the head of the other party; the
queen-mother and the king played them against each other.
Recourse was frequently had to arms, and Elizabeth had on
more occasions than one assisted the Huguenots with money,
and even with men.
In the beginning of this year (1571) a parliament met after
an interval of five years. The puritanic party were strong
in it, and some members, especially Strickland and Paul
Wentworth, ventured to express themselves very firmly in
opposition to the crown. Though the question of the queen's
-marriage was left untouched, the greatest zeal was manifested
for her person and authority, and the first act passed was one
making it treason to affirm that she was not the lawful sovereign, or that the laws cannot limit and determine the right
to the crown and the succession; to maintain that any person
except the natural issue * of her body is or ought to be her
The employment of the word naftural in this act originated, like
the omission of lawful in another case in royal; prudery. " But the
papistical libellers put the most absurd interpretation on it, as if it
was meant to secure the succession for some imaginary bastards by
Leicester. And Dr. Lingard is not ashamed to insinuate the same
suspicion." (Hallam i. 202,)




EL ABETH.                    493
neir or successor, was made an offence pa nishable by fine and
imprisonment, and the second time by p.,semunire.  It was
also made treason to publish papal bulls, absolutions, etc.; to
reconcile any one or be reconciled to the church of' Rome.
To import crucifixes, agnus Dei, or other popish trumpery,
subjected the offender to the penalty of a preemunire.
The weak, ill-advised duke of Norfolk it was soon discovered was persisting in his treasonable projects.  Mary's
agent, the bishop of Ross; Ridolfi, an Italian trader, the me,
dium of communication of Mary and Norfolk with Alva and
the pope; and the duke's secretary and two of his confidential
servants, being arrested, it appeared from  their confessions
tht a plan had been arranged that the duke of Alva should
lamn' with ten thousand men at Harwich, where he was to be
joint I by Norfolk and his friends, and they were to march
to Lo ldon and force the queen to consent to Notrfolk's mariage'vith the queen of Scots, and to repeal the laws against
the ca-holics.  Norfolk, who knew not of the discoveries
which h bd beer made, was summoned before the council; he
denied e ery thi ag: and the queen, who (as she always declared) w )uld nave pardoned him  if he had confessed his
guilt, committed him to the Tower, (Sept. 7.)  On the 16th
of January (1572) he was brought to trial before the lordsteward and twenty-six peers.  The trial was conducted with
perfect fairness according to the mide then in use; he defended himself with spirit and eloquence, but the peers unanimously pronounced  him  guilty.  In various supplicatory
letters which he wrote to the queen the duke acknowledged
the justice of the verdict.
The conduct of the queen on this occasion tends much
(o elucidate her character, as it proves her aversion from
bloodshed, and will incline us to believe that her behavior
in a similar case some years later was not mere hypocrisy,
Norfolk's guilt was great and clear, yet she could not bring
herself to put him to death.  Burleigh writes to Walsinghamn
(Feb. 1 1) thus  " I cannot write to you what is the inward
cause of the stay of the duke of Norfolk's death, only that I
find her majesty diversely disposed.  Sometimes, when she
speaheth of her danger, she concludes that justice should be
done.  Another time, when she speaks of his nearness of
blood, of his superiority of honor, etc., she stayeth.  On Sat
urday she signed a warrant for his execution.  On Monday
all preparations were made and concourse of thousands yesterday morning; but suddenly on Sunday late in the night
she sent fobr me and entered into great misliking that the
VOL. I.      42




494               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
duke should die the next day, and said she was and should be
disquieted, and would have a new warrant made that night
to the sheriffs to forbear."  Again (April 9) she signed a
warrant, but she revoked it after midnight.
The (Jueen's repugnancy to shed the blood of the first of
her nobles was such that even Leicester gave it as his opinion
that no execution would take place.  But Burleigh and the
other ministers pressed it; the commons when they assem.
bled petitioned for it; the preachers were importunate; and
plots to liberate the prisoner were detected.  A third warrant
was not revoked, and on the 2d of June, nearly five months
after his trial, the duke was led to execution.
On the scaffold Norfolk acknowledged the justice of his
sentence and declared his attachment to the protestant faith.
He died with constancy and resignation amidst the tears of
the by-standers; for his noble birth, his popular and engaging
manners, and his munificent temper had endeared him  to
the people.  His ambition, united to weakness of character,
made him  a tool in the hands of an artful v oman" and the
wily court of Rome, and brought him  to a 1 untimely end.
Ite certainly never dreamed of dethroning ot injuring queen
Elizabeth, by whom the necessity of his death was sincerely
lamented.f
Abundant proofs had now [it was pretended] been given of
the share of the queen of Scots in all the conspiracies against
Elizabeth; Burleigh and other ministers had long been of
opinion that nothing but her death would give security to
the nation.  The parliament resolved to proceed against her
by bill of attainder, but the queen positively forbade it.
A bill was then introduced and passed to make her incapable
of the succession, but the queen defeated this also by a prorogation, (June 25.)
In Scotland the lords of Mary's party had in the preceding
year (Sept. 4) seized and put to death the regent Lennox.
The earl of Mar succeeded, but he died shortly after, and
Morton was appointed regent.  The lords of the queen's
party laid down their arms on receiving an indemnity; and
* Though she had never seen him, her "political love-letters," as
they have justly been called, are conceived in terms of the strongest
affiction.
t "The queen," writes Burleigh, (June 6,) "is somewhat sad fox
the duke of Norfolk's death." Two years after, when his sister lady
Berkeley knelt;o ask a favor of her, " No, no, my ladl Berkeley,"
said she in haste, " we know you never will love us for the death of
your brother."




ELIZABETH.                    495
ihe regent, with the aid of sir Williamn Drury, governor of
Berwick, reduced the castle of Edinburgh, which was held
out by Kirkcaldy of Grange anrd Lethington.  The former
was tried and executed; the latter died in prison by his own
hand, as was generally be ieved.
On the eve of St. Bartholomew an atrocity without paral.
lel in history was perpetrated in the French capital.  All
the leaders of the protestant party had been invited thither
on the occasion of the marriage of the young king  of
Navarre, their ostensive head, with  Margaret, sister of
Charles IX.  The marriage was celebrated on the lSth of.August; four days after,'(22d,) the admiral Coligni was
fired at and wounded fiom the window of a hotse belonging
to a dependent of the duke )fGuise.  Next day the king, the
queen-mother, and the court came to visit himn.  After mid. 
night the tocsin sounded a)id the protestants were fallen on
and massacred in their beds.  The admiral, his son-in-law
Teligni, Rochefoucauld, and nearly one thousand more of
the nobles and gentry, and five thousand other protestants
perished.  The king of Na arre and the prince of Cond6e
only saved their lives by a change of religion.  Similar Imassacres were perpetrated at Orleans, Rouen, Lyons, and other
cities in the course of the sunceeding month.  They closed
with one at Bordeaux on the 4th of October.  The number
of victims imtnmoated to the aemon of fanaticism is variously
estimated at from  10,000 to 100,000; the duke De Sully
gives the number at 7'0,0(1, the accurate and veracious
Thuanus at 30,000.' Meda s were struck and an annual
procession of thanksgiving was appointed to commemorate it
at Paris.  The tidings were received with every demonstration of joy at Madrid and in the camp of Alva.  At PRome
the pope and cardinals went to return thanks to Heaven for
this event in the church of St. Louis, the canonized king
of France.
What the connection of this atrocious deed was with the
meeting at Bayonne, how long il; had been premeditated, and
by whom, and whether the young king was guilty or not of
the fiendish dissimulation with which he has been charged,
are questions into which we cannot now enter. We inclIne,
however, to think that Charles really was deceived by his
* Dr. Lingard says that if we say a)out fifteen hundred "we shall
perhaps not be far from the real amlount"! t Dr. L. must know, that
however a, monkish chronicler might mistake, a man like Thuanus waff
not capable of falling into such an enormous error.
~~  ~~  I7I~~-ir::ffiui7 —---— c —--—.  c — xc. —




496              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
mother and her confederates, and was made to believe that
the Huguenots had formed a dangerous conspiracy, which
could only be repressed by anticipating it.
The French ambassador in England, La Motte Fenelon,
was instructed to make this excuse to Elizabeth.  He repaired to Woodstock, where the court was then residing.
When admitted to an audience, he was led through rooms in
which a silence like to that of the tombs prevailed.  The
lords and ladies, habited in deep mourning, took no notice
of him as he passed. Elizabeth herself, however, listened to
his excuses with calmness; she then showed how inadequate
they were, and expressed her desire that the king should institute an inquiry, and, if the charge was found to be a calumnvy, punish the authors of it. Her opinion of the king's
intentions, she said, would be regulated by his conduct on
this occasion.  Only two days before the massacre, Fenielon
had proposed to her a marriage with the duke of Alencon,
Charles's youngest brother, though he was a youth of but
seventeen years. She let the treaty still go on, and when
Charles soon after had a daughter born to him, she accepted
the invitation to stand godmother, and sent the earl of
Worcester to represent her at the christening.!'
This temporizing policy was forced upon Elizabeth by the
circumstances of the times. Every day gave fresh proof of
the determination of the catholic powers to. exterminate the.
reformers.  Should Charles succeed in France and Philip in
the Netherlands, England would be the next object of attack,
and the claim of the queen of Scots be supported by foreign
armies.  Burleigh, Walsingham, and the other statesmen believed her death to be necessary for the safety of Elizabeth.
Sandys, bishop of London, writing at this time to Burleigh
on the state of affairs, suggested, as one of the precautionary
measures, " forthwith to cut off the Scottish queen's head:"
and Henry Killigrew was sent (Sept. 7) into Scotland to
propose to the then regent Mar to deliver her up to him and
his party, provided C" they should give good assurance to proceed with her by way of justice, as they had already many
times offered to do."  The upright character of Mar was the
cause of this measure not being carried into effect.
The apprehended storm, however, did not burst upon
England. The Huguenots quickly recovered from the stu[Which was greatest and least justifiable, the dissimulation of
Elizabeth on this occasion, or that of Mary. when her own lifi and.iberty were in danger? See notes, pp. 481 and 488.- J. T S.]




ELIZABETH.                    497
por into which the massacre had thrown them, and resuined
their arms; Elizabeth connived at money and men being
sent to them out of England.  In a similar underhand manner she aided the prince of Orange and the protestants of the
Netherlands.  Charles IX.- died of a dreadful disease, and
in the pangs of remorse, (1574;) the duke of Anjou, who
had been elected king of Poland, succeeded him  under the
name of Henry III.; the king of Navarre and prince of
Conde made their escape, resumed the protestant religion,
and became the heads of the iluguenots; they were also
joined by the duke of Alenon, now Anjou, and the king
gave them  most favorable terms, (1576;) the catholics n 
return formed the LEAGUI, headed by the Guises in conc.rt
with the king of Spain.
During all this time the utmost tranquillity prevailed in
England; the queen of Scots, hopeless of aid from: her own
country, (where the regent Morton [the successor of Marl
merely ruled under Elizabeth,) or from the catholic princes,
seems to have abstained from  her lmachineations, and the
catholics, in general connived at in their private worship, remained at rest.  Elizabeth, in those stately progresses which
she was in the habit of making every year, found the means
of extending her popularity, and' endearing herself to all
orders of her people.  Commercial and maritime enterprise
much engaged the public mind. A trade was established
with the Levant; the Russian trade, which had commenced
in the late reign, was maintained; various efforts were made
to reach the east by the north of Europe or America, and so
early as 1567, Martin Frobisher penetrated to the sea afterwards named Hudson's Bay.  Other adventurers pursued a
more lucrative but less honorable course.  John Hawkins, a
gentleman of Devon, fitted out vessels with which he proceeded to the coast of Afiica, and seizing the inoffensive
natives, sold them for slaves to the Spaniards in America.
But the man who most distinguished himself at this time
was Francis Drake.  The fuather of this great navigator
was a man in humble circumstances in Devon, who, having
embraced the reformed doctrines in the time of Henry VIIi.,
foundt it necessary, on account of the Six Articles, to remove
to Kent. In the reign of Edward VI. he got into orders
and was made vicar of Upnore on the Medway.  lHe put his
sen Francis to a neighbor of his, the master of a bark, who
on his death left his ship to the youth.  In 1567 Drake sold
his bark and went and joined Hawkins, then about to sail on
an expel tion to America; bat in the bay of St. Juan de
42~                      Ki KK




J |   98          HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Ulloa they were attacked by a superior Spanish fo ce and
defeated.  Drake thus lost his all, but " by pla-ying the seaman
and the pirate " for some years, he retrieved his fortune.  A divine in the navy having satisfied him as to the lawfulness of
his design, he set sail with a man-of-war na:medi the D)ragon
and two pinnaces in 1572, and attacked and took the town
of Nombre de Dios on the isthmus of Panama.  Having been
informed by some Cimarrons (runaway negroes) of the approach of a caravan of mules with treasure fornom Panama,
he waylaid and plundered it. As he was roamino over the isthmus under the guidance of the Cimarrons, they showed him
from the top of a mountain the Pacific Ocean.  -le fell on
his knees, made a vow to visit that sea, and inmplored the
divine aid for his enterprise.
On the 1.3th of December, 1577, Drake sailed from Plymouth with five ships, carrying one hundred and sixty-three
men. Having on his way taken the crews and stores out of two
of his ships, which he then turned adrift, he passed Magellan's
Straits with the remaining three.  A violent tempest then
came on and dispersed them; one returned through the
straits, another was lost; Drake with the third proceeded
along the coast of Chili and Peru, making descents and
plundering the ships which he found in harbor, or on sea:
for as an enemy had never appeared in these sea:s the Spaniards were without suspicion.  As the alarm was now given.
he feared to return by the way he came; he therefore boldly
stretched across the ocean westwards, and reached the i oluccas, whence he proceeded to Java, and thence to the
Cape of Good Hope.  He landed at Plymouth on the 3d of
November, 15841, after an absenrce of three years all but six
weeks.  Ile then went round to the Thames, and his ship
was laid up at Deptford, where the queen condescended to
partake of a banquet on board, and conferred on him  the
honor of knighthood.  The amount of his plunder was
8|0t,0O l. a tenth of which was divided among the officers
and crew of the ship.  A large sum  was afterwards paid
over to a Spaniard, who represented himself as the agent for
those who had been plundered, and the queen learned, when
too late, that instead of being given to the real owners, it
was employed for the payment of the troops in the Nether.,
lands.
The treaty for a marriage with the duke of Anjou still
went on.  In 1578 this prince sent over one Simier, a man
of wit and capacity, as his agent; and Simier made himself
so agreeable to Elizabeth that Leicester began to *fear that
r~r~~ Ui)T-~~ —h~~ —-w —^-u —u-^~rr ~ ri.~LI~;,,;;,~-I~.~ -c~r~- rur-E;-r-u -ri —-~ —-1-~ —-r~-r~~~ l —_L~I~~(j




ELIZABETH.                   499
she would overcome her aversion to marriage, and he himself thus lose his influence with her.  He therefore, to injure
Simier in her opinion, gave out that he had bewitched her
by magic arts; Simier in revenge informed the queen of a
matter which Leicester had studiously concealed from her,
namely, that he had been privately married to the widow of
lord Essex.  Elizabeth, who had such a strange aversion to
marriage in others as well as in herself, was so enraged that,
but for the intercession of lord Sussex, his personal enemy,
she would have sent himn  to the Tower.  Leicester was
then accused of having employed one Tudor, of the queen'e
guard, to assassinate Simier.  It happened, too, that as the
queen was rowing one day in her barge on the Thames, in
company with Simier and some others, a shot was fired by a
young man in a boat which wounded one of her bargernen.
A design to inurder herself or Simier was at once supposed;
but the young man having proved that the piece went off by
accident he was pardoned at the gallows. Elizabeth said on
this, as on several other occasions, that she would believe
nothing of her people which parents would not believe of
their own children.
Anjou himself came over soon after, and had a private
interview with Elizabeth at Greenwich, and it is rather
curious that though she was such an admirer of personal
beauty, and the duke's face had been sadly disfigured by the
small-pox, she was so far pleased with him that she seems to
have had serious thoughts of marrying him.  After a month
or two she directed Burleigh, Sussex, Leicester, Hatton, and
Walsingham to confer with Sinier on the subject.
The acquisition of the crown and dominions of Portugal
by Philip of Spain in 1580, made the court of France most
anxious for a close connection with that of England.  A
splendid enmbassy was sent thither (1581) to treat of the
mnarriage.  Elizabeth's heart was certainly in favor of the
duke; mnarriage-articles were actually -agreed on, and the
union was to take place in six weeks.  A clause, however,
was added which would enable her to recede if she pleased.
The truth is, there was a violent struggle in the queen's
breast between prudence and inclination, Anjou had certainly Imade an impression on her heart, and her pride was
gratified at the prospect of an alliance with the royal house
of France.  On the other hand her good sense suggested to
her the folly of a woman in her forty-ninth year marrying a
young man, and her subjects in general aild several of he!
min sters were adverse to a connection with the blood-stained




500              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
house of Valois; and now, indeed, as there was so little pros.
pect of her bearing children, they were little anxious for her
marriage at all. An honest, but hot-headed puritan of Lincoin's Inn, named Stubbs, wrote a book, entitled " The Gulf
in which England will be swallowed by the French Marriage."  The queen caused him  and the printer, and one
Page who circulated it, to be prosecuted, under an act
passed in her sister's reign, and they were sentenced to lose
their right hands.  The sentence was executed on Stubbs
and Page, and the former, loyal in the face of injustice and
cruelty, instantly took off his hat with his remaininghand,
and waving it over his head cried, " God save the queen!"
A person of much higher rank than poor Stubbs also wrote
against the marriage; sir Philip Sidney, the gallant warrior
and accomplished scholar, addressed an able and elegant
letter to the queen on the subject.
Anjou was at this time in the Netherlands.  The people
of the provinces in revolt had some years before (1575)
offered the sovereignty, of which they declared Philip deprived, to the queen of England; she had prudently declined
it at that time, and when it was again offered to her (1580.)
she persisted in her resolution.  It was then proffered to the
duke of Anjou; his brother permitted him to accept it and
secretly supplied him with money.  He entered the Netherlands with about fifteen thousand men, and he forced the
Spaniards to raise the siege of Cambray; Elizabeth had on
this occasion proved her regard for him by sending him a
present of 100,000 crowns. At the close of the campaign
he came over to England, where his reception from the queen
was most flattering.  A few days after the anniversary of her
accession (Nov. 22) she, in the presence of her court, drew
a ring from her finger and placed it on his in token of
pledging herself to him. The affair was now regarded as
decided; the envoy from the Netherlands wrote off instantly,
and public rejoicings were made at Antwerp and other towns.
But Leicester, HIatton, and Walsingham, who were strongly
opposed to the match, remonstrated earnestly with the queen,
and, when she retired, her ladies of the bed-chamber fell on
their knees and with sighs and tears conjured her lo pause,
representing the evil consequences that might ensue.  She
passed a sleepless and uneasy night; next morning  she had
a long conversation with the duke, in which she exposed her
reasons for sacrificing  her inclinations to her duty to het
people.  He withdrew, deeply mortified, to his apartments,
where he flung away the ring, exclaiming against the fickle.




ELIZABETH.                     50i
ness of women and islanders.  He, however, remained in
England till the following year, (1582,) the queen still giving
him  hopes.  When he departed (Feb. 8) she made him
promise to return in a month; accompanied him  as far as
Canterbury; and sent Leicester and a gallant train to attend
him even to Brussels.  He was now made duke of Brabant
and earl of Flanders, but, attempting some time after to make
himself absolute, he was driven out of the country, and he
died in France (1584) after a tedious illness, mourned by
Elizabeth, who really loved him, though his character seems
to have been as vicious as those of the rest of his family.  A
union with him  would certainly have been productive of
neither advantage nor happiness to the queen or her people.
The laws against recusants, as the catholics were nuc v
called, were at this time put into more rigorous execution
than heretofore.  We are no advocates for persecution, but
we require in justice that the queen and her council should
be judged by the maxims and practice of the sixteenth and
not by those of the nineteenth century, and not be condemned
for employing the means then in use for counteracting the
plots of the pope and king of Spain for overthrowing the protestant religion in England, and depriving the queen of her
crown and life."   The laws passed for the security of the
queen and the reformed religion were certainly most severe,
and to our ideas most unjust; but complaint ill became the
catholics, who had never, where they had the power, shown
the least symptom of a tolerating spirit, and if they chose to
violate these laws, their punishment was merited on their own
principles.
There were two classes of Romish priests who sought the
glory of martyrdom in England, the Jesuits and the Seminarists.  The former society, the most able support of the
pretensions of the papacy, had been founded in the time of
Charles V.; in  blind obedience to the mandates of its
general or chief, who resided at Rome, it most strongly resembled the Assassins of the East, and so many murders
were at this time perpetrated or instigated by Jesuits, that we
rThe excusatory remarks here made, with respect to Elizabeth and
her persecutions, ought, in all candor, to be equally applied to her
sister and predecessor, Mary. Elizabeth had no more right than Mary
to assurne infallibility; neither has any writer a right to argue as if the
tenets which Elizabeth upheld were necessarily and infallibly true.
The persecutions of Mary were, doubtless, at least as conscientious as
those of Elizabeth. Those of both were unjustifiable and useless.
J. T. S.]




502              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
fear their principles justified every crime committed in the
cause of Rome.  The Serninarists were a better sort of men,
Fearing that when queen Mary's priests, as the catholic
clergymen who still lingered in England were called, should
die off, the people there would conform  to the protestanr
religion for want )f teachers of their own, William Allen
who had been a fe low of Oxford, conceived the design of
torming seminaries on the continent for the education of
missionaries to be sent to England.  The pope approved of
the project, and contributed money.  Allen opened the first
seminary at Douay; others were afterwards established at
Rome, Valladolid, and elsewhere. Zealous English catholics
secretly sent their children to be educated at them, in order
that they might return as missionaries to teach the doctrines
of their church, and inculcate, what the English governmer
regarded as rebellion, that the queen should be deposed as a
heretic.
The first who suffered was a priest named Maine, in Cornwall, (1577.)  He was charged with having obtained a bull
from Rome, denied the queen's supremacy, and said mass in
a private house.  He was executed at Launceston as a traitor.
Mr. Tregian, the gentleman in whose house he was taken
suffered the penalty of a pramunire, his estate was seized,
and he remained in prison till his death.  The next year
Nelson, a priest, and Sherwood, a layman, were executed for
denying the supremacy.
In 1580 tile Jesuits made their first appearance in England.  Persons and Campian, both formerly members of the
university of Oxford, where they had professed protestantism,
but who were now members of the society of Jesuits, came
over, and under various disguises, as soldiers, as protestant
ministers, and so forth, went through the country confirming
the catholics in their religion. A chief part of their commission was to quiet the minds of the scrupulous by giving them
the sense ptt by Gregory XIII. on the bull of Pitns V.,
nanmely, that it was always binding on.Elizabeth and the
heretics, but not on the catholics till they could put it in
execution, that is to say, they were to obey the queen until
they were able to dethrone her.  The notions on this head,
however, advanced by Persons, were so offensive to many
catholics, that they had thoughts of seizing him and giving
him up to the government.  Campian, a far better man, put
forth papers offering to dispute on thepoints in controversy
before the universities.
A diligent search was set on foot, and after a year's pur.




ELIZABETH.                      503
suit, Campian was taken and committed to the Tower.  According to the barbarous practice of the age, he was put to
the rack, and he revealed the names of several of those who
had received him  into their houses.  Cal:pian and twelve
other priests were indicted on the 25 Edw. 1    I.  According to the printed trial nothing could be more unfair than
the manner in which the trial was conducted, nothing more
feeble than the evidence given.-  They were, however, found
guilty, and Campian and two others were executed forthwith,
annd  c.,.  of the remainder some months after.  It is impossible not to feel pity for the fate of these upright, pious
men, but we must at the same time recollect that however
they might disguise it from themselves, their ultimate object
was the overthrow  of the government; there was probably
not one of thenm  who (lid not deem it his duty to dethrone
Elizabeth and place Mary on the throne.  They would not
in fact have been Jesuits, or even catholics, if they did not;
and if sincerity and purity of motive are to excuse conspiracy,
governments will often find it difficult to justify themselves
in punishing rebels.
Affairs in Scotland at this time caused somte uneasiness
to the English cabinet.  Morton, though his vigorous rule
kept the country quiet, gave great offence by his harshness
and avarice.  He at length resigned his authority (1578)
into the hands of the king, now inl his thirteenth year, and
the royal child seemed to administer the government; but
Morton soon recovered his influence.  The following year,
however, the Guise party sent Stuart lord of Aubigny over to
Scotland, and his amiable manilers soon won the heart of
James, who created him  earl and afterwards duke of Len
aiox; another favorite was Stuart of Ochiltree, afterwards
earl of Arran.  These two combined against Morton, and
at their impulsion he was brought to trial (1581) for tihe
murder of the king's father.  He was found guilty and executed, in spite of the exertions of Elizabeth, the king of
Navarre, and the prince of Orange, to save him. His execution proves the boldness anl ambition of Arran, not the
filial piety of James.f
* Hallam (i. 198) is of opinion that the account of the trial was "compiled by a partial hand." [Upor what proof? J. T. S. ]
t Elizabeth said to the bishop of St. Andrews, " I wonder that James
has had the earl of Morton executed, as guilty of the death of the king
his father, and that he requires Archibald Douglas to be given up in
order to treat him in the same manner.  W'Vhy does he not desire his
mother to be given Up in order to punish her for that crmtne?  - Castel
nanu, Letters to the Queen of Scots in 1584.
___   _____________________  _______________J




0504             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The Jesuits resolved to take advantage of the death of
Morton and the influence of the catholic Lennox. VWaytes,
an English priest, and then Creighton, a Scottish Jesuit,
appeared at Holyrood-house.  James received them favorably, and as he complained of want of money it was hoped
by supplying him with it to gain him over to their projects.
Persons and Creighton repaired to Paris, where they secretly
consulted with the duke of Guise, the papal nuncio, the
provincial of the Jesuits, the Spanish ambassador, Mary's
agent the bishop of Glasgow, and Dr. Allen the founder of
the seminaries.  It was agreed that Mary and James should
be associated in the throne, and the pope and king of Spain
3e solicited to supply James with money."  The plan was
communicated to Mary, who approved of it, as also it is said
did Lennox and Arran, and James himself.  But the'"Raid
of Ruthven,' as it was called, disconcerted all these projects.
James was seized by the earl of Gowrie in concert with
some of the leading protestants, and forced to dismiss Lennox and Arran, the former of whom retired to France, where
he died soon after; the latter was cast into prison.  Whether
the English council were cognizant of the raid or not is
uncertain.  They knew of the consultation in Paris and of
its objects, and how vital it was to England that the supreme
power in Scotland should be in the hands of protestants.
Sir Henry Carey and sir Robert Bowes were sent to congratulate James on his deliverance from the counsels of Lennox and Arran; to exhort him not to resent the late seeming
violence; and to procure the recall of the earl of Angus.
James readily assented to the return of Angus, and he dissembled his resentment against his captors.  Mary at this
time wrote a long letter to Elizabeth, of which no notice
seems to have been taken.
By a bold effort James succeeded (1583) in freeing himrnself front the restraint in which he was held.  Most of the
opposite party quitted the kingdom, and Arran recovered his
influence.  Elizabeth, desirous of knowing accurately the
character of the young monarch, sent the aged and sagacious
Walsingham on an embassy to his court.  James, who had
been the pupil of the illustrious Buchanan, and had naturally
good parts, shone in conversation, and Walsingham conceived
an opinion of his abilities beyond what they were entitled to.
* " It is probable," says Lingard, "that other projects, with which
we are unacquainted, were also formed." No doubt the dethronement
of Elizabeth was one.




ELIZABETH.                   505
The tyranny of Arran soon, (1584,) however, caused his
downfall, and the English party regained their ascendency in
the Scottish council, to the great satisfaction of Elizabeth.
On Arran's return to power, the conclave at Paris had proposed that James should invade the northern counties, while
Guise should land with an army in the south of England to
liberate Mary and dethrone Elizabeth. It would appear to
be the knowledge of this plan that made the queen take no
notice of a renewed proposal of Mary for transferring all her
authority to her son if she was set at liberty. For Creighton,
being taken by a Dutch cruiser on his return to Scotland at
this time, tore his papers and threw them into the sea, but
the wind blowing them back they were put together, and revealed the plan for invading England. Hle was given up to
the English government, and being menaced with the rack
made a full disclosure of the plot.
The government had so many proofs of the foreign and
domestic conspiracy in favor of the queen of Scots, that they
found it needful to employ every possible expedient for discovering those concerned in it. In a moral point of view
the employment of spies may be reprehensible, but in times
of danger no government has yet been found to abstain from
this mode of discovering and thwarting the designs of their
enemies;  and never did ministers better know how to manage
it than Cecil and Walsingham.  Spies were now employed,
informers were listened to, the more questionable expedient
of sending counterfeit letters in the name of the queen of
Scots or of the exiles to the houses of suspected catholics was,
it is said, resorted to. The information thus gained led to
the arrest of two gentlemen named Throgmorton; the lord
Paget and Charles Arundel: immediately fled to France; the
earl of Northumberland (brother of the late earl) and the
earl of Arundel (son of the late duke of Norfolk) were called
before the council and examined.  A letter to Mary on the
subject of a rising having been intercepted, Francis Throgmorton was put to the rackl; he owned to having concerted
the plan of an invasion and a rising of the catholics with
Mendoza the Spanish ambassador; on hi's trial he denied it;
after his condemnation he again confessed it; on the scaffold
he denied it once more.  Mendoza, however, was ordered
to depart the kingdom.  He retired to Paris, where he
gratified his malignity by publishing lies of the queen and
her ministers, and by aiding every plan for raising a rebellion in England.
It is' gratifying to observe at this time the affection which
VOL. I.     43




506             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the people displayed for their queen. The French amlbassa
dor writes thus- " Queen Elizabeth has told me that sevw
eral conspiracies, directed by the Jesuits, have been, by the
goodness: of God, discovered.  Latterly when she has appeared in public, whole crowds of people fell on their knees
as she passed, prayed in various ways, invoked upon her a
thousand blessings, and hoped that all her wicked enemies
might be discovered and punished.  She often stopped and
returned thanks for all this love. When I was alone with
her (she rode on a good horse) amidst all this crowd she said
to me,' You see that all do not wish me ill.'" A further proof
of this affection was given by the zeal with which men of
all ranks pressed forward to subscribe a bond of association
framed by Leicester and some others of the council for her
security.  Its purport was to defend her person, to avenge
her death or any injury done her, and to exclude from the
throne all claimants for whose advantage or at whose suggestion any evil should befall her. The queen of Scots saw
plainly that she was the person aimed at, and to remove suspicion she begged to be allowed to subscribe the bond, but
the permission was refused.  She was at this time at Wingfield, under the custody of sir Ralph Sadler.
When parliament met (Nov. 23) an act was passed " for
the security of the queen's person and continuance of the
realm in peace."  It enacts that if any invasion or rebellion
should be made by or for any person pretending a title to the
crown after her majesty's decease, or if any thing be cornpassed or imagined tending to the hurt of her person with
the privity of any such person, a certain number of peers and
others commissioned by the queen should examine and give
judgment thereon, and all persons against whom such
judgment should be published should be disabled forever
from claiming the crown. The object of this act was to
obtain from the reluctant queen, in case of any rebellious
movements, an absolute exclusion of Mary from the succes\sion.
A most severe law was passed against the catholics. The
Jesuits and priests were ordered to quit the kingdom within
forty days; those who remained beyond that time or returned
should be guilty of treason; those who harbored or relieved
them, of felony; students at the seminaries were to be guilty
of treason if they did not return within six months: those
supplying them with money to be liable to a pr.amunire, etc.
This bill was opposed by one Dr. Parry, a civilian, who
described it as "a measure savoring iof blood, danger, and




FLIZABETH                     507
despair to English subjects;" for this he was committed, but
he was released next day by the queen's order.  Soon after
he was sent to the Tower, being accused by Edmund Neville
of a design to assassinate the queen.  He confessed his guilt,
and he was condenlned and executed as a traitor.
Parry's confession was in substance as follows.  He was
in the queen's service fornom 1570 to 1580, when, having attempted to kill a man to whom  he was in debt, and having
obtained a pardon, he went to Paris, where he was reccnciled
to the church of Pome.  At Venice, some time after, lihe
hinted to a Jesuit named Palmio that he had found a way
to relieve the English catholics, if the pope or any learned
divines would justify it as lawfill.'Palmio extolled the project (which was to kill the queen) as a pious design, and
recommended him to the nuncio; letters of safe conduct
for Parry to go to Rome were sent by cardinal Como.  He
returned, however, to Paris, and there conversing with his
countryian Morgan, the agent of the queen of Scots, le declared himself ready to kill the greatest subject in England
in the cause of the church.  "Why not the queen herself?'"
said Morgan.  But of this Parry now had doubts, as Watts
an English priest and Creighton the Scottish Jesuit had assured him it was not lawful. The nuncio Ragazzoni, however, confirmed him in his design, and he received, after his
return to England, a letter from cardinal Como in the pope's
name, commending.his project and giving him absolution. He
communicated this letter " to some in court," and he had
various interviews with the queen, on which occasions (such
is the force of natural feelings) he always went unarmed lest
he might be tempted to injure her. A book which Dr. Allen
had lately written, however, confirmed him again in his resolution; he communicated it to Neville; they arranged their
plan; but lord Westmorland happening to die at this time,
Neville, in hopes of getting the family estates, betrayed his
confederate.
Without stopping to inquire how far this confession is
true or false,* we will only observe that the world had just had
a convincing proof that the catholic party scrupled not at
assassination.  On the 10th of July, 1584, the great prince
of Orange was shot by a man named Balthazar Gerard, who
confessed that he had been kept for some time in the Jesaits' college at Treves by one of the brotherhood, who ap* [There appears but little probability of its truth See Jardine's
"Criminal Trials," vol. i. p. 246, &c., published by the U. K. Socie.
ty.-J. T. S.]




508              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
proved of his design and instructed him how to proceed
Philip II. had set a large reward on the prince's head, and
his great general the prince of Parma sullied his fame by
personally examining the qualifications of the assassins who
presented themselves.
The Dutch were dismayed at the loss of their hero and at
the rapid progress of the prince of Parma, and they sent
again, offering the sovereignty to Elizabeth.  The matter was
anxiou sly debated in the English council; the danger to the
protestant interest was imminent; Philip was in the zenith of
his power; the League was nearly triumphant in France;
and if the Dutch were subdued, England would certainly be
attacked.  Elizabeth boldly resolved to face the danger at
once, and, as the king of Sweden said when he heard of
it, take the diadem from her head and hazard it on the
chance of war.  She declined the proffered sovereignty, but
agreed to aid the States with a force of' five thousand foot
and one thousand horse, to be maintained at her expense
during the war; the money thus expended to be repaid by
the States when peace should have been concluded, (1585.)
The chief command was given to the earl of Leicester,
who, though by no means deficient in courage or talents, was
totally without military experience, and he was to be opposed
to the first general of the age.  He landed at Flushing, (Dec.
10,) accompanied by the gallant young earl of Essex, his stepson, and a company of nobles, knights, and gentlemen to the
number of five hundred.  The States, in the expectation of
gratifying Elizabeth by honoring her favorite, bestowed on
him the title of governor and captain-general of the United
Provinces, gave him a guard, and treated him nearly like a
sovereign.  But these proceedings were by no means pleasing
to the queen; she wrote in very angry terms to both him and
the States, and was not appeased without difficulty. "We
little thought," wrote she to the earl, " that one whom  wi
have raised out of the dust, and surrounded with singular
honor above all others, would, with; so great contempt, have
broken our commandment in a matter of so great weight."
Leicester's first campaign (1589) was not very brilliant,
neither was it quite so discreditable as it is represented by
writers' hostile to his memory. The most remarkable event
of it was the death of his nephew sir Philip Sidney, the ornaMent of his age and country, equally distinguished in arms,
in literature, and in manners, the nearest approach perhaps
to the id'eal of the perfect knight that has ever appeared.
The unfortunate event thus occurred: The pi ince of Parma




ELIZABETH.                     509
haiing sent sorme troops to the relief of Zutphen, which
Leicester had invested, they fell in with an inferior force of
the besieging army.  Sidney's horse being killed under him,
he was mounting another when a imusket ball struck him in
the thigh.  He turned and rode back to the main army; loss
of blood making him thirsty he called for drink; a bottle of
water was given him; he put it to his lips, but seeing a
wounded soldier looking wistfully at it, he said, "Thy necessity is yet greater than mine," and handed it to him.  After
lingering for about three weeks he breathed his last, with the
utmost piety and resignation, (Oct. 10.)  Leicester did not
remain long after in Holland.  On his return to'he Hague
i  he was assai'ed with complaints on his conduct by the States.
He gave them fair words, and then sailed for England, (Dec.!3,) where the case of the queen of Scots now called for his
presence.
While Leicester was thus inglorious in the Netherlands,
Drake, who had been sent to attack the Spaniards in the
West. Indies, had had more success.  He took St. Domingo,
Carthagena, and some other towns, and returned with booty
valued at 60,0001., and 240 pieces of cannon.
A. league offensive and defensive was formed this year
(15S6) between Elizabeth and the king of Scots, for the mutual defence of their donminions and their religion against the
catholic powers.  The queen was to grant James a pension
of 5000/. a year, equivalent to his claimn on the English property of his paternal grandmother, lately deceased.
In this summer a conspiracy against the queen of the
most dangerous character was detected by the sagacity of
Talsinghain.  Some priests at Rheimr,   actuated by a fanatical hatred of Elizabeth, and regarding the deposing bull of
Pius V. as inspired by the Holy Ghost, had worked themselves
into a belief that her assassination would be an act meritorious in the sight of God.  rThree of these men, Dr. Gifford,
his brother Gilbert, and one H-lodgeson, instigated  a man
named John Savage, who had served in the Spanish army,
to the deed, instructed him how to perform  it, and sent himi
over with strong recommnendations to the English catholics.
About this time also one Ba.llard, a seminarist, came from
En~gland to Paris, and statin,g there to the enemies of Eliza.
beth the readiness of thle English catholics to rise if an
invasion were made, for which the present was the time, as
~ i      the best troops were away with Leicester in Holland, a plan
for that purpose was devised, and Ballard was sent back to
prepare the catholics.  It does not appear that the assassina..                        43 K




510               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
tion of the queen was determined on, though Charles Pager
asserted that there was no use in invading England as long
as she lived.
Ballard came over in the disguise of a soldier, calling himn
self captain Fortescue. He disclosed the project to Anthony
Babington, a young man of good fortune in Derbyshire, who
had been recommended to Mary by Morgan and the bishop
of Glasgow, and had been for some time the agent in ccnveying letters between her and them.  Babington at once
approved of the plot; but like Paget maintained that there
was no chance while the queen lived.  Ballard then  told
him  of Savage; but he objected to committing a matter of
such importance to the hand of one lman, and proposed to join
with him  five others for whose courage and fidelity he
could answer.  Ballard agreed, and Babiington  then opened
his views to some catholic ogentlemert, his intimate friends,
who readily consented to join in them.a' The correspondence
was renewed between Babington and Mary, who expressed
her perfect approbation of the plan in all its parts.f  She was
now at Chartley, under the charge of sir Amias Paulet, a rigid
puritan, but a man of strict honor.
The conspirators were in general vain, thoughtless young
men, as is proved by their folly of having a painting made of
the six who were to murder the queen, with Babington in the
midst of them; for, in reliance on each other's honor, they
deemed themselves secure firom discovery.  But all their
doings were well known to Walsingham; a priest named
Maud, who had accompanied Ballard to France, was in his
pay, as also was Polly, one of Babington's confederates.
Finally, when Gilbert'Giflord was sent over to England to
urge on Savage, he privately tendered his services to Walsingham.   As Gifford was to be the medium  for communicating with the queen of Scots, Walsinghanl wished
Paulet to connive at his bribing one of his servants; but to
this the scrupulous puritan would not consent: he, however,
* They were Edw. Windsor, T. Salisbuiy, Ch. Tilney, Chidicok
Tichbourne, Edw. Abingrdon, Rob. Gage, J. Charnock, J. Travers, J.
Jones, H. Dunn, and Barnwell, an Irish gentlemnan. Of these, Tilney, Tichbourne, Abinngdon, Barnwell, and Charnock were appointed
with Savage to murder the queen. Tilney and Tichbourne at first
refused; but their scruples were overcome by Ballard and Babington.
Salisbury could not be induced to attempt her life.
I  [It should be stated, that all this pretended correspondence was
denied by Mary, in a manner which seemed expressive of conscious
innocence. There is no imprnhih;lity in the supposition that't was a
forgery. -J. T. S.




ELIZABETH.                     511.
faaered a brewer's boy, who served the house with beer, to be
the agent, and the letters were conveyed through a hole in a
wall, which was stopped with a loose stone.  Ballard and
albin gton, being suspicious of G-ifford, gave him at first only
blank letters; but finding that these went safe, they dropped
all suspicions.   The whole correspontdence  thus passed
through the hands of;Walsinghamn;   all the lette's were
deciphered and copied, and the entire plot and the names
of the actors were discovered.  Waisinghamn communicated
what he had learned to no one but the queen.
Babington wished to send Ballard abroad to urge the foreign invasion, and had procured a license for him under a
feigned name.  i[e also intended to go himself for the same
purpose, and applied to  Valsingham, affecting great zeal for
the queen's cause.  The minister kept him in hand, and even
induced him to come to reside in the mean time at his house.
Walsinghamn wished to carry on this secret mode of proceeding still longer; but the queen said that by not preventing
the danger in time she "' should seem  rather to tempt God
than to trust in God."  Ballard therefore was arrested.
Babington was then desirous that no time should be lost in
klilling  the queen, and he gave his ring and some money to
Savage, who was very shabby, that he  night buy himself
good clothes for the purpose.  Finding soon after that the
plot was known or suspected, they all stole out of London,
and lurked for some days in St. John's Wood and other
places about the city.  But they were taken in a short time
and put in prison, where they voluntarily made most ample
confessions.  They were tried, and sentenced to be executed
as traitors.  On the 2i9th of Septe-lmbej, Ballard, Babington,
Savage, and four others were hung in St. Giles's fields.
After the ancient manner, they were cut doWn while still
alive and dtheir bowels taken out before their faces; but the
queen when she heard of this cruelty gavw  strict orders that
the remainder should not be embowelled  r quartered till they
had hung to be dead.
ItWhen the conspirators were arrested, sir Thomas Gorges
was sent 1from court with the tidings to the queen of Scots.
She was on her horse ready to go hunting when he arrived.
She wished to return to her chamber, but she was not permitted. She was soon after brought back to Chartley, and was
then conducted friom one gentleman's house to another, till she
at length reached Fotheringav castle in Northamptonshire,
(Sept. 26.)  During her first absence from Chartley, her two
secretaries, N au, a Frenchman, arnd CurIe,  a Scot, were




5152             HISTORY OF ENGI,AND.
arrested and sent up to London; her cabinets were at the
same time broken open, and her extensive correspondence
both in England and on the continent was discovered and
seized.
Evidence sufficient for their purpose having been now
procured against the queen of Scots, the question with the
council was how she should be treated.  Some were for
keeping her in strict confinement, as it was reckcned that
she could not live long, her health being in a declining
state.  But Burleigh and Walsingham  knew that while she
lived she would never cease to plot the ruin of the queen
and the protestant religion; and sel-f-preservation urged them
also, for if she were to succeed to the throne their lives they
knew  would be the forfeit of their loyalty to their queen.
Leicester, who was in Holland, suggested the employment
of poison, and sent a divine to Walsingham  to justify this
tourse; but that upright statesman rejected it, protesting
against all violence except by sentence of law. It was
finally resolved to bring her to trial on the late act, and a
commission of forty noblemen, privy counsellors, and judges,
of both religions, was appointed to examine and give judgment on her.
On the 11th of October the commissioners  came to
Fotheringay.  Next morning they sent to Mary a letter from
the queen, charging her with being accessory to the late
conspiracy, and informing her of the commission appointed
to try her.  She read the letter calmly, denied the charges,
and declared that, being an absolute [independent] queen,
she would not derogate from her rank by submitting to this
trial.  The following day, lord Burleigh, and the chancellor,
and some others waited ori her; they urged.her "with fair
words" to submit, at the same time assurinrg her that her
refusal would not prevent themn from proceeding.  She still,
however, persisted; but Hattoon's speech. in which he made
her observe that if she was innocent, as she asserted, she
wropct;ed her reputation by refusing a trial before honorable,
upriglt men, had some eiTect on her.  She offered to answer
before the parliarnent, or the queen in council, provided she
were acknowledged next in succession.  She at the' same
tirne declared that she would never submit to the law named
in the commission.  Burleigh told her they would nevertheless proceed in the cause next day.  "Examine your
aonsciences," said she; " be tender of your honor; God re.
ward you and yours according to your judgment upon me."
Next morning (14th) she sent for some of the commis




ELIZABETH.                     513
saoners, and said that having well weighed Hatton's reasons
she was willing to appear, provided her protest was received.
They assented; the court was prepared; at one end of the
roomn was placed under a canopy a chair of state for the
queen of England; opposite, at sore distance, stood a chair
for the queen of Scots; the cornmnisioners sat on benches on
each side, the law officers at a table in the centre.
The queen having taken her seat, the chancellor addressed
her; she renewed her protest: he replied, and the protest
and reply were recorded.  The case was then opened by
serjeant Gaudy, accusing her of participation in Babington's
conspiracy.  She denied all knowledge of him  or Ballard,
Babington's letters to her were then read; she defied themn
to prove that she had received them; parts of his confession
were read, stating the substance of the letters he said he had
received from her.  Mention occurring in these of Arundel
and his brothers, she burst into tears, saying, "Alas! what
hath that noble house of the IFowards suffered for my sake!
She then said that, let Babington have confessed what he
mnight, it was all a flat lie that she had thus written to him.
Finally a letter of hers to Babington was produced, in which
she commended and approved of his t,lot; she demhnded a
copy of it, asserted it was a forgery, and hinted at Walsingham as the forger.  The secretary rose and defended himself
with dignity, and the queen apologized.
In the afternoon the. court resumed.  A copy of a letter
to her fromn Charles Paget concerning an invasion of England was read; she did not deny it.  She was then pressed
with the testimonies of her secretaries; Curle she said was
an honest man, but he was too pliant to NFau, of whom she
did not think so well; they Imicht have inserted things in her
letters without her knowledge, and have received letters
which they concealed frorn her.  Burleigh then charged her
with her intention of having her son carried to Spain, and
of conveying her clirms to Philip; this she did not deny.
The substance of' her letters to Englefield, Paget, and Mena.
doza, about an invasion in her favor, was then read; she
said she thought herself justified in so doing, but denied any
intention of injuring the queen's life.  The court was then
adjourned.
Next (lay (16th) she renewed her protest, which was recorded.  Her letters to Paget were again read, in which she
recommended the invasion of England and placing her on the
throne, and one from Allen in which he addressed her as his
t M Mi




514              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
sovereign. She again denied all knowledge of labington's
plot, and asserted that he and her secretaries had accused
her to save themselves.  She finally required to be heard in
a full parliament, or by the queen in council.  She rose, and
when she had conferred apart with Burleigh, Hatton, Walsingham, and lord Warwick, the court was adjourned to the
25th in the star-chamber at Westminster.
It is impossible to read the full account of this remarkable trial without admiring the ability with which Mary
sustained the contest against [apparently] overwhelming
evidence, and the ablest men in England.  Her great anxiety
seems to have been to clear herself from participation in the
plot for assassinating Elizabeth.
On the 25th the commissioners met again; the secretaries Nau and Curle attested on oath he truth and reality
of the letters and copies that had been produced; the queen
of Scots was then pronounced guilty of all that had been laid
to her charge; at the same time a public declaration was
made "that the said sentence did nothing derogate from
James king of Scotland in his title and honor."  Parliament
met in a few days, (29th;) they approved and confirmed the
sentence against the queen of Scots, and petitioned the queen
to have it executed.  She replied in most gracious terms and
promised to come to a speedy resolution.  A few days after
she sent advising them to consider the matter anew and try
if some way might not be found for preserving the queen of
Scots' life without hazarding her own security.  Both houses
resolved " that there could be found no other sound and assured means."  The queen's reply was rather ambiguous.
The sentence, however, was published; the citizens forthwith
illuminated their houses, the bells of the churches rang out
joyful peals, and the same manifestations of the popular feeling were made all over the kingdom.
When this was notified to Mary, and it was added that
while she live 1 the religion of England could nat be secure,
she gave God thanks, claiming to be regarded as a martyr
for the cause of the true church.  Paulet now to, k down her
canopy of estate and treated her no longer with the respect due
to a royal personage.  She wrote (Dec. 19th) to Elizabeth,
making three requests, viz., that her remains might be sent to
France for interment; that she might not be put to death
privately, but in view of her serv.nts and others, who mright
bear testimony to her faith in Christ and obedience to tahe
church; that her servants might be allowed to depart and




ELIZABETH.                      515
retain the legacies she should leave them,  ro this letter,
which was written in a pious and dignific.  strain, she re.
ceived no answer.'
Tile king of France sent a special ambassador, Bellievre,
to intercede for Mary, but the queen set at nought his menaces and fully replied to his arguments.  It is said indeed
(but perhaps without sufficient warrant) that Belli~evre had
secret instructions to urge the execution of Mary.  King!Ji;-es also sent sir William  Keith to remonstrate with the
queen, and he wrote to her with his own hand in very strong
terms.  He afterwards despatched sir Robert Mbelvill and the
Master of Gray for the same purpose, but the securities they
offered for the queen's safety did not appear sufficient, and
Elizabeth despised the meieaces of the Scottish kling.  Gray
it is said secretly advised  her to carry the sentence into
effect, saying, 1-ortua non nordect.  Jalnes then ordered a
prayer to be put up in the churches for his mother, " that it
might please God to illumllinate her with the light of his truth
and save her from  the apparent danger with which she was
threatened." Yet even this cautious form was rejected, and the
royal chaplains alone prayed for the captive queen.  This is
quite sufficient, we should think, to refute those who blame
Jamnes for not taking  arms in the cause of his mother.
The pride of Elizabeth made her assume a determined tone
toward the French and Scottish ambassadors; t but she was
in reality quite undecided. Her natural aversion to bloodshed,
her respect to the kindred and royal blood of Mary, her
apprehension of the catholic powers, and her fear of the
judgment which posterity might pass on the deed, caused
her to hesitate.  On the other hand, those about her reiterated the dangers which would environ her while Mary lived;
a conspiracy to murder her, in which the French resident
Aubespine, a creature of the Guises, was concerned, had been
detected; various rumors of the landing of foreign armies
in England and of plots to set London on fire and kill the
queen were spread; and the whole nation seemed to clam.
* [The tone of this letter, and the non-notice taken of it by Elizabeth,
speak strongly of the respective characters of Mary and Elizabeth.
Mr. Keightley does not attemnpt to defend Elizabeth's conduct here.
J. T. S.]
f I  And I spake," writes the Master to James, " craving of her that
her life imay be spared for fifteen days; she refused. Sir Robert craved
for only eight days; she said,' Not for an hour,' and so geid her away."
" She answered in the tone of a lioness who has grasped her prey,' No
not an hour' " says sir Walter Scott. It is thus that history gains cir
sumstances in its progress.




516                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
or for the execution of the queen of Scots. Elizabeth
became pensive and solitary, and she was frequently heard
to sigh and to mutter to herself these words, Aut fer aut
feri, (' Bear or strike,') and N7eferiiareferi, ('Strike lest you
be struck.')
The warrant meantime had been drawn out by Burleigh,
and on the 1st of February the queen, who was then at Richmond, sent Howard, the lord admiral, with directions to the
secretary Davison to bring it to her.'  She signed it, and
asked him  if he was not heartily sorry to see it done; he
replied in terms which pleased her, and she then directed him
to take it to the chancellor and have it sealed, and to send it
down to the commissioners without delay, and not to trouble
her any further on the subject, as she had now  done all that
could be expected of her.  She also directed him to call as
he went on Walsingham, who was ill, as "ithe grief hlie would
feel on learning it would," she merrily added,t "nearly kill
him outright."  She then complained of Paulet and Drury,
who, she said, might have eased her of this burden, and desired him and Walsingham  to write to sound theim.
Davison showed the warrant to Burleigh and Leiceste'
and at their request went to London without delay.  Havmng
seen Walsingham and arranged with him about the letter, he
proceeded  to the chancellor, and got the warrant sealed.
On his return to Walsingham he found the letter to the two
knights ready.  It hinted to them the queen's wish that they
should put their prisoner secretly to death.  They signed it
and sent it off that evening.  In the morning  (0d) W.
Killegrew came to Davison from the queen, to say that if he
had not been already with the chancellor he should not go
till he had seen her again.  Davison forthwith repaired to
Richmond,  and when the queen found that the warrant was
sealed, she said, "Whhat needeth that haste? "  IHe replied,
that he had only done what he conceived to be his duty.
He then asked her if she continued in her purpose; she said
she did, "albeit she thought it might have been  better
handled, because this course threw the whole burthen on
The succeeding narrative rests on the evidence of Davison, of the
truth of which there can be no reasonable doubt.
t [This mirth, be it remembered, was exhibited by her who had such
a" natural aversion to hloodshed,'  while signing the warrant for the
execution of a woman, a tinswoman,  an independent queen, who had
fled to her for protection -J. T. S.]
$ Sir Drue Dirury hac been lately joined in commission with sit
Amias Paulet.
I —._______._..___._ ___  __._  __ _____  ___   ~~~_ _      __~_  ____     -'4~




ELIZABETH.                    517
herself."  After some further discourse to the same effect
she went to dinner.  Davison then consulted with Hatton.
they both went to Burleigh, who approved of Davison's inten.
tion not to proceed singly in the business, and it was agreed
that the case should be laid  before the council in the
morning.  Burleigh undertook to write the necessary letters,
and Davison gave him the warrant.
Next day (3d) the council met; they resolved to take the
responsibility on themselves and send off the warrant at
once, and in the afternoon they met agoain, signed the requisite letters to the earls of Shrewsbury and Kent, and
despatched Beale the clerk of the council with them.  Next
morning (4th) Davison waited on the queen; she tolt him
with a smile that she had dreamt that the queen of Scots was
executed, and that she had been greatly incensed with him
for it.  He said it was well he had not been near her when
she was in that humor.  He then seriously asked her if she
did not intend to go through with it.  She said, Yes, with a
solemn oath, but that "she thought it might have received a
better form."' Davison expressed his dislike of the course
she hinted at; she told him  wiser men than he were of a
different opinion, and that it had been suggested to her by
"one in great place," (evidently meaning Leicester.)  She
asked him if he had heard yet from Paulet; he replied in the
negative.  On his return to London the same day he received a letter from him and Drury, containing a flat refusal
"to shed blood without law or warrant."  When he reported
this to the queen, (6th,) she complained of the " niceness of
those precise fellows," adding that she could have done very
well without then, as one Wingfield and others would have
undertaken it.  When Davison next saw her, (7th,) "she
entered of herself," he says, "into' some earnest discourse
of the danger she lived in, and how it was more than time
this matter were despatched, swearing with a great oath that
it was a shame for us all that it was not already done, considering that she had for her part done all that law or reason
could require of her, and therefore made some mention to
have letters written to sir Amias Paulet for the hasteningo
thereof, because the longer it was deferred the more her danger increased."  Davison replied, that he thought there was
* [The renewed mirth of Elizabeth on this occasion, her desire to
have Mary secretly murdered, and her whole conduct in the affair, sufficiently indicate her feelings and impulses. More malignant malice
and more ungenerous selfishness can hardly be conceived. -J. T. S.]
VOL. T.      44




518             I-HSTORY OF ENGLAND.
no need, the warrant being " so general and sufficient " she
said " she thought sir Amias Paulet would look for it," and
so broke off the discourse, and Davison saw her no more.
That very day (7th) the two earls, with the sheriff of the
county, came to Fotheringay.  They forthwith waited on
the unhappy prisoner and bade her prepare for death in the
m1orning.  She received the annunciation with the utmost
composure, and requested that her almoner might be allowed
to visit and prepare her for death.  This being a thing unheard-of, was refused,' but the services of the bishop or
dean of Peterborough were proffered, which she of course
declined.  The earl of Kent in his zeal said, "Your life
will be the death of our religion, as your death will be the
life of it," -words [from which she justly concluded that it'was, in a great measure, for her religion that she suffered.]
She again denied all knowledge of Babington's conspiracy.
When the earls were gone, she ordered supper to be pre.
pared.  She supped sparingly, as usual, and comforted her
servants, who could not restrain their tears; she drank to
them; they pledged her on their knees; they craved her
pardon for. any neglect of their duty, and she craved theirs in
return.  She then looked over her will and the inventory of
her goods, and wrote some letters.  She went to bed at hei
usual time, slept some hours, and then rose and spent the
remainder of the night in prayer.
In the morning the queen arrayed herself in her richest
clothes.  Tihe sheriff entered her chapel, where she and her
servants were at prayers, about eight o'clock, to summon her.
She rose, took her crucifix in one hand and her prayer-book
in the other.  She gave her blessing to her servants, who
were not allowed to follow her.  The door closed; she was
joined by the earls and her keepers, and descended the staircase.  At the foot Melvill, her steward, met her, and burstr         illfng into tears lamented that he should be the bearer of such
sorrowful tidings to Scotland.  She bade him  to rejoice
rather than lament, as the end of her troubles was arrived,
and to report thatt she died true to her religion, to Scotland,
and to France.  " Hie that is the true judge of all secret
thoughts," she added, " knoweth my mind, how that ever it
hath been my desire to have Scotland and England united
together.  Commend me to my son, and tell him that I have
not done any thing that may prejudice his kingdom of Scotland.
i  There had as yet, we believe, been no instance in any country of
such a request being complied with.
___            __ =_=__                                                 _   __ _i.




ELIZABETH.                     519
And so, good Melvill, farewell! "  She kissed him, and bade
him pray for her.  The earl of Kent reluctantly assented to
her request that two of her maids and four of her men might
attend her.  The procession then entered the hall, Melvill
bearing the queen's train.  The hall was filled with spectators, and there stood in it a scaffold two feet high covered,
with black.  Paulet aided her to ascend it.  She seated herself on a stool; the warrant was read out; she replied, asserting the injustice of her sentence and denying all intention
of injuring the queen.  The dean of Peterborough then commenced a most ill-timed and even cruel address to her.  She
desired him  not to trouble himself, as she was determined
eo die in the faith in which she had been reared.  The earls
then directed  him  to pray; the spectators joined in the
prayer; but Mary, holding out the crucifix, prayed ill Latin
with her servants out of the office of the Virgin.  "Madam," said the earl of Kent, " settle Jesus Christ in your
heart and leave those trumperies."  She took no heed, but
continued her prayers.  Her women then began to disrobe
her; the executioners went to assist; she said she was not
used to employ such grooms or to strip before so numerous
an assembly.  When she was stripped, her women began
to lament aloud.  She reminded them of her promise, and
crossed and kissed them, bidding them  to rejoice and not
to weep, as they would now  see the end of her troubles.
She  then  crossed her  men-servants also, bidding  them
farewell.  She sat down  again, and one of her m aids
fastened a Corpus Christi cloth over her face;, she was
led to the block; she knelt down, saying several times,
"Into thy hands, 0  Lord, I commend my spirit."  Her
head was severed at the second stroke; the executioner held
it up streaming with blood.  " So perish all the queen's
enemies! " cried the dean. " Such end of all the queen's and
the Gospel's enemies! " said the earl of Kent, standing over
the body.  All the rest were silent from pity or fiom horror.
Such was the end of the unfortunate Marv Stuart.  Her
conduct in the closing scene of her life was calm, pious, and
dignified.
At the time of her execution Mary was in the forty-sixth
year of her age.  She had long suffered from  rheumatism,
and had lost the beauty for which she is celebrated.  She is
described by an eye-witness as " being of stature tall, of
body corpulent, round-shouldered, her face fat and broad,
double-chinned, with hazel eyes and borrowed hair."  Her
l  i _..._.._ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _   ____ _ __. _ __ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _




520               HISTORY OF:NJGLAND.
own hair is said to have been " as gray as one of threescore
and tell years old."
Whatever the wishes or suspicions of Elizabeth may have
been, there seern to be no grounds for supposing that she
actually knew of the warrant having been sent.  According
to Davison, when the intelligence of the execution arrived on
the evening of the Sth, Burleigh and the other councillors
thought it best not to tell her as yet.  She heard it, however,
he says, from some other quarter, and testified neither feelIng nor displeasure.  But in the morning, when the event
was officially announced to her, she showed every symptom
of grief and indignation.  She shed tears; her voice was
broken by  sighs; she drove  her councillors  from  her
presence with reproaches; she put herself and her whole
court in mourning.  Davison was commi.tted to the Tower,
and then brought before the Star Chamber, where he was
sentenced to pay a fine of 10,000 marks and be imprisoned
during pleasu:re, for contempt of the queen's majesty, breach
of his allegiance, and neglect of his duty in acquainting the
council with the warrant and having it executed without her
knowledge.  The fine, which reduced him  to beggary, was
rigorously exacted, and the queen would never restore him
to favor. Leicester and Hatton felt her displeasure also;
even Burleigh was treated with such harshness that he craved
permission to resign his offices and retire.  It was only
after making the humblest submissions that he succeeded inl
mollifying his incensed sovereign.*l
Thoug~l we do not regard the conduct of Elizabeth
throughout this unhappy affair as that tissue of hypocrisy it
is generally styled, there certainly was in it much of which
we  cannot approve.  Elizabeth  should have  proceeded
openly; she shou'ld not have thought of emulating the examples of private execution given by her ancestors; or have
attempted to shift the responsibility to others.  She certainly
deceived Davison to his ruin, and would have ruined Paulet
and Drury also but for their own sense of religion and honor.
Her memnory has paid the penalty; the-execution of the queen
of Scots, with all her [asserted] crimes, remains a stain on
the fair fame of Elizabeth.
* [It is impossible, after seeing Elizabeth's previous conduct, not to
perceive that all this pretended anger was gross hypocrisy. She was
conscious of wrong, and felt what the just sentence of posterity would:be upor her conduct. — J. T. S.]




ELI ZABETH.                  521
CHAPTER  XII.
ELIZABETH. (CONTINUED.)
1587- 1603.
THE kingof Scots, when he heard of the execution elf his
mother, naturally expressed much indignation, and his lan.
guace breathed revenge. But Elizabeth wrote to him with
her own hand, exculpating herself. Leicester also wrote to
him, and W alsingham to his secretary Maitland, pointing out
the folly and hazard of violent measures, and James allowed
himself to be convinced and pacified.  Nor is he to be
blamed.  He could have little affection for a mother whom
he never knew, and who, in her popish bigotry, had proposed
to give him as a hostage to the pope, or king of Spain, and
in her will had disinherited hini in favor of the latter, unless
he renounced his religion and became a catholic. He also
well knew that his people would not support him in a war
with Elizabeth, and that he might thereby lose all chance
of the crown of England. As for the king of France,
he viewed with secret satisfaction this diminution of the
power of the house of Guise. Philip of Spain was therefore
the only prince who, under pretence of avenging Mary,
might turn his arms against Elizabeth.
The queen, having ascertained that Philip was preparing
a fleet for the invasion of England, sent out Drake to endeavor to destroy his shipping. He entered theport of Cadiz,
where he burned one hundred vessels laden with stores:and
ammunition; he thence sailed to cape St. Vincent, and took
the castle and three other fortresses; then proceeding to
the Azores, he lay in wait for and captured the St. Philip, a
richly-laden carrack. These losses caused the intended invasion to be deferred for a year, and their success inspired the
English seamen with contempt for the Spaniards and their
huge, unwieldy ships.  In Holl'and affairs were not so favorable.  Sir William Stanley,:a catholic, to whom Leicester
had intrusted the defence of Deventer with a garrison of
twelve hundred English, betrayed it to the Spaniards, and
he and his men entered their service.  His example was
followed by on officer named York who commanded a.fort
near Zutphen. Leicester himself on his return failed in -an
44*                    N N N




522               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
attempt to relieve Sluys; the ill-feeling between him at d the
States increased daily; they suspected him of a design on
their liberties, slighted his authority, and thwarted his plans;
he was imperious and violent.  At length the queen deemed
it advisable to remove him  fiorn  a situation for which he
was manifestly unfit.  The States elected Maurice, son of
the late prince of Orange, governor in his stead, and the
command of the English troops was given to lord Willoughby.
This year also the office of chancellor becoming vacant,
the queen raised to that high dignity sir Christopher Hatton,
the vice-chamberlain.  The lawyers sneered at the appointment; but the court of chancery was not then what it has
since become; Hatton had good sense and honesty, and
with thle aid of two serjeants-at-law he discharged the duties
of his office in such a manner as gave general satisfaction.
Though there had been no actual declaration of war between Spain and England, each party had for many years
been injuring the other. Elizabeth aided the Dutch and
countenanced the expeditions of Drake and other adventurers; Philip excited rebellion in Ireland, promoted conspiracies against the life and authority of Elizabeth in England, and was preparing to invade it in favor of the queen
of Scots.  After the death of that princess he resolved to
put forth his own claim  to the crown as the descendant of
John of Gaunt. The pope Sixtus V. at his desire renewed
the bull of his predecessor Pius V., and raised Allen to the
dignity of cardinal, that, like Pole, he might proceed as
legate to England when  it should  be conquered.  The
new cardinal forthwith published on " Admonition " addressed to the nobility of England, full of the grossest falsehoods and vilest calumnies of the queen, and composed in
the vituperative style then familar to the Romish writers.
The wealth of the Indies was devoted by Philip to the building of ships and the purchase of stores, and in the spring of
158S a fleet of one hundred and thirty-five ships of war,
galleys, galleasses, and galleons,* from the different ports of
his Spanish and Italian dominions rendezvoused in the
Tagus. The prince of Parma meantime had ships and
boats collected and built in the ports of the Netherlands for
* The galley was a vessel impelled with oars; it carried cannon on
the poop and stern: the galleasse was a larger galley with cannon also
between the oars; the galleon was a large ship of war with cannon on
the aides, poop, and stern. See Lingard, viii. 324.




ELIZABETH.                    523
transporting a veteran force of thirty tnousand men to the
coast of England.  It had been the advice of this alble
officer that Flushing should be first reduced, to assure the
fleet of a retreat in case of accident, but Philip would hear
of no delay.
While these immense preparations for her overthrow were
being made, the prince of Parma was amusing Elizabeth
with a negotiation for terminating all differences.  But the
means of resistance were meantime not neglected; all the
men from sixteen to sixty were enrolled and trained by the
lords lieutenant of counties, who were directed to appoint
officers and provide arms; one army of 36,000 men under
the queen's cousin lord Huntsdon was to be assembled for
the guard of the royal person; another of 30,0%0 men under
Leicester was to be stationed at Tilbury to protect the city.
The seaports were required to fuirnish shipping according to
their means.  On this occasion the city of London set a
noble example; being called upon to furnish five thousand
men and fifteen ships, the citizens voluntarily pledged themselves to send double the number of each. The royal navy
consisted of but thirty-four ships, but many noblemen fitted
out vessels at their own expense, and the whole fleet numbered one hundred and eighty-one ships of all kinds, manned
by 17,472 seamen.  The chief command was held by Howard of Effingham, lord high admiral of England; the three
distinguished seamen, Drake, Hawkins, and Frobisher held
commands under him.  The main fleet was stationed at
Plymouth; a squadron of forty ships under lord Henry Seymoiir lay off Dunkirk to watch the motions of the prince of
Parma.
The protestants of Europe naturally regarded with intense
interest the approach of the contest which was probably to
decide the fate of their religion; but the Dutch alone aided
the queen in her struggle.  The king of Scotland, though
his interests were nearly as much involved in the contest as
those of Elizabeth, hesitated till he had extorted most advantageous terms from Ashby, the English resident.* The king
of France was little inclined, even if able, to aid the ambitious
projects of Philip though cloaked with zeal for religion, but
the Guises prepared a body of their adherents to join in the
invasion. Her own catholic subjects caused Elizabeth most
He made the treaty on the 4th of August. The danger was then
aver, but he could not have known it.




1524              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
apprehension;  her council were well aware of heir readiness to rise in favor of Mary when she was liv.ng, and it
was feared that their zeal for their religion might prove too
strong for their national feeling.  Some even advised to seize
and put the leading catholics to death, but the queen rejected
this expedient with horror, and contented herself with confining a few of the most suspected at Wisbeach in the fens
of Ely.  The catholics to their honor justified her confidence
in themn; their nobles armed their tenantry in her service,
and some fitted out vessels, giving the command to prot.
estants.
At length (May 29) the Invincible Armada, (Fleet,) ase t
was proudly styled, sailed from  the Tagus.  It consisted of
13D ships, carrying 19,000 soldiers, 8'000 seamlen, and 200t
galley slaves, and 2630 pieces of cannon; its commander
was the duke of Medina Sidonia, aided by Juan de Recalde,
a distinguished seaman.  It carried a corps of one hundred
and eighty monks and friars of the different orders for the
conversion of the heretics, and a supply of arms for the disaffected catholics. Off the coast of Gallicia it experienced
a tempest, which obliged the admiral to remain for some time
at Corunna to refit.  When the news reached England the
queen, thinking the danger over for the year, sent word to
the admiral to lay up the four largest ships, but he wrote requesting to be allowed to keep them even at his own expense.
He sailed toward Spain, but finding the wind changed to the
south, he returned with all speed to Plymouth lest the enemy
should arrive before him. On the 12th of July the Armada
put to sea, and on the 19th it was off the Lizard point in
Cornwall, where it was seen by Flemming, a Scottish pirate,
who hastened to Plymouth with the tidings.  The admiral
got his fleet out to sea, though with great diff.. ilty, as the
wind blew strong into the port.
The instructions of the Spanish admiral were to avoid
hostilities till he had seen the army of the prince of Parma
safely landed in England; he therefore rejected the advice
of his captains to attack the English fleet, and the armada
proceeded up channel in the form of a crescent, of which
- Dr. Lingard says the catholics were one half of the population,
Allen had said two thirds. Cardinal Bentivoglio considered the real
catholics to be but a thirtieth, (Hallam, i. 239.) Those who, like Lingard, exaggerate the number of the catholics, ought to perceive that they
thus justify the severities of the government toward them. [Tle exaetly contrary inference would seem.to he more just. - J. T. S.]




ELIZABETH.                    525
the horns were seven miles asunder.  The motion of this
fleet, the greatest that had ever ploughed the ocean, was
slow though every sail was spread, " the winds," says Camden,' being as it were tired with carrying them, and the
ocean groaning under their weight."  The plan adopted by
the English admiral was to follow the armada and harass
it, and cut off stragglers.  During six days which it took the
Spaniards to reach Cal;is, the annoyance was incessant, and
several of their ships were taken'or disabled; the superior
seamanship of ihe Eng'lish, and the agility and low build of
their ships giving themn great acldvantage over the unwieldy
galleons and galleasses.  At lelngrth (27th) the armana cast
anchor near Calais, and trhe admiral sent off to the prince
of Parma, requiring hiimn to emnlar:k his troops without delay.
But this it was not in his power now to do; his stores were
not yet prepared, his sailors had run away, and the Dutch
blockaded the harbors of Dunkirk and Newport.  The armada itself narrowly escaped destruction: on the night of
the 29th the English sent eight fire-ships into it; the Spaniards in terror cut their cables; the English fell on them  in
the morning when they were dispersed and took two galleons,
and the following day (31) a storm came on and drove them
among the shoals and sands of Zealand.  Here in a council
of war it was decided, as the navy was now in too shattered
a condition to effect any thing, to return to Spain without
delay.  But the passage down the channel  was so full of
hazard that it was resolved in preference to sail round Scotland and Ireland, dangerous as that course appeared.  The
armadla set sail; the English pursued as far as Flarmborough
Head, where want of ammunition forced them  to give over
the chase.  Storms assailed the armada in its progress; several ships were cast away on the west and south coast of
Treland, where the crews were butchered by the barbarous
natives or put to the sword by orders of the lord-deputy.
The total loss was thirty large ships and about ten thousand
men.  Philip received the intelligence with great equanimity,
ordered public thanks to God and the Saints that the calamity
was not greater, and sent money to be distributed among the
surviving crews.
The queen of England had shown throughout the spirit
of a heroine. She visited the camp at Tilbury, (Aug. 9,)
rode along the lines on a, white palfrey with a truncheon in
her hand, and animated the soldiers by her inspiriting ian.




526               HTSTORY OF ENGLAND.
guage.*  When the danger was over she went in state te
St. Paul's to return thanks to Heaven.  She then granted
pensions to the disabled seamen; she bestowed her favors on
the admiral and his officers, and she had actually caused the
warrant to be prepared appointing Leicester to the office of
lord lieutenant of England and Ireland; but the influence
of Burleigh and Walsingham prevented her fiom  signi-ng it,
and as Leicester was on his way to Kenilworth after disbanding his army, he fell sick on the road and died at Cornbury
Park in Oxfordshire, (Sept. 4.)  The queen lamented him,
but she caused his goods to be s'eized for payment of his
debts to the crown.
There is no character in history more enigmatic than that
of Leicester.  On the one hand, we find him for a space of
thirty years retaining the favor of one of the most sagacious
and penetrating of princesses, (though he had enemies enough
who would gladly reveal to her any thing to his disadvantage,)
and also held in esteem  by some of the most virtuous men
of the time, and by the rigid sect of the puritans.  On the
other hand, he is portrayed to us as stained with every vice,
a hypocrite, a tyrant, an adulterer, a poisoner by wholesale;
in short, a monster, unredeemed by a single virtue.  This
last portrait, which cannot be correct, appears in the most
suspicious quarter, namely, a book called " Leicester's Commonwealth," written by the Jesuit Persons.  The charges
there made against him are in fact so atrocious as totally to
destroy their credibility.
Leicester's, in truth, seems, like all others, to have been
a mixed character.  I-le was a zealous friend, and a faithful
observer of his promise; he was generous, and as a statesman sufficiently acute, and we have no right to assumne that
lie was not sincere in his religious profession.  At the same
time he was insolent, rapacious, and tyrannical, and in his
younger days very licentious in his conduct with the other
sex.  It is, however, mere calumny to accuse the queen of
any improper familiarity with him.  They had been intimate
from childhood; and this circumnstance, joined with his pers
sonal beauty and his mental powers, will perhaps adequate)f
account for her early and continued partiality.t* Lingard endeavors to cast an air of ridicule over the whole scene.
The speech ascribed to her could not, he says, have beeii spoken at
Tilbury, as the danger was over. The letter of Drake to Walsinglham,
(Hardwick Papers, i. 586,) written the next day, (Aug. 10,) will show
that the danger was by no means thoug'ht to be over.
t In 1566 he said to La Forest, the French ambassador, "I realli




ELIZABETH.                      527
A strong desire of taking vengeance on Spain now  Rnimated the nation; and the following spring, (15S9,) Drake
and Norris, joined by a number of other gentlemen, obtained
the queen's permission  to fit out, at their own expense, an
armament. of which the chief object was to attempt to place
Don Antonio, prior of Crato, on the throne of Portugal.
They took and plundered the suburb of Corunna, and the
shipping in the harbor.  They therce proceeded to Lisbon;
but as the people showed no inclination to rise ill favor of
Don Antonio, and disease and want of supplies were felt,
they put to sea again.  On their way home they took and
burned the town of Vigo(.  Though the expedition had been
little more than two months out of England, such had been
the ravages of disease that one half of the troops had perished; out of eleven hundred gentlemen who enbnarked, but
three hundred and fifty returned.
Among those who took a part in this unlucky expedition
was Robert Devereux  earl of Essex, a young nobleman,
with whom, in chivalrous daring, united with a manly, liberal, generous spirit, few in that age could compare.  I-e had
been recommended to the notice of the queen by his stepfather Leicester; and his noble qualities caused him  speedily to rise in her estimation, and to occupy after Leicester's
death the place in her affections so long held by that favorite.  Hopeless of obtaining the permission of the queen to
his exposure of himself to the perils of the expedition, Essex
had stolen away froim  court, emlbarked secretly, and joined
the fleet off the coast of Portugal.
Confusion at this time prevailed more than ever in France.
The cowardly, treacherous Henry TIT. had caused the duke
of Guise and his brother the cardinal to be murdered; lie
himself perished soon after by the dagg'er of a fanatical nmonk,
and the king of Navarre, being the next heir, assumed the
title of Henry IV.  But the bigoted catholic party, excited
by Philip II., refused to acknowledge an heretical sovereign;
hey set up the cardinal of Bourbon against him, and the war
believe that the queen will never marry. I hevre know7n her since she
was eilrht years of agoe better than any man inr thle world. From that
time she has always invariably declared that she would remain unmlar.
ried. Should she, however, happen to resolve on marrying and to
choose an Englishman, I am almost convinced that her choice would
fall on no other than me; at least the queen has done me tihe honor
several times to tell me so alonre, and I am now as high in her favor as
ever."  Raumer, Elizabeth and Mary, p. 40.




528              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
contin ied to rage with its wonted animosity. Elizabeth aided
Henry with both money and men; the English troops, led
by sir John Norris, the gallant earl of Essex, and other brave
officers, distinguished themselves on all occasions.  Henry,
however, after continuing the contest for nearly three years,
found that unless he conformed to the religion of the great
majority of his subjects, he had little chance of ultimate success.  He therefore (1593) declared himself a catholic, and
gradually the whole kingdom submitted to him. Elizabeth,
though grieved at his change of faith, felt it *her interest to
maintain the alliance she had formed; and her troops aided
in the reduction of such places as still held out against him.
Against Spain the naval warfare was still kept up, and the
earl of Cumberland, sir Martin Frobisher, and Thomas White
did much injury to the Spanish trade. The English at this
time also first made their way to the East Indies. Two vessels, commanded by George Riman and James Lancaster,
doubled the Cape of Good Hope.  Riman perished off the
east coast of Africa; but Lancaster proceeded, and, after
enduring many hardships and losing the greater part of bi%
men, returned to England.
The year 1590 was distinguished by the deaths of the ablle
and disillterested secretary Walsingham; of Thomas IRandolph, who had been on thirteen embassies to Scotland, three
to Russia, and two to France; of sir James Crofts, and oi
the earl of Shrewsbury, earl-marshal of England.  The following year the chancellor H-atton died. The generous Essex
endeavored to procure Walsin gham's office for the unfortunate Davison; but the queen's resentment against hitm  was
too strong, and Burleigh, as a means of brngiing forward
his son sir R.obert Cecil, took the duties of the office on himself.  The great seal was committed to serjeant Puckering,
under the title of lord-kleeper.
In 1594, Richard, son of sir John Hawkins, sailed to the
South Sea; but he was made a prisoner on the coast of Chili
and sent to Spain.  The same year James Lancaster was fur.
nished with three vessels by the merchants of London; he
captured thirty-nine ships of.the enemy, and took and plundered the town of Fernambuco, on the coast of Brazil.  The
next year (1595) the able and enterprising sir Walter Raleigh set forth in search of fortune to America.  He had seduced one of the maids of honor, (to whom, however, he
made reparation by marriage,) for which offence tile queen
threw him into prison; she restored him some time after tc




ELIZABETH.                   529
liberty, but not to favor, and his enterprising spirit, unable
to endure inactivity and thirsting for wealth, urged him to
attempt the discovery of those stores of the precious metals,
far exceeding all that Peru and Mexico had yielded, which
fatme said lay in the region of Guiana in South America.  He
sailed froim Plymouth, (Feb. 6,) took a small town in the
isle of Trinidad, and leaving his ship there went in his boats
for four hundred miles up the river Orinoco.  But the city
of El Dorado, which he sought, was not to be found, and
the fall of the rains prevented his further progress.  On his
return to England he published an account of the country
of Guiana, full of the most extravagant fictions.
At this time also Drake, Hawkins, and sir Thomas Baskerville sailed with twenty-six ships and a body of troops
to America.  They failed in an attempt on Puerto Rico in
Cuba.  Hawkins died soon after, and Drake, having vainly
attempted to cross the isthmus to Panama, put to sea again.
Hie died at sea of the dysentery; and Baskerville, after asmart action with a Spanish fleet off Cuba, retdurned to England.
Philip had by no means abandoned his designs upon England; he even listened seriously to the chimerical project of
somle English exiles for placing his daughter on the throne
of that country, as being the nearest catholic descendant of
John of Gaunt.  His preparations being known, the queen
gave her consent to the proposal of Essex to attack himn
in his own dominions.  A fleet of one hundred and fifty vessels, of various sizes, English and Dutch, carrying fourteen
thousand men, of whom  fifteen hundred were gentlemen
volunteers, commanded by the lord admiral Howard, Essex,
sir Thomas Howard, Raleigh, Vere, Carew, and Clifford,
sailed from Plymouth, (June 1,) and proceeded to Cadiz.
On reaching that port (29th) they saw in it fifteen men-of'
war anil forty merchantmen.  It was proposed to attack the
mern-f-war: the cautious admiral hesitated; at length he
gave way, at which Essex was so elated, that, regardless of
decorum, he flung his hat up into the air.  The action lasted
for six hours: the enemy then attempted to run his ships
ashore, but three of them were taken and about the sanme
number burnt.  Essex then landed six hundred men, and
advanced against the town; he drove off the troops that opposed him, and entered the town along with them; the admiral had by this time landed his men, and forced his way
in. No further resistance was made; the inhabitants agreed
voL. 1.     45                     000o o o




530               HIISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to pay a ransom  of 120,000 crowns for their lives: all the
property in the town became the prize of the victors.  I:
was a part of the instructions given by the queen, " that they
should spare the women and those that were very young or
else decrepit, and put none to the sword but such as made
opposition." These instructions were religiously obeyed;
the nuns and other women, to the number of three thousand,
were conveyed under an escort to the port of St. Mary,
being allowed to take with them  their clothes and jewels.
A ransom  being refused for the merchantmen, the duke of
Medina Sidonia ordered them to be burnt.  The entire loss
sustained by the king of Spain was estimated at twenty millions of ducats.  The secret of his domestic weakness was
revealed to the world, and the union of valor and humanity
displayed by the English exalted them  in all men's estim ation.
The daring Essex wished to retain the town and enFd-avor to rouse the Moriscoes of Andalusia to insurrection;
but his more cautious colleagues refused their consent: the
men too were eager to get home with their plunder.  The
town, therefore, with the exception of the churches, was
burnt, and the fleet returned to England, having been but ten
weeks absent.
Philip, undismayed by his reverser began to assemble a
new fleet for the invasion of Ireland. Elizabeth consented
that another expedition against Spain  should be fitted out,
in which Essex should have the chief' command, with Raleigh and sir T. Howard for his seconds,  It consisted of
one hundred and forty ships carrying eight thousand soldiers.
It sailed from Plymouth, (July 9,) but a tempest shattered it,
and before it could be refitted it was found that the provisions
had nearly run out. The attack on Spain was therefore deferred for the present, and Essex proceeded to the Azores to
intercept the Indian fleet.. He had informed his officers that
it was his intention to take the isle of Fayal; the fleet happened to separate, and Raleigh and his division arriving first
at that isle he landed and took it.  Essex was highly offended; he put Sydney and some other officers under arrest; but
when advised to bring Raleigh to a court 6nartial, he nobly
replied, " I would, had he been nme of my friends." Ihe soon,
however, laid aside his anger and restored them all to favor.
The Spanish fleet, owing it is said to Essex's want of seamanship, escaped into port. Three vessels, however, were captured, which sufficed to pay the charges of the expedition




EL ZABETH.                     531
Essex was some time after his return raised to the dignity
of earl-marshal, and sir Robert Cecil and he became better
friends than they had previously been.
An opportunity for peace with Spain now presented itself,
(1599.)  Henry of France, finding tranquillity absolutely requisite for his kingdom, entered into negotiations with Philip
for that purpose.  It was hoped that a general pacification
imight be effected; but as Philip refused to treat with the
Dutch as a free state, and Elizabeth would not abandon thernm,
Henry was obliged to conclude a separate peace.
In the English council the Cecils were for pea.:e, Essex
was vehement for continuing the war.  It is said that in one
of the debates the aged lord treasurer took a prayer-book,
and pointed out these words of the Psalmist to Essex:
"Men of blood shall not live out half their days," -  words
afterwards regarded as prophetic.  Soon after, the question
of appointing a deputy for Ireland was discussed in presence
of the queen. She herself wished to appoint Essex's uncle
sir William Knolles, while Essex was strenuous in favor of
sir George Carew.  In the heat of the argument he so far
forgot himself as to turn his back on the queen in a kind of
contempt.  She gave him a box on the ear, and told him to
go to the d —l; he clapped his hand on his sword, swore he
would not put up with such an affront even from  Henry
VIII. himself, and left the court in a passion.  The coolness
between the queen and her capricious favorite lasted for
about five months, at the end of which time -he reappeared
at court.  It was thought, however, that he never regained
his former place in her heart.
During this temporary disgrace of Essex, the great lord
Burleigh died, at the advanced age of seventy-seven years,
leaving a character for prudence, integrity, loyalty, and patriotism, rarely attained by statesmen.  The queen, attached to
him from a deep sense of his virtues and merits, shed many
tears at his death, and she never after could think of him or
hear his name pronounced without being affected.
The condition of Ireland now claims our attention.  This
unhappy country still remained in its pristine barbarism; the
descendants of the English conquerors had sunk nearly to a
level with the original natives, while the distinction of race
was maintained only as a source of evil.  The Reformation
proved, like every thing else, a root of bitterness to Ireland.
Comnpulsion, not persuasion, was employed to bring the people
to a purer faith; the barbarous Irish and many of the deI I
V ____-~C-~ I —---                                             __________j —.




532               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
generate English clung the closer for it to their old supersta.
tion; the courts of the Vatican and Madrid took advantage
of this feeling.  Sanders and other bigots were sent thither
to stir Lup rebellion; and many of the native Irish, by serving in the Spanish armies, acquired the skill and discipline requisite for opposing the regular armies of England.
Throughout the whole reign of Elizabeth, warfare more or
less active prevailed in Ireland.  Fitzmaurice, earl of Desmond, who ruled in barbaric state over a large portion of
Munster, was by the arts of Sanders and others precipitated
into a rebellion, which ended in the ruin of himself and his
family and the confiscation of his immense estates, (1583.)
Hugh O'Nial, whom the queen had raised to the dignity of
earl of Tirone, was now the most formidable qpponent of
the English government.  He had cast off his allegiance,
united the northern Irish under himself, and was supplied
with arms and ammunition from Spain. Intelligence now
arrived of his having defeated and slain sir Henry Bagnal
and fifteen hundred men.  It was proposed in the council to
send lord Mountjoy thither as chief governor; but Essex
strenuously opposed this appointment, and in the description
which he gave of the kind of person who should be sent he
drew his own portrait so accurately that it was plain to all
what his object was.  Cecil, Raleigh, and his other enemies
gladly seized on the occasion of removing him from court.!         The new title of lord lieutenant was conferred on him, and
he left London in March amid the acclamations of the people,
and accompanied by a gallant train of nobles and gentlemen.
The forces placed at his disposal amounted to eighteen,
thousand men.
Instead of marching against Tirone at once, Essex, at the
persuasion of some of the Irish council, who wished to secure their estates in Munster, led his forces thither.  Here
lhe passed the better part of the summer, and though the
natives made little resistance, his army melted away by disease and desertion. On his return to Dublin he was obliged
to write to the English council for two thousand additional
troops: yet even when these arrived he found that from
desertion and other causes he could lead but four thousand
men against O'Nial.  He therefore listened to a proposal of
that chief for a conference.  They met on the opposite
banks of a stream; a truce till the following May was
agreed on, and Essex engaged to transmit to England the
demands of O'Nial, which were too high ever to be granted
i 




ELIZABETH.                    533
Though Essex had received orders not to leave Ireland,
he resolved to anticipate his enemies, who he was conscious
had now a fair opportunity of injuring him in the royal mind,
and, on the morning of Michaelmas eve, the queen saw him
enter her chamber before she had finished dressing, and
throw himself on his knees before her.  Taken thus by surprise, she gave him her hand to kiss.  He retired in high
spirits, and was heard to thank God that though he had met
with many storms abroad he had found a sweet calm at home.
Before the day ended, however, the calm turned to a storm; *
the queen, who would not have her authority infringed, ordered him to confine himself to his room, and in a few days
committed him to the custody of the lord-keeper Egerton.
Anxiety of mind brought on him  an attack of illness; the
queen, who really loved him, sent him some broth from her
own table, and with tears in her eyes desired the physician
to tell him, that were it not for her honor she would visit him
herself.
After his recovery he was allowed to retire to his own
house, where in the society of his countess, the accomplished daughter of Walsingham  and widow of sir Philip
Sidney, he devoted himself to literature, the study of which
he had never neglected.  The accounts of the success of
Mountjoy, who had succeeded him  in Ireland, and the injudicious expressions of the popular feelings in his favor,
gave strength to the arguments of his enemies, and the
queen directed that he should be examined before the privy
council.  He made no defence, throwing himself in a strain
of affecting eloquence on the queen's mercy.  The sentence
passed was that he should not exercise any of his offices,
and should confine himself to his own house.  He behaved':
with the greatest humility and submission, and would probably have recovered his former state of favor had not a slight
circumstance occurred which caused his ruin.l
A monopoly of sweet wines had been given to Essex for
a term  which now expired.  On hi; application for a renewal the queen refused it, saying she must first learn its
value, and that an unruly beast must be stinted in its proven* "When I did come into her presence," says Harrington, "she
chafed much, walked fastly to and fro, looked with discomposure in her
visage, and I remember she catched my girdle when I kneeled to her,
and swore' By God's Son I am no queen; that matt is above me. Whc
gave'him command to come here so soon? I did send him on other
business.' "
45*




534              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
der. Essex nlow fancied there was a settled design to ruin
hinm; he began to give ear to the evil suggestions of his secretary Cuffe and others who recommended violent courses;
he increased the number of his dependants; he took the
opinions of some divines on the lawfulness of using force
against a sovereign.  Some of the more zealous puritan
clergy (a party which, like Leicester, he always favored)
recommended his cause to the citizens- in their lectures.  He
even opened a correspondence with the king of Scots, assuring him that Cecil and the other ministers were in favor
of the Infanta, and advising him to assert his right to the
succession, in which he offered to support him with his life
and fortune.  In his imprudence he could not refrain from
using disparaging language of the queen, such as saying
"she was now grown an old woman, and was as crooked
within as without."  All this was conveyed to the queen's
ear by his enemies among the court ladies.
Drury-house, the residence of the earl of Southampton,
was the place where the principal malcontents used to meet;
but Essex himself never was present.  Plans were formed
for seizing the palace and obliging the queen to dismiss his
enemies and alter her mode of governing.  The suspicions
of the ministers were awaked, and Essex was summoned
before the council (Feb. 7, 1601.)  He feigned illness; in
the night his friends resorted to him, and as next day was
Sunday and the chief citizens would be assembled according
to custom at Paul's Cross, it was resolved to try to induce
them to follow him to the palace.
In;the morning the lord-keeper and some others were
sent to Essex-house.   They were admitted through the
wicket, but their attendants were excluded, and after some
altercation they were. confined in one of the rooms. Essex
then issued forth at the head of about eighty knights and
gentlemen; on the way to the city he was joined by about
two hundred others, but on reaching St. Paul's he found
no one there.  He advanced, shouting, " For the queen, my
mistress! " but few noticed him. Soon after the lords Burleigh and Cumbe.rland entered the city proclaiming him a
traitor; he attempted to return home, but was repulsed by
the guard at Ludgate; he then entered a boat atQueenhithe
and returned by water. iHe found his prisoners gone; soldiers began to surround the house; cannon were brought
from the Tow.r; lord Sands advised a sally sword in hand,
but Essex did not yet despair, and he surrendered on the
promise of a fair trial.




ELIZABETH.                   535
Essex and Southampton were brought to trial on the
19th before a jury of twenty-five peers.  As some of them
were his personal enemies he claimed a right to challenge
them, but this right was denied by the judges.  The facts
were easily proved, but Essex denied all intention of injuring the queen.  They were found guilty.  Essex said that
for himself he should neither solicit nor refuse mercy, but
he hoped the life of his friend would be spared, who had
only acted from affection to him.  Southampton threw himself on the mercy of the queen.
In prison Essex was attended by Ashton, his favorite
divine, who awoke in his bosom  such a Jegree of spiritual
terror and remorse that he made a most ample confession,
disclosing the secrets of his friends, and even aggravating
the guilt into which their regard for him had led them.  lie
requested, it is said, to be executed within the walls of the
Tower.  The conflict of passions usual to the queen's bosom
on such occasions now took place.  She signed the warrant;
she countermanded it; she at length suffered the execution
to take place.
On the 3d of February at eight in the morning, Essex was
led to the scaffold. He behaved with great piety and resignation, acknowledging the justice of his sentence and calling
his offence " a great sin, a bloody sin, a crying and infectious
sin."  The first blow of the axe deprived him of sense and
motion; at the third the head was separated from his body,
and thus in only his thirty-fourth year was terminated the
mortal existence of the gallant, honorable, upright earl of
Essex, a man too frank, open, and candid to be able long to
maintain himself against such wily and artfill opponents as
Raleigh and Cecil, and too headstrong, imprudent, and arrogant to avoid offending his affectionate but haughty mistress.
The life of Southampton was spared, but Essex's stepiather sir Christopher Blount, his secretary Cuffe, and his
steward Merriclk were! executed.
The only event of much importance in the remainder of
the qIueen's reign, was the reduction of Tlirone and the other
Trish chiefs by the deputy Mountjoy, (1602.)  The king of
Spain had sent a body of six thousand men to their aid under
Juan d'Aguilar and Alfonso O Campo, but these generals
were obliged to capitulate to the lord-deputy at Kinsale and
Baltimore.
The brilliant career of Elizabeth was now drawing to its
close.  By her great temperance she had enjoyed good




536              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
nealth and spirits through a long life.  In the spring of
1602, when the duke of Nevers was entertained by her at
Richmond, she opened the ball with him  in a gaillarde,
which she danced with grace and spirit; and in the autumn
she made her annual progress, riding out to view the sports
of the field, and having dancing in her privy chamber.  But
gradually her spirits sank, and she became silent and rmel.
ancholy.  The memory of Essex, the gallant and upright,
whom she had been forced to sacrifice, augmented her dejection; and the visible decrease of her popularity in consequence of it added to her pain.  But in fact nature was
giving way and life had ceased to yield enjoyment.
Toward the end of January, (1603,) she removed on a
wet and stormy day to Richmond, though she had a cold.
She grew  worse, but she would not attend to the advice
of her physicians.  The deatlh of her relative and friend the
countess of Nottingham' soon after occurred, which afflicted her greatly.  She drooped daily; her sighs and tears
were frequent.  On the 10th of March, she fell into a stupor
and lay some time for dead. When she recovered she had
cushions brought for her to lie on; for she would not go to
bed, being persuaded that if she did she should never leave
it.  She thus continued for ten days, refusing both food and
medicine.  The prelates who were about her urged her to
provide for her spiritual safety and recommend her soul to
God.  She mildly replied, "That I have done long ago."
The lord-admiral, who had most influence over her, at length
got her to bed, partly by entreaty, partly by force.  On the
morning of the 23d, the lord-admiral, the lord-keeper, and
secretary Cecil, asked her whom she would wish to succeed;
she replied, " My seat has been the seat of kings; I will
have no rascal, but a king."  When asked to explain, she
said, " Who should that be but our cousin of Scotland?"
During the day she became speechless.  In the afternoon,
when the primate and the other prelates had left her, the
councillors returned, and Cecil asked her if she still continued
in her resolution, "whereat, suddenly heaving herself upwards
in her bed, and pulling her'arms out of bed, she held her
hands jointly over her head in form of a crown." At six in
the evening she made signs for the archbishop and her chap
* The well-known story of the ring —given by the queen to Essex,
and which he sent to her by the countess of Nottingham, who by Cecil's advice did not deliver it - rests on the authority of Aubrey and
Osborne, and is generally regarded as apocryphal.




ELIZABETH.                    537
ains.  The primate examined her of her faith; she replied
by signs; he prayed at her desire till it was late in the night.
He then retired, and at the hour of three in the morning
the queen gently yielded up her spirit.  At'ten o'clock king
James was proclaimed.
This great queen had nearly attained the age of seventy
years, during forty-five of which she had occupied the throne.
When we look back on the dangers she surmounted, on the
power and influence to which she attained both at home and
abroad, on the respect in which she was held by foreigners,
and the admiration and affection of her own subjects, we
must at once recognize the true greatness of' her character.
Elizabeth was endowed by nature with vigor of mind, prudence, sagacity, and penetration. She knew how to select
those adapted for the public service, and she steadily supported them against the arts and intrigues of their enemies.
In her deportment she was majestic, in her manners affable
and courteous, but still the sovereign,@ in her dress and style
of living splendid and magnificent.  She loved popularity,
anid omitted no honest art for gaining it.
The defects of this great princess were those of the woman.  She loved dress overmuch, she was a coquette by
nature, and delighted in the language of courtly and amorous adulation; she excessively admired beauty in the other
sex, and indulged in familiarities of act and language toward her favorites highly indecorous when judged by the
present standard. Hence her inveterate enemies, the papists,
have taken occasion to represent her as a modern Messalina.
In her temper Elizabeth was prone to anger, she often struck
those with whom she was offended, and oaths were familiar
to her lips.  She was frequently vacillating and uncertain in
her resolutions.  Toward the close of her reign her frugality
approached the bounds of parsimony.
To the unprejudiced eye which contemplates the lustre of
her regal virtues, these defects will, however, appear but as
spots on the sun. Posterity confirms, and ever will confirm,
" Her mind," says Harrington, " was ofttime like the gentle air that
cometh from the westerly point in a srnmmer's morn;'twas sweet and
refreshing to all around her.... Again, she could put forth such alterations, when obedience was lacking, as left no doubtings whose daughter she was " A little further on he says, " When she smiled it was a
pure sunshine that every one did choose to bask in if they could; but
anon came a storm from a sudden gathering of clouds, and the thundei
fell in wondrous manner on all alike."
PPP




538               HISTORY OF ENGLAND
the judgment of her contemporaries, which placed Elizabeth
in the very first rank among sovereigns.*
The court of Elizabeth was gay and splendid, and contrasted strongly with the gloom of that of the latter years of
her fanatical sister.  One historian has represented it as
little better than a Paphian temple, on the authority of one
Faunt, a rigid, querulous puritan; as if there ever was a
court which  would not appear  licentious  and dissolute
in the eyes of an austere religionist.  The fact is that the
Reformation had raised the tone of morals, and in protestant
courts actions were severely censured, which were regarded
as merely venial offences at Rome, Paris, and Madrid.  Still
the court of Elizabeth partook of the character of the times,
and it certainly could not vie in decorum and morality with
the present court of England.
The heaviest charge brought against Elizabeth and her
government is the persecution of the catholics. Lat us
calmly consider the state of the case.  During the greater
part of Elizabeth's reign, there was a pretender to the throne,
whose title the catholics in general regarded as better than
hers; conspiracies were continually fortned, against her; she
had been spiritually outlawed by the pope.  To guard against
the evils whicltmenaced the queen and the protestant religion,
severe laws were passed by the legislature, and several of
those who violated them; were executed, not on account of
their religion, but, as was constantly asserted, as traitors.
The mode of execution was that which had been in use for
centuries.  It was barbarous and cruel, no doubt;; but the
queen directed a mitigation of it, at least in London.  As to
those who suffered, many of them  appear to have been upright and conscientious men; but they knew the law, they
wilfully violated it, and they therefore had little right to
complain when the penalty was inflicted.+   We are far from
justifying severe and cruel laws, and we are as sincere advocates: for the rights of conscience as any   but we would
[ [See note to p. 451.- J. T. S.]
t " There seems to be good reason for doubting vz hether any one who
was executed might not have saved his life by explicitly denying the
pope's power to depose the queen."  (Hallam,i. 222.) [Itis difficult to
see how this lessens the iniquity of the laws. At any rate it is equally
applicable to the victims in Mary's reign. They, too, knew the law
and wilfully violated it!! The evasion of the ministers of Elizabeth
that the victims were traitors, is contemptible. -J. T. S.]




ELIZABETH.                     539
nave Elizabeth and her ministers judged by the maxims of
their age.  Toleration was then a thing unknown: individuals might have been in favor of trying it, but it would have
been quite an experiment; and we are perhaps not justified
in asserting positively that it would have been a successful
one.  The fact certainly is, that the course adopted did succeed, and that during the reign of Elizabeth: popery completely lost its ground in England *
The persecution of the puritans in this reign has not the
same' plea of self-defence in its favor; it is only an instance
of the spirit of the age.  No party in fact were more intolerant than the puritans themselves; they were the most
zealous promoters of the severe measures against the catholics.
This reign also was deformed by the horrid practice o
burning as heretics those who went further than the party
in power had chosen to go in their secession from Rome.
Four persons suffered under the writ " De comburendo hweretico."  A single voice, that of honest John Foxe, the martyrologist, was raised, but raised in vain, against depriving
men of their lives for their religious opinions.
The queen favored commerce and maritime enterprise,
being well aware of the importance of naval power for the
defence of the realm.  The trade which had been opened
with Russia in her sister's reign, when English vessels penetrated, through the Icy Sea to Archangel, was continued,
and daring traders conveyed their goods thence to the Caspian, and sold them in Persia.  A trade was also opened with
Turkey.  But the efforts of the queen for the promotion of
trade were frustrated in a great measure by the practice of
granting patents of monopoly, which she carried to a greater
extent than had been done by her predecessors.  To her
frugal temper this seemed a thrifty mode of gratifying her
courtiers, and rewarding the meritorious.  The grantees sold
their patents to companies of traders, who set on the articles
the highest prices that purchasers could pay; salt, for exr
-.ample, being raised from 15d. to 15s. a bushel. Scarcely any
article had escaped the rapacity of the courtiers;t but in
16i01, when the matter had caused a great ferment in the
* See note, p. 501.- J. T. S.]
i When the list was read in the house in 1601, a member cried, " Is
not bread in the number? "Bread!" cried the rest in amaze.' NMay,"
said he, " if no remedy is found for this, bread will be there before the
next parliament."




540             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
commons, the prudent queen promised that she' ould revoke
all such patents as should be proved injurious.
The reign of Elizabeth was also a period of literary glory.
Hitherto the name of Chaucer almost alone could be placed
on the rolls of genius; but now a noble band of poets appeared, who were to set England on a line with Greece and
Italy. To whom are unknown the undying names of Shakspeare and Spenser, the chiefs of this poetic choir?  In
prose, Hooker first gave proof of the depth and eloquence,
the dignity and harmony, of which the English language is
capable of being the vehicle.
Newspapers, now of such importance, first appeared in
England during the reign of Elizabeth. In the year of the
Armada a kind of gazette, named the Mercury, was established.
The period during which the throne of England was occupied by the house of Tudor was one of transition in poli.
tics and religion. The crown at this time acquired a degree
of strength and influence unknown to the Plantagenets, but
the power which was to control it was secretly growing up.
This new power was the com-nmons; for those who in reality
had withstood the prerogative of the Edwards and the Henries were the ancient nobility, the feudal aristocracy, beneath
whose protection the house of commons acted against the
crown.  But the war of the Roses, and various natural and
political causes, had thinned the ranks and broken the power
of the feudal baronage, and the commons without leaders or
support became timid and submissive.  A new nobility, indebted to royal favor for its honors and to royal munificence
or profusion for its wealth, sprang up.;  It was naturally
timid, subservient, and self-seeking, and we have seen on
numerous occasions how abjectly it obeyed the royal will.
Were it not for the spirit breathed by the Reformation, which
gradually infused vigor and courage into the breasts of the
commons, the sacred flame of liberty might have become
extinct. It is to the puritans we are mainly indebted for its
conservation. The growing strength of the house of com* Only a small portion of our nobility can trace its horors beyond
the time of the Tudors




ELIZA'BETH.                    541
mons may be traced through the last three reigns; it is
proved by the anxiety of the crown to obtain influence in it
by procuring seats for its minions; to effect this, numerous
boroughs were created or restored to their right of sending
members to parliament, and those of course were selected in
which the crown or its supporters would have influence.
The power of the crown to the end of this period was,
however, considerable.  Its chief instrument in the state
was the court of the Star Chamber, in the church that of
the tHigh Commission.  The former, which we have seen
employed by Henry VII. for preventing the hinderance of'
justice, gradually acquired new powers, and became coaxtensive with the ancient royal council.  Its proceedings
were summary and arbitrary; it took cognizance of a great
variety of offences, such as the making of scandalous reports
of persons in power, spreading seditious rumors, etc.  If a
jury ventured to find a verdict contrary to the wishes of the
crown, they were summoned before the court of Star Chamber, and often severely punished.  It served to keep all ranks
in their obedience to the crowni and the law, and, when we
consider that the want of a standing army made prevention
a necessary part of the duty of government, we shall perhaps find that this summary jurisdiction produced more good
than evil.
The court of High Commission was the Inquisition in
miniature; it was instituted under Elizabeth, but it had its
origin in a measure of her popish sister.  It was empowered
to inquire into and punish all breaches of the acts of supremacy, uniformity, etc.  It was chiefly directed against
the puritans, and in the hands of intolerant prelates it became
an instrument of oppression, whose severity drove them  to
a separation from the church.
The feudal rights of the crown still continued, and were
m11ade, especially by Henry VII., the means of oppression.
Those of wardship and marriage were peculiarly galling.
MAinors were actually sold like cattle to persons desirous of
turning them  and their estates to profit, and the injury
thereby done to property and to morals was excessive."
In conclusion, we must again repeat that it is to the Ref.
ormation we are chiefly indebted for our deliverance from
civil as well as ecclesiastical oppression.  It infused the
Si ee sir Thomas Smith'is  Comnmoiwealth of England, Book u1
chap v; also the old play ": The Miseries of enforced Marriage."
I iVOL. I.                 46




42               HIISTORY OF ENGLAND.
spirit of liberty into the heart of man, and gave t~Ae clourage
necessary to assert it.  Had it not been for it, England might
in her political capacity have resembled those countlries in
which it was repressed; and in her religious capacity she
might, like them, exhibit the spectacle of the lower classes,
and the female sex in general, immersed in the grossest
idolatry and superstition; while men of sense and education,
disgusted with the absurdity of the popular creed, had:flung
away all belief, and plunged into infidelity and atheism.  We
need not observe how different from this is the aspect pre
sented by protestant England




A P   1E 1N D I X
A, page 1.
TuE history of Britain under the Romans will be found in Cabar,
Suetonius, Tacitus, Dion Cassius, and the other historians of the first
five centuries of the Christian era.
For the subsequent history the following are the principal sources.
Giidas, a Briton, wrote in the sixth century. The brief notices of
Nennius, a monk of Bangor, come down to the year 625.
The ecclesiastical history of Venerable Bede relates the most import:
tant events from the landing of the Saxons in 449 to 734.
The Saxon Chronicle of the Abbey of Peterborough g 449 to 1153
extends from......................... 
William of' Malmsbury, from.....................  -  1143
Henry of Huntingdon...........................-  1154
Wallingford, abbot of St. Albans.................  --  - 1016
Ranulf Higdon of Chester.......................   -   - 1066
Matthew Paris and his continuator Rishanger.....   -   - 1273
Matthew of Westrninster.......................   -   - 1307
J. Bromlton........................   588 - 1198
R. Hoveden...................................   732 - 1202
Chronicle of Mailros...........................   735 - 1272
Henry Kni hton.........................   956 - 1399
Annals of  urton Abbey......................  1004 - 1263
Margan Abbey........................  1066 - 1322
---- -     -Waverley Abbey......................  -    - 1291
William of Newbury...........................          - 1197
Walter Hemingford.........................-  - 1300
T. Wilkes................................  --       1304
Gervasius.....-...................              1122 - 1199
Raduif de Diceto............................ 1148 - 1199
Trivet..............................  1136 - 1307
WalinDgham...................................  1273 - 1422
WhethamLstede.............................. 1441 - 1461
The histories of the abbeys of Croyland, Ely, and Ramsey also furrnislh
many circumstances.  That of' Croyland by Ingulf and his continuator:
extends from 626 to 1486; that of' Ely from Edgar to the Conquest;
and that of Ramsey from Athelstan to the Conquest.
The rime-chronicle of Robert of Gloucester extends from the earliest
times to the end of Henry III.; that of Peter Langtoft to the end of
Edward I.; and that of Harding to the accession of Edward IV.
The prose chronicle of Fabyan ends with Henry VIII.; Halle s extends from the accession of Henry IV. to the end of Henry  VIII.;
Grafton's from the accession of Richard I. to that of Elizabeth; Holino-shed, Speed, and Stow narrate the events from the earliest times to
156,:L605, and 1631.
To these are to be added More's and Buck's histories of Edward V




544                         APPENDIX.
anld Richard III.; Bacon's of Henry VII.; Herbert's of Henry VIII.
Hayward's of Edward VI.; Godwin's of Mary; and Camden's of Eliz.
abeth, (all in Kennet's History of England) and the original papers in
Burnet, Haynes, Murdin, and other collections.
b, page 3.
The following were the principal British tribes or nations:-1
Damnonii, (Cornwall and Devon.) 2. Durotriges, (Dorset.) 3. Bel
gme, (Somerset, Wilts, Hants, Wight.)  4. Atrebatii, (Berks.)  5. Reg
ni, (Surrey, Sussex.) 6. Cantii, (Kent.) 7. Dobuni, (Oxford, Glou.
cester.)  8. Cattieuchlani, (Beds, Bucks, Herts.)  9. Trinobantes, (Es.
sex, Middlesex.) 10. Iceni, (Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon.)
11. Coritani, (Northampton, Leicester, Rutland, Lincoln, Nottinglham,
Derby.)  12. Cornavii, (Warwick, Worcester, Stafford, Salop, Cheshlire.)  13. Silures, (South Wales.)  14. Dimitne, (Caermarthen, Car.
digan, Pembroke.)  15. Ordovices, (North Wales.)  16. Brigantes,
(from the Humber to the Tees.)  17. Ottaduni, (thence to the Tyne.)
C, page 10.
The names of most places show their Saxon origin. Thus, the Saxon
t)yipit, buph, (town,) exhibits itself' in bur, bury, borough, brough, as,
Burton, Sunbury, Broughamn; ]-teb (place) in stead, sted, as, Hampstead; hp.r-t (forest) in hurst, as, Penshurst; lea~ (lea, ylain) in lay,
ley, lea, leigh, as, Layton, Bexley, and a number of proper names, as,
Stanley, Ashley, Townley, &c.; ]-top, (abode,) stow, sto, as, Godstow;
polip (villatg'e) in thorp, throp, as, Althorp; peoJpi (town on a riser) in
worth, as, Tamworth, Isleworth; ham  (horne, dwelling) in ham, as,
Witham, Petersham, Grantham; 175, eU'e (island) in ea, ey, as, Eaton,
Thorney;  unn (town) in ton, as, Whitton, Kingston; ytoc (pltce) in
stock, stoke, as, Woodstock, Bcasingstoke; ceap (tr'affic) in chepe, chip,
chipping, as, Chipstead, Chipping Ongar, East Cheap. The Danish
bhye (town) may'be found in Derby, Whitby, and many villages on the
eastern coast; the Roman castrum  in cester, chester, Winchester
vicus in wick, Norwich; and stratum, in street, Stratford, &c.
AD, page 25.
As this is related by Asser, the friend and biographer of Alfred, its
truth cannot well be questioned.  Yet it is not without its difficulties
as will thlus appear. In 855, when Alfred was but six years old, his
father married the French princess Judith; we are therefore to suppose that the queen, Alfred's mother, was then dead. In 857 Ethelbald
mla.rried his father's widow; he was succeeded in 860 by his brother
Ethelbert, who must have been then grown up. In 861, therefore,
when Alfred was twelve years old, (and Asser says it was when he was
twelve or more,) there only remained Ethered and himself to contend
for the book, and where was their mother then?
E, page 52.
The number of William's ships was 3000, according to Gemmeticen
sis, Wace in his Roman de Rou says he had heard of that number
but that; his father had told him  there were only 696. The Chronique
de Normandie says that some said there were 907 ships besides tht
small craft.




APPENDIX.                         545
G. s/icta vensis, William's chaplain, estimates the army at sixty thousand men, of which fifty thousand were milites, that is, men-at-arms or
knights and squires. The numbers of' knights in the roll of Battle
Abbey, however, is but four hundred, and Sismondi (Hist. des Franqois,
iv. 352) says that if we calculate according to the military usages of
the age, and compare William's armament with that of the fourth Cru
sade, of which alone we have an exact enumeration of the component
parts, the result will be as follows: - Each of the four hundred knights
had ten suivans d'armes, which gives four thousand four hundred
horsemen; each suivant had three archers or crossbow-men, making
twelve thousand, and, adding the crews, the whole might amount to
twenty or twenty-five thousand men.
It nlay further elucidate this to observe, that when Robert of Gloucester was coming to the aid of the empress Matilda, he embarked, according to Malmsbury, about three hundred milites in 52 ships. See
also above, p. 245, for the proportion between the ships and troops of
Henry V.
F, page 54.
We have in the text endeavored to reconcile the accounts of l"'ctavensis and Malmsbury. The former says that William buried Harold
on the strand, the latter that he gave the body to his mother, by whom
it was interred at Waltham.
According to the annals of Waltham, two of the brethren, Osgood
and Ailric, followed Harold to Senlac. After the battle they craved
permission of the victor to search for the body of their benefactor.
Leave was granted, but they were unable to recognize it among the
piles of the slain. They then went and fetched Harold's mistress Editha, called the Swan's Neck for her beauty; and her affectionate eye
quickly discerned his mangled remains, which they forthwith conveyed
to Waltham.
Others said that Harold was conveyed alive to Dover, that he recovered of his wounds, visited several parts of the Continent and the
Holy Land, and ended his days as an anchorite in a cell' near the abbey of St. John at Chester. Finally, Knighton says that William gave
Harold's body to his mother without any ransom, that he was not quite
dead, and that he lived for nine months.
H, page 120.
Bromton, who loved a romantic tale, is the earliest author who notices the story of Fair Rosamond. His words are these:
"Regina sua Elianora jamdudum incarcerate, factusest adulter ma
nifestus palam  et imnpudice, puellam  retinens Rosamundam. Huic
nempe puelle spectatissime fecerat rex apud Wodestoke mirabilis architecturtn cameram operi Dedalino similem, ne forsan a regina facile
deprehenderetur. Sed illa citoe obiit, et apud Godestowe juxta Oxoniaml
in capitulo monialium in tumba decenti est sepullta, ubi talis suprascripl
tio invenitur:
Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi non Rosa r inda;
Non redolet sed olet quae redolere solet."
e Giraldus Cambrensis, Itin. Wallice. Harleian MS. 3779. Turner, As
glo-Saxons, ii. 419, 6th edit.
46*                               QQQ




546                       APPENDIX
The story, like most of the kind, gained inl time; for Fabyan, the
next who notices it, says the king " had made -her a.house of a wonder.
working, so -that. no creature, mani nor woman, might win [get] to her,
but if he were instruct, by the king or.- such as were right secret with
him, touching the matter. But the common fame telleth, that lastly
the queen came to her by a clew of thread or silk, and dealt with her
in such manner that she lived not long. after" - Hollingshed adds that
the king. happened. to draw the clew of silk with his foot fromn her
chamber to the entrance. Speed says, that as Rosanmond was sitting
out in the air, she was startled at the sight of those' who were in quest
of her; she ran in, but dropped her clew; and the: end caught in her
foot and thus unwound. In the ballad the knight who had charge of
her is called out; he -is then slain,and his clew seized; the queen goes
in and forces Rosamond to drain a bowl of poison.
The progress of the tale- is this. Henry kept Rosamond privately,
hence the notion of a labyrinth; this-suggested the clew -of Ariadne;
then some mode was to be devised by which the queen obtained it. On
Rosamond's tomb among other ornaments was the figure of a cup, and
hence the poisoning was added.
There is no doubt of Longsword's being the son of Henry and Rosamond  The earl of Salisbury died in 1196,; and after his death king
Richard gave the heiress Ela to his natural brother William, who was
then probably about five-and-twenty. Longsword died in 1226 after
his return from: Guienne, whither he had accompanied the king's
(Henry III.) younver brother Richard. As from the- narrative in Paris
he appears to have been in full vigor at that time, and his death was
ascribed to poison, he was-probably not more -than fifty-five.
We have gone into these details, because itis said that Geoffrey, archbishop of York, who was born in 1159, was Henry's.young'est child by
Rosamllnd,  This throws back the amour with Rosamond to the beginning of his reign, and makes Longsword nearly seventy when he died
We may further observe that according to Dugdale, Rosamond's eldest
brother Walter died in 7 Henry III. (1422,) that is, when Geoffrey was
sixty-three. It is therefore probable that Geoffrey: was not his nephew.
The common derivation of Rosamond, quasi Rosa Mundi, is wrong.
It is an ancient Teutonic name, Rosmund, i. e. Rose-moutih, like Wahr
mund, (Pharamond,) True-mouth.
1, page-126.
It is quite plain that the English were never ignorant of the -place of
their king's captivity. Yet in the following century a pleasing legend
was devised, how the faithful minstrel Blondel went for years from castle to castle in Germany to.try to discover in which his royal -patron
lay. By playing a ballad, the joint composition of himself and the
king, he at length found him; fobr at one fortress, when Blondel had
sung the first part, the king, who. was there a captive, took it up and
concluded it. Blondel then hastened to England, and gave, the first.ertain news of the abode of Richard. See The Crusaders, vol. ii.
K, page 178.
We must confess that we have doubts whether Wallace was the
hero his partial countrymen make him.
The only contemporary writer is the riming chronicler.Langtoft.  He
thus introduces Wallace:




APPENDIX.                         547
"Nowe Eduard is oute the barons be not trewe,
The suffred, as it sais, the Scottis oft to rise
With William the Walais, ther. hede and ther justise,
Thrugh fals concelement William did his wille,
Our castels has he brent, our men slayn fulle ille."
Langtoft further says that in 1304 Wallace offered to make peace
with the king provided he was secured in a good estate. Edward in a
rage devoted to the Fiend him and all who should sustain him, and set
a reward of three hundred marks on his bead. Wallace was betrayed
some time after by his man Jack Schort (whose brother he had slain) to
sir John Monteith, who took him one night "'his leman hi."  At London he was drawn, hanged, embowelled while still alive, and quartered;
just, we may add, as David prince of' Wales had been, and as was the
barbarous usage of the age toward all who were executed as traitors.
Langtoft being his authority, one is surprised to read in Tytler (Hist.
of Scot. i.) that" Wallace was betrayed and taken by sir John Monteith."  To whom did he betray him? Again, he says, " The circumstances of refined cruelty and torment which.attended his execution
reflect an indelible stain on the character of Edward, and, were they
not stated by the English -historians themselves, could scarcely be credited."  Why not credited? Edward looked on Wallace as a rebel and
murderer, and punished him in the usual manner.
Hemningford commences his account of:Wallace thus: " Erat quidam
latro publiceus Willelmhnus Walays nonine."  Trivet's account of him is
to the same effect. Walsingham says, " Hic, ex infima gente procreatis, processu temporis factus est vir sagittarius, illius artis peritia qunritans victum suurn."
The rimling chronicler Hardyng gives a peculiar account of the capture of Wallace. He says that Robert Umfreville earl of Angus
defeated in a battle in Argyle Wailace and his brother John, and
brought them prisoners to London, where they were hanged as traitors
Such are the English accounts of Wallace. The Scottish historian
Fordun, whose chronicle ends in 1385, (eighty years after Wallace,)
introduces him thus: " Eodem anno (1296) Willelmus Walace quasi
de latibulo caput levavit et vicecomitem de Lanark, Anglicum virum
strsnuum et potentem in villa de Lanark, interfecit."  He says that' allace was of a good family.   Wintoun, a later writer than Fordun,
(his chronicle ends in 1408,) gives a curious dialogue on this occasion
between Wallace and the viscount.
In the later narratives of Blind Harry, Hector Boece and Buchanan
the deeds of Wallace are expanded and embellished in the usual Snan
ner.
On the whole we shall perhaps have the most exact idea of Wallace
if we compare him with the partisans or guerillas of Spain. The following passage of Mackintosh (i. 262) exalts him, we think, far too
much:-" H-lis name stands brightly forward among the foremost of
mern, with Vasa, with the two Williams of Orange, with Washington,
with Kosciusko, with his own more fortunate but less pure successor
Robert Bruce. His spirit survived him in Scotland. The nation,
shaken to its' deepest foundations by a hero who came into contact with
them-, and who conquered by them alone, retained the impulse which
his mielhty arm had communicated."




548                      APPENDIX
L, page 178.
According to Fordun and W lltoun, Bruce and Comyn had previously agreed on insurrection. Bruce, being summoned to the court of
England, was in London when Comyn wrote secretly to Edward givineg him information of the plot. Edward charged Bruce with it; he
dtnied it; the king appeared satisfied, but he formed a secret deterrmination to put him to death. That very night, when Bruce was at
supper, his friend the earl of Gloucester (Gloverniae) sent his chamberiain to him with twelve pennies and a pair of spurs; the money, he
was told, was in payment of' what he had lent the earl the day before.
Bruce understood the enigmatic warning; he lost no time in making his
escape to Scotland. On the borders he met a man whose appearance
was suspicious; he slew him, and found on him letters from Comyn to
Edward, and he now fully resolved to punish him for his treachery.
Of this journey to Scotland, we may observe, Langtoft and Heming
ibrd say not a word. The tale gradually received additions; the pen
vies become crowns of gold; Bruce has a groom; there is a fall of
Snow; the horses are shod with the shoes reversed. Thus was formed
the narrative we may read in Buchanan, and from him in Hume.
M, page 192.
"According to the judgment, of the house of peers in 1330, Mortiner commanded, (he confessed it before his death, Rot. Par. ii. 62,)
Gournay and Ogle perpetrated the murder. Mortimer suffered death;
the other two had fled out of the kingdom; but a reward of 1001. was
offered for the apprehension, or of 100 marks for the head, of Gournay;
tnd another reward of 100 marks for the apprehension, and of 401. for the
head, of Ogle, (Rot. Par. ii. 54.) What became of Ogle I know not;
Gournay fled into Spain, and was apprehended by the magistrates of
Burgos. At the request of the king of England he was examined by
them in the presence of an English envoy. What disclosures he made
were kept secret, but we may suppose that they implicated persons of
high rank, as the messengers who had him in charge received orders
to behead him at sea on his way to England, (Rymer, iv. 488-491.)"
-Lingard.
N, page 213.
Occasional barbarity was not incompatible with the virtues of chivalry, as the following incident will show. When the Black Prince heard
of the revolt of the city of Limoges, " then," says Froissart, "he sware
by his father's soule, whereby he was never forsworne, that lie wolde
gette it agayne, and that he wolde make the traytours derely abye their
falsnesse." The city was taken by mine, and the prince issued orders
to give no quarter. "It was great pytie," says the chronicler. " to se
the men, women and chyldren that kneeled downe on their knees before the prince for mercy; but he was so enflamed with yre that he
toke no hede to theym, so that none was herde, but all putte to dethe
as they were mette withal, and suche as were nothing culpable. There
was no pytie taken of the poore people who wrought never no maner
of treason, yet they bought it deiarerr than the great personages suche
as had done the yvell and trespace. There was not so harde a hert
within the cytie of Lymoges and yf he had any remembraunce of God
iut that wepte pyteously for the great mischefb that they sawe before




APPENDIX.                       -549
their eyen; for mo than three thousand men, women and chvldren
were slayne and beheeded that day: God have mercy on their soules!
for I trowe they were martyrs.'
O, page 218.'rhe leaders of the insurgents adopted the practice usual in such
cases of giving themselves fictitious names. Such were Jack Straw,
Jack Mylner, (Miller,) Jack Carter, Jack Trueman, &c., under which
names they put forth addresses such as the following:
"Jakke Mylner asket help to turne his mylne aright. He hath
grounden smal smal; the king's sone of heven he seal pay for alle.
Loke thy mylne go aryght with the foure sayles and the post stand in
steadfastnesse. With ryght and with myght, with skyl and with wylle,
let myght help ryght, and skyl go before wylle and ryght before myght,
then goth oure mylne aryght. And if myght go before ryght, and
wylle before skylle, then is our mylne mys a dyght."
The following is one of Ball's addresses:
"C John Balle Seynte Marye prist greteth wele alle maner men, and
byddes hem in the name of the Trinite, Fadur and Sone and Holy
Gost, stond manlycke togedyr in trewthe, and helpeth trewthe and
trewt)}e schal helpe yowe. Now regneth pride in pris, and covetise is
holde ways; and lecherye with outen shame, and glotonye with outen
blame, Envye regneth with tresone, and slouthe is take in grete segone. God do bote, for now is tyme. Amen."
P, page 239.
Mr. Tytler (History of Scotland, iii. Appendix) has revived an old
story, related by Fordun and Wintoun, of Richard lI. having escaped
from  prison and being maintained for twenty years at the court of
Scotlmnd. There is no doubt that a person who pretended to be, or rather
was made to personate, that monarch, was countenanced there, (as
Warbeck was afterwards,) and probably with a view to annoy Henry,
whose seizure of Prince James may perhaps thus be best explained.
Sir James Mackintosh (History of England, i. 381) has briefly, but
we think completely, confuted Mr. Tytler..
Q,  page 293.
It is well known that the truth of this account of the murder of' the
incen has been questioned by Back, Carte, Walpole, and Laing.
Their arguments have, we thinK, been amply confuted by Hume and
Lingard. We will here notice the principal ones, and the replies to
them; first stating the evidence for the murder.
The historian of Croyland, who wrote in 1486, the year after Rich%rd's death, says that when Buckingham and thle others had entered
into a confederacy to release the princes, " vulgatum est dictos Ed
wardi filios, quo genere violenti interitus ignoratur, decessisse in fata.
He also says that their cause had been avenged in the battle of Bosworth, and that Richard, not content with obtaining his brother's treas
ures, destroyed his offspring, (oppressit proles.) This writer could not
then have doubted of the murder. Rouse, who died in 1491, says that
Richard imprisoned Edward and his brother closely, and within little
more than two months killed them, but so secretly that "post paucis
simis notum fuit qua morte martyrizati sunt." Andr6e, the historig




550                        AP-RENDIX.
rapher of Henry VII., says," ferro fbriri jussit."  More, in 1513, gavea
the narrative in the text fiom the confession of the assassins.
Buckingham and his friends must have been certain of the death of
the princes, or they would never have offered the crown to Henry on
condition of his marrying Elizabeth; and what reason could Richard
himself have for wishing to marry her' if she were not now the representative of her father?
i Inthe year 1674a chest, containing bones answering in size toithose
of the two princes, was found by the workmen who w-ere;taking aw.ay
the staircase leading from the king's lodging to the Tower chapel. It
was ten.feet under ground.
Against all this it is alleged that for many years after it was doubted
ifthey were dead.' "Some remain yet in doubt," says More, "wheth
er they were in Richard's days destroyed or not.": In vulous; fama:
valeret," says Polydore Virgil, "filios Edwardi regis aliquo:terrarum
secrete migrasse atque ibi superstites esse."  Bacon also mentions the
"rumors and whisperings " of one of them at least being alive. The
wonder, however, to any one versed in history, and who recollects the
stories of Richard 1I., of Don Sebastian, and others, would be if such
reports did net prevail.
Walpole endeavors to show &om the rolls of parliament that Edward'
V. was living in 1484, and that therefore the tale of his being put.to
death during Richard's progress in 1483 cannot be true; but Lingard
observes, that what he quotes is from the petition presented at Baynard's
castle, and only prove., what was never doubted, that Edward was
then alive.
But the grand argument is this. There are in Rymer two instru
ments dated August 31, "teste rege apud Wesmonasterium."  Richard-theref'ore was in London on that day, and we know that he was
crowned at. York on September 8th.; there was no time then for the
passage of all the messengers to and from London, and the whole story
in the text is a fiction.  Lingard, however, shows that this only:proves
that the chancellor was at Westminster. He gives as instances; l&iehaida I. was at B'ristol April 27, 1399, of,which, day we have a writ teste'rege.at Bristol,.and ano.ther teste rege at Westminster; and there fare
thirty-thiree wri't's'of Edward V teste' rege at Westminster' April 23d,
yet vwe' now that he did not reach London till May 4th,'and did not
go to Westminster at all.
R, page 296.
We were not quite correct in using the words "anextant letter." The
original letter'fiom  Elizabeth to the duke of' Norfolk we believe no0
longer. exists, but Buck, who' saw it in the cabinet of the earl of Aru'X
del, states that i i't she desired the duke " to be a mediator fQor her.
to thie king in,the behal' orf the marriage propounded between them,
who was her only joy and maker in this world, and that she was his i'n
heart and,thought, withal insiinuating, that the better part of February
was past, and that she feared the,queen would never die."
S', page 316.
The advocates of Perkin Warbeck say that-l. He was acknowl
edged by the kings of France and Scotland, and the duchess of Bur
gundy; 2. Hlenry never confronted him with'the'queen, her mother
and siste:rs; 3. His accent was perfectly Englisl,; 4. He.was -like the




APPENDIX.                         551
duke of York, 5. Henry never inquired into the circumstances of the
murder of the princes.
To all this it is replied that -1. The king of France acted from political motives; so most probably did tLe'king of Scotland; the object of the
duchess of Burgundy, who had already favored Simnel, probably was
to overthrow Henry and establish the claims of her nephew Warwick.
2. See above, p. 316. The royal ladies had abundant opportunities of
seeing him. 3 and 4 are mere assertions, without any proofs being offered. 5. It is probable that Henry considered the fact of the death of
the princes too well established to require any proof; or himself, as a
Lancastrian, not called on to punish the domestic crimes of the house
of York.
Findlly, few but those who were outlaws adhered to Warbeck, and
no gentleman ever joined him in his various invasions of England.
That Henry would never, have left him at liberty if he thought him in
the slightest degree dangerous, is proved by his very different treatment
of the earl of Warwick.
T, page 360.
The words in the text respecting More's persecution of the reformers
are perhaps too strong. Of his superstition the following are proofs:
Erasmus notices his tendency that way. He always wore a hair
shirt next his skin, and " he used sometimes," says Roper, i" to punish
his body with whips, the cords knotted."  When he was chancellor,
the duke of Norfolk coming one day to dine with him at Chelsea
found him at church- with a surplice on him, singing in the quire.
" God's body! God's body! my lord chancellor," cried the duke, %' a
parish clerk, a parish clerk -you dis honor the king and his office."
"'Nay," replied he, 6 your Grace may not think that the king your
master and mine will with me, for serving of God his master, be offended, or thereby count his office dishonored."  It was a matter of the
greatest comfbrt that he was to die on the eve of St. Thomas k Becket,
his patron saint. " I comber you good Margaret much," writes he to
his daughter,:" but I would be sorry if it should be any longer than tomorrow. For it is St. Thomas even' and the Utas (Octave) of St.
Peter; and therefore tomorrow long I go to God. It were a day very
meet and convenient for me."
U, page 366.
Sanders's account of Anne Boleyn is an admirable specimen of popish
mendacity. He says she:was the daughter of lady Boleyn by Henry
VIII. during her husband's absence on an embassy in France, whither
Henry had sent him with this design.*  While Henry was carrying on
his adulterous intercourse with lady Boleyn, he cast an eye of' lust on
her elder daughter Mary, whom on the return of sir T. Boleyn he took
to court and made his mistress.t Sir Francis Biian, a relation of the
Boleyns, on being asked by Henry his opinion of' such a connection.
X Sanders relates this on the authority of Mr. Justice Rastall, the nephew
of sir T. More. It suffices for its confutation to observe that Anne was born in
1507, before Henry had completed his sixteenth year, and two years before he
*ame to the throne.
t " That her elder sister, and even her mother, preceded her in the favor
of her royal lover, are assertions made by her lenemies with a boldness equal
to the total absence of every proof of their truth." - Mackintosh, ii. 150.




552                       APPEINDIX.
said it was only like eating the hen first and then the chicken. The
king laughed, and said to him he was truly his Vicar of Hell, a title
Brian had long had for his impiety.,As for Anne, she was, he says, no
great beauty, as she had a projecting tooth, a sallow complexion, as if she
had the jaundice, a kind of wen under her chin, and a sixth finger on
her right hand. At fifteen years of age she intrigued with the butler and
chaplain. She was then sent to France to be educated, at the king's
expense, and soon after she went to the French court- where she led so
profligate a life that she was called the English Hackney and the
Royal Mule. On her return to England, when she became the object
of the king's affection, she took example by the fate of her mother and
sister, and affected the most rigid chastity. In vain did sir T. Boleyn
remind Henry that she was his own daughter, in vain did sir T. Wyat
declare before the parliament that he himself was a favored lover, and
offered to give the most convincing proofs of her infamy: the king was
not to be diverted from his intention of marrying her. She afterwards
attempted to poison bishop Fisher. Finally, when she despaired of
having a son by the king, and at the same time was resolved to be the
mother of a king, she committed incest with her own brother, and then
adultery with Norris and the others
Turn we now to cardinal Pole: he says Anne herself first suggested
the idea of a divorce. " Illa ipsa," writes he to Henry, " sacerdotes
suos, graves theologos, quasi pignora prompte  voluntatis misit, qui non
modo tibi licere affirmarent uxorem dimittere, sed graviter etiam peccare dicerent quod punctum ullum temporis eam  retineres, ac nisi continuo repudiares gavissimam Dei offensionem denuntiarent. Hic primus totius fabulae exorsus fuit." This account is quite irreconcilable
with all the others, and it only proves (what every one who reads his
writings impartially will preceive) that Pole was a weak, credulous,
passionate man. Unlike Sanders and others, he was honest, and when
he says he saw or heard a thing we may believe that he did; but his
mere opinion or assertion is no proof of its truth. What Lingard says
on this occasion, that he " would hardly venture to assert what, if it
were not true, Henry must have known to be fa.se," only proves thal.
Cole believed the storv himself.
-AND OF VOLUM1    I








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THE ILLUSTRATED
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
BY
THOMAS KEIGHTLEY.
REVISED AND EDITED,
WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS,
BY
JOSHUA TOULMIN SMITH,
AUT)ERi OF'"6OOWPAATIVE VIEW OXO ANCIENT HISTORY," "HNORBHMEN IN
NEW ENGLAND, " &C,
TWO VOLUMES. IN ONE.
VOL IL.
NEW YORK:
THE WORLD PUBLISHING HOUSE,
139 EIGHTH STREET.
1876.








AUTHOR'S PREFACE
TO  THE  S ECOND  V OLUME.
THE  Roman lyric poet, when addressing his friend who was
engaged in a work on the Civil War of Rome, says to lim,
Periculoswa plenum opus alew
Tractas. et incedis per ignes
Suppositos cineri doloso.
The same may be said to him who undertakes to relate the Civil
War of England; for though nearly two centuries have elapsed,
the passions and parties to which it gave birth still exist. There
are those, of whose political creed it is an article that Charles 1.
was without blemish j there are others, in whose eyes Pym and
HIampden are political saints. To neither of these parties do 1
belong; my experience has taught me that it is not in history
that we are to look for faultle.ss characters; that uncontrolled
power is sure to be abused; that a nation mrust have real grievances to complain of when it opposes its government; and that
popular assemblies are as tyrannic, and can as little brook opposition, as any single despot. In that memorable contest, 1
have therefore found much to blame on both sides, and I have
never hesitated to condemn what I did not approve. The same
is the case in the subsequent part; and if my language should at
any time appear too strong, I trust it will be ascribed solely to
my hatred of injustice and oppression. In all parts of any history,
I claim not to be judged of by isolated passages.
I commit my brief history of the house of Stuart to the world,
with little fears as to the result. To satisfy the zealots on either
side, I know to be impossible without an abandonment of truth;
but there are those who view the British constitution as progressive, and as brought to its present state through much suffering
and arduous struggles, who regret neither the despotism of the
crown nor that of the Long Parliament, and who are content




IV      AUTHOR S PREFACE TO VOLUME SECOND.
calmly to trace the virtues, the faults, the errors, the passions,
even the vices, of our ancestors, and to mark how, under Providence, they have cooperated fbr final good. It is of such that I
seek the approbation; and, sanctioned by it, I trust that my work
will prove efficacious in preserving an important portion of the
British youth from political error, and inspiring them with a love
for the only well-poised constitution that the world has ever
seen.
My history of the house of Brunswick, it will be seen, is little
more than a sketch. I always intended it should be such, but I
had reckoned on more space fbr it. As it chiefly consists of'
foreign wars and parliamentary debates, which to interest should
be given in long detail, I do niot regret having sacrificed it in
some measure to the more absorbing theme of the r iuch-per.
verted amnals of the house of Stuart.
Lo  Ko




CONTENTS.
HOUSE OF STUART. —PART L
CHAPTER I.
James I. 1603-1613.
AccEsslo.N of James. —Bye- and Spanish-plots. —Hampton-Court Confer
ence. --- Gunpowder-plot. - Death of Salisbury -- of Prince Henry. -
Arabella Stuart...............................p 1 —20
CHAPTER  II.
James I. (continued.)  1613-1625.
Somerset and Lady Essex. - Sir Walter Raleigh. - The Elector Palatine. 
Fall of Bacon.-The Spanish Match.-Prince of Wales in Spain.Breach with the Court of Spain. - Death and Character of James. - Affairs
of Ireland -- of' Scotland. - State of Religion. - Book of Sports. p. 21 —40
CHAPTER  III.
C'sarles I. 1625-1629.
Kin's Marriage. - First Parliament. - Expedition to Cadiz. - Impeachment
of Buckingham. - Arbitrary Taxation. - War with France. - Expedition
to Rochelle. - Petition of Right. - Murder of Buckingham. - Sir Thomas
Wentworth - Third Parliament. - Harsh Treatment of Sir John Eliot.
p. 41-56
CHAPTER  IV.
Charles L (continued.) 1629-1640.'he Cabinet. - Laud and the Church. - Persecution of Leighton, Prynne, ar.d
others. - Mode of raising a Revenue. - Ship Monley. -John Hampden. -
Settlement of New England. - Affairs of Scotland. - Attempt to introduce
a Liturgy. - The Covenant. — The E tiscopal War. - The Short Parliament. - Scots enter England. - Despotism of Charles..........  57-75
CHAPTER V.
Charles I. (continued.)  1640-1641.
The Long Parliament. - Impeachment and Triai of Strafford. - Army-plot
- Execution of' Strafford. - Arts of the Popular Leaders......p.  75 —92
CHAPTER  VI.
Charles I. (continued.) 1641-1642.
Change of Ministry. - Army-petition. - Attacks on the Church. - Charles in -
Scotland. -The Incident. - The Irish Rebellion and Massacre.- Return
of the King.- The Remonstrance. - Proceedings of the Parliament. -
The Five Members. - Petitions to Parliament. - King retires to the North.
— Lncroachments of the Commons. - The Militia..............'p. 92-11
CHAPTER  VTI.
h~arles 1. (continued.)  1642-1644.
Gates of Hull shut against Charles. - Manifestoes on both sides. - Raising of
Money and Troops. - Royal Standard raised at Nottingham. —Battle of
Ed ehill. - Affair at Brelltford. - Treaty at Oxford. - Arrival of the Queen.
-Waller's Plot. —Battles of Lansdown and Roundway-down. — Death
and Character of Hampden. -Surrender of Bristol.- Siege of Gloucester.
— Battle of Newb,:y. —Ill-conduct of the Kin:. —Cessation with the




Vl                           CONTENTS.
Irish Rebels. —  Death and Character of Pym. —Oxford Parliament. -
Progress of the War. - Battle of Cropredy-bridge. - Battle of Marston
moor.p.................. 0........... O*e.p. 117 —140
CHAPTERt VIII.
Charles I. (continued.)  1645-1647.
Self-denying Ordinance and New Model. — Trial and Execution o: Laud. —
Reli-ious Parties.-'reaty at Uxbridge. - Victories of 1M.ontrose. - Battle
of'aseby. - Progress and Defeat of Montrose. - Glamorgan's Mission. -
Charles's Flight to the Scots. — Negotiations. - Surrender of him to the Parlianent. -End of the War.........................p.......  140-162
CHAPTER IX.
Charles I. (continued.)  1647-1649.
l'The Parliament and Army. - Seizure of the King; — his Treaties with Cromwell and Treton. —Flight from  Hampton-court. — Change of Conduct in
Cromwell and Ireton.- Second Civil War. - Defeat of Hamilton. - Sur
render of Colchester. - Treaty at Newport. - lKing seized again by the
Armny. -Pride's Purge. - Proceedings of the Parliament. — Trial of the
King; - his Execution.- Character. - Reflections............ p. 162-192
CHAPTER X.
The Commonwealth.  1649-1653.
Comnonwealth established. - Mutinles in the Army. - Affairs of Scotland. -
FIate of' Montrose. - Charles II. in Scotland. - Affairs of Ireland. - Cromwell in Scotland. — Battle of Dunbar. - Invasion of England. - Battle of'
Worcester. - Escape of Charles. - Conquest of Ireland. - Dutch War. -
Designs of Cromwell, — he dissolves the Parliament;-its Character.
p. 192-222
CHAPTER  X1.
The Protectorate.  1653-1658.
Form of Government. - Barebone's Parliament. - CromwnAell made Protector.
- Conspiracies. - The Parliament. — Rising of Royalists. — Conquest of
Jamaica. - Conspiracy. - New Parliament — The Petition and Advice. -
The Protector's Inauguration. - Death of Blake. - A Fourth Parliament.
- Plots. - Illness and Death of the Protector;- his Character...p. 222 —~247
CHAPTER  XII.
The Commonwealth restored.  1658-1660.
The Protector's Funeral. - State of Parties. - Dissolution of Parliament, -
T'he Rump recalled. - Royalist Insurrection. - Despotism of the Officers.
— Proceedings of General Monk.- Restoration of the King... p. 247 — %t!
CHAPTER  XIII.
Charles IL. 1660-1667.
First Measures of the Crown.-Trials and Executions of the Regicides. —
Crown- and Church-lands. - Duke of York's Marriage. - Savoy Conference. - Trial and Execution of Sir Henry Vane. - Affairs of Scotland; —
of Irel.nd.- King's Marriage. - Sale of Dunkirk. - Act of Uniformity.Dttch War. - Great Plague. -Five-mile Act. —Fire of London.- End
of the Dutch War. - Fall of Clarendon................p. 261-286
CHAPTER XIV.
Charles IL. (continued.)  1668-1678.
The Cabal. - Plot of the King against the Protestant Religion.- Royal Mistresses. — Coventry Act. - Attempts of Blood. — Second Dutch War. -
Parties in Parliament. -Pensions given by France. - Marriage of the
Prince of ()range.- Parliament. - Peace of Nimeguen. - Conductof the
Country Party.....................e p. 287-313




CONTENTS                               Vi  
CHAPTER XV.
Charles IL. (continued.)  1678-L680.
jopish Plot.- Sir Edmund'ury Godfrey.-T'he Plot. —Impeachment of
Danby. - Parliament dissolved. -'Trials. - New Parliament. - Trials. -
Persecution in Scotland. - 5iurder of: Archbishop Sharp. - Battle of Bothwell-bridge. - Eflorts of Shaftesbury;  - Meal-tub Plot. - Bill of Exclusion.
-Trial and Execution-of Lord Stafobrd... p-.p.. 313-339
CHAPTER XVI.
Oxford Parliame, Charles II. (conti'iued.)  1681-1685.
Oxford Parliament, and Triumph of the Court. - Execution of Oliver Pl'lnket.
- Duke of York in Scotland. - Surrender of Charters. - Rye-house Plot.
-- Trial and Execution of Lord Russell. - Oxford'Decree. — Trial and
Execution of Algernon Sidney. — Plans of: the King;- his Death and
Character..............................:.......   339-3,56
CHAPTER XVII.
James 11.  1685-1688.
Accession of James; — he goes publicly to Mass. — Parliament. - Invasion
of Argyle; - of Monmouth; — his Execution. - Jeffireys' Campaign. -
Overthrow of the Test Act. - Attacks on the Church. - Parties at Court. -
Negotiations with the Court of Rome.-Failure of the King in making
Converts. - Attaclrs on the Universities. — State of Ireland. - Fallacious
Prospects of the King. - Prosecution of' the Seven Bishops.-Birth of the
Prince of Wales. --  nvitation to the Prince of Orange. - State of the
Continent. - Invasion of England. - Desertion of James -- his Flight -
Return to London;- second Flight. - The Convention. — Prince anR Princess of OranIge declared King and Queen. - Reflections...... p. 356-390
HOUSE OF STUART.P- PART II.
CHAPTER  I.
William III. and 3Mary II.  1689-1694.
Convention Parliament. -- Affairs' of Scotland. - Battle of Killiclsankie. -
Affairs of Ireland. —Siege of Derry. —lrish Parliament. -Battle of ~tne
Boyne. - Eng-lish Parliament. - Conspiracy. - Takiun of Athione. -- Batt!e
of Aghrim. —'Siege of Limerick. — Massacre of cGlenco. —Battie of La
Itogue. - Plots to restore James. - Death of the Queen....... 391- 4,2;,|
CHAPTER II.
Williaim I[.  1695-1701.
Proceedings in Parliament. - Assassination Plot. - Attainder of Fenwick. --
Peace of Ryswick. - Proceedings in Parliament. - Act of Settlement....Partition Treaty. - Ieath of Wiiliam III.; — his Character.... p. 413-4225
CHAPTER  111.
Jnne.  1701-1714.
Queen's Accession. - Expedition to Cadiz. - Admiral Benbow. — War of the
Succession. - Battle of Blenheim. - War in Spain. - Battle of Ramiilies;
-of Almanza;-of Oudenarde;- of' Malplaquet. -Campaign in Spain.
— Union with Scotland.- Struggles of'Parties. - Trial- of Sacheverell
- Triumph of the Tories.  Hartey stabbed' by Guiscard. - Negotiations
for Peace. - Charges a ainst M-arlbor,)ugrh.  I-eace of Utrecht. - Oxfird
and Bolingbroke. — Deat h of the Q~ueen................p. 421:1-431




02 Ui                       CONTENTS.
H DUSE OF BRUNSWICK.
CHAPTER I.
George I. 1714-1727.
New Ministry. - Impeachments. - Mar's Rebellion. - Septennial Bill. - Han
overian Junto. -- Peerage Bill. - South-sea Scheme. -Death and Character
of Marlborough. - Atterbury's Plot. - Death of the King...... p. 453-464
CHAPTER II.
George II. 1727-1760.
Character of the King.- Ministry and Parliament - Walpole's Excisescheme. — Murder of Porteous. —Death and Character of the Queen.Anson's Voyage.- Overthrow of Walpole;- his Character. - The Silesian
War. - Scottish Rebellion. - Battle of Culloden. - Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. - Contest in America. - Seven Years' War.- Admiral Byng. -
Changes of Ministry. -Victories of Boscawen and Hawke. - Taking of
Quebec. - Death of George II....................... p. 464-482
CHAPTER III.
George III. 1760-1784.
Accession of George I1I. - Resignation of Mr. Pitt.-Capture of the Ha.
vanna and Manilla. -- Peace of Fontainebleau. - Changes of Ministry. -
John Wilkes. - Public Writers. - Dispute with the American Colonies. —
Americal War. - Change of Ministry. - Rodney's Victory. - Attack on
Gibraltar.- Coalition Mlistry.........................p. 482 —505
CHAPTER IV.
George III. (continued.) 1784-1789.
East India Company. -- State of India. - First Exploits of Clive. - Capture
of Calcutta. - Successes of Clive. - Battle of Plassey. - Englisll in India.
- Vigorous Reforms of Clive; - his Death. - Warren Hastings. -- Tune
Rohillas. - Cheyte Sing. - The Begums.- Impeachment of tiastungs. —
East India Bills of Fox and Pitt. - Marquess Cornwallis..... p. 505 —.,5
CHAPTER V.
George If. (continued.)  1789-1801.
The French Revolutior,; - its Effect in England. - War with France. - Lora
Howe's Victory. - Mutiny in the Navy. — Battles of St. Vincent and Camnperdown. - State of ]Ireland. - United Irishmen. - Irish Rebellion. - Union
with Ireland. - Battle of the Nile -- of Copenhagen; -  of Aboukir. -
Peace of Amiens....................................... p  523 —544
CHAPTER  VI.
George III. (concluded.)  1802-1837.
War renewed. — Battle of Trafalgar. - Whig Ministry. - Seizure of the
Danish Fleet. - Peniinsular War. - Battle of Vimiero; -- of Cortnna;
of Talavera. - Expedition to Walcheren.- Lines of Torres Vedras. —
Battle of Albuera 3 - of Salamanca;- of Vittoria, Orthes, and Toulouse.
War with the United States. - Battle of Waterloo. - State of the Country.
-George IV. and Catholic Emancipation. -William IV.; the Reform-bill.
Victoria -Postage Reform...........................p. 544 —557
rDHRONOLOGICAL TABLE or TIHE KINGS OF ENGLAND.....P. 558




HISTORY OF ENG-LAND
HOUSE OF STUART.-PART 1.
CHAPTER I.
JAMES I.
A. D. 1603-1613.
O(N the death of queen Elizabeth, the right to the crown
of England lay between the descendants of Margaret and
Mary, daughters of Henry VII., married to the king of
Scotland, and to Brandon duke of Suffolk.  By the last
will of Henry VIII., sanctioned by an act of the legislature,
the crown was settled on the latter in case of the failure of
his own issue.  The legal right, therefore, of the house of
Suffolk was beyond dispute.  But, on the other hand, the
general feeling in favor of primogeniture and hereditary
right was too strong to be thus overcome; and the advantages to be derived from the accession of the king of Scotland
were so great, that the nation readily acquiesced in the last
disposition of the late queen, and James was proclaimed
with as little opposition as if he had been an heir-apparent.
Dnuring the latter years of queen Elizabeth, the jesuited
portion of the catholics' had been in secret correspondence
with the Iking of Spain about asserting the claim  of his
daughter, the Infanta; while others, with the sanction of
tne pope, who did not wish to aggrandize too much the
house of Austria, looked to Arabella Stuart, daughter of
* The English catholics were divided into two parties; thejesuited
as they were named, that is, the adherents of the jesuits, and the f'ol
lowers of the secular clergy.
VOL. II.     I                         A




2                 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the younger brother of James's father, alleging that her
birth within the realm  obviated, ill law, her defect of pri
mogeniture; for, though Arabella was a protestant, they
had some hopes of her conversion.  They did not, however, feel themselves strong enough to make any efforts
in her favor; and James, who had long been in secret
communication with the court of Rome and the English
catholics, had given them  reason to expect that they nmight
expect freedom from molestation, at the least. under his
dominion.
After the death of Essex, sir Robert Cecil had entered
into close and secret relations with the king of Scot!lind,
engaging to remove all difficulties in the way of his peaceful succession.  His efforts had been completely successfil;
and James, on receiving due notification of his having been
proclaimed, prepared to set forth for the Land of Promise
as he termed it to his hungry and longing favorites.  The
change was to him great indeed; he was about to pass from
a throne of most scanty revenues, and a realm where the
royal authority was continually thwarted by a turbulent,
ferocious nobility, and a morose, domineering clergy, to a
kingdom where the regal power had long been nearly uncontrolled, and where the revenues of the crown were splendid and ample.
A $:    aOn the 5th of April James departed from  Edinburgh.
When he entered England, the people every where poured
forth in joyous crowds to greet him; and thie nobles, as he
proceeded, entertained him  sunmptuously  at thleir hsouses.
But the contrast was striking between hini and their late
glorious sovereign.  When Elizabeth was on a progress,
she was splendidly attired; her people had free access to
her, and their proofs of affection were received with smiles
and with courteous expressions, blended with the majesty
and dignity inseparable from her air and mien.  They belield
their new  monarch meanly attired, for he cared not for
dress; his clothes were always of one fashion, quilted so as
to be stiletto-proof, and worn till they were in rags: his
person was ungraceful, his limbs feeble, his gait being what,
in the dialect of his country, is termed' todlin.'  His tongue
was too large for his mouth, and thus augmented the uncouthness of his broad northern accent.  Under pretext of
its enhancing the price of provisions, he forbade the resort
of people to him on his way; he allowed ladies, it is said, to
kneel to him, and spoke in language derogatory of the fair
sex in general.~ At Newark he ordered a pick-pocket, taken




JA/MYE S 1.                    3.n the fact within the range of the court, to be executed
without trial.@  In short, by the time he reached London his
popularity was well nigh gone.
On his approach to the capital, James took up his abode
for some days at Theobalds,.the residenu-e of sir Robert
Cecil; during which time he formed his council, by adding
to that of the late queen the following Scots: the duke of
Lennox, the earl of Mar, lord Hume, lord Kinloss, sir George
ITume, and sir James Elphinstone.  A  proclamation was
issued, holding forth hopes of a mitigation of the evils of
monopolies, purveyance, and protections in lawsuits.  The
king then began to shower his honors with a lavish hand on
his subjects of both nations.  Knighthood, for example, was
bestowed with such profusion, that in the course of three
months he had conferred that honor on not less than seven
hundred persons.  A pasquinade was affixed to St. Paul's,
entitled' A Help for weak Memories to retain the Names of
the Nobility.'
The principal titles conferred were as follows: Cecil was
created successively baron Essingdon, viscount Cranburne,
and earl of Salisbury; lord Buckhurst was made earl of
Dorset; and lord Pembroke's brother Philip earl of Montgomerv; the chancellor Egerton became baron of Ellesmere.
James also, to evince his gratitude to the friends of himself
and his mother, released the earl of Southampton from the
Tower, and restored him and the son of the earl of Essex to
their estates and honors.  He admitted into the council
Thomas Howard, the son, and Henry, the brother of the
late duke of Norfoik; and some time after, he created the
former earl of Suffolk, and the latter earl of Northampton.
F  He also restored the title of Arundel and Surrey to Thomas
son of Philip, the eldest son of that unhappy duke.
4i Ambassadors fromn foreign powers now arrived to congratulate James on his accession.  Henry IV. of France sent
his friend and minister, the marquess Rosni, (afterwards
duke of Sully,) to study the character of the new monarch,
and try to induce him to join in an extensive league against
the house of Austria.  Sully, on his arrival, prepared to put
himself and suite in deep mourning, out of respect to the
memory of the late queen; but he gave up the design, on
being assured by the resident ambassador that he should
* "I hear our new king," writes sir J. Harrington, " has hanged
one man before lie,s as tried; it is strangely done; now if the wind
bloreth thus, why may not a mnan be tried before he has offended?"




| 1   4          HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
thereby give mortal offence at court.* He bound James so
bent on peace with Spain, that le would only engage to aid
the Dutch underhand.  Sully's opinion of the British monarch is briefly and truly given in his expression, that he was
"the wisest fool in Christendom."
Here it may be useful to give some further account of
king James. He was now thirty-six years of age; his education had been confided to the celebrated George Buchanan;
but though the tutor had been one of the ablest assertors of
the doctrine that all power proceeds from  the people, to
whom  the holder is answerable for the exercise of it, the
pupil had adopted the most extravagant ideas of the extent
of the royal prerogative.  Flattered by courtiers, and regarding himself as the representative of the endless line of
Scottish monarchs, and of the Saxon and Norman lines in
England, he considered the people as made for kings, who
are to them  as -the shepherds to their flocks, and are accountable to God alone for their trust.  As he was learned,
and wrote with facility, he had irnbodied his notions in a
work for the use of his son, which he named the' Basilikon Doron,' or Royal Gift.  He had also published works
on demonology and other subjects but little suited to the
pen of a monarch.  He was in effect a royal pedant, (a very
rare character,) with large stores of acquired knowledge,
with shrewdness and sagacity, but wanting wisdom. By
himself and his flatterers he was styled the British Solomion.
By his union with Anne, sister of the king of Denmark,
James had now surviving two sons, Henry and Charles, and
one daughter, Elizabeth.  The queen was a woman of an intriguing, ambitious spirit, fond of amusement and gayety..
Prince Henry, as he grew up, developed a character every
way the opposite of that of his father.
James was hardly well seated on his throne, when a
double conspiracy, it was said, was formed against him.
The one was named the' Bye,' the' Surprise,' or the' Surprising Plot,' for reasons which will presently appear.  The
chief actors in it were two secular popish priests, named
WatsLon and Clarke; sir Griffin Markham, a catholic gen* James affected to speak slightingly of Elizabeth; but, as he Dffered
to appear as chief mourner at her funeral, his forbidding mourning at
court may have had its source in his aversion from gloom; he did the
same on the death of his own son.!   Henry IV., on hearing this, said he hoped he was not the son of
David the fiddler, [alluding to Rizzio, see vol. i. p. 467.]




JAMES I,. 
tlernan; George Brooke, brother of lord Cobham, (who
himself had knowledge of it,) and lord Grey of Wilton, the
head of the puritans.  Common discontent was the only
principle of union among these discordant elements. Their
plan was to surprise and seize the king, then convey him
to the Tower or to Dover Castle, and oblige him  when
there to grant a full pardon to all concerned, secure toleration to the catholic religion, and dismiss his privy council.
Watson, it was said, was then to be chancellor, Brooke
treasurer, Markham  principal secretary, and Grey marshal
and master of the horse. This last, however, finding the
catholics to predominate in their councils, mace a pretext
to withdraw himself from them; and one thing or another
causing the execution to be deferred, Cecil came to the
knowledge of it,@ and the principal conspirators were arrested.
The other plot was named the'Main,' or the'Spanish
Treason.' The chief parties in this were said to be sir
Walter Raleigh, lord Cobham, and George Brooke. Its
object, as was asserted, was to place Arabella Stuart on the
throne by the aid of a Spanish army and Spanish money.
Brooke formed the link between the Main and the Bye
When the latter plot was discovered, Raleigh was arrested
as a suspicious person; but as he was really ignorant of it,
nothing could be brought against him, and he was dismissed.
A letter, however, which he wrote to Cobham, to put him
on his guard, having been intercepted, they were both committed to the Tower.
The court being at Winchester on account of the plague,
the two priests, with Brooke, Marklham, sir Edward Parh'm,
and two other gentlemen, were arraigned there on the 15th
of November. Parham  was acquitted, all the rest were
found guilty.  On the 17th Raleigh was brought to trial.
The only evidence against him was the declaration of Cobham; for when he was on his examination, (July 20,) he
was shown a note from Raleigh to Cecil, hinting that he had
intelligence with Aremburg, the Spanish minister, and he
then declared that he would tell all the truth; and he revealed
what he said was Raleigh's project.  Against this, Raleigh
produced a letter, written subsequently by Cobham, fully
acquitting him: in reply to which, the counsel for the crown
gave in a letter written by Cobharn only the night before,
repeating his charge. The prosecution was conducted!n
* He is said to have had his information from the jesuit party
1*




6                HISTORtY OF ENGLAND.
the most virulent manner by sir Edward Coke, then attcrney.
general  Raleigh defended himself with great skill, temper,
and dignity; but the jury, (which was a packed one,) insufficient as the *evidence was, found him guilty, and'he was
sentenced to die. To use Raleigh's own words, " it was as
unjust a condemnation, without proof and testimony, as ever
nan had"  The king himself, as Raleigh afterwards asserted, prayed that he might never be tried by a Middlesex
jury. It is also said, that when Coke heard, as he was
walking in the castle garden, that the jury had found Raleigh
guilty of high treason, he said, "Surely thou art mistalen:
I myself accused him but of misprision of treason." Osbornie
says that " some of the jury were afterwards so touched inl
conscience as to demand of Raleigh pardon on their knees."
On the following Friday Cobham was tried by his peers.
He behaved itn the most abject manner possible, throwing
the whole blame on his brother and Raleigh.  He was
found guilty without hesitation.  Next day Grey was arraigned: he defended himself with great spirit and ability;
but the evidence was too strong against him, and he also was
condemned.
The two priests were hung, and embowelled in the usual
barbarous manner, before they were dead.  Brooke was
beheaded.  Markham  was led to tle scaffold. Just then
a messenger came from court, and whispered to the sheriff,
who gave the prisoner two hours' respite, and took him away.
Grey was next brought out, but the sheriff withdrew him
also, saying that Cobham  was to precede him. Cobham,
when he came on the scaffold, "did much cosen the world,"
for he showed the greatest firmness and resolution.  He
expressed his sorrow for his offence to the king, and " took
it upon the hope of his soul's resurrection, that what he
had said of Raleigh was true."  The sheriff then told him
that he must be confronted with some other persons. Grey
and Markham  were immediately led forth; and while they
gazed,on each other in amazement, the sheriff announced
to them that the king granted them  their lives. Markham
was banished the kingdom; Cobham was deprived of his
offices and estates, and he died some years after in the
utmost misery. Grey remained a prisoner in the Tower
till his death, in 1614.  Raleigh's life also was spared for
the present.
The preceding drama was a device of the king's, who
was certainly not a man of blood. It is quite evident that
one object in view was, to obtain what might be regarded




JAMES I.                       7
as Cobham's dying assertion of the guilt of Raleigh; for
(though cowards sometimes die with courage) there seems
reason to think that Cobham's magnanimity was the result
of his knowledge of his life not being in danger.  The
king was inimical to Raleigh as the enemy of' Essex, and
as one of those who had proposed that he should be permitted to mount the throne only on conditions.  Cecil was
now the enemy of Raleigh, whose talents he feared; and
on the whole, we think there is somie probability in the
hypothesis of Cobham's being merely the tool of him  and
lord Henry Howard in fixing the charge of treason on
Raleigh, who might thus be immured for the rest of his
days. It is probable that there was no intention of touching his life.  The intrigue with Spain, with which Raleigh
was charged, seems contrary to the tenor of his whole life
and actions.*
The next affair which occupied the attention of king
James was one more congenial to his disposition.  When
he was on his way to London from  Scotland, the puritan
clergy presented their Millenary petition,t praying for reformation in the church.  They desired that the sign of the
cross should not be made in baptism, or that rite be administered by women; that the ring should be disused in
marriage; confirmation be abolished; the clergy not wear
the cap and surplice, or teach the people to bow at the name
of Jesus; the service be curtailed, and the Apocrypha not
be read as part of it; church music be reformed; the Lord's
day not be profaned, or the observation of other holidays
enjoined. They also prayed that none but able men should
be ordained, and that they should be obliged to reside on
their cures; that bishops should not hold livings in commendam; that men should not be excommunicated for shmall
matters, etc.  The two universities forthwith set forth violent
declarations against the petitioners, and in favor of the present state of the church.  The king, being brought up in the
kirk of Scotland, which rejected all that was complained of,
could not with decency slight the petition.  He therefore
issued (Oct. 24) a proclamation for a conference between
the two parties to be held in his own presence at Hampton
Court.
The conference commenced on the 14th  of January,
* See Jardine's Criminal Trials, vol. i., and Cayley's and Tytler's
Lives of Sir Walter Raleiolh.
A-' called, as it was to lhave been signed by one th usand (miltel
_leroymen.




8S               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
1604. On the side of the church appeared the primlate
Whitgift, Bancroft bishop of London, seven other prelates,
a; eight dignitaries; the puritans were represented by I)r.
RL-iiolds and three others, who had been selected by the
king himself. The first day the puritans were not admitted,
and the king-made a speech, in which he expressed his joy
that " he was now come into the promised land; that he sat
among grave anid reverend men, and was not a king, as
formerly, without state, nor in a place where beardless boys
would brave him to his face." ~  He assured them that he
did not propose any innovation, but that he only desired to
remove such disorders as might appear. Hie then suggested
some slight alterations in the liturgy with respect to absolution and confirmation; he also objected to baptism by womenr
and lay persons.  The amendments which he proposed were
adopted without hesitation; and next day (16th) the puritans
were admitted, and the king required them to state their objections.  To each of their arguments James himself replied.
At length, when Reynolds made proposals for holding asserblies of the clergy, and referring cases thence to the diocesan
synod, the king lost his temper.  He told them, as was the
truth, that they were aiming at a Scots presbytery, " which,"
said he, " agrees with monarchy as well as God and the
levil.  Then Jack and Tom and Will and Dick shall meet,
and at their pleasure censure both me and my council.
Therefore, pray stay one seven years before you demand
that of me; and if then you find me pursy and fat, and my
windpipe stuffed, I will perhaps hearken to you; for let
that government be up, and I am sure I shall be kept in
breath."  Then turning to the bishops, and putting his
hand to his hat, he said, " My lords, I may thank you that
these puritans plead for my supremacy; for, if once you
are out, anrd they in place, I know what will become of my
supremacy; for, No bishop, no king."   He then asked
Reynolds if he had any thing more to say; but that divine,
finding the cause prejudged, declined to proceed.  "If this
be all your party have to say," said the king, rising, " I
will make them  conform  themselves, or else hurry them
out of this land, or do worse."  The prelates were overjoyed at the behavior of the king.  Whitgift protested
that he had spoken from  the spirit of God.'Bancroft exAlluding to the rudeness which he had experienced fromn some
hot-headed young ministers in Scotland, of which various instances
are on record.




:AMES 1.. 
claimed, "I protest my heart meiteth with joy, that Almighty God, of his singular mercy, has given us a king as,
since Christ's time, hath not been." The chancellor said
" he had never seen the king and priest so fully united in
onle person."'
Next day the puritans were called in to hear the altera.
tions made in the prayer-book.  Their eeteaties for indulgenrce to some men of tender consciences.)lly excited anger;
the-conference thus termrinated, and on tile 5th of March, a
proclamation was issued, enjoining strict conformity. A
persecution of the nonconformists speedily commenced, and
three hundred ministers were punished by suspension, deprivation, arind otlier modes.
On the 19th of March, the king met his first parliament.
In the commons the redress of grievances, chiefly those of
puleyance -and the feudal incidents, was anxiously sought,
and an equivalent in revenue was proposed to be given to
the crown.  Attempts were -also made to have the laws
mitigated in favor of the puritans, while those against the
catholics were increased in severity. The king, finding he
had little chance of obtaining a subsidy, sent to signify that
he would not require it, and parliament then separated.
In the summer a peace was concluded with the court of
Spain on sufficiently honorable terms; and James, having
no foreign affairs to disturb him, devoted himself to his
studies, his hunting, and his other amusements.  Meantime
a few fanatic catholics were busily engaged in a horrible
project for destroying himself, his family, and both houses
of parliament.  We -speak of the Gunpowder-Plot, of which
we will now narrate the details.i
When James was looking to the succession to the crown
of England, he naturally sought to engage all parties in his
interest. The catholics were still numerous and wealthy,
and it is not to be doubted that he held out to them hopes
of a toleration.  They were therefore zealous in his favor,
and: on his part lie ceased for two years to levy the fines for
recusancy.  He, h(wever, had little real liking -for -their
religion, and he mote than once publicly declared his intention of treading in the footprints of Elizabeth; moreover,
his -Scottish favorites, having in many cases expended their
* In -our ears this- sounds as monstrous and almost impious flattery.
Such it would be at the present day, no doubt; but exaggerated ex..pressions of praise or blame were the style of that age.
f See the excellent account of it which forms the second volume of
Jardine's Criminal Trials.
B




10              HIISTORY OF ENGLAND.
small patr monies, were craving for supplies; he therefore
put the law against recusancy again in force, and assigned
these persons pensions off the lands and properties of the
catholics, which of course were levied with insolence and
severity.  This, and the enactment of new severities against
their religion in the late parliament, convinced the catholics
that they had little favor to expect.  They were irritated, no
doubt, but they had no thoughts of seeking redress by force,
being averse from civil conflicts or aware of their inferiority
in strength.
There were, however, some spirits of a different kind
among them.  Robert Catesby, a gentleman of good property in Northampton and Warwickshire,'descended from
the minister of Richard III., had been brought up a catholic;
but he deserted that religion, plunged into all sorts of excesses, and ran through his patrimony.  He then (1598)
returned to his old religion, and, making up for his apostasy
by zeal, became a fanatic, and engaged in all the treasons
and conspiracies which agitated the latter years of Elizabeth.  He now conceived the diabolical project of blowing
up the parliament-house with gunpowder. This design he
communicated in Lent, 1604, to John Wright and Thomas
Winter, two catholic gentlemen of good character, family,
and fortune.  The latter hesitated at first, but his scruples
soon gave way, and he went over to the Netherlands on a
double mission; the one was to try to induce the constable
of Castile, who was coming over to conclude the peace, to
make some stipulations in favor of the catholics, the other
to engage in the plot some gentleman of courage and of
military knowledge and experience. Finding that the court
of Spain would not hazard the peace which was so necessary to it, on their account, he proceeded to execute the
other part of his commission; and the person on whom he
fixed was one Guy Fawkes, a man of good family in Yorkshire, who, having spent his little property, had entered the
Spanish service. If we may credit Father Greenway, the
associate and panegyrist of the conspirators, Fawkes was
" a man of great piety, of exemplary temperance, of mild
and cheerful demeanor, an enemy of broils and disputes, a
faithful friend, and remarkable for his punctual attendance
upon religious observances," -in a word, a fanatic in whose
eyes religion justified every deed. Though this high-wrought
character is doubtless beyond the truth, there seems on the
other hand to be no ground for regarding. Fawkes as a mere
vulgar ruffian.




JAMES I.                     11
Winter and Fawkes came to London in the month of
April.  Catesby then communicated the project to T'homas
Percy, a kinsman of the earl of Northumberland, whose
steward he was, and who had been sent by himl to Scotland,
before the queen's death, to asceitain James's sentiments
toward the catholics.  He had reported most favorably, and
he was now mortified at having been so completely deceived
in his expectations. Like Catesby, he had been a debauchee,
and was now a fanatic.
Catesby, Wright, Winter, Percy, aIld.F-wkes, having met
by appointment in a house behind Clement's Inn, took an
oath on the Holy Trinity and the sacrament never to disclose
what was then to be proposed.  Percy and Fawkes were
then informed of the plan, of which they both approved,
and then in an upper room of the same house they heard
mass and received the sacrament from the hands of Father
Gerard, a jesuit, who, whatever may be our suspicions, was
not, as far as we have evidence, acquainted with their vow
and its object.
A house adjoining the parliament-house was now taken
in Percy's name; and Fawkes, under the assumed name of
Johnson, and as Percy's servant, was put in charge of it.
Another house was hired at Lambeth, where the powder
and the timber for the construction of the mine which they
proposed to run might be collected, and the care of it was
committed to one Robert Keyes, who was likewise sworn
to secrecy. Parliament being adjourned till the 7th of
February following, the conspirators went down to the
country, agreeing to meet again in November.  During the
summer and autumn the proceedings of the government
against the catholics were extremely rigorous, and several
jesuits and seminarists were tried and executed. The conspirators were therefore the more confirmed in their resolution.
On the night of the 11th of December Catesby and his
associates entered the house in Westminster, well supplied
with mining tools, and with hard eggs and baked meats for
their support. They began to mine the wall of three yards
in thickness between theirs and the parliament-house.
Fawkes stood sentinel while the others wrought. Finding
the work more severe than they had expected, they sum.
moned Keyes fronm Lambeth, and they admitted Wright's
brother Christopher into their association.  They spread the
matter which they extracted in the day over the garden at
night, and not one of them  ever went out of the house ot




1:2             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
even into the upper part of it, lest they might be seen. They
wrought without ceasing till Christmas-eve, when Fawkes
brought them intelligence that parliament was further prorogued till October. They then agreed to separate till after
the holidays, when they would resume their labors.
During the month of January, (1605,) Catesby admitted:into the conspiracy Robert the elder brother of Thomas
Winter, and John Grant of Norbrook, near Warwick, and
an old servant of his own named Thomas Bates. In February they renewed their labors in the mine, and they had
pierced half waythrough the wall, when they suddenly. as'we are assured, heard the tolling of a bell within the wall
under the parliament-house; they stopped and listened;.Fawkes was called down, and he also heard it. On sprinkliig the place, however, with holy water, the mysterious
sound ceased; it was frequently renewed, but the same
remedy always proved efficacious, and it at length ceased
altogether. One day they heard a rushing noise over their
heads; they thought they were discovered, but Fawkes, on
inquiry,. found that it was made by a man of the name of
Bright, who was selling off his coals from a cellar under the
house of lords in order to remove.  They resolved at once
to take the cellar, for, exclusive of the labor, they found the
water now coming in on them. The cellar was taken in
Percy's name also; twenty barrels of powder were conveyed
to it from the house in Iambeth, their iron tools and large
stones were put into the barrels with it, in order to give more
efficacy to the explosion, and the whole was covered with
billets and fagots; and lumber and empty bottles were
scattered through the cellar.  They then closed it up, placing marks withinside of the door, that they might be able to
ascertain if anyone should enter it during their absence
Having sent Fawkes to Flanders to inform  sir William
Stanley and other English officers of the project, and try to
obtain foreign aid, they separated for the summer. In the
autumn sir Edmund Baynham was sent to Rome as the
agent of the conspirators,:with whose designs itis likely be
was acquainted.  As it was necessary to have horses ann
arms ready, Catesby pretended that he was commissioned to
raise. a troop of horse for the Spanish service, and he had
thus a pretext for collecting arms, etc., at his own house,
and at that of Grant; and several catholic gentlemen undertaking to join him as volunteers, he directed them  to prepare their arms and to be ready when called on. He and
Percy now thought it necessary. to associate some gentlemen
Y~~~            c-cU'"`    ~~- I-          -




JAMES I.                     13
of wealth in order to obtain the requisite funds, and they
fixed on sir Everard Digby of Rutlandshire, Ambrose Rookwood of Suffolk, and Francis Tresham of Northamptonshire;
the two first, who were weak bigots but virtuous men, hesitated at first, but finally joined cordially in the project; the
last, a man of indifferent character, was only admitted on
account of his wealth, and Catesby, it is said, had always a
mistrust of him.
Parliament being finally appointed to meet on the 5th of
November, the conspirators made their final arrangements.
Fawkes was to fire the mine by means of a slow match,
which would take a quarter of an hour to reach the powder;
and as soon as he had lighted it, he was to hasten and get
aboard a small vessel which was ready in the river, and carry
the news over to Flanders. Digby was on that day to assemble a number of the catholic gentry under pretext of a
hunting party at Dunchurch, in Warwickshire; and as soon
as they heard of the blow being struck, they were to send a
party to seize the princess Elizabeth, who was at lord Harrinigton's, in that neighborhood, and she was to be proclaimed
in case Winter should fail in the part assigned him of securing
one of her brothers.
There was one point which had been disputed from the
beginning, narely, how to act with respect to the catholic
nobles.  Catesby, it would seem, had little scruple about
destroying them with the rest, but the majority were for
saving their friends and relations. Tresham, in particular,
was most earnest to save his brothers-in-law, the lords
Stourton and Mounteagle.  It was finally agreed that no
express notice should be given, but that various pretexts
should be employed to induce their friends to stay away.
This, however, did not content Tresham, and some days
after he urged on Catesby and Percy that notice should be
given to lord Mounteagle; and on their hesitating he hinted
that he should not be ready with the money he had promised.
and proposed that the catastrophe should be put off till the
closing of the parliament.  His arguments, however, proved
ineffectu al.
On the 26th of October, lord Mounteagle went and supped
at his house at HoxtoI, where he had not been for a month
before. At supper a letter was handed him by a page, who
said he had received it from a strange man in the street. It
was anonymous.  By his lordship's direction a gentleman
named Ward read it aloud. It desired him to make some
excuse for not attending parliament, "for God and man," it
VOL. II.




14               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
said, " hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this
time," with sundry other mysterious hints.  Lord Mouriteagle took it that very evening to lord Salisbury at Whitehall,
who showed it to some other lords of the council; and it
was decided that nothing should be done till the king's
return from Royston, where he was hunting.
It has been a matter of much dispute by whom this letter
was written.  The most likely person by far was Tresham,
and it is not improbable that he had already given full
information to lord Molmnteagle, and through him to the
government, and that the letter was only a device to conceal
the real mode of discovery.  Tresham  too was anxious to
save his friends, and but for their own infatuation this might
have been effected, for Winter was informed next morning
of this letter, and they could have escaped in the vessel
prepared for Fawkes.  On the 30th Tresham came from the
country to London; Catesby and Winter charged him with
having written the letter, intending to poniard him  if he
confessed or hesitated; but he denied with such firmness,
that they were, or affected to be, satisfied, and they resolved
to go. on with their design.
Next day (31st) the king returned to London; a council
was held the,following day on the subject of the letter, and
James himself is said to have divined its secret meaning.'
It was determined to search the cellar, but not till Monday
the 4th.  On that day the lord chamberlain, lord Mounteagle, and others, went to the parliament-house.  They
found Fawkes in the cellar, but they made no remark, and
that nighft sir Thomas Knevett, a magistrate, was sent to
the place with his assistants; he met Fawkes as he was
stepping out of the door, and arrested him, and on searching the cellar, thirty-six barrels of powder were discovered.
Fawkes was brought before the council, xwhere he avowed
and gloried in his design, but refused to name his accomplices; he was then committed to the Tower.
Some of the conspirators had already left London, others
fled when thley heard of the seizure of Fawkes; they went
with all speed to Ashby St. Leger's, where they found several
of their friends; they all rode to Dunchurch to meet Digby
and his party.  Their dejected looks told their story; all
those who were not too deeply implicated departed forthwith
to provide for their safety.  Catesby and the others then, in
*He might have done this, and yet Cecil have known the real faci
already.




JAMES I.                     15!
the vain hope of raising the catholics of Wales and the adjoining counties, went to Norbrook, and thence to Huddington
and Holbeach, a house of Stephen Littleton's. Their number
was now reduced by desertion to about s.xty men; the catholic
gentry drove them  from  their doors with reproaches; the
common people merely gazed on then1 as they passed.  At
Holbeach, Digby and Stephen Littleton privately left them,
but the former was seized at Dudlley.  As they were drying
some of their powder which had been wetted, a burning coal
fell into it, and Catesby and some others were much injured.
In the night Robert Winter slank away. Next day, (8th,)
about nloon, the sheriff arrived with the posse conmitatuts,
and surrounding the house summoned them to surrender; on
their refusal he ordered an assault. T'homas Winter and
the two Wrights were wounded; Catesby and Percy placing
themselves back to back were siot through the bodies by two
balls fiom one musket; the former died instantly, the latter
next day; Rookwood was also severely wounded, and the
whole party were made prisoners.  Robert Winter and Stephen Littleton, after concealing themselves for about two
months, were betrayed by the cook at Hagley House, the
abode of Mrs. Littleton.
The apprehension of Fawkes did not affect Tresham like
the others.  He appeared openly in the streets, and even
went to the council and offered his services against the
rebels. On the 12th, however, he was arrested and cormitted to the Tower. It is probable that the object of the
council was to extract evidence from  him  against the jesuits, and in this they partially succeeded; but soon after his
committal he was attacked by a fatal disease, and he died
on the 27th of December.  The catholic writers of course
ascribe his death to poison, but the fact of his wife and his
servant being with him during the whole of his illness suffices
to confute them.
Fawkes was at first sullen, but on the 8th of November
he made a full confession, concealing, however, the names
of his associates, whorn, however, next day he named to lord
Salisbury.  It is highly probable that, according to custom,
the rack hae been applied to him.  On the 15th those taken
at Holbeach reached London.  They were all examined
firequently, and from what was elicited from them, especially
Bates, a proclamation was issued (Jan. 16, 1606) against
the jesuits Garnet, Greenway, and Gerard.
On the 27th, sir Everard Digby, the two Winters, Fawkes,
Grant, Rookwood, Keyes, and Bates, were brought to trial




6              HISTCRY OF ENGLAND.
before a special commission, composed of privy councillor.
and judges. The principal evidence against them were
their own confessions, but there could not be a shadow of
doubt respecting their guilt. Sentence of death was passed,
and on the 30th, Digby, Robert Winter, Grant, and Bates
were hanged and quartered at the west end of St. Paul's
churchyard. The next day Thomas Winter, Rookwood,
Fawkes, and Keyes were executed opposite the parliamenthouse.
The jesuit Gerard escaped from Harwich to the continent.
Greenway disguised himself and came to London, where, as
he was standing one day in a crowd, reading the proclama.
tion, he was recognized by a man who followed and arrested
him.  He affected to go with him cheerfully, but in a private
street he flung him off, and made his escape to Essex, and at
last got over to Flanders.  Henry Garnet, the superior of the
jesuits in England, had concealed himself at Hendlip Hall,
the seat of Mr. Abington, near Worcester.  A hint, however,
having been given that some jesuits were concealed there,
the house was surrounded on the 20th of January by sir
Henry Bromley; but so well contrived were the places of
concealment, that it was not till the eighth day that Garnet
and another jesuit, named Hall or Oldcorne, were discovered.
Tower, where Garnet was treated with extraordinary mildness: their examinations before the council were frequent,
but he would confess nothing.  A practice by no means uncomlmon (one which indeed yet continues) was then resorted
to; Garnet and Oldcorne were told by their keeper that there
was a concealed door between their cells, through which they
might converse. Two persons were meantime so placed as
to be able to hear what they said, and this led to important
discoveries. It was Garnet's principle to deny, and that even
with oaths and solemn asseverations, every thing with which
he was charged, until he found it useless to do so any longer.
For this he has been justly, but perhaps too severely blamed
It is a maxim of the law of England that no man is bound to
accuse himself;'* at the present day a prisoner is cautioned
against replying to questions tending to implica-e him; and
on his trial, by the general plea of' Not guilty,' he in effect
denies the whole charge against him. Garnet, in reality, did
no more than this; fear of the torture (to which, however, he
was neve subjected) prevented his being silent,and his denials
*' Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum "-JMagna Charts.




of the chages against him were the natural result of the de
of the charges against him were the natural result of the desire not to be accessory to his own death.
From Garnet's own confessions, and the evidence of others,
it was proved that, in June, 1604, he learned from Cateshy or
Winter, that there was a plot in hand; and in the June of
1605 Catesby inquired of hin respecting the lawfulness of
destroying some innocent catholics in a plan designed for
the promotion of the catholic religion, to which he gave an
affirmative reply.  Shortly after the whc'e plot was revealed
to him by Greenway, (not in confession, as he said at first,)
with whom he continued to converse from  time to time respecting the progress of it.  So many other convincing facts
appeared, or were proved, as can leave no reasonable doubt
of Garnet's participation in the treason.  He was tried  on
the 28th of March  by a jury of citizens of London, in
presence of the earl of Salisbury and other commissioners,
and was found guilty; and on the 3d of May he was hung on a
gallows in St. Paul's churchyard.  By the express order of
the king he was not cut down for the further operation of his
sentence until he was quite dead.  He has been canonized
by his church, and his name now figures in the Roman martyrology."
In the whole course of history an instance more demonstrative of the baleful effects of a false sense of religion onl
he mind and heart is not to be found than this plot.  A
n.ore horrible design never was conceived; yet those who
engaged in it were mostly men of' mild manners, correct
lives, and independent fortunes, -  all, we may say, actuated
by no ignoble motive, but firmly believing that they were
doing  good service to God.  "I amn satisfied," said John
Grant on the day of his execution, " that our project was so
far from being sinful, that I rely on my merits in bearing a
vart of that noble action as an abundant satisfaction and ex* Miracles of course were required. A new species of grass, therefore, grew on the spot where he last stood in Hendlip lawn. It was in
the forrrm of an imperial crown, and the cattle never touched it. A
spring of oil burst forth on the spot where he was martyred. But the
chief miracle wvas' Garnet's Straw.' This was an ear of the straw
used at his execution, which a young catholic picked up, and on which
there appeared the face of the martyr. The story made such a noise
that the council inquired into it; it appeared of course to have been a
pious fraud. Garnet was addicted to intemperance, a habit likely to
grow on one in his situation. There were also insinuations made
against him and a lady named Anne Vaux, who was his constant companion wherever he went. We, however, believe that lady's character
to have been without stfLin, and regard her as a single-minded devotee
C




18               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
piation for all sins committed by me during the rest of my
life." "Nothing grieves me," said Robert Winter to Fawkes,
"but that there is not an apology made by some to justi}y
our doing in this business; but our deaths will be a sufficient
justification of it, and it is for God's cause."  It is said by
Greenway, that as Rookwood was drawn to execution, his
wife stood at an open window  in the Strand, comforting
hilm, and telling him " to be of good courage, inasmuch as he
suffered for a great and noble cause."  Of the truth of this,
however, we are rather dubious; fear alone would, we
apprehend, prevent her from  giving utterance to such expresbions.
The English catholics, it is well known, were divided
into two almost hostile parties, the jesuited and that of the
secular priests.  The conspirators were all of the fornmer
party, and the latter, who had been utterly ignorant of the
plot, were uannalimnous, loud, and, we have no doubt, sincere
in tie abhorrence which they expressed at it.  Digby, in a
letter to his lady, laments to find that the cause for which he
had sacrificed every thing was disapproved of by catholics
and priests, and that that which brought him  to his deatb
was considered by them  to be a great sin.  But they had
their share in the penalty, for a new  and more severe penal
code was enacted.  The lords Montague, Mordaunt, and
Stourton were imprisoned and fined for their suspicious absence from parliament.  The earl of Northumberland was
fined 30,0001., deprived of his offices, and adjudged to remain
for life a prisoner in the Tower.
A favorite object of the king, ever since his accession,
had been the effecting of a union (a legislative one it would
appear) between his two kingdoms.  The measure was submitted to the parliaments of both countries, but national
prejudices and jealousies were too strong to permit so desirable a tmeasure to be then effected; and all that could
be obtained was the abolition of the laws in which each
kreated the other as strangers and enemies, and a decision
)f the English judges declaring the postanti, or Scots born
ince the king's accession, to be natural subjects of the king
If England.
-During the six succeeding years of James's reign (1607:-12)
Xttle occurred to disturb the national tranquillity, though the
ling and the house of commons still went on bickering; ht
straining every nerve to obtain money uncondlitionally,   thejy
struggling to secure in return an abolition of purveyance,
wardship, and other feudal oppressions. The king meantime




JAMES I.                       19
chiefly attended to his hunting and his writing; the task of
supplying his lavish expenditure fell to Salisbury, now lord
treasurer, like his father, but with a very different sovereign,
and a far more refractory parliament to manage.  His health
appears to have given way under his mnental anxiety, and he
died at Marlborough, (May 24,; 1612,) as he was returning
from Bath, where he had been to try the waters.  His character was that of a sagacious, prudent statesman; but he
wanted the high principle and honorable feeling of his great
father.  "He was," says Bacon, "a more fit man to keep
things from  getting worse, but no very fit man to reduce
things to be better."'
Toward the close of the year 161'2, the king and country
were deprived(  of the heir-apparent, prince  Henry.  His
death caused little grief to James, who looked on him rather
as a rival than as a son; and the priince made no secret of
the contempt in which he held his father, whose character
was the opposite of his in every respect.  Henry was zealous
in his attachment to the reformed faith; he abstained fiom
costly and immoral pleasures and excesses; his delight was
in athletic and martial exercises.  When one time the
French ambassador came to take leave of him, he found him
handling the pike.  "'Fell your king," said the prince, " how
you left me engaged."  He greatly  admired sir Walter
Raleigh. " Sure no king but my father,' he used to say,
"would keep such a bird in a cage."  He died (Nov. 6) in
the 18th year of his age, of a fever, the consequence of excessive and injudicious exercise.  His death was of course
imputed by the people to poison; the earl of Rochester, the
royal favorite, was the person charged, and some even suspected the king himself, how unjustly we need not say.
The death of prince lHenry was a subject of general regret,
and it is a curious question how far it was a misfortune or
otherwise to the nation.  It has sometimes struck us, that
had he come to the throne, animated as he was by a martial
spirit, he would have entered vigorously into the defence
of tile elector palatine and the prosecution of a war with
Spain; and theat to obtain supplies from parliament he would,
like the great Edwards, have.lmade the needful concessions
in favor of liberty, and that thus the civil war might have
been averted.  But it was not in this manner that the liberties
of England were to be secured; they were to pass through
the fire of civil discord.
James, with his habitual aversion to gloom, forbade any
one to approach him in mnorning; he would not allow the




20               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
preparations {or the Christmas revels to be interrue ted, and
in the following February (1613) he celebrated with extraordinary splendor the nuptials of his only daughter, Elizabeth
with Frederick the count palatine of the Rhine. The princess was only in her sixteenth year.
A lady of high rank was at this time paying the penalty
of her proximity to the throne.  Arabella Stuart had, though
expressly forbidden by the king, given her hand in secret to
sir William  Seymour, son of lord Beauchamp.  As both
were descended from Henry VII., the king's jealousy took
alarm, and he was committed to the Tower, she to the house
of sir Thomas Parry, at Lambeth. They were, however,
Dermitted by their keepers to have secret interviews, and the
king then ordered that Arabella should be removed to Durham.  She refused to leave her chamber, but she was taken
out of it by force. James, however, allowed her to remain a
month at Higihgate for her health. While there, she disguised
herself in man's attire, and rode to Blackwall, and then went
down the river to where a French bark lay ready, and got
aboard. Seymour meantime, disguised as a physician, made
his way out of the Tower, and entered a boat which was to
convey him to the bark; but the French captain, fearing to
wait, had set sail in spite of Arabella's entreaties.  Seymour
got over to Flanders in a collier; the bark was taken off the
Nore, and Arabella was immured in the Tower. To her petitions for liberty James replied, that " as she had tasted of the
forbidden fruit she must pay the forfeit of her disobedience."
The harsh treatment which she experienced deprived her of
reason, and she died in the fourth year of her confinement,
the victim of that odious policy of state which, on the plea
of self-preservation, tramples on all the principles of nature
and justice.  It is remarkable that Arabella's husband was
afterwards, as marquess of Hertford, one of the most de.
votel adherents of the son of her persecutor.
P.
IIF C~*;;~-6SII-~lV~I~-~-j:L —-— LJ




JAMES 1.          "21
CHAPTER  II.
JAMES I. (CONTINUED.)
1613-1625.
It is time now that we should proceed to notice a renlarkable feature in the character of this feeble nlonarch - his
favoritismn.  To this he had been addicted from his earliest
days; and it is rather curious that he, the most slovenly of
men in his own person, should have been as fastidious as
even the late queen about the looks and dress of those who
were about him.  A few years before the time of which we
now write, on the occasion of a tilting-match, lord Hlay, one
of the Scottish nobles, selected a youth of the border family
of the Kerrs for his equerry. IRobert Kerr or Carr was now
about twenty years of age, tall and handsome, and but just
returned from his travels. It was his office to present his
lord's shield and device to the king; and as he was about to
perform it, his horse became unruly and threw him.  His leg
was broken in the fall, and James, affected by his youth and
beauty, had him removed to a roorn in the palace, where he
visited him  after the tilt. The visits  fE fre qurntly  W!newed; the yr<uth gradutlaJy n-.tn     ft the hear  ing, wh}Q
resolved to make of him a scholar, a statesman, and a man
of wealth and rank.  The last was easy; to effect the former
he himself became his tutor in Latin and his lecturer in
politics.  While Salisbury lived, the favorite, though laden
with wealth and raised to the dignity of viscount Rochester,
took no part in affairs of state, but after the death of that
minister the duties of his offices were devolved for soine
time on the new viscount.  Rochester, from the outset of
his career, had the good sense to select an able adviser in
the person of sir Thomas Overbury, a man of talent and
judgment, but ambitious and insolent, and little encumbered
with scruples.  His prudence, however, kept his patron's
bark steady before the wind, and his voyage might have been
prosperous to the end had it not struck on the rock of illicit
love.
The young earl of Essex, as we have seen, had been re.
stored in honor and estate at the king's accession; and
Salisbury, whose own eldest son was married to a daughter
of the earl of Suffolk, in order to'acrease his influence by




HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
family connection, proposed a match between her sister, the
lady Frances, and young Essex.  No objections being made,
the marriage took place, the bridegroom being fourteen years
of age, the bride his junior by a year.  Immnediately after
the ceremony the young husband was sent to travel on the
continent; the bride was committed  to the care of her
mother, who, instead of keeping her in the seclusion appro)riate to her situation, adorned her with the showy accomplishments of the age, and took her to court.  Here her
beauty and her graces became the subject of general admiiation; prince Henry is said to have cast an eye of favor on
the lovely young countess; but Rochester, by the'aid of
letters composed for him  by Overbury, won her heart, and
erelong,, it is said, she made him a secret surrender of her
modesty.
When Essex returned:, at the age of eighteen, and claimed
his privileges, he was received by his lady with distaste and
aversion.  Her parents obliged her to live with him, but she
persisted in denying him his conjugal rights, for she thought
so long as she did that she could not properly be called his
wife.  A separation from him, and a marriage with Rochester, were now the objects of her wishes, and the viscount
was equally eager with herself for the union.
When Rochester infbrmed Overbury of his design, the
latter, who saw in it nothing but evil to his patron and ruin
to himself, remonstrated in the strongest terms; he dwelt on
the infamy of the countess's character, the odium and hazard
of the attempt to obtain a divorce, and he finally threatened to
abandon him if he persisted in his project.  All this Rochester forthwith communicated to the countess.  In her rage
she offered 10001. to a knight named sir David Wood, whoil
Overbury had injured, to assassinate him.  Wood refused;
Rochester then prevailed on the king to appoint Overbury
his envoy to Russia.  This office, at Rochester's secret instigation, he declined, saying that the king could not, ih law
or justice, send him into exile; for this contempt, as it was
termed, he was committed to the Tower, where, after a coinfinement of about six months, he died suddenly.
Meanwhile the business of the divorce was proceeded
with; the countess suing for it on the ground of bodily incapacity on the part of her husband.  T'he king, to his
disgrace, took a warm  interest in it; and Essex, whether
conscious of defect, or desirous to be released from a woman.
who hated him, made such admr/issions as gave a pretext to
reven out of twelve of a court of delegates to yield to the




J MF.S I.                     23
wishes of the king and pronounce a sentence of divorce.
Shortly after (November 4) the fair adulteress was married
to her paramour (whom  James, that she might not lose in
rank, had created earl of Somerset) in the royal chapel, in
presence of the king and queen, with extraordinary mnagnificence.  The bride daringly appeared in the virgin costume
of' the day, her hair hanging in curls down to her waist.  It
may be that the king  was not aware of the inflamy of the
parties; the favorite had lately given him 05,0001. to relieve
his necessities, and he hoped by this union to set him  on
good terms with the father and uncle of the bride.
The vengeance of Heaven, though delayed, is frequently
sure, and the crimes of this guilty pair were destined to
come to light. The qualities by which Somerset had won
the royal favor soon began to decay; his youthful bloom was
fading, for conscience dimmed its lustre.  Another object too
had caught the unsteady affections of the king. George, one
of the sons of sir George Villiers, of Brookesby, in Leicestershire, a tall, handsome youth of about one-and-twenty,
who had travelled a little, and spent a short time at the court
of France, and whose taste in dress was exquisite, appeared
at court, and the impression he made on the king's mind
was at once preceptible, by his appointing him to the office
of cup-bearer.  The enemies of Somerset conceived the
idea of setting up Villiers as his rival; but James had
formed a cunning plan of taking no one to his favor unless
specially recommended by the queen; " that if she should
complain afterwards of the dear one, he might make answer,
It is long of yourself, for you comment,'ed him  unto me."
The task of gaining the queen was committed to archbishop
Abbot, and, after long refusing, she consented, with these
prophetic words, " My lord, you know not what you desire.
If Villiers gain the royal favor, we shall all be sufferers; I
shall not be spared more than others; the king will teach him
to treat us all with pride and contempt." Forthwith —(April
24, 1615) Villiers was sworn a gentleman of the privy chamber, and knighted.  The king wished the two favorites to
live in harmony, but Somerset haughtily spurned the advances of Villiers, and the court was soon divided into two
parties.
Reports now were rife that Overbury had not come fairly
by his end, and circumstances brought the guilt of it so near
to the earl and countess that James directed chief justice
Coke to make out a warrant for their committal. The king's
hypocrisy on this occasion is almost incredible.  Somerlet




HISTORY OF FENGrI ND.
took leave of him  at Royston to go up to London, on a
Friday, promising to return on Monday.  James, as usual,
hung about his neck, and slobbered his cheeks, declaring he
should neither eat nor drink till he saw him  again, adding,
"For God's sake give thy lady this kiss for me."  Yet the
earl was not in his coach when the king said, " Now, the dell
go with thee, for I will never see thy face more."
A  dreadful tissue of iniquity was now unravelled.  It appeared that the countess had long been intimate with a Mrs.
Turner, the widow of a physician, a woman of infamous
character, and was by her made acquainted with one Dr.
Forman, a pretended conjurer, who supplied her with means
for preventing the earl of Essex from consummating his marriage, and with philtres for attaching the viscount; that Mrs.
Turner had recommended one Weston, who had been her
husband's bailiff, as a fit person for their designs on Overbury,
and sir Gervase Elways, the lieutenant of the Tower, a creature of Somerset's, was made to appoint him to attend on
the prisoner; and Northampton, the abettor of his niece's
depravity, assuring Elways that what was to be done had the
king's approbation, engaged him to wink at the attempts that
Weston might make on the prisoner's life.  The course
adopted was to mingle slow poisons with Overbury's food, but
these rinot succeeding, Weston gave him a poisonous clyster,
which had the desired effect.  He was buried immediately,
Northampton averring to the king that he had died of an
odious disorder caused by his vices.  Some time after. the
apothecary's boy who had assisted Weston in giving the clyster, being at Flushing, talked freely of the matter, and his
information  being conveyed to sir Ralph Winwood, the
secretary of state, inquiry was set on foot by the king, and
all the suspected persons were arrested.  Weston made an
ample confession, and he, one Franklin, and Mrs. Turner,'
were executed at Tyburn, and Elways was beheaded on
Tower-hill.  The countess, when arraigned, pleaded guilty;
Somerset, who was perhaps  innocent, defended himself
stoutly for the space of eleven hours, but he was found guilty
by his peers.  The king granted a pardon to the countess,
the execution of the earl's sentence was suspended, and some
years after it was reversed.  They were allowed to retire to
the country, with an allowance of 40001. a year, where they
lived in misery, hating and shunning each other. The count
* She had introduced a yellow starch for stiffening ruffs, and sho
wore one of them at the gallows.
______________  _________________________________________  _____________________________________________________________________________




48. Funeral procession of Kinr James I. Page 36.
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4       irW Ilte Raligh _akin   levfKigm'
&   \~   ~  I            JJI                  ___ _- _
419. Sir Walter R~aleigh ta~king leave of King Ja.mes.








JAMES i.                     25
ess died (of a loathsome disease it i; said) in 1632, the earl
lived till 1645.
Shortly after these trials, sir Edward Coke, the chief
justice, who had given offence by his conduct on them, and
by his vigorous maintenance of the authority of the law of
the land against the encroachments of the prerogative, was
dismissed from his high office.  In effecting this, the arts of
sir Francis Bacon, the attorney-general and his rival, were
of great efficacy. This extraordinary man, who united the
noblest genius with.the meanest soul, who was the first philosopher and statesman, and at the same time one of the
most servile flatterers of his age, was made, on the death of
lord Ellesmere, lord keeper, and afterwards chancellor, and he
thus attained the summit of his ambition.
Sir Walter Raleigh was now at liberty, for the new favo-rite had been induced to exert his interest in his behalf, and
he was liberated after a confinement of thirteen years.  But
he was poor; his property had been seized when he was
condemned; and the manor of Sherbourn, which, before the
death of queen Elizabeth, he had conveyed to his eldest son,
was also lost, for a single word had been omitted in the deed
of conveyance, and this omission was held to invalidate it.
Lady Raleigh and her children threw themselves at the
feet of the monarch, imploring him not to deprive them of
their only support; but his unfeeling reply was, "I mun ha'
the land, I mun ha' it for Carr; " for this minion had, as the
phrase then was, begged it. James, however, gave her, by
way of compensation, $0001., for what was said to be worth
50101. a year.
It will be recollected that Raleigh had already made an
unsuccessful voyage to Guiana. His imagination still ran on
the gold-mines which he fancied that region to contain; even
while in prison he had kept up his claims to it, by sending
out small expeditions, and he now proposed to fit out an expedition at the expense of himself and his friends, the king
to receive the usual fifth of the gold and silver to be thence
imported. The avarice of James was tempted, but he had
long had an anxious desire to unite his house in marriage with
the royal line of Spain, whom he therefore feared to offend,
and who he knew hated and dreaded Raleigh.  Moreover,
Gondomar, the Spanish resident, had by his wit and his
adroit flattery, gained a most undue influence over the royal
mind.  The moment he heard of the rumored expedition,
he remonstrated with the king; James assured him that he
would not give Raleigh a pardon, so that his former sentence
VOL. II.     3                         D




26               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
would still hang over him; and that if he made any attack
on the Spav.ish settlements, he would either have him executed or deliver him up on his return.  Gondomar affected
to be satisfied; he learned from the king all the particulars
of the expedition, which he transmitted to Spain, and directions were sent out to the Spaniards in Guiana to oppose
Raleigh when he arrived.
After a delay of nearly a year, Raleigh sailed (1617) from
Plymouth with fourteen vessels. Misfortunes befell him from
the very outset; two of his ships quitted him, a number of
his men perished by a Contagious disease, which brought
himself to death's door. At length, in November, he reached
the mouth of the Orinoco, up which river he sent five of his
vessels, each containing fifty men, under captain Kemys,
who professed to have discovered the mine in one of the
former voyages, giving him strict orders not to molest the
Spaniards; for it is to be observed, that since Raleigh had
been last there, and had taken possession of the country in
the name of his sovereign; the Spaniards had settled there
and built a sort of town, named St. Thomas.  As the
English passed this place, they were attacked by the Span
iards in the night; but they repelled the assailants, pursued
them to the town, and took it.  In the action Raleigh's
eldest son and the Spanish governor, a near kinsman of
Gondomar's, were slain. They then proceeded up the river
in search of the mine, but to no purpose; and having suffered
severely from an ambuscade of the Spaniards, they returned
to Raleigh, who, aware of the full extent of the mischief that
had been done, reproached Kemys so bitterly with his coin
duct; that he retired to his cabin and put an end to himself
Raleigh was soon compelled to return home by a mutiny
among his men, and he arrived at Plymouth in the beginning
of July, 1618. The king was exasperated; Gondomar claim
ed, and was promised vengeance, and a proclamation was
issued against Raleigh; this he learned at Kinsale in Ire
land, and yet he proceeded to Plymouth, and was on his wa)
to London when he was arrested by his kinsman sir Lewit
Stukeley. It is the statement of Raleigh's son, that the
earls of Arundel and Pembroke were bound to the king for
his return, and that to free them from this engagement he
thus surrendered himself. But when he had exonerated
them he thought himself justified in making his escape if he
could; accident or treachery, however, foiled all his attempts,
aind he was once more consigned to the Tower.  He was
now subjected to various examination"; and to sir Thomas




JAMES I.                        7
Wilson, keeper of the state papers, a man o more learning and
talent than honor and virtue, was committed the odious office
of endeavoring, under the aspect of' miildness and sympathy,
to draw out of him a confession of a treasonable intercourse
with the French agent.  In this, however, he failed, as the
prisoner was perfectly innocent on that head.
About the middle of October a letter arrived from  the
king of Spain, expressing his wish that PRaleigh should be executed in England, rather than given up to hlim. Accordingly
a privy seal was directed to the judges of the king's bench,
commanding them to proceed to execution against sir Walter
Raleighi, under his formner sentence. When the prisoner was
required to show cause against it, he submitted that his
majesty's commission, giving him  power of life and death
over others, amounted to a pardon. This plea was overruled
by the chief justice, execution was granted, and on the 29th
of October the aged warrior was conducted to a scaffold in
Old Palace Yard.  There were present several of the nobility: sir Walter spolte with his usual calmness and courage,
clearing himself from  all the charges made against him.
Respecting the earl of Essex, his words were, " I take God
to witness i had no hand in his blood, and was none of those
that procured his death.  I shed tears for hiim  when he
died."  The dean of Westminster asking him  in what faith
he meant to die, he said, "In the faith professed by the
church of England, and that he hoped to be saved, and have
his sins washed away by the precious blood and merits of our
Savior Christ." When he had put off his doublet and gown,
he asked the executioner to let him see the axe.  Ele poised
it, and runnino his thumb along the edge, said with a smile,
" This is a sharp medicine, but it will cure all diseases."
The executioner going to blindfold him, he refused, saying,
"Think you I fear the shadow of the axe, when I fear not
the axe itself?"  He gave the signal by stretching out his
hands, and his head was struck off in two blows.  "' Every
man,' says a witness, "who saw sir Walter- Raleigh die,
said it was impossible to show more decorum, courage, or
piety, and that his death would do more hurt to the faction
that sought it than ever his life could have done."
Sir Walter Raleigh died in the sixty-sixth year of his age.
In his character were united the warrior, the statesman, the
courtier, and the man of letters and science.  Were it not
that his imagination occasionally predominated over his
judgment. he. might have easily been the first man of his
ag?.  His death is an indeli'le stain on the character of fhe




213              ]HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
king, who betrayed him to the Spaniards, and then put hir
to death,@ after he had virtually pardoned him, and en a
charge of which he must have known him to be innocent
The panegyrists of the contemptible monarch (Hume in the
van) have sought to blacken the character of his victimn, but
their calumnies have been amply refuted,t and with all his
faults sir Walter Raleigh is to be numbered among England's
most illustrious sons.
The queen, who had vainly tried to interest the favorite
for Raleigh, died early in the following year, (1619.)  In
the very same year a crown was offered to her son-in-law.
The privileges which had been secured by imperial edicts
to the Bohemian protestants having been violated by the
emperor MAatthias, they had recourse to arms, and on his
death refused to acknowledge his successor, Ferdinand of
Austria, as king of Bohemia. They offered the crown to
the elector of Saxony, and on his refusal, to the elector
palatine, who imprudently accepted it, and was crowned
(Nov. 4) at Prague.  His father-in-law, though ignorant
of the Bohemian constitution, (by which the crown was
elective,) at once pronounced the Bohemians rebels, and
ordered him to resign the crown; but the people of England
exulted at the prospect offered of an increase of strength
to the protestant cause, and were urgent with the king to
aid the elector in his contest with the house of Austria.
James was now sadly hampered between his love of peace,
his high notions of the divine rights of kings, and his anxiety to procure an infanta for his son, on the one hand, and
his family feeling and the clamors of his subjects on the
other.  He had recourse to the usual refuige of weak minds.
a middle course; he mediated and negotiated  he allowed
sir Horace Vere to raise a regiment of 2400 men, for the
defence of the palatinate.  But all was in vain; a decisive
defeat under the walls of Prague (Nov. 4. 1629) deprived
the elector of his crown, and his hereditary dominions were
rapidly conquered by Spinola, the general of the king of
* Marriage treaties with Spain seemed to require the cement of innocent blood. Witness Warwick and Raleigh.
t See Cayley and Tytler. Mr. Hallam seems to think ill of Raleigh,
but without giving his reasons. This able writer has, however, what
appears to us an unfair habit of judging the men of the sixteenth by
the maxims of the nineteenth century, and a kind of prejudice against
Elizabeth and her great men, Essex (perhaps the least great) excepted.
That Lingrard should be adverse to Raleigh was to be expected; he was
the foe of Spain.




JAMES I.                      29
Spa'n. He and his family retired to the Hague, where they
lived in poverty, and king James was to the end of his life
occupied in fruitless negotiations for the restoration of the
palatinate.
The affairs of the palatinate, and the expense caused by
them, obliged the king to call a parliament, (l621.)  One
of the first matters to which the commons turned their
attention was the old grievance of monopolies, and the
practice of impeachment was revived.  Sir Giles Monpesson, who had patents for the manufacture of gold and
silver thread, and for licensing inns and alehouses, in which
he and his agent, sir Francis Mitchell, had been guilty of
great fraud and oppression, was the first object of attack.
Monpesson escaped to the continent; but the lords condemned both himn and Mitchell to be fined and imprisoned,
and to lose their knighthood.  But a far higher head than
these was to be abased by this parliament.  Articles of
impeachment were exhibited  against the viscount of St.
Alban's'* (as Bacon was now styled) for bribery and corruption in his high office of chancellor, (March 21.)  From his
bed, to which he had taken, he wrote to the lords confessing
the truth of the charges.  He was sentenced to pay a fine
of 40,0001., be imprisoned during pleasure, and be incapacitated from  approaching the court, sitting in parliament, or
holding any office of dignity or profit.  The king remitted
the fine, and gave him his liberty, and the remaining five
years of his life were chiefly occupied with abject efforts to
recover the favor of the court.  In his defence it was alleged
that it had long been the usage for the chancellor to accept
presents from suitors; but it was replied that no precedents
could justify so pernicious a practice.  r he unanimity with
which he was condemned, and his not daring to make a
defence, would seem to intimate that he had far outgone his
predecessors.  Yet Bacon was not an avaricious man; iP
was his love of show, his want of economy, and his easiness
to his servants and dependants that obliged him to have
reccurse to all modes of obtaining money.  It is also said
that he could have defended himself; but that, as his defence
would have contained disclosures of matters which the king
wished to remain unknown, promises were made him to
induce him to refrain from that course.
t  [The title Verulant, by which Bacon is more commonly known, is
the name of an ancient city, of which, but the site, and a few ruins,
now remain, immediately adjoining the present town of St. Albans.
-J. T. S.]
3~.




30               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Then session terminated in a quarrel between the king
and the commons.  They drew up a petition praying him to
engagcre vigorously in the defence of thile palatine; to make
war on Spain; to marry his son to a protestant princess; to
enforce the laws against papists.  On obtaining a copy of
thie petition he expressed the utmost indignation, and wrote
to the speaker, complaining of the " fiery, popular, and
turbulent spirits" in the house, who presumed to meddle
with mysteries of state, things beyond their capacity.  The
house, in reply, intimateld that they were entitled to interpose
in mlatters relating to the dignity and safety of the throne
and kin(dom.  Their liberty of speech was, they said, their
ancient and undoubted right, an inheritance transmitted
from their ancestors.  When the approach of the committee
with this address was notified to James, he ordered twelve
chairs to be brought, for so many kings, he said, were a-coming. In his answer, he wished that they had rather said that
their privileges were derived from the grace and permission
of his ancestors and himself, for most of them  lihad grown
from precedent, which rather shows toleration than inheritance.  If, however, they did not encroach on the prerogative,
he assured them he would be careful to maintain their lawful
liberties and privileges.  This produced a memorable protestation on the part of the commons, that their privileges
were their birthright and inheritance; that affairs of state
are proper subjects of counsel and debate in parliament;
and that the Inemnibers have a right to freedom of speech,
and should not be molested for any thing said or done in the
house, except by censure of the house itself.  The king tore
this protest with his own hands from the journals, and published his reasons for so doing.  Hie dissolved the parliament
forthwith, and he committed some of the most prominent
members to prison, and sent others on a commission to
Ireland by way of punishment.
The Spanish match was the object nearest to James's
heart.  Philip III. had kept the matter hanging' for years,
in the hope of obtaining  conditions which might lead to
the reistablishment of popery in England.  On his death,
(162o2,) James hoped that with the young  king, Philip IV.,
a more speedy arrangement might be effected, and he sent
the able and experienced lord Digby, (soon after earl of
Bristol,) who had been already three times his minister at
Madrid, once more ambassador to Spain.  James also de.
spatched an envoy to the pope, and he relaxed; the penal laws
discharging a great number of the recusants fromn orison




JAMES I.                      3 l
Philif, who was evidently sincere, exerted himself to procure a dispensation at Rome, and James and his son subT
scribed the religious articles respecting the infanta, after
they had been seen and corrected at the Vatican; they also
pledged themselves that the persecution against the catholics
should cease, if they only performed their worship in priva;te
houses.  Every thing seemed -now  arranged, when a romantic adventure of the prince came to disconcert the
whole project.
Villiers, who was now  marquess: of Buckingham, was
haughty and insolent, but open and sincere; a zealous
fiiend, and a violent enemy, utterly devoid of prudence,
and incapable of restraining his passions.  In the heyday
of his favor he had not hesitated to let the prince of Wales
taste of his, insolence; and that prince, who was of a cold,
proud, reserved temper, felt this deeply, and testified his
displeasure in strong terms.  A gleam  of prudence, however, probably suggested to Buckingham that, as the king
was growing old, and he was himself a young man, his
situation night not be an enviable one under the successor,
unless he had previously appeased himn.  le, therefore, bent 
all his endeavors to effect this object, and he succeeded
so completely that he soon  stood even higher with the
prince than with the king, who was now rather weary of his
insolence.
Buckingham  now took an opportunity of remarking to
the prince how slowly the treaty for his marriage went on,
and how much it might be accelerated by his own presence
at the court of Madrid, by which advantages respecting the
palatinate and other matters might also be obtained.  The
prince's imagination was kindled, and Buckinghamn then
pro.posed that they two, with a few attendants, should travel
in disguise to M[adrid.  Charles gave a ready consent; he
threw himself on his knees before his father, and having
made a previous condition that he would not consult with
any one on what he was going to request, craved his permission to undertake the journey.  Buckingham, who was
present, backed the svit, and the kiung gave a reluctant
consenlt.
But when James was left to himself and had time to refleet calmly on the matter, he saw it in its true form  of
absurdity and danger both to the person of the prince and
to his own reputation, and when they came to him next day
for their despatches, he began to explain to them the various
cogent reasons which had made him resolve to retract his




:32               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
consent. The prince remonstrated with dutiful submission,
and shedding tears; but Buckingham, who was used to deal
with him in a different way, told him  that no one in future
would believe any thing he said; that he had, contrary to his
promise, revealed the matter to some rascal who had furnished
him with these pitiful reasons, but that he would find out
who this counsellor was, and that the prince could never
forget his disappointment or forgive the author of it.  The
weak monarch, thus bullied, renewed his consent; and it
was agreed that sir Francis Cottington, the prince's secretary, and Endymion Porter, a gentleman of his bedchamber,
(both of whom  were well acquainted with Spain,) should
alone accompany them.  Cottington was forthwith sent for.
"H e will be opposed to the journey," whispered Bucking.
hamn to the prince.  "He dares not," was the reply.  When
lie came, the king having told him that he was going to be
intrusted with a secret which he must not reveal to any one,
added, "Here is baby Charles and Steeny,* who have a
great mind to go post into Spain and fetch home the infanta.
They will have but two more in their conipany, and have
chosen you for one.  What think you of the journey?"'
Cottington urged sundry objections; the king threw himself
)n his bed weeping, and crying " I told you this before,"
and lamenting and exclaiming that he was undone, and
should lose baby Charles.  Buckingham fell to reviling and
threatening Cottington; but the king said, "' Nay, by God,
Steeny, you are much to blame for using him  so.  He aniswered me directly to the question I asked him, and very
honestly and wisely; and yet you know he said no more
than I told you before he was called in." -
All ended in the king's renewing his consent.  The
prince and marquess went (Feb. 17) to a house of the
latter's in Essex; whence, attended by his master of the
horse, sir Richard Graham, and furnished with false beards
and periwigs, they proceeded to Dover, where they were
joined by Cottington  and Porter.  Under the assumed
names of Jack and Tom  Smith they passed over to Bou
* These were James's familiar names for the prince and Buckinghain. He called the latter Steeny. from a fancied resemblance between
his countenance and that of St. Stephen. James used to style himself
their dad; and Buckingham seems to have termed himself the dog of
the royal family, for as such he subscribes himself in his letters to the
king; and the queen addresses him as " My kind Dogge," in her letter
requesting him to intercede for Raleigh.
t See Clare ndon, (i. 30,) who had the account from Cottington him
self.




JIME S I.                     33
ogne aind proceeded to Paris, where they stopped one day
and saw the king, the queen-mother, and the princess Hen.
rietta at dinner, and again at a masked ball to which they
were admitted in the evening.  They travelled rapidly
through France, and on the evening of the 7th of March,
they reached Madrid(, having left their attendants a day's
journey behind.  They went straight to Bristol's house;
the prince staid in the street while Buckingham went in,
bearing their portmanteau.  Bristol is said to have evinced
little surprise at their appearance, having already had some
suspicion of their design from  conversations with Gondomar, who appears to have been the real author of the
project, which he suggested to Buckingham.  The next day,
the arrival of the prince being notified at court, he was
waited on by the prime minister, the count-duke of Olivarez, and in the evening the king in person came to visit him.
Nothing could exceed the respect with which he was treated;
the king every where gave hin'precedence; he was presented,
after the Spanish manner, with two golden keys to the royal
apartments; the council were ordered to obey him; the
prisons were thrown open, and all sumptuary laws were
suspended.
Our limits do not permit of our entering into the details
of the prince's abode in Spain.  Numbers of the English
nobility repaired thither to attend the son of their king; and
though he was not given access to the infanta, and could
only get a sight of her at a distance, the negotiation for the
marriage was proceeded in with good faith by the Spanish
court.  They were not, however, without hopes of his conversion; the pope himself wrote to him, and the reply of
Charles was conceived in such terms as must have given
good hopes of a change of his faith;@  yet Charles was at
no ti me given to change in religion or any thing else, and
we fear that we must view his conduct, on this occasion, as
an instance of the duplicity and insincerity which characterized him through life. The pontiff added some more articles
to the dispensation, the most important of which was, that
the children should be educated by their mother till they
were ten years of age.  The articles were transmitted to
London, and were sworn to by the king and council:; James
*  The letter to the pope is by your favor more than compliment;
which I never say before, and may be a warning that nothing is to be
done or said-in that nice argument but what will endure the light.'
It is thus that Clarendon writes of it to secretary Nicholas. - Clarendon
State Papers, ii. 337.




34                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
also swore privately to others for toleratir.g the catholics          i
But the death of the pontiff now caused new  delays, and 
Buckingharm had by this time resolved to break off tile match
lie regarded Bristol as his political rival, and lie was jealous
of the consideration with which he was treated;  he had had
several quarrels with Olivarez: the Spaniards, on the other
hand, viewed with disgust his shameless profigacy, his arrogant temper, and the want of respect and decorum  in his
conduct toward the prince.  He was also anxious to get back 
to the English court, where he found that he had mnore enemies than he had suspected.
James, under pretext of the new  delay, was induced tc. 
send an order for the return of the prince.  It was now
arranged that a procuration should be left with Bristol, to be
delivered after the arrival of the dispensation; that the,
espousals should take  place before Christlmas, and the
prince he represented by Philip himself or his brother Don
Carlos.  The infanta took the- title of princess of England,
and a suitable court was formed for her.  BuclkinghaCm, as
lord high-admiral, having gone before to see that the fleet
was ready, Charles took a solemn leave of the queen and
the infanta; Philip accompanied him'on his waiy as far as
the Escurial, and they parted as brothers.  Several of the
Spanish  grandees  accompanied Charles to  St. A. ldero,
where he embarked; and on the 5th of October he landed
safely at Portsmouth, to the great joy of the king and the
nation.
The dispensation came from Rome on the 12th of November.  Philip appointed the 29th for the espousals, and
the 9th of December for the marriage; the nobility w.ere
invited to attend, the towns and cities of Spain iwere co)- 
manded to malie public rejoicings, when couriers camne
from England to Bristol, ordering him  not to deliver tihe
proxy, to prepare to return to England, and to tell Philip           i
that James would only go on with the marriauge on condition of his giving a pledge to take up arms in defence of'
the palatinate.  Philip justly complained of the indignity
thus offered him; the orders for the marriage were recalledl
and the infanta with tears laid down her new title.  Bristol,
on his return, was ordered to remain at his country seat
and to consider himself a prisoner, and thus at once fell
dowan the edifice which James had been so many years
erecting.
In all this it is easy to discern the influence of Bucking
ham, but the Spaniards were the dupes of their own arti-.




JAMES I.                     35
fices. They had protracted the negotiations for years, in
the hope of extorting the most favorable terms possible
for the catholic religion in Eng'and.  Their object was
certainly a laudable one, for it evinced a zeal for what they
regarded as the truth; but their zeal carried them too far.
and they injured rather than served their co-religionists.
As for prince Charles, it had perhaps been fortunate for
him if he had married the infanta, for his subsequent mis.
ortunes may, in a great measure, be ascribed to the influ-ice of his queen.
With the large dower of the Spanish princess, James
nad hoped to relieve his pecuniary embarrassments, but that
hope being gone, no resource remained but to summon a
parliament.  To this measure, when urged by the prince
and Buckingham, he gave an unwilling consent, and when
parliament met (Feb. 24, 1624) he addressed it, submitting
the late negotiations and all other matters to its considera
tion.  Qn the subject of religion, he required them to judge
him charitably as they would be judged, adding that he had
certainly, on sundry occasions, relaxed the severity of the
penal laws; but as to dispensing with or altering them, "I
never," he cried, "promised nor yielded, I never thought it
with my heart, nor spoke it with my mouth."  This daring
falsehood he uttered in the presence of his son and Buckingham, who well knew his oath to the secret articles of the
marriage treaty!
A few days after, Buckingham  addressed the two houses
the prince standing by to prompt him  and vouch for the
truth of' what he said. By the aid of downright falsehoods,
of misrepresentations, of garbled extracts of despatches, he
made out, to the satisfaction of those who were glad of any
pretext for a quarrel with Spain, that the Spanish court
had been insincere from first to last in the negotiation.  An
address was voted requesting the king to break off the
treaties with the court of Madrid; Buckingham  became a
universal favorite; bonfires and public rejoicings testifier
the delight of the people at the prospect of a war with the
papists. The king gave a reluctant consent to a war, and
the commons voted a sum of 390,0001. for carrying it on,
which, at the king's own desire, was to be paid into the
hands of treasurers appointed by themselves.
Cranborne, earl of Middlesex, lord treasurer, was now
impeached for bribery and other misdemeanors.  He was
a citizen of London, who had risen chiefly through the
favor of Buckingham; but he had of late incurred his dis



Jo z   36         HTSTORY OF ENGLAND.
pleasure, and his patron and the prince now urged on his
impeachment: the king, who saw further into matters than
either of them, "told tha duke that he was a fool and was
cutting a rod for his own breech, and the prince that he
would live to have his belly-full of impeachments; "' but
they heeded him' not: Middlesex was found guilty by the
lords.
Toward the end of this year a treaty of marriage was
effected between the prince of Wales and the princess Ienrietta Maria, sister of the king of France.  Unhappily for
the house of Stuart, one of the articles was, that the queen
should have the education of the' children  till they were
thirteen years of  ge.  James and his son, heedless of their
late oathst and protestations, also agreed to articles which
nearly amounted to a toleration of the catholic religion.
The king thus at length succeeded in his darling object
of obtaining a high match for his son; but he was not fated
to witness his marriage.  He died on the 27th of March in
the following year, (1625,) after a fortnight's illness.  His
disorder was said to be tertian ague and gout in the stomach.
He met his end with great constancy and devotion, charging
his son to be steadfast in his religion, and not to desert his
sister and her children.
i, *The character of this monarch was a strange mixture of
sense and folly.  On perusing his writings, one cannot fail
to be struck with the shrewdness, sagacity, and good sense
which they exhibit; yet ever and anon something occurs to
prove that the author was not a wise man.  It was, however,
in his actions that James's folly most displayed itself, and
here he forfeits all claims to respect.  Wisdom  in conduct
is never, we believe, to be found where moral courage
is absent, and this last usually requires physical courage for
its support.  In this Jamnes was notoriously deficient; and
hence nothing great, little good, can be recorded of him.
His treatment of Arabella Stuart was cowardly and cruel,
that of Raleigh unjust and pusillanimous; in the case of
the Sonmersets his conduct was disgraceful.  In his habits
James was filthy; he drank to excess, he swore and blasphemed in an odious manner; he had a nasty trick of kissing.  Clarendon, i. 4
t Charles had, a lew months before, Dound himself by oath, " That
whensoever it should please God to bestow upon him any lady thlat
were popish, she should have no further liberty but for her own family,
and no advantage-to the recusants at home." Journal of Commons,
7'iG.  Lingard, ix. 302.




JAME-S 1.                      37
and beslubbering his favorites, that gave rise to surri ses of
improper familiarities, which, however, are without proof,
and therefore are entitled to no credit.  In a word, with all
his learning and his talents, it would be difficult to find a
monarch less entitled to respect than James I.
The court of James was licentious and profligate to an ex
treme degree, and if we may believe the accounts of the time,
even the court-ladies appeared in public in a state ~' beastly
intoxication.  The whole story of the Somersets presents a
lamentable picture of aulic depravity.  At the same time, the
court was often the scene of great magnificence, and those
stately masques where Ben Jonson supplied the poetry, and
Inigo Jones the machinery, far exceeded any of the court entertainments of succeeding times.
The history of the reign of James is more that of the court
than of the nation.  The most important national event which
it contains is that of the colonization of the north of Ireland,
which we will now briefly relate.
On the suppression of the rebellion of the Desmonds in
the late reign, their immense territories had become forfeit
to the crown.  A plan of colonization was adopted, and the
lands were parcelled out among undertakers (as they were
named) at low rents. The grants, however, were too large
and the conditions were not duly complied' with, so that
though Mlunster thus received a large accession of English
blood, (the stock of its nobility and gentry of the present
day,) the experiment was a failure.  After the accession of
James, O'Neal and O'Donnel, the great northern chieftains,
fled to Spain, and their territories, amounting to half a million
of acres, fell to the crown.  The king and Bacon then devised a system of colonization wz0hich was carried into effect
by sir Arthur Chichester, the lord deputy.  The grants were
to be in three classes of 2000, 5   and 1000 acres.  Those
who obtained the first were to build a castle and a bawn -or
strong court-yard; the next a house of stone or brick and a
btiwn; the third a bawn only. They were all bound to plant
on their lands, in certain proportions, able-bodied men of
English or Lowland-Scottish birth, who were to live in
villages, and not dispersedly.  A portion of these lands were
also granted to the native Irish.  This was a noble plan, and
though, like every thing designed for the benefit of that unhappy country, the cupidity and injustice of those who sought
their profit iin oppressing the natives, prevented its attaining
its object fully, it has been productive of great and permanent
benefit; and what was formerly the wildest and most barbaVOL. II.      4




t,388            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
rous part of even Ireland, is now that which in industry and
civilization makes the nearest approach to England.
In the fifteenth year of his reign (1617) the king re-visited
his native realm.  The chief object of his visit was to extend
his power in matters of religion, and to seek to approximate
the churches of England and Scotland   In this last country,
between the avidity of the great lords, who had robbed the
church of its landed property without shame or remorse, and
the fanatic spirit of the reformed preachers, and the feebleness of the crown, the ancient system of church government
had been unable to keep its ground.  Episcopacy had been
formally abolished, and the republican form  named Presbytery erected in its place.  But man is still man, under all
forms; and the revolters against spiritual tyranny, pious and
well intentioned as they undoubtedly were, even exceeded the
pretensions of their predecessors; and since the days of
Becket, Britain had witnessed no such assumptions of' immunity from  civil jurisdiction as were put forth by Melville,
Black, and other chamipions of the church and opposers of
the crown in Scotland.  Their conduct, however, havingled
to a tumult in Edinburgh, in which the king ran some risk,
the parliament was induced to pass a law establishing the
authority of the crown over the clergy, and the king succeeded in obtaining the consent of the clergy to his appointanent of fifty-one of their number to titular prelacies, who
were to sit in parliament as representatives of the church.
In this state of' things James succeeded to the crown of
England.
In 1606 an act of the legislature restored to the bishops
a part of their revenues; they were some time after made
perpetual moderators of the provincial synods, and they finally (1610) regained all their original powers, the rights of
ordination and spiritual jurisdiction being vested in them.
When the king visited Scotland (1617) he required that some
of the rites of the church of England should be adopted,
such as kneeling at the eucharist, giving it to persons on
their deathbed, and the practice of confirmation by a bishop.
These were rejected by the first assembly which was convened, but the following year means were found for having
them  received, and the Scottish clergy were thus brought
into a reluctant agreement with the church, which they regarded as little better than that of Rome.
The state of religion in England during this reign was far
from  satisfactory.  After the death of archbishop Whitgifi
(1603) the king conferre the primacy on Bancroft, bishop
I _ _ _ _ _ __       _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _      -  -. -   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -  




JAMIES 1.                       39,f Lrondon, a prelate distinguished by his zeal against presbytery and puritanism.  The puritan  ministers underwent
the persecution of being silenced, disgraced, and imprisoned,
while Bancroft lived; but his successor, Abbot, a far better
man, had a leaning toward their opinions, and they now  experienced favor rather than the reverse.
Hitherto the protestants in general had held most of the
opinions which are termed Calvinistic, especially on the subject of predestination, or the absolute decrees of the Eeity,
as it was explained in the writings of St. Augustine; but
about this time the milder doctrine of the Greek fathers had
been promulgated in Holland by Aruminius, from  whom  it
was henceforth named.  Jamnes, who had been reared in the
opposite sentiment, was quite  outrageous, when  Vorstius,
who held these opinions, was appointed to a professorship at
Leyden.  The States, to propitiate him, were obliged to deprive and banish their new professor; indeed, the king hinted that they might as well have committed him to the flames.
Yet James himrself, and a portion of the prelates and clergy,
afterwards adopted the Arminian tenets.  It is rather curious
that those who thus became the most strenuous asserters
of the freedom of man's will were the great upholders ofI the
doctrines of divine right and passive obedience.',
The liberties of England owe so much to the puritans,
that one feels little inclined to dwell on their errors; but
jun tice requires that they should appear in their true colors,
and not be suffered to make a monopoly, as it were, of virtue
and goodness.  In piety and in moral conduct they were,
taken on the whole, superior to their opponents; but they
were harsh and morose, inquisitorial and censorious, absurdly
* The following anecdote is well known: " On the day of the dissolution of the last parliament of king Jamles I., Mr. Waller, out of curiosity or respect, went to see the king at dinner, with whom were Dr.
Andrews, the bishop of Winchester, and Dr. Neal, bishop of Durham,
standing behind his majesty's chair. There happened something very
extraordinary in the conversation these prelates had with the king, on
which Mr. Waller did often reflect. His majesty asked the bishops,
dMy lords, cannot I take my subjects' money when I want it. without
all this formality in parliament?' The bishop of Durha.m readily answered,'God forbid, sir, but you should; you are the breath of our
nostrils.' Whereupon the king turned and said to the bishop of Winchester,'W ell, my lord, what say you?''Sir,' replied the bishop,' [ have no skill to judge of' parliamentary cases.' The king answered,
4 No put-offs, my lord.''Then, sir,' said he,'I think it is lawful for
yo:m:o take my brother Neal's money, for he offers it.' Mr. Waller
said the company was pleased with this answer. and thesvit of it seemed
to affect the king."- Life of Waller, prefixed to his Poems.




40Q               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
scrupulous about trifles, and the enemies of all pleasure and
innocent recreation.  The modes, however, of opposing therj
that were employed were injudicious. The persecution of
them was of a kind calculated rather to annoy and irritate
than to suppress, and the publication of the'Book of Sports,'
though well intended, did more harm than good.  The folowing was the occasion of it. The puritans had beesi gradually converting the Christian Lord's Day into a Judaicai
Sabbath, -not, we may observe, the Sabbath of the Mosaic
law, in which, as at all their festivals, the people of Israel
were'to rejoice before the Lord,' but a-gloomy, sullen day of'
hearing sermons and shunning all innocent recreutions,and this, in their usual arbitrary spirit, they would have forced
on all, whatever their opinions might be.  T'he catholics
naturally took occasion to censure the reformed religion for
this gloom and morosity; and the king and his clerical advisers thinking differently from the puritans on the subject, a
proclamation was issued, forbidding any one to prevent the
people from having, after divine service, dancing, archery,
leaping, vaulting, and other manly and harmless recreations,
as also may-poles, may-games, Whitsun-ales, and morrisdances.  Bull-baiting, bear-baiting, interludes, and bowls,
were prohibited.  No recusant, however, was to have the
benefit of this liberty, which was confined to those who had
attended divine service that day.' The Book of Sports,' as
it was termed, was ordered to be read out in the churches;
but primate Abbot forbade it to be read in his presence at
Croydon, and it only served to give the puritans an occasion
of representing their opponents as being totally devoid of religion.
The houses of commons during this reign were deeply
pervaded by the puritanical spirit —.a proof of its prevalence
throughout the nation.  Hence, with their zeal for repressing
th~ abuses of the prerogative, and securing the liberties of
the people, were joined an anxiety for the persecution of the
catholics, and a continued effort to extend the rigid principles of their party
X When, in 1621, a bill was brought into the commons for the more
strict observance of the Sabbath, Mr. Shepherd opposed it.; he objected
to the word Sabbath, justified dancing on that day by the example of
king David, and was for allowing sports on it. For this boldness he
was, on the motion of Mr. Pym, expelled the house  Such were putri
tanical notions of freedom of speech




CHARLES P.                      41
CHAPTER III.
CHARLES 1.
1625-1629.
Tim new monarch, now in the twenty-fifth year;of his age,
offered-in his morals and character a favorable contrast to
his father.  He was grave and serious in his deportment,
regular in his conduct, a lover and a patron of the:fine arts,
but an enemy to licentiousness and riot of every. kind.  He
had, however, imbibed:to the fullest extent his father's absurd
notions of the divine rights of kings, and their accountability
to God alone for the discharge of the duties of their high
office.  Any attempts to limit his authority he regarded as
usurpation and rebellion, and, as we shall see, he held that
any concessions extorted from the monarch were revocable,
as contrary to his duty to God to grant.  Charles was also
sincerely attached to the episcopal form of government in
the church. To his misfortune, he was also blindly devoted
to the insolent, rapacious, self-willed, domineering upstart
whom  the folly of his father had gorged with wealth and
offices,* and made ruler of htimself and his kingdom.
The first care of Charles was to celebrate his marriage
with the princess Henrietta Maria.  The nuptials were performed by proxy at Paris, (May 1,) whither the duke of
Buckingham repaired-with a splendid train to conduct the
young queen into England.  The king met her at Dover,
and thence took her to Hampton Court, as the plague was
raging in London.
On the 18th of June Charles's first parliament met at Westminster.  The king submitted to it the state of his finances;
he was encumbered by a debt of his father's to a large
amount; he had all the expenses of his marriage and other
charges to meet, and he was about to be engaged in a war
against the whole house of Austria.  To meet all these, "the
house of commons," HTume sarcastically observes, "conducted by:the wisest and ablest senators that had ever flourished
X He was lord high admiral of England and Ireland, warden of the
cinque ports, master of the horse, justice in eyre of the forests and
chases this side the Trent, constable of Windsor castle, knight of the
garter, &c. &c. The wealth that had been heaped upon him is alinost
past computation.
4~       -IF
-. 




42                HISTORY OF ENGLAND
in England, thought proper to confer on the king a supply
of two subsidies, amounting to 112,0001.!"  Such conduct
appears to be, as that partial writer represents it, a cruel
mockery of an innocent and a confiding young monarch.
When carefully examined, however, it will perhaps appear inl
a different light.  We. will, for this purpose, take a brief view
of the composition of the two houses of parliament.
During the whole of the Tudor period we have seen the
house of lords the humble, instruments of the will of the
crown, to whose bounty they owed their wealth and honors.
But nearly a century's possession of the monastic lands had
inspired many of them with a feeling of security and independence; and as they gazed on the venerable turrets of
Wilton, Woburn, and the other abbeys and priories which
now formed their abodes, they caught a portion of the spirit
which had animated the barons of the days whose memory
these stately piles recalled.  Their honors, too, had acquired
the sanction of time, and they viewed with disdain the dignities of the upstart Buckingham, whose pride, insolence, and
rapacity galled their souls.  An opposition to the crown,
composed of these men arid of the maintainers of puritan
doctrines, now appeared in the lords, and its strength may be
estimated by the circumstance of the earl of Penmbroke, its
head, being the holder of ten proxies, only three less tharn
those of Buckingham, the dispenser of wealth and favor.*
In the commons there were the two parties essential to a
popular assembly in a monarchy - the supporters of the crown
and its measures, and the opponents of abuses and advocates
for the rights and privileges of the subjects; that is, the
court and the country-party.  The former were a minority,
and they felt the necessity of proceeding with caution, extenuating and softening rather than defending abuses.  The
latter were mostly puritans, zealous against all that appeared
to them superstitious in religion, hostile to the exorbitant
powers exercised by the prelates, and perhaps in many cases
secretly inclined to the presbyterian form; t but at the same
time sincerely anxious for the national rights and liberties.
There were other members, (afterwards known by the name
* It was shortly afterwards resolved that no peer should hold more
than two, which continues to be the rule. This practice, by the way,
supposes either a superlative degree of wisdom, or an unreasoning
spirit of party in peers, who thus vote on all questions without having
heard the arguments for and against them.
t That there was such a spirit abroad is evident from the demands
made at the Hampton-court conference. See above, p. 8




CHARLES I.                     43
of patriots,) who were more zealous for civil liberty than for
changes in religious ceremonies, and who did not view with
any great abhorrence the cope and surplice or the weddingring.  Such were sir PEdward Coke, sir Thomas Cotton, John
Selden, John Pym, and others.
Puritans and patriots were alike animated by a zeal against
popery.  One of the first proceedings of the connmons was to
require every member to receive the sacrament in St. IMargaret's church, and thus testify his attachment to the protestant religion; for there was now a regular establishment
oi capuchin friars at Somerset-house, the residence of the
queen, and these men boldly paraded the streets in their habits; the jesuits and other priests also began to show themselves openly in various places, and the court was known to
be full of catholics.  The commons then petitioned the king
to entorce the laws against recusants.  Dr. Montague, one
of the court-divines, having published a work called " Appello
Cresarem," recommending the catholics to the favor of government, and representing the puritans as a people desiring
an anarcny, and therefore to be discouraged, he was summoned to answer for it at the bar of the house of commons.
The Armrinians exerted themselves in his favor; the king
declared that he was one of his chaplains; but all availed
not; he was torced to give securities to answer the charge
of contempt ot the house, and impugning the articles of the
church of EnTgland.
The object of the king was to obtain an immediate supply of money; the commons wished to couple with it a redress of grievances. They saw that the king was a mere
puppet in the hands of Buckingham, and they now had their
doubts of the justice of the war with Spain, into which he
was about to plunge the nation. They were loath to vote a
large sum without conditions, and they could not with a good
grace refuse supplies.  They therefore adopted a middle
course; they voted two subsidies, (about 140,0001.) for immediate use.  They also, instead of voting, as had long been
the usage, the duties of tonnage and poundage to the king
for life, granted them only for a year. The lords, however,
rejected this bill.  At the request of the two houses, on
account of the plague, there was an adjournment for three
weeks, when they were to meet at Oxford.
The parliament now learned the following circumstance.
King James had promised the French king to aid him by
a loan of eight armed vessels to be employed against Spain
in the Mediterranean.  These ships, under admiral Pen



44               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
nington, came to Dieppe, and there the crews suspected, cr
rather discovered, that they were to be employed against the
Huguenots of Rochelle. They forthwith drew up a round
robin, and laid it under the admiral's prayer-book, and Pennington, declaring that he would rather be hanged for disobedience in England than-fight against his fellow-protestants
in France, returned to the Downs.  Buckingham, by false
representations, induced them to return to France; but
when they found that they had been deceived, they, with
the exception of one gunner, abandoned their vessels, which
were taken by the French and employed against Rochelle.
The knowledge of this did not prepossess the commons
much in:favor of the king and Buckingham. They therefore still talked of a redress of grievances as preliminary to
a supply; they put sundry questions to the duke, asking,
among others, if he had not broken off the match with
Spain out of spleen to Olivarez, and whether he had not
made that with France on still less favorable terms.  They
were in train to impeach him; but the king, to save him,
dissolved the parliament, contrary to the advice of his privy
council.
It is usual, with the advocates of Cha;les, to make it a
heavy charge against the parliament, that they had involved
him in a war with Spain and then refused the supplies. But
war had not yet been declared, and Charles was under no
necessity of entering into it.  Urged on, however, by his
own passions or those of Buckingham, he was bent on war
with that monarchy.  To show his protestant zeal, he, in
violation of his engagements at his marriage issued a proclamation enforcing the laws against recusants; to raise
money he levied tonnage and poundage at the ports, though
the bill for it had not passed; he issued privy-seals to the
nobility and gentry, and suspended the payment of all fees
and salaries.  Ships and troops had meantime been assembled at Plymouth, and in the month of October a fleet of
ninety sail, carrying ten thousand soldiers, put to sea.
Buckinglham had given the command to sir Edward Cecil,
now lord Wimbledon, a man advanced in years, who had
long been in the Dutch service, but who was generally held
to be incompetent. Cadiz was the place fixed on for attack, but no council of war was held till they were in sight
of the port, and time was thus given for escape to the shipping, which might have been captured had they entered the
port at once.  The ttroops, however landed and marched
rapidly to seclire the bridge leading from the.isle, in which




CHARLES I.                      45
Cadiz stands, to the main land.  But the soldiers, meeting
with cellars full of wine, got drunk and unruly, and their
timid leader reembarked them, though no enemy had appeared.  He then sailed to intercept the Plate-fleet, but, it
passed him in the night.  He returned to Plymouth, (Dec.
8,) after losing more than one thousand men by disease. The
council instituted an inquiry, but after many examinations
of Wimbledon and his officers, they judged it best to bury
the affair in silence.
The failure of this project was a heavy blow to the king.
Had it succeeded, and had he ootten the plunder' of Cadiz
and the Plate-fleet, he would have been, in some measure,
independent of his parliament; but now he had rashly run
into a war, and without the aid of the commons he had no
mode of extricating himself.  He had, moreover, pledged
his word to call a parliament after Christmas.  All, therefore, that could be dIone, was to try to break the strength
of the opposition.  Pembroke was induced to seek a reconciliation with Buckinghamn; and the great seal was taken
from bishop Williams, whom Buckingham  feared, and comrnmitted to sir Thomas Coventry.  In order to exclude Coke,
and six others most hostile to the favorite from the house of
commons, the king himself inserted their names in the list of
sheriffs for the ensuing year: at the same time new proclamations were issued against the recusants, to convince the
nation of the king's zeal fotr religion.
The king was crowned on Candlemas-day, (1626,) and
four days after, (Feb. 6,) the parliament met.  They appointed committees of religion, of grievances, and of evils,
their causes and remedies.
The progress of their inquiries was not pleasing to the
kiig: he reminded them of his wants; they promised three
subsidies and three fifteenths, if a favorable answer were
given to their prayer for the redress of grievances; the king
advised them to hasten the supply; else, said he, " it will be
worse for yourselves; for if any evil happen, I think I shall
be he last that shall feel it."  The commons promised obedience, but ere they proceeded in the matter, they came to
the resolution of impeaching the favorite, as the main cause'! i     to;:' the evils for which they sought redress.  Buckingham had
i now also a formidable foe in the lords.  The earl of Bristol
wrote to the peers, complaining that his writ of summons had
been withheld.  On their noticing it, the king directed that
the writ should be issued, but at the same time he wrote to
Bristol, ordering him not to avail himself of it.  Bristol sent




46               I-IIE TORY OF ENGLAND
this letter to the house, asking their advice on the subjects
and claiming permission to appear and accuse his enemy of
high crimes and misdemeanors.  Forthwith the attorneygeneral, by order of the king and Buckingham, charged
Bristol himself with high treason.  The lords resolved tc
hear both parties, giving precedence to the last, but deciding
that the charge against the earl should not impeach his tes
timony.'Ihe charges made against Bristol chiefly rested on the
testimony of the king himself. Against this, as an injurious
precedent, the earl properly remonstrated.  Still, however,
their intrinsic weakness was such that he was able easily to
make a full and convincing reply to them. To the charges
which Ahe made against the duke no reply was given.  He
accused him of having conspired with Gondomar to draw the
prince to Spain that he might be there induced to change
his religion; of having while there disgraced his country
by his indecent and licentious conduct; of having broken
off the treaty because the Spanish council refused to treat
with him, and of having on his return deceived the king and
parliament.
The commons, having voted that "common fame is a good
ground of proceedings for that house," sent up to the lords
an impeachment against the duke.  The managers of it were
sir Dudley Digges, sir John Eliot, John Selden, John Pym,
and four other members.  They charged him with the purchase and the sale of offices, with procuring titles and
pensions for his kindred anid allies, with giving the ships to
be employed against Rochelle, with embezzling the king's
money and obtaining grants of the crown lands, with having
given plasters and potions to the late king in his sickness,
etc. The king, asserting himself to be implicated by Digges
and Eliot in the terms which they employed in urging this
last charge, committed them both to the T'ower.  The comnmons refusing to proceed with any business till their members
were released, sir Dudley Carleton was so imprudent as to
remind them  how in other countries kings, finding parliaments to turn liberty to license, took away and abolished
them; " ano now," said he, "the common people, wanting
good food, look more like ghosts than men, and go in canvass
cloth and wooden shoes."  For this he narrowly escaped
being made to ask pardon on his klinees.  Digges and Eliot
having denied or explained what was laid to their charge.
were set at liberty.  The duke made a plausible defence
drawn up for him by sir Nicholas Hyde, an eminent lawyer




CHARLES I.                      47
and the king, effeatually to screen him, dissolved the parliaj ment, (June 15,) though the supplies had not been voted.
To the prayer of the lords for a short delay, he replied, "' No,
not of'one minute," and in a' Declaration' which he issued,
he stated " that in this, as in all his other royal actions, he
is not bound to give an account to any but to God alone,
whose itnimmediate vicegerent he is."  The earls of Arui-iel
and Bristol, as the duke's enemies, were both placed in confinemnent.
Charles had at this time family dissensions also Lo annoy
him.  The young queenl was under the complete influence
of her priests and her servants.  The former had actually
inmade her walk on foot in penance to Tyburn, the scene of
the death of so many martyrs of the catholic cause, and they
gave great offence by al)pearing publicly in their habits.
The latter made her abandon the study of English, and fiurnished her with pretexts for quarrelling with the king. After
a good deal of difficulty and opposition, Charles succeeded
in clearing his pailace and kingdom  of these mischievous
peop)le.  A new household was formed for the queen, who
gradually got over her ill-humor, and she soon acquired a
fatll influence over the mind of her husband.
The king now saw plainly that parliament would only
grant supplies on the condition of the redress of grievances,
and as he was resolved not to be dictated to by them, he proceeded to raise money witl-out their aid.  THe continued to
levy tonn.age and poundage, though they had not be.en
granted; the crown lands were made, by leases and other
means, more prodllctive; the fines on recusants were more
strictly exacted; privy-seals were again issued.  The seaports were required to supply and rmaintain for three months
a certain number of arned vessels, and the lords-lieutenant
of the count;es had directions to muster and train the people
to arms, as invasion was apprehended.  An attempt was
made to prevail on the people to pay the amount of the subsidies voted by the parliament; but in London, Middlesex,
and Kent, which were first applied to, the people indignantly
rejected the proposition.  A new plan was then adopted;  a
loan to the amount of three subsidies (200,00Q,1.) wa.s demainded, each man to give according to the rate at,xVich Ihe
woas assessed iu t the last subsidy. The clergy were instiructed
"to stir tp all sorts of people to express their zeal to (-ord
and their duty to the kingc," in this iatter; and the coinmissioners of the loan were directed to deal with each petr-<'8x1
separately, to insist on the required sum, to examine himoI5 o l




48               HISTORY" OF ENGLAND.
oath respecting his motives and advisers if he declined, anr,
to furnish the privy council with- the names of those who
persisted in refusing.
This arbitrary mode of taxation was enforced by despotic
measures of power. The inferior people, who refused to lend
what was not likely ever to be repaid, were impressed and
sent to serve in the army or navy; the gentry were called
before the council, and several of them  were committed to
prison. Five of these, sir Thomas Darnel, John Corbet,
Walter Earl, John Heveningham, and Everard Hampden,
applied to the court of king's bench for their writ of habeas
corpyis; the writ was granted, but the warden of the Fleet
made return that the warrant of the privy council assigned
no particular cause for their imprisonment.  The case therefore came to be argued  (Nov. 7) before the court over
which sir Nicholas Hyde now prestided.  Noy, Selden, and
other eminent lawyers appeared for the prisoners.  Heath,
the attorney-general, supported the pretensions of the crown.
The former argued from the article of  Magna Charta that
" no fieeman shall be taken or imprisoned iunless by lawful
judgment of his peers, or the law of the land," and the repeated assertions of this principle, giving precedents of the
admission to bail of persons committed by the council during
the Tudor period.  Heath replied on high prerogative principles, alluding to the king's absolute power, and arguing
from the legal maxim,' The king can do no wrong,' that a
sufficient cause must have existed, though it was not set
forth; the precedents cited on the other side, he contended,
did not apply to the present case. Thle court decided (27th)
in favor of the crown. " The consequence of this decision,"
an able writer observes, "was that every statute, fiom the
time of Magna Charta, designed to protect the personal liberties of Englishmen, became a dead letter; since the insertion of four words in a warrant, (per speciale mandatum
regis,) which might become matter of form, would control
their remedial efficacy."
The protestant cause had sustained great reverses in Germ";ny, and his allies there now required aid of'the king of
Englan d.  His evil genius Buckingham  had also engaged
Ilim in a war with France.  This worthless, insolent minion
had, as we have seen, been sent over to conduct Henrietta
Maria to England.  He there presumed to make love to the
young  queen Anne of Austria; but found he had a rival in cardinal Richelieu himself; and.when, after setting out with his
fair charge, he privately returned to Paris, he got a hint that'.@_____.,_.    __                                                  A   e St_......._._I':-.,t_-......' —'.: w' Sb_.mn.'':-Ido




CHARLES I.                     49
If he persisted in his design he would be assassinated. "He
swore in the instant that he would. see and speaak with that
lady in spite of the strength and power of France," and he
did see and speak with her in a brief interview; but he
never could obtain permission to return to the French court.
Revenge then actuated him: he sought to alienate the king
from the queen, and behaved to her himself with the greatest
rudeness and insolence.  Something, for example, having
occurred to prevent her calling on his mother at an appointed
hour, he came in a high rage to her, and among other rude
expressions told her " she should repent it." The queen replyingr with some quickness, he added that "there had been
queens in England who had lost their heads." By provoking
and insulting the French court in various ways he sought,
but in vain, to draw it into a declaration of war.  He then
resolved to commence hostilities himself.  Soubise, one of
the principal Huguenot leaders, came over to England to
concert measures; and a fleet and army were assembled at
Portsmouth.
On the 27th of June, 1627, the duke made sail for Rochelle with one hundred ships, carrying about seven thousand
soldiers. - The gates of that town, however, were shut against
him, the people alleging that they could not act without the
consent of the other mermbers of their union, (who were
now at peace with the crown;) but they agreed to furnish
stiilplies, if the English remained in the neighborhood.  For
this purpose it was necessary to take possession of the isle
of Rihe, or that of Oleron; the latter near PRochelle, well
supplied with wine, oil, etc., and feebly garrisoned; the other
more distant, and defended by a citadel and a strong garrison.  Buckingham  proposed to attack the former; but
while Sonbise was gone to consult the people of the town, he
larndJetd (July 12) in the isle of Rhe; the garrison opposed
him gallantly, but were forced to retire.  Instead of attacking the fibrt at once, he passed five days in inaction; in the
interval fresh troops came over to the isle, and the fort wias
strengthened.  At length he advanced against it; but he
co:-mitted one error after another, and at last (Oct. 09)
raised the siege and commenced his retreat.  The route
partly lay along a narrow causeway or mound, with salt-pits
on each side.  The French seized the time for attack when
a part of the troops were on the causeway, the cavalry were
driven among the foot and trampled them down, and num
hers were forced into the pits and there drowned.  The loss
of the English was about two thousand men.  Buckingham
VOL. I. 5. 




60                 HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
is said to have shown great personal courage on this oc.
casion; but this is the praise of a mere soldier rather than
of a general, and entitles him to little commnendation.
The French protestants had been induced by the solicitations of the English court to take arms against their king.
Rochelle was menaced by the royal arms, and the people iunplored Charles to aid them.  This he engaged to do in the
strongest terms, binding himself never to abandon theml.  A
new expedition was planned; when the question came hoxN
the money was to be raised, some of the council proposed
the legal modle of summoning a parliament.'To this the
king  with  much  reluctance*: assented, and  writs were
issued.  Sundry illegal modes of raising money were, however, previously tried; but all proving ofi lone effect, the
king once more met the grand council of the nation, (Mlar.
17, 162S.)
The primate, who had been suspended for refusing  to
license one of the political sermons in favor of the forced
loan,' bishop Williams, whom  Buckingham  had caused to
be sent to the T'ower, and the earl of Bristol, who was
charged with treason, were permitted to take their seats in
the upper house.  The gentlemen (seventy-eight in number)
who were confined for refusing the forced loan, were set at
liberty, and  they  were  all returned  for various places.
"Never before," says Lingard, " had parliament asserbled
under auspices more favorable to the cause of fieedom. The
sense of the nation had been loudly proclaimed by the elections, which had generally fallen on persons distinguished by
their recent opposition to the court; it was the interest of
the lords to cooperate with men who sought the protection of private property and personal liberty; and the sainme
necessity which had compelled the king to summon a parlia,
* Some time before, "at the council-table, some proposing a parlia:ment, the king said he did abowminate the Lanme." — Mede, Letters, Sep'
30, 1626.
t One Sibthorpe preached a sermon enforcing passive obedience
If the commands of the prince, he said, were against the laws of God or
nature, or impossible, the subject was rot, as in all other cases, bound
to active obedience, but he was to passive obedience, that is, " to nll
dergo the punishment without either resistance, or railing, or revilingo."
The king commanded the primate to license this sermon himself; (not
in the ordinary way, by one of' his chaplains;) Abbot, on reading it.
refused; he was then suspended, and Laud bishop of London licensed
it forthwith. At this time also. Dr. Manwaring, one of the royal cha.lains, preached two sermons at court, maintaining that the king is not
bound to obey the laws; that he may lay on what taxes he pleases, and
that all are bound to pay thein under pain of eternal darn-nation.




CHARLES I.                      51
ment placed him  without resource at the mercy of his sub 
jects."
But Charles would not or could not see this.  He addressed them  in high terms, telling them plaitnly that it was
only as a means of obtaining money that he had called them
together; and that if they did not do their duty in contributing, "he must, in discharge of his conscience, use those
other means which God had put into his hands to save that
which the follies of'other men may otherwise hazard to lose."' Take not this," he added, " as threatening, (I scorn to
threaten any but my equals,) but as an admonition from him
that both out of nature and duty hath most care of your preservations and- prosperities."
The commons manifested no offence at this haughty language; they voted a supply of five subsidies, to be paid
within a twvelvemnonth.  But when the king thought to grasp
the prize, he was met by demands, his assent to which was a
necessary preliminary to the passing of a bill granting the
supplies.  Four resolutions had been passed unanimously,
viz. 1. Nio freemana to be imprisoned without a lawful cause
expressed.  2. The writ of habeas corpus to be granted in
all cases. 3. If the return assigns no cause, he is to be delivered or bailed. 4. No tax or loan to be levied by the king
without an act of parliament.  At a conference with the
peers the case was argued by Selden, Coke, and others on
one side, and by the crown-lawyers on the other.  The lords
made some amendments, which were rejected by the commons.  During two months Charles had recourse to every
expedient to escape the necessity of parting with his arbitrary power.  At length (May 23) his assent was solicited
to the celebrated' Petition of Right.' This stated, 1. That
freemen had been required to lend money to the king, and
on refusing had been  molested  with oaths, arrests, etc.
2. That persons thus arrested, and no cause assigned, had
been remanded when brought up by. writ of habeas corpus.
3. That soldiers had been billeted in private houses, to the
great grievance of the inhabitants.  4. That soldiers and
sailors were tried for their imputed offences by martial law,
and not by the law of the land.  It prayed that all such proceedings should cease, " as being contrary to the rights and
liberties of the subject and the laws and statutes of the nation."
Charles resolved to dissemble.  In a few days (June 2) ho
came to give the royal assent to the bill formed fiom  the petition; but, instead of the usual brief Soit droit fait cornome
il est desire, it was long and ambiguous.  The commons
X, _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _                }__




52              EHISTORY OF:ENGLAND.
were filled with grief and despair; but their spirit soon re.
vived, and they were on the point of voting Buckingham' the grievance of grievances."  The danger of the favorite
shook the resolution of the monarch, and he gave his assent
to the bill in the usual manner, amidst loud acclamations of
applause. The subsidy bills were speedily passed; but they
were followed by a remonstrance imputing all the late national evils and losses to Buckingham, and praying for his
removal from court; it was also asserted that tonnage and
poundage depended on the consent of parliament.  The
king, having obtained the money he wanted, resolved on a
prorogation; the clerk of the commons was just reading the
bill of tonnage and poundage (26th) when they were sumMoned to meet the king.  He told them that by assenting to
the Petition of Right he had granted no new liberties, only
confirmed the ancient ones; that tonnage and poundage was
what he could not do without; " it was never intended," said
he, " by you to ask, and never meant, I am  sure, by me to
grant."  He gave the royal assent to the subsidy bills, and
then prorogued the parliament.
It is with sincere pleasure that we quote the following
observations of Lingard: "Thus ended," says he, " this
eventful session, one of the most memorable in our history.
The patriots may have been occasionally intemperate in their
warmth and extravagant in their predictions, but their labors
have entitled them to the gratitude of posterity.  They extorted from the king the recognition of the rights which he
had so wantonly violated, and fixed on a firm and permanent
basis the liberties of the nation.  It is indeed true that these
liberties were subsequently invaded    that again and again
they were trampled in the dust; but the Petition of Right
survived to bear evidence against the encroachments of the
prerogTative.  To it the people always appealed, to it the
crown was ultimately compelled to submit."'  It was in
effect a second Magna Charta.t
The king iTnmediately gave a proof of his insincerity
The Petition of Right had been printed for circulation at
the desire of both houses; by his orders the impression was
0 si sic omniaC   He immediately proceeds to remark on the re
ligious intolerance or the patriots; but for this we cannot well blame
him.
t As our limits do not allow of our narrating the parliamentary de
tails. we here give the names of the leading patriots. They were sir
John Eliot, sir Edward Coke, sir Robert Philips, aild Selden, Glanvil,
Noy, and Pym.




CHARLES I.                    53
cancelled, and a new one issued with his jirst  i swer to it
"By which expedient," says EHume, "he endeavored to per
suade the people that he had nowise receded from his formei
claims and pretensions."
Rochelle was at this time hard pressed by the royal forces,
commanded by Richelieu in person. A fleet and army were
assembled at Portsmouth, of which Buckingham was again
to take the command.  But he was this time to negotiate,
not to fight, as both Charles and Louis were now convinced
that by their hostility they were only strengthening the house
of Austria.  One morning (Aug. 23) the duke had some  e
high words in his chamber with Soubise and other French
gentlemen; he was then proceeding to his carriage, when, as
on crossing the hall he turned to listen to a whisper from. 
colonel Friar, an unknown hand plunged a knife into his
heart, and left it sticking there: he cried, "Villain! " plucked
it out, staggered against a table, and died.  The French
gentlemen were suspected of the deed, and narrowly escaped
instant death; the assassin had meantime reached the kitchen, and might have escaped, but on a sudden alarm he drew
his sword, crying, "I am the man." Hle was seized; he said
his name was John Felton, a protestant and a lieutenant in
the army,from which he had retired,as junior officers had been
put over his head, and his arrears of pay had been withheld.
The remonstrance of the commons had convinced him that the
duke was the cause of the national calamities, and that by
killing him he should serve God, his king, and his country.
lHe had no accomplices; he had travelled seventy miles to
do the deed; so little personal enmity had he, that as he
struck the blow, he prayed, " May God have mercy on thy
soul! "  Felton was transmitted to London, and underwent
several examinations, but presisted in his story.  The marquess of Dorset threatened him  with the torture.  "I am
ready," said he; "yet I must tell you, by the way, that I will
then accuse you, my lord of Dorset, and no one but yourself."  The king wished to have hini racked, but the judges
declared torture to be contrary to the laws of England.  Felton pleaded guilty, (Nov. 27,) owning the enormity of his
offence, and praying that the hand which did the criminal
deed might be struck off before he died. He was executed as
a murderer.
The king was at his prayers in a private house near Portsmouth when the news of the murder of the duke was brought
him.  He testified no great emotion at the time, but he felt
deeply.  He took the family of his favorite under his protece.
5* 
I_- 




54               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
tion, paid his debts to the amount of 61,0001., caused him to be
buried in Westlinster-abbey, and styled him' the martyr of his
sovereign'- such was his infatuation! Buckingham was only
tlhirty-six years of age; his death was perhaps fortunate for
himself, for, as Lingard justly observes, "if he had escaped
the knife of the asassin, he would probably have fallen by
the axe of the executioner."  A more worthless minion, one
more destitute of every good and great quality, it would be
difficult to find; and one blushes to think of England being
governed, as in effect it was, for so many years by such an
ignorant, insolent, and profligate upstart.
The expedition to Rochelle sailed under the earl of Lindsey; but its efforts were of no avail; the town surrendered
at discretion, and the Huguenot power was completely
broken.
About this time the king gained to his side a man in all
respects infinitely the superior of Buckingham.  Sir Thomas
Wentworth, a man of large fortune and great influence in
Yorkshire, had sat in every parliament since 1614.  He had
followed a neutral line of conduct, but his natural temper inclined him to the side of arbitrary power.  In the present
parliament, however, he had shown himself one of the most
prominent champions of freedom; for Bucklingharn had out
of jealousy deprived him of the office of Custos Rotulorum
of his county, and while that wound was yet raw, a privyseal had been sent him at the suggestion of his rival, sir
John Savile.  He refused compliance, was brought before
the council, and committed to prison.  In the ensuing parliament he took hisplace among the patriots, and displayed
such ability and energy that the court saw their error, and
resolved to gain him if possible. This was easy to effect; he
became a baron, and then a viscount, and lord-president of
the council of the north, and he never after wavered in his
devotion to despotism.
The king at this time also gave great offence to the parliament by promoting some divines whom they had censured.
Montague was made bishop of Chichester; Manwaring, Sibthorpe, Cousins, and other Arminians, or rather semi-papists,
obtained good livings. In contempt also of the parliament,
the duties of tonnage and poundage were levied, and the
goods of Rolles a member of parliament, Chambers, and
other merchants who refiused to pay them, were seized.
On the 20th of January, 1629, parliament re-assembled.
The fraud of the king in the printing the Petition of Right
was made known; the case of Rolles was brought before the




CHARLES 1.                     55
house, and the sheriff of London and the officers of' the custorms had to appear at the bar.  The king then summoned
both houses to nmeet him at Whitehall, and there urged them
to put an end to all disputes by passing the bill for tonnage
and poundage, assuring theim that he did not take these duties as a part of his prerogative, but by the gift of his people;
and that if he had levied them hitherto, he did it out of necessity, and not by "an5 right vhich he assumed."  The
commons, however, took no heed of this and other attempts
o obtain money without conditions.  It was their fixed and
just principle, that inquiry into and redress of grievances
should precede supplies.  They therefore directed their attention first to the all-important subject of religion.  On the
27th sir John Eliot addressed the house in an able speech,
on the subject of the innovations lately made in religion, and
the result was a " vow," made on the journals, to admit no
new sense of the articles of religion.  After a few days the
house adjourned to the'>5th of February, on which day it was
agreed to present charges to the king against bishop Laud.'he king then sent his command for both houses to adjourn
to the 2d of March.
On this memorable day Eliot entered the house, having
a protestation prepared to propose to the members.  It contained these articles: 1. Whoever shall innovate in religion
by introducing popery, Arminianism, etc., is an enemy to
the kingdomn and commonwealth.  2. Whoever shall counsel
to take or assist in taking tonnage and poundage not granted
by parliament, is an enemy, etc. 3. Whoever shall pay
the same is an enemy, etc.  When he had introduced these
by a speech directed chiefly against the lord treasurer
Weston, he desired sir John Finch, the speaker, to read
them, but he refused; the clerk did the same; Eliot read
them out himself, and then required the speaker to put them
to the vote.  He replied " he was commanded otherwise by
the king," and rose to quit the chair, but two members, Hollis and Valentine, held him down.  A tumult arose; swords
were near being drawn: Eliot gave the protestation to H-ollis to put it to the house, and it was heard with acclarnations.
The king sent the serjeant to takle away the mace, but he
was detained, and the doors were locked; the usher of the
black-rod then came; he could not gain admission: in a
ragle the king ordered the captain of the guard to go and
fo'rce the doors, but the members having passed the protestation, and adjourned to the 10th, now issued forth in a body.
Eliot, Hlollis, Valentine, and others, were forthwith sum.




56               IIISTORY OF ENGLANI).
moned before the council, and on their refusing to answei
out of parliament, for things said- and done in it, were committed to the Tower; on the 10th the king went down tc
the house of lords and dissolved the parliament, on account
he said, of " the seditious carriage: of some vipers, members
of the lower house."
The imprisoned members applied for their habeas cor7ptjs,
but the king, by removing them from the custody of the officers to whom the writs were directed, frustrated their efforts.
rThey were offered their liberty if they would: petition the
king, and express contrition for having offended him.  This
course they at once rejected, as it would be an acknowledgment of the legality of the arbitrary acts which they opposed.
Eliot, iHollis, and Valentine, were finally proceeded against
in the king's bench, and sentenced to be imprisoned during
pleasure; and Eliot was fined 10001., Hollis 1000 marks, and
Valentine 5001.  The-others were released after a confinenment of eighteen months:; Eliot ended his days in the Tower.  When the decline of his health had made him yield to
the entreaties of his friends, and petition for his liberty, the
t  answer given was, "It is not humble enough"  He sent a
second petition by his young son, offering to return to his
prison when he should have recovered his health.  This also
was ineffectual.  When he died, his children petitioned to be
allowed to take his body to Cornwall, to lay it in the tomb of
his ancestors.  "Let sir John Eliot's body be buried in the
church of that parish where he died," was the unfeeling reply of the monarch.
Thus terminated Charles's third parliament.  As we shall
now find him for some years dispensing: with these assemblies,
taking his subjects' money at his own arbitrary will, and
running the full career of despotism, we will transcribe the
following passage friom  his panegyrist, Lord  Clarendon.
"It is not to be denied," says he, " that there were in all
those parliaments especially in that of the fourth year, several passages and alstempered speeches of particular persons
not fit for the dignity and honor of those places, and unsuitable to the reverence due to his majesty and his councils.
But I do not know any formal act of either house (for neither
the remonstrance or votes of the last day were such) that
was not agreeable to the wisdom and justice of great courts
on those extraordinary occasions.  And whoever considers
the acts of power and injustice in the intervals of parliament,
will not be much scandalized at the warmth and xivacity of
those meetings."




CHARLES-                      5:.
CHAPTER IV.
CHARLES I. (CONTINUED.)
1629-1640FoR a period of twelve years we are now to witness the
exercise of absolute monarchy in England; the king, like
his brethren of France and Spain, taking his subjects' money
at his will, giving no account of the expenditure, and arbitrarily punishing all who ventured to murmur or oppose the
civil and religious despotism now established.
External tranquillity being requisite for his designs, Charles
made peace with the courts of France and Spain. When
the illustrious Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden put himself at
the head of the protestant cause in Germany, six thousand.
men were raised for his aid in Great Britain, in thle name of
the marquess of Hamilton, who commanded them, but at the
expense of the king.  This was the only money employed
for foreign purposes; the produce of the taxes and impositions in general went to the support of the government, and'o the maintenance of a most brilliant court.
After the death of Buckinghllam, the only man he seems
ever to have loved, Charles had nio favorite, and he became
his own minister.  The queen, a vain, selfish, self-willed
woman, possessed an undue influence over his mind. He
had drawn from the popular side not only Wentworth: and
Savile, but sir Dudley Digges, whom he made master of the
rolls, and the two lawyers Noy and Littleton, who became
his attorney and solicitor-general: sir Richard Weston, the
lord treasurer, a suspected catholic, was one of the most unscrupul.ous instruments of the royal despotism.
In his project of abolishing the liberties of the people,
Charles was aided by the hierarchy of the church, headed by
William Laud, whom the favors of Buckingham  had raised
rapidly through various episcopal gradations to the see of
London, and whom, on the death of Abbot, (1632~,) the king
advanced to the primacy.  Laud was a. man of a: narrow
mind, but of much reading; matters of little importance to
enlarged intellects, were, therefore, of great moment to hinm;
he had thus conceived a ridiculously exalted notion of the
value of ceremonies in sustaining religion, and a preposter
ous opinion of the peculiar sanctity, and: sublimity, of' the




58               HISTORY OF ENGLAND
episcopal character; he also held the Arminian tenets  In
all these matters his sincerity is not to be questioned, but he
was actuated by a cruel, persecuting spirit, and he would al
low none to maintain opinions contrary to his own.
It is, we think, a matter not to be disputed, that the fathers
and founders of our church were not Arminians, and most
surely the articles of our church evince that those who compiled themn agreed with St. Austin on the abstruse points of
predestination, original sin, and such like, however ambiguously they may have expressed themselves.  Our early reformers also seem to have regarded episcopacy as a thing of human
rather than divine institution; and they drew  close the
bonds of fellowship with the foreign churches, even those
of France and Geneva, which had cast it off altogether.  In
the church of Rome they saw only Antichrist, the enemy
of Christ, and not a part of his mystic body. But Laud,
Montague, Heylin, and the other high-church divines, as they
were now termed, recognized the church of Rome as a true
church; they strongly asserted the divine origin of episcopacy, and the necessity of a regular transmission from the time
of the apostles, and therefore looked on the other protestant
churches as mere schismatics.  In fact, the approximation
now made to PRome was so great, that the pope actually sent
to offer Laud a cardinal's hat - at offer that was not spurned
at.  rt\ was the court rather than the church of Rome that
Laud disliked; he would willingly be himself the pope of
England, and he could not brook submission to him of Rome.
The following are some of the changes made at this time
Strange ceremonies were employed in the consecration of
churches, the commumnion table was removed from the centre of the churches to the east end, railed in and called an
altar, and obeisance was made to it; the officiating minister
was named a priest, and his habit became more gaudy; the
use of pictures, images, crucifixes, and lights in the churches
was contended for; prayers for the dead, confession and absolution were inculcated. The doctrine of the real presence,
or something very nearly resembling it, seems to have been
held by Laud and others.
The catholics were full of hopes at witnessing these favorable symptoms in the church of England, and the court of
Rome was induced to send an envoy named Panzani to London. A negotiation for the union of the churches was coni.
" My answer was," said Laud, " that somewhat dwelt within me
which wodu d not suffer that till Romne were other than it is."




CHARLES I                     Jg
nenced with him  by Cottington, Windebank and bishop
Montague, but entirely unknown to Laud and the clergy in
general.  Like all projects of the kind, it was a mere abortion, for Rome will never recede from any one of her pretensions. The king, in return for the courtesies which the
court of Rome lavished on him, stopped the prosecution of
the recusants; it was agreed that diplomatic relations should
in the name of the queen take place between the two courts,
and Panzani was succeeded in his post at London by a
Scotchman named Conn, whose place was afterwards taken
by an agent of higher rank, the count Rosetti.  The catholics behaved with great insolence;  " they," says Clarendon,
attempted " and sometimes obtained proselytes of weak, uninformed ladies, with such circumstances as provoked the rage
and destroyed the charity of great and powerful families,"
and they urged the court on in all its ruinous and oppressive
measures.  "To conclude," he adds, "they carried themselves so as if they had been suborned by the Scots to root
out their own religion."
The punishments of those who impugned the innovations
in the church were very severe, and the licensing of the press
being in the hands of the dominant party, no works in opposition to them could be printed.  It was not even permitted
to assail the church of Rome; and will it be believed that
Fox's Book of Martyrs, Jewell's works, and the celebrated
Practice of Piety now failed to obtain a license to be printed?
The treatment of the father of the excellent archbishop
Leighton at this time will serve to give an idea of the punishments inflicted on those who drew down on themselves
the vengeance of the implacable Laud. Leighton, a Scots
divine, had printed in Holland a book named' Zion's Plea
against Prelacy,' addressed to the members of the late parliament.  In this he no doubt treated the bishops with great
rudeness and violence, terming them  m' en of blood," and
prelacy "' antichristian," showing the "fearful sin of their
pestering God's worship, and overlaying people's consciences
with the inventions of men, yea, with the trumpery of Anti.
christ," and callingo on the parliament utterly to root out the
hierarchy.  Speaking of the queen he styled her a daughter
of Heth, that is simply a papist in the language of the time.
for this he was sentenced by the court of Star-chamber (1630)
to be committed to the Fleet for life; to be fined 10,0001.;
to be degraded of his ministry; to be pilloried, whipped, have
an ear cropped off, a nostril slit, and his cheek branded with an
Ss, (i. e. Sower of Sedition,) at Westminster, and the same




60o               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to be repeated some days after at Cheapside.*  When: tri
cruel sentence was pronounced, Laud pulled off his cap ana
gave God thanks for it, and in his Diary he records minute
ly and without the slightest pity or remorse how it was carried
into execution.  Leighton lay in his dungeon till the year
1641, when he was released by the parliament.
William Prynne, a barrister, published at this time a ponderous quarto volume named'Histriomastyx,' full of zeal and
learning against plays and players. Prynne had already incurred the enmity of Laud and the high-churchmen by some
works against Arminianism  and prelattic jurisdiction, ana
they were on the watch for him.  It happened that about six
weeks fafter the publication of Prynne's book the queen performed a part-in a pastoral at Somnerset-house; as in Prynne's
book it was said " that women-actors among the Greeks and
Rlomans were all notorious, impudent, prostituted strumpets,"
which in the table of contents was thus referred to, "Womenactors notorious whores."  Laud showed this to the king,
affirming that it was meant for the queen, (by the spirit of
prophecy no doubt,) but the royal pair took no notice of it.
Laud, resolved not to be balked, set his trusty chaplain Petel
Hieylin to hunt: through all Prynne's works, and to collect
the scandalous points out of them.  These Laud carried
himself to Noy on a Sunday morning, desiring him to prosecute Prynne in the Star-chamber.  Noy  did as directed,
and Prynne was sentenced to be fined 10001.  to be expelled
Oxford and Lincoln's-inn; to be degraded from  his profession in the law; to stand twice in the pillory, lose an ear
each time, have his books burnt before him by the hangman,
and be imprisoned for life.  This sentence also was carried
into effect.
At this time also Dr. Bastwick, a learned physician, having
published a book called " Elenchus Papismi et Flagellum
Episcoporum Latialium," in answer to one Short, a papist,
was broug'it before the high commission-court for it; for
though, as he said, and as the title shows, it was directed only
against-the bishops of Rome, it probably contained hits at
episcopacy in general.  He too was sentenced to be fined
10001., excommunicated, forbidden to practise physic, and
* See Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, i. 538, and Harris's Life of Charles
1. 260. Whitelocke and Heylin say that Leighton counselled the parliament "to kill all the bishops by smiting them under the fifth rib."
Neal and Pearce say that there are no such words in his book. Even
if he had used them, they were a common figurative expressicn at that
time.




CHARLES I.                    61
imrnprisoned till he should recant. At the same time one
Chowney, " a fierce papist," wrote a book in defence of the
church of Rome, proving it to be a true church, and Lald
approved of the book and accepted the dedication of it
Whitelocke says he was told that the bishops in their censure
of Bastwick denied that they held their jurisdiction as bishops from the king, affirming that they had it from God only.
Another sufferer in these days was John Lilburne, afterwards so famous. He was then a mere youth, but being
convicted of distributing pamphlets against the bishops he was
whipped from the Fleet to Westminster, set in the pillory,
and treated with great cruelty.
The modes in which Charles raised a revenue at this
time were as follows: 1. He levied tonnage and poundage,
increasing the duties in many cases. 2. He, for a certain
fine, pardoned frauds in the sale of former crown-lands, and
allowed defective titles to be remedied.  3. He obliged all
who had not come to receive knighthood at his coronation
to compound for their neglect  4. He revived monopolies,
giving them to companies of nwschants who were to pay a
large sum down, and a certain annual duty on the articles
they sold or manufactured. 5. He extorted fines for disobedience to proclamations, even when they had been contrary
to law, such as that of his father against building in and
about London.  6. The forest-]aws were revived, and the
king's forestal rights asserted to the great havock of private
property.  The forests in Essex were so extended as to
take in almost the whole county.  Lord  Southampton
thus lost so much of his property as to be nearly ruined,
and several others were heavily fined for encroachments.
In a word, the king, looking upon all the rights and privileges
of the people as having been so many usurpations on the
absolute power of the crown, thought himself justified in
the use of every act of power exercised by any of his predecessors.
Though much individual hardship was endured in consequence of these arbitrary modes of taxation, the country was
on the whole in a flourishing condition.  The advocates of
Charles would fain ascribe the merit of this to the government, but a more natural and adequate cause is the energy
of the English people, which even the worst government is
unable totally to repress.
The year 1636 is rendered memorable by the stand made
by the celebrated John Hampden and others against the
arbitrary system of taxation now exercised by the crown
VOL. II.     6




62                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The impost which gave occasion to it was that of ship
money, a device of the apostate lawyer Noy, who, by a diligent search through the dusty records of the Tower, had
discovered that in ancient times the seaports, the maritime
counties, and even some places inland had been required to
furnish shipping for the public service.  What use Noy proposed to make of his discovery his death prevents us fi'om
ascertaining; but his seed had not fallen on a barrei  soil
in the council, for, in 1634, a writ was issued to the magistrates of London and other ports requiring them  to furnish
ships of war of a certain tonnage, and fully equipped.  The
citizens of London pleaded their charter, but to no purpose;
the writ was every where obeyed.  There was a plausible
pretext indeed for augmenting the navy at this time.  The
rovers of the piratic states of Africa dared to appear even
in the British channel, and landed and carried away into
slavery the people of the south coast of Ireland, and the
French and Dutch fished with impunity in the British seas.
But Charles had another reason for wishing to be master of
a powerful navy.  His anxiety for the recovery of the Palacinate, and probably his dislike of Calvinism  and freedom,
had caused him, in 1631, to sign a secret treaty with Spain
for the conquest of H-olland, his share of the spoil to be the
isles of Zealand.*  Yet so inconsistent and insincere was
this ill-judging prince, that the very next year, (1632,) he
entered into a negotiation with the ma-lcontents of the Low
Countries to aid them  in casting off the yoke of Spain, in
the hope of obtaining the sovereignty for himself, or perhaps
with a view  to the interest of the elector palatine.  But
there was a Spanish party in his council, and lord Cottington
informed the court of Madrid of the intrigue.t  Charles then
adhered to the former treaty, till, aware that the house of
Austria was only i]luding him, he was induced by the queen's
party in the cabinet to form  closer relations with the court
of France; yet he still made overtures to that of Spain, and
the consequence was that he drew  on himself the secret
enmity of both.
Charles had now a fleet of sixty sail, and the purpose for
which the ship-money had been imposed was thus fully
answered.  But the precedents collected by Noy it was
nowv thought might be made to extend much further, and
give origin to a source of permnanent revenue.  The honoi
Clarendon Papers, i. 49; ii. Append. xxvi. Hallam. ii. 17
Hardwick Papers, ii. 54,. Hallam, ii. 18.




CHARLES 1.                     6a
of this discovery is ascribed to the late speaker Finch, now
chief justice of the common pleas.  Writs for the levy of
shlip-tmoney were accordingly directed to the sheriffs of' all
the counties, and when the people murmnured, an opinion
of the twelve judges in favor of' its legality was obtained
by the court and published.  Some, however, ventured to
appeal to the laws against it. The first was the stouthearted citizen John Chambers, who brought an action
against the lord mayor for imprisoning him  on his refusal
to pay it.  Lord Say and Mtr Hampden also appealed to
justice, and the decision in the case of' the latter seemed to
se;t the matter to rest, and show that there was no redress to
be looked for.
John HIampden was a gentleman of large fortune in
Buckinghamshire, who had sat in all the parliaments since
the year 16'20: he was the friend of Eliot, and, like hilm,
strenuous in maintaining the rights of the people.  Being
now  assessed twenty shillings ship-money, he refused to
pay it.  The cause was brought before the twelve judges
in the exchequer chamber, and was argued in behalf of
Hamnpden by St. John and Holborne; on the part of the
crown by Bankes the attorney and Littleton the solicitorgeneral.  Hampden's counsel urged that the constitution
had provided in various ways for the public safety, by the
ordinary revenues and by parliamentary supplies.  They
showed from Magna. Chairta, the Confirmation of the Charters, the statute "; De Tallagio non Concedendo," and other
acts of tlhe legislature, that the consent of parliament is
necessary to legal taxation; they asserted that none of the
precedents adduced on1 the other side applied to the case
of an inland county, and concluded by appealing to the
Petition of 1iight.  The king's counsel on their side adduced the precedents collected by Noy, mnany of which
certainly bore a strong analogy to the present case, but
tfey were in early times, and could not claim  authority
lite the aforesaid statutes. " But," said Bankes,' this power
is innate in the person of an absolute king, and in the persons of the kings of Englaind.  It is not any ways derived
from the people, but reserved unto the king when positive
taws first began.  For the king  of England, he is an absolute monarchl; nothing can be given to an absolute prince
but what is inherent in his nature.  He can do no wrong 
he is the sole judge, and we ought not to question hlim."
This imposition without parliament," said judge Crawley,
appertains to the king originally, and to the successor




64                HISTORY  )F ENGLAND.
ipsofacto, if he be a sovereign, in right of his sovereignty
from the crown. You cannot have a king without these
royal rights, no, not by act of parliament."  Finch maintained that no act of parliament could bar the king of his
right to defend his people, and that therefore acts " to bind
the king not to command the subjects, their persons and
goods, and their money, too," are void.
Seven of the twelve judges gave judgment f6r the crown;
the remaining five in favor of Hampden: Croke and Hutton,
two of the most distinguished, denying in the strongest
terms the alleged right of the crown, and the legality of the
writ for ship-money.*  The tax was now adjudged lawful,
but the judgment, as Clarendon observes, " proved of more
advantage and credit to the gentleman condemned (Mr.
Hlampden) than to the king's service."  The high notions
of the royal authority put forth by the crown lawyers alarmed
all classes of people, for they saw no limitation to it but the
royal will and though Charles himself might be an Antonine,
it would put it in the power of his successor to be a Tiberius.
Ship-money henceforth was very reluctantly paid: it is said
not to have averagedn more than 20,0001. a-year, a sum, however, equal to three subsidies.
The indomitable Prynne had from  his dungeon put forth
a tract called' INews from Ipswich,' in which he assailed
the prelates with great violence; Bastwick, too, had written
diatribes against them, and a clergyman  named Burton,
who had been chaplain to Charles when prince, took the
same ground.  They were prosecuted in the star-chamber,
and sentenced to pay each a fine of 50001., to stand in the
pillory, have their ears cut off, and be imprisoned during
life.  They were sent to the castles of Carnarvon, Lancasler, and Launceston, and were afterwards removed to Jersey,
Guermev, and Stcilly.
Williams, bishop of Lincoln, though no model of moral
perfection, was a man in ability greatly superior to Laud,
with whose new-fangled theology he did not agree, and he
had much more statesmanlike ideas on the mode of dealing
with the puritans.  Though  it was chiefly through Williams that Laud had obtained, his first bishopric, he had
* Croke intended at first to give judgment for the king, but his wife,
"a good and pious woman," told him, says Whitelocke,:- that she hoped
he would do nothing against his conscience, for fear of any danger or
prejudl.e to him or his fa.mily; and that she would be contented tc
suffer want or any misery with him rather than be an occasion for lium'o do or say any thing against his judgment and conscience."




CHARLES 1.                     65 
no feeling of gratitude, and he was bent on his ruin. Williams was therefore accused in the star-chamber of divulging secrets of state; while this charge was pending he was
charged with tampering with the king's witnesses, and was
suspended from his office, fined 10(,I00)., and senten(ced to
be imprisoned during pleasure in the Tower. Afterwards
a letter from Osbaldiston, master of Westminster school, in
which the words "little urchin " and " little great man"
were thought to be meant for Laud, being found among his
papers, he was sentenced to pay a further fine of 50001. to
the king, and 313001. to the archbishop.
The state of civil and religious despotism to which they        i
were now subjected made men seek for a place of retreat,
and they cast their eyes on the distant shores of the Nt r 
World.  In 1629 a charter had been obtained for the colony
of Massachusetts Bay, and about three hundred and fifty
religious sectaries sailed thither.  Numbers followed in
the subsequent years, and the settlements were extended
through the province, which was henceforth named New
England.  After the failure of the attempt to resist the
levying of ship-money, persons of higher rank, the lords
Say and Brook, sir Arthur Haselrig, Hampden, his kinsman Oliver Cromwell, and others, resolved to quit their
now  enslaved and degraded  country.  These last were 
actually on board the vessel which was to take them  off,
(1638,) when a proclamation, dictated by the bigotry of
Laud, appeared, forbidding masters of ships to carry out
any passenger who had not a license from the privy council, and a testimonial of conformity from  the minister of
his parish.
Such was the condition of things in England; the affairs
of Scotland will now claim our attention.
In the year 1633 Charles visited his native kingdom for
the first time since his accession.  He was received with
great affection and loyalty, and crowned with the usual
splendor.  But Laud, his evil genius, attended him,  and
the prejudices of the people were shocked by the appearance of an altar with wax tapers and a crucifix, before
which the officiating prelates hbowed as they passed; and
when the archbishop of Glasgow declined wearing the gorgeous habits provided for him, Laud rudely forced him from
the side of the king, and put Maxwell bishop of Ross in
his place.
A parliament followed, which gave the king an occasion
for displaying his arbitrary temper, and served to alienate
6*                -            I
I-~~~~~~~~~~~~_.___. ___..... ___._ _ _.____.._.._...._. _




66               HISTORY  -F ENGLAND.
from  him  the affections of many of his nobles.  He had;
indeed, some years before inflicted a wound, wlich still
rankled, by a measure for the redemption of the churchlands and tithes which the nobility and gentry had so ravenously seized at the time of the Reformation; for it must be
confessed, that whatever value the Scottish people may set
on religion, liberty, and other important rnatters, there is noo
point on which they are so tremblingly alive as in what
concerns their property.
Charles left Scotland after sowing the seeds of future
troubles,  and the prosecution of lord Balrmerino shortly
after powerfully aided to alienate the nobility.  This nobleman, who had been one of the opposition in plrliament,
happened to have in his possession a copy of an apology for
their conduct, which he and his friends intended to present,
but were withheld by the fear of exciting the royal displeasure.  A transcript of this was surreptitiously obtained by
one who was his private enemy, and communicated to the
archbishop of St. Andrews, by whom it was conveyed to the
king, with an assurance that it had been circulated for signature throughout Scotland, and that it was the nobles who
upheld the clergy in their opposition to the surplice.  Balmerino was therefore selected for an example, arid he was
indicted on the statute of Blasing-making, or causing discord
between the king and his people. A jury, with lord Traquair,
one of the ministers, for foreman, was selected to try him;
yet so flagrantly iniquitous was the proceeding, that even
that jury found him guilty only by the  luljority of the foreman's casting vote.  The people were furious at this decision,
and it was resolved, in secret consultations, that if any thing
happened to him, they would massacre those who had found
him guilty.  Traquair on learning this hasted up to London,
and a pardon was granted to Balmerino.  But the impressior
which his danger had made on the minds of the nobility and
people was deep and permanent.
In religion matters were pushed on in order to bring Scotland to a uniformity with England.  The bishops begaan to
appropriate the civil dignities to themselves.  Archbishop
Spottiswood was made chancellor; Maxwell bishop of Ross
aspired to the office of lord treasurer; and of the fourteen
prelates, nine were members of the privy council.  They had
courts with powers similar to those of the court of high commission, and, acting under the influence of Laud, they proceeded to draw up canons and a liturgy for the church of
Scutland.  They commeicel with the former, sanctioning




CHAILES -.                     67
the latter before it was prepared.  The whole structure of
presbytery was dissolved by these canons.  Each church was
to have a font at the entrance and an altar in the chancel;
and various other regulations were made which the people
regarded as little better than popery.  The liturgy which
was compiled was formed on that of the church of England,
but camne nearer to the mass, of which a report soon spread
that it was nothing more than a translation.  From the pulpits the clergy declaimed against it; it was reprobated in
conversation and in pamphlets.  Spottiswood and the elder
and more experienced prelates recommended great caution
in introducing it; but on its transmission to London and approval by Laud, a royal proclamation was issued enjoining it
to be used in every parish-church in the kingdom  by a certain day.
On the appointed day, (July 23, 1637,) the dean of Edinburgh prepared to officiate according to the liturgy in St.
Giles, the bishop of Argyle in the Gray-friars' church; the
judges, prelates, and members of the privy council were present in the former, which was thronged with people.  The
service began, when an old woman, filled with zeal, sprang
up anId flung the stool she sat on at the dean's head, crying,
Villain! dost thou say the mass at my lug?"  A tumult
arose, the women rushed to seize the dean, and he escaped
with difficulty; the bishop of Edinburgh ascended the pulpit
to appease the people; sticks and stones were flung at him, and
but for the aid of the magistrates, he would have perished on
the spot. In the other church the service was interrupted
by tears, groans, and lamentations, but there was no violence.
Throughout the rest of Scotland, the efforts of the prelates
were unavailing, and the liturgy was used only at St. Andrew's and in three other cathedrals.
The clergy had been directed to purchase two copies of
the liturgy for each parish, and the prelates now proceeded to
enforce obedience to this mandate.  A divine named Henderson and three others presented supplications to suspend
the charge.  These being backed by several of the nobility
and gentry, and the general aversion fi'om the liturgy becoming manifest, the council made a representation to the king,
obscurely intimating a desire that the liturgy should be recalled.  But prudent concession was a thing unknown to
Charles; a stern reproof and an injunction of the immediate
adoption of the ritual were the answer returned.  The consequence vas an immense accession to the number of the




HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
supplications and an organizati)n of the opponents of the
liturgy throughout the kingdom.
In the month of October vast numbers of people flocked
to Edinblurgh to learn the king's reply to the supplications
which had been transmitted to him.  A proclamation ordered
them  to disperse; they in return drew up an accusation
against the prelates on account of the canons and liturgy,
which was rapidly subscribed by the nobility, gentry, clergy,
and people all through Scotland.  The following month they
re-assembled in increased force, and having obtained permission of the council to choose representatives to carry on the
accusation, they appointed several of the nobility, two gentlemen for each county, and one or more of the clergy and
burgesses for each presbytery and borough. Thus were
formed the celebrated Tables, or comnlittees, which being
subdivided and regulated, gave order and consistency to their
union.  Their demands now increased; they required the
abrogation of the high commission, the canons and the liturgy. To this neither Laud nor the king could yield without
the ruin of their favorite plans, and a proclamation was issued censuring the supplicants, and forbidding them to asseinble under the penalties of treason.
This was a fatal measure to the crown; for the Tables
forthwith resolved on a renewal of the national covenant, the
bond of religious union first adopted by the Lords of the
Congregation, and twice renewed in the reign of James. It
took its name and character from the covenants of Israel
with Jehovah recorded in the Scriptures, and it also partook
much of the nature of the bonds of mutual defence and
maintenance which had long prevailed in Scotland.  It was
now  drawn up by Henderson, the leader of the clergy,
and  by Johnstone of Wariston, a distinguished advocate.
it renounced popery and all its doctrines, practices, and
claims in the strongest terms; and then declaring the liturgy
and canons to be thus virtually renounced, concluded with
an obligation to resist them, to defend each other, and tc
support the king in preserving religion, liberty, and law.
The supplicants were invited by the Tables to repair to a
solemn meeting at Edinburgh; a fast was appointed, and the
preachers, as directed, recommended a renewal of the covenant.  Accordingly on the ist of March, 1638, in the-Grayfriars' church, it was solemnly renewed with prayer and
spiritual exhortations.  The nobility, gentry, clergy, and
thousands of all orders m-exes, and ages subscribed it; copies




CHARLES I.                     69
were transmitted to all parts of the kingdom, and it was every
where subscribed with shouts of joy, or with tears of contrition for their past defections.  Within two months all Scotland (Aberdeen excepted) was banded to the covenant
Men saw in it the hand of Heaven; the austerity of devotion
increased; a religious gloom soon pervaded all the relations
of social life, and the fanatic spirit assumed new vigor.
An independent asseLnbly and a free parliament were
the demands of the covenanters.  The court employed every
art to illude themrn, being secretly resolved to have recourse
to arms. With this view all their demands (after Charles
had taken sufficient care to convince them of his insincerity)
were suddenly conceded, and an assembly was held at Glasgow  (Nov. 21) to regulate the church.  The marquess of
Hamilton, the king's representative, was instructed to excite
jealousies among the members, and if he found it restive to
dissolve it. Seeing he could not manage it, he therefore, under pretext of its being irregularly chosen, and consequently
not competent to the trial of prelates, declared it dissolved,
but the members refused to separate; their resolution was
approved of by many of the privy council, and the accession
to their side of the potent earl of Argyle gave themn increased
courage.  The acts of the six preceding assemblies were
forthwith annulled, the canons, liturgy, and high commission
were condemned, and episcopacy was abolished. Eight of
the bishops were excommunicated, four deposed, and two
suspended.  And thus was prostrated at one blow the fabric
which it had occupied two reigns to erect.
It had been Hamilton's advice to the king from the beginning to have recourse to arms, and the necessary preparations
had therefore been made.  To procure money, loans were
required from the nobility; under the influence of Laud, the
church contributed largely; and the catholics, at the call of
the queen, and well aware that it was their interest to support
the crown, from which alone they could expect favor, gave
their money for the support of the Episcopal War, as it was
denominated.  Arms and artillery were provided, the counties were required to send their trained bands or militia,
and the peers to lead their retainers in arms to York; a
negotiation (which, however, was frustrated) was also entered
into with the regency of the Netherlands for the use of six
thousand veterans.  The covenanters, oni their side, prepared
for a defensive war. By means of the numerous Scottish
redlers who hawked their wares through England, they




70               /HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
opened a communication with the English puritans.  Richelieu, willing to repay Charles in kind, secretly supplied them
with money, and arms and ammunition were purchased on
the continent.  The comenant was sent to the Scots in the
Swedish service for their subscription; and Alexander Lesley,
an officer of great experience in the wars of Germany, was
invited over to take the command of the army which was to
be raised.  Many other able officers also returned to the defence of their country; the pulpits inculcated the justice of
defensive warfare, and resounded with the curse of Meroz
on those who " came not to the help of the Lord against the
mighty."  Volunteers crowded to the standards and were
disciplined by Lesley and his officers; the royal castles were
all surprised, and the port of Leith was put into a state of
defence.  When the Gordons rose under their chief, the earl
of Huntley, to maintain the royal cause in the north, the earl
of Montrose marched against them, and compelled Huntley
to come as a hostage to Edinburgh.
rrhe king advanced at the head of twenty-three thousand
men to Berwick.  Lesley took his position at Dunse-law;
while Munro, the second in command, was stationed at
Kelso.  The armies were about equal in number; the king
was superior in cavalry, but in infantry the advantage was
entirely on the side of the Scots, who, in addition to superior discipline and better officers, were animated by a spirit
of fanatic devotion, while the English soldiers were utterly
indifferent to the cause in which they were engaged. The
Scottish camp continually resounded with psalmody and
prayer; morning and evening the men were summoned to
their devotions by beat of drum, and two sermons each day
kept up their fervor.
Lord Holland, who commanded the English cavalry, advanced to Kelso, but at the sight of the Scottish forces his
men turned and fled.  The king, who had expected that the
Scottish nation would have submitted at once on his appearance at the head ot an army, saw his hopes all baffled, and
now easily discerned that all who attended him were adverse
to a war; Laud too, aware of the superior strength of the
Scots, counselled peace, and the Scots themselves were very
reluctant to carry mlatters to an extremity with their sovereign.
Proposals for an accommodation were therefore readily listened to; Scottish commissioners came to the royal camp,
(June 11,) the king treated with them in person, and it was arranged that a parliament and a general assembly should meet




CHARLES 1.                       71
in the month of August to regulate the affairs of church and
state.  The Scottish army was then disbanded, and the royal
castles were restored.
The assembl) and the parliament met at the appointed
time; the former came to the same conclusions respecting
episcopacy and the other matters as that of Glasgow had
done; and Traquair, who presided over it, gave the royal
assent to them.  For this he had the king's permission;
who, however, was resolved to revoke, when he should have
the power, these, in his mind, unlawful concessions.  The
parliament not proving manageable was prorogued for six
Charles now summoned lord Wentworth over from  Ireland, where he had for some years held the office of lorddeputy.  He consulted with him, Laud, and Hamilton on
the affairs of Scotland, and the result of their deliberations
was a resolution to reduce the Scots by force of arms.
Some other members of the council were then added to
them, in order to deliberate on the mode of providing
fiends for the war; at their instances, Charles agreed to
call a parliament: meantime writs were issued for the levy
of ship-money, and  the  lords subscribed  various sums,
Wentworth giving the example by putting down his name
for 21),0001.  It was arranged that the parliament should
not be called till the following April, in order to give Wentworth an opportunity of holding a parliament previously in
Ireland, to which country he returned with the title of lord.
lieutenant; he was also elevated in the English peerage by
beil g created earl of Strafford.
The covenanters had sent the earls of Durmfermline and
Loudon, and sir William  Douglas and Mr. Barclay as their
commissioners to London, to complain to the king of the
prorogation of the parliament and other injuries; they were
also, it would appear, instructed to deal with the discontented English.*  Traquair, however, had got possession of
the copy of a letter addressed to the king of France, (au
* " They had great resort to them," says Whitelocke, " and many
secret councils held with them by the discontented English, chiefly by
those who favored presbytery and were no friends to bishops, or had
suffered in the late censures in the star-chamber, exchequer, high
commission, and other judicatories. They also who inclined to a republic
had much correspondence with them, and they courted all, fomented
every discontent, and made large and religious promises of fiuture
happy times. The earls of Essex, Bedford, Holland. the lord Say
Harnpden, Pyrn, and divers other lords and gentlemen of great interest
and quality were deep in with them."




K'72            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Roi) and: signed by Lesley, Mar, Rothes, Montrose, Mont
gomery, Loudon, and the secretary Forrester, justifying theib
cause and asking for aid.  The commissioners, therefore
were arrested, and Loudon was committed to the Tower.
It is said that a warrant was issued for his execution without
any trial; but the lieutenant, who was a Scotsmt:, took it
to the marquess of Hamilton, who, though it was midnight,
entered the apartment of the king and prevailed on him to
recall it, or else Scotland, he said, would be lost forever.
XWe trust that this story is not true; Charles, though a despot,
was not a man of blood.
The earl of Strafford having held his parliament in Ireland, where his will was law, and obtained an unconditional
grant of money, returned to England, and on the 13th of
April, 1640, after an interval of twelve years, a parliament
m et at Westminster.  Though the majority of the members
had never sitten before, the composition of the house of
commons was the same as ever, the puritan and patriotic
party greatly preponderating in it.  The king, on the opern
ing of the session, having addressed them  in a few brief
terms, the lord-keeper related all the proceedings of Scotland, and telling them  that " his majesty did not expect advice from them, much less that they should interpose illn any
office of mediation, which would not be grateful to him,"
required them  to grant a supply forthwith, after they should
have tine enough given them  to represent any grievance
and have a favorable answer.  The commons, having then
chosen serjeant Glanvile speaker, prepared to proceed to
business.:   " Whilst men," says Clarendon, " gazed tpon
each other, looking who should begin, (much the greatest
part having never before sat in parliament,) Mr. Pym, a man
of good reputation, but much better known afterwards, who
had been as long in those assemblies as any man then living,
brake the ice."  In a speech of two hours' length, he enumerated and displayed all the grievances which afflicted the
state, under the heads of' breach of privilege of parliament,'njury to the established religion,t and invasion of the sub* "The house met always at eight of the clock and rose at twelve,
which were the old parliament hours: that the committees upon whom
the greatest burden of business lay Inight have the afternoons for their
preparation and despatch."  Clarendon, i. 233.
t " The principles of popery," said he, " are such as are incompatib!o with any other religion. There amay be a suspension of violence foy
some by certain respects; but the ultimate end even c f that moderation
is, that they may with more advantage extirpate that which is opposite




CHARLES I.                      73
ijcts rights of liberty and property. Having then shown
that these were as hurtful to the crown as to the people, he
proposed that the lords should be invited to join in a petition
to the king, and in searching out the causes -and remedies
of these evils. Other members followed in the same strain,
but when one of them  termed ship-money an abomination,
he was called to the bar, and narrowly escaped being reprimnanded.  Clarendon mentions this, "that the temper and
sobriety of that house may be taken notice of."
The court, being impatient for the money, prevailed on the
peers to urge the commons to-begin with the supply.  This
interference was voted to be a high breach of privilege.
The king then sent to say that if they would grant him
twelve subsidies, to be paid in three years, he would release
all his title or pretence to ship-money in future.  This
matter was debated for two days, when, on the proposal of
Mr. Hyde, that the question of supply simply should be first
put, sir Henry Vane, the treasurer, said that he had authorAty to state that the king would only accept of it in the
manner and proportion proposed in his message. He was
followed by the solicitor-general, and it being near five
o'clock, the house adjourned.  Next day, (May 5,) the king
dissolved the parliament.  Three members were then committed, and a declaration was published. giving the reasons
for the dissolution, charging the disaffected.members " with
attempting to direct the governnient, and to examine and
censure its acts, as if kings were bound to give an account
of their regal actions and of their manner of government to
their subjects assembled in parliament."  Thus abruptly terminated the' Short Parliament,' as it was named; contrary
to the usual custom, the convocation continued to sit till the
end of the month; it passed canons ordering the clergy to
teach the people the divine right of kings, and the damnable
sin of resistance to their authority, imposing on- them the et
ccetera oath,  as it was named, and regulating the position
of the communion table, and so forth, and finally granting
to them. Laws will not restrain them; oaths will not. The pope can
dispense with both these; and where there is occasion, his command
will move them to the disturbance of the realm against their own private disposition, yea, against their dwn reason and judgment, to obey
him. The king and the kingdom can have no security but in their
weakness and disability to do hurt."' The oath was to maintain'he church as it was. One of the clauses
was, " Nor give consent to alter the government of this church by arch
bishops, bishops, deans, and archdeacons, 4c."
VOL. II.      7                          J




74              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the king a benevolence of four shillings in the )cund for asi
years.
The dissolution was a matter of exultation to Pyin and
his friends, for they knew that the kirig must soon call another parliament.  Oliver St. John said to Hyde, "that all
was well, and that it would be worse before it could be
better, and that this parliament could never have done what
was necessary to be- done."  Their communications with
the Scottish agents now became more frequent, and their
future tactics were arranged.
Preparations for invading Scotland were now made; the
voluntary loan produced 300,0001.; the counties were required to supply each a certain proportion of men, provide
therl with coat and conduct-money, and firnish horses. It
was proposed to invade Scotland with 20,000 men from
England and 10,000 men from  Ireland, while Hamilton
should pour down with 10,000 more from the Highlands.
The want of funds, however, and the activity of the covenanters, frustrated this plan.  Charles gave the chief command of his army to the earl of Northumberland, but that
nobleman falling sick he took it himself; Strafford was
lieutenant-general; lord Conway, who was a military man,
commanded the cavalry.
Conway marched with the first troops that were levied
into Northumberland.  The Scottish army of 26,000 men
was encamped at Dunse, and on the 12th of August, at the
desire, as they thought, of their English friends, they crossed
the Tweed, and entered England.  Conway prepared to dispute the passage of the Tyne at Newburn, but it was forced
by the Scots, who speedily became masters of' the two
northern counties, which being the coal counties, enabled
them to distress the city of London whenever they pleased.
At the same time they forced the inhabitants to pay them
56001. a-week, and they seized the property of the clergy
and the catholics.
The king was now at York with an ill-affected army.
He had summoned a great council of the peers to meet him
there on the 24th of September, and he proposed to lay
before it the petition which the Scots now sent him; he
had also received a petition subscribed by twelve peers,
and another signed by ten thousand citizens of London,
praying him to call a parliament —a measure which his
council also advised. Accordingly, when the great council
met, he announced his intention of calling a parliament for
the 3d of November, and sixteen peers then proceeded to
J___      ___ te __       _                         _        ____




CHA RLi. r.                   75
Rippon to negotiate with the Scots.  The treaty was soon
transferred to London, and it was arranged that, till it was
concluded, the northern counties should pay the Scots
56001. a-week, to be repaid out of the first supply granted
by parliament.
The despotism of Charles had now reached its close.
We have exposed it freely; we have shown that it went to
depriving the nation of all that is most valuable to civilized
man. The lives, the liberties, the properties of the people,
were to be at the disposal of the monarch, who held himself
accountable to Heaven alone for the exercise of the powers
which lie claimed.  A galling ecclesiastical tyranny also
pressed on the people, fettering conscience and controlling
the fiee expression of thought. Is there any one so base,
so unworthy of the name of fieeman, as to regret that this
state of things has not been perpetuated to our own times?
And what certainty have we that such would not have been
the case had Charles not been checked in his career, and
that popery would not again have overspread the land, if he
had transmitted the plenitude of despotism to his sons?
We are now to witness the conduct of the men who broke
that power, and to treat them  with the same impartiality
which we have employed in the case of the monarch.
CHAPTER  V.
CHARLES I. (CONTINUED.)
1640-1641.
ON the 3d of November, 1640, that parliament met, whose
deeds, for good or for evil, have rendered it the most memorable assembly in tile annals of the world. The greatest
exertions had been made by both parties to procure returns
favorable to their political views; but the efforts of Pym,
Hampden, and the other leaders of the popular party, joined
with the feelings of the electors themselves, who saw the
necessity of a reform in the state, had obtained them a
triumph in most places over their opponents.  But to the
honor of our forefathers, and the disgrace of our own selfstyled age of intel.ect, it is to be recorded, that in no single




76               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
case did the popular choice fall, as we have seen it fall, on
the mere dernagogue, the political charlatan, the bankrupt in
fame or fortune, who cajoled his constituents by affecting to
have no will of his own, and to be in the legislature merely
the mouthpiece of their notions and whims. The members
of the Long Parliament, as this was subsequently styled, were
in general men of high moral character, of cultivated minds,
of independent fortunes, the landed property of the commons being said to be the treble of that of the peers.  In a
word, a more august assembly than that which now met at
Westminster has never appeared on the scene of the world.
Yet partiality must not blind us; we must not give the
reins to imagination, and view in the Pyms, the Hailmpens,
and the St. Johns of those days men without blemish, raised
above the common lot of humanity, and incapable of artifice or error.  We shall find them employing the arts inseparable from political parties, and acting at times in violation of the principles of justice, and treading in the footprints of the despotism which they sought to restrain. We
have not hidden the faults of the king; we will not pass
over in silence those of the parliament.
The views of the popular leaders may be collected from
the following anecdote. A few days before the parliament
met, as Pym and Hyde were conversing on the state of affairs, the former said, " that they must now he of another
temper than they were the last parliament; that they must
not only sweep the house clean below, but must pull down
all the cobwebs which hung in the top and corners, that
they might not breed dust, and so make a foul house hereafter; that they had now an opportunity to make their
country happy, by removing all grievances, and pulling up
the causes of them by the roots, if all men would do their
duties," and much more to the same effect. The parliament, Clarendon observes, "had a sad and a melancholic
aspect upon the first entrance, which presaged some unusual
and unnatural events."  The king did not go in his usual
state, taking his way thither by water. He was also disappointed in his expectation of having the recorder of London
sir Thomas Gardiner, chosen speaker, as he was not re
turned for any place. His choice then fell upon a lawyer
named Lenthall, a man of good practice in the law, but of
no parliamentary experience, and little calculated to inaintain the dignity of his office.
The first week was employed in the formation of coinnmittees and the reception of petitions, many of which were




CHARLES I.                     77
brought up by troops of horsemen from  the country.  On
the 10th the earl of Strafford came up from the north, at the
earnest desire of the king.  He was aware of his danger,
knowing himself to be the object of the hostility of the popular party, and of the Scots; but the king gave him his
solemn assurance, "that the parliament slould not touch one
hair of his head."  The next day Pym suddenly rose, and,
stating that he had matter of high import to communicate,
desired that the strangers' room  should be clea ed; the
outer door of the house be locked, and the key laid on the
clerk's table.  When all this was done, he rose, and dilating
on all the illegal acts that had been done, and magnifying
the virtues of the king, added, " We must inquire from what
fountain these waters of bitterness flowed," and who they
were that had perverted the king's excellent judgment.  He
then proceeded to say, that " he believed there was one more
signal in that administration than the rest, being a mall of
great parts and contrivance, and of great industry to bring
what he designed to pass; a man who, in the memory of
many present, had sat in that house an earnest vindicator of
the laws, and a most zealous asserter and champion for the
liberties of the people, but long since turned apostate firom
those good affections, and, according to the custom  and
nature of apostates, was become the greatest enemy to the
liberties of his country, and the greatest promoter of tyranny
that any age had produced."  He then named Thomas earl
of Strafford, and ran through the whole history of his administration in the North and in Ireland, " adding some
lighter passages of his vanity and amours; that they who
were not inflamed with anger and detestation against him
for the former, might have less esteem and reverence for his
prudence and discretion."  Other speakers followed in the
same strain.  A message then came from the lords, desiring
a conference, but a reply was made that they were engaged
in weighty business; notice was at the same time sent to
Iheir fiiends in the peers to keep that house from rising.  It
was finally moved to impeach the earl of high-treason, no
one dissenting, only lord Falkland (who was no friend to him)
suggesting that it were better to digest the accusation pre.
viously in a committee.  But Pym said that that would blast
all their hopes, as the earl, when he got notice of it, would
procure the parliament to be dissolved. It was resolved then
to proceed at once; the doors were thrown open, and Pym
issued forth at the head of three hundred members, and at
— lll —_~ -~ —X~-. ~. C.             I




'78              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the bar of the house of lords impeached the earl of high
treason, in the name of the commons of England.
Strafford hastened to the house, and " with a proud glooming countenance," was making toward his place at the bardhead, but he was ordered to retire.  He obeyed: after some
delay he was recalled, and directed to kneel at the ba-; he
was then delivered over to the usher of the black-rod, to be
kept in custody.  He passed to his coach through a crowd
of people, " all gazing," says Baillie, " no man capping to
him, before whom that morning the greatest of England
would have stood discovered."   None, however, insulted
him,
The impeachment of Strafford was certainly a masterly
mranceuvre on the part of the popular leaders, and the unanimity of the vote proves the general feeling of his being a
chief encourager of the royal excesses.  But if it be true
that he was prepared to inpeach them for their (lealings with
the Scots, the purity of their patriotism on this occasion may
be questioned.  A further stroke of policy was the impeachment of sir George Radcliffe, whose evidence might be of
advantage to the earl.
The objects aimed at were good, but the strait path of
justice was not always followed by the patriots.  A committee
of elections unseated many members who did not suit their
views.  " It was often said by leading men amongst them,"
says Clarendon, " that they ought in those cases to be guided
by the fitness and worthiness of the person, whatever the desire of those was in whom the right of election remained.
And therefore one man hath been admitted upon the same
rule by which another hath been rejected." One of their
rules was that no one should sit " who had been a party or a
favorer of any project, or who had been employed in any
illegal commission."  On this ground they unseated several;
but the king afterwards charged them  with not having applied their rule impartially, passing over their own fiiends,
sii Henry Miildmay and Mr. Whittaker, "who had been
scandalously engaged in those pressures."
Under the newly-adopted term of Delinquents, all the
lieutenants and deputies of counties who had exercised powers not strictly warranted by statute were brought into danger.
The sheriffs and all concerned in raising ship-money were
also voted delinquents.  The farmers and officers of the customns were similarly treated.  The judgment in the case 6f
flampden was reve ted; those judges who had. given it were




CHARLES I.                     79
oliged to give large security to abide the judgment of the
parliament. One of them, sir John Berkeley, was arrested as
he sat on the bench, and carried to prison, " which struck,"
says Whitelocke, " a great terror in the rest of his brethren
then sitting in Westmrinster-hall, and ill all his profession," as
no doubt it was meant that it should.
An impeachment against Laud was also carried up to
the lords by Denzil Hollis, and that prelate was committed
to the black-rod.  The lord-keeper Pinch and secretary
Windebank, being menaced with impeachment, fled to the
continent.
Bishop Williams, who had lain for three years in the
Tower, was now released; so also was the unfortunate Leighton. Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton, were recalled from their
island-prisons, and they entered London in a kind of triumph,
being followed by five thousand persons, men and women, on
horseback, wearing bay and rosemary in their hats.  Those
who had passed sentence on them were now adjudged to pay
them heavy damages.
All the modes by which the king had been of late in the
habit of raising money were now resolved to be illegal.  To
secure the benefits resulting from this resolution, a bill was
brought in (Jan. 19, 1641) that a parliament should be
called every third year, and if the crown and the proper authorities neglected to call it, the people should meet of themselves, and choose their representatives.  To this bill the king
gave his assent, (Feb. 15,) and the people testified their joy
by bonfires and illuminations.
Petitions against episcopacy or its abuses poured in from
a.ll quarters.  One signed by two thousand of the clergy
prayed for the extinction of the order; another to the same
effect, called the Root and Branch petition, came from  fifteen thousand citizens of London.  The Scottish commissioners, eager to set up their own idol, exerted themselves
zealously.  " Against the bishops," says Baillie, " we pray,
I.       preach, and print what we are able most freely.... There is
a world of pamphlets here...  Their utter abolition, which
is the only aim of the most godly, is the knot of the quest;ion. We roust have it cut lby the axe of prayer."  Fasts
were also held, that " the Lord might join the breath of his
nostrils with the endeavors of weak men to blow  up a
wicked and anti-scriptural church."
During all this time a committee of the commons were
busily engaged in preparing heads of accusation  against
Strafford.  To gie him  as little chance as possible, they
i    _ _ __                                _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _        _ _  _ _




80               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
bound themselves to strict secrecy as to their proceedings
by a kind of voluntary oath. The king, on his part, in his
anxiety to save him, sought to conciliate his opponents, ant.
the lords Bristol, Essex, Bedford, Hertford, Mandevile,?
Savile, and Say, were sworn of the privy council.  He wa,
even induced to take a further step, and listen to a proposa
to " prefer some of the grandees to offices at court, whereby
Strafford's enemies should become his friends, and the king's
desires be promloted."  The proposed arrangement was, that
the earl of Bedford should be treasurer, and his follower Pym
who sat for his borough of Tavistock) his chancellor of the exChequer, lord Say master of the court of wards, Denzil Hollis
secretary of state, Oliver St. John solicitor-general.  HampJen, it is said, was to be tutor to the prince, and others to be
elsewise provided for.  But from  one cause or other these'romotions did not take effect, and " the great men," adds
Whitelocke, "baffled thereby, became the more incensed and
violent against the earl, joining with the Scots commissioners,
who were implacable against him."  When to this remark
Of one who could not well be mistaken we add the following
anecdote, it may be doubted if the men who sought Strafford's blood were such models of public virtue as their admirers make them.  At the time of Strafford's apostasy he
and Pyr met at Greenwich; they conversed awhile on public
affairs, and as they were concluding, the latter said, "You
are going to leave us, but I will never leave you while your
head is upon your shoulders."  This threat was uttered before
Strafford had committed any greater offence than that of
abandoning those with whom he had lately acted, but to
whose party he had never properly belonged.
Strafford, it is not to be denied, was a despot by nature,
and therefore if the court had not won him, he would, by
natural consequence, have become the most formidable of
demagogues.  Attached to the crown, the grand object ofhis life was to render it absolute.  In his presidency of the
North he was arbitrary and rigorous in the extreme, but
he had only the king's service in view, and he was impartial
in his despotism.  When he was appointed to the government of Ireland (1602) he went over to that " conquered
country," as he styled it, fully determined to make his master, as far as it was concerned, "the most absolute prince in
Christendom."   The effects produced by the force of his
T* his was the eldest son of the earl of Manchester. He sat in t1e
house of peers as viscount Kimbolton.




CHARLES I.                      8.
genius were surprising; while he ruled it with a rod of iron
he nmade it flourishing and wealthy: the customs were quadrupled in the short space of four years, for he guarded the
seas, and repressed all internal commotion.  In the fifth year
the revenue exceeded the expenditure by 6O,0001.  He introduced the linen-manufacture, but he suppressed that of
wool, in order to keep Ireland dependent on England, and
he formed magnificent projects of foreign trade, and sought
for sources of internal industry.  Confiding  in the vigor of
his mind, he feared not to convene parliaments, and when
they met he sw:ayed them at his will. lHe raised and maintained a numerous and well-appointed army.  He never for
a moment lost sight of his main object, that of rendering the
sovereign absolute; in his soul he regarded absolute monarchy as the best form  of government; to produce it he
labored in concert with Laud, a man every way his inferior no
doubt, but in this matter as sincere anlt as vehement as himself.  Their favorite word was THOROUGH, and they frequently
complained of the scruples and slowness of their royal master,
who would not proceed as rapidly as they required.
All the preliminaries being arranged, the day fixed for the
trial of this mighty man arrived.  It was the 22d of March;
the place was Westmninster-hall.  The earl of Arundel acted
as lord-high-steward.  The peers, in their robes, were seated
on benches in the centre; on scaffolds at each side sat the
commons, as a committee of their house; with them  the
Scottish commissioners and the deputies sent over by a portion of the Irish house of commons, to make charges against
the lord-lieutenant.  At the tipper end was an elevated throne,
and at each side of it a latticed box for the royal family; at
the lower end of the throne was a gallery for ladies of quality.
A bar stretched across the hall, leaving about one third of it
for the use of the public.
The court sat every morning at nine o'clock.  The earl
entered, attired in black, wearing his George by a golden
chain, and having made three bows to the l-ligh-ste'ward, knelt
at the bar; then!x)wing to the peers, he took his place at a
small desk, the lieutenant of the Tower standing beside him,
and his four secretaries at his back.  He lay under every disadvantage; he was suffering fiom the stone and gout; ac
cording to the iniquitous practice which prevailed then and
long after, he was not allowed the aid of counsel, except on
points of law, and the witnesses against him were examined
on oath, while his were not; he had but thirty minutes
given him to prepare his reply to the charges urged against
K




82               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
him by the managers, and while he was thus engaged an
eternal " hubbub " was kept up around him; the lords walk.
ing about and chatting, the comIimons  more noisy still, and a
continued clamor at the doors.  The bishops too, probably.earing for themselves, had, on the suggestion of' Williams,
resigned their right of being present, and the king had weakly consented to allow the privy councillors to be examined
on oath by the committee respecting advice given by the
earl at the board.  Against these, Strafford had, to sustain
him, his own mighty powers, his conviction that the charges
against him did not amount to treason, and the repeated assurance of the king that he should not suffer in life, honor, or
fortune.
On the second day Pym  rose, and " made," says Whitelocke, " an introduction very rhetorical and smart to the articles."  These, which were twenty-eight in number, were
urged during thirteen days by the lawyers Glyn, Maynard,
Palmer, and Whitelocke.  The general charge was " an endeavor to overthrow the fundamental government of the kingdom. and introduce an arbitrary power."  Of the particular
charges three were contended to amount to the treason of levying war against the king.  These were, 1. billeting soldiers on
the peaceable people of Ireland till he had made them submit
to his illegal demands: 2. raising an army in Ireland, and
advising the king to employ it in bringing this kingdom into
subjection: 3. imposing a tax on the people of Yorkshire
for the maintenance of his trained bands.  The remaining
articles, consisting of charges of hasty and imperious expressions, of oppression of individuals, and of illegal proceedinigs,
it was contended, though of no great importance separately,
amounted to what they termed cumulative treason, as indicating his design of subverting the liberties of the country.
Against all these c larges Strafford defended himself with eloquence and effect, and the tide, it was soon perceptible, was
turning in his favor; he won the hearts of all the ladies by
his graceful and manly eloquence, and the number of his
friends among the peers was visibly on the increase.  Pym
and his coadjutors now began to doubt if they should be able
to convict him of treason.  Their first step was (April 10)
to desire to be allowed to produce an additional piece of
evidence to one of the articles; Straffbrd claimed the same
liberty. Glyn objected, crying that " the prisoner at the bar
presumed to prescribe to the commons;" the lords, however,
thought it but reasonable.  The committee then rose up, and
shouting, Withdraw! withdraw! " cocked their beavers,'




CHARtLES n.                  83
says Baillie, "in the king's sight," and retired in high indig,
nation, without even appointing a day for the next meeting
This was on Saturday, and on the Monday following Pymn
produced in the house of commons a copy of some notes
taken by sir Henry Vane of the opinions delivered at the
council-table on the day that the last parliament was dissolved,
according to which Strafford had said, that the.king, having
tried the affection of his people in vain, was "-absolved and
loose from all rule of government, and might do what power
would admit; " lhe added, " you have an army in Ireland that
you may employ to reduce this kingdom  to obedience; for
I am confident the Soots cannot hold out five months."  The
manner in which Pyrn obtained these notes was rather suspicious. The young sir Henry Vane being on the eve of marriage, his father, who was out of town, sent him up the keys
of his study and boxes, that he might get out some title-deeds
which were required for making the marriage settlement.
A red velvet cabinet having attracted his attention, he opened
it and there found those notes; he hastened with them to
Pym, who took a copy of them, and the original was then
replaced in the cabinet.  Questions founded on these notes
had been put to sir Henry Vane by the committee of the
commons on three occasions before the trial; the two first
times he declared that he knew nothing of Strafford's project
to employ the Irish army " to reduce this kingdom;" the
third time he recollected the very words. On the trial he
repeated his last evidence, but professed that he did not know
whether by "this kingdom" was meant England or Scotland.
All the other councillors who were examined declared that
they did not recollect the words, and that there was no idea
of employing the Irish army any where but in Scotland.
These notes then were the additional evidence which the
managers wanted liberty to produce, and with the following
view. The law (though it had often been transgressed) required two witnesses in case of treason, and there was only
the single evidence of sir Henry Vane to this point; Pym
therefore " conceived those circumstances of his and young
sir fHenry Vane's having seen those original results, and
being ready to swear that the paper read by him was a true
copy of the other, might reasonably amount to the validity
of another witness"!!
Clarendon tells us that when Pym had made this disclosure
to the house, young Vane got up and acknowledged the truth
of all he had stated, adding other particulars.  His father
then' rose with a pretty confusion," and said that he now




84e              HISTORY OF iNGLAND.
saw whence the questions had been derived which had- sur
prised him so much, but owned that the copy corresponded
with the notes which he had since committed to the flames.
He expressed such indignation against his son, that a motion
was made, "that the father might be enjoined to be friends
with his son."  There was, however, for a long time a great
coolness between them  in public.  Clarendon and others
looked upol the whole as a well-acted scene, sir Henry Vane
having himself, they believed, communicated the notes out
of enmity to Strafford.  The cause of this enmity is said to
have been the latter's having taken his second title from ERaby, a place belonging to the Vanes.
Pym, being unable to convert his copy of the notes into a
second witness, now introduced a bill to attaint the earl of
Strafford for endeavoring to subvert the liberties of the country; for they had long since resolved to employ this odious,
unconstitutional course, if the impeachment seemed likely to
fail. At a conference therefore with the lords on the afternoon of this day, the copy of Vane's notes was produced, and
the next day, (13th,) when the trial was resumed, they were
read openly.  Lord Clare, Strafford's brother-in-law, urged
that " this kingdom " meant Scotland, and Strafford himself
dwelt on this point and on the variations in Vane's testimony,
adding, that the evidence of four councillors ought surely to
outweigh that of one. The lord steward then told him if he
had any thing more to say in his defence to proceed, as the
house intended now to prepare to give judgment.
The earl then went over his former ground of defence,
contending tha.;t nothing charged against him amounted to
treason.  In conclusion he said, "It is hard to he questioned
on a law which cannot be shown.  Where hath this fire lain
hid so many hundreds of years without smoke to discover it
till it thus burst forth to consume me and my children?.... If
a man pass the Thames in a boat, and split himself upon an
anchor, and no buoy be floating to discover it, he who oweth
the anchor shall make satisfaction; but if a buoy be set there,
every one passeth upon his own peril.  Now where is the
mark, where the tokens upon this crime, to declare it to be
high-treason? "  lie then warned the peers for their own
sakes not to "awaken these sleeping lions " of constructive
treasons. "My lords," said he in conclusion, " I have troubled
you longer than I should have done, were it not for the interest of these dear pledges a saint in heaven hath left me."
Here he stopped, letting fall some tears; he then resumed:' What I forfeit myself is nothing; but that my indiscretion




CHARLES 1.                       85
should extend to my posterity, woundeth me to the very soul
You  will pardon my infirmity; something I should have
added, but anm not able; therefore let it pass.  And now, my'.
lords, for myself, I have been, by the blessing of Almighty
God, taught that the afflictions of this present life are not to..
be compared to the eternal weight of glory which shall be
revealed hereafter.  And so, my lords, even so, with all tran-          i' quillity of mind, I freely submit myself to your judgment, and
whether that judgment-be of life or death, te Deum laudamus! " 
I Pyin and St. John spoke in reply.  It is said that when the
former uttered the following words, "If this law hath not
been put in execution, as he allegeth, these two hundred and; i
forty years, it was not for want of a law, but that all that
time had not bred a man bold enough to commit such crimes
as these," Strafford raised his head and looked at him fixedly; Pytn became confused; his memory failed him.  "To
humble the mans," says Baillie, " God let his memory fail him;
a little before the end"  He looked at his papers, but they,
were of no avail.  He then briefly said that the solicitorgeneral, St. John, would on a future day argue some lawpoints before them  with learning and abilities much better
for that service." 
Whlitelocke, a generous enemy, says of Strafford's defence,
"Certainly never man acted such a part on such a theatre
with more wisdom, constancy, and eloquence, with greater
reason, judgment, and temper, and with a better grace in all
his words and gestures than this great and excellent person
did; and he moved the hearts of all his auditors, some few,
excepted, to remorse and pity."
The commons meantime were proceeding with their bill
of attainder.  It was read the third time on the 21st, only
fifty-nine members voting against it in a house of two hundred and sixty-three.  The most strenuous opposer of the
bill was lord Digby, son of the earl of Bristol, a member of
the committee of impeachment.  "I am still the same," said
he, "in my opinions and affections as unto the earl of Straf-: In this speech of' Pym's was the following noble passage: "The
law is the boundary, the measure between the king's prerogative and
the people's liberty. Whilst these move in their own orbs, they are a
support and a security to one another; the prerogative a cover and a
defence to the liberty of the people, and the people by their liberty,'
ennhbled to be a foundation to the prerogative. But if these bounds be 
sov i.e!noved that they enter into contestation and conflict, one of these
imisclhiefs nust ensue; - if the prerogative of the king overwhelm th-   v
ilberty of the people, it will be turned into tyranny; if liberty undermine the prerogative, it will grow into anarchy."
VOL. II.      8
________  ___ _ ___      _ ____-. __     __ ___       ____ ___j




| }       86                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ford.' I confidently believe him to be the most dangerous
minister, the most insupportable to free su)bjects that can be
charactered.  I believe hint to be still that grand apostate to
the commonwealth who must not expect to be pardoned in
this world till he be despatched to the other. And yet let me.$$~       tell you, Mr. Speaker, my hand must not be to that despatch." For this speech Digby was immediately questioned
in the house, and when he printed it the house ordered that
it should be burnt by the hangman, " which," says AMay,
ki "jb,   6C was the visible cause of his deserting the parliament, and
proving so great an actor against it."
The bill was carried up to the lords the same day, and as
an inducement to them to pass it, there was added a proviso!i         that it should not be held a precedent for future times. On
the 24th the tardy peers were called on to appoint a day for'a!       reading it, and on the 29th Strafford being placed at the bar,
St John argued for two hours in proof of the legality of the
attainder.  Among other arguments he employed the follow-; i;     ing  "H e that would not have had others to have had a law,
why should he have any law himself?  It's true we give laws
to hares and deers, because they be beasts of chase; it was'
never accounted either cruelty or foul play to knock foxes or
wolves mn the head, as they can be found, because these be
beasts of prey.  The warrener sets traps for polecats and
other vermin, for preservation of the warren."  In other
words, Strafford must be destroyed, with law or without law.
Two days after, (May 1,) the king summoned both houses,
and told them  that in conscience he could not condemn
Strafford of treason, or assent to the bill of attainder, " but
for misdemeanors, he is so clear in them that he thinks the
earl hereafter not fit to serve him or the commonwealth in
any place of trust, no, not so much as a constable;" and he,i,       conjured the lords to find out somne middle way.  Charles,
E<; $by this address, characteristic of his usual want of judgment, only hastened the fate of Strafford, for the commons,
seeing their advantage, exclaimed loudly against the breach
of pr'vilege committed by the king's interfering with a bill
in progress.  Next day being Sunday, the pulpits which
were occupied by the puritan clergy inculcated " the necessity of justice upon some great delinquents now to be acted;'
and on the following morning there came a rabble of about
six thousand persons, armed with swords, daggers, and
clubs, crying for justice on the earl of Strafford, and complaining that " they were undone for the want of execultion
on bim;  trading was so decayed thereby."  They insulted




CHARLES I.                     81
several of the lords, and they posted up the names of the
fifty-nine members of the commons who had voted against
the attainder, calling them " $Straffordians, or Betrayers of
their Country."  When these members complained to the
house of' being thus proscribed, they could get no redress, it
being, they were told, the act of a multitude. If it be asked,
Where did the mob get their list? the reply will appear inll
the sequel.
While the mob were shouting outside, Pym took occasion
to reveal to the house sundry matters which had come to his 
knowledge respecting intrigues and designs against the parliament; and on his motion a protestation (borrowed from
the Covenant) to defend the protestant church, his majesqy's
person and power, the privileges of parliament, and the lawful rights and liberties of the people, was taken by all the
members.  It was transmitted next day to the lords, where it
was taken in like manner, the catholic peers of course declining it, and being thereby prevented from voting on Strafford's attainder. Orders were then given for the protestation
to be taken all through England.
Thle important matter which Pym now communicated to the
house was what is called the Army-plot.  It is said that he
had had a knowledge of it for some time, and had dropped
hints of it in order to produce the effects he desired in the
city.  The matter is involved in great obscurity; the following is what appears to us the most probable account.
The parliament had been very regular in their payments
of the money promised to their "( dear brethren," as they
tending an instant need of 25,0001., and the commons, having
only 15,0001. in hand, took, to make up the sum, 10,001.,
from a sum of 50,0001. which was to have gone to the English army.  Some of the field-officers of this last, namely,
lord Percy, brother of the earl of Northumberland, Wilmot,
son ef lord Wilmot, and colonels Ashburnham, Pollard, and
others, were members of the house of commons, and Wilmot
rose and said, " that if such papers of the Scots -could procure nmoneys, he doubted not but the officers of the English
would soon do the like." Petitioning being now so much in
vogue, these officers formed themselves into aunct, and prepared a petition to the king and parliament, to be presented
from the army, of which the prayer would be the preserving
of the bishops' functions and votes, the non-disbanding of
the Irish army until that of the Scots was also disbanded,
and the settlement of the royal revenue.  This was commu'
____________________   _______________________  ____________________________________________  




88               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
nicated:by Percy to the king.  Meantime tIere was a plot
on foot among Henry Jermyn, master of the horse to the
queen, sir John Suckling, George Goring, son of lord Goring, and others, the object of which was deeper; it being
to bring up the army, and overawe the parliament. It would
appear that not merely the queen, but even the king was
acquainted with this design, for he commanded Percy and
his friends to communicate with Jermyn and Goring. They
had three meetings, and Goring, finding that the more violent courses which he urged were not relished, and seeing
also that the command of the army, the object of his ambition, would not be bestowed on him, went andl made a discovery to lord Newport, and then to the parliamentary
leaders.  Percy, Jerimyn, and Suckling, finding the affair
discovered, fled to France;. the others stood their ground.
Percy afterwards (June:14) wrote a letter to his brother,
giving an account (apparently a true one) of the whole affair,
and then Wilmot, Ashlburnham, and Pollard. were committed
to custody.  Lord Digby, having asserted that Goring was a
perjured man, was expelled the house, and Goring was voted
to have done nothing contrary to justice and honor
The king, in his extreme anxiety to save Strafford, may
have lent an ear to the wild project of Goring; he also assented to anotkler, of introducing one captain Billingsley,
with two hundred men, into the rower for that purpose, and
gave his warrant for it. But Balfour, the lieutenant, a Scotsmall, having discovered the object, refused to admit them.
It is also said that Balfour was offered a sum of money to let'he earl escape, and on his examination he swore that Strafford had offered him for that purpose 20,000/., " besides a
good marriage for his son."
On the 5th a bill was introduced into the commons which
virtually dissolved the monarchy,.  There being a difficulty
in raising money for the pay of the armies, a Lancashire
knight engaged to procure 650;0001. if the- king would pass
a bill " Not to prorogue, adjourn, or-dissolve this parlfia-ment
without consent of both houses, to endure till the grievances
were redressed, and, to give tilhe parliament credit to take up
moneys."  The next day this. bill was hurried through all its
stages, and sent, with that of:the attainder, up to the other
house.  The lords wished to limit it to two years, but the
Commons would not consent, and on the 8th it was passed.
I'he lords at the same time passed the bill of attainder, the
Ju.ges having previously declared that onetwo -of'tie articles
the earl.was:guilty of treason.  This opinion. woula be of




Inore weight we:re it not that the judges had such recent experience of the power of the commons.  Various causes:
concurring to make several of the peers absent themselves,
there were but forty-five present when the bill was passed.,
and of these nineteen voted against it.
The two bills were sent to the king.  In his distress of
mind he called some of the prelates and privy-councillors to
his aid.  Some urged the authority of the judges:; bishop
Williams is said to have drawn a, pernicious distinction betweer a king's private and public conscience, by which in
his public capacity he might do an act which he secretly believed to be a crime. Bishop Juxon alone, we are told, honestly advised him  to follow  his conscience.  A  letter also
came from  the earl himself, urging him  to pass the bill.
"Sir," said he in it, " iry consent shall more acquit you
herein to God than all the world can do besides.  To a willing  man there  is no injury done."  A  truly noble mind.
would have perished sooner than sacrifice such a voluntaryvictim; Charles, to his ultimate ruin- and eternal disgrace,
signed a commission to three lords to pass both the bills.
It is probable that Strafford: did. not look for this result,
for when secretary Carleton came from the king to inform him
of what he had done, and his motives for it, he could not at
first believe it.  When: satisfied: of the truth, he stood up,
lifted his eyes to heaven, and laying his hand on his: heart,
said, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men,
for in them there is no salvation."
Denzil Hollis, who was Strafford's brother-in-law, told
Burnet'that the king sent for him, and asked if he knew  of
any  course to save his lire.  THollis hinted  at a reprieve,
which would give himself tine to use his influence with hIs
friends in the commons.  The king would appear to have
assented to this course, but, with his usual inconstancy, he
adopted another.  The day after his assent to -the bill ( 11th)
he sent a letter by the young prince of Wales, written by
himself, to the lords, urging them to join him- in prevailing
with the commons to consent. to:his imprisonment for life;
"' but," he subjoined, " if no less than his life.can. satisfy my
people, I must say, FiatJustitia."  In a postscript he adds,
" If he must die, it; were charity to:reprieve him —till Satu-rday."
This postscript is said to have sealed the earl's doom.  The
next.morning (12th) was appointed for his execution.  The
scaffold was erected on Tower-hill;.:the. earl, when: ready,
left his.chamber; Laud, as he had requlested, was at.his window to:give: hi-m  his blessing as the passed.; the feeble old
8*                            L




90               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
man raised his hands, but was unable to speak, and fell back
into the arms of his attendants.  The earl moved on; the
lieutenant desired him to take coach at the gate, lestthe mob
should tear him to pieces; he replied that it was equal to
him whether he died by the axe or by their fury. The multitudes extended far as the eye could reach; the earl took off
his hat several times, and saluted them; not a word of insult
was heard. " His step and air,"says Rushworth, " were those
of a general marching at the head of an army to breathe victory, rather than those of a condemned man to undergo the
sentence of death."  From the scaffold he addressed the
people, assuring them that he had always had the welfare of
his country at heart; it augured ill for their happiness, he
told them, to write the commencement of a reformation in
letters of blood; he assured them he had never been against
parliaments, regarding them as " the best means under God
to make the king and his people happy."  He turned to take
leave of his friends, and seeing his brother weeping, he gently reproached him. "Think," said he, "that you are now
accompanying me the fourth time to my marriage-bed.  That
block shall be my pillow, and here I shall rest from all my
labors."  He then began to undress, saying, " I do as cheer.
fully put off my doublet at this time as ever I did when I
went to bed."  He knelt and prayed, archbishop Usher and
another clergyman kneeling with him. He laid down his
head to try the block: then telling the executioner that he
would stretch forth his hands as a sighn when he was to strike,
he laid it finally down, and giving the signal, it was severed
at a single blow; and thus in the forty-ninth year of his age
perished Thomas earl of Strafford, "who for natural parts and
abilities," says Whitelocke, " and for improvement of knowledge, by experience in the greatest affairs, for wisdom, faithfulness, and gal!.antry of mind, hath left few behind him that
may be ranked equal with him."
We have been thus minute in our account of the trial and
death of this distinguished man, because we think it affords
an index to the motives and conduct of the popular leaders
These are judged by men even at the present day more by
feeling and prejudice than by reason; and while the admirers
of republicanism see in Pym and his coadjutors a species of
demigods, men raised far above all selfish objects and private
feelings, the advocates of the crown regard them as mere
factious demagogues, orgly anxious to destroy the monarchy.
Here too, as elsewhere, the truth lies in the middle. Pym
and his friends were politicians an d statesmen; and it is not




CHARLES 1.                     91
among such that any one versed in history and human nature
will 1 )ok for perfect virtue. They had noble objects in view,
no doubt; it was a glorious task to lay a curb on despotism,
and secure to tile nation civil and religious liberty.  But in
the attainment of these objects they were not sufficiently
nice as to means, and while hastening after justice they at
times trampled it under their feet.  In the prosecution of
Strafford it is easy to discern a personal vindictiveness, only
to be satiated by his blood, and which no security against
his return to power would have disarmed. It was this that
led them, when distrusting their power of convicting him
legally of treason, to bring in their fatal bill of attainder.  As
for the conduct of the king on this occasion, we have no excuse to offer fobr it; if faithless to his country, Strafford had
been but too faithful to himn.; and surely, as a stand was to
be made somewhere, it might better have been made in the
defence of the life of a man whom he believed to be innocent, than in the support of a particular form of church
government.  But Charles never loved the earl, and the
queen is thought to have urged him to sacrifice him.
This important trial also reveals to us the skill of the
popular leaders in raising and sustaining what is now termed
a'pressure from  without.' The following were the usual
modes employed:   1. The press, whence issued swarms of
pamphlets answering to the'leading articles' of the news.
papers in our days, which, as Baxter tells us, " were greedi
ly bought up throughout the land, which greatly increaseo
the people's apprehension of their danger." 2. The pulpit.
This had from the time of the Reformation been too often
diverted from its legitimate use to serve political purposes.
The patriots and puritans had of late years often and justly
complained of its being employed to inculcate the doctrine
of passive obedience; but in the day of their own power they
recognized its efficacy, and employed it unsparingly.  The
clergy attended the houses, and received their instructions,
and the congregations learned from the pulpit what they
should perform in support of their leaders in the house.  3
Petitions, which gave an opportunity for large bodies of
people to approach the houses, oftein armed, and thus daunt
the opponents of the popular leaders. If we may believe
Clarendon, a scandalous artifice was sometimes employed.
A moderate petition was read at a public meeting, to which
few could refuse to subscribe; but after the signatures were
obtained, a petition of a very different character was placed
at the head of it, and thus people often found themselves




92:              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
supplicants for what they had no mind to.  4. Rumors.  At
various times since the meeting of parliament it had been re*
ported that the papists were assembling in arms underground.
in Surrey, and openly in Lancashire; that, there was a plot
for blowing up the Thames, and thus drowning the city, oni
the discovery of which; there was a public thanksgiving:; that
there was another for blowing up the house of commons with
gunpowder,; sir John Earle actually smelled the powder; the
report spread to the city; the drums beat, and, the train-bands
and' crowds of the people hastened to Westminster to protect
the members.  A  tailor sitting under a hedge heard two
soldiers talking of how some of their comrades were to get
so much apiece for killing several of the lords and coimmons;
the citizens star.ted one night from their warm beds and flew.
to arms at midnight, on a report that the king was coming
down with horse and foot.  We are told that in the space. of
two or three months these reports amounted to not less than
thirty-nine.  5. Spies.  Pyrn is said to have carried on an
intrigue with lady Carlisle,;- through whom he learned all
that was passing in the royal apartments; and Clarendon tells
us that " all tavern and ordinary discourses" were carried
to him. 6. Lastly, organized bodies of the London apprentices
and others. These are said to have been under the direction
of some of the clergy; and we are told that one of them,
named- Burgess, would point to these companies, saying,
"These be -my band-dogs; I can set them on and take them
off again as I please."
CHAPTER VI.
CHARLES I. (CONTINUED.)
1641 —1642.
AFT-ErR the fall of Strafford, the king. seems to have abandoned all thoug-hts of resistance for the. present.  The plan
of giving office. to some of the leading patriots had been
* Merely a political one, we, believe. This lady, who was sister to.the earl of Northuniuoerland, is said to have. been the mistress first of
Strafford, and then of Pym.' We lhave, however, seen nothing. to iu-_
tif, this imputation on her character




CHARLES I.                    93
resumed; but unhappily for him, the earl of Bedford, an
honorable and moderate man, who would have engaged to
save Strafford, died at that very conjuncture.  It was, however, partially carried into effect, lord Say being made master
of the court of wards, Essex lord chamberlain, Hertford governor to the prince, and Leicester lord lieutenant of Ireland.
Bishop Juxon resigned his office of lord-treasurer, to which
the influence of Laud had advanced him, but in which his
conduct had been irreproachable, and the treasury was put
into comnmission.
The act securing them from a dissolution having set the
parliament:somewhat at- their ease, they felt the less necessity
for keeping the Scottish army in the kingdom, and they now
began to think seriously of disbanding both armies. In the
month of February they had voted a sum of. 300,0001. " toward a supply of the losses and necessities of their brethren
of Scotland."  There were, moreover, 120,000~l. of arrears
due to the Scots. The mode of payment was arranged, and
in addition to six subsidies, it was proposed to raise a supply
by means of a graduated poll-tax, a duke being rated at
iOl/., men of 10601. a year at-51. The English army was to
be paid off in like manner, and the ear! of Holland was
made general in order to disband it.
While Holland remained in London, the command of the
army lay with sir Jacob Ashly. The king, ever anxious to
regain his power, listened to another project for marching
the army up to overawe the parliament.  It was proposed to
proceed in the usual. way by petition, and one was drawn up
to be presented to the king and parliament in tile name of
the officers and soldiers; in which, after enumerating and
praising all the late measures of reform, they complain that
there are certain " stirring and practical " persons whom
nothing short of the subversion of the government would
satisfy, and who overawed the parliament by means of mobs;
"for the suppressing of which," it proceeds, " in all humility
we offer ourselves to wait upon you, if you please, hoping we
shall appear as considerable in the way of defence to our
gracious sovereign, the parliament, our religion, and the
established laws of the kingdom, as what number soever
shall audaciously presume to violate them." etc.
This petition was read and approved of by the king, in
token of which he wrote his C. IR. at the bottom of it. It
was then sent down to the army by captain Legg, with directions not to show it to any one but sir Jacob Ashly. The
chief agent employed by the king in this affair was one




94               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Daniel C'Neal, an Irish catholic, who had served abroad,
and wra,; now serjeant-major (that is, adjutant) in the regi.
ment of sir John Conyers, and who was also engaged to
treat with the Scottish army for their neutrality.  The
whole plan, however, proved abortive, and it soon came to
the knowledge of the parliament, and augmented their distrust of the king.
On the 22d of June the commons presented to the king
an act granting him tonnage and poundage, also one for the
poll money; these were accompanied by two others for sup.
pressing the courts of star-chainber and high-commission.
The king came down on the 2d of July, and passed the
money-bills, but demurred to the others; learning, however,
how much dissatisfaction this had caused, he came again on
the 5th and passed the other two bills; thus in his usual
unhappy manner losing the credit he might have gained by a
cheerful compliance with what he could not avoid.
The king's attachment to his sister and her family is an
amiable trait in his character; and his anxiety for the restitution of the palatinate had led him into negotiations and
civilities with the pope and the catholic princes, which had
caused alarm to his more zealous protestant subjects.  He
now, with the hearty concurrence of the parliament, prepared a manifesto on that subject, which sir Thomas Roe
was directed to present to the emperor at the approaching
diet at Ratisbon.  Another act which had given much satisfaction to the people, as a proof of his protestant feeling,
was the marriage between his daughter Mary (now, however,
only in her tenth year) and the prince of Orange, which
had been solemnized at Whitehall on the 2d. of May.  In
fact, had Charles been really willing to be a constitutional
instead of a despotic monarch, the path was now plain before
him which led to the hearts of his people.
The historian May observes, that at this time the parliament had lost much of its popularity. This he ascribes
partly to their lifting-at the bishops, which turned the
universities and most of the clergy against them; partly to
their not checking the rabble, who frequently disturbed the
church-service, and tore the books and surplices, they being,
he says, "either too much busied in a variety of affairs, or,
perchance, too much fearing the loss of a considerable party
whom they might have need of against a real and potent
enemy;" partly to the reuorts of the preachings of tradesmen and other illiterate persons of the lowest rank. Others,
again, were disappointed that political miracles were not




CHARLES I.                     95
performed, and a;enated by the heavy taxes that were imposed.  He agrees in opinion with those who thought that
the parliament greatly injured their cause by mixing religion
so much up with it.
It is necessary that the reader should be here informed of
the proceedings of the parliament hitherto on the subject
of religion.  On the presentation of the' Root and Branch'
petition, it was carried by a small majority to refer it to the
committee of religion.  Sir Edward Dering, an honest, dull
man, then brought in a bill for the abolition of episcopmly:;
and though we are assured that very few of the mermbers
desired any such thing, the second reading was carried by
139 to 108. Hyde, however, the chairman of the committee,
gave it so much interruption that no progress was made in it;
and petitions numerously signed were presented from various
counties wishing episcopacy and the liturgy to be reformed
but retained.  In July the house voted in favor of a scheme
of archbishop Usher's for making every county a diocese,
with a presbytery of twelve divines presided over by a bishop,
who should with them have authority " to ordain, suspend, deprive, degrade and excommunicate." On this occasion also,
some members maintained that it was unilawful for bishops
to sit in parliament.  As the lords were disinclined to any
measure of this nature, and the bishops stood their ground
firmly, articles of impeachment, on account of the late
canons, were exhibited against one half of the bench,
(Aug. 4.)  The prelates, however, did not shrink; they
only required time and counsel to prepare their answer,
which was granted.  The commons had already (July 5)
voted Wren, bishop of Ely, "unworthy and unfit to hold or
exercise any office or dignity in the church or commonwealth," and he had been committed to the Tower. They
moreover made an order, which sir Robert Jiarlowe was
empowered to execute, "' to take away all scandalous pictures, crosses, and figures, within churches and without,"
and the " zealous knight took down the cross in Cheapside,
Charing-cross, and others the like monuments, ilnpartially."
The Irish army had been disbanded, and on the 6th of
August the English and Scottish armies were disbanded
also; "and the Scots with store of English money and
spoils,' says Whitelocke, " and the best entertainment, left
their warm  and plentiful quarters."  On the 10th the king
set out for Scotland, and he travelled with such speed that
he reached Edinburgh in four days.  He was follcwved
thither by a committee of the commons, composed of loru
~'~'' -ll- ~~' p~`' ~~~; —-- ~ -; —-~    ~l- -~-~-~~~" ~-'`-" ~`-'-''-"~ ——'



HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Howard of Escrick, Mr. Fiennes, Mr. Hampden, and sir
William  Armyn, "to preserve the good intercourse and
understanding which was begun between the two nations,"
and to watch the proceedings of the king.  Before he departed he had signed a bill making the earl of Essex general
of his forces on this side of the Trent. Parliament continued
to sit till the 9th of September, when it adjourned to the
20th of October, having appointed a committee of fifty to
sit during the recess.
The hopes of regaining his power had urged Charles to
visit Scotland, where there was a man able and willing to
execute the most daring projects, and who was now devoted
to him. This was the earl of Montrose, who, in his disgust
at the king's neglect of him at the time of his coronation,
had joined the covenanters, but offended with them for preferring Argyle to him in civil, and Lesley in military affairs,
had become secretly devoted to the king, to whom he made
important communications.  Being detected in a plot, he was
now a prisoner in the castle of Edinburgh. By means of
William  Murray of the bedchamber, he corresponded with
the king, into whose mind he infilsed suspicions (whether
well or ill grounded is hard to say) of Argyle and even of
Hamilton. According to Clarendon, who had the account
from the king himself, " he informed him of many particulars frotm the beginning of the rebellion, and that the marquess was no less faulty and false towards his majesty than
Argyle, and offered to make proof of all in the parliament,
but rather desired to kill them both, which he frankly undertook to do; but the king, abhorring that expedient, for his
own security, advised that the proofs might be prepared for
the parliament."
It would seem  that on account of the great power and
influence of these noblemen, the king consented to the
employment of stratagem for their arrest.  The plan is said
to have been, that Argyle, Hamilton, and his brother lord
Lanark, should be sent for to the royal drawing-room  on
Sutnday, October the 2d, where they should be arrested astraitors, and be handed over to lord Crawford, who awas to
be near with a party of soldiers; they were then to be
placed in a close carriage, and hurried on board a frigate
which lay in Leith roads, where they were to be kept till
their trial. It is added, that if they attempted resistance
they were to be put to death. The accused, however, got
information the evening before, and absented themselves
rxem  court.  Next morning they wrote to the king and




CHARLES 1.                     97
parliament, giving their reasons, and then went out of town,
and finally retired to Glasgow.  As the letters of the Hanm.
iltous were " not without some reflections on his majesty,"
Charles insisted on their submitting to a public trial.  It
was finally thought best for all parties that the trial should
be before a private committee, of which the members should
be sworn to secrecy.
This event is named the'Incident.'  Like so many other t
events in Scottish history, owing to that extreme fondness
for secrecy and stratagem, said to be characteristic of the
nation, it is enveloped in an obscurity which will never,
perhaps, be totally dissipated.  The plot for the arrest,
however, seems to be proved, but what the exact o:.ject of
the king was it is difficult to say.  It may have been part
of a plan to master the Scottish parliament; or Charles
may have thus hoped to come at the proofs which he knew
existed of the invitation given to the Scots to enter England
by the popular leaders at Westminster, on which he might
found a charge of treason against them.  When the account
of the TIncident was transmitted to London by the committee,
the parliament felt or affected great consternation, and they
applied to the earl of Essex for a guard to protect themn.
In the midst of these alarms tidings reached the king and
parliament of the breaking  out of a most sanguinary rebellion in Ireland.  The causes which produced this horrible
explosion had long been in secret operation: wRe will here
briefly enumerate them.
The mildest term  that can be applied to the native Irish
at the time of which we write is that of barbarians; they
were in fact in many parts of the country but little removed
fiom the savage state. There is not in existence a people
more capable of acts of ferocious cruelty, or more fanatical..
ly attached to the system  of superstition which forms their
religion; and their devotion to their clergy is blind and
implicit.  Their hatred then was, and still unhappily is,
intense toward the English nation, name, and religion.
The genius of popery is destructive and intolerant, and
nothing but its feebleness wrill ever keep it at rest.  To
these causes, namely, the barbarism  of the people, their
hatred of the English, and the spirit of their religion, is to
be added the loss of their lands.  The territory of an Irish
sept or clan was somewhat of the nature of an Indian hunting-ground; no one had any particular possession in it, every
death in the sept causing a new arrangement.  Tillage,
therefore, could only be in scanty patches, and the native
VOL. II.     9                         M




98               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Irish actually moved about with their herds like the Eastern
Turkmans.  Still this rude kind of possession was property,
and it galled them  to lose it.  In their eyes the portions
which had been regranted them  on English t.enures were
not of equal value, and they little prized the civilization
which had been thus introduced.  This was the case in
three of the provinces; there had been no English plantattions as yet in Connaught, where there had been no insurrections, and where in the last two reigns tile Irish proprietors
had surrendered their estates to the crown, to receive them
back by a legal tenure.  These grants (though the fees were
paid) had not been enrolled in chancery, and Charles, on
ascending the throne, was urged to take advantage of the
neglect, and declare the whole province forfeited.  He was
prepared to do so, but-he afterwards agreed to take 120,000/.,
payable in three years, for soime graces, as they were named,
which he-was to bestow, the chief object of which was *to
secure.both Irish and English in their lands against the
crown.  A parliament was to be held to confirm the graces:
the deputy issued:the writs, but as it was done in an irregular
manner, they were declared void in England.  The three
years thus passed away, the money was all paid, and the
graces had not been confirmed, and the king threatened to
straiten them if the contribution were not continued.  StrafZ
ford now came over and -ruled with despotic sway; the graces
were rudely denied, and juries were forced to find the king's
title to the lands all through Connaught.  The affairs in
Scotland and England prevented any thing being done in
the way of plantation, and.in the committee which went
over to accuse Strafford, both parties united in the effort to
induce the king to perform  his promises.  lIe did consent
(Maay 1641,) but the Irish parliament having been prorogued,
they had not been legally confirmed when the rebellion
blrolke out.
The plan of insurrection is said to have originated with
Roger Moore, one of that sept whose territory had b)een
formed into the King's and qGueen's Counties in the reign
of Mary.  He had served abroad in the Spanish armies3
and it appeared to him that what had succeeded in Scotland
might also be achieved in Ireland, and that by a sinmultaneous rising of the catholics of both races, by seizing the
forts, and by expelling the English and Scottish colonists,
they:might recover:their lands, and reestablish their religion.  It does not appear to have been any part of his
p'"a that ihey should cast off their allegiance to the kinlg,
IP~-rrr  — r —._..~~..;. ~.~~^:~~~___ __~_ ~~~~




CHARLES I.                    99
Moore went secretly to lord MacGuire, sir Phelim O'Neal
and other chieftains in the North, and he also communicated with the lords of the Pale.@  As some of these last
were of the committee in London, it is highly probable that
the queen may have known of and favored a design for
setting up the religion to which she was devoted in Ireland;
and it is possible enough that Charles himself, over whom
her influence was now unbounded, may have listened to a
project which held forth to him a prospect of recovering his
darling despotism.  It is utterly incredible, however, that he
should have given his assent to a plan for expelling the English; but he might have preferred seeing the government in
the hands of' the catholics rather than in those of a party
which he kneews. to be devoted to the parliament.  Charles
had such a fontlless for intrigue, and was in the habit of
listening to so many different opinions, and adopting such a
variety of expedients for attaining his objects, that one can
very rarely venture to deny with confidence any charge made
against him.
The plan, though communicated to a great number o
persons, had been profoundly concealed.  A principal object was to get possession of the castle of Dublin, in which
were the arms of the late army and large stores of arnmunition.  For this purpose it was arranged that Roger Moore,
lord MacGuire, Hugh MacMahon, Hugh Byrne, and other
gentlemen, with twenty men from each county, should come
up to the capital, and that the attempt should be nmade on
the 23d of October.  It was only on the night of the preceding day that the lords justices got information of what
was intended, and, that by the merest chance.  There was a
man of Irish origin, but who had lived chiefly among the
English, and was of the protestant religion; his name was
Owen O'Conolly, and, for what reason is not known, MacMahon wished to engage him in the plot.  He, therefore,
wrote to him to come to his house in the county of Monaghan without delay. On Conolly's arriving there he found
that MacMahon was gone ulp to Dublin, whither he followed
him, and arrived at six o'clock in the evening of Friday the
22d. MacMahon took him to lord MacGuire's and informed
him of the whole plan for a simultaneous rising at ten o'clock
the next morning, to destroy the English all through the
kingdom.  Conolly told him it could not succeed, and urged
* The Pale was the district round Dublin; its lords, Gormanstown,'Fingal, and others, were all of the English blood.
i~ ~~__~_~~~~~9~




100             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
him to discover the plot, and thus save his estate; but he
refused, and swore that Conolly should not leave his lodging
(whither they had returned) that night.  After drinking with
him for some time, Conolly pretended a necessity to go down
to the yard, and, leaving his sword behind him, went out,
attended by MacMahon's man; he then jumped over the
wall, and made all haste to the house of sir William Parsons,
one of the lords justices.  It was only nine o'clock when he
came with the information of the conspiracy.  As Conolly
was somewhat flustered by what he had drunk, he delivered
his account in so confused a manner that Parsons gave blut
little credit to it.  He, therefore, desired him to go back to
MacMahon, and learn what more he could, and he himself,
having given directions for securing the castle gates, went
to his colleague sir John Borlase, and they sent for such of
the council as were in town. Conolly, who had been seized
by the watch, and would have been carried to prison had
not one of Parsons's servants fortunately come up at the
time, was brought in, and being now  somewhat sobered,
gave a full account of all he had discovered.  Before day
came, MacMahon was arrested: he did not attempt to deny
the plot; he told them that " what was to be done in other
parts of the country was so far advanced at that time as it
was impossible for the wit of man to prevent it," and that
he was sure to be revenged if he suffered any evil. The
lord MacGuire and some others were also arrested, but
Moore, Byrne, and the rest got timely information, and so
escaped.
MacMahon's assertions were soon verified.  Lord Blaney
arrived at midnight (24th) with tidings of his own house and
two other strong houses in the same county, having been
surprised that morning by the rebels, and in three hours
after news came of the Irish in the Newry having broken
open the king's store there and seized the ammunition.
That same day (Sunday) lord Gormanstown and the other
catholics lords of the Pale came making great professions of
loyalty, and craving to be supplied with arms.  The next
day (25th) the justices wrote an account to the earl of Leicester of what had taken place.  Owen O'Conolly was the
bearer of the letter, and he was properly recommended to
the royal bounty.
We shall now proceed to relate the progress of the rebellion.  The main object of the rebels, as we have seen,
was to root the English out of the country.  It is said. -




CHARLES 1.                   101
that they had debated whether they should do this after the
fashion set by the court of Spain in the case of the Moriscoes, and merely expel them, or whether they should fall on
and slaughter them. It is probable that Roger Moore and
the more enlightened and humane were for the former
course, while sir Phelim O'Neal and the priests, especially
the friars, were for slaughter and massacre. Nothing, however, would seem to have been decided on, and all were left
to act as they judged best. On the 2-2d (Friday) the priests
in several places in Ulster, it is said, dismissed the people
with directions to go and take possession of their lands; and
next morning they assembled in great numbers, armed with
staves, scythes, and pitchforks, and began to drive away the
cattle of the English settlers, and then to break into their
houses and seize their goods; some houses were burnt, and
some of the English mudered on this first day of the
outbreak.  They soon proceeded to greater extremities;
they stripped them, men, women, and children, naked, and
turned them out of their houses.  The Irish were forbidden
to give them any food or relief as they passed along; the rags
which they had to cover them were torn off by the women and
children t.hat met them.
The expulsion of the English was greatly facilitated by the
manner in which they lived intermixed among the Irish,
with whom also they had in some cases intermarried. Many
of them had Irish tenants and servants; many were themselves tenants to the Irish gentry, who preferred them, as
able to pay better rents than their own people.  Hence they
did not draw themselves together in bodies, and stand on
their defence, as the Scots did, but each remained in his
own house, relying on his Irish friends, neighbors, landlords,
tenants, or servants, to secure him.  But they only experienced cruelty and treachery, those on whom they depended
being too well instructed by their priests in the sinfulness of
showing mercy to heretics.
Thouigh Ulster was the earliest and principal theatre of
these barbarities, they were not confined to it, and similar
ones were enacted in the other three provinces, and even in
the counties adjoining the capital. The county. of Kilkenny
and the Queen's County seem to have been most abundant
in deeds of cruelty in Leinster.  The whole number of
those that perished has been variously estimated. The number said to have been returned by the priests in Ulster, from
their several parishes, down to April, 1642, was 105,000), and
archdeacon Maxwell in his deposition (August 22, 1642)
9*




102               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
stated that there were " above 1.54,000: now  wanting w'tiiina
the very precinct of Ulster."  The general impression in
England' was, that in one way or another 200,000 protestants
perished in this rebellion.*'
i  The king, on receiving intelligence of the insurrection in
} \        Ireland, referred the whole matter to the parliament of England, who had already voted; a supply of 50,0001.-for that
purpose, and taken other needful measures.  The earl of
Ormond was appointed lieutenant-general of the forces in
i  reland; but these wer6 too few to check the progress of the
[t lUlster rebels, who soon advanced and laid siege to Drogheda.
When the Irish parliament met, the catholic members were
very gentle in their condemnation of the rebelliont, and in
little more than a month from the time of the first outbreak,'          $ the lord Gormanstown and the other catholics of the Pale
were in arms on the side of the rebels.
Charles now prepared to leave Scotland.  To conciliate
i!t       the nobles he lavished the church-lands and places and honors on them.  Argyle was rnaide a marquess, Loudon an earl
r L        and chancellor, Lesley' and Munro earls of Leven and Cali' inlender; Johnston of Warriston was raised to the bench; the
livings of Henderson and others were increased.  In return,
the safety- of Montrose and his friends was assured, and ten
thousand men were promised for the recovery of the Palatinate.  Old Lesley, we are told by Clarendon, assured the
king, "that he could not only never more serve against him,
but that whenever his mnajesty would require his service he
should have it without ever asking what the cause was."
Others, he adds, whispered him, " that as soon as the trout:;;       bles of the late storm could be perfectly calned they would
reverse and repeal whatsoever was now unreasonably extorted
from  him."  Charles therefore quitted his native kingdom
with good hopes that he had at least neutralized it in the
struggle which he was preparing to make for the recovery
of his despotic power in England.  Toward the end of No.
vember he returned to London, where, as we have seen, there
Clarendon (ii. 20)' says 40,000 or 50,000 were massacred at first;
sir William Petty reduces the number to 37,000; Warner to 4000;
Curry and Dr. Lingard make it almost nothing. In the preceding details we have followed the narrative of sir John Temple, who was master of the rolls in Ireland at the time. [There can be little doubt that
Temple's account is exaggerated; especially as it so far exceeds all the
other estimates. -J. T. S.]
t They objected to the term rebels, styling them merely discontented
gentlemen. At length they consented to the words traitorous and re.
bellious actions of sorie persons.
__




CH.ARLES I.                   103
hald been some reaction in the popular feeling in his favor,
and Gournay, the lord-mayor of the year, was a royalist.  A
magMificent civic banquet was given to the monarch at
GuIlildhall, (Nov. 25,) and the streets rang with acclamations
of loyalty as he passed to and from it.  The king and his
friends were unduly elated by these marks of popular favor,
and their conduct stimulated the leaders of the commons: to
put forth their celebrated Remonstrance.
This Remonstrance was a recapitulation of all the illegal
acts which had taken place since the kingt's accession, aying
the blame, however, not on the king himself, but on ill ministers, who are called in it "a malign.ant party."  It wag
vigorously opposed in the commons. The debate lasted from
nine o'clock in the morning until past midnight, (Nov. 22;)
several mernbers left the house on account of age or infirmity,
and yet it was carried only by a majority of eleven, which sir
Belij min Rudyard  aptly compared to "the verdict of a
starved jury."  Hampden's motion for having it printed was
rejected as being contrary to usage.  As Hyde, the chief
opponent of this measure, declared that he would protest
against it, and Palmer and others cried out that they did
protest, it was resolved by Pym  and his friends to make an
example, and Palmer, who was obnoxious to them on account of his courtesy toward Strafford, was selected and
committed to the Tower, the more violent men being for his
expulsion.  After a few days' confinement, however, he was
allowed to resume his seat in the house.
The opposition which the Remonstrance experienced had
not been looked for by its advocates.  At the conclusion of
the debate Oliver Cromwell (who, however, was then of little
note) whispered lord Falkland, and with an asseveratin
said, "that if the remonstrance had been rejected he would
have sold all he had the next morning and never have seen
England more, and he knew there were many other honest
men of the same resolution."  Having now, however, carried
their point, the leaders resolved to use their advantage, and
on the 1st of December the Remonstrance, and with it a
petition complaining of a " malignant party," to whom they
attributed all the evils, such as the Irish rebellion, which had
occurred, and praying for their removal, etc., was presented
to the kinl  at Hampton-court; and a few days after both
were printed and circulated, contrary to usage.  The king,
who now began to act by good advice, put forth a reply
which left the parliament no advantage over him.  A few
lays after, on receiving an address firom the court of alder,




104              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
men, praying him to reside at Whitehall, he returned to the
capital.
The intelligence of the strength and atrocities of the
rebels which daily arrived from Irelanc made the king urgent
with the parliament to proceed in the affairs of that country
A proposal of the Scots to send ten thousand men to Ulster
to be paid by the English, was agreed to, and a bill for irn
pressing an equal number in England passed the commons
but as in the preamble it was asserted that the king had nc
right to press the subject except in case of foreign invasion,the
lords demurred to the novel doctrine, and the attorney-general
craved to be heard on the king's part against it.  The com
mons then ordered their committee " to meet no more about
that business; " the levies were stopped; it was declared " that
the loss of Ireland must be imputed to the lords."  The king    1
then, with his usual imprudence, acting, Clarendon says, under the secret advice of St. John, came to the house of lords
and proposed "that the bill should pass with a salvo jure
both for the king and people."  This interference in a pending bill, however, both houses joined in declaring to be a
breach of privilege, as it really was, and the king made an
ample apology.  His offer to raise ten thousand volunteers
for the service of Ireland was at once rejected.  The unfortunate Irish protestants were thus sacrificed to the struggles of parties in England; "the parliament," says Horace
Walpole, "' connived at the Irish rebellion, in order to charge
k!ing Charles with fomenting it."  Still we must not unconditionally impute to the parliament mere factious motives;
they vehemently, and not without reason, suspected the king
of having originally sanctioned the rising of the Irish, and
they well knew that if once he had an army at his devotion,
he would revoke all his concessions, and pour out his vengeance on the heads of those who had wrung them from him.
It was the same feeling which caused a bill to be brought in
for vesting the power over the militia in the hands of commissioners.  Their apprehensions were also increased by the
king's displacing Balfour, the lieutenant of the Tower,
" which was looked upon as a bridle upon the city," and
oiving that office to colonel Lunsford, " upon whom he might
rely." On the complaint of'the commons of Lunsford's
being a man of desperate character, who had heretofore
made his escape from prison, and then fled the kingdom, the
king made him resign, and gave the place to sir John Byron;
but even he did not please, and he was sc( lne tl:ne after replaced
by sir John Conve:s.. __, _ _.___   _.___ ___ _     ___ ___.__ ___  _.      ______.1








-                      V
King Charles and a Hawking Pa tyv
I i    _ ='     ==
]3eiwick    Li1I,,-T,,d.
Ber wick-up~oa1-TwSood, 1




CHARLES I.                   105
To weaken the king's party in the lords the former bill fbo
taking away the bishops' votes was brought in again. When
it was objected that a bill could not be introduced a second
time in the same session, Pym replied, that "their orders
were not like the laws of the Medes and Persians, not to be
altered." It was therefore received, and soon after passed,
and sent up to the lords.  At this time lord Falkland, who
now saw through the designs of the popular party, opposed
it, and on Hamnpden's saying " he was sorry to see a noble
lord had changed his opinion since the time the last bill to
this purpose had passed the house," he replied, " that he had
been persuaded at that time by that worthy gentleman to believe many things which he had since found to be untrue,
and therefore he had changed his opinions in rmany particulars, as well as to things as to persoils."
The old tactics of rumors and petitions were also recurred
to. It was at this time that Beale the tailor overheard the
project for assassinating the lords and commons. A petition
was published in the name of " the apprentices, and those
whose apprenticeships were lately expired," stating that
" they found the beginning of great mischiefs coming upon
them, to nip them in the bud when they were first entering
into the world; the cause of which they could attribute to
no others but the papists and the prelates, and that malignant
party that adhered to them," etc. The publication of this
petition had its natural result, the resort of multitudes to
Westminster, shouting, " No bishops! no bishops!"  The
train-bands, whom the king had appointed to guard the
houses of parliament, having repelled the rabble froim the
house of peers by threatening to fire on them, the commons
sent to the lords, desiring them'to be discharged, declaring
that it should be lawful for every member to bring his own
servant armed to attend at the door. The rabble, thus encouraged, came in greater numbers about the house of peers,
crying, " No bishops! no popish lords!" and calling those
who opposed the colimm-ons " rotten-hearted lords."  When
the lords sent to the commons, complaining of the insults
which they received, some members said, "We must not
discourage our friends, this being a time we must make use
of all our friends;" and Pym said, "God forbid the house of
commons should proceed in any way to dishearten people to
obtain their just desires in such a way."  A writ was then
issued by direction of the lords, to the sheriff and justices,
requiring them to appoint strong watches to prevent this conflux of people to Westminster. This the commons voted tc
N




1.06             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
be a breach of privilege, and they sent one of the justices
who acted on it to the Tower.  During  the Christmas holidays the cry wds became still greater, and the cries of "' No
bishops! no popish lords! " still louder.  They were even
heard to say before Whitehall, " that they would: have
no more porter's lodge, but would speak with the king
wheni they pleased." Some read aloud: the names of " disaffected members of the house of commons," and of " false,
rotten-hearted" lords. They threatened to pull down the
houses of the, bishops, and assaulted several of them in their
coaches; they laid hold on the archbishop of York, and
would, it is said, have murdered him  if he had not been
rescued.
This prelate was the celebrated Williams, whom the king
had lately elevated to an archiepiscopal see.  The day he.
was assaulted he sent for the bishops, to the number of.
welve or thirteen, who were in town, and proposed, as it was
o longer safe for. them to go to the house of peers, that they
should present a protestation against the force that was used
upon them, and. against all the acts to be done during their
enforced absence fromn the house.  They consented, and
signed the protestation, which Williams carried himself to
the king, requesting him to transmit it to the peers. His request was complied with. The lords then desired a conferenice with the commons, the result of which was the irnpeachment and committal to the Tower of the prelates,
whose conduct, though highly imprudent, was certainly not
illegal.
There were many members of the house of commons
who, though zealous for the reformation of abuses, disliked
the measures of Pym and his party. Such were the upright
lord Falkland, sir John Colepepper, and Mr. Hyde. The
king was advised to call these men to his councils, and he
offered the place of secretary to the first, which with some
difficulty he was induced to accept; the second was made
chancellor of the exchequer. Hyde declined any office for
the present, saying that he should be able to do better service
by remaining as he was. Lord Digby was already greatly in
the confidence of the king, to whose cause his levity and in.
discretion often proved of serious injury.
On New year's day (1642) a scuffle took place at Westminster, in which some blood was drawn. A number of
officers of the late army and of those soldiers of fortune who
were then so numerous, had offered their services to the
king as a guard; the same was done by the students of
L_ _ _   X__ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  




CHARLES I.                    10o
the inns of court. Their; offer- was rather imprudently accepted, and various rencounters took place between themi
and the mobs that resorted to Westminster.  It was on this
occasion that the terms Roundhead and Cavalier came into
use, the former being- givenl in reproach to the close-cropped
apprentices and others of the. mobs, who returned it by terming their opponents Cavaliers, as military hectors were usually called.
The 3d- of January, 1642;, was rendered ever memorable by
an act of fatal imprudence on the part of the king.  Without
consulting any of his ministers, (unless it were Digby,) he
ordered Herbert, the attorney-general, to proceed to the house
of peers, and exhibit charges of high-treason against the lordKimbolton, Denzil Hollis, sir Arthur Jiaselrig, Pyrm, Hamp-.
den, and! Strode.  At the same time a serjeant-at-arnms appeared at the bar of the commons, and demanded that the
five accused members should be surrendered to. him. Other
servants of the king had already gone to these members'
lodgings, and sealed up their trunks and studies. The
house sent a mnessage to the king, "that the members should
be forthcoming as soon as a legal charge should be preferred
against them," and then adjourned.
Next day, when the house met, they sent'to inform the
lord mayor and common council that their privileges were
like to be broken, and the city put into danger, and advised
them to look to their security.  They then adjourned till one
o'clock.  When they met again, secret information being
come (fromn lady Carlisle it is said) of what was to happen,
the house gave the five members leave to absent themselves,
and they accordingly withdrew. Presently the king arrived
with all his guard and pensioners, and two or three hundred
gentlemen and soldiers, mostly armed. These he ordered to
remain in the hall, and on their lives not to come into the
house.  He entered with his nephew, the Palsgraf, took off
his hat and advanced to the speaker's chair, who quitted it at
his approach.  The king stepped up to it, and having looked
round for a time, told the house he would respect their privileges, but that treason had no privilege, and he was come
for those five members.  He called Pym and Hollis by name;
no answer being returned, he asked the speaker' where they
were. Lenthal fell on his knees, and said. " he was a servant
to the house, and had neither eyes nor tongue to see or
speak any thing but what they commanded him."  The king
replied, that " he thought his own eyes were as good as his;"
and then said, " his birds were flown, but he did expect the




108             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
house would send them to him; and if they did not, he would
seek them himself, for their treason was foul, and such a
one as they would al thank him to discover." He then assured them the accused should have a fair trial, and retired
pulling off his hat till he reached the door.  As he retired,
the words "Privilege! privilege!" uttered by many voices,
reached his ears.
What the particular charges to be made against these members were is uncertain.  Some think it was the proofs the
king had gotten in Scotland of their inviting the Sc(ts in
1.640, that he now intended to produce; but since that time
an act of oblivion had been passed. Perhaps it was some
portion of their late proceedings for which he thought himself now sufficiently strong to punish them. The proceeding was certainly a coup d'etat for the recovery of his lost
power. Clarendon says he was put on it by Digby; the queen,
who had been menaced with an impeachment, certainly urged
him on. It is said that when, on cooler thoughts, he resolved
not to put his project of going to the house into execution,
she cried to him, "Go, coward; go, pull these rogues out by
the ears, or never see me more; " and that when the hour for
the deed was past, she said to lady Carlisle, " Rejoice, for I
hope that the king is now master in his states, and that such
and such are in custody."
The five members had retired to a house in Colman-street in
the city, which was their stronghold. Rumor was set at work;
people ran to and fro during the night, crying, " The cavaliers
are coming to fire the city!" others added, that " the king
himself was at the head of them."  The whole city spent the
night under arms; next morning, the king, having sent to the
lord-mayor to call a common council, came at ten o'clock to
the Guildhall, attended only by three or four lords.  He addressed the people, expressing his sorrow that they should
have apprehended danger from hin, adding, that to show his
confidence in them, he was come without a guard, and that he
presumed they would not shelter those whom he intended to
proceed against legally for high treason.  He then told one
of the sheriffs that he would dine with him. As he went
through the city, shouts of" Privilege of parliament!" were
raised, and one person flung into his coach a pamphlet, entitled, "To your tents, O Israel! " the words with which
the ten tribes abandoned R{ehoboam, the son of Solomon.
While the king was in the city the house of commons met,
and having declared his late conduct to be the highest breach
of privilege and themselves not to be safe, adjourned for a few




CHARLES 1.                     109
days, appointing a committee to sit at Merchant-Tailors' hall
in the city, " and all who came to have voices."  The lords
also adjotirned.
Next day (6th) the king issued a proclamation for the apprehension of the five members; the committee met in the
city, where another committee of the common council also
sat in order to communicate with them.  Their chief occupation was for the present to collect all the particulars of the
late breach of their privileges.  The five members were afterwards brought to the committee with mucih state, and a declaration was set forth in which the conduct of the king
respecting them was asserted to be a high breach of privilege,
and his proclamation " false, scandalous, and illegal."  It
further contained a narrative of the transactions on the 4th,
full of gross exaggeration and even palpable falsehood, and
this imere declaration of the committee was printed and circulated-  a thing without precedent.
A petition from the city was presented to the king on the
subjects of the Irish rebellion, the papists, the changes at
the Tower, the " late invasion of the house of commons," etc.
Tumultuous crowds repaired to Westminster, "and it was a
dismal thing," says Whitelocke, " to all sober men, especially members of parliament, to see and hear them."  Finally
intelligence came of the great preparations in the city to bring
the accused members in triumph to the parliament on the
11th, the day to which the houses stood adjourned.'The king,
deeply mortified at his own imprudence, and anxious to escape the insults and the danger which he apprehended, took
the further unwise resolution (as many thought it) of quitting
Whitehall, and on the 10th he retired with his queen and children to Hampton-court.
Next day in the afternoon the river was covered with boats,
and between two lines of lighters and long-boats carrying ordnance and prepared for action, the five memnbers, attended
by the sheriffs and a part of the train-bands, proceeded to
VWestmlinster.  Another body of the train-bands advanced
along the Strand.  Their commander was one Skippon, who,
havilr risen from the ranks in the Dutch service, had been
made captain of the artillery-ground to drill the citizens, and
he now bore the novel title of " serjeant-major-general of the
militia of the city of London."  They were followed by vast
numbers of the populace, shouting against bishops and popish
lords, and fot privilege of parliament, and asking contemptuously, as they passed Whitehall,'What is become of the king
and his cavaliers?"
VOL. II.      10
__~~~____




110              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The members took their seats; Pym  rose and expatiated
on the great kindness and affection which they had experienced in the city; the sheriffs then were called in and thanked
by the speaker; the masters and officers of ships were also
thanked; Skippon was appointed to attend each day with
such a guard as he thought proper for the two houses.  Next
caime four thousand men of Bucks, all on horseback, with
tile Protestation in their hats, wvith a proffer of their services
to the parliament, and a petition to the king, complaining of
tile accusation of the knight of their shire, Mr. Harmpden.*
"From this day," says Clarendon, " we may reasonably
date the levying of war in England, whatsoever hath been
since done being but the superstructures upon those foundations which were then laid."  Both parties had in fact resolved on an appeal to the sword; but, to do them  justice,
neither had any anticipation of the protracted contest and
the bloodshed and calamities that were to ensue; each,hought that the mere display of force would suffice to intimidate the other.  Of the king's intentions we think there can
be no doubt; and the late attempt on them  had convinced
the popular leaders that their only safety lay in depriving the
sovereign of his power;*
Theofficers and others who had formed a kind of guard
for the king followed him out of town. They lodged at
Kingston-on-Thames that night, and next day (12th) lord
Digby came thither in his coach-and-six from Hampton-court,
with a message from the king accepting the proffer of their
services.  The design in this is manifest; but how the commons could with any sense of truth or justice designate the
conduct of Digby a levying of war against the king and king
dom is somewhat strange.  Digby, conscious of his own designs and aware of their vengeance, fled to H-Jolland.  On the
king's refusal to remove Byron from  the command of the
Tower, the houses directed Skippon to place a guard round
it, that neither provisions should go in nor ammunition go
out; they directed sir John Hotham  to go to HIull, where
the arms and ammunition of the late army had been laid up,
and keep it with the aid of the train-bands of the adjoining
parts; and they sent orders to Goring, governor of Portsmouth, to let no one in or out of that town but by their orders.  We must here again observe, that the secret designs
" ~ Whereof," says Whitelocke, "probably he was not altogether
ignorant beforehand."
t " Mr. Hampden," says Clarendon," was much altered after this
accusation, his nature and courage seeming much fiercer than before




CHARLES I.                     11]
of the king, with all of which Pym and his friends were made
acquainted by lady Carlisle and others, offered some justifica
tion of these stretches of power in the parliament.  They
knew, for example, that he had sent the earl of Newcastle,
a man who was zealously  devoted to him, to Hull, near
which his estates and influence lay, with 1" a private colsmission to be governor thereof, says Clarendon, " as sootn as
it should be fit to publish such a command, and in tx,,_ 
meantime by his own interest to draw  in such of the coI.9..1
try as were necessary to guard the nmagazine.'
The grand object of the parliament was to obtain Ihe
entire control over the military force -of the kingdom.  For
this end St. John's bill for settling the militia, with the important addition of " the putting all the forts, castles, and
garrisons into the hands of such persons as:they could conjfde
in," was read.  Clarendon on this remarks, that " when it
had been with much ado accepted and first read, there were
few nmen who imagined it would ever receive further countenance; but now there were very few who did not believe
it to be a very necessary provision for the peace and safety
of the kingdom.  So great an impression had the late proceedings made upon them, so that with little opposition it
passed the commons, and was sent up to the lords."  The
peers, however, hesitated to pass a measure so adverse to the
crown.  All efforts were therefore made to intimidate them.
Thus, when on one occasion the popular party in the lords
had recourse to their -usual tactics of crying, " Adjourn
adjourn!" when they found matters likely to go against them,
-the duke of Richlnond, a courtier, said, "if they would
adjourn, he wished it might be for six months."  For this
the commons voted to " accuse him  to the lords to be one
of the malignant party," and to desire them  to join in a petition to the king to remove him  from  any office about his
person.  Petitions also came pouring in from  the counties
round London, praying for all that the commons wantel.
T'he cominon council of the city, when applied to for a loan,
for the war in Ireland, could see no security for trade or
any thing else unless the lieutenant of the Tower were remioved, and it and the other forts'pelt into such hands in
whom the parliament might confide."  Soon after came " Time
humble petition of many thousands of poor.people in and
abnout tile city of London."  These suitors could see no means
of averting the ruin about to ingulf them, but the removal of
"the bishops and the popish lords and others of that malignant faction," which if not done, " they shall be forced to
lay hold on the next remedy which is at hand to effect it;




112              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
want and necessity breaking the bounds of modesty." They
modestly pray that "those noble worthies of the house of
peers who concur with you in your happy votes, may be
earnestly desired to join with this honorable house, and to sit
and vote as one entire body."  Most gracious words were
given to these amenders of the state, and Hollis, acting on the
last hint, whet he was sent to request the lords to join in a
petition to the king about the militia, desired that " those
lords who were willing to concur, would find some means to
make themselves known, that it might be known who were
against them, and they might make it known to those that sent
them."  The very porters of London, filled with patriot zeal,
came, to the number of fifteen thousand, with a petition to the
commons, complaining of the " prevalence of that adverse,
malignant, blood-sucking, rebellious party," the cause of all
the evils. Trade, they said, was dead for want of fortification
of the Cinque-ports, whence they themselves " did want employment in such a measure as did make their lives very uncomfortable."  In conclusion, they desired "that justice
might be done upon offenders according as the atrocity of
their crimes had deserved, for if those things were any longer
suspended, they should be forced to extremities not fit to be
named, and to make good that saying, that necessity hath no
law."  The zeal of the good dames of the city was not less
fervid; headed by Mrs. Anne Stagge, " a gentlewoman and
brewer's wife," thousands of them  came with a petition to
the commons against prelates, papists, and so forth.  The
petition being read, Pym was sent out to answer them.  He
thanked them for their petition; which " came in a seasonable time," assured them their desires should be attended to,
and entreated therm "' to repair to their houses, and turn their
petition into prayers at home " for the commons.
"Such low arts of popularity were affected, and by such
illiberal cant were the unhappy people incited to civil discord
and convulsions! " is the reflection of HIume on this occasion.
We do not go the same lengths as this writer, but we certainly do discern arts little worthi; of men of that elevation to
which their idolaters raise our Pyms and Hainpdens.  In us,
however, who only view in them statesmen of a higher order,'they excite no surprise.:They are the arts comm6n to statesmen of all ages, as essential to them as cunning to the fox
and ferocity to the tiger.  We have only to look at the events
of our own days for evidence.
Under the influence of this external pressure, the lords
passed the bills for impressment and for taking away the
bishops' votes, to both of which the king was induced, chiefly




CHARLES I.                   113
by the queen, to give his assent. To the ordinance in which
the two houses joined respecting the militia, he deferred
giving an answer till he should be at Dover, whither he was
about to attend the queen, who, under the pretext of conveyHolland, taking with her the crown-jewels, in order to purchase arms and ammunition for the impending contest.
Charles feared that if he were to give a positive refusal at
the time, the queen's departure might be prevented.
The queen being safely off, Charles came to Greenwich,
whither the prince of Wales was brought to meet him.
He then gave his answer respecting the militia, offering to
appoint the lords-lieutenant of counties nominated by parliament, provided that the powers to be given them should
be first by law vested in himself. The houses voted the advisers of this reply to be enemies to the state.  The king
then went to Theobald's, whither he was followed by a committee with a petition, stating that if he did not assent to
what they had proposed, they would be obliged for the safety
of himself and his kingdoms to dispose of the militia themselves in the manner propounded to him. They also prayed
that he and tile prince would continue to reside in or about
London.  Charles gave an instant reply, declining to assent
to their demands, but assuring them  on his honor " that
ble had no thought but of peace and justice to his people."
The parliament, on receiving this answer, resolved that the
kingdom should be put in a posture of defence, and a declaration, " containing the causes of their just fears and jealousies," be sent to the king.  This declaration found him at
Newmarket; his answer to it was of the same tenor with
his former one. When the earl of Pembroke asked him,
"' whether the militia might not be granted as was desired
by the parliament for a time?" he replied, " By God, not for
an hour.  You have asked that of me in this was never asked
of a king, and with which I will not trust my wife and children."  The committee returned to London; the king pursued his journey to York, where he arrived the latter end of
M'areh.
As wre are now on the eve of the civil war, we will state
the previous conduct of both parties.  The king had assented to all that was demanded of him, except parting with the
militia, and even in this he had given way in a great measure.
But at the same time he had given abundant proof that by
force or stratagem he would endeavor to recover all he had
resigned, and that the only security of the parliament lav in
10                         o




1t14               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
his weakness; but that he had not the power now, unless
aided by the ill conduct of his opponents, to make a successful attempt, late events had shown.  Despotism was what he
aimed at, that is plain; but did the Pynis and Himpdens aim
at nothing beyond the maintenance of constitutional liberty?
This will best appear by an examination of their acts during
the last year.
" After every allowance has been made," says Hallam,*
" he must bring very heated passions to the records of those
times, who does not perceive in the conduct of the house of
commons a series of glaring violations, not only of positive
and constitutional, but of those higher principles which are
paramount to all immediate policy."   He then collects the
following instances.  The ordinance for disarming recusants,
and that authorizing the earl of Leicester to raise men for
the defence of Ireland, -  encroachments on the prerogative;
Pym's menace to the peers, that if they did not pass the bills
sent to them by the commons, these last, " with such of the
lords as are more sensible of the safety of the kingdom,"
shall represent the same to the king,t and their accusation
of the duke of Richmond, above related, -  encroachments
on the house of peers; their enormous extension of privilege,
any one who said a word against them being dragged off to
prison,; as also were those charged with introducing ceremonies in the church, (a thing surely not belonging to them,)
"the outrageous attempts to intimidate the minority of their
own body by committing them to the Tower for such language used in debate as would not have excited any observation in ordinary times." ~  Then again, as the same writer
Constitutional History, ii. 192.
t This resolution, the germ of that of the house of lords being useless, was moved by Pym on Dec. 3, 1641, "before the argument from
necessity could be pretended."  On Mr. Godolphin's objecting that, if
thety went to the king with the lesser part of' the lords, the greater part
of' these might go to him with the lesser part of them, he was ordered
to withdraw, and his offence was to be taken into consideration the
following Tuesday. - Hallam.
f One Sandford, a royalist tailor, being charged with saying, "that
the earl of Essex was a traitor; that all the parliament were traitors;
that the earl of Warwick was a traitor, and he wished his heart in his
boots; and that he cursed the parliament, and wished Mr. Pym (calling
him King Pym) and sir John Hotham  both hanged; " —fbr this the
lords (the puppets of the commons) sentenced him to be kept at work
in Bridewell for his life, besides some minor inflictions. Pym  was
called by the royalists King Pym, on account of his portly person and
his absolute power over his party.
~ See the case of Mr. Palmer, (above, p. 103.) In the debate on the
late declaration, in which they most falsely charged the king with a
____..~.~ 




CHARLES I.                     115
observes, "their despotic violation of the rights of the e'cople,
in imprisoning those who presented or prepared respectful
petitions in behalf of the established constitution, while they
encouraged those of a tumultuous multitude at their bar in
favor of innovation, their usurpation at once of the judicial
and legislative powers in all that related to the church, particularly by their committee for scandalous ministers, under
which denomination, adding reproach to injury, they subjected all who did not reach the puritan standard of perfect'on
to contumely and vexation, and ultimately to expulsion from
their lawful property."  He then notices the impeachment
of the twelve bishops, whose protest, though " not perhaps
entirely well expressed, is abundantly justifiable in its argument by the plainest principles of law."  In fine, he says,
that "these great abuses of power becoming daily more frequent as they became less excusable, would make a sober
man hesitate to support them  in a civil war, wherein their
success must not only consummate the destruction of the
crown, the church, and the peerage, but expose all who had
dissented from their proceedings, as it ultimately happened, to
an oppression, less severe perhaps, but far more sweeping
than that which had rendered the star-chamber odious.
The further reflections of this judicious writer, almost the
only one who evinces impartiality on this subject, and does
not act the part of advocate to one side or the other, are
most deserving of consideration.  1-le thinks, as we do, that
the parliament, relying on the justice of their cause and the
favor of the people, should have accepted the offer of the
king respecting the militia.  We will add, that we cannot
divest our mind of a suspicion that it was the secret design
of Pym, Hampden, and. some others to convert the monarchy
into a republic, of which they hoped to be themselves the
chiefs; for they were no religiouns zealots; their views were
chiefly political.
T'o understand the question of the militia, it is necessary
to recollect, that at this time there was no standing army in
England.  After the feudal army had gone out of use, the
kings used to raise troops for their foreign wars by contracts
with influential noblemen, and by giving very large pay.  At
the same time the old Saxon Fyrd continued under another
design to change his religion, sir Ralph Hopton, for saying, " that they
seemed to ground an opinion of' the king's apostasy upon a less evidence
than would serve to hanog a fellow for stealing a horse," was committed
to the Tower. Clarendon, ii. 282. See also the case of Trelawny, in
the following page.




1'16             HISTORY O'EN-GLAND.
form, and, the men in each shire were required to keep arms
and be ready to suppress insurrection and repel invasion.
It was expressly provided by a statute of Edward I. that the
militia should not be required to leave their own county
except in these cases; but during the period of the Ti'udor
despotism, this was little heeded; and a statute of Philip
and Mary empowered the crown to l-evy men for ser ice in
war, and men were in consequence frequently pressed to
serve in Ireland and elsewhere.  When' it was necessary te
call out the forces of the counties, commissions of array
were issued to particular persons for thins purpose; but the
sheriff was the person who usually disposed of' the military
force of his county.  In Mary's reign a new officer named
the lord-lieutenant was appointed, usually a peer or influential commoner in the county, whose office was altogether
military.  It was his office to muster and train, when necessary, the able-bodied men of the county, and he was the
commander of the militia, or train-bands, as they were
named.  Each county had its magazine of arms and ammunition, to be issued to the train-bands when called into
service.
As the institution of lords-lieutenant was a Tudor measure,
it is quite certain that they had been always named by the
crown; yet it was the right of appointing to this office that
the commons now demanded; and sooner than yield to the
king on this point, they plunged the nation into a civil war.
"No one," says Hallarn  again, " can pretend that this was
not an encroachment on his prerogative.  It can only find a
justification in the precarious condition, as the commons
asserted it to be, of those liberties they had so recently
obtained, in their just persuasion of the king's insincerity,
and in the demonstrations he had already made of an intention to win back his authority at the sword's point.  But it
is equitable on the other hand to observe, that the commons
had by no means greater reason to distrust the faith of
Charles than he had to anticipate fresh assaults from them
on the power he had inherited, on the form of religion which
alone he thought lawful, on the counsellors who had served
him most faithfully, and on the nearest of his domestic ties.
If the right of self-defence could be urged by parliament for
this demand of the militia, must we not admit that a similar
plea was equally valid for the king's refusal?  However arbitrary and violent the previous government of Charles may
nave been, however disputable his sincerity at present, it is
vain to aeny that he had made the most valuable concessions,
_   _  _                               _.1
- v s~~




CgHARLES 1.                 11i
and sluch as had cost him very dear. It was not unreasonable for the king to pause at the critical moment which was
to make all future denial nugatory, and inquire whether the
prevailing majority designed to leave him what they had not
taken away."
CHAPTER  VII.
CHARLES I. (CONTINUED.)
1642-,1644.
THE nobility and gentry of York and.the adjoining counties now resorted to the king with ardent expressions ot
sympathy and attachment.  He had in fact succeeded in
putting the parliament in the wrong, and men were become
indignant at beholding the continued efforts (the secret
motives of which they were ignorant of) for stripping the
sovereign of all his powers and prerogatives.  Many of the
peers now came to him from London, and in the paper war
of declarations and so forth carried on between him and the
parliament, his manifestoes, prepared by Hyde, were as superior to theirs in argument as in eloquence.  his tone now
became more elevated; there was an end of concession, he
insisted on his rights, and, in the opinion of many, he required nothing to which his claims were not as well founded
as any private man's right to his lands and tenements.
The pernicious influence of the queen, though absent,
still operated. In his uxoriousness, Charles thought himself
bound, regardless of consequences, to fulfil anlly unwary
promise which she had drawn from  him, and he now, in
compliance with her will, and in opposition to the opinion
of his best advisers, required the earls of Essex and Holland
to resign the staff and key of their offices. By this he only
gratified spleen, and he lost the advantage of the restraint
which honor would have imposed on the subsequent conduct
of these noblemen.
The earl of Northumberland, lord admiral,,being delicate
in health, the commons required that he should appoint the
earl of Warwick to command for a year in his stead;.the
king, when this arrangement was notified to.him, wrote expressing his desire that sir John Pennington should be




l118            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
appointed. The parliament persisted, and Warwick took
the command of the fleet without the king's consent,  A
petition was then fore arded that the magazine  might be
removed friom  Hull to London.  This was of course refused, for to obtain possession of it was a principal cause
of the king's coming to the north. He sent (Apr. 8) a
message to the houses, declaring his intention to go in
person to suppress the rebellion in Ireland, for which pur.
pose he would raise a guard of two thousand foot and two
hundred horse in the counties about West Chester, to be
armed from the magazine at Hull.'Ihe reply of the'arliament to this message was a positive refusal of their consent, and orders were sent to Hotham  to transmit the
magazine to London.  The king, who regarded the mnagazine as his private property, resolved to go forthwith and
take possession of it. He, therefore, (22d,) sent the young
duke of York with some attendants to Hull, where they
were received with all due respect by Hotham, and the next
morning he rode thither himself with two or three hundred
of his servants and gentlemen of the county; and when he
came near the town, he sent word to the governor that he
was coming to dine with him. Hotham, an irresolute man,
was in great perplexity, but the magistrates and officers persuaded him not to admit the king. Charles therefore found
the bridges up, the gates shut, and the walls manned. Hotham  appeared on the walls, and with many professions of
duty declined to admit him for fear of offending the parliament. The king, finding all his efforts vain, proclaimed
Hotham a traitor, and retired deeply mortified to Beverley.
The duke of York and his retinue were dismissed in safety.
In reply to the complaints of the king, the parliament justi.
fled the conduct of Hotham, and the ordnance and ammunition in Hull were shortly afterwards removed to London.
The parliament now isued orders to the lords-lieutenant
to put their ordinance respecting the militia into execution;
the king on the other hand forbade obedience to it, and
issued commissions of array. While both sides were raising
and disciplining men, the appeal to the people by nmeans of
declarations and manifestoes was kept up, and messages and
answers were going and coming between York and London.
On the 2d of June the parliament sent their ultimatum in a
petition containing nineteen articles, which, as HIallarm well
observes, "went to abrogate in spirit the whole existing
constitution," for they required that the {king should consent
to all the changes in church and state which they had pro.
L-_._~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




CHARLES I.                   119
posed; that all offices of every kind should be given to none
but those of whoin they approved, i. e., whom they should
appoint; that the laws against recusants should be put in
force, and their children be taken from them to be educated
by protestants, etc. etc. If he consented to these demands,
they promised to secure him  an abundant revenue.  The
king made an indignant reply, "protesting that if he were
both vanquished and a prisoner, in worse condition than any
the most unfortunate of his predecessors had ever been reduced unto, he would never stoop so low as to grant those
demands, and to make himself of a king of England a duke
ff Venice."
The majority of the peers and a great number of the
commons were now with the king at York, for which nine
of the former were impeached by the commons.  I he lordkeeper Littleton had likewise been induced to send the
great seal to the king, and he also repaired himself to York.
In the presence of the peers, (June 13,) the king then made
a solemn declaration of his intention to maintain the laws
and the protestant religion, and they in return subscribed a
promise to defend the crown and the protestant religion, the
liberties of the people and the just privileges of the king
and parliament.  Charles, moreover, made before them
(15th) a solemn protestation that he had no intention of
levying war against the parlianient, and they subscribed a
declaration of their belief in his assertions.  Aniong the
subscribers was the upright Falkland; we may, therefore, be
certain that there was no fraud designed.  As the parliament
had made an order for bringing in money or plate for maintaining horsemen and arms, the king wrote to the lord-mayor
and aldermen of Iondon not to raise any forces for the parliament, and he invited men to bring him horses, arms, and
money on the security of the royal parks and forests, with
eight per cent. interest.
The king went to Nottingham and Lincolnshire, where
his speeches and declarations had a good effect, and a vessel
sent by the queen with arms and ammunition (of which he
hitherto had none) being arrived, he advanced with three
thousand foot and one thousand horse to lay siege to Hull;
but the earl of Warwick having secured the fleet, whose
cooperation he had looked for, and the raw train-bands not
standing their ground when the besieged made a sally, he
found it expedient to retire. The parliament on their side
were far advanced in their preparations; they had appointed
(July 4) a' Committee of Safety' of fifteen persons as ar




2o0              HISTORY OF ENGLANID.
executive; it was voted that an army (of twenty regirens,
of foot and seventy-five troops of horse) should be raises
Money was easily obtained by loans, and " by the endeavors
of sundry ministers and others, a great quantity of money3
plate, and ammunition was brought -in, even by some poor
women to their wedding rings and bodkins." *
The balance of power seemed greatly on the side of the
parliament.  They were in possession of all the magazines
and'forts except Newcastle-on-Tyne; the people of London
and all the great towns were -mostly in their favor, as were
the southern and eastern counties; those of the north and
west and of Wales inclined amore to the royal cause.  The
great body of the nobility and gentry were on the side of
the king; and the catholics, as-was natural, were unanimous
in his favor.  But every county and -every town and village,
almost every family, was divided in sentiment, some being
from principle or prejudice in favor of the ancient order of
things, others desirous of change and ardent for revolution.
The parliament gave the command of their army to the
earl of Essex.  This nobleman, whom we have seen in his
early youth disgraced by the infamy of his countess, had long
served in the Low Countries, and acquired in that school
a knowledge of military discipline and tactics.t Hle may
have retained a painful recollection of the treatment which
he had experienced from the father of the king, but lie was
a man of unblemished honor, and a foe neither to the mon
archy nor the church.  The earl of Bedford, also a man of
moderate character, was appointed his lieutenant-general
The soldiers of'fortune who had been in the late Scottisi
army were invited and received commands.  Such menmbers
of either houses as had influence enough to raise regiments
of foot or troops of horse, held the command of them as
colonels and captains.  As there had been as yet no certain
uniform in the English army, the leaders gave their owr.
colors to their men.  That of the general was "o' range.
* Whitelocke.':The sea mstress brought in her silver thirmble, the
chamber-maid-her bodkin, the cook her silver spoon; and some sor
of females were free in their contributions so far as to part with thei
rings and ear-rings, as if some golden calf were to be set up and idol
Ized."  Howel, Philangles, p. 12.8.
"Brought in their children's spoons and whistles,'To purchase.swords, carbines, and pistols;,
Their husbands, cullies, and sweethearts
To take'the saints' and churches' patrts." - HUDiIBrIAS
The favorite name for Essex among the soldiers was Old Robin




CHA;RLES I.                     121
tawny," and scarfs of this hue designated the parliamentary
soldiers.  We:also meet with the green-coats of Hlampden,
the red-coats of Hollis, the blue-coats of' lord Say, and the
purple of lord Brook.  Sir Arthur HIaselrig's " lobsters,"
or cuirassiers, were also famous. The royal troops were
raised in a similar manner, but as they consisted chiefly oc
the nobility, gentry, and their dependants, they were in
general of a superior order to those of the parliament, who
lhad enlisted  all sorts of rabble.*  The troop raised  by
Oliver Cromwell formed a noble exception.'' Cromwell,"
says Whifelocke, " had a brave regiment of horse of his
(tountrymen, most of them freeholders and freeholders' sons,
and who upon -matter of conscience-engaged in this quarrel
and under Cromwell. And thus being well armed within
by the satisfaction of their own consciences, and without by
good iron'arms, they would as one man stand firmly, and
charge desperately."
In the contest to be carried on between the two parties,
we shall meet with little of scientific warfare; none of the
skilful manceuvres to bring on or avoid engagements emrployed by a Conde or Turenne; no encampments; the
troops on each side quartered in towns and villages; continual beating up of quarters; battles fought wherever the
hostile troops came in sight; every strong house a garrison;
incessant besieging of towns, castles, arid private houses.
Finally, we shall discern a spirit of humanity and an absence of atrocities on most occasions, such as have never
occurred in any other civil war.
As is usual in civil commotions, each party gave specious
names to its own:side, and opprobrious to the contrary.
The royalists called their opponents Rebels and Rogues,
and were in return styled MIalignants.  By the term Honest
AMen each party meant its own adherents.
The commencement of hostilities w~as as follows.  Goring,
thle governor of Portsmouth, had been in:high favor with
" At my first going out into this engagement," said Cromwell, " 1
saw their men were beaten on every hand. I did indeed.....'Your
troops,' said I to Hampden,'-are most of them old, decayed serving
men and tapsters, and such kind of' fellows; and.' said I,' their troops
are gentlemen's sons, younger sons, and persons of quality. -Do you
think that the spirits of such base and mean fellows will be ever able
to encounter gentlemen,-that have honor, and courage, and.resolution
in them.....'? You must get men of a spirit, and -take it not ill what
I say, I know you will not, of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as
gentlemen will go, or:else I am sure you will be beaten still. He was
a wise and worthy person, and he did think that I talked a good notion,
out an impracticable:one,' ":etc. etc.
VOL. II.      11                           P




HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the parliament since the affair of the army-plot.  He had
secretly, however, made his peace with the king, for whom
he had engaged to hold that town; yet so well did he act
his part, that the parliament appointed him  lieutenantgeneral of their horse.  He made various pretexts for still
remaining at Portsmouth; at length, on receiving peremp.
tory orders to join, he declared that he held that place from
the king, and durst not quit it without his leave. Forthwith
a part of the army under sir William Waller appeared before
the town, (Aug. 2.)  The king, on receiving intelligence,
proclaimed Essex and his officers traitors, and caelled on all
his good subjects to meet him in arms at Nottingham on the'25th of the month.  This proclamation the parliament declared to be a scandalous and libellous paper, and all who
advised or abetted it traitors.
On the evening of the 25th of August, a stormy day, the
king, who was at Nottingham  with a small train of horse,
rode out from the castle at their head.  The royal standard,
which was borne by sir Edward Verney, was then set up
amid the sound of drums and trumpets; but the whole
scene was melancholy, and it was regarded as an ill omen
that the standard was blown down during the night.  From
Nottingham the king moved westwards, collecting men and
receiving voluntary contributions, and at Shrewsbury his
army amounted to eighteen thousand men. Two disastrous
events had meantime occurred.  Goring had been obliged
to surrender Portsmouth, and the marquess of Hertford, to
whom the command of the western counties was committed,
had been driven out of them by the earl of Bedford.  Among
the misfortunes attending the king may also be reckoned
the arrival of his nephews, the princes Rupert and Maurice,
two rude, impetuous, unprincipled soldiers of fortune, to
whom, as the sacred blood flowed in their veins, he gave
high and independent commands, in preference to those
gallant men who were hazarding their fortunes and their lives
in his cause.
Essex had been for some time with his forces at Northampton, whence he moved toward Worcester, near which
place a body of five hundred horse was fallen on and routed
by prince Rupert.  On the 10th of October the king left
Shrewsbury, and proceeded by Bridgenorth and Birmingham
to Kenilworth, whence, after making a halt of some days,
he advanced toward the capital; and on Saturday (Oct. 22)
he came to a village named Edgecot, within four miles of
Banbury.  Essex, who was following him, arrived about the
t...._._._..._.._..._...._,_.__._._._...____.




CHARLES I.                    123
same time at the village of Keinton, within seven or eight
miles of Edgecot.  It had been the design of the king to
halt for a day, and to take Banbury; but, on learning the
vicinity of Essex, it was resolved to turn back and give him
battle, and early in the morning of Sunday (23d),he cavalry
of the roya& army proceeded to take its position on the sumnmit of Edgehill, which overlooks the valley named the Vale
of the Red Horse, in which Keinton lies at about two miles
distance.
Essex, who had intended to halt that day and wait for
his artillery and the rest of his forces, seeing that he must
give battle, drew out his army in the vale.  On the right
wing he placed the greater part of his horse under sir William Balfour, the lieutenant-general of the earl of Bedford;
another body under sir James Ramsey, the commissarygeneral, was on the left; the foot led by himself in person
occupied the centre.  It was not till after no.n that the
royal army began to descend the hill, for some of the regiments had to march from a distance of seven or eight miles.
The cavalry on the right was commanded by prince Rupert,
that on the left by Wilmot the commissary-general; the
foot were led by the earl of Lindsey the general; the royalstandard was borne by sir Edward Verney.  The superiority
of numbers was rather on the side of the king.  The day
was clear and fine; between two and three o'clock the
battle, the first in which Englishmen were opposed to each
other since the war of the RPoses, commenced by the discharge of cannon on both sides; the infantry then engaged
with great resolution: Rupert, with the impetuosity which
characterized him, charged the horse opposed to him and
drove them off the field; he pursued them beyond Keinton,
but instead of returning to support the royal infantry, he fell
to plundering the baggage which was in that village.  Meanwhile, though Wilmot was also successful on the left, the
in fantry was hard pressed, and a charge made by Balfour on
their flank threw  them  into utter confusion; the earl of
Lindsey was wounded and made a prisoner, and with him his
son lord Willoughby of Eresby; sir Edward Verney wasslain
and the standard taken,@ and the king himself and his two
sons ran the risk of being captured.  When Rupert at length
returned, the troops were so broken and scattered that they
could not be brou ht again into action, and night now came
" It was -ecovetedy however, by Capt. Smith, who was knighted fox
lie exploit.




124             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to terminate the conflict.  The royal army retired over the
hill, that of the parliament remained the whole night on the
ground, where next morning they were joined by Hampden's
and other regiments to the number of four thousand men,
but instead of following the king they fell back to Warwick
The number.of the slain was about five thousand men, the
loss being probably nearly equal on both sides.* The -brave
earl.of Lindsey died of his wounds; lord Aubigny, brother
of the duke of Richmond, was killed, on the side of the
king, on that of the parliament, lord.St. John, and colonels
Essex and Ramsey.  Each side claimed the victory; the
advantage wvas, however, clearly on that of the king, for
he obliged Banbury to surrender, and marched unmolested
to Oxford, whence parties of his horse advanced toward tht,
capital.
The parliament in some consternation recalled Essex with
his army to their defence, and they at the same time sent a
petition to the king, who was now (Nov. 11) at Colnbrook
for an accommodation. To this he gave a favorable reply
but urged by his evil genius, prince Rupert, instead of
remaining where he was, or retiring, as had been best, to
-Reading, he advanced to Brentford, in which one of Essex's
regiments lay.  After a stout defence they were overcome,
several were drowned in attempting to swim  across the
Thames, and many were made prisoners.  Next day Essex
drew out his whole force, which aided by the city train-bandy
amounted to twenty-four -thousand mnen, on Turnham-green.
-The king, greatly inferior in numbers, on learning that three
thousand men who had been posted at Kingston were march
ing round by London -to join the main army, led his troops
-over the bridge at that town, whence he proceeded to Read
ing, and having garrisoned that place and Wallingford, took
up his quarters for the winter in Oxford.  Though in the
affair of Brentford there was nothing contrary to the knowra
rules of war, no cessation of arms having been agreed on
the parliament in their usual manner made it an occasion of
reproach for perfidy and ill-faith against the king, whose
cause was certainly rather -injured then advanced by it.
Still the desire of the people was for peace; they had al
ready had a foretaste of the evils of war in the insolence ane
violence of the soldiery on both sides and in the heavy ina
* The duke of York says (Life of James, i. 17,) that " according t,
dhe best information, there were not above e1500 bodies of' bothpartles
iemaining on the field of battle."




CHARLES i.                   125
positions laid on them; an ordinance of the parliament at
this very time requiring every man to give a twentieth of his
property to the public service.  A deputation from the city
therefore proceeded (Jan. 10, 1643) to Oxford, and presented
a petition to the king, and shortly after (31st) four lords and
eight commoners came to the same place with fourteen propositions from the parliamnent.  These, however, were quite as
unreasonable as the nineteen at York.  The king made six
proposals in return, which were nearly as unreasonable. The
violent men in the commons were for returning no reply but
the more moderate party prevailing, the earl of Northumberland, with sir John Holland, sir William Armyn, and White.
locke and Pierpoint, came to Oxford (Mar. 20) and remained
there in treaty till the 15th of April, when they were recalled
by the parliament, on the king's refusal to disband his troops
unless they engaged to restore the members of both houses
and adjourn to some place twenty miles from London. As
Whitelocke observes, it was quite improbable that they would
"leave the city of London, their best friends and strength,
and put a discontent upon them."
The candid Whitelocke remarks on this occasion the considerable mental power displayed by the king, whose unhappiness he says was " that he had a better opinion of others'
judgments than of his own." One material point he says they
had nearly brought to a conclusion, but as it was past midnight the king deferred putting his answer into writing till
morning. Next day his answer was the very contrary of
what he had promised to give.  Some of those, they heard,
who wished the war to continue, had prevailed on him to
change his mind.  Clarendon's account, however, is less favorable to the king, who, he says, had made a promise to the
queen, never to make peace but through her mediation.
That royal lady was now again in England.  She had
landed (Feb. 16) at Burlington in Yorkshire, having escaped
Batten, the parliamentary admiral.  This officer coming into
th.e road discharged several rounds of shot at the house in
which the queen was lodged, and she was obliged to rise
from her bed and seek shelter behind a bank in the open
fields. The earl of Newcastle then came and escorted her
to York, where she remained for four months. Pym and his
party (May 23) forthwith impeached her for high treasonan unmanly act, but one well calculated to answer their purposes.
While the king and parliament were in treaty,there had been
no cessation of arms, and the balance of success had been
11 i




126             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
clearly oAl the royal side. In the west, the Cornishmen, led
by sir Ralph Hlopton, sir Bevil Greenvil and others, defeated
Ruthin the governor of Plymouth at Bradock-down near
Liskeard, and then took the town of Saltash, and advanced
to Tavistock, where a'treaty of peace was concluded between
the counties of Devon and Cornwall.  In Yorkshire a similar truce was concluded between the two parties, the same
was done in Cheshire.  But these pacific measures did not
suit the designs of the grandees in parliament.  They reprobated such engagements, and in the plenitude of their pouver
absolved their partisans from keeping them. A further mode
of strengthening the parliamentary cause was the association
of several adjoining counties under the command of some
leader appointed by the commander-in-chief.
On the 15th of April the earl of Essex sat down before
Reading with an army of fifteen thousand men. The governor, sir Arthur Aston, a catholic and an able office'r,
having been wounded, the command fell to colonel Fielding.
The king advanced to within a few miles of the town, but he
found it advisable to allow a surrender to be made if good
conditions were obtained, and on the 27th Fielding gave up
the town, the garrison of between three and four thousand
men being allowed to march out with the honors of war,
taking with them  all their arms and ammunition.  But he
basely consented to give up the deserters.  On this account
chiefly he was tried by a court-martial and sentenced to be
beheaded; the penalty, however, was remitted by the king
Essex remained at Reading, though urged by Hampden to
advance against Oxford, for his soldiers were suffering from
disease, and many of them deserted.
In the latter end of the month of May, the parliament got
information of a plot against their authority in the city of
London.  The principal person engaged in it was Edmund
Waller, the celebrated poet, a man of good family and fortune, a member of the house of commons, and one of the late
commissioners to Oxford. The object of it seems to have
been to put in execution a commission of array given by the
king for the city, and thus to give strength and union to the
friends of peace and the royalists, and force the parliament
to come to terms with the king. Many members of both
houses, it is said, were acquainted with it, but a servant, who
overheard some of the discourse about it, having given information to Pym, Wailer and some others were arrested, tried,
and found guilty of treason by a court-martial.  Two emil uent citizens namely, Tomkins (Waller's brother-in-law




CHARLES I.                    127
and Chaloner, were hanged near their own houses.  Wailer,
who acted like Lucan in a similar case, accusing his most
intimate friends and making all the discoveries that were
desired, also affecting the greatest remorse for his crime and
seeking religious consolation from the leading divines, was
after a year's confineAinent permitted to retire to the continent.  He was obliged to pay a fine of 10,0001.  A  somewhat similar plot had been discovered at Bristol a little before,
and Robert Yeomans (a late sheriff) and George Bourchier
were hanged for their share in it. No men indeed were less
disposed to endure opposition to their sovereign power thain
the professed champions of liberty.  Waller's plot was mnade
the pretext of imposing a new oath and convaiant, never to
lay down their artns "so long as the papists in open war
against the parliament should be protected from the justice
thereof."  An ordinance was made that every man should
take this engagement in his parish church.
rTo return to military affairs.  Early in May, the queen
came and joined the king with a force of upwards of three
thousand mnen, and the Cornishmen having given their opponents a defeat at Stratton, (16th,) the marquess of Hertfo)rd
and prince Maurice were sent thither by the king to follow
up the success. Devon was speedily reduced, and the royalists advanced into Somerset.  The parliament sent their
activegeneral Waller to the west, and an indecisive action
took place at Lansdown near Bath, (July 5,) in which the
gallant sir Bevil Greenvil was slain.  The king sent Wilmot
with a body of one thousand five hundred horse to the support of the Cornishmen, who were now closely besieged in
the town of Devizes.  Waller advanced with his troops to
prevent their junction; the two forces encountered on
Roundway-down near Devizes, (13th,) and the parliamentarians were routed with great slaughter.  Waller fled to Bristol, whence he hastened up to London to justify himself
The parliament, in imitation of Rome, went forth to meet
him, and the speaker returned him  thanks for his services.
Essex and he threw the blame on) each other; Waller, how.
ever, never recovered the ground he had lost.
The very day of the defeat of Waller, the queen joined
the king at Edgehill with a large reinforcement of troops,
ammunition, and artillery.  The royal cause was now rather
prosperous in the north; for though sir Thomnas Fairfiax had
defeated the royal troops at Wakefield, (May 20,) where
3olonel Goring, who had returned, was made a prisoner, and
a plan of the Hothams to give up Hull to the king was dis.
i..                                                  J~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I




128             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
covered arid they sent prisoners to London, the defeat of
Fairfax by Newcastle on Atherton-moor (June 30) had sunk
the cause of the parliament.
After a long stay at Reading, Essex advanced to Thame,
within ten miles of Oxford. Here colonel Hurry, one of
those Scottish soldiers of fortune who had joined the parliament, not being thought so much of as in his own opinion he
deserved, went over to the king.  As he knew exactly how
Essex's army was disposed, he proposed to prince Rupert
to beat up their quarters; the prince assented, and leaving
Oxford in the evening, (June IS,) they advanced to Wycombe, where a regiment of horse and another of foot lay,
and falling on them in the night killed or made prisoners of
the whole, whence they went on to another village named
Chinner, where they had the same success. They then prepared to return to Oxford with their prisoners and booty;
but the alarm had been given; and as they were about to
enter a lane from the plain called Chalgrave-field, they were
overtaken by a body of horse collected at random. They
turned, and after a sharp rencounter, drove'them off with the
loss of colonel Gunter and some cf their other officers, and
then proceeded uninterrupted to Oxford, where Hurry was
knighted by the king.
One of the prisoners taken on this occasion said, that " he
was confident Mr. Hampden was hurt, for he saw him ride
off the field before the action was done, which he never used
to do, with his head hanging down and resting his hands on
the neck of his horse."  This pioved to be the fact; Hampden, who had put himself at the head of a troop of horse,
was struck by a brace of balls in the shoulder.  He rode to
Thame and had his wounds dressed, but they proved mortal,
and after suffering for six days, he expred on the 25th of
June.  His private virtues and his eminent talents are generally acknowledged.  He exhibited the greatest courtesy
and temper in debate; his manner was modest and diffident
as it were, and he gradually, as if seeking information, infused his opinions into others. While his valor in the field
was undoubted, his moral courage in the council and senate
was no less eminent; and as he was on(e of the root-andbranch party, he would allow no obstacles to impede his
design of abolishing the church and the monarchy. That
however, he was actuated by pure motives is a point about
which we think there can be little dispute. The one part)
naturally exulted at his death; the other as naturally re
garded it as a great calamity




CHARLES I.                     129
Essex  retired -with:his army, broken and dispirited, to
Kingston, and PRupert soon after. marched int'o the west,
where being joined by. the Cornishmen, he laid siege. to Bristol, of which Nathaniel Fiennes,:son of lord  Say, was
governor, with a garrison of two thousand- five hundred foot
and two regiments of' horse. As the fortifications were
weak, Rupert resolved to try a storm, (July f25.) The defence
of the garrison was gallant, but the assailants, though with
great loss, gained the suburbs.  While they hesitated what
further to do, the city beat a parley.  A.surrender was
agreed on, the garrison being allowed to march outwith their
arms and baggage, -and the inhabitants to be secured in their
persons, and properties.  These conditions,; however, were
badly kept, both  soldiers and people bein g pllundere. by the
victors, in retaliation, Clarendon pretends, for similar breach
of treaty at Reading.  "I wish," he adds, " I could- excuse
those swervings from justice and right'which were too frequently practised against contracts, under the notion that they
with whom they were made'were rebels and could not be too
ill used." "  The: king himself came soon after and joined
the army, and prince Maurice was sent into Devon; where-he
reduced most of the towns.
T i The parliament," says May, their historian," was now
in a low ebb; they had no. forces at all to keep the field,
their main armies being quite ruined, and no hope,jin appearance, left, but to preserve awhile those forts: and towns which
they then possessed, nor could they long hope- to preserve
them, unless the fortune of the field should change."  Under
these circumstances, they resolved to invite the Scots to their
aid, and (July -20) the earl of Rutland, sir Henry Vane, and
three others, attended by the divines Marshall and Nye, set
out for Edinburgh as commissioners. Measures were adopted
to raise men to repair Essex's army, and as the city of London
lay open and exposed, an intrenchment of twelve miles in
circuit was commenced and speedily completed, " gentlemen
of the best quality," says Whitelocke, " knights, and ladies,
resorting to the works daily, carrying spades;, mattocks, and
other suitable implements; so that it became apleasant spectacle at London, to see them  going out in' such order: and
numbers, with drums beating before them; which put-life
Fiennes was brought to a court-martial fbr the surrender, of. Bristol. Prynne and Clement Walker, two bitter, unrelenting persecutors
managed the case against him, and he was sentenced to death, (Dee
28.) Essex, however, pardoned him, and he was allowed to retire to the
continent.
Q




130              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
into the drooping people, being taken for a happy omen that,
in so low al condition, they yet seemed not to despair."  The
peace-party, however, was now strong in the houses, and on
Saturday (Aug. 5) a proposal of the lords for a treaty with
the king was carried in the commons.  But. next day the
pulpits were all set at work, and Pennlington the lord-mayor
held a court of common council, where a petition against the
measure was prepared.  On Monday such a multitude came
down with the petition, that the lords voted it a breach of
privilege and adjourned, and the commons, under this pressure
from without, rejected the propositions by a small majority.
Had the king marched to London with all his forces, it is
possible that the war might have been ended, and yet no desi
potism established; but his advisers fear( d the spirit of the
city-militia, and it was resolved to lay siege to Gloucester,
the only place of importance between Bristol and Lancashire
held by the parliament.  Its governor, colonel Massey, a
soldier of fortune, had intimated (Clarendon says) that if the
king came in person he would not hold it out; and accordingly (Aug. 10) the royal standard waved " on a fair hill in
the clear view of the city;" and the king sent in a message,
offering pardon without any exception.  He gave them  two
hours to reply, and " within less than that time," proceeds
the historian, " together with the trumpeter, returned two
citizens from the town with lean, pale, sharp, and bad visages,
and in such garb and carriage that at once made the most severe countenances merry, and the most cheerful hearts sad,
(serious.)  The men, without any circumstances of duty or
good manners, in a pert, shrill, undismayed accent, said they
had brought an answer from the godly city of Gloucester to
the king."  The answer imported they held it for the king,
and would only obey his commands, signified by both houses
of parliament.  Massey's defence was brave and skilful, but
at last he was reduced to extremity: the parliament on learning his condition sent Essex with a well-appointed army of
fourteen thousand to his relief.  Essex conducted his march
with great prudence, repelling all the assaults of the roval
cavalry.  At his approach the besieging army withdrew, and
he entered the town, (Sept. S,) where he remained for two
davs.
As the royalists were greatly superior in cavalry, Essex
wished to avoid an action on his return.  He halted for five
days at Tewkesbury, intending, as it were, to proceed northwards, but in the night he made a forced march to Cirences.
ter, where he surprised a convoy; and having thus got cleat
t   _               _




of the open country, he moved leisurely toward London.
His army had nearly got over Auburn Chase on its way to
Newbury, when his rear was suddenly assailed by prince
Rupert at the head of five or six thousand horse.  Both sides
fought gallantly, but this interruption obliged Essex to halt
for the night at Hungerford; and when he thought to get into Newbury next day, he found that the king had ariAved
there two hours before.
An action was now unavoidable.  Essex halted for the
night, and at six o'clock the following morning (Sept. 20)
both armies engaged, arid.the conflict continued till it was
terminated by night.  The steadiness and intrepidity of the
London train-bands excited the admiration of both friends
and foes.  According to the parliamentary writers, the king
lost two thousand men, while on their own side there fell no
more than five hundred; but this statement is hardly credible.
The earls of Sunderland and Carnarvon were slain, but the
greatest loss to the royal party was the lord Falkland. This
nobleman, in whose praises all are agreed, had been as earnest for the reformation of public abuses as any man; but
when at last he began to discern the ulterior views of the
leading reformers, he resolved to throw his influence on the
side of the crown, now the weaker party.  He did expect
that a decided victory of the royal forces would have brought
the adverse party to reason; but finding his hopes baffled, he
lost all his cheerfulness, and often, after sitting long silent
among his friends, he would utter, Peace, peace, in a sad tone,
and declare that the thoughts of the war "took his sleep
from  him  and would shortly break his heart."  On the
morning of the battle- he called for a clean shirt, saying that
if he was slain they should not find his body in foul linen, for
he had a strong persuasion that he should not outlive the day.
He placed himself in the first rank of lord Byron's horse, and
he was shot in the lower part of the belly and died of the
wound.  He was only thirty-four years of age.
The day after the battle, Essex, as the royal army did not
appear, directed his march, after burying the dead, to Reading.
Rupert followed with his cavalry, and caused some confusion
in the rear.  Having halted a couple of days at Reading,
Essex pursued his march to London, where he was received
Xwith the greatest honor.  The king garrisoned Reading once
more; he also placed a garrison in Donnington castle near
Newbury, once the residence or Geoffrey Chaucer. HIe
then retired to Oxford for the winter.




13I              H[STORY OF ENGLAND.
-During the siege of Gloucester, two events occurred, of
which the one showed the king's folly, the other his obstinate adherence to despotism.
In the course of the; summer several more members of both
houses had repaired to, Oxford.  There were others who had
hitherto gone all lengths with the violent party, but who had
no nmind to destroy the constitution; of these the chief were
the earls of Northumberland, Holland," Bedford, and Clare.
Essex also agreed with them in sentiment, but his high sense of
honor made him decline to comply with Holland's proposal of
employing the army to make both parties submit to reasonable
termns of peace.  Northumberland retired to his house at Petworth in Sussex; Holland opened a correspondence through
Jermyn with the queen, and soon after he, and Bedford, and
Clare went into the king's quarters, (Aug. 20;) Clare, who
was least obnoxious, going on to Oxford, while the other two
stopped at Wallingford.
Those who ascribe wisdom or even common sense to the
king and his advisers, will suppose that these lords were received with all favor and courtesy.  But quite the contrary.
The king, who was at Gloucester, sent word to his council to
debate about their reception; and Hyde and Savile, taking
a rational view of the case, thought' that they should be received graciously, as an encouragement to others to follow
their example: but the more violent insisted they should be
obliged to express on oath their abhorrence of the rebellious
arms and counsels; while' third party were for having them
treated with simple iniifferculce.  The king came to Oxford
on account of it, and the last course was fixed on. Bedford and
Holl'.And were therefore permitted to come to court, but they
found themselves generally shunned.  They followed the
king to Gloucester, and fought bravely on'his side at Newbury; but all availed not to efface the memory of their imputed
guilt; and after a stay of three months they stole back to
Westminster, where they met with a cool reception, being
committed for a short time to custody.  Thus were lost all
hopes of drawing away a portion of the supporters of the parliamnent.  The truth is, there was a party at Oxford as adverse
to accommniodation as the war-party at Westminster;  men
who looked for titles, places, pensions, and perhaps confisca* Holland was brother'to lord Warwick. He had been a creature
of Buckingham's, and was always about the court, and had received
much favor from the king and queen.
_____~__j _~T;~ T~I~~__"~- ~ _~L`~ ______':.  ~-.1




CHARLES i.                     133
tions, should the royal cause triumph,- a thing at this time
by no means unlikely, — and who; wished to have as few
sharers as possible in the spoil.   
If the king was imprudent in this matter, he was perhaps' 
worse ia:lthe other- a cessation with the Irish rebels.              i
We have'seen above reasons for' suspecting him to have
authorized the rising of the Irish catholi0ics'.  These men?
had now  settled down into a kind of independent state;
Kilkenny was their seat of government,- where a general
assembly was' held, and a supreme council appointed to
act as an executive.  Ambassadors were to be s'ent to the
pope and'to the great catholic princes.  The English and;
Scottish forces had, however, meantime been'reinforced 
and they had frequently beaten the rebels in the'field, and           a
recovered  several towns and'  forts.  Charles'had, under "
various pretexts, detained tho'earl of Leicester: in England;
that the earl (now marquess) of Ormond, who was a zealous
royalist, might have the authority in Ireland.'The parliament, always jealous'of the king's proceedings in that
country, had sent over two of their members to watch mat —
ters there; but Orrmond after some time sent them  back,
and he removed Parsons; and even committed him, sir John
Temple, and two other'officers of state, to prison.  The
parliament, now with the tide of war rather running against
them, viewed' reland as of minor importance, and the
catholics had a fair?rospect of becoming complete masters
of the island; but, they were composed' of two parties, differing  in origin though agreeing in religion, and those of
the English blood did not Wish to cast off their allegiance.  i
Moreover, they knew the power of England, and saw clearly
that if the lparliament should'conquer the king,  a fearful
vengeance would be taken for the atrocities that had been
committed.  The proposals of Ormion'd for a cessation of
arms during a twelvemonth, though'  opposed by the mere.
Irish, were therefore readily listened to, anid'on the 15th ofi      A
September, (just four days before the battle of Newbury,)'
the cessation was signed, the Irish agreeing to give the king
30,0001., -half in money, half in cattle.  In the following
November Charles appointed Ormond lord-lieutenant, aind
directed him to send over the regiments that were serving
in Ireland.  The intelligence of the cessation did injury to'
the cause of'the king "in England, for many deserted his
party on account of it.  In the king's defdnee it may be
said: that. he only followed- the example of the parliament,
who had sent to invite the Scots.  But there:was a wide:
VOL. II.      12




134               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
difference between the Scots and the sanguinary bands
whom Charles was willing to bring over fiom Ireland to aid
in restoring his despotism.
Meantime  Vane  and  his associates had negotiated  a
treaty with the Scots, who agreed to aid on condition of
a' Solemn League and Covenant' being taken by the parliament and people of England.  On the 29th of November
the treaty was finally concluded, the Scots engaging to furnish an army of twenty-one thousand men, to be paid by
the English parliament.@
One of the measures of the parliament this year had
been to form a new Great Seal.  When this was proposed
the lords refused their assent, but, as usual, they  could
only interpose a delay. The seal was made, and commissioners were appointed to hold it, (Oct. 11;) and in one
lay not less than five hundred writs were sealed.  It bore
)n one side the arms of England and Ireland, on the other;
"the picture of the house of commons, the members sitting "
-  a clear indication of where the real power of the state
was supposed to lie.
On the Sth of December died, at Derby-house, which
the parliament had assigned him  for a residence, the celebrated John Pymr.  His disease was an imposthume in
the mesentery.  Ite was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey, the body being carried by ten of the principal members of the house of commons, and followed by
the remaining members of both houses, and by the assembly
of divines.  The parliament voted a sum  of 10,0001., for
the payment of his debts, and settled a pension on his son.
The character of this eminent man has been presented
under various lights by the writers of the different parties.
It must be allowed that no man was ever better qualified
to be a parliamentary leader than he was.  To an extensive
knowledge of the laws and constitution, he joined a manly
and impressive elocution; his delivery was grave and dignified; his person tall and portly.  He was also a statesman;
he knew  how to select his measures, and was never at a
* In this alliance, the Scots, as usual, would dictate respecting the
church, and nothing would satisfy them short of the absolute unifbrmity of the English church with their own kirk. The article, however,
was worded to this effect —that the churchl of England should " be retirmed according to the word of God, and after the example of the
best reformed churches," by which they of course thought nothing but
the kirk could be meant. They were afterwards taught that the wolds
would beat a different sense.
______________       _____  - -______.__________ - _________________________________ _______________._____________________________




CuHARLES 1.                   1.35'oss for expedients to carry them  into effect.  Clarendon
says that he was " the most popular man that ever lived,"
and that no man better understood " the temper and affections
of the kingdom."  He was no fanatic in religion; he does
not appear to have had any ill-feeling toward the episcopal
church.  What his original views were in politics it is
difficult to ascertain; we find him  of late the determined
enemy of accommaodation with the king, (in whom he had
evidently lost all confidence,) and it is probable that he
aimed at the establishment of a republic.  Like all politicians,
he had, occasionally, recourse to arts not strictly justifiable
for the accomplishment of his objects.
Such was the state of affairs at the end of the year 1643.
The next year opens with an attempt of the king to turn
to his side the magic of the name of parliament.  It was the
advice of Hyde, that " since the whole kingdom was misled
by the reverencethey had to parliaments," he should summon all those who had left that at Westminster to repair to
Oxford.  Charles, beside his inherent antipathy to parliainents, feared that if he convened the legislature they would
endeavor to effect a peace -a thing to which he had no
mind.  It was therefore with extreme reluctance that he
gave his consent.  Tthis assembly met on the 29th of January, 1644; the house of lords was more than the double,
that of commons nearly the half, of those at Westminster;
-but as many were absent on military-commands, the number
which met were forty-three peers and one hundred and
eighteen commoners.  Their first thoughts were of peace,
and they all subscribed that very day a-letter to lord Essex,
inviting him to cooperate with them  in effecting a termination of the present evils.  Essex, in reply, sent the covenant
and two declarations of the parliaments of England and
Scotland.  As Essex's -pretext for not communicating the
letter to the houses was its not containing an acknowledgment of them, the king was induced (Mar. 3) to send a message" to the lords and commons of parliament assembled
at Westrninster."  This, however, they treated as an insult,
as it put those at Oxford on an equal footing with them.
The hopes of peace now vanished, and the war was renewed
The expedients practised on both sides to raise the necessary supplies were as follows: The parliament got loans,
voluntary or forced, from the merchants of the city; they required all those who had not subscribed of their own accord
to pay the twentieth part of their estates; they sequestrated
the estates of all delinquents; they laid a weekly assessment




136              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of 10,0001. on the city of London, and 24,0001. on the res
of the kingdom where their power prevailed: in imitation of'
the Dutch, they introduced (for -the first time) into the kingdom the tax' ever since so well -known under the name of excise; on wine, beer, soap, and a variety of foreign and dometic
articles-even  butchers' meat.  They had, beside these,
sundry  other expedients for raising money;.  The king, on.
his side, obtained loans from his adherents; he issued privy
seals; he set up an excise also, and laid a weekly imposition.
on- the-iilhabitants- of the country about- his: garrisons.  Theb
armies on both sides plundered'; but the king's troops, led
by such  men as Rupert, Maurice, Goring,, Wilmot, and
Richard Greenvil, committed by far the greatest excesses.
The hopes of the king from the cessation in Ireland were
disappointed.  In the last November; a body of the troops
which he had proposed to draw to his aid from that country
landed at Mostyn in Flintshire, where being joined to lord Bytron, who commanded' at Chester, they gained' sundry advantages over the adherents of the parliament.  Early in January
(1644) they laid siege to the town of Nantwich, which was
gallantly defended, and sir Thomas Fairfax, who was then
at Manchester, having joined his forces with those of sir
William Brereton, advanced to the relief of the town.  The
Anglo-Irish army, though said to be inferior in number, drew
out (Jan. 25) to give them battle; but after an obstinate conflict of two hours, being assailed by the garrison in their rear,
they broke and fled, leaving five hundred slain and fifteen
hundred prisoners; among these last were- several of their
officers, one of whom' was- colonel Monk, afterwards so famous;
In the west; the royal forces under Hopton had advanced
as far as- Arundel.  Waller, who had about ten thousand
men, was at Farnham, whence marching by night: he- surprised and cut to pieces a royal regiment at' Alton, and then
reduced Arundel, (Jan. 6.)  The kliing having sent his general, the earl of Brentford, to reinforce  Hopton, the two
armies; about' equal in number, engaged" at Ailresford, (Mar.
29;) the royalists were defeated with the loss'of five hundred
men, and Waller then took- and plundered Winchester.
Newark-on-Trent, one: of the strongest holds of the royal
ists, had been for some time - besieged' by the parliamentary
forces.  Prince Rupert, who'was in Cheshire,, having' drawn
together a good' body of "horse, prepared to relieve. it.  He
marched" with'his usual rapidity, and. came  so unexpectedly
on the besiegers,' (Mar. 22'.): that, after.-:a:brief resistance they




CHARLE:S i. 113
were glad to: be allowed to depart, leavinga their arras, ord
nance, and ammunition.
The Scots were now in England.  On-the:19th of January,
the earl of Leven had crossed the Tw.eed and -advanced to at.
tack the town of New.castle; but the earl of Newcastle had
thrown hl-imself tinto it the day beforej and Leven, ordering six
regiments to block it up, proceeded southwards, followed by
the royal army of fourteen. thousand men. Leveni took his post
at Sunderland, where he remained for five weeks.  Meantime
lord Fairfax, beingjoined by. his; son sir Thomas, engaged
(Apr: 11) at'Selby;  colonel Bellasis, who commanded, the
royalists in. Yorkshire, and. routed him; Newcastle, who was
at Dur hamn, immediately fell back, to. York, where he was besieged by:the Scots and the troops-of Fairfax, to. whose aid,
some time after, (June.3,) came. the troops of the eastern
counties (fourteen thousand in number) under lord Kimbolton, now; earl of Manchester, and, his lieutenant-general
Oliver Cromwell.
Essex and Waller were at:this time. both gradually approaching Oxford with the intention of confining, the king's
forces to that city.  But one night (June 3) the lking, to deceive Waller, having sent a body of foot out at the soutih gate
as if for Abingdon, left the town by, the north gate.with two
thousand five hundred foot and all: his, horse, andz proceeded
to Worcester, and thence to Bewdley.  Waller, thinking it
was his object to effect a junction: with: prince. Rupert, who
was nowtat Liverpool, threw himself between him-and Shrewsbury.  Essex, as their plan had been:defeated, marched awav
to the west.; the king-then made. a rapid return, to Oxford,
and. taking thence his artillery- and the rest of his: forces, ad-.
vanced to give battle' to- W;aller,  The two armies.. canme in
sight near Banbury, the., river.Charwell, dividing: them.  In,
the manceuvres to bring, on. an. action, WT.allet. perceiving
(29th) the rear of the king's army to be sepaprated i from  the
main body, passed over: Croprediy bridge, witha body: of his.
troops to get between them, aid at the.,same. time. sent a party-of.horse to cross a ford, about a mile. lower, down.  He
was, however, routed' and -driven. back over the, bridge: with
some loss by the -earl of Cleveland, who commandeds the, king' s:
rear-guard, and his, army having gradually dwindled. doxvn
to four, thousand- men, he' was recalled by the parliament.
There  was a party among. the officers: of the royal army
headed by  Wilmot, who for various reasons were. anxiou.  or.,*ace, and- they; nlow! renewedi a project which. they. had de-,
-   12 *                     R




I138!flnHISo0 RY OF ENGLAND.
vised before the king last left Oxford, which was for the royal
forces to advance to St. Albans, and for the king to send
thence a gracious message'to the two houses and the city.
But Charles had the utmost aversion to any measure of the
kind, and he determined to follow Essex to the west, where
the queen was residing at Exeter, having just been delivered
of a daughter in that town.
York meantime was hard pressed; Newcastle had sent to
the: king to say, that if not relieved he must surrender, and
Charles had written (June 14) to Rupert, directing him to
lay every other project aside and think only on the relief of
York. The active prince made no delay, and on the last day
of June he appeared within view of that city, at the head of
twenty thousand men. Next day the allied army drew up to
receive him on Marston-moor, about five miles from the town;
Rupert, however, entered the city. Newcastle wished him
to be content with having raised the siege, intimating that
there were differences between the English and Scottish commanders, which might ripen into discord.  Rupert, however,
beside his own inclination to it, had positive orders from the
king to fight.  Accordingly next day (July 2) the royal aimy
was led out to where the enemy stood on the moor.'The
numbers were about equal, twenty-five thousand on each
side; the right wing of the royalists was commanded by
Newcastle, the left by Rupert, the centre by Goring, Lucas,
and Porter; on the other side, sir Thomas Fairfax commanded on the right, Manchester and Cromwell on the left, the
centre was under lord Fairfax and the earl of Leven.
At five in the evening both sides stood ready to engage,
but the action did not commence till seven. The prince
with his usual impetuosity charged the enemy's right wing
and drove them off the field; the royal centre was equally
successful,:and Leven and his Scots fled to a considerable
distance; but sir Thomas Fairfax was victorious on the left,
and Cromwell having rallied his own regiment, he and Fairfax fell on the troops of Rupert and Goring, and night closed
on a decisive victory on. the side of the parliamentarians.
The number of the slain was said to be upwards of four thousand, of whom the far greater portion were royalists; fifteen
hundred were made prisoners; all the ordn<ance, ammunition,
and baggage were taken.  Next day Rupert retired to the
western counties, and Newcastle in disgust or despair departed with the lords Widdrington and Falconberg, and retired
to the continent, where he remained for sixteen years.  Yor*l
K




CHARLES I.                    139
surrendered; the victorious armies separated; the Scots
moved toward their own coui try, and closed the campaign
by the storm of Newcastle.
The royal cause was now hopeless in the north, but for
tune proved mnore propitious in the west.  Prince Maurice
having retired on the approach of Essex, Weymouth surrendered to him; but as he was in pursuit of the prince, he
got tidings of the defeat of Waller and the approach of the
king.  His first thought was to give the royal army battle at
once, but lord Roberts, who had large estates in Cornwall,
prevailed on him to enter that county, where he assured him
of every advantage.  Essex, therefore, crossed the Tamar
about the middle of July, and marched by Liskeard and Bodmin to Lestwithiel, followed by the royal army. Charles,
thinking this a good time for negotiation, wrote (Aug. 6)
with his own hand a letter to Essex, proposing that the two
armies should join and oblige the enemies of peace to submit
to terms.  Another letter came to Essex (9th) from the principal officers in the royal army to the same effect.  His reply was, that he was trusted to fight, not to treat, and that
the best advice he could give the king was to go to his parliamnent.  Charles then directed all his forces to draw closer,
and thus surround Essex's army and cut off their supplies.
By the end of the month, therefore, Essex found his condition desperate; his cavalry under sir William Balfour having taken advantage of the darkness of the night (30)th) to
pass between two of the divisions of the royal army and get off,
he himself and some of his chief officers went in a boat to
Plymouth, leaving the infantry and some horse under Skippon.
This brave officer proposed to them to follow the example of
the cavalry and force their way, but:the attempt appeared too
hazardous, and (Sept. 2) a surrender was proposed and accepted.  The arms, ordnance, and ammunition were given
up, and the men were conveyed to Poole and Wareham.
Essex proceeded to Portsmouth, where his army was reassembled;' Waller and Manchester were directed to join,
and the combined army was ordered to give battle to the
king on his return from Cornwall.  On a Sunday (Oct. 27)
they attacked him at Newbury; the action commenced at
three and lasted till ten at night.  Essex was absent from indisposition. Though the king's forces were inferior in number, the result was dubious, and he marched that night by
moonlight in view of the enemy to Wallingford.  A few days
after, (Nov. 9,) being joined by Rupert, he ret irned for his
artillery and ammunition, which he had left a Donnington




140a.-           HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
castle, and carried them away without opposition.  The par
liamentarians. kept within their lines, and refused 1 attle wheni
offered.  This event terminated the campaign.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHARLES I. (CONTINUED.)
164 5-1647.
THE late successes of the king were attributed to the want
of harmony7 among the parliament generals.  Waller  had
been from the first a rival of Essex; and Manchester, and
Cromwell, his second in coiminand, had opposite views and
feelings.  The religious differences of presbyterian a independent had now extended to the army also; Cromwell was
the head of the latter party, Manchester and Waller belonged'
to the former, while Essex preferred the episcopalian church.
Further, both he and Manchester wished to preserve the
constitution-in the state, while Cromwell desired a republic.
It was therefore, suspected, and not without reason, that neither of these noblemen was inclined to weaken the. king too.
much.
The affair: of Donnington castle brought the parties who
had been for. some time menacing each other to issue.
Cromwell, when called on in the house of commons to State
what he knew of it, accused Manchester of an averseness to
ending the war by the sword, and of thinking that the king
was, now low enough for a peace to be made.  Next day
Manchester took notice of this in the lords, and at his, desire,
a day being fixedfor the purpose, he gave his account of the
DIonnington affair, laying the chief-blame on Ciroiwell. He
also stated: some, speeches of his, proving him to be hostile'to
the peerage, and. to the amity between England andn Scotland.; such as his saying. that it, would never be well with
England till the, earl of Manchester were plain Mr. Montague, tha.t the Scots had crossed the Tweed.only to establish
presbytery, and t!hat in that cause he would as soon fight
against them as the king; and added, that it was his design
to form an: army of sectaries who might dictate to both king
and parliameltt.




CHARLES 1.                   141
The commons appointed a committee to inquire if this
accusation of one of their members in the other house were
not a breach of privilege. Meantime some of the presbyte.
rian party and the Scottish commissioners met at Essexhouse, and sending for the two lawyers Whitelocke and
Maynard, took their opinion on the'subject of accusing
Cromwell as an incendiary between the' two nations.  The
lawyers, however, being of' opinion that the evidence was not
sufficient, the plan was abandoned.
Dn the 9th of Decemb~er the commons resolved themselves
into a committee to consider the condition of the kingdom
with regard to the war.  After a long silence Crotmiwell rose
and recommended that instead of an inquiry they should devise some general remedy of the evils. The next speaker
said that the fault lay in the commands being divided.  A
third proposed that no member of either house should hold
any civil or military command during the war. This was
supported by Vane and opposed by Whitelocke, Hlollis, and
-others.  An ordinance to this effect, however, passed the
commons, (21st,) a vain attempt having been made to have
the earl of Essex excepted. In the lords it met with much
opposition; for, as they justly objected, it would exclide their
entire order firom all offices of trust and honor. They accordingly rejected it, (Jan. 13, 1645.)
Another project which was going on at the same time, was
the' new model' of the army. On the 21st the names of the
principal officers of it were put to the vote in the commons.
Sir Thomas Fairfax was named commander-in-chief,  Skippon major-general; twenty-four colonels were appointed, but
nothing was said as to the post of lieutenant-general.  The
cause of' this silence will soon appear. The lords passed the
ordinance for the new model, (Feb. 15;) and an ordinance,
similar to the one they had rejected, but only requiring members to lay down the offices which they held, and being silent
as to their re-appointment, was sent up to them.  This'selfdenying ordinance' was passed (Apr. 3,) Essex, and Manchester, and Denbigh having laid down their commands the
day before.
At this time the trial of archbishop Laud, which had been
going on for nearly a year, was brought to its close. In
twenty-four articles of impeachment the commons accused
him of attempting to subvert the rights of parliament and
laws of the realm, and to introduce arbitrary power, and also' to alter and subvert God's true religion by law established'in
this realm, and instead thereof to set up popish superstition




142              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and idolatry, and to reconcile us to the church of Rome'
The trial commenced on the 12th of March, 1644; the
managers on the part of the commons were serjeant Wild,
and Messrs. Maynard, Brown, Nicholas, and Hill. The primate's inveterate foe, Prynne, was their solicitor, and he
certainly showed none of the magnanimity of a generous
enemy.  He seized all the papers of the accused, even his
diary and his written defence; he hunted out witnesses in all
quarters, and if Laud was not misinformed, he drilled ther
in the parts which they were to enact.
The archbishop, though refused the aid of counsel, defended himself with spirit and ability.  He either justified
what he was charged with doing, or impeached the character
of the witnesses, or in case of there being but one to any
fact, denied the legality of his evidence, the law, in cases of
treason, requiring two witnesses.  When charged with any
of the acts of the council, the star-chamber, or the high
commission, his defence was that he was only one of many,
and that the act of the majority was ascribed to the whole.
Prynne himself allows that " he made as full, as gallant and
pithy a defence, and spoke as much for himself as was possible for the wit of man to invent."  During twenty-one days
in the space of six months the trial proceeded with the advantage evidently on the side of the prisoner, and when
(Oct. 1) Mr. Hearne his counsel was allowed to speak to
the question of whether the matters charged against him
amounted to treason according to the known laws of the
land, the lords were staggered and the reply of the managers
failed to satisfy them.  The party in the commons, nowever,
who sought the primate's blood, were resolved not to be
balked; the old tactics were repeated, a petition of the citizens numerously signed was presented (28th) by a great
number of people praying for speedy justice against delinquents, and particularly against the archbishop   Forthwith
a bill of attainder was introduced; when it had been twice
read, the archbishop was brought to the bar of the house of
cmmons to hear the evidence, and nine days were given
him to prepare his defence. The very day of his'defence
(Nov. 11) the bill was passed with but one dissentient voice.
The lords pronounced him guilty of certain acts, but left it
to the judges to determine their quality.  Their reply was,
that by the statute-law they did not amount totreason, but
that the house al )ne was judge of the law of parliament. On
Christmas-day, which was now a day of" fasting and public
humiliation," the pulpits were set at work, and next morning




CHARLES I.                    143
a committee was appointed to confer with the lords; and on
the 4th of January the archbishop was pronounced guilty of
treason by a majority consisting it is said of only six mem
bers.  The only favor the prelate could obtain was to have
his sentence changed from  hanging to beheading. On the.Oth the primate, now in the 72d year of his age, appeared
on the scaffold on Tower-hill with a serene and cheerful air.
Taking Heb. xii. 2 for his text, he made a speech in fornm of
a sermon to the people, explaining and justifying his co1nduct.  It was noted, that the sun, which had hitherto been
hidden, shone out and irradiated his calm  and serene countenance as he spoke, and that it disappeared for the rest of
the day, when his head had been stricken off. Laud died
with all the constancy of a martyr.
The primate was a narrow-minded, superstitious, hot, and
intemperate man - a pygmy Gregory VII.  Of his sincerity
we think there can be little doubt, but his measures were
childish and mischievous, and he may justly be regarded as
one of the principal causes of the evils with which the
kingdom was then afflicted.  Still his execution was a piece
of gratuitous malignity, for he now was utterly powerless,
and he had not offended against the known laws of the land.
It is gratifying to add, that no respectable advocate of the
Long Parliament attempts to justify this piece of wanton barbarity.*
Exactly a week before they shed the blood of the primate,
(Jan. 3,) the parliament had by an ordinance abolished the
liturgy of the church and set in its place a " Directory for
Public Worship," drawn up by the Assembly of Divines and
approved of by the general assembly of Scotland. Of the
Assembly of Divines we will now give some account.
By an ordinance of the 12th of June, 1643, when they
were looking for aid from the Scots, the parliament nominated one hundred and twenty-one divines, who with ten peers
and twenty commoners, and three of the Scottish commissioners, were to examine the liturgy, discipline, and
government of the church of England, and give their opinions thereon to one or both houses.  The object of the
parliament is there declared to be the abolition of the present
mode of church-government and to form  one of "nearer
* About this time also the parliament executed the two Hothams
(Jan. 1 and 2,) sir Alexander Carew, (Dec. 23,) who had engaged to
surrender Plymouth to the king, and the Irish rebels Macmahon, (Nov
22,) and Macguire, (Feb. 20.




'144              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
agreement with the church of Scotland and othe'reformed
churches abroad,"'that is to establish presbytery.  Among
those nominated were some prelates an'd other episcopalians,
*but they never gave'attendance.  There were- about half a
dozen members of the party named Independents in the' assembly,-and among the lay-assessors a few Erastians.  These
terms require to be explained.
The presbyterian system, which is that of the' church of
Scotland, is based on the principle of a parity in rank among
its ministers and a participation of the laity in the government of the church.  It rejects'all; peculiar habits for the
clergy and has no liturgy. It gives the power of the keys,
that is of excommunication, censure, etc., to its synods and
assemblies, and it has always aimed at a clerical despotism
similar to that of Rome.  At this time the'presbyterians
were the determined enemies of toleration.  They could not
be wrong, and it were sinful. to rend the seamless coat of
Jesus by permitting error to prevail. They: formed' the great'majority in the parliament, the assembly, and: the city.
The Independents were few in number in the assembly,
but they excelled in energy and skill in debate.  They held
that every congregation of Christians should be independent
of all others, but with an entire power over'its own members.
They were therefore the strenuous advocates of toleration,
and all the minor sects, such as the Anabaptists, the Antinomians, etc.,7 gladly sheltered themselves under their shadow.
Their:leading divines were Nye,' Goodwin, and Burgess
The lords Say and Wharton, and: sir Henry Vane and Oliver
Cromwell, were of their party in the parliament.
While the church of Rome claimed the universal power
of the keys, the church of England and the Presbyterians
demanded it over the whole national church, and the Independents required it for every particular congregation, a
small party named Erastians firom Erastis, a German divine
of the sixteenth century, denied this power altogether.'They
held that the pastoral office was only persuasive, that all the
ordinances of religion were to be free and open to all; the
minister inight dissuade the openly vicious from coming to
the Lord's-supper, for example, and warn  them of their danger, but he might not refuse it. To the state alone they said
belonged the punishment of all offences.  The advocates of
this system  in the assembly were Lightfoot, Selden, and
Whitelocke; and St. John and other eminent men upheld it
in the parlia.ment.
The Scots, after their usual manner, took advantage of
I.__________.___ d__                   _____________._________________________




CHARLES I.                     145
their present position to dictate, and they would faiu have
forced on the English nation their own system of presbytery,
pure and unaltered; but the spirit of the English revolted
at this, and some modifications were made.  T're Liturgy
was ordered to be laid aside, and a Directory for Public
Worship, as we have seen, was substituted for it.  It being
found, however, that many parishes persisted in using the
Book of Common Prayer, an ordinance was passed (Aug, 23,
1645) imposing a fine of 51. for the first offence, 101. for the
second, and a year's imprisonment for the third, on any- one        I
who in a church, chapel, or even private family, should use
the prayer-book, and all prayer-books remaining in churches
and chapels were ordered to be given ip to the committees
of counties.  Such were the tolerant principles of those abhorrers of the despotism of Laud!
The parliament also appointed a committee for scandalous
ministers, with subordinate committees in the several counties.  These were empowered to inquire into the lives and
doctrine of the clergy, and to eject from their livings such as
were proved guilty of immorality, of false doctrine, i. e. Arminianism  and such like, or what perhaps was a greater
offence in the eyes of their judges, malignancy or attachment
to the cause of the king; those who should refuse to take
the covenant were also to be deprived. The number of the
ejected clergy was nearly two thousand; the greater part,
however, we are assured were put out for immorality, in
whose places were substituted men recommended by the
parishes and approved of by the assembly of divines. A
fifth of the income was appropriated to the support of the families of the ejected ministers. The University of Cambridge
was also visited by the earl of Manchester, and more than
onal half of the heads and fellows of colleges were expelled
for malignancy, and others put in their places.
Meanwhile negotialtions for peace had been going on.
The king having sent two messages proposing a treaty, the
parliament appointed commissioners to repair to Oxford,
(Nov. 2D,) but only as bearers of propositions.  After a stay
of a few days they returned (29th) with the king's reply.
This was a demand of a safe-conduct for the duke of Richmond and the earl of Southampton to come with his answer
to their propositions. After some debate this was agreed to;
the two noblemen came, and after the usual delays it was
arranged that commissioners from both sides should meet at
UJxbridge, and during a space of twenty days discuss the
VOL. 1I.      13
-,,~_~_ __-~__~_____~~_ __    -__ * _, l____________ I




146              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
principal subjects )f dispute, namely, religion, the militia
and Ireland, each to be debated for three days in rotation.
On the 3tth of January the commissioners on both sides
met at Uxbridge. The royalists were sixteen in number,
those of the parliament twelve, together with four Scottish
commissioners; both parties were attended by their divines.
After the preliminaries had been arranged, they commenced
with the subject of religion.  The parliament insisted on the
unqualified abolition of episcopacy and the establishment of
presbytery; the king would not abandon the former, which
he regarded as of divine institution, but he was willing to
limit it, to reform  abuses in it, and to grant. indulgence to
tender consciences in matters of ceremonies'I'This subject
having been debated for three days to no purpose, they next
passed to the militia.  The parliament demanded that.,
should be entirely vested in them  and in persons in whom
they could confide. They relaxedl so far as to demland it
only for seven years, after which It should be settled by bill
or agreement between the king and parliament. The king
was willing to surrender it for three years, provided it then
returned fully to the crown. With respect to Ireland, the
parliament required the cessation to be declared null and void,
and the conduct of the war and government of that country
to be committed to them; the royal commissioners justified
the king in making the cessation, and asserted that he was in
honor bound to maintain it.  These matters were debated
over and over till the 22d of February, when the parliament
having refused to prolong the treaty, the commissioners returned to Westminster and Oxford, and preparations were
made for another appeal to the sword.
This treaty, the inutility of which must have been apparent,
had been entered into solely in compliance with the wishes
of those on both sides who were weary of the evils of war
and sincerely desirous of peace. Among these the king
himself cannot be included, for he was determined to concede
none of the points at issue, and his usual duplicity was displayed even in the commencement; for when he had been
induced to style in his answer the two houses the parliament
of England, he writes to the queen, " If there had been but
two beside myself of my opinion, I had not done it; and the
argument that prevailed with me was, that the calling did no
ways acknowledge them to be a parliament," and he adds
that it is so registered in the council book.  He was besides
negotiating for foreign aid, and treating for a peace and an




CHARLES 1.                   1 47
xrmy with the Irish rebels; and he was so much elated by
exaggerated accounts of the successes of Montrose in Scotland, that he was in full expectation of being shortly able to
resume the plenitude of his despotism.
Their adoption of the covenant and presbytery to gratify
their selfish and self-sufficient allies, made accommodation
more difficult on the side of the parliament, as they could not
now recede, and every person of candor must, we think, allow
that they could not with safety resign the power of the sword
to their unforgiving sovereign.  " He who was reasonable
amongthem, (the cornmmissioners,)" says Clarendon, " thought
it very unreasonable to deny them that necessary security,
and believed it could proceed from nothing else but a resolution to take the highest vengeance upon their rebellion".an inference, the truth of which he does not deny. In effect,
when the situations and tempers of the parties are considered,
it is manifest that there was no room for accommodation, that
one or other must be subdued, and despotism of one kind or
other be the result.
In the summer of the preceding year, the earls of Montrose
and Antrim had both come to Oxford with tenders of their
services to the crown. They were both inveterate enemies
of Argyle, who had now the chief power in Scotland, and
Montrose asserted that if Antrim could raise fifteen hundred
or two thousand men in Ireland and land them in the. Highlands, he himnself would be able to join them with so many
of the Highland clansmen, loyal to the king, and enemies of
Argyle, as would make such a diversion, as would, if not recover the kingdom, at least oblige the Scottish army in England to return to its defence. The king listened to the proposal. and gave them the necessary commissions.  Antrim
forthwith passed over to Ireland, and raising about eighteen
hundred men among his clan there, sent them over under his
brother sir Alister MI'Donnel, named Colkitto.  Montrose
ha, ing left Oxford with a good company, suddenly disappeared, and with only two attendants eluded the vigilance of
both nations till he reached the foot of the Grampians, where
he remained concealed till he heard of the landing of the
Irish.  He directed them to join him  in Athol, where at
their head he unfuirled the royal standard, and summoned the
clans to arms. They responded to his call; he poured down
on the Lowlands; at Tippermuir (Sept. 1) he defeated the
lord Elcho, and then entered and plundered the town of
Perth.  He then moved northwards; the bridge o2 Dee was
defended by lord Burlevy, but his men fled at the first shook,
1 —— ~~ —-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~J




148              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and the ferocious followers of, Montrose entered Aberdeen
pell-mel with them.  The town was given up to pillage and
massacre for four days.  The Irish displayed a thriftiness in
their barbarity such as one might rather have looked for in
the Scots, for they stripped their victims naked before they
murdered, them, lest their clothes should be spoiled.
The approach of Argyle with a superior force obliged:
Montrose to quit Aberdeen on the fifth day.  He moved,
toward the Spey, and finding its opposite bank guarded, he
buried his ordnance in a morass, and went up the stream till
he reached the forests of Strathspey and the mountains of
Badenoch.  He then descended into Athol and Angus, still
followed by Argyle, and suddenly crossing the Grampians,
again moved northwards in hopes of rousing the Gordons to
arms.  At Fyvie castle he was nearly surrounded, but after
sustaining the repeated attacks of a superior force, he retired
by night, and effected his retreat to Badenoch.  Argyle,
wearied out, as it was now far in the winter, returned to his
castle of Inverary, where he deemed himself in perfect security.. But the energetic, and vindictive Montrose, amidst the
snows of December, (13th,) penetrated by passes only trodden
by the herdsmen in summer into Argyleshire. The savage
Irish, and no less savage clansmen, let all their fury loose on
the devoted district; the inhabitants were massacred, the
cattle driven off or destroyed, the houses and corn burnt,
Argyle himself only escaped by putting to sea in an open
boat.  After seven weeks spent in the work of devastation,
Montrose moved toward Inverness.  Argyle, who had r~allied
the scattered Campbells, was now with three thousand men
at Inverlochy, at the western extremity of the chain of Highlandl lakes.  By a secret and circuitous route, Montrose returned and fell on his vanguard by nig it.  The moon giving
her light, the troops skirmished till day.  In the morning
(Feb. 2) the fight began: Argyle, in whose character there
was little of chivalry, viewed from a boat in the lake the noble
but unavailing struggles of his gallant Campbells, and the
slaughter of one half their number.  1Montrose, elate with
his victory, wrote to the king promising soon to come to his
aid with a gallant army; and this letter arriving during the
treaty of Uxbridge, aided to prevent the sang4iine monarch
from complying with terms on which peace might have been
effected.  Montrose returned to the north;: the Grants and
Gordons joined him; he spread his ravages as before; Dun.
dee was stormed and partly burnt, (Apr. 4.)  But the approach of a superior force under Baillie and that soldier of




CHARLES 1.                   149
fortune Hurry, now again against the king, obliged Lim to
return to the mountains with some loss. Baillie then entered
Athol, while Hurry moved northwards after Montrose, to
whom he gave battle at Aldean, near Nairn, and was defeated
with the loss of two thousand men.  Baillie himself was soon
after overthrown at Alford on the Don.
The English parliament had now completed their New
Model. It consisted of six thousand horse divided into ten
regiments, one thousand dragoons, and fourteen thousand
foot in twelve regiments of ten companies each. These regiments were composed of men from the old armies, chiefly
those of a religious cast and inclined to the party of the independents.  A more rigorous discipline was introduced than
had hitherto prevailed, and thus was formed that noble army,
which:, actuated by a higher principle than the mere love of
pay and plunder, never encountered a defeat, and has left its
memory a subject of admiration to posterity.
The king had given the nominal command of his forces
to the prince of Wales, but the real power to prince Rupert,s his lieutenant.  He had also sent the prince to Bristol,
O.stensibly to command in the west, but really because, as he
himself used to express it, "he and his son were too great
d prize to be ventured in one bottom."  Goring, Wilmot,
{and Greenvil had all separate commands in the west, and
the license in which these profligate commanders indulged
their men, and the atrocities committed by them, gave or1gin to a defensive association among the country-people
in the counties of Wilts, Somerset, Dorset, and Devon, and
-a similar association appeared in Gloucester and Worcester. The object of these people, who were named, from
their principal weapon, Clubmen, was to preserve their property from the hands of both parties; and as the royalists
were the greater plunderers, their hostility was chiefly directed
against them.  Many of the loyal gentry, however, countenanced the-m, in hopes of being able hereafter to render them
serviceable to the royal cause.
About a third of the kingdom still obeyed the king; his
army was:more numerous than the New Model, but it was
scattered and divided; its officers were at discord, and the
men demoralized:. HIe was, however, the first to take the
field, and leaving Oxford (May 7) at the head of ten
thousand men, of whom more than a half were cavalry,
he proceeded to raise the siege of Chester.'he enemy
retired at the rumor of his approach.  HIe then advanced
against the town of Leicester, which was taken by storm
13 R$




150             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
(31st,) and plundered. Fairfax, who had been on his way
to tile relief of Taunton, which was hard pressed by the
royalists under Greenvil, was ordered to return, and being
baffled in his expectations of' gaining Oxford by means of a
party within the walls, he proceeded in pursuit of the king.
Near the village of Naseby, between Daventry and Harborough, his van overtook the rear of the royalists, (June 13,)
and next morning (14th) the two armies stood prepared tor
action, the advantage in numbers being on the side of Fairfax.;
Sir Jacob (now lord) Astley commanded the royalist infantry in the centre, prince Rupert the -horse on the right wing,
sir Marmaduke Langdale that on the left wing.  In the other
army Fairfax himself led the centre, Cromwell* the right,
and Ireton the left wing.  Rupert, with his usual impetuosity, bore down all before him; Ireton was wounded, and for
some time a prisoner; but Rupert never knew when to stop,
and instead of returning to support his friends, he wasted his
time in summoning the enemy's artillery.  Cromwell, whio
had been equally successful on his side, knew better how to
use his victory; leaving four squadrons to watch the figi.
tives, he fell on the rear of the royal centre, who had hitherto maintained the fight with advantage against those oppoted
to them.  Dismayed at finding themselves assailed in front
and.rear, they threw down their arms and sued for quarter.
One regimenlt, however, though twice charged, remained!i funbroken.  Fairfax then making Doyley, the captain of his
guard, attack it in front, while himself took it in the rear, it
at. length was broken; Fairfax with his own hand killed the
ensign, and seized the colors.  When the soldier to whose
charge he committed them  boasted of the deed as his own,
Fairfax said, " Let him retain that honor; I have to-day ac-, k       quired enough beside."  The king showed equal heroism;
when he saw his infantry broken, he cried to his guard, and.
to such of the horse as had gathered about him, " One charge
more and we rec~over the day!" but they had no heart to renew the combat, dand he was obliged to quit the field. The
victory of the parliament-army was complete.  They took
four thousand five hundred prisoners, and all the artillery and
ammunition.  It is remarkable, that in this decisive defeat
the slain on the side of the royalists- did not exceed three or
four hundred men.
Among the spoils at Naseby was the king's cabinet, con* Accident or design had continued to exempt Cromwell from the
operation of the self-denying ordinance introduced by himself.




CHARLES I.                      151
rtaining his correspondence with the queen, and other nimportant documents.  A  selection  of these was made by the
parliament, and published with remarks, under the title of'The King's Cabinet Unclosed.'  Charles himself acknowledged that the collection was genuine, but complained that
some papers were kept back which would have explained
dubious passaces.  The royalists censured this act as base
and barbarous; but it was hardly to be expected that men
would forego so fair an occasion of vindicating themselves
in the eves of the world as these letters presented.
They proved, in fact, but too well the king's insincerity in
the late treaty.  Thus he writes to the queen, (Jan. 2,) " As
to my calling those at London a parliament, I shall refer thee
to Digby for particular satisfaction: this in general.  If there
had been but two, besides myself, of my opinion, I had not
done it; and the argument that prevailed with me was, that
the calling did noways acknowledge them to be a parliament,
upon which condition and construction I did it, and no otherways; and accordingly it is registered in the council-books,
with the coulicil's unanimous approbation."  Again he says,:Jan. 9,) "The  settlement of religion and the militia are
the first to be treated on; and be confident, that I will neither
lquit episcopacy nor that sword which God hath given into
any hands."  On the 15th of February he writes, "Thou
nieedest not doubt the issue of this treaty, for my conmissioners are so well chosen, though I say it, that they will
neither be threatened nor disputed from the grounds I have
given them, which, upon my word, is according to the little
note thou so well remembers;" and, " Be confident, that
in making peace, I shall ever show my constancy in adhering to bishops and all our friends,* and not forget to put a
short period to this perpetual parliament "  After the breaking off of the treaty, he writes, kMar. 13,) somewhat elated
at getting rid of his Oxford parliament.  "And now," says
he,  if I do any thing unhandsome or disadvantageous to
myself or friends, it will be merely my own fault."  He then
notices his fears that he should have been pressed " to matke
* The queen had written, (Dec. 16,)' that you do not abandon those
who have served you, for fear they do forsake you in your need;"
and,' for if you do agree upon strictness against the catholics, it
would discourage them to serve you; and if afterwards there should
be no peace, you could never expect succors frnom Ireland or any other
catholic princes, for they would believe you would abandon them after
you hlave served yourself; " and, (Jan. 17,) "above all, have a care not
to abandon those who have served you, as wtll the bishops as +he poor
2atholics."
_ _ _   _      _      _     __                 ___..




152              HISTORI 2F ENGLAND.
some overtures to renew the treaty," but now, if renewed, it
shall be to his honor and advantage; "1 being now as well
freed from the place of base and mutinous motions, (that is t~
say, our mongrel parliament here,) as of the chief causers."
These were Wilmot, Sussex, and Percy, whom he had sent
away to the queen in France, which he thought "would rather
prove a change than an end of their villanies " that is, their
desire for peace.
A frequent topic in these letters is a treaty with the duke
of Lorraine for his army of ten thousand men, to aid the
royal cause in England. Charles also writes to the queen
(Mar. 5,) "I give thee power to promise in my name, to whomn
thou thinkest most fit, that I will take away all the penal
laws against the Roman catholics in England as soon as God
shall enable me to do it, so as by their means or:in their favors I may have so powerful assistance as may deserve so
great a favor, and enable me to do it."  Sir Kenelm  Digby
was at this time going to Rome to solicit aid from the pope,
and the king had written to Ormond, (Feb. 27,) commanding him " to conclude a peace with the Irish, whatever it
cost; so that my protestant subjects there may be secured,
and my regal authority there be preserved; " he had even sent
Glamorgan on his secret mission to Ireland. In short Charles's
maxim for regaining his despotism seems to have been the
usual one of Flectere si nequeo superos Acheronta rnovebo.
We now return to our narrative.  After the fatal rout at
Naseby, the king directed his steps to Leicester, whence he
retired to Hereford.  He then enjoyed for some days the
festivities of Ragland castle, the seat of the venerable marquess of Worcester, and thence proceeded to Cardiff. In a
letter which he wrote from this place to prince Ryupert, who
now commanded at Bristol, and who joined in the common
desire for peace, we may discern the still unbending character of this " incomparable king," as Clarendon styles him.
"Speaking either," says he, " as to mere soldiers or statesmen, I must say there is no probability but of my ruin; but
as to Chr;stians, I must t,11 you that God will not suffer reb.
els to prosper, or his cause to be overthrown."  His only
hopes for himself were to end his days with honor and a good
conscience; his friends, if they staid with him, must expect to die or to live miserably; yet;he will not " go less"
than what he offered at Uxbridge, though he confesses it
would be as great a miracle if they consented to it, as if in
a month hence he should be as he was just before the battle
tf Naseby.




CHARLES I.                    153
Each day broughlt idings of losses.  Leicester had surren.
dered when Fairfax appeared.  He then marched to the relief of Taunton, whence Gori ng retired at his approach; but
Fairfax brought him to action at Lamport in Somerset (July
10) and defeated hilm.  Bridgewater, deemed impregnable,
surrenderea, d23d.)  Bath and Sherborne submitted.  In the
north, Scarborough, Pomfret, and Carlisle, had yielded; and
the Scots, who had been engaged in the siege of this last,
came and'sat down before Hlereford.'The king, quitting
Wales, hastened to Newark, and finding that the Scottish
horse were inl pursuit of him, he burst into and ravaged tilhe
eastern coun'ties, and at length (Aug. 28) reached Oxford in
safety.  Here he was cheered with intelligence of another
victory gained by Montrose.  This indefatigable chief, having again issuied from  the mountains with a force of six
thousand rnen, spread devastation over the country to the
Forth.  Baillie was advantageously posted at Kilsith, near
Stirling, and he wished to act on the defensive, but, like
Pompeius at Pharsalia, he was overruled by the committee
of -estates, and obliged to rnove from his strong position and
prepare for battle.  Ere his men'were drawn up (Aug. 15)
his horse were driven back on the foot. and the Irish and
clansmen rushed on with wild yells and savage gestures.
His troops broke and fled; they were pursued for a space of
fourteen miles, and five thousand mnen, it is said, were slain.
All Scotland was now open to M-ontrose.  Glasgow and other
towns submitted; the citizens of Edinburgh sent him their
royalist prisoners; the marquess of Douglas and.other nobles.joined him, and a parliament was summoned to meet at
Glasgow
At this news, the Scottish horse, under David Lesley, who
were now (Aug. 26)'at Nottingham, haste.ied bhick to their
own country; and the king, leaving Oxford with five thousand men, came and raised the siege of Hereford, He was
then proceeding to the relief of Bristol;:but at Ragl:and castle he learned, to his utter disnmay, that it had surrendered.
Prince Rupert, who, with a good garrison, had engaged to'maintain it for four -months, had given it up as soon as Fairfax forced his lines, (Sept. 10.)  The king in his *anger revoked the commission he should never have given him, and
ordered him to quit the kingdom.  He then led his forces to
the relief of Chester, which colonel Jones was besieging.
He was followed by the parliamentary general Pointz, who
fell on his rear while he wias attacking Jiomes, (23d;) and -the
king was obliged to retire' in disorder with the loss of six
T




|154            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
hundred slain and mne thousand prisoners.  He hastened to
Bridgenorth and theince to Newark, (Oct. 4.)  Here he remained for the remainder of the month, when, finding that
his enemies were increasing around it, and that the Scots
were returning, he stole away in the night, (Nov. 3,) with a
party of five hundred horse, and contrived to reach Oxford
on the second day, where he remained for the winter.
The brilliant hopes excited by Montrose were now at an
end; his highland followers had, after their usual manner,
quitted him to go home to secure their plunder; and having
stationed himself with the remainder at Philip-haugh, near
Selkirk, in Ettrick forest, he was suddenly fallen on by Lesley, and after doing all that was in man to avert defeat, he
was totally routed, and forced to fly once more to the moun-'
tains. Digby and Langdale, who were coming to join him
with fifteen hundred English horse, after routing a party of
the enemy at Doncaster, and being themselves defeated by
colonel Copley at Sherborne, reached Dumfries; bu- getting
no account of Montrose, they disbanded their men and passed
over to the Isle of Man, whence Digby proceeded to Dublin.
The negotiation with the duke of Lorraine was now at an
end, and the king's only hopes lay in Ireland, where he had
been carrying on a mysterious treaty with the insurgents.
His wish had been to convert the cessmtion into a permanent
peace;' but the bigotry of the native Irish, headed by their
clergy, would be content with nothing short of the establish.
ment of their religion. To this Orniond, as a protestant,
neither could nor would consent; Charles then looked out
for another agent, and such he found in lord Herbert, eldest
son of the marquess of Worcester, a catholic, his personal
friend, and romantically and devotedly loya-. Herbert, now
created earl of Glamorgan, received, in the month of January,
(1645 ) various instructions and commissions to treat with
the Irish confederates, the king pledging himself to make
good whatever he should conclude.  They were sealed with
the private signet and blanks left for the names of the pope
and other princes, which he was to insert himself,"', to the
end," said Glamorgan, " the king might have a starting hole
to deny the having given me such commissions, if excepted
against by his own subjects; leaving me, as it were, at stake,
who, for his majesty's sake, was willing to undergo it, trusting
to his word alone."
Thus furnished, Glamorgan proceeded to Ireland, (Apr.
30,) where Rinuccini, a papal nuncio, was now expected;.o whom, as well as to the pope, he had letters from the king




CHARLES I.                    1 55
Having coin nunicated his instructions to a certain extent to
Ormond, negotiations were entered into with the supreme
council of the Irish at Kilkenny, to which town Glalmorgan
proceeded; and: he there (Aug. ~25) concluded a secret.treaty, by which the catholics were to enjoy the public exercise
of their religion, and all the churches and their revenues
which were not actually in the possession of the protestant
clergy; they, in return, were to supply the king with a body
of ten thousand armed men, and devote two thirds of tile
church revenues to his service, during the war.  A public
treaty was, meantime, going on with Ormond, who scrupled
on the subject of religion.  But while he hesitated, the parliament got hold of the secret treaty; for the titular archa skirmish between the Scots and Irish, (Oct. 17,) copies
of all the documents were found in his carriage, and transmitted to London.  When Ormond got informatian of this,
which was not till Christmas, he called a council, and it was
determined, at the suggestion of Digby, to arrest Glamorgan
for high-treason; and Digby wrote in very strong and indignant terms to the king.  Charles, in a message to the parliament, (Jan. 29, 1646,) solemnly disavowed Glamorgan's
proceedings, averring that he had only given him a commission to raise soldiers.  To Ormond, who had Glamorgan's
warrant now in his hands, the king wrote evasively, asserting
that he had no recollection of it, and that if he did give such
a warrant, it was with an understanding that it was not to
be employed without the lord-lieutenant's approbation.  Glamorgan, of whose innocence there could be no d'ubt, was
not long a prisoner. He hastened to Kilkenny to resume
the treaty, (Jan. 22;) and obtained an immediate aid of six
thousand men; but while he was waiting for transports to
carry them to the relief of Chester, he learned the fall of that
city, and the total ruin of the royal cause in England.  He
therefore disbanded his army, but still remained in Ireland.
After the surrender of Bristol the whole south and west
of England were speedily reduced.  While Fairfax was employed in the western counties, Cromwell took Winchester
(Oct. 5) and Basing-house, the fortified mansion of the mnarquess of Winchester, (14th,) and in thenorth Latham-house,
which lady Derby had defended for two years: lord Scroop's
castle of Bolton and other places surrendered. The new
year opened with the taking of Dartmouth by Fairfax, (Jan.
18,)  who then resumed the siege of Exeter.  At Torrington'Feb. 16) he totally routed lord Hopton and his Cornish




156              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
troops.  He followed him int.. Cornwall, where the people
submitted at his approach, and by a treaty (Mar. 14) Hopton
disbanded his army, and isurrendered all his arms, stoles,
and ammunition.  The prince of Wales had gone to Scilly
whence he soon after passed over to Jersey, and finally joined
his mother at Paris.  Penryn and other places surrendered,
and the lord-general came back to Exeter, which at length
was yielded on articles, (Apr. 13.)  The whole west being
now reduced, Fairfax led his army back to Newbury.
Chester had surrendered early in February.  Sir Jacob
Astley, with a body of three thousand men, whom he wag
leading to Oxftord was attacked (Mar. 22) and totally defeated at Stow in the Woalds, on the borders of Gloucestershire
by colonel Morgan and sir William Brereton.  "Now you
have done your work and may go play, unless you fall out
among yourselves," said sir Jacob to those who had made him
a prisoner.
The king's only hopes in fact lay in the divisions among
his enemies; and had he known- (which he never did know)
how to act with judgment, he might have recovered a sufficient portion of his regal authority.  The breach between
the two religious parties was widening every day; the cordiality between the English parliament and their Scottish brethren was also on the wane.  Charles intrigued with all these
parties.  "I am not without hope," he writes to Digby, " that
I shall be able to draw either the presbyterians or independents
to side with me for extirpating one the other; that I should
be really king again."  He used Montreuil, the French
envoy, as his agent in his dealings with the Scots.  His
great object: was to get to London, where he had numerous
adherents, and where the peace-party was now strong. For
this purpose he was urgent for a personal treaty, but to this
the parliament, suspecting his object, would only consent on
condition of his giving a previous assent to bills which they
were preparing; the three first of which were the same as
tnose offered at Uxbridge.  The commons even went so far
as to pass a vote, (Mar. 31,) that if the king came within
their lines, the militia of London should apprehend those who
carme with him or resorted to him, and 1" secure his person
from danger," i. e. confine him. They also ordered such as
had borne arms against the parliament to quit London by
the 6th of April.
At length the parlitament;   y troops began to close in Ox-ford, and the king must either resolve to- sustain a siege and
finally' surrender himself a prisoner, or to fly from the town




CHARLES I.                    157
Ele chose the latter, and on the night of the 27th of April
he quitted Oxford, having cut his hair and beard, and riding
with a portmanteau behind him as the servant of his faithfui
follower Ashburnhanm; one Dr. Hudson, a loyal military
clergyman, who knew the country well, being their guide.
They took the road to London.  They passed through Uxbridge and Brentfbrd, and thence turned to Harrow-on-thehill, where the king finally determined to give up all thoughts
of London, and to follow his original design.  He proceeded
by St. Alban's, and finding that his escape in the disguise of
a servant was known, he assumed that of a clergyman.  At
length (30th) he came to Downham  in NorfOlk, where he
remained while Hudson went to Montreuil at Newark.
Montreuil had been for some time negotiating on the part of
the king with the leaders of the Scottish army. The affair
is, like most Scottish transactions, involved in obscurity; but
it would appear that the Scots had overreached the sanguine
Frenchman, and led him to give the king hopes of what they
never intended to perform.  It was proposed that they should
receive the monarch in their camp- a measure from which
they proposed to themselves many advantages, but at the
same time it must be done in such a manner as not to implicate them with the English parliament.  Their plan. was to
send a party of cavalry to Hatborough, whither the king was
to come, as it were, accidentally, on his way to Scotland, and
he wvas to command their attendance on him.  This plan,
however, had been given up, and Charles on arriving at that
place had found none there to meet him.  Montreuil, though
he now distrusted the Scots, thought when Hudson came to
him that the king's only chance was to put himself into their
hands.  Charles therefore came (May 5) to Montreuil's
abode at Southwell, and after dinner the envoy took him to
Kelham, Leven's head-quarters.  Leven raised his'hands in
real or affected surprise; he and his officers showei the
monarch the most marked attention; he assigned him Kelham-house for his residence; but when Charles, to try if he
was free, gave the word to the guard, Leien said, " I am the
older soldier, sir; your majesty had better leave that office
to me."  They wrote off immediately to the parliament, say
ing  that "they were astonished at the providence of the
king's coming into their army, which was so private that it
was long ere they could find him there," etc.; and the king
having ordered Bellasis to surrender Newark to them, they
set out (9th) on their march homewards, for the commons
had voted that the king's person should be disposed of by
voL. I.      14




158              HISTORY OF'7NGLAND
both houses, and that he should be sent to Warwick castle
Poyntz, with a body of five thousand horse, was ordered to
watch the Scottish army; but their march was so rapid that
on the 18th the houses had intelligence of their arrival at
Newcastle-on-Tyrne.  Next day they voted that they "l had
no further need of'the army of' their brethren the Scots in
this kingdom," and voted them  100,0001., half to be paid
when they gave up Newcastle, Carlisle, and other places held
by themn; the other half when they had entered Scotland.
At Newcastle the king was treated with suitable respect,
but none of his friends were given access to him.  As the
establishment of presbytery was a sine qua non. with the bigoted Scots, he undertook, unaided as he was, to discuss the
matter with their g;'eat champion Henderson, and candor
must allow that the advantage was on the side of the king;.for most certainly no universal form of church government
is laid down in the New Testament, and if antiquity is to decide the matter, the cause is won for episcopacy.  The error
of all sides at that time was supposing any form to be enjoined
in Scripture.  From the general insincerity of his character
it was thought at the time that Charles was not in earnest
in his maintenance of episcopacy, but his sincerity in this
matter is now beyond question.  He had consented to its
abolition in Scotland, but it was with a secret design of restoring it when he should have the power.  He had in a simIlar manner, as we have seen, agreed to the abolition of
protestantism in Ireland; and as his attachment to the protestant faith cannot be questioned, we fear he meant to deceive
the catholics also.  Yet at this very time he wished to throw
himself into their hands.  In a letter to Glamorgan (July 20)
he says, "Tell the nuncio that if once I can come into his 
and your hands, which ought to be extremely wished for by'
you both, as well for the sake of England as Irelarnd, since
all the rest as I see despise me, I will do it."  He also, while
at Newcastle, meditated an escape by sea, but whether he
intended to go to France or Ireland is uncertain.  At this
very time, too, he was harassed by letters fromn the queen,
Jermyn, Colepepper, and others, at Paris, and the foreign
residents there, urgmng him to give up the church; the queen
even threatening to go into a monastery if he refused.  Yet
he stood firm.  In truth he saw that he should gain nothing
by it, for nothing short of the militia would content the parhiament, and this the queen and his other friends would not
allow him to part with.
There were t o points now under debate between the




CHARLES I.                      159
English and the Scots; the one the disposal of the,oyal per
son, the other the settlement of the arrears due to the Scottish
army.  The Scots declared (July 4) " that as they came into
England out of affection, and not in a mercenary way, so
they will be as willing to return hoine, and want of pay shall
be no hinderance thereunto."  In reply to this it was voted
that the kingdom  had no more need of' them, and   is no
longer able to bear them."  The Scots (R!. 12) then proposed to evacuate the kingdom, provided ~,tey were paid for
their losses, etc.; it was voted (14th) to give them 100d,0Otl.
and to have their accounts audited.    The houses," says
Whitelocke, "now  saw the advantage of keeping up their
army, as that which the more inclined the Scots to come
to this offer."  The Scots (19th) stated their demands at
500,090l., but agreed (Sept. 1) to take 400,0001., which sum
the parliament consented to give; and so far the transaction
appears to have had no reference to the king.
In the end of August the parliament sent nineteen propositions to the king; they were in substance the same with
the Uxbridge articles; but the militia, with power to employ
it, was to remain with the parliament for twenty years.  Tc
these the king gave a positive refusal, veiled indeed undel
the demand of a personal treaty.  The enemies of peace and
royality exulted, the moderate party were dejected at this
event.*'he arrangements having been effected respecting
the Scottish arrears, it was voted (Sept. 18) that the king's
person should be disposed of as the two houses should think
fit, but that no dispute on this subject should interfere with
the treaties or the return of the Scots army.  The Scottish
commissioners strongly asserted the right of their nation to
a share in the disposal of the king.  In November the Scottish parliament met: Hamilton, who was now  at liberty,
exerted himself strongly in favor of the king;  all were of
opinion that he should accept the propositions, but Charles
was immovable on the subject of the church.  A vote wa.s
obtained (Dec. 16) to maintain his personal freedom and right
to the English throne.  The general assembly, however,
having declared it unlawful to support him while he refused
to assent to the covenant, and the parliament, being aware
of the madness of engaging in a war with England, and a d* When thanks were voted to the commissioners, one said more
thanks were due to the king. "What will become of us." whispered
a member, "sirce the king refuses the propositions?"  " Nay, what
would have become of us," replied an independent, "had he granted
hu    2, I




t160              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
vised by Ilollis and the leading presbyterians there that the
surrender of the king was the only means of causing the independent army to be disbanded, who were the great enemies
of the king and of peace; they accordingly gave him  up to
commissioners sent to receive him, (Feb. 1, 1646.)  Charles
gladly left the Scots,* and he was conducted to Holdenbyor Holmby-house near Althorpe, in Northamptonshire.
Charles himself said that he " was bought and sold," and
the charge of selling their king has been down to the present
day reiterated against the Scots.  There are certainly many
circumstances in the affair which have a suspicious appearance.  It seems certain that they would not have gotten so
large a sum from the parliament as they did if the person of
the king had not been in their hands, and they probably took
advantage of this circumstance to insist on their demands.
But there are no sufficient grounds for charging fthem  with
illviting him to their camp with this design; they did not
give him up till they had no choice but that or war; they
acted under the advice of the friiends of monarchy in the English parliament; they stipulated in the most express terms
for the safety of his person; nay, to the very last, if he would
have given them satisfaction on the subject of religion, they
would have declined surrendering him. Like the monarch
himself, they were unhappily situated; but we do not think
that they can be justly charged with the guilt of having sold
their king.  Still every friend to Scotland must wish that the
event had not occurred.
The civil war, after a duration of nearly four years, was
now at an end.  Oxford, Worcester, and other places had
surrendered; the old marquess of Worcester defended Ragland castle against Fairfax and five thousand men, but he
was obliged at last to open his gates, (Aug. 19;) and two
days later Pendennis castle in Cornwall also surrendered.
Htarlech castle in North Wales was the last to submit, (Mar.
30, 1647.)  Favorable terms  were granted  in all cases,
* Whitelocke (Dec. 15, 1646) gives the following affecting notice:
" A Scotch minister preached boldly befbre the kitig at Newcastle, and
after his sermon called for the 52d Psalm, which begins
Why dost thou, tyrant, boast thyself,
Thy wicked works to praise?
His maiesty thereupon stood up and called for the 56th psalm, which
begins
Have mercy, Lord, on me I pray,
For men would me devour.
The people wave the minister's psalm and sung that which the king'illed for."




CHARLES 1.                     16!
and the articles3were honorably observed.  Much and justly
as intestine warfare is to be deprecated, we may look back —
witli pride to this civil contest, unexampled in thie history ofthe-world.  It does not, like the civil wars of other countries,disgust us by' details of butcheries and other savage atrocities; all was open and.honorable- warfare; a generous hu-'
inanity for the most part was displayed on both sides; andthose who were-finally -victrious, to their honor, sent none' 
of the vanquished' to the scaffold.'
While awarding praise we cannot in justice pass over the
catholic"nobility and'gentry'of England.  Urged by an impulse of generous'loyalty, as appears to us, rather than'by
any cold calculhtionis of interest, they ranged themselves on
the side of the! king, though they knew but too well that' he
was at all times ready to sacrifice them, aridthat' they'were
the persons on whornthe vengeance of the parliament would
fall most heavily; in the royal cause they wasted their'estates,
and shed their blood; and dead must he be to generous
feeling who honors not the names of the marquesses of
Worcester and Winchester, sir Marmaduke ILangdale, and
the other catholic nobles and knights who fought on the
side of royalty in the civil contest.
Montrose on receiving orders from the king laid down his
arms and retired to the continent.  Ormond had by the royal
command concluded a peace with the Irish catholics, but
the nuncio and the clergy having assembled at Waterford
declared it void, (Aug 6.)  The' nuncio then assumed, the
supreme power, and at- the head of the united' armies of
Preston and Owen O'Neal, * advanced against Dublin.' AS
Ormond had wasted the country they were obliged toretire,
but he was well aware that it must faill into:their hands if not
relieved from:England.  The'king was now a'captive, and
powerless; the Irish catholics were entirely  ruled' by the
priesthood, and nothing short of the extirpatioin of protestantism and the English interest would content them.: To avert
this calamity Ormond entered into treaty with the parliament, and he agreed (Feb. 22, 1647) to put Dublin and
the other garrisons into their hands.  The sequestration
was talken off from' his own estate, and he had permission
given him to reside for some time in England.
The presbyterian system  was at this time established by
ordinance of parliament; each parish was to have its minister
and lay elders; a number of adjoining parishes were to-formi' Preston was the general of the catholics of the English blood'
O'Neal of the Ulster Irish.
14*                          u




162              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
a classis with its presbytery of ministers and elders; severa
classes a province with its assembly; and finally, a rational
assembly over all.  But the system  never came Into full op.
eration except in London and Lancashire; the parliament
could not be brought to allow of the divine right of presbyte.
ry; they greatly limited the power of the keys, and they allowed of appeals from the ecclesiastical courts.  In their
zeal for uniformity, hatred of toleration, lust of power, and
tyrannical exercise of it, the presbyterian clergy fell nothing
short of the prelatical party who had been their persecutors.
The moderate party in parliament lost at this time a great
support by the death of the earl of Essex, (Sept. 14.) He died
in consequence of overheating himself in the chase of a stag
in Windsor-forest.  He was buried with great state in Westminster-abbey, (Oct. 22;) the members of both houses, the
civil and military officers, and all the troops in London at-,
tending the funeral.
CHAPTER IX.
CHARLES I. (CONrTINUED.)
1647-1649.
THE presbyterians were still the more numerous party in
parliament, though their rivals had acquiied an accession of
strength in the elections which had lately been held; for.
says Ludlow, " honest men (i. e. his own party) in all parts
did what they could to promote the elections of such as were
most hearty for the accomplishment of our deliverance," that
is, the establishment of a republic.  But the main strength
of the other party lay in the army, in which, since the new
model, the spirit of fanaticism  had, under the auspices of
Cromwell, greatly  increased.  The  English presbyterian
clergy, less zealous or less prudent than their Scottish brethren, had preferred the enjoyment of good livings to the toils
ofa military life; the regiments were without chaplains; the
officers, and soon the privates, took on them the offices of
praying and preaching; goodness of memory and volubility
of speech were regarded as inspiration; spiritual pride soon
followed, and they regarded themselves alone as the godly,
the saints who were to possess the earth.
The parliament saw the danger likely to result from  the




CHARLES I.                     163
continuance i; arins of a body of men animated with fanaticism and formidable by discipline.  To reduce their number
was therefore their first object.  As the royalists were utterly crushed and the Scots withdrawn, they proposed that a
moderate force should be retained to preserve the peace in
England, a sufficient army be sent to reduce Ireland, and the
remainder be disbanded.  To this arrangement the army had
an invincible repugnance.  The service in Ireland, however
flattering to their fanatic spirit, promised only toil, privation,
an  danger, and they looked forward in preference to the
quiet enjoyment of their pay in England.  The habits of a
military life had rendered their former plodding pursuits dis.
tastefil to them, particularly to the officers, many of whom
had risen from very humble stations in society.*  Cromwell
too, now  their actuating spirit, seems to have even then
fiormed his plans for governing parliament by the army.
Tale commons meantime voted, (Mar. 8,) that excepting the
genetral there should be no further any officer of higher rank
than colonel; that no member of the house should have a
com-m1and; that all the officers should take the covenant and
conrtobm to the new form of church-government.  It is quite
evident that Cromwell was the person chiefly aimed at.  But
the pal iament had unwisely suffered the pay of the army to
fall into arrears and thus furnished them  with a plausible
ground of complaint. The army on hearing of this vote
suddenly broke up from their quarters about Nottingham and
came to;:affiron-Waldon in Essex.  Commissioners from the
parliament met them there (22d) on the subject of the service in Ireland; but the officers required to be previously
satisfied on certain points, and a petition was meantime circulated for signatures through the army, requiring an act of
indemnity for all past actions, payment of arrears, exemption
from impressment, pensions for the maimed and for widows,
and pay till they should be disbanded. The parliament (30th)
voted this petition to be mutinous, and forbade any further
proceeding in it; but of this the soldiers took little heed.
The army had at this time a parliament of its own; the
superior officers formed a supreme council, while two adjutatators, or, as they were soon named, agitators, being chosen
* Colonel Pride for instance is said to have been a drayman, colonel
Hewson a cobbler. We must not, however, on all occasions, give implicit credit to the royalist writers in these matters. Thus they always
say that Harrison had been a butcher, whereas the truth is that his
father was a respectable grazier, and himself a member of one of the
inns of court.




164              HISTORY O0Fi ENGLAND.
frofm each troop and company by the common soldiers, formed
a lower'house.  It seems probable that Crom Well and his able
son-in-law Ireton were the founders of this institution.
Throughout the months' of April aild May the parliament
vainly sought to rid themselves of their refractory servants.
Ai length, urged by the' impetuosity of Hollis, Stapylto,,, and
Glynn, they sent (May 25)M instructions to the general to disband the Xarious regiments without delay.  This measure
produced results which they had by no means anticipated.
The king had been all this time at Holmby.  The commissioners sent by the parliament to take charge of him treated
him with respect, and he- enjoyed the recreations of riding
about the country and playing at bowls in the bowling-green
at Althorpe.  But his -servauts were selected by the pariiament: lie was refused the attendance of any of his chapains, and even the people who resorted to be touched for the
evil were not allowed to approach himrn   On the 12th of May
he wrote to the parliament offering to establish presbyptery for
three years, to resign the command of the army for ten years,
and to give full satisfaction respecting the War in Ireland.
lie had received no answer, when, on the 2d of June, as he
was at bowls, an officer in the uniform of Fairfax's regiment
was observed among the spectators.  His answers to the inquiries of colonel Greaves, who commanded the: guards at
Holmby, excited suspicion; the king was hurried home and
the guards werie dotilbled.  About two in the morning (3d)
the stranger (who proved to be cornet Joice, formerly a tailor)
appeared with a party of horse before the gates, where they
were received by the guards as brethren: they said they were
come to prevent their enemies from carrying away the king.
They set giuards, and passed the day in consultation.  At ten
at night, Joice, having placed guards on the commissioners,
proceeded to the apartmient of the king, which he entered
with his hat in one hand and his pistol in the other.  He behaved with civility, and he seems to have satisfied the king
on the subject of his removal; Charles only required that he
should repeat next day in public what he then said in private;
Joice then withdrew.
At six next morning (4th) Joice drew up his men before
the door.  The king standing on the steps asked him what
authority he had for conveying him  away.; He replied, that
of the army.  The king then demanded if he had a written
commission from the general, and on his repeating the question, Joice pointing to his men said, " There is my commission."  The king smiled and said, "I never before read such




:CHARLES I.                   -165
a. commission; but it.is.written in characters fair and legible
enough; a company of as handsome, proper gentlemen as i
have seen a long while."  He then demanded to be treated
with respect if he went with them, and not to have his conscience forced.  The troopers acclaimed their assent, and
Joice replied that it was not their principle to force any man's
conscience, much less their king's.  He offered him  his
choice of r esidences: Charles fixed on Newmarket; he was
allowed the attendance of his own servants.  The commis-,sioners protested in vain against this act; the king when
ready mounted.his horse with a cheerful air and set out with
the.troopers, whom the commissioners also accompanied.
Fairfax, on hearing what had taken place, sent colone'
Whalley with two regiments of horse to. reconduct. the king
to Holmby, but he refused to return.  Next day Fairfax,
Cromwell, Ireton, and others,. waited on him.  In a private
interview  Fairfax made a proffer of his services.  " Sir,".
said-the king, "I have as good *an interest in the army, as
you."  On this Fairfax remarks, "By this I plainly saw the
broken reed he leaned on; the. agitators had brought him
into an opinion that the army. was for him."  Fairfax tried
in vain to bring Joice to a court-martial.  Hollis asserts, and
probably with truth, that the whole matter had been planned
by Cromwell and Ireton, and that Joice was only their agent.
When the parliamnent heard of this bold proceeding of the
army they recalled their precipitate vote of the 25th of May
But this was of no avail; the army mustered (l0th) on Triplow-heath near Cambridge, and: prepared to march for London, and two days after they were at St. Alban's, whence
(16th) they sent a charge against,.eleven of the leading presbyterians, requiring them to be sequestered from parliament
and thrown into prison.  The head-quarters of the army
were then moved to Berkhamstead: (25th) and next day to
Uxbridge.  Addresses from the counties round London, who
now saw where the power. really lay, were presented to the
general and the army.  Messages passed and repassed between the houses and the army, and at length (July. 20) the
eleven members desired and obtained leave. to:go into the
country or. beyond sea for six months.  "Here," says Hallam,
"may be said to have fallen the legislative power and civil
government of England, which, from this hour to that oflthe
restoration, had never more. than a momentary and precarious
glearnm  f existence, perpetually interrupted by the sword."
The king meantime was treated with unusual indulgence




1.66            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
He moved with the army, but things were so arranged as to
allow him to stop at the mansions of the nobility, by whom
he was splendidly entertained.  He was allowed the attendance of his episcopal chaplains; his friends were freely admitted to him. The parliament had always rudely refused
to gratify him by the sight of his children, whom they had
committed to the charge of the earl of Northumberland * but
now, by a letter from Fairfax, the earl was directed to take
them down to Cavesham-house near Reading, where they remained for two days with their father. Cromwell, who wanted
not for natural feelings, and who was present at their first
interview, declared that it was " the tenderest sight that ever
his eyes beheld," and wept plenteously when describ'ng it.
Fairfax, brave and skilful in the camp and field, guileless
and simple as a child in civil affairs, was but the puppet of
Cromwell and Ireton.  These two able men also ruled the
council of officers and the agitators.  Sir John Berkeley,
who had returned from France, was the agent between them
and the king. They expressed, and probably with sincerity,
every inclination to restore him to his dignity, Cromwell
himself declaring that "he thought no man could enjoy his
estate quietly unless the king had his rights."  But Charles,
sanguine and imprudent, thought that by playing the army,
the parliament, and the Scots, against each other, he could
recover his despotic power; he had also a firm persuasion
that nothing could be finally arranged without him, and that
whatever party he joined must have the superiority.  They
saw this.  "Sir," said Ireton to him on one occasion, "you
have an intention to be arbitrator between the parliament
and us, and we mean to be so between the parliament and
you."  When the king was at Woburn in the latter end of
July,'Proposals' far more moderate than any he had yet
seen, drawn up by Ireton, were laid before him by Berkeley;
but his reply was, " Well, I shall see them  glad erelong to
accept of more equal terms."  Lord Lauderdale, one of the
Scottish commissioners, had just at this time come down to
inform him that a new covenant was receiving numerous
signatures in the city, by which the subscribers bound
themselves to bring him up to Westminster to confirm the
concessions he had made at Holmby.  Charles was as usual
unduly elated, and when the council of officers waited on
him with their completed proposals, (Aug. 1,) they met
with a decided refusal. "You cannot do without me," said
he; "you will fall to ruin if I do not sustain you."  On a




*'I                            CHARLES 1.                   167
whisper from Berkeley the king attempted to soften the terms
he had used; but colonel Rainsborough, a decided foe to
accommodation, had already conveyed them to the army.
An event of great importance was now on the eve of happening. The citizens had petitioned against the demands
of the army, but the houses rejected their prayer, and also
voted (July 24) the new covenant an act of treason   Two
days after, the citizens petitioned again, and on tleir being
refused, a great crowd of apprentices and of the disbanded
soldiers of Essex's army besieged the doors of the houses,
and never ceased from clamor and threats till they had forced
the parliament to rescind the obnoxious ordinances.  The
houses then adjourned to the 30th, on which dlay, when they
met, they learned that the two speakers and several of the
Independent members had fled to the army, which was now
on its march for London. They appointed new speakers,
revived the committee of safety, and prepared to raise a force
to oppose the army. Waller, Massey, and Poyntz were appointed to command the new levies.
On the 3d of August the army mustered twenty thousand
strong on Hounslow Heath. About fourteen of the lords
and one hundred of the commons appeared among them.
The aspect of things in the city in the meantime was various;
when word came that the army had made a halt, the cry was,
"One and all! " if they heard that it was advancing, the word
was, " Treat! treat! ". A letter was finally sent to the general,
"beseeching him that there might be a Way of composure."
His demands of having the fortifications on the west side of
the city given up to him being complied with, he moved on
the morning of the 6th from his head-quarters at Hammerthe members following in coaches; a regiment of horse
bringing up the rear.  All the soldiers wore laurel-sprigs in
their hats. In this state he reconducted the members to their
seats. He received in return the thanks of both the houses
and the lieutenancy of the Tower.  Next day (7th) the whole
army marched through the city, and then proceeded to take
up their quarters in Kent and Essex, the general fixing himself at Croydon.
The eleven members, who had lately come forward again,
new sought safety in flight.  After many debates, enforced
at length by a letter from the general, an ordinance was
passed, (Aug. 26,) making null and void all votes, etc., from
the 26th of Juiy to the 6th of August.  Soon after (Sept. 7)
Clement Walker, Glyn, the recorder, and sir John Maynard




168              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
were expelled the house;.the seven lords also, who had cone
tinued to sit, were impeached, (Sth,) and the lord-mayor and
four of the aldermen were committed to the Tower.
While matters were proceeding. thus in London, the king
remained in tranquillity. *He removed to Oatlands on the 14th,
whither-numbers resorted to him from London, and tenldays
after, (24th,) having dined with. his children at Sion-house,. he
took up his abode at Hampton-court; the head-quarters of
the general were now at Putney.
At Hampton-court.the king enjoyed great liberty, having
given his promise not to attempt an escape;, he saw his
children whenever he pleased; his friends had ready access
to him; he corresponded freely with the queen; the officers
treated him with the utmost respect. -Frequent conversations
took place between him.and Cromwell as they walked in the
gardens and galleries of the.palace.  Huntingdon, the major
of Cromwell's regiment, and -Berkeley and% Ashburnham com
municated frequently between them.  On the 8th of Septem
ber, the parliament, at the desire of the Scottish commission
ers, sent the' Propositions  once more to the king.  Charles
secretly advised bh  Iretn, rejected them; his answer was,
shown privately to Cromwell and Ireton, and was in some
parts amended by them. Cromwell gave repeated assurances
that no worse conditions than the'Proposals' of the army
should ever be imposed on him, and Ireton said that " they
would purge and purge, and never leave purging the houses
till they had made them of such a -temper as should do his
majesty's business."  In his reply to the houses, Charles declared his preference of the,'Proposals'- of the army, and
proposed to treat respecting that plan. with. commissioners of
the parliament and army.  "Cromwell, Ireton,: and many of
their party in the house," says Ludlow, "pressed the. king's
desires with great earnestness; wherein, contrary to their ex
pectations, they found a vigorous opposition from such as
had already conceived a jealousy.of.their.private agreement
with the king, and were now confirmed in that opinion; and
the suspicions of them grew so strong that they were accounted betrayers of the cause,. and lost almost -all their friends in
the parliament."  He adds, that the army were no less dissatisfied with-their conduct. There was in effect a new. party
sprung up in -the army,.styled by thetselves  Rationalists,'
as they affected to possess no knowledge or talents, but simply
the -reason which God had - given them to be their guide
They soon, however, acquired the more expressive title of
Levellers,' as their.reason showed them' that all distinctions




CHARLES I.                    169
between man and man. should be! levelled.  These were the
men to whom all plans for the restoration of the king were
so distasteful.
On taking a calm view of the whole of the dealings of
Cromwell and Ireton at this time with the, king, as they are
variously reported, we see no reason whatever to doubt of
their sincerity.  Cromwell, it is said,,was to be made earl of
Essex, captain of the king's guard, and a knight of the garter,
and Ireton lord-lieutenant of Ireland.: But fear of the levellers, and the discovery of the king's insincerity,, caused them
afterwards to change and to become his enemies; for at this
very time, Charles, -with his incurable passion for intrigue,
was in secret treaty with the Scots.  He told lord Capel, that
"he did really believe that it could not be long before there
would be a war between the two nations, in which the Scots
promised themselves a universal. concurrence from  all the
presbyterians in'England; and that in such a, conjuncture
he wished that his own party would put themselves in arms,
without which he could not expect great benefit by the success of the other."  Ormond was also at Hampton-court, and
it was arranged -that he -should at the same time resume the
lieutenancy of Ireland, and act.for the royal interest.  Of
this intrigue Cromwell got information, and he expostulated
with Ashburnham, complaining " that the king could not be
trusted," and adding, that " he would not be answerable if
any thing fell out amiss, and contrary to expectation."
Cromwell is said to have discovered-this by intercepting a
letter from Charles to the queen.;There is a curious story
to the following effect ~ Cromwell and.Ireton riding out with
lord Broghill one day in Ireland, told him that while they
were in treaty with the king, they learned from one of their'
spies of the bed-chamber, that their doom was fixed in a letter
to the queen, which was sewed up in the skirt of a saddle,
that was to be taklen to the Blue:Boar in Holborn, to be sent
to Dover.  Cromwell and Ireton then, disguised as comlmon
troopers, went to the inn, and sat drinkingthere till the, man
they expected camne, when they ripped up. the saddle and
foIrnd what they wanted.  The king in it saidt!hat he thought
he should close with the Scots, and they then, having no hopes
of him, resolved to ruin him.  According to another account,
the words of the letter were, "that he.should know-, how -in
due time to deal with the rogues, who instead of a sillen
garter should be fitted in. due time with a hempen cord."
~Be this account true or- false, Cromwwell and Ireton: kep,
up their communications.with. the king, but the lev ellers
vo,. II. 1I   5                        v




[ 170           HISTORY OF ENGLAND
were now growing too strong for them. The agitators of
sixteen regiments presented to parliament (Nov. 1) a plan
for new-modelling the constitution: parliaments were to be
biennial; all persons but servants were to have votes, etc.
Cromwell and Ireton opposed these measures firmly, but the
former was menaced with impeachment, and the latter had
quitted the council of officers, on its being intimated that the
army would make no more addresses to the king. It is said
that there was a plot of the levellers to seize the person of
the king, and Cromwell, who had pledged his word to give
him warning if there was any danger, wrote to warn colonel
Whalley, by whom the letter was instantly shown to him,
(Nov. 11.) That very night Charles, who had already withdrawn his parole, secretly quitted Hampton-court, accompanie(l by Legge, and crossing the river to Thames Ditton,
where Berkeley and Ashburnham were waiting with horses,
proceeded to Titchfield-house in Sussex, the residence of the
countess-dowager of Southampton. On his table at Hamptoncourt were found various letters, among which was an anonymous one warning him of assassination, and one from himself
to the parliament, assuring them he would be always ready to
leave the asylum which he had chosen, " whenever he might be
heard with honor, freedom, and safety."
There is great mystery in this escape of the king, which
could hardly have taken place without the connivance of
Whalley, and even of Cromwell. The enemies of the latter
see in it a deep stratagem to get the king more completely
into his power.  We coifess that we do not think so ill
of Cromwell, and viewing him as a statesman and a man
of humanity, we are inclined to give the preference to the
opinion of Hobbes, that he wished to give the king an opportunity of escaping to the continent.  It would also seem
that Charles's original plan had been to make his escape
by sea, and that he had arranged with the Scottish corns
|missioners to go to Berwick, but that they had repelled him
by talking again of their covenant.  He then appears to
have thought of Jersey, but no vessel had been provided, and
there seemed little chance of being able to procure one speedily. He also thought of the Isle of Wight, of which colonel
Hammond, the nephew of one of his chaplains and a man of
honor, had lately been made governor. While he and Legge
therefore remained at Titchfield, he sent Berkeley and Ashburnham to Hammond with copies of Cromwell's and the
anonymous letter, to tell him that the king designed to seek
Protection from him. They met Hammond as he was on his




CHARLES 1.                   171
way from Carisbrooke-castle to Newport, and Berkeley abe
ruptly began by informing him that the king was at hand.
Hanlmond turned pale, and trembled excessively, and was
near falling from his horse.  "Oh, gentlemen! " he cried,.
" you have undone me by bringing the kin g into the island,
if you have brought him; if you have not, pray let him not
come; for what between my duty to his majesty and my
gratitude for this fresh obligation of his confidence on the
one hand, and the observance of my trust to the army on the
other, I shall be confounded."  When he came to himself the
affair was considered. Hammond would only pledge himself
to do what might be expected from " a person of honor and
honesty," with which Ashburnham declared himself satisfied.
Hammond then proposed that one should remain, while the
other returned to the king, but he afterwards decided to go
with them himself. When they were taking boat at Cowes,
he made captain Baskett, the commandant there, enter it with
them. On their arrival at Titchfield, the others remained
below  while Ashburnham  went up to apprize the king.
" What! " cried Charles, striking his breast in agony, " have
you brought Hammond with you? Oh Jack! you have undone me; for I am by this means made fast from stirring.
The governor will keep me prisoner."  He then told him
that he had sent to Southampton for a vessel.  Ashburnham,
proposed what he called an " expedient," which was " to secure," i. e. murder both Hammond and Baskett.  Charles
walked up and down the room, weighing the proposal.  "I
understand you well enough," said he, " but the world would
not excuse me.  Should I follow that counsel, it would be
believed that Hammond had ventured his life for me, and
that I had unworthily taken it from him.  It is too late to
think of any thing but going through the way you have forced
upon me, and so leave the issue to God." Ashburnham burst
into tears.  We could wish that the king had rejected the
nefarious project in stronger terms.
Hammond and Baskett were now called up; they kissed
the king's hand, and Hammond renewed his protestations.
Charles then passed over to the island,'where he was lodged
in Carisbrooke-castle.  He found the people of the place loyal,
and he was- allowed to ride about as he pleased.
The projects of the levellers meantime appeared so dangerous to the superior officers, that it was determined to
make a bold effort to suppress them, and this was effected
by the resolution of Cromwell, whose very life was at stake
Fairfax, hat ing ordered the troops to muster n three brigades




[172             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
on three. different days; had a remonstrance prepared, to 0e
read at the head of each. regimnent.  The first rendezvous
took place at Ware, (Nov. 15,) where two regiments, not of
the. brigade, appeared on the ground, with seditious papers
round their hats; one. of these, on being reasoned.with, submitted; the other proving refractory, Cromwell darted into.the ranks, and seized the ringleaders with his own hands..A court-martial was held; three were condemned to death,
and being made.to draw. lots, he on whom the lot fell vas
shot at the head of the regiment, and the mutinous spirit was
thus checked for the present.  Cromwell, however, it would
seem,. soon saw that it was too dangerous to oppose the violent
party; two thirds of the army, it is said, had apprized him
and Ireton,.that they were resolved, come what might, to go
on with their enterprise of destroying the king, and that
fearing the.effect of a schism in the army, they " concluded
that if they could not bring the army to their sense it was
best to comply with them."  Of this Berkeley was informed
in the following mysterious manner.  Being sent by the king
and Hammond with letters to the general and Cromwell and
Ireton at Windsor, he met with a very cool reception from
them. He retired to. his inn, and in the evening sent his
servant out to try if he could meet any of' his acquaintance.
A general officer spoke to him, and desired him to tell his
master that he would meet him at midnight in a close behind
the Garter inn. In the interview he told Berkeley that.the
army no longer, mistrusted Cromwell and Ireton; that it was
intended.to send a body of eight hundred men to seize the
king, in order to bring him to trial; " and therefore," said
he, "if the king can escape, let him do it as he loves his life.";Berkeley wrote off immediately to the king and Hammond;
he then sent to request an interview  with Cromnwell, who
answered that he durst not see him, but assured him, "that
he would serve the king as long as he could without his own
ruin." Berkeley, on returning to the king, found that in re.
liance on a treaty he was in with the Scots commissioners he
had no thoughts of making an escape.
The king had all' along been importuning the parliament
for a personal treaty, and at length (Dec. 24) commissioners
of both houses presented him four bills, his assent to which
was required as preliminary to a personal treaty.  By tihe
first the parliament was to have the command of the army
for twenty years, even after which time, if the houses declared
the safety of the kingdom to be concerned, all their bills relating to the army and navy should be acts of parliament




CHARLES sI                      173:without the royal assent; the second'declared all oaths, proclainations, etc., against the parliament during the war null
and void; the third took away all titles- of honor conferred
since the 20th of May, 164`2, and no future peers were to sit
without consent of parliament; the fourth gave the houses
the power of adjourning at their discretion.
The Scottish co'imissioners had given all the opposition
In their power to these bills, and finding they could not impede them, they hurried to Carisbrooke, where they arrived
a day before those sent by the parliament, and by making
vague concessions on both sides the long-agitated treaty'vas
agreed on and signed.  Charles, in consequence, gave a peremptory rejection to the four bills, but as his object was' now
to effect his escape as soon as possible, he gave his answer.
sealed up; the commissioners, however, insisting on knowing
its contents, he was obliged to read it to thetm and Hammond.
Though he expressly stipulated that it should cause no difference in his treatment, Hammond  instantly dismissed his
servants, and doubled tile guards.  Charles had in fact intended to escape that very night to a ship sent by the queen,
which lay off the island, but he was thus prevented.  A royalist officer named Burley then tried to raise the people and
storm the castle, and liberate the king; but the project failed,
and Burley was soon after tried and executed as a traitor.
Shortly after the return of their commissioners, (Jan. 3,
1648,) the parliament, after a long debate; voted to make no
more addresses to the king, and to receive no more messages from him; that if any person comrlmunicated with him
without leave he should be guilty of high-treason, and that
the committee of public safety should be renewed, and have
no foreign (i. e. Scottish) coadjutors.  This was in effect
dethroning the king.  Cromwell is said to have declared in
the debate, that' the king was a man of great parts and great
understanding, but that he was so great a dissembler, and so
false a man, that he was not to be trusted."  A declaration
was presented from the army (11th) expressing their resolution " to stand by the parliament in the things then voted."
The houses also put forth a declaration, in which all the
charges ever made against the king, including the odious
one of being accessory to the murder of his father, were reiterated.*
" " Mr. Selden -told the house that he was one of the committee to
examine the business of poisoning king James, in thel duke of Buck
ingham's time, but could find nothing at all reflecting on the king,iandHf~~~              ~156 




174             HISTORY OF ENGLAND
Yet, though Charles lwas a close prisoner, his cause was
far from being hopeless. T'he great body of the people were
in favor of retaining the original constitution; they saw how
they had been illuded; they were oppressed with heavier taxation than ever they had known before, and subjected to the
insolence and tyranny of local committees, though the war
had long been ended.  They beheld before them  every
prospect of a military despotism.  The general wish, therefore, was for a personal treaty with the king. The commonwealth's men in the parliament and the army were at the
same time resolved on the abolition of mona thy, as they had
found in Scripture that it was a thing bad in itself and con.
demned of God.  Ludlow tells us, that Cromwell procured a
conference between them and the grandees of the house and
army, in which the latter " kept themselves in the clouds,
and would not declare their judgments either for a monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical government; maintaining
that any of these might be good in themselves, or for us, according as Providence should direct us."  The former exposed all their reasons, and Cromwell, whose only object had
been to learn the state of feeling and opinion among them,
declared he was unresolved; and flinging a cushion at Ludlow's head, ran down stairs pursued by him with another
cushion.
The friends of the monarchy in Scotland, headed by Hamilton, were meantime exerting themselves to have the treaty
carried into effect, and an army raised for the aid of the royal cause.  But if ever there was apriest-ridden people, it was
the Scots at this time; and the clergy, finding that presbytery was to be established only for three years in England,
vwith liberty of dissent for the king himself and all others,
thundered from their pulpits against the engagement, and
pronounced a curse on all who should share in the war.  The
levies, therefore, went on slowly; and the English royalists,
who were to have risen when the Scots appeared, lost patience
and took to arms in various parts.
The first person who raised the royal standard in this
second civil war (Mar. 3) was colonel Poyer, governor of
Pembroke fbr the parliament.  He was joined by Laugherne
and Powel, two colonels, whose men had been disblnded, but
now returned to their standards.  They took Chepstow, besieged Carnarvon, and defeated colonel Fleming.  Cromwell,
therefore moved the house that that article might be deserted   Clar.
endon State Papers, ii. App. 45.




CHARLES I                     175
however, appeared (May 8) and speedily reduced them. The
royalists next rose in Kent, (May 23,) and some ships oft
war in the river declared for the king and went over to the
Hague to put themselves under the command of the prince.
Fairfax, however, routed the royalists at Maidstone, (June, l,)
and Goring, who the next day had appeared at Blackheath,
hoping to be admitted by the discontented citizens, found
his hlopes baffled by the prudence of the parliamentary leaders,
who had released the aldermen, discharged the imlpeachment
against the seven lords, and allowed the excluded members
to resume their seats.  He therefore crossed the river and
threw himself into Colchester, where he was soon after besieged by Fairfax.
At length the Scottish army led by Hamiltoh entered
England, (July 8.)  Owing to the opposition of the clergy
it did not exceed 14,000 men, and these indifferently armed
and ill supplied with artillery.  It was followed, however,
by 3A00 veterans from the army in Ireland under Munro,
and a body of 4000 gallant royalists, under sir Marmaduke
Langdale, preceded it. But HIamrilton, though brave, was no
general.  Instead of pursuing Lambert, the parliamentary
general, who retired from  the siege of Carlisle at his approach, he wasted forty days in a march of eighty miles into
Lancashire, and thus gave time for Cromwell, who had reduced Pembroke, to come and join Lambert.  Hamilton's
army was also scattered over such an extent of country as
almost rendered it ineffective.  The English royalists were attaclied (Aug. 18) at Preston by the parliamentary army of
nine thousand men; they fought with such heroism that had
they been supported by the Scots in the'slightest degree they
would have probably gained a victory; but the irresolute
dulie knew not how to act, and when the royalists retired
into the town they found that their Scottish allies had abandoned their artillery and baggage, and were in full retreat.
Langdale then directed his nfantry to disperse, and with his
cavalry swam over the Ribble, Hamilton accompanying his
flight.  Baillie surrendered with the Scottish infantrv at
Warrington, (20th,) the duke gave himself up to Lambert
at Utoxeter, (25th,) Langdale, travelling in disguise, was
taken near Nottingham.  Such was the termination of this
ill-managed expedition.
While the Scots were on their way to England, a feeble
attempt to rouse the people of London was made by the earl
of Holland, who had once more veered round to the side of
royalty. Leaving his house in the city at the head of five




176       ]     HISTOItY O " ENGLAND.
hundred horse, he marched (July 5) to Kingston, whence he
sent messages to the parliament and common-council, callina
on them to join him in putting an end to the calamities of
the nation.  But he was attacked and routed, (7th,) and
flying to St. Neot's in Huntingdonshire, was there obliged to
surrender, (10th.;)
Colchester, though defended only by a low rampart of earth
had been gallantly maintained for nearly three months.  The
distress in the towvn was extreme; all the horses and even the
dogs and cats had been consumed for food, when at length
(the officers having vainly urged their men to follow them  in
an attempt to break through the besiegers' lines) they were
- 9liged to-surrender at descretion, (Aug. 28,) quarter being
secured to the privates.  The earl of Norwich, as Goring
was now styled, and the Ilords Capel and Loughborough, were
among those who surrendered.  Fairfax held a council of
war, which condemned sir Charles Lucas, sir George Lisle,
and sir Bernard Gascoigne, to instant death.  Lucas was
first shot; when he fell, Lisle ran up and kissed his dead
body; he desired the soldiers to draw nearer.  "I'll warrantyou, sir," said one of them, " we'll hit you."  " Friends,"
he replied, with a smile, "I have been nearer you when you
have missed me."  They fired, and he fell dead. Gascoigne,
who it appeared was a Tuscan by birth, was respited.  This
execution is certainly a stain on the character of Fairfax; it
was said that Ireton urged him to it.
The prince of Wales, who had taken the command of the
revolted fleet, sailed over with nineteen ships to the Downs,
(July 20.)  Here he lay for six weeks soliciting the city by
letters.  The.king wished that they should come and liberate
him, but the sailors insisted on fighting; the parliamentary
commanders, however, cautiously avoided an engagement,
and want of provisions at length obliged the prince's fleet to
return to Holland.
The presbyterian party, as we have seen, had recovered
their preponderance in parliament; the vote of non-address
-was therefore repealed, (July 28,) and a personal treaty was
agreed on.  But nothing was done till the intelligence ol
Cromwell's success in the north warned them  that the army
party might soon regain their influence.  They then (Sept.
1) appointed five lords and ten commoners to conduct the
negotiation, which was to continue for forty days.  The king,
on giving his word not to attempt to escape during thiat time,
or for twenty days after, was allowed to reside at a private
house in the town of Newport.  He was also permitted to




CHARLES I.                   177
have his servants, his chaplains, and suchk of his councillors
as had not shared in the war, but none of them were suffered
to take any part in the deliberations, though the king might
retire to consult with them. The terms proposed were in
substance those offered to him at Hampton-court, from which
the parliament would not, perhaps could not, make any abatement.  " Consider, Mr. Buckley," said the king to one of
them, "if you call this a treaty, whether it be not like the
fray in the comedy, where the man comes out and says,' There has been a fray and no fray;' and being asked how
that could be,'Why,' says he,' there hath been three blows
given, and I have had them all.'"  The mental powers which
the king displayed in this treaty astonished the commissioners. " The king is wonderfully improved," said lord Salisbury to sir Philip Warwick.  "No, my lord, it is your lordship
who has too late discerned what he always was," was the
reply. Sir Henry Vane told sir Edward Walker that they
had been much deceived in the character of the king, whom
they had considered as a weak man, " but now," says he,
"that we find him to be a person of great parts and abilities,
we must the more consider our own security, for he is only
the more dangerous."
As the commissioners had no power to concede any point,
all the king's objections and proposals had to be transmitted to
London, which of course caused considerable delay. Charles
himself also was too fond of discussion, in which he knew he
excelled. After long debates, he, however, yielded most of
their demands. He consented to recall all his proclamations
against the parliament, and allow that it had taken up arms
in its just defence; he surrendered the militia, the chief offices of state, and the government of Ireland for twenty years;
he agreed to accept 1013,0001. a year for the court of wards,.
to recognize the parliament's great seal, and to make no
peers without consulting the two houses.  But on two points
he was firm; he would not abandon the seven persons whom
they selected as victims to their vengeance; he would not
abolish episcopacy, though he would suspend it for three
years, cut off all dignities above or below that of bishop,
whose powers he would limit to ordination, with the advice
of presbyters.  The church-lands he would not consent to
alienate, but he would let the present possessors have leases
of them for lives or ninety-nine years.
While matters were thus protracted the army was advancing, and the real views of the independents were every day.
made more manifest.  Early in September, (11th,) a petition
W




178              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
from "thousands well-affected persons in and nearl London'
had informed the parliament of what they expected.  This
was to make good the supremacy of the people from all pretences of negative voices in king or lords; to have elections
yearly, and of course without writ or summons; that they
should not sit longer than forty or fifty days; to have no conmpulsive power in matters of religion; kings, queens, princes,
dukes, earls, and all persons to be alike liable to every law
of the land; the proceedings in law to be shortened, and the
charges made certain; all late enclosures to be opened, or to
be only for the benefit of the poor; all monopolies to be
abolished, and all taxes but subsidies to be taken off; the
many thousands that are ruined by perpetual imprisonment
for debt to be considered, and provision made for their enlargement:; tithes to be abolished, etc.  This petition did
not go the length of calling for the abolition of monarchy
and nobility, but it concluded with stating that they had expected the parliament "to have laid to heart the abundance
of innocent blood that hath been spilt, and the infinite spoil
and havock that hath been made of peaceable, harmless people by express commission from the king, and to have seriously considered whether the justice of God be likely to be
satisfied, or his yet remaining wrath to be appeased by an act
of oblivion."  The meaning of this last hint is plain enough.
Some time after (Oct. 18) Ireton's regiment petitioned the
general that justice might be done on the contrivers arid ensame fault may have the same punishment in the person of
king or lord as in the person of the poorest commoner; " and
that whoever should act or speak in the king's behalf till he
had been acquitted of the guilt of shedding innocent blood,
should be a traitor.  The petition of ITnoldsby's regiment
(30th) spoke of " an immediate care that justice be done upon
the principal invaders of all their liberties, namely, the king
and his party," and required the itestablishment of the general council of the army to consider of some effectual remedies.  Finally (Nov. 20) came the'Large R.emonstrance
of the Army,' demanding a present reading, and insistingr
hat the treaty should be broken off, and the king be brought
to justice "as the capital cause of all."  They desired that
a period should be set tothis parliament, and a new one be
elected according to rules which they laid down; this to be
the supreme power, and future kings to be elected by it
"These things they press as good for this and other kingdoms,
and hope it will not be taken ill because from an army, and




CHARLES L.                   17,9
BO servants, when their masters are servants and trustees fob
the kingdom."  A long debate ensued on this irsolent petition; it was adjourned, and when resumed (30th) the question of taking the petition into speedy consideration was resolved in the negative by a majority of sixty-seven voices.
The conmmnissioners were still with the king, for the period
of the treaty had been extended.  Both they and his friends
were urgent with him to concede more, in order to save himself from  the army.  Hammond being summoned at this
time to head-quarters, (26th,) and colonel Ewers sent to se.
cure the person of the king, he could no longer be blind to
the ulterior designs of the army.  His firmness therefore gave
way, arid he consented (27th) to abandon his friends, provided they were allowed the benefit of the ancient laws, and to
suspend the functions of the bishops, and vest their lands in
the crown till. eligion should be settled by the king and parliament.  Next mornling (28) when the commissioners were
taking leave of him, Charles is said to have addressed them
ihi these words:' My lords, I believe we shall scarce ever
see each other again.  But God's will be done! I have made
my peace with him, and shall undergo without fear whatever
he may suffer men to do to me. My lordS, you cannot but
know that in my fall and ruin you see your own, and that also
near you.  I pray God send you better friends than I have
found.  I am fully informed of the carriage of them that plot
against me and mine, but nothing affects me so much as the
feeling I have of the sufferings of my subjects, and the mischief that hangs over my three kingdoms, drawn upon them
by those who, upon pretences of good, violently pursue their
own interests and ends."  Hammond departed with'he commissioners, and the king was again confined in Carisbrookecastle, under the charge of one Boreman, an officer of militia.
It is to be feared that even in this treaty Charles was not
sincere. In a letter to Ormond, who was now in Ireland
negotiating with the catholics, he tells him not to be startled
at his concessions, which would come to nothing, and directs
him to follow not his but the queen's directions.  Four days
after, when pressed to disavow Orrnond's powers, he assured
the commissioners that since the first votes for the treaty, he
had transacted no business relating to Ireland with any but
themselves.  He was also all the time meditating an escape,
and correspopded anxiously on this matter with sir William
HIopkins, who commanded a ship opposite Newport.  In one
letter (Oct. 9) he says, "To deal freely with you, the great
concession I made to-day was merely in order to my escape,




180             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
of which if i had not hopes, I would not have done; for
then I could have returned to my strait prison without reluctance; but now I confess it would break my heart, having
done that which nothing but an escape would justify."  It is
hence inferred, that his intention was to get over to Ireland
and renew the war at the head of the catholic insurgents.
But this is not a necessary consequence; he might have only
designed to go to the continent, and there wait to see the
turn events might take. As to his parole, he seems to have
considered himself released from it, as the conditions on
which he gave it, he maintained, were not kept.
We have seen from the king's words to the commissioners,
that he had apprehensions for his life. We are told, in fact,
that some days before sir Philip Killegrew had come privately
from Windsor, at the risk, as he said, of going " to prison
or to pot," and informed him of the design of the army to
seize'him, bring him to trial, and put him to death.  But the
king could hardly credit the intelligence. The evening after
the departure of' the commissioners, (29th,) a person in disguise told one of the king's servants that the army would
seize on him that night. Charles consulted with his friends;
they urged an immediate escape, as the night was dark and
colonel Coke knew the watchword; but Charles had been
induced to renew his parole. "They have promised me,"
said he, " and I will not break first."  He retired to rest
about midnight, and soon after colonel Cobbett arrived with
a troop of horse and a company of foot. At five the king
was awakened by a summons to depart.  He was placed in a
coach and conveyed to Hurst castle, which stands on a rock
in the sea, joined by a causeway two miles in length to the
coast of Hampshire.
The proceedings of the army at this time were as follows:
The officers having "spent a day (26th) wholly in prayer,"
entered into consultation on the best mode of bringing to
effect the contents of their remonstrance; a petition at the
same time reached them from the army of the north, calling
for justice on delinquents.  This petition was forwarded and
recommended by Cromwell. The very day that the king
was seized and their' Remonstrance' rejected, (30th,) they
published a' Declaration' against the house of commons, in
which, charging the majority with " apostasy from the public
trust reposed in them," they appealed from them " unto the extraordinary judgment of God and good people." They called
on " so many of them  as God hath kept upright" to with.
draw from the others, and added, that the army was drawing
_.A..    >..,. —----— ~.-.....; i,,K -g,f.,  I.......................... _J,




CHARLES I.                    181
Up to London, "there to follow Providence as God shall clear
their way."  Two days after (Dec. 2) they came and took up
their head-quarters in St. James's, the Mews, Whitehall, and
York-house, and other houses, and in the suburban villages.
The commons, led by the intrepid Hollis, showed no want
of spirit on this occasion, and after a violent debate of three
days, in which Pierrepoint and Prynne distinguished them
selves as the able advocates of monarchy against Vane and
the republicans, it was carried (Dec. 5) by a majority of
forty-six that the king's concessions were "sufficient grounds
for settling the peace of the kingdom."  But their triumph
was short.  Ludlow and his party went and consulted with
the officers, and next day (6th) their guard of trained-bands
was dismissed, and the colonels Rich and Pride, the one
with a regiment of horse, the other with one of foot, took
their place.  Pride stood in the lobby with a list of names in
his hand, and when the members in it were pointed out to
him as they passed, by one of the door-keepers, or by lord
Grey of Groby, he seized them and sent them off prisoners
to various places.  About forty members were thus secured,
as it was termed, on this day, and on the following days
several members were secluded, or forbidden to enter the
house; and these imprisonments and seclusions, joined with
the absence of those who retired to the country, reduced the
house to about fifty members, afterwards named the'Rump,'
as the process itself was termed' Pride's Purge.'
During all this time Cromwell was absent, but his place
was well supplied by Ireton.  After the victory at Preston,
he had advanced and besieged Berwick, whence. on the
invitation of Argyle and his party,* he proceeded to Edinburgh, (Sept. 39.) *Leaving Lambrnert there with two regiments to support his friends. he returned to England, where
he engaged in the siege of Pontefract, which was held by
the royalists, and he did not return to London till the day
after the seizure of the members, when, on the motion of
Henry Marten, the thanks of the house were voted to him
tor his late services in the north.  "Ile declared," says
Ludlow, "that he had not been acquainted with this design, yet since it was done he was glad of it, and would
maintain it."
* The people of the western counties, each parish headed by its
minister, had marched to Edinburgh and expelled the conlnittee of
estates. This was called the lWhigamores' Raid, for so the western
peasantry were named from the word Whig, it is said, which they used
m driving theiL horses.
VOL. II.      16




182;              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The miserable remnant who presumed to call therrselves
the commons of England, voted every thing that their mili,
tary masters prescribed.*  They rescinded their late'votes,
and renewed that of non-address, and when (11th) the secluded; members drew up. a protest against the late violence
on their persons, and declared all acts, votes, etc., made or
to be made during their/ absence void, they (the lords pusillanimously joining them) voted it (15th) to be " false, scandalous, and seditious, and tending to destroy the' visible and
fundamental government of this kingdom."  How different
their conduct had been with respect to the votes passed
between the 26th of July and the 6th of August:'Yet these
are the men whom we are called on to admire as models of
pure virtue and disinterested patriotism.
The very same day (11th) a: piece called'The Agreement
of the Peopl)e,' drawn up- as usual by Ireton, was presented
to the general by the council: of officers.  It was a plan of
government the same in substance with their late' Remonstrance.'  On the 22d both houses kept the usual solemn
ifast.  "Hugh Peters, the pulpit-buffoon,"  says Walker,
aif        " acted a sermon before them."  His subject was Moses
ij         leading the Israelites out of Egypt, which he applied in the'i tb     usual manner to the- present times; the grandees being
Moses; etc.  "But how," cries he, "is this to be done'?
That is not yet revealed unto  me."   He then laid- his
head on the cushion, covering his eyes with his hands.  At
length he started up.  " Now  I have it," cried he, "by
revelation; now I shall tell you.  This army must root up
monarchy, not only here, but in France and other' kingdoms:
round about; this army is that corner-stone cut out of the;
mountain which must dash the powers of the earth to
pieces."   The objection of the deed which he recommended being without precedent, he obviated by referring
to the- case of the birth of our Lord   " This," said he, "is,
an age to make examples- and precedents in."  Next- day
(23d) there: was a, debate about bringilg the great delinquents to a speedy punishment.  "A:nrd now," says White.
locke, " was set: on, foot and: b'egun their great design of
* The caustic Walker calls the parliament "a mere free-schoo,
where Crormwell is head-schoolmaster, Ireton usher, and that cipher
Fairfax a. propositor."' Surely," he adds, " these men are either the'  upreme judges, or the supreme- rebels and tv-rants of the kingdom.";14 should be recorded to the honor'of'sir Henry'Vane, that he had
f         no share in th  subsequent iniquitous- proceedings. He retired to his
castle of Raby when the house was purged.




CHAR-LES I..                    183
taking away the king, whom  divers in the debat~ did not
stick to name, for the greatest delinquent.'  There were
some who maintained that a king could not be brought to
justice by his subjects; but they saw from the fierceness of
their adversaries, that if they opposed they would only be
secluded, and their constancy gave way.  It was then attempted to throw the business on the army.  " But they,"
says Whitelocke, "were subtle enough to see and avoid
t lIat, and to make those whom they left sitting in the parliament to be their stales and do their dirty work for them."
A  committee of thirty-eight was voted to consider bow to
proceed in a way of justice against the king.  In the debate,
Cromwell is said to have expressed himself as follows: "If
any man moved this upon design, I should think him  the
greatest traitor in the world; but since Providence  and
necessity have cast us upon it, I shall pray to God to bless
your councils, though I am  not provided on the sudden to
give you counsel."
On the 1st of January, 1649, the commons: voted that it
is treason in a king of England to levy war against the parliament and people; and the next day (2d) an ordinance
which they had passed for the trial of the king was sent to
the upper house.  The lords, who, in anticipation of what
was to kcome, had ordered the attendance of all the members of their house, and who, therefore now mustered sixteen,
rejected the ordinance unanimously.@   The commons then
(4th) voted themselves to be the supreme authority of the
nation, and that whatever is enacted by them is law without
the concurrence of king or lords; ant] (6th) they passed the
ordinance for the trial of their sovereign.
This unhappy prince was now at Windsor.  On the 18th
of December, at midnight, the sound of the fall of the drawbridge and the trampling of horses awoke him firom his sleep;
on, inquiring, the cause, he learned that colonel Harrison had
arrived.   The king was troubled.  "Do you not know,"
said he to Herbert, who waited on him, " that this is the-,an
who intended to assassinate nme, as by letter I was informed
"T' The parliament of England, by the fundamental lasts," said the
earllof Mdianchester, "consists of three estates, king, lords, and- corn
mons. The king is the first and chief estate; he calls and dissolves
parlialents, and without him there cain be no parliament; therefore it
is absurd to say the king can be a traitor against the parliament.'
"'The rewtest part (at least twenty to owme, adds Walker) of the people of iIenheland," said the earl of Northumberland; "are not yet satisfiea
wuhethe tihe king levied war first against the houses, or thle houses against




184              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
during the late treaty? This is a place fit for such a pur.
pose."  Charles, however, had been misinformed; Harrison
was a fanatic, but not an assassin. He was come to conduct
him to Windsor, which he did with all due respect.  The
royal captive felt his condition sadly altered; the usual ceremony no longer surrcunded him; even his meat was brought
to table, uncovered, by the hands of the rude soldiers. This
treatment mortified him greatly.  He had various hints too
of the meditated proceedings against him, yet still so sanguine was his temper that he.vas actually cheerful; he had
hopes on Ireland and Scotland, and on foreign princes,
and he could not believe it possible that his subjects would
bring him to a public trial. Of this, however, he soon had
the certainty; for on the 19th of January he was brought to
Whitehall, to prepare for his trial the next day.
The individuals at Westminster, who presumed to act in
the name of the people of England, had in their ordinance
of the 4th of January nominated one hundred and thirty-five
persons, members of the house, officers of the army, lawyers,
and citizens, to form a' High Court of Justice,' for the trial
of the king; John Bradshaw, sergeant-at-law, was appointed
president; Dr. Dorislaus, and Messrs. Steele, Aske, and
Cooke, counsellors to the court; sergeant Dandy, sergeantat-arms; and Mr. Phelps, clerk.
On Saturday the 20th, the solemn mockery of justice was
opened in Westminster-hall, which was prepared for the occasion.  At the upper end, in a chair of crimson velvet, sat
the president Bradshaw, his broad-brimed beaver, lined with
plates of iron for security, covering his head; a desk and vel.
vet cushion were placed before him.  At a table below him,
covered with a rich Turkey carpet, on which lay the sword
and mace, sat the two clerks of the court.  The membe is
of the court, about seventy in number, sat in " their best habits," and with their hats on their heads, on side benches covered with scarlet.  A seat of crimson velvet was placed
within the bar, opposite that of the president, for the illustrious prisoner; the galleries and the lower part of the hall were
filled with spectators.
Charles was brought by water from Whitehall, and it is
worthy of notice that the watermen insisted on rowing him
bareheaded.  He was conducted into the hall by the colonels
Tomlinson and Hacker, and a guard bearing partisans; the
sergeant-at-arms advanced to receive him, and led him to his
seat.  Charles looked steadily round on the court and the
spectators, and then sat down; he rose again, looked over.~~~~~~~~~~




CHARLES I.                   185
the hall, and resumed his seat. Bradshaw addressed his sovereign, informing him that "the commons of England, assembled in parliament," had, in pursuance of their duty and in
consequence of the bloodshed and calamities brought on the
kingdom, of which he was regarded as the author, constituted this court for his trial.  Cooke then, in the name of the
commons of England, accused Charles Stuart of high-treason
and misdemeanors, and desired the charge to be read to him.
The king was about to reply, but the president stopped him;
the clerk then read the charge.  After stating that, having
been " trusted with a limited power to govern by and accordinig to the laws of the land, and not otherwise," he had attempted " to rule according to his will," and with this design 1" had, traitorously and maliciously, levied war against
the present parliament and the people therein represented;"
it enumerated all the battles in which the king had been
present, charging him with all the blood shed in them, etc.
etc. " And the said John Ccoke doth, for the said treason
and crimes, on behalf of the said people of England, impeach
the said Charles Stuart as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and a
public and implacable enemy to the commonwealth of England." The king smiled often (as well he might) during the
reading of the charge, especially at the words " tyrant, traitor, etc."  Bradshaw then informed him that the court expected him to reply to the charge. Charles asked by what
power he was called thither.  "I would know," said he,
"by what lawful authority-there are many unlawful authorities, thieves and robbers on the highway-I was brought
from the Isle of Wight and carried from place to place?"
He reminded them that he was their lawful king, and de
clared that he would not betray the trust " committed to him
by God, and old and lawful descent," by answering to " a
new, unlawful authority."  Bradshaw told him the authority
was that of the people of England, " of whom he was elected- 
king."  "I deny that," replied the king; " England never
was an elective kingdom."  "I see no house of lords here,"
said he; "that should constitute a parliament, and the king,
too, should have been here."  Bradshaw replied, " We are
satisfied with our authority that are your judges, and it Ms
upon God's authority and the kingdom's."  He then ad.
journey the court till Monday.
* [Bradshaw was in this strictly and legally correct. See "Comparative View of Anmient History," note p. 66, and ante, vol. 1, note
p. 57.-J. T, S.]    
16                         X a




186               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Oua that day (22d) the court again sat.- The king' was
required to answer the charge; he denied the iauthority of
the court, and asserted that, as a king, he could not be tried.
"But," said- he, "it is not my case alone, it is the fieedom
and the liberties of the people of England, and do you pretend what you will;, I stand more for their liberties; for if
power without law may make laws, nay, alter the fundamentai  l laws of the kingdom, I do, not know what subject he is in
England that can be sure of his life, or any thing he calls his
own."  To all the reasons and arguments of the king Bradshaw's reply was, that prisoners were not to dispute the authority of the court.  The court was adjourned to the next
day, (23d.)  The proceedings on that;day were of a similar
lnature.  On Staturday (27th) the court: held its final sitting,
the intermediate days having been occupied in hearing witnesses in proof of the king's having been in arms; sixtyseven commissioners were present.  As the king passed up
the hall, a cry of " Justice! justice! execution!. execution!"
was raised by some soldiers and some of the rabble.  When
addressed by the president he said he should now waive all
debate, as he saw it was; useless, and " an ugly sentence." he
believed would pass on him; but, as he: had something which
concerned the peace of the kingdomn and the liberty of the
subject, he desired before sentence was given to be heard in
the Painted Chamber, before the lords and commons.  They
retired to consult; in about an hour they returned with a
negative; the king declared that he had nothing more to say,
and Bradshaw then. made a long speech in proof of the king's
misgovernment, aand of kings' being accountable -to their peopl)e-.  When he had concluded the. clerk read the sentence,
adjudiging. the: monarch to death as a traitor,. murderer:, etc.
All the comm.rTissioners present stood up, in proof of their assent.  "Will youhear me- a word, sir?" said the king. —
"Sir, you are not to be. heard after the sentence." - " No,
sir! "-" No, sir, by your favor, sir.  Guards-, withdraw you:
prisoner." — " I may speak after the sentence, by your favor,,
sir! I may speak after sentence is over!  By your favor,
hold!  The sentence,. sirr   I say, sir!. I do, I aim; not suffered to speak;'expect. what justice other people will have."
As he passed out, the cry of "Justice,!:  execution!" againassailed his ears, and various insults were offered'him.  One
soldier cried out, " God bless you, sir! " for which his officer
struck him  with his cane.  "The punishment, methinks,"
said Charles,''exceeds the offence."  He' afterwards asked
Herbert if he had remarked the cry for f justice.!'  He: re.




CHARLES I.                    187
plied he did, and wondered at it.  "So did not I," said the
king, "for I am well assured the soldiers bear no malice to
me.  The cry was, no doubt, given by their officers, for
whom the soldiers would do the like were there occasion."
The following events, which occurred during the trial, are
deserving of note.  When the name of Fairfax, as one of the
commissioners, was called, a female voice from the gallery
replied, " lie has more wit than to be here."  When the
charge was made in the name of the commons and people of
England, the same voice exclaimed, " It is a lie! not a quarter of the people! Oliver Cromwell is a rogue and a traitor."
I he speaker wvas masked; col. Axtell desired his men to
fire on the gallery; there was a confusion, and the lady
withdrew.  It was lady Fairfax, a rigid presbyterian.  As
the king was leaning on his cane, or staff, as it was then
called, the silver head: fell off and: rolled on the ground.  The
circumstance seemed ominous, and Charles was evidently
disturbed.  He afterwards owned to bishop Juxon that " i
really made a great impression: on. him."
When the king returned to Whitehall, he sent to the
house, desiring, as the time of his execution might be nigh,
that he might have leave to see his children and have Dr.
Juxon to be private with him and to give him the. sacrament.
His request was acceded to,, (Hugh Peters,. to his honor, exerting his influence in his favor,) and Juxon preached before
him; that night.  Next day being Sunday, (28th.,) the com —
missioners kept their fast in the chapel at Whitehall; the
king employed himself in private devotion with Dr. Juxon.
In the course of the day a book of proposals from the gran,
dees of the army and parliament was tendered to, him., on his
signing which they promised him his life and regal state.
By this he was to' put the militia into their hands, with power to keep' it at its present amount, and to lay. a tax. on the
kingdom fo.r its pay to be levied by the army itself.  Charles,
it is said,, threw them  indignantly aside,. declaring he. would
rather become a sacrifice for his people than thus betray their
laws. and liberties,. lives and estates,. to the bondage of an
armed faction.
On AMonday (29th) the king was removed to St.. James's,
whither his' two children, the princess Elizabeth and the
duke of Gloucester, were brought to him from) Sion-house.
As: was to be expected from the strength of Charles's domes.
tic affections, the meeting was a most tender one.: He gave
them a few  presents, charged the. princess to assure her
mother of ais unceasing. affection,; and told her that "his




I1S,            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
death was glorious, for he should die fbr the laws an, tberties ot the land; he should die a martyr."  His nephew, the
elector palatine, the duke of Richmond, the marquess of
Hertford, and other noblemen, came to the chamber door,
requesting admission to take their last farewell of their sovereign, but Charles declined seeing them, wishing to devote
the little time that remained to him to his children and his
devotions.
Ambassadors from Holland to intercede for the king had
an audience, but no answer from the houses this day. They
had been accompanied by sir John Seymour, the bearer of
letters from the prince to the king and the lord-general; with
the'ast was sent a blank paper, signed and sealed, on which
the grandees might set their own terms. This, however,
produced no effect: the warrant was signed by fifty-nine
commissioners, and directed to the colonels Hacker, Hunks,
and Phayer.  It is said that, as Cromwell was advancing to
the table with the pen in his hand to sign it, he drew the pen
across Marten's face and marked him with the ink, and that
Marten returned the compliment.
r... During the last night of his life Charles slept soundly for
four hours.  About two hours before dawn he opened his
curtains, and by the light of a " great cake of wax set in a
silver basin," he saw that Herbert's rest was disturbed.  He
awoke him; Herbert said he had been dreaming that Laud
had entered the room and knelt before the king, that they
conversed, the king looked pensive, Laud sighed, and as he
retired fell prostrate on the ground.  "It is very remark.
able," said Charles; " but he is dead; had we now conferred
together,'tis very likely - albeit I loved him well - I should
have said something to him might have occasioned his sigh."
lie then said he would rise, "for he had a great work to
do that day.   Herbert trembled as he combed his hair
"Though it be not long to stand on my shoulders,"' said the
king, " take the same pains with it as you were wont to do.
Herbert, this is my second marriage-day; I would be as
trim as may be."  He put on a second shirt; " For, said he,
"the season is sharp, and probably may make me shake,
which some will imagine proceeds from fear. I would have
no such imputation.  I fear not death; death is not terrible
to me.  I bless my God, I am prepared; let the rogues
come." When dressed, he spent an hour in private with
the bishop.
At ten o'clock colonel thacker announced that it was
time to proceed to Whitehall. Charles went on foot at his




CHARLES 1.                   189
usual quick pace through the park, calling to the guard,'March on apace!"  He was conducted to his own bedchamber at Whitehall; sir John Seymour was there admitted to present him the prince's letter.  A  repast had
been prepared; as he had received the Eucharist he declined taking any other food in this world, but at the suggestion of the bishop he ate about noon half a manchet and
drank a glass of claret.  Soon after Hacker came with the
warrant, and called for the king.  Charles rose, and with
Hacker, Tomlinson, (whom he had entreated not to quit
him,) and the bishop, proceeded through the long gallery,
which was lined with soldiers, whose faces testified their
respect and sorrow. Through the central window of the
banqueting-house he stepped out on the scaffold, which was
hung with black; two executioners in masks stood on it;
regiments of horse and foot were stationed beneath; the
streets were thronged with anxious spectators.  Charles
looked toward St. James's with a smile; he then regarded
earnestly the block, and asked "if there were no place
higher."
He addressed himself to those about him on the scaffold,
justifying himself, and referring to dates of the commissions
and declarations to prove that it was the parliament began
the war; yet he hoped that they too might be guiltless, as
there had been ill instruments between him and them.  He
owned, however, he suffered justly, as an unjust sentence
which he had allowed to take effect was now punished by an
unjust sentence on himself.  He proceeded to show them 
how they were " out of the way " in what they were doing,
and exhorted them to give God, the king, and the people their
due.. The liberty of the last, he said, consisted not in having a share in the government, but "in laws by which their
life and their goods may be most their own."  " Sirs," said
he, "it was for this that [ am now come here. If I would
have given way to an arbitrary way for to have all laws
chanced according to the power of the sword, I needed not
to have come here, and therefore I tell you that I am the
martyr of the people."  At the desire of the bishop he declared that he died a member of the church of England.
Though Charles did not fear death, he disliked pain.  He
interrupted his speech when one touched the axe, and said,
"HuIIrt not the axe that may hurt me;" when another ap.
proached it, he cried, "Take heed of the axe! take heed
of the axe!" and turning to Hacker, he said, " Take care
that they do not put me to pain."  To the executioner he.




190'            HISTORY OF ENGLANS)
said,' I shall say but very short prayers, and then thrust out
mny hallds."
Having taken a white satin cap from the bishop and put
his hair up under it, he said, " I have a good cause and a
gracious God on my side."  " There is but one stage more,"
said the prelate; "this stage is turbulent and troublesome;
it is a short one, but you may consider it will soon carry you
a very great way; it will carry you from earth to heaven,
and there you shall find a great deal of cordial joy and
comfort." -" I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible
crown, where no disturbance can be." —" You are exchanged from  a temporal to an eternal crown, a good es.change."   The king gave his cloak and George to the
prelate, saying, Remember.  He knelt down, gave the sign,
and one blow of the axe terminated his mortal existence.
A deep groan arose from  the multitude, and many ran to
dip their handkerchiefs in his blood, but two troops of horse
were set in motion to clear the streets.  The royal corpse,
after being embalmed, was deposited at Windsor, in the
vault which contained the remains of HIenry VIII. and Jane
Seymour.
In this manner perished Charles Stuart, in the forty-ninth
year of his age, by a sentence hitherto unexampled in the
annals of the world.  In his person Charles was vigorous
and handsome; his health was robust, and he was capable of
enduring great fatigue.  His aspect was pensive, he had a
slight hesitation in his speech, and his general manner was
cold and ungracious.  When we consider the profligacy of
the court in which he was brought up, we may well wonder
at the general purity of his morals, and admire in. him the
force of nature.  At the same time, we must not, with his
idolaters, pretend that he had escaped all pollution.  He
was not, for example, free fromn the common vice of profane
swearing, and his language was at times indelicate and licentious.  Like all of his race, Charles bore adversity better
than prosperity.  Affliction gave a lustre to his character;
he gained the respect and sincere attachment of those who
like Herbert were set about him  by the parliament, and
certainly the man who could do so could not have been
originally unamiable.  Charles was also sincerely religious,
but his religion was of too ceremonial a cast, and akin to
superstition.  Had he been born in a private station, it is
probable that he would have been respected by every one,
though lov'ed peihaps by few. He had, however, greater
defects than any yet alluded to.  He was uxorious, and




CHARLES I.                     191
scandalously subservient to a worthless, selfish woman; he
was by nature a despot, though not a tyrant.  In his despotism, however, both in church and state, he conceived
himself to be only exercising the just authority with which
God had invested him; and it will be difficult to point out any
of his acts which had not the sanction either of positive law,
or of the practice of former kings and the ancient prerogative of the crown.  But the great blemish in the character
of this unhappy prince was his insincerity.  When his fancied rights and prerogative were in question, neither his
word nor his oath could be trusted; he had an unfortunate
system of casuistry which released him from the most solemn
obligations; in his eyes truth and honor were as nothing
conmpared with the duty of ruling uncontrolled as a vicegerent of the Deity.  It was this blemish, beyond doubt,
ivhich mainly caused his untimely fate.  How strange is the
course of human affairs! the despot Charles actually died,
as he said, the martyr of the constitution  
If murder be the deliberate taking away of human life
without the sentence of a previously recognized law, thlen
was the execution of king Charles a murder in the fullest
sense of the term.  The solemn mockery of the forms of
justice used on the occasion only adds to its atrocity; for
surely none of his judges could have contemplated the giving him  a fair trial.. Such supposes the possibility of the
prisoner's proving his innocence; but had Charles's self-constituted judges ac;itted him, they must at the same time
have condeimne'" chemselves; for if lie was innocent, what
were they but rebels and traitors?'  To call themselves the
representatives of the people of England, and to act in their
names, was the very summit of audacity. The people of
England were guiltless of the blood of their sovereign,
which was shed by a knot of military men, anxious to secure
their own power or safety.  Many of the so-called judges
acted under the influence of fear, and secretly abhorred the
deed which was forced on them.  There were some, no
doubt, whose motives were pure.; such was lHutchin-son, who
sought counsel of the Lord in prayer, and finding no check,
(as none such we believe ever do,) conceived what he did to
be approved by Heaven.  Others, like Ludlow, bent on havinDg a commonwealth, would see no excuse for the king,
"I tell you," said Cromwell to Algerncn Sydney, " we will cut off
his head with.the crown on it." This was early in the month of Jian.
uary; so the faction had already determined what they hwould do.




r
192              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
assumed his guilt, and took the municipal law of the Israelites for their guide and justification.  It may even be true
that Cromwell himself was in this number, and that he believed himself to be acting rightly.
Shortly after the execution of the king, there appeared
a work named' Ikon Basilik6,' or a' Portraiture of his sacred
majesty in his solitude and his sufferings,' said to be written
by the king himself.  It passed through fifty editions in the
course of a twelvemonth, and is held to have been of essen-:ial service to the royal cause.  It is, however, but a poor
performance, and is not the composition of the king.  Its
author is known to have been Dr. Gauden, who obtained a
bishopric on account of it after the Restoration.  Milton
was employed by the parliament to answer it; his reply is
named' Iconoclastes,' or' Image-breaker.
CHAPTER X.
THE COMMONWEALTH.
1649-1653.
TI-  very day of the execution of the king the commons
passed an act making it treason to proclaim  the prince of
Wales or any other to be king of England or Ireland.  On
the 6th of February they voted, by a majority of forty-four
to twenty-nine, that " the house of peers is useless and dangerous, and ought to be abolished;": and the following day
(7th) it was resolved that the office of a king is "unnecessary, burdensome, and dangerous to the liberty, etc., of the
nation, and ought to be abolished."  The next day (8th) the
great seal was broken to pieces by order of the house and
in their presence, and a new  one substituted, of which
Whitelocke, Lisle, and sergeant Keble were appointed lord
commissioners, to hold their office quamtdiu se bene gesserint
Of the judges six resigned; the others consented to remain,
provided the parliament engaged not to alter the fundamental
* The peers were allowed to retain their titles, but they lost theis
privileges; in return they became eligible to be elected into the house
of commons, of which Pembroke, Salisbury, and Howard of Escrice
took advantage.




THE COMMONWEALTH.                 193
iaws.  The King's-bench was henceforth to be styled the
Upper-bench; writs were to run in the name of the " Keepers of the liberty of England by the authority of parliament; "
an engagement to be true to the commonwealth of England
took the place of the oaths of allegiance and supremacy.
To form an executive, five members of the house were directed to select a certain number of persons to be Council
of State.
While the commons were thus converting the ancient
monarchy of England into a republic, a High Court of Jus.
tice was sitting in judgment on the royalists of rank who
were prisoners in their hands.  On the night after the death
of the king, the duke of Hamilton had made his escape from
Windsor; but he was recognized, and arrested by some
troopers next day as he was knocking in disguise at an inngate in Southwark.  Lord Capel also escaped out of the
Tower; but he was discovered, and seized by two watermen
at a house in Lambeth.  These two noblemen, with lord
Goring and sir John Owen, were some days after (10th)
brought before a High Court of Justice, presided over by
Bradshaw, and arraigned for treason.  The duke, who was
arraigned as earl of Cambridge, pleaded that he was of another nation, under an order of whose parliament he had
acted; but to this it was replied, that he had sat and voted
and otherwise acted as an English peer. Goring and Owen
simply pleaded not guilty.  Capel pleaded the articles of
Colchester, but Fairfax, Ireton, and colonel Berksted proved
that these were only " to free him from immediate power of
the sword to take his life."  The court sat on several days.
Lord Holland, who had been brought up froiom Warwick, was
also put on his trial, (27th;) he pleaded that quarter had been
given him.  None of their pleas, however, availed; they were
all sentenced to lose their heads, (Mar. 6.)  A petition was
presented to the parliament the next (lay by the lady Holland
and other ladies, which only procured a respite of two days;
the following day new petitions were presented.  The hotuse
then proceeded to vote on their several cases; it was determined that the duke and lord Capel should not be reprieved;
the votes for and against were equal in the cases of Holland
and Goring, and the speaker, by his casting vote, condemned
the former and saved the latter.  Colonel Hutchinson, seeing
sir John Owen without any one to make any exertion in his
favor, took pity on him, and prevailed on Treton to give him
his interest, and by their joint influence he was sared by a
majority of five.  Hamilton, Holland, and Capel were be.
VOL. HI.     17'




194              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
headed next day (9th) in Palace-yard; they met their fate
with courage and constancy, especially the last, who behaved
" like a stout Roman."
The new Council of State when- completed consisted of
forty-one members, of whom: five were peers.  Thley were
appointed for a year; the: army, navy, and ordnance were
placed under their authority; they had power to regulate
trade and to negotiate with foreign states.  They were required to take an oath expressing: their approval of all the
late proceedings, but only nineteen (among  whom fourteen
were regicides) would subscribe it; the remainder, headed
by Fairfax and Vane, positively refuised it.  A new form was
therefore devised, (Feb. 22;) they were only requiied "to
approve of what shall be done by the commons in parliament,
the supreme authority of this nation."
This supreme authority was such a miserable remnant of
the parliament of England, that they could not but feel
ashamed and uneasy: as- they looked on their shrunkeln dimensions.  To increase their number, they consented to readmit such members as had not voted in the affirmative on
the 5th of December, and who would record their dissent
from that vote on the journals; they, also, from time to time,
issued writs for new elections in places where their interest
was strong, and their number thus gradually rose to about
one hundred and fifty.
"Never," says the panegyrist of the heads of the republican party, "never did any governors enter upon their functions under more formidable difficulties than the menl who
now undertook to steer and direct the vessel of the new commonwealth.  They were, in a certain sense, a, handfutil of
men with the whole people of England against them." In.
these words he has, we think, pronounced their condemnation; for a handful of men had: no right to tqake upon them:
to decide what form of government was best for the nation,
and to force it on them  by the swords of a fanratic soldiery.
Against them  were the royalists, who, though depressed,
were numerous and wealthy, and the presbyterians, whose
hostility had been to the church, not to the crown.  On their
side were their great personal qualities, the arms of upwards
of forty thousand soldiers, and the greater part of the independents and the other minor religious sects.
The new government was, in fact, that species of tyranny
denominated oligarchy, and: depending, like all otlier tyrannies, for its existence on. the power of the sword.  But it was
here that its chief source of danger- lay; the fanatic princi



THE COMMONWEALTH.                   195
ples of the levellers were widely spread among the Pratorian
guards of the new commonwealth, and it was not long ere
they broke out into action.  The fearless John Lilburne, the
sworn foe to despotism of every kind, led the way by a petition against the' Agreement. of the People;' petitions from
officers and soldiers, and from the' well-affected' in various
parts, poured in, calling for annual parliaments with entirely
new members; the enforcement of the self-denying, rdinance; the abolition of the Council of State and the High
Court of Justice; requiring legal proceedings'to be in English, and the fees of lawyers to be reduced; the excise and
customs to be abolished, and the estates of delinquents to be
sold.; liberty of conscience, abolition of tithes, and fixed salaries of 100/. a year for the ministers of the Gospel.
To quell the spirit of the army vigorous means were employed.  Five troopers, the bearers of a remonstrance from
several regiments, were sentenced by a court-martial to ride
the wooden horse, have their swords broken over their heads,
and be cashiered.  Lilburne, who was keeping up a constant
fire of pamphlets, was, with his associates Walwyn, Prince,
and Overton, committed to the Tower, (Mar. 29.)  Numerous -petitions, especially from the womnen," were presented
in their favor, but without effect.  Mutinies broke out in the
regiments destined for Ireland; the first was at Bishopsgate,
in the city, where a troop of horse seized the colors and refused to march.  For this five of them were sentenced to be
shot; but, with the exception of one named Lockier, they
were pardoned by the general. At the funeral of Lockier,
(Apr. 30,) the corpse, adorned with bundles of rosemary
dipped inl blood, was preceded by one hundred men in files;
six trumpeters sounding a soldier's knell went on each side
of it; his horse, covered with mourning, was led after:it;
then came thousands of people with sea-green and black ribbons at'their breasts.  The women brought up the rear;
thousands more of the better sort met them  at the grave.
This funeral convinced the government of the necessity of
acting with energy, for the mutiny was spreading fast.  A
captain Thompson,  at the head of two hundred men, set
forth at Banbury a manifesto named'England's Standard
Advanced.'  They were, however, surprised  by colonel
"They were bid," says Walker," to go home and wash their dishes,
to which some of them replied, They had neither dishes nor meat left."
A! very different answer, he says, from what they used to receive," when
they had money, plate, ringsi bodkins, and thimbles to sacrifice to theam 
legislative idols."




196               HISTORY OF INGLAND.
Reynolds, (May 13;) Thompson fled, and his men surren.
dered.  A body of more than one thousand men moved from
Salisbury to Burford, where Fairfax came up with them.
At midnight Cromwell forced his way into the town, and
made four hundred of them prisoners, several of whom were
shot by sentence of a court-martial, (19th;) the rest were
pardoned.  Thompson was slain shortly after at Wellingborough, (21st,) and the mutiny was finally suppressed.  On
Cromwell's making a report to that efftct to the house, (26th,)
a general day of thanksgiving for that great mercy was ordered.*
It is now  time that we should take a view of the state
of affairs in Scotland at this conjuncture.  The parliament
there, now under the control of Argyle, had sent instructions to their commissioners to protest against the trial and
execution of the king; but it was evident that Argyle feared
to offend, and the men who drove on that measure were not
to be diverted fiom their purpose.  No notice, therefore, was
taken of the Scottish protest.  When tidings of the execution of the king reached Edinburgh, the parliament forthwith
(Feb. 5) proclaimed Charles II1., provided he would take the
covenant and adhere to the solemn league between the two
fiingdoms.  Afterwards, when they found themselves treated
with contempt by the English parliament, and their commissioners actually sent under a guard to the frontiers, they appointed commissioners to proceed to the Hague to treat with
the king.  These, on arriving, (Mar. 26,) found Lanark,
(now duke of Hamilton,) Lauderdale, and Callendar, the
chiefs of the engagers, and the royalists Montrose, Kinnoul,
and Seaforth already there   The antipathies and disputes
of these parties caused  distraction  and  confusion;  and
Charles, whose real design was to repair to Ormond and the
catholics in Ireland, was little inclined to give them  satisfaction.  The murder of Dr. Dorislaus, which occurred
soon after, made it expedient for him to quit the Hague.
This civilian had been sent as envoy from the parliament to
the states.  On the very evening of his arrival, (May 3,) as
he was at supper in an inn, six gentlemen entered the room
with drawn-swords, and dragging him from his chair, mur* There was another kind of levellers at this time, named the' Diggers,' whose principle it was that the barren earth was to be made
fruitful. They accordingly repaired to St. George's-hill, near Walton,
in Surrey, and began to dig a common there, and to sow beans and
other plants in it. Fairfax sent two troops of horse, and easily dispersed
them, as their number was only thirty.




THE COMMONWEALTH.                 197
dered hiln on the ground.  The assassins escaped, but it was
know!n that they were Scotsmen and followers of Montrose.
Charles immediately left the Hague and proceeded to Paris,
whence, after a delay of three months, he went to Jersey in
order to take shipping for Ireland.  But the intelligence
which he received from that country showing that his cause
there was hopeless, he renewed his negotiations with the Scots.
Many months passed without any thing being done; but early
in the following year (Mar. 15, 1650) he met the commissioners, who were the earls of Cassilis and Lothian, two
barons, two burgesses, and three ministers, at the prince of
Orange's town of Breda. But though urged by his mother,
the prince of Orange, and several of his other friends, to takte
the covenant and comply with the other demands, he still
protracted the treaty.
The truth is, Charles, who had all the insincerity distinctive of his family, had in view another mode of recovering
his throne. The restless and enterprising Montrose, having
obtained some supplies of arms and money from the northern
courts, had embarked at Hamburg with about six hundred
men, Germans and Scottish exiles. He sailed to the Orkney
isles, where by a forced levy he raised his troops to about
fourteen hundred, wvith whom he passed over to the opposite
coast; but as he marched through Caithness and Sutherland,
the people, instead of joining him as he expected, fled at his
approach.  At Corbins-dale, in Fifeshire, he was encountered
(Apr. 17) by a party of three hundred horse, under Strachan;
the main army of four thousand men under David Lesley not
being yet come up. The unwarlike islanders, when charged
by cavalry, threw down their arms and fled; the Germans retreated to a wood, where they surrendered.  Montrose, in the
disguise of a peasant, escaped by swimming across a river;
but he was betrayed (May 8) by a persoii with whom he had
taken refuge, and was conducted a prisoner to Edinburgh.
Every insult that could be devised was heaped on him by his
ungenerous captors.  The magistrates of Edinburgh met him
at the gates, and by their directions he was placed, bareheaded and pinioned, on a high seat in a cart, and thus led by the
executioner to the common gaol, his officers walking two and
two before the cart. Argyle and his other enemies feasted,
it is said, their eyes with the sight from a balcony.  Within
two days he was brought before the parliament to receive his
sentence.  The chancellor in a bitter tone enumerated all
his offences.  He replied that he had always acted by the
royal command. He was then sentenced to be hung on a
17*




l198              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
gallows thirty feet high, his head to be fixed on a spike in
Edinburgh, his arms on the gates of Perth and Stirling, his
legs on those of Glasgow  and Aberdeen, his body to be
buried by -the hangman on the Burrow-muir.  He heard this
sentence with an unchanged countenance.  The clergy then
came to torture him; they told; him that his punishment here
was but.a shadow of what awaited him  in the next:world.
lHe repelled themn with disdain; he was prouder, he said,:c
have his head placed on the prison walls than his picture in
the king's bed-chamber, and he wished he had flesh enough
to be dispersed through Christendom to attest his loyalty.
He appeared on the scaffold in a splendid dress, and addressed
-the people inl explanation of his dying unabsolved by the,church;:the executioner then -hung the book containing the
history of his exploits about his neck; he -smiled at their
malice, and said he wore it with more pride than the garter.
His behavior at- his last moments gained many proselytes to
the cause for which he suffered.
Montrose was only thirty-eight years of age.  His mind
was irregularly great, always aiming at what was beyond his
power to achieve.  He never displayed the talents of a great
commander, but as a partisan or guerilla he was not to be
excelled.  Perso-nal aggrandizement or the gratification of
personal enmity was the impelling cause of most of his actions.  His barbarous,death has in some measure effaced the
memory of the cruelties which he had committed.
Sir Francis Hay Spotswood, grandson of the archbishop,
colonel Sibbald, and colonel Hurry, his companions, were all
executed a few days after Montrose.  His friend lord Frendaug.ht balked the public vengeance:by a volunl.tary death.
When the news of Montrose's defeat reached Charles he
lost no time in declaring that he had forbidden him:to proceed in his design, and that he was not sorry for his deifeat.
He then submitted without reserve to the demands iof the
commissioners.  Besides taking the covenant and the solemn
league and covenant, he bound himself not to tolerate popery
in any part of his dominions, and to govern by the advice of
the parliament and the kirk.  He then embarked (June 2)
on boa.rd of a Dutch,fleet employed to protect the herringfisheries,.and after a tedious voyage of three weeks reached
the mouth of the Spey, (23d.) -A court was arranged for
him.with all the proper officers, but non.e of the Engagers
were permitted to approach it, aud none of his English followers but the duke of B-uckiungham, lord Wilimot, and a few
serva'ats; were suffered to xre main with him.  H.e. soori! found




THE COMMONWEALTH.                  199
that he was to be a mere pageant of royalty, and the insolence of the despotic fanatic clergy made his life wearisome
Evermore he was compelled to listen to their invectives
against the iniquity of his father's house, the idolatry of his
mother, and his own connection with malignants.  Long
prayers, tedious sermons, rigid fasts, and Judaical sabbaths
were inflicted on him, and the slightest levity in look or conduct was severely reprehended. How long a licentious youth
(for such was Charles) and these sour religionists couldhave
agreed is uncertain; but the time for the experimen-t was
brief, for Charles had been but one short mofth in Scotla.td,
when (July 22) Cromwell, flushed with victory in Ireland,
crossed the Tweed at the head of an English army.
In Ireland, when the nuncio and the clergy had gotten the
supreme power into their hands, they exercised it, as church.
men always exercise temporal power, weakly, passionately,
and injudiciously.  But the able and honorable Clanrickard
and some other peers rallied against them, and finally obliged
the nuncio to fly to the camp of his friend Owen O'Neal.
Lord Inchiquin, whlro had been hitherto on the side of the parlianient, having declared for the royal cause, the council invited Ormond to return and resume the lieutenancy; and
on his arrival, the~ insolent, turbulent Italian found it necessary to quit the kingdom in which his presence had been only
productive of evil.  The news of the dancer of the king at
this time made Ormond and the confederates to recede a little
from the riror of their mutual demands.  They engaged to
maintain an army of seventeen thousand men for the royal
cause.; he promised the free exercise of the catholic religion
the repeal of Poyvning's law, and other graces.  This treaty
was concluded on the 17th of January, 1649; the account
of the execution of.the -king caused the Scottish army in Ulster to declare for the royal cause.  Owen O'Neal, rvho was
closely connected witl h the party of the nuncio, refiised to be
included in it, and he formed an alliance with the parliament
ary commanders.  Ormond, being joined by Inchiquin from
Munster, was enabled to appear at the head of a combined
army of eleven thousand men, protestants and catholics, before the walls of Dublin,.(June 19,) and Inchiquin reduced
Drogheda.  Monk, who commanded at Dundalk, had con
certed with O'Neal a plan for drawing the lord-lieutenant
away from Dublin; but Inchiquin fell on and routed a body
of O'Neal's troops who were convoying the ammunition sent
hiin bv Monk for this purpose, and then compelled Monk
himseif to surrender.  He also reduced Newry, Carlingford,




200             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Trim, and other towns, and then rejoined Ormond before
Dublin.  Owen O'Neal meantime advanced toward Londonderry, which was hard pressed by the royalists, and he
obliged them to raise the siege.
The parliament had appointed Cromwell to the command
in Ireland, (Mar. 15;) he hesitated to accept it; the council of officers directed two from each regiment to meet and
seek God as to whatadvice to offer him, and at length he
declared himself willing to undertake that service. He was
appointed lord-lieutenant, with supreme authority, both civil
and military, for three years.  He demanded a force of
twelve thousand men with all needful supplies, and 100,0001.
in money.  These preparations caused so much delay, that
Cromwell did not leave London till the 10th of July; on
which day, when three ministers had offered up prayers for
his success, and he himself, Goff, and Harrison s" did," says
Whitelocke, " expound some places of Scripture excellently
well and pertinent to the occasion," he left Whitehall with a
train of carriages, each drawn by six horses, with his lifeguard of eighty gentlemen, all of whom had been officers,
and a numerous suite of attendants.  Ere their departure,
his officers presented a petition to parliament, praying thae
drunkenness, profane swearing, etc., might be restrained,
legal proceedings be in English, cheap, certain, etc.; lands
and houses with their encumbrances be registered in each
parish; tithes be abolished, and two shillings in the pound
be levied on the land for the support of the clergy and the
poor, etc., etc.
The troops for Ireland were appointed to rendezvous at
Milford-haven; the regiments of Reynolds and Venables
were embarked at once for the relief of Dublin.  Mutinies
and desertion among his troops, however, delayed the departure of the lord-lieutenant, and meantime the siege of Dublin
was raised.  Ormond, who had hitherto lain at Finglass on
the north side of the city, had crossed the Liffey and encamped at Rathmines on the south side.  To cut off the
communication with Ring's-end, where the reinforcements
from England would land, he sent a party to take and secure
the castle of Baggotrath, near the walls. (Aug. 1.)  Jones,
the governor, who had been reinforced by the regiments of
Reynolds and Venables, sallied out and drove them off, and
then following up his success, attacked and totally routed the
besieging army with a loss of one thousand killed, two thousand taken, and all their ammunition, baggage, and stores.
Cromwell and Ireton soon after (1Sth) landed in Dublin. and




THE COMMONWEALTH.                 201
having given their troops about a fortnight's rest, led them
(Sept. 3) against Drogheda, in which Ormond had left a
garrison of between two and three thousand men,* under
the command of sir Arthur Aston, an English catholic.
Havingr effected a breach in the walls, (11th,) about one thousand of the besiegers entered at it, but they were driven out
again; they renewed the attempt and succeeded; orders
were issued to give no quarter, and the whole garrison was
massacred. About a' thousand of the catholic inhabitants,
who had taken refuge in the great church in which they had
set up the mass, were slaughtered in it; " their friars and
priests," says Cromwell, " were knocked on the head promiscuously with the others."
From  Drogheda Cromwell advanced to Wexford, all the
towns and castles on his way submitting. When his guns
had played for a day on the castle and effected a small breach,
the governor sent in the evening totreat for a surrender, but
neglecting to demand a cessation, the firing continued, and
the breach being enlarged, a part of the English soldiers entered, and opening the gates admitted the rest, and a prorniscuous slaughter, as at Drogheda, took place.  Shortly after,
Cork and some other great towns in Munster declared for
the parliament, and on lord Broghil's coming back from
England most of Inchiquin's troops went over to him.  Croniwell, whose men suffered greatly from disease and want of
provisions, found it necessary to retire from before Waterford,
to which he had laid siege.  He then put his troops into
winter-qu arters.
Early in February (1650) Cromwell, having been reinforced, again took the field. No place was able to resist
him. Kilkenny opened its gates, (Mar. 2S,) and its example
was followed by Clonmel, (May 10.)  He was preparing to
renew the siege of Waterford when he was summoned to
England on account of the Scottish affairs.  He left the
chief command in Ireland to Ireton, by whom the war was
prosecuted with vigor.
On his approach to London (May 31) Cromwell was met
at Hounslow by many members of parliament and officers
of the army, and conducted to Whitehall.  The affairs of
Scotland being taken into consideration, it was decided that
an army under Fairfax and Cromwell should be marched
into that country without delay. Fairfax at first made no
objection, but afterwards, being influenced by his lady and
* Mostly English, according to Ludlow, i. 260.
l<




2   O42          HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the ministers, he felt scruples as to the justice of invading
a coun~try with which they were in.alliance. The council
of state appointed GCromwel]l, Lambert, Harrison, St. John,
and Whitelocke, as a committee to confbr with him in order
to remove his scruples.  They met in a room at Whitehall,
(25th,) and after prayer (as was the custom) proceeded to
the discussion.  They endeavored to prove that. the Scots,
by their late invasion of England under duke Hamilton, had
already broken the covenant, and that their present levies of
men proved a hostile intention.  He declared himself unconvinced, and expressed his determination to lay down his cornmission.  This they all conjured him not to think of doing,
in which, Whitelocke says, " none were so earnest as Cromwell and the soldiers; yet there was cause enough to believe
that they did not overmuch desire it."  Fairfax, however,
persisted., and the parliament passed an act next day con-.stituting Oliver Cromwoll, Esq., to be captain-general of all
the forces raised:and to be raised within the commonwealth'
-of England.  Three days after (29th) the new general set
out for the north.
On the 22d of July, Cromwell crossed the Tweed at the
*head of a veteran army of sixteen thousand men. The whole
country thence to Edinburgh presented a scene of desolation;
for -orders had been given to remove the cattle and provisions,
and by disseminating monstrous falsehoods of Cromwell's
cruelties in Ireland, and by threats of infamy and death, the
igovernment had caused the people to abandon their dwellings.  The Scottish army under David Lesley was posted
behind a strong entrenchment running from Edinburgh to
Leith, and as, though:more numerous than the enemy, they
were mostly raw levies, it was the prudent plan of their gen-, eral to give the invaders no opportunity of fighting, arnd thus
to starve them out of the country. This plan -would doubtless have.succeeded, for sickness had already begun to prevail in the Engl[ish army, but they had a good ally in the
ignorance, bigotry, and presumption of the Scottish clergy,
who:were -evermore meddling in iboth civil and military
affairs. They commenced by obliging the king to remove
to Stirling, -his presence in the army they asserted giving
occasion to riot and neglect of discipline.  They next requrired that ithe camp should be purged of maJigunants; and
about eighty:officers and some -of the men being dismissed,
he army was held to be entirely composed of saints, of whose
success there could be no doubt, the Lord being always supposed to espouse the cause of the righteous in -those days
t-._                                  ___ _________________________




THE - COMMONW:EALTH.,'203
-But ione dark cloud still shed its gloom over the prospect;
though they were holy themselves, they were engaged in,the
cause of -him who was immersed in' sin.  To remove this of..fence a declaration was drawn up which the king was required
to subscribe; in this he was to deplore the blood-guiltiness
of his father and the idolatry of his mother; to declare that
he took the covenant illn truth and sincerity, and had no.enemies'but those of it; to pronounce all treaties with the
bloody Irish rebels null and void; to detest popery, prelacy,
etc., etc. Little scrupulous as Charles was, he refused to
commit an act so repugnant to natural duty.  But it. soon
appeared that he would be supported on no other terms.  He
therefore affixed his signature to the instrumient, (Aug. 16,)
an act in which no one could believe him to be sincere; yet
the zealots werefilled with joy, and the cloud of guilt being
thus dispelled, the ministers assured their hearers of a certain victory over a" blaspheming general and a sectarian
army."
Cromwell finding that he could not bring the Scots to
action retired to Musselburg, (3Uth,) where he put-his sick
on board his ships.  He then moved to Haddington, and
thence to Dunbar, followed by Lesley, who occupied the
heights of Lammernmuir.  But the civilians and the clergy,
the committees of the estates and the kirk, would no longer
be advised by the prudent general; fearing now that the
enemy might escape, they insisted on his giving battle,
Cromwell and Ihis officers had been seeking the Lord, on
which occasion, as he afterwards declared, he felt " such an
enlargement of heart in prayer and such quiet upon it," that
he assured those about him that God would certainly appear
for them.  As;they were walking after this exercise in lord
Roxburgh's'gardens, and viewing the Scottish.camp with
glasses, Cromwell, observing a great motion in it, -cried,
"God is delivering them  into our hands; they are coming
down to us."  He was right; during the night, which was
ra-iny and stormy, the.Scots descended from their elevated
station, and -in the morning, (Sept. 3,) while they were wet
and weary, they were.fallen on:by the English troops.  The
Scottish horse after a gallant but brief resistance were broken
and routed; the'foot.then threw away their arms and fled,
two regiments only resisting, who bravely perished where
they stood.  The fugitives were pursued for eight miles;
three thousand were slain, and ten thousand, with all the
artillery, ammunition, and baggage, were taken.  Edinburgh
and Leith opened their gates, and the whole country south




204             HISTORY OF ENGLAND
of the Forth submitted to the English general, a few castles
only holding out.
To raise a new army was now the first object of the
Scottish government, but this could hardly be effected if the
religious test were retained in all its rigor.  The commissioners of the kirk, on being consulted, passed two resollutions to the following effect: those who had ma(le defection,
or had been hitherto backward in the work, ought to be
admitted to make profession of repentance, and on doing
so, might be allowed to serve and to defend their country.
Mock penitents now  appeared in abundanct; royalists,
engagers, and all the excluded crowded to court and camp.
But a new schism  hence arose, for the more rigid and fanatic portion of the clergy protested against the resolutions
as an insult to God and a betrayal of the good cause. The
lkirk was now  split into Resolutioners and Protesters, or
Remonstrants, for the five most fanatic counties of the west,
Renfrew, Ayr, Galloway, Wigton, and Dumfiies, presented
a remonstrance against the treaty with the king, and required
him to be excluded from the government.
Charles mreantime, weary of the state of pupilage in which
he was held, had concerted with the royalists in the Highlands to make his escape to them. One afternoon, (Oct 4,)
having gotten out of Perth, where the parliament now sat,
under pretence of hawking, he rode forty-two miles to a
hovel named Clova in the Highlands, where his friends had
promised to meet him. A few only appeared, and colonel
Montgomery, who had been sent in pursuit of him by
Argyle, to whom his plan had been betrayed, (by Bucking.
ham, it is said,) persuaded him to return. T'his Start, as it
was namned, was, however, of somne service to the king, as it
caused him to be treated henceforth with a little more consideration.
On the first day of the new  year (1651) Charles was
solemnly crowned at Scone. When he had sworn on his
knees and with upraised hand to observe the two covenants,
to maintain presbytery, govern according to the laws of
God and the land, and root out false religion and heresy,
the crown was placed on his head by the marquess of Argyle, and nobility and people swore allegiance to him.  His
friends were now admitted to parliament, and to gain Argyle more entirely to his side he hinted at a marriage with
his daughter; but that wary nobleman was not to be caught
by an offer in which he knew he was not sincere.
By the joint exertions of all parties, an army of twent)




THE COMMONWEALTH.                 205
thousand men was assembled at Stirling in the month of
April.  The king himself took the chief command, with
Hamilton for his lieutenant, and Lesley for his major-general.  The passes of the Forth were secured, and the army
was encanmped in a strong position at the Torwood, near
Stirling. Cromwell, who had been suffering so severely from
ague as to have obtained permission to return to England,
findino himself unexpectedly better at the  approach of
summer, resumed operations in July. By means of a fleet
of boats which had been collected a Queen's-ferry, Overton
passed over and fortified a hill at Inverkething; he was followed by Lambert; the Scottish force sent to oppose them
was driven off, (21st;) Cromwell lost no time in transporting
over the remainder of the army; the whole of Fife was rapidly reduced, and Perth opened her gates. The communications of the royal army with the north were now cut off,
and if it remained in its present position it must either
starve, disband, or fight at a disadvantage In this dilemma
the king proposed the desperate expedient of a march into
England; Argyle alone opposed it in the council, and when
his reasons were rejected he obtained permission to retire to
his estates. The king then at the head of fourteen thousand
men left Stirling (July 31) on his way for England.  Cromwell immediately sent Lambert with a body of three thousand
horse to hang on his rear, and he ordered Harrison to advance from Newcastle with an equal number to press on his
flank; he himself, leaving Monk with five thousand men to
complete the conquest of Scotland, moved rapidly (Aug. 7)
in the direction of York.
Charles entered England at Carlisle; at Warrington
(16th) Lambert and Harrison attempted to prevent his
passage of the Mersey, but they were not in time to break
down the bridge, arid he passed them by, and marching rapidly through Cheshire and Shropshire came to Worcester,
(22d,) where he was solemnly proclaimed by the mayor and
some of the gentlemen of the county. The aspect of his
affairs was, however, by no means cheering. The royalists
had not been prepared, and few of them  came to join him;
the committee of the kirk forbade any one to be employed
who did not take the covenant; and the attempts of Massey,
the defender of Gloucester, who was now one of the royal
commanders, to raise men in Lancashire, failed in consequence of it.
At the first intelligence of the king's march into England
the council of state were in great alarm, for they supposeed
VOL..       IS




206              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
that it must have been concerted with the presbyterians, and
they expected the royalists.every where to rise; they even
suspected Cromwell of treachery.  They soon, however, resumed their courage; they caused the declaration which
Charles had published to be burnt by the hands of the 3ornmon hangman.; and they proclaimed him  and all his abettors guilty of high-treason; they put suspected persons into
prison,@ and ordered the militia of the adjoining counties
to march toward Worcester.  Cromwell himself soon arrived, (2Sth,) and found himself at the head of thirty thousand men, while the royalists were not half the number, and
but a sixth part of them  English.  That very day Lambert
made himself master of the bridge over the Severn at Uptonin the defence of which Massey received a severe wound,
which deprived the royal army of his valuable services.  On
the 3d of September (the day of the victory of Dunbar)
Fleetwood, advancing from  Upton on the west bank of the
Severn, proceeded to force the passage of the Team, while
Cromwell threw a bridge of boats over the Severn to come
to his aid.  The Scots, having the advantage of the numerous
hedges in that part, fouglt gallantly; but: Cromwell having
passed over some regiments, they were at length driven back
to the city.  Meantime the remainder of the royal forces
issued from the town and attacked the troops on that side.
At first their efforts were successful, but they were finally
driven back by Cromwell's veteran reserve and forced into
the city.  Cromwell stormed the fort named Fort Royal, put
its garrison of fifteen hundred men to the sword, and turned
its guns on the town, which the royalists speedily abandoned.
The battle had lasted five hours; the Scots had fought nobly.
"This: has- been," said Cromwell in his despatch, " a very
glorious mercy, and as stiff a contest for four or five hours
as ever I have seen."  Of the vanquished three thousand
men were slain, of the victors only two hundred; but as the
whole country rose against the Scots, whose speech betrayed
them, the number of the prisoners amounted to ten thousand.
Among these were the earls of Derby, Cleveland, and Shrews.
bury of the English nobility, and the duke of Hamilton, (who
was mortally wounded,) the earls of Lauderdale, Rothes,
and Kelly, and the lords Sinclair, Kenmuir, and Spynie of
the Scottish; also the generals Lesley, Middleton, and Mas* The very day that Charles entered Worcester, a presbyterian cler
gyman named Love and a layman named Gibbons were beheaded on
Tower-hill for their share in a conspiracy in favor of royalty.




THfE COMMONWEALTH.                  207
Fey.  The earl of Derby and two others were tried by a
court-martial at Chester and put to death; the others were
kept in prison, from which Massey and Middleton escaped.
It is certain," says Godwinj." there was on the whole. a
great spirit of clemency displayed in the limits the government thought proper to prescribe to itself on this occasion.
Of the common soldiers taken prisoners, the greater part
were sent. to the plantations, [as slaves,] and fifteen hundred
were granted to the Guinea merchants, and employed to
work in the mines of Africa."  Not one word of reprehension has the historian to bestow on this barbarous treatmelt
of the freeborn soldiers of an independent nation! The
republicans seemed resolved, we may see, to tread faithfully
in the foot-print of the Greeks and Romans.
The parliament voted Cromwell an estate of 40001. a year,
in- addition to that of 25001. a year already given him.  It
was also voted that Hampton-court should be fitted up for his
residence.  Lambert, Whalley, Monk, and others had also
estates granted to them.
The dangers and escapes of Charles after the defeat of
Worcester are so interesting in, themselves, and serve so
much to display the nobler and: more generous feelings of
our nature, that we cannot refrain from relating them somewhat in detail.
Charles, who had shown no want of courage during the
battle, left the town with the Scottish horse; but he parted
from them  during the night with about sixty followers, and
proceeded to Boscobel-house in Staffordshire, the seat of a
catholic gentleman named Gifford.  lie was, however, conducted instead to Whiteladies, another of Gifford's houses,
and here his companions took leave of him.  He cut off his
hair, stained his face and hands, and putting on the coarse,
threadbare clothes of a'rustic, went forth in the morning with
a bill in his hand, as a woodcutter, in the company of four
brothers, laboring men, named Penderel, and Yates their
brother-in-law, all catholics. One of them accompanied him
into the thickest part of the wood while the rest kept watch.
As the day was wet and stormy, and Charles was weary with
his previous exertions, his companion spread a blanket for
him under a tree, whither Yates's wife brought him some food.
IHe was-startled at the sight of her, but she assured him  that
she would die sooner than betray him; and the aged mother
of the Penderels, when she came to see him, fell on her knees
and blessed God for having chosen her sons to save the life
of their king.




2f)8             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
About nine in the evening the king and Richard Penderel
left the wood and proceeded to Madeley, the house of another
catholic gentleman named Wolf, which was near the Severn
it being his intention to pass over into Wales.  They did not
reach it till midnight; all the next day (5th) they-remained
concealed behind the hay in a barn, while Wolf sent to examine the river.  But all the bridges were guarded and all
the boats secured, and they found it necessary to abandon
their design, and, when night set in, to direct their steps to
Boscobel.  Here the king met colonel Careless, a catholic
loyalist, and as the soldiers were very numerous about there,
they both concealed themselves all the next day (6th) in the
dense foliage of an oak-tree which grew close to the footpath in a meadow in the centre of the wood; whence they
could frequently discern the red coats of the soldiers as they
passed through the trees.  In the night they returned to the
House, where Charles remained quietly all the next day,
(7th,) which was Sunday. On Monday (8th) he received a
message from lord Wilmot, to meet him at Moseley, the house
of Mr. Whitegrave, also a recusant.  As his feet had been
cut and blistered by the walk to and from Madeley, he rode a
horse belonging to one of the Penderels, the six brothers attending him armed. Here a new plan of escape was devised
for him; the daughter of Mr. Lane of Bentley, a protestant
gentleman in that neighborhood, had obtained a pass to go
visit Mrs. Norton, her relation, near Bristol, and it was proposed that the king should ride before her as her servant.
To this he readily consented, and in the night Wilmot went
to Bentley to make the arrangements.  Next day (9th) a
party of troopers came; the king was shut up in the Priest's
Hole, but they departed without searching the house.  In
the night he went to Bentley, and on the second day, (11th,)
equipped in a suit of gray he mounted before Miss Lane;
her cousin, Mr. Lassells, rode beside them, and on the fourth
day (14th) they reached Mr. Norton's in safety.  Wilmot,
who had boldly ridden with a hawk on his fist and dogs at
his hleels, also eluded discovery, and he took up his abode at
sir John Winter's in the neighborhood.
Miss Lane, pretending that her servant was unwell, obtained a separate apartment for him; but the butler, who had
been a servant in the palace at Richmond, recognized him
as soon as he saw him.  He told his suspicions to Lassells,
and the kinog then deemed it his wisest course to confide in
him. His confidence was not deceived; the man was faiths
ful and zealous.  By his means Wilmot had a private meetI I  __s~~~__~_,




THE COMMONWEALTH.                 209
Ing with the king, (17th;) and as the butler had inquired
without success for a ship to take him to France or Spain,
it was arranged that he should go to colonel WVindham's at
Trent, near Sherburn in Dorset, and that a letter, as if her
father was dangerously ill, should be given to Miss Lane to
serve as a pretext for her sudden departure.  They therefcre left Mr. Norton's the next morning, (18th,) and reached
-' rent the following day.  Miss Lane and Lassells then returned ho me.
A ship was soon hired at Lyme to convey a gentleman and
his servant (Wilmot and the king) to France.  They went
down in the evening, (23d,) Charles riding before a young
lady, to a little inn at Charmouth, where they were to be
taken on board; but no bark came, for when the master was
leaving his house for the purpose, his wife stopped him and
w ould not suffer him to stir.  At dawn (24th) Wilmot went
to Lyme to learn the cause of the disappointment: the
others mreantime rode to Bridport, which was full of soldiers;
Charles led the horses through them into the inn-yard, rudely
pushing them out of the way.  But the hostler here claimed
acquaintance with him, saying he knew him in the service
of Mr. Potter at Exeter, (in whose house Charles really had
lodged.)  Taking advantage of the confusion of the hostler's
memory, the king replied, "True, I did live with him, but I
have no time now; we will renew our acquaintance over a
pot of beer on my return to London."
When Wilmot came to say that the master would not put
to sea, they rode back to Trent, where the king staid till
the 8th of October, when he removed to Ieale near Salisbury,
the residence of a widow-lady named Hyde, where he remained concealed for five days, during which colonel Gunter,
through one Mansell, a merchant, engaged the master of a
collier which was lying at Shorehamn in Sussex.  Charles
rode to the adjoining fishing-village of Brighthelmstone,
(15th,) where he sat down to supper with the colonels Philips
and Ganter, and Mansell, and Tattershall, the captain of the
vessel. This last recognized the king, having been detained
in the river by him in 1648.  He called Mansell aside and
complained of frauid; the king when informed took no notice,
but kept them all drinking and smoking till four in the morning, when they set out for Shoreham.  Ere he departed, as
he was alone, the landlord came behind him  and kissed his
hand, wllic,}; was on the back of a chair, saying, "I have no
doubt that if I live I shall be a lord and fry wife a lady."
The king laughed.
18*                         AA




210              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
When they were aboard, Tattershall assured the king AJ
his fidelity.  The ship when under weigh stood along the
shore as if for Deal, whither she was bound.  At five,
Charles, as had been arranged, addressed the crew, saying
that he and his companion were flying from  their creditors,
and begged them to join him in prevailing on the captain to
land them in France; at the same tirme he gave them twenty
shillings to drink.  The sailors became zealous advocates;
Tattershall made many objections; at length he affected to
yield, and next morning (17th) the two adventurers were
put ashore at Fecharnp in Normandy.
Upwards of forty persons, it appears, were privy to the escape of Charles; a reward of 10001. had been offered (Sept.
9) for his apprehension; yet no one, not even a servant, was
base enough to betray him.  This surely is creditable to hut
man nature.  It is only to be regretted that the object of
such devotion should have afterwards proved so worthless.@
The Channel-Isles, Scilly, Man, and the colonies of Bar.
badoes and Virginia were reduced by the end of this year.
Scotland and Ireland only remained to occupy the attention
of the council of state.
In the former country, after the loss of the army in England, there remained no force to oppose to Monk.  Stirling
had already capitulated, (Aug. 14,) and Dundee had beenm
taken by storm and all within it ruthlessly massacred, (Sept.
1.)  Montrose, Aberdeen, and St. Andrews opened their
gates, and English detachments even visited the Orkney and
Zetland isles.  The earls of Huntley and Balcarras retired
to the Highlands, where Argyle was endeavoring to organize
a system of resistance; but they preferred submission to the
English to a union with him, and he only had the honor of
being the last to yield.  A  commission of eight persons
(among whom  were Vane and St. John,) for the affairs of
Scotland was appointed.  The object in view was to form an
incorporating union of the two countries, for which purpose
delegates were summoned to meet the commissioners at Dalkeith. To this project both the national and the religious feelings of the people were adverse; but they were of little avail
against superior power. Ere, however, the terms of union
could be adjusted, the parliament of England had ceased to
exist, and Scotland remained a conquered country; a chain
-  After the Restoration, Careless and the Penderels were rewarded
by the king; Miss Lane and colonel Windham by the parliament
(.i 1.,......._ __ _ __ __ __                 __
-.~~r~-jR1LR_~?I~ll  ----------— Ui ——.,*1 —-----------      ----- -----   L- --




THE COMMONWEALTH.                  211
of new tbrts which extended to its remotest parts securing
its tranquillity and reminding the people of their subjection.
The total conquest of Ireland also was achieved.  After
the departure of Cromwell, Ireton had reduced Waterford
and Carlow, while sir Charles Coote wa- equally successful in
Ulster, and lord Broghil in Munster.  Connaught and the
city of Limerick only remained to the Irish. Ormond, thwarted and impeded in every possible mannier by the priesthood,
quitted the kingdom, (Dec. 7,) leaving his uneasy seat to be
filled by the marquess of Clanricarde, a catholic nobleman
of high honor and unsullied loyalty.  A  negotiation was
meantime going on with that princely condottiere the duke
of Lorraine for the service of himself and his army, but he
required for himself, his heirs, and successors, the title of' Protector-royal,' with the chief civil and military authority,
to be retained until Cha:rles Stuart should'repay him his expenses.  To these extravagant demands the agents sent to
Brussels subscribed, (July 27, 1651;) but Clanricarde rejected them with indignation, and the arrest of the duke by the
Spanish government soon put an end to all hopes fiom that
quarter.
Ireton opened the campaign of 1651 with the siege of Limerick, (June 11.)  It had a garrison of three thousand men
under Hugh O'Neal, the gallant defender of Clonmel, but
the keys of the gates and the government of the city remained
with the mayor. Coote advanced firom the north, and in
spite of Clanricarde pushed on to Portumna and Athunree;
Broghil defeated lord Muskerry, the catholic commander in
Munster; Ireton himself forced'the passage of the Shannon
at Killaloe, and transported a part of his army to the Clare
side of that river; and Limerick was thus shut in on all sides.
The defence was gallant, and it was not till after a siege of
four months and a wide breach had been effected in the walls,
that the people and the garrison consented to treat, (Oct. 27.)
Twenty-two persons were excepted from mercy, of whom five,
namely, the bishop of Emly, Wolf, a turbulent friar, Stretch,
the mayor, Barrow, one of the town-council, and general Pureel, were executed.  The intercession of the members of
the court-martial which tried him saved the life of the brave
O'Neal.  Ireton did not long outiive his conquest; he fell a
victim to the plague, which was then raging in that part of
the kingdom, (Nov. 25.)  His remains were transmitted to
England and honored with a magnificent funeral in Westminster-abbey, and an estate of 20001. a year was settled on




212              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
his family. Lieutenant-general Ludlow, who succeeded to
the command, completed the subjugation of the country in
the following year.
The parliament appointed Lambert to the office of lord.
deputy in Ireland, (Jan. 30, 1652,) but his commission was
only for six months.  Lambert, a vain, ostentatious man,
went to great expense, laying out not less than 50001. on his
coach and equipage, but a simple accident came to terminate
his visions of glory. His wife and Ireton's widow happened
to meet in the park; the former, as the lady of the actual
deputy, claimed precedence.  The mortified relict complained to her father; about the same time she gave her hand
to lieutenant-general Fleetwood, who was now a Widower'
and to complete her triumph over her rival, it now only remained that he and not Lambert should be the deputy, and
this was thus effected. Cromwell's commission of lord-lieutenant was on the point of expiring, and a deputy without a
lord-lieutenant was a solecism.  Some, indeed, objected to
these titles altogether, as savoring too much of monarchy,
but it was proposed to renew Cromwell's commission. This
however, he declined.  It was then proposed to limit Lam
bert's commission for six months, but he took huff and senw
in his resignation, (May 17.)   Cromwell was then em
powered to appoint the commander of the forces for Ireland
and he nominated Fleetwood, (July 9;) he, however, reim
bursed Lambert the expenses he had been at.
Commissioners, as in the case of Scotland, were appointee
to regulate the affairs of Ireland.  The people of that most
unhappy country were treated as we shall now proceed tc
relate.
Each chief, as he submitted, was allowed to levy a certain
Inumber of men for the service of the catholic princes of the
continent, and take them out of the country.  A great number of women and boys were at various times carried away
to America and the West Indies.*  By the'Act for the
settlement of Ireland,' (Aug. 12, 1652J,) a general pardon was
extended to all the inferior people.  Of the persons of prop.
erty the following classes were " excepted from pardon of
life and estate."  1. All those who before the 10th of No.
vember, 1642, had had any share in the rebellicn, massacres
* Sir William Petty says, that 6000 boys and women were sent
away, (in all of course;) one catholic writer said 60,000, and another
100,000!! See Lingard, xi. 131.




THE COMMONWRALTH.          1
etc. 2., All who sat or votedin.he general assembly at Kilkenny before the 1st of May, 1.43.  3. All jesuits and other
popish priests who had in any manner aided or abetted the
aforesaid rebellion, massacres, etc.  4. The earls of Ormond,
Castlehaven, Clanricarde, and nineteen other noblemen, with
Bramnhall the protestant bishop of Derry, and eighty-one baronets, knights, and gentlemen, all mentioned by name.  5.
All who since the 1st of October, 1641, had slain any persons
in the English interest, soldiers or others, exc~?t in war.
6. All who did not lay down their arms within twenty-eight
days.  All other persons not included in those exceptions,
who had borne command, or exercised office iL the war
against the parliament, to forfeit two thirds of thei estates,
and to retain the remaining third, or to receive lanos to the
same value in another part of the kingdom. All persons who
had resided in Ireland from October, 1641, to March, 1650,
and had not been in the service of the parliament from August, 1649, to March, 1659, or otherwise manifested their good
affection to the commonwealth, were to forfeit one third of
their estates.
It was the intention of the parliament to transport as many
as possible of the original Irish beyond the Shannon, and
this seems to have been effected in a great part of Leinster
and of Munster, in which, at the present day, scarcely any
of the original Irish have any landed property but what is of  
late acquisition.  The land assigned in Connaught in lieu of!
their thirds exceeded eight hundred thousand acres, which
would seem to indicate that a good number had migrated,
while the paucity of names belonging to the septs of Leinster
and Munster in that province would appear to give a different result.  At all events, the great prevalence of Irish names
among the peasantry of Leinster and Munster, and their retention of the Irish language, prove that thm:y, at least, were
undisturbed.  The forfeited lands were divided among the
adventurers who had advanced money on the faith of parliament in the beginning of the war, and the soldiers who had
served in Ireland from the time that Cromwell took the corn
mand.  Europe had  not witnessed such a transfer of landed
property by conquest since the subjugation of the Greek empire by the Turks, and that of Granada by the Spaniards.
Catholic writers naturally exclaim  against the treatment experienced by the native Irish on this occasion, and we are
far from giving it unqualified approbation; we would, however, remind them of the expulsion of the Moriscoes, and
ofth oignl rih  ae nylade  roery  u watiso




214                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the revocation of t'he edict of Nantes by the catholic sove.
reigns of Spain and France.-"
We must not suppose that the aforesaid act was rigorously
carried into effect.  It wits not so by any means.  Many,
even of those who were excepted by name, retained or afterwards recovered their estates.  In like manner, though a
court was established for the trial of those who -had been
concerned in the murders and massacres of the protestants,
but few were executed, and those only persons of some rank,
such as lord  Mayo in Connaught, sir Phelim  O'Neal in
Ulster, and in Leinster Luke Toole, the head of one of the
septs of Wicklow, colonel Lewis Moore, Lewis Demley, and
some others.  The mother of colonel Fitzgerald was burnt
for the murders she had committed, "with this aggravation," says Ludlow,: "that she said  she would make candles of their fat."  The whole number executed is said to
have been about two hundred, which makes it probable that
the inferior agents were not rigorously sought after   Indeed,
as they massacred their victims by wholesale, it must have
been a matter of difficulty to procure evidence.
This conquest strongly resembles that of England by the
Normnans, and as this last gave origin to the bands of outlaws, so that of Ireland produced the Rapparees or Tories,
who harbored in the woods and bogs, whence they issued to
commit their ravages in the open country.  They proved so
formidable that rewards were set on their heads, 1001. for
that of the captain, 401. for that of a common Tory.t
* Even while we write, (1838,) accounts reach us of the expulsion of
the protestant inhabitants of one of the valleys of the Tyrol by the
Austrian government - the most tolerant of catholic powers. Well did
Pym describe the spirit of popery!
f Rapparee is a corruption of robber. Tory comes from the Irish
verb " toruighim," to rob. The barbarism of the Irish at this time is
almost incredible. " Near this place," says Ludlow, (i. 365,) " lay the
creaght of Lt -gen. O'Neal, son to that O'Neal who after several years'
imprisonment in the Tower of London died there. He came over from
the service of the king of Spain to be lieut.-general to the army of Owen
Roe O'Neal; but upon some jealousy or particular discontent was laid
aside. This man with his wife (who he said was niece to the duchess
of Artois) and some children removed,as the Irish do generaliy in those
parts, with their tenants and cattle, firom one place to another where
there is conveniency of grass, water, and wood; and there having built
a house, which they do commonly in an hour or two they stay till they
want grass and then dislodgoe to another station."  One mightt think he
was describing an ordoo of Turkmoans. The Gypsies are the onllv par.
allel Europe affords.




THE COMMONWEALTH.                 21 5
WVe are now to view the foreign relations of the commonwealth.  Amity prevailed between it and the courts of France
and Spain, and with the eccentric Christina of Sweden. The
first dispute was with the king of Portugal on the following
account.
We have seen that a part of the English fleet went over
to the prince of Wales.  This was put under the command
of prince Rupert, to cooperate with Ormond in Ireland.
The parliament, on the other hand, on the formation of the
commonwealth, turned their attention to the navy; the earl
of Warwick, as a presbyterian, was deprived of his office of
lord-admiral, and (as the naval did not as yet form a distinct
profession) the colonels Blake, Dean, and Popham were appointed to command at sea, and a board of three, with sir
IHenry Vane at its head, was to manage the affairs of'he admiralty.  Chiefly through the exertions of Vane a formidable
fleet was got to sea, and Rupert was blockaded in the harbor
of Kinsale.  After some months he broke through the blockading squadron with tile loss of three ships, and sailed for the
coast of Spain, and he wintered in the Tagus.  In the spring
(165.0) Blake appeared at the mouth of that river, and required to be allowed to enter it and attack the pirate, as he
styled the prince.  This was refused, and as he attempted to
force his way he was fired on by the guns of the castle of
Belem.  He then stationed himself at the mouth of the river
and captured the Portuguese merchantmen; the king in return threw\ the English merchants at Lisbon into prison and
seized their goods. Fearful, however, of the eflects of a
war with the new republic, he forced RPupert to quit the Tagus, and he sent an envoy to London to explain his conduct
It was long before matters could be accommodated, but the
affair terminated at last (Jan. 1653) in very valuable privileges being conceded to the English traders.  Rupert when
driven from the Tagus sailed to the Mediterranean, where
he supported himself by piracy, capturing English. Spanish,
and Genoes- vessels; he thence went to the West Indies
and pursued a similar course, till, having lost one of his
ships with his brother, prince Maurice, in a hurricane, he
sailed to the port of Nantes in France, where he sold his
two remaining vessels to the French government, (Mar.
1652. )
The war with the United Provinces which succeeded was
of much more importance.  During the lives of the princes
Df Orange, who were connected with the royal family of




21t6             HiSTORY OF ENGLAND.
England, the States were favorable to their cause; but on the
death of William of Orange, (Nov. 6, 1650,) the republicar,
party got the ascendency.  The English parliament forthwith
joined St. John with Strickland, their ambassador at the
Hague, in an embassy, of which the object was to propose
a strict alliance and union between the two countries; but
owing to various causes (one of which was said to be St.
John's haughtiness) the envoys returned without having effected their purpose. The States are also said to have delayed till they should have seen the result of the contest be-.
tween the parliament and the king of Scots.  After the battie of Worcester they sent envoys to London, but the parliament was now elate with triumph, and St. John had already
commenced his plan of vengeance. At his instigation Whitelocke had introduced (Aug. 5) the celebrated'Navigation
Act,' which was calculated to give such a blow to the Dutch
commercial prosperity.  Letters of marque had also been
issued to sundry merchants and many prizes had been made.
The Dutch early in the following year (1651) equipped a
fleet of one hundred and fifty sail to protect their commerce,
as they asserted.  Their admiral, Van Tromp, came (May
19) with forty ships into the Downs where Blake was lying
with twenty sail, and, on being required to strike his flag
his reply, it is said, was a broadside.  An action ensued,
and the Dutch admiral retired with the loss of two ships.
Who was the aggressor is uncertain; the English said
Tromp had no right to come off their coast and to fire with.
out provocation; Tromp asserted that he had been driven
there by stress of weather, and that he was preparing to salute the English admiral when the latter fired at him. The
States sent over Pauw, the grand-pensionary of Holland, to
explain and apologize, but the parliament would not abate of
their haughtiness.  They insisted on a large sum of money
as compensation for their losses and the charges they had
been at, and finally (July 9) issued a declaration of war.
While sir George Ayscue, who was just returned from the
West Indies, commanded a squadron in the channel, Blake
sailed to the north, where the Dutch were engaged in the
herring-fishery.  He captured the ships which guarded the
fishing-busses, made these last pay the duty of every tenth
herring, and sent them home with orders not to fish again
without license.  Van Tromp had put to sea with seventy
sail, but as he was preparing to engage Ayscue a ca m came
on, and when he went in search of Blake a storm scattered
Lo. a.
127..,.,.. _... 




THE COMMONWEALTH.                 211
his fleet and five of his shipl:S were captured. On his return
home he was received with murmurs and reproaches, and he
laid down his commission in disgust.
De Ruyter succeeded Tromp in the command.  As lie
was convoying a fleet of merchantmnen he was attacked by
Ayscue off Plymouth, (Aug. 16.)  The forces were about
equal, but the advantage was rather on the side of the Dutch,
and Ayscue, who was suspected of royalism, was removed
from his command, with, however, a grant of land in Ireland
to conso e him. The pensionary De Witt having joined De
IRuyter, and taken the chief command, an indecisive action
was fought with Blakeoff the coast of Kent, (Sept. 2S3;) night
separated the combatants, but in the morning the Dutch ietired to their own coast.  Van Tromp was then- restored
to the command, and with a fleet of upwards of seventy ships
he sailed over to tile Downs, where Blake was lying with
about half the number.  The English admiral accepted his
ch.allenge, (Nov. 30;) the combat lasted all through the day.
In the night Blake, who had lost five ships, ran up the rivet
as far as Leigh.  Tromp sought him  at Harwich and Yar-'
mouth, and then kept cruising along the coast fi'om the North
Foreland to the Isle of Wight, with a broom at his mast-head,
to indicate that he could sweep the English off the sea.
Every effort was made to wipe away this disgrace.  The
ships were refitted, two regiments of foot were embarked as
marines, the wages of the seamen were raised, Dean and
MIonk were joined in; command with Blake, and with seventy
sail they stationed themselves across the channel from the
Isle of Portland to interrupt Tromp, who was convoying a
ileet of merchantmen.  Blake met him (Feb. 18, 1653) off
Cape La Hogue; the action which ensued was obstinate,
the Dutch lost five, the English one ship, and Blake himself
was severely wounded.  The engagement was continued
through the two following days, and the Dutch owned to
the loss of nine ships of war and twenty-four of the merchantmen.
This was the last triumph of the remnant' of the Long
Parliamnent.  Their reign, which had lasted for twelve years,
had now reached its close; they were doomed to: fall by the
hands of their own: servants.
It is uncertain when the idea: of sole dominion first entered the mind of Cromwell.  In his despatch after the bat-,
tie of Worcester, Sie called it a " crowning victory-," a very:
simple and natural expression as appears to us, but one to
which his enemies gave. an-. invidious sense. After that vicVOL. II.     19                      B B




218              HIISTORY OF ENGLAND.
tory he became so elevated, that Hugh Peters, as they were
on their return to London, remarked to a iriend, "that
Cromwell would make himself a king."' In the parliament
Cromwell was very urgent to have the Act of Oblivion passed,
which his enemies ascribed to his desire to conciliate the
royalists.  He soon ajfter (Dec. 18) invited some of the principal lawyers and officers of the army to meet him at the
speaker's house, to deliberate on the settlement of the nation,
At this conference the military men were for a republic, the
lawyers for a limited monarchy.  With these last Cromwell
agreed; but on their recommending one of the sons of the
late king as the person to be chosen he said it would be a
business of more than ordinary difficulty, but gave it as his
opinion that "a settlement with somewhat of monarchical
power in it would be very effectual."  They came to no re.
sult, but Cromwell had gained all that perhaps he wanted -
a knowledge of the sentiments of all these different persons
Besides the Act of Oblivion, Cromwell forced on the parliament another measure which had long slumbered in comimittee, namely, the setting a term  to their own duration.
They fixed on Nov. 4, 1654, thus giving themselves three
years longer of power certain, and the chapter of accidents
for the time to come. In return they proposed to reduce the
army. They first (Dec. 19) disbanded a fourth of the forces.
They were proceeding to follow up the blow, when (Aug. 13,
1652) a petition was presented from the army, calling for
reform  in the law, attention to the subject of religion, etc.,
tacitly charging them  with neglect of their duty in various
ways: they took the hint, and desisted.
In the following November, Cromwell held a long and
confidential discourse with Whitelocke, in which he asserted
that without " some authority so full and high" as to he
able to restrain them  both, it'vould be impossible to prevent
the ruin of the good. cause by the collision, between the parliament and the army.  Whitelocke told him that he could
restrain the army, but that the parliament, being the supreme
authority, could only be controlled by its own good sense and
virtue.  "What if a man should take upon him to be king? 9'
cried Cromwell. Whitelocke said, the remedy would be
worse than the disease; that Cromnwell had already the power
of a king without the odium; that he would lose many of
his friends, and convert the national quarrel into a contest
between the houses of Cromwell and Stuart.  His final ad.
* Ludlow, ii. 12.
-_




THE COMMONWEALTH.                  21 9
vice was, that Cromwell should make a private treaty with
the king of Scots, and place him on the throne with such
conditions as should secure the liberties of the nation, and
have the command of the army assured to himself. Cromwell said they would discourse of it another time, and they
separated.  Whitelocke observed after this that his carriage
toward him was altered.
It is remarkable that very soon after, through Cromwell's
influence, permission was given to the duke of Gloucester to
go to reside with his sister the princess O" Orange.? This
ooks as if Cromwell regarded him as a rival.
During the winter various meetings were held by the
officers, at which Cromwell took care to aggravate their
discontent against the statesmen, whom he represented a'
only anxious to reserve all the benefits and emoluments of
the state to themselves.  An immediate dissolution of the
parliament was his great object, and he had already proposed
that in the interval between that and the meeting of a new
one, the government should be exercised by a council of
forty, composed of members of parliament and officers of the
army. The affair, however, dragged on slowly through the
house, which was reluctant to lose its present hold on power,
and the impatience of Cromwell was no longer to be restrained.  He summoned (Apr. 19) a meeting of parliamentmen and officers to his lodgings at Whitehall, to devise some
mode of putting a speedy end to the present parliament.
The army party declared that " it was necessary the same
should be done one way or the other,". for which Cromwell
rebuked them. The meeting broke up late at night, but the
subject was resumed in the morning.  During the discussion,
word was brought that the house was engaged on the matter
of the dissolution, and it was hoped would do as was re.
quired. Those who were members went to the house; but
it soon appeared that it was their own original bill, not that
of the army, they were engaged on, and that they were about
to pass it at once that it might obtain the force of law.  Harrison " most sweetly and humbly " urged them to pause;
Ingoldsby meantime sped away to Whitehall  Cromwell
instantly ordered a party of soldiers to follow him. He pro.
ceeded to the house, and leaving the soldiers in the lobby,
* The princess Elizabeth had died. What Hume tells us of the intention of' the parliament to put these cildren to mechanical trades is
totally undeserving of credit. They were always treated with humanity
and respect.




2'20             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
went in, and taking his seat on one of the outer benches, slt.
listening to the debate.  His dress, we are told, was a plain
suit of black with gray worsted stockings. The speaker
was about to But the question; Cromwell whispered to Harrison, "This is the time. I must do it."  He rose, put off
his hat, and addressed them.  His language at first was moderate; but as he warmed, his tone altered, and " lhe told them
of their injustice, delays of justice, self-interest, and other
faults."  "But," said he, "the Lord has done with you, and
has chosen other instruments for carrying on his work that
are more worthy."  Sir Peter Wentworth declared he never
heard such unparlianlentary language, and that, too, from
their own servant.  " Come, come, sir," cried  Cromwell,
putting on his hat and springing forward, "I will put an
end to your prating."  He paced up and down the floor,
apparently in great agitation, then stamping with his foot,
lie cried, " Y ou are no parliament; I say you are no parliamrent.  Bring them  in, bril.g them  in."  The door was
opened and colonel Worsley entered at the head of more
than twenty soldiers.  " This is not honest," cried sir Henry
Vane; "yea, it is against morality anid common honesty."
"Sir Harry Vane, 0  sir Harry Vane," said Crornwell,
"the Lord deliver me from sir Harry Vane! He Inight
have prevented this, but he is a juggler and has not so much
as common honesty."  Then without naming him he abused
Whitelocke; pointing to Challoner, he said, " There sits a
drunkard;" to Marten and Wentworth, "There are two
whoremasters."'  He charged others with their vices and ill
lives, and then suddenly turning to the guard, directed them
to clear the house.  Harrison advanced to the speaker, and
on his declining to rise, took him by the hand and led himl
down.  As the members were retiring, Cromwell resumed
"It is you," he cried, " that have forced me to do this.  I
have sought the Lord both day and night that he would
rather slay me than put me on the doing of this work." Alderman Allen observed, that it was not too late to undo all that
had been done; Cromwell charged him with peculation in his
office of treasurer of the army, and gave him into custody.
Then looking at the mace, he said, " What shall we do wit}
this fool's bawble?  Here, carry it away."  He took the
act of dissolution from the clerk, and putting it under his
cloak, went to Whitehall, having ordered the doors to be
ocked.
In the afternoon Cromnwell went with Lambert and Hart
rison to th-t council of state.  He told the members that if




THE COMMONWEALTH.                   221
they sat as private individuals, they should not be disturbed,
but if as a council of state, they should take notice, as they
could not be ignorant of what had occurred that morning,
that the parliament was dissolved.  " Sir," replied Bradshaw,
with real or assumed dignity, " we have heard what you did
at the house in the morning, and before many hours all
England will hear it.  But, sir, you are mistaken to think
that the parliament is dissolved, for no power under heaven
can dissolve them but themselves; therefore take you notice
of that."  Cromwell made no reply, and they retired.
r Thus was terminated the Long Parliament, of whom  it
has been said, with we fear as much truth as severity, that
"scarce two or three public acts of justice, humanity, or
generosity, and very few of political wisdom or courage, are
recorded of them  from  their quarrel with the king to their
expulsion by Cromwell."' Tlhey fell unlamented by the
nationt though a few republican enthusiasts have chanted
dirges to their memory.  The praises of their panegyrists,
we may observe, are almost confined to their successes in
war; but these are surely the praises of Cromwell, Blake,
i  and such men, and not of them.  Their financial system
was as simple as that of an Eastern despot: they laid on
enormous taxes and levied them  by the swords of the solb
diery; if they wanted money on any occasion, they ordered
the sale of delinquents' estates; if timber was required for
the navy, they directed the woods of some delinquent to be
felled.  In these cases justice was not to be had from them.
Lord Craven, for example, had been out of England all the
time of the war; one might therefore expect that no charge
of delinquency could be made against him; but some one
having sworn that he had seen the king in Holland, the
parliament voted that his lands should be sold, though it is
said he convicted the informer of perjury.  M any other acts
of oppression of a similar nature will be found.  At the
same time they were most liberal in providing for themselves;
they of course monopolized all lucrative offices; and in
perusing Whitelocke and the Journals, the ignorant admirers
of these stern republicans will be surprised at the sums
which they voted themselves under the name of arrears,
cOmpensatio.i for losses, etc.  Neither should their High
* Hallam, ii. 209.
t Godwin (ili. 467) acknowledges and Mrs. Macauley indignantly
bewails it. Goywin ascribes it to the smallness of their number and
the arbitrary continuation of their power, and the consequent large
number of their enemies
19*




222               HIS ORY OF ENGLAND.
Court of Juistice and their abolition of trial by jury be
forgotten; at, the same time it should be recorded that
they always inflicted the penalty of death in a mild form,
and never butchered their victims, as was done under the
monarchy.
CHAPTER  XI.
THE PROTECTORATE.
1653-165S.
TIHE first step taken by Cromwell and the co-.ncil of officers (Apr. 22) was to put forth a declaration of the grounds
and reasons of their dissolving the parliament. They then
proceeded to the formation of a new council of state.  Lambert proposed that it should consist of ten or twelve mem.bers; but the fanatic Harrison was greatly in favor of
seventy, that being the number of the Jewish Sanhedrim.
Thirteen (the number of Christ and his apostles) was that
fixed on, and the council consisted of nine officers (Cromwell
included) and four civilians.
The government continued for some time to be exercised
in the most anomalous manner, some measures emanating
from the council of state, some from that of the officers,
others from the lord-general. A ready obedience, however,
was every where given; the army and navy never hesitated
in their fidelity; the courts of law all proceeded in their
usual course. This state of things, however, was felt not
to be secure; for a government without a parl'ament was a
monster in the eyes of the people of England.  Cromwell
was also aware that the time for his assumption of the sole
power was not yet arrived.  It was requisite therefore to
have a parliament of some kind; but as he feared to make
the experiment of a general election in the ancient manner,
the following expedient was devised, after he and his officers
had spent a week in close consultation. The ministers
were directed to take the sense of the "congregational
churches" in the different counties, respecting persons
6 faithful, fearing God, and hating covetousness," and to
transmit their names to the council. Out of these the
council, in tire presence of the lord-general, selected one




THE PROTECTORATE.                 223
hundred and thirly-nine members for England; to whom,
with six for Wales, six for Ireland, and four for Scotland,
writs were issued signed by Cromwell, (June 8,) summoning
them to appear at Whitehall on the 4th1 of July as rmembers
for the places named in the writs, to take on them the trust
of government.
On the appointed day the new members to the number
of one hundred and twenty appeared at Whitehall.  They
seated themselves round the council-table, and Cromwell,
standing by the middle window with his officers on each
side. addressed them  in a strain of great piety, the inspira-.
tion as it was thought of the Holy Spirit.  They had been
called to their high office, he told them, by God himself;
he therefore would give them  no charge; he would only
pray that they might exercise the judgment ok' mercy and
truth, and be faithful with the Saints, however they might
differ in their forms of worship.  He anticipated, he said,
the commrlencement from  this day of the reign of Christ.
Having finished his " grave, Christian, and seasonable"
speech, he placed on the table an instrument under his
hand and seal, giving them  the supreme authority for the
space of fifteen months, at the end of which *they were to
transmit it to another assembly chosen by themselves for
an equal period.
The following day the convention met at the parliamenthouse.  They devoted the entire day to pious exercises, and
many declared that " they had never enjoyed so much of the
spirit and presence of Christ in any of the meetings and
exercises of religion in all their lives as they did on that day."
They were, taken all together, an honest, conscientious set
of men, occupying respectable stations in life, and possessing, if not large, independent estates.  But many of them
had adopted wild notions in religion and politics, which they
held with obstinacy, because they had no doubt of their
truth, and they knew themselves to be single-minded.  A
leather-seller in London, named Praise-God Barebone, being
one of the members, the assemnbly was called in derision
Barebone's Parliament; its other popular appellation was
The Little Parliament.  Thev invited Cromwell and four of
the principal officers to sit among them, but they had no
thought of submitting to his dictation; he had styled them
the supreme authority, and they were determined to act as
such, and without contro(l.
Being resolved to lose no time in the correction of abuses
and the introduction of necessary reforms in all departments,




'224              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
they formed (20th) eleven committees for various object:
one of which was the advancement of learning; another,
the state of prisons and prisoners; a third, provision for the
poor.  Economy and reform  were (as in our own days) the
great objects professed to be in view.  In pursuit of the
former they regulated  the excise and the treasury; they
abolished useless offices and cut down the salaries in others;
anid the public accounts were strictly audited.  This was all
very praiseworthy; but religion and the law were regarded
bly them as matters of far greater imrportance, and here their
proceedings were quite of the root-and-branch description.
The condition of the law was in  itself certainly bad
enough, but they regarded it as a perfect Augean stable.
There were said to be not less than twenty-three thousand
causes pending in the court of chancery, some of which had
been there twenty, others thirty years; the expenses were
enormous; the justice of the decisions was suspicious. Their
remedy was a very simple one - to abolish the whole system.
But then came the question, What to do with the pending
causes?  Bills to answer this purpose were introduced and
rejected, but one was on the eve of being passed when the
parliament was dissolved.  The whole body of the law itself
being in their eyes a mere chaos of confiision, made up of
traditions, statutes, and decisions, often obscure, often contradictory, it was deemed the wisest course to do away with
it altogether, and form  out of it a reasonable code which
might be comprised in a pocket-volume and be accessible to
all men, and not be a mystery confined to a few. A cominittee was appointed to effect this, and a commencement
was made with the articles treason and murder.
In matters of religion one of the first points which presented itself was that of advowsons.  Nothing seemed more
adverse to the spirit of true religion, than that a layman,
merely as the owner of land, should have the right of imposing a religious teacher on a parish, and could even sell
that right like any other species of property.  It was therefore resolved.that the right of presentation should be taken
away, and that the parishioners should be empowered to
choose their own pastors.  The subject of t thes had been
the very first to which they had directed  heir attention.
The members of the committee of religion, however, were
of Cromwell's party, and not of the fanatics'; they delayed
for five months making a report, and when they did they
gave it as their opinion that incumbents and impropriators
had a pr)perty in the tithes.  In the debate which ensued,
t _                       _,L,,. ^... ^....... __........  __




THE PROTECTORATE.                 225
tile committee and their friends were defeated, and it was
generally rumored and expected that the parliament would
proceed to the abolition of tithes.
This fearless, honest, but ill-judging assembly had thus
raised themselves a host of enemies of the most formidable
description- the whole body of the lawyers, the clergy, the
aristocracy.  Cromnwell saw that he night now dismiss the
parliament, and, being regarded by these classes as the only
security for their rights and property against the inroads of
fanaticism,  assume the sole power for which he thirsted.
The vote on the report of the committee of religion had
passed on Saturday the 10th of December.  Sunday was
spent by Cromwell and his friends in secret deliberation, and
early on Monday (12th) they appeared in the house, and
colonel Sydenham rising made a speech in which he went
over all that had been done, and showed how injurious their
measures were to every order in the state.  He said he could
no longer think of sitting in such an assembly, and moved
that they should go in a body and resign their power into
the hands of the lord-general.  The motion was seconded
and opposed; but it was not by argument that Sydenham
and his party proposed to succeed. -Rous, the speaker, who
was one of them, left the chair and went out, followed by the
sergeant and the clerk and by nearly fifty of the members.
There remained thirty-five, and while they were consulting
on what was best to be done, colonel Goffe and major White
came with some soldiers and requested them  to withdraw;
seeing that resistance was vain, they complied, and the doors
were locked.
When the speaker and his train came to Whitehall they
retired into one of the rooms, and drew up and signed an
instrument of resignation.  They then obtained an audience
of the general, who affected the utmost surprise, and was
with difficulty persuaded by Lambert and others to accept
of it. The instrument was left in a room in the palace to
receive the signatures of other members, and on the third
day the number amounted to eighty, a majority of the whole.
lMeantime a new constitution had been prepared and submitted by Lambert to the council of officers, which gave
Cromwell the authority, though not the title of a king.
The following day (16th) Cromwell was installed in his
new office. The street was lined from Whitehall to West.
minster-hall; the general came in his coach at one o'clock;
at the door the procession was formed; the judges and
other law officers, the lord mayor and aldermen, all in their
Cc.L f I Z I  Z  Z   Z I.      _  _  _  _ _  _  _  _  _  _  _  _




226              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
robes, eent first; then came the general, in a suit and cloak
of black velvet with long boots and a broad gold band round
his hat, followed by the councils of state and of the armny.
They proceeded to the court of chancery, where the general
took his seat on a chair of state surrounded by the members
of the bench; the civilians stood on the right, the military
on the left side of the court.  Lambert came forward and ain
the name of the army and the three kirngdoms prayed him to
accept the office of Protector of the Commonwealth.  The'Instrument of Government' was then read by one of the
clerks of the council.  Cromwell having with feigned reluctance given his consent, the oath was read to him by the
lord commissioner Lisle, and he signed it.  Lambert then on
his knees offered him the civic sword in a scabbard; he took
it, and at the same time laid aside his own military one.
He then sat down and put on his hat; the commissiontrs
handed him  the seal, the lord mayor the sword; he tookl
them and gave them  back.  Having exercised these acts of'
sovereignty he returned to Whitehall.  Next day the new
government was proclaimed with the ceremonies' usual at the
accession of a king.
The substance of the Instrument was, that the supreme
authority should be in the lord protector and the parliament;
the protector to be assisted by a council of not less than
thirteen, nor more than twenty-one persons, immovable
except for corruption or other miscarriage in their trust
The former functions of royalty in general were to be exercised by the protector, with the consent of parliament or the
council.  A parliament was to be summoned for the 3d of
September, 1654, and once in every third year, reckoned
from the dissolution of the last, and not to be adjourned.
prorogued, or dissolved for the space of five months without
its own consent.  The parliament was to consist of four
hundred members for England and Wales, thirty for Scotland, and thirty for Ireland.  The qualification for tile
electors was to be the possession of an estate, real or personal, of 2001.  Those persons who had aided or abetted
the royal cause in the.Iate wars were to be incapable of beiig9
elected or voting at elections for the next and three succeeding parliaments.  Catholics and the aiders and abettors of
the Irish rebellion were to be disabled forever.  A provision
more certain and less subject to scruple than tithes was to be
made for the teachers of religion.  All who professed faith
in God through Jesus Christ were to be protected; but this
liberty was not to extend "to popery or prelacy, or to such




THE PROTECTORATE.                 227
as under the profession of Christ hold forth and practise
licentiousness," etc. etc.
Oliver Cromwell had thus, by taking advantage of a train
of favorable circumstances, raised himself to the summit on
which, since his victory at Worcester, he had fixed his view.
His usurpation, if such it is to be called, was the greatest
benefit that could befall the country in its present condition.
"It secured the nation," observes Hallam, " from the mis-:     i
chievous lunacy of the anabaptists, and from the more coolblooded tyranny of that little oligarchy which arrogated to
itself the name of commonwealth's mrnen."  I-lad the presbyterians recovered their power, they would have bound their; 
odious, intolerant religious despotism  on the necks of the
people; the royalists, if triumphant, would have introduced
the plenitude of absolute power. The rule of Cromwell
gave time for men's minds to settle.
As by the Instrument, the ordinances of the protector and       i
the council previous to the meeting of parliament were to
have the force of laws, he took an early occasion of repealing the engagement; he made a new law of treason; an
ordinance of union, accompanied by an act of oblivion, with
Scotland; one appointing commissioners to approve of public  
preachers, and another for ejecting ignorant and scandalous
ministers.'
The parties from whom  Cromwell had most to dread
(for the presbyterians seem at this time to have been quiescent) were the anabaptists and'the royalists.  His old
assistant Harrison and some of the other officers belonged
to the former.  Harrison, when asked if he would own and
submit to the present power, frankly replied that he would
not.  His commission was then taken firom him, and erelong he was placed in confinement.  Some of the others
were removed; the rest complied with the new order of
things. With the anabaptist ninisters, the protector found: i
it necessary to proceed with some rigor.  During the time
of the Little Parliament, these sectaries, thinking they had
the modelling of the nation in their own hands, used to meet
every Monday evening at Blackfriars. These meetings were
suppressed, and two of their preachers, Feake and Powel,
who in their sermons declaimed against the protector as a
"dissembling, perjured villain," and threatened him  with
" a worse fate than had befallen the late tyrant," were sent, 
prisoners to Windsor.
The royalists, on their side, had recourse to conspiracies.
In the month of February (1654) a few were arrested for a




228              HISTORY- OF ENGLAND.
conspiracy; but it appeared to have been merely the wild
talk of some hot-headed persons, and nothing could be made
of it. But in the following month of May, a plot to assassinate the protector on his way to.Hampton-court was dis.
covered.  About forty persons, among whom were the ear,
of Oxford, the two Ashburnhams, sir:Richard Willis, sir
Gilbert Gerard and his brother John, were arrested.  John
Gerard, Somerset, Fox, and one Vowel, a schoolmaster, alone
were brought to trial before a high court of justice.  Fox
pleaded guilty; the other three were convicted on the evidence of ten of their accomplices, one of whom was Gerard's
brother Charles, a youth of nineteen, he himself being but
two-and-twenty. Powel was hanged; Gerard obtained the
favor of being beheaded; he suffered on Tower-hill, avowing
his royalism, but denying his participation in the conspiracy.
On the same day with Gerard, (July 10,) another young
man'suffered, in whose case the protector showed that in
his regard to justice he would be checked by no pretended
privileges.  Don Pantaleon Sa, brother of the Portuguese
ambassador, had an accidental quarrel, in the last month
of November, with John Gerard, whose fate we have just
related, in the New Exchange in the Strand.  Next day he
came with twenty companions, all armed, and taking a person
named Greenway for Gerard, fell on and murdered him.
They then to6k refuge in the house of the ambassador, but
they were seized and committed to Newgate.  The plea of
privilege was disregarded, as it was maintained to be only
personal to the ambassador.  They were tried before a
mixed jury of natives and foreigners, and Sa and four others
were found guilty. Three were pardoned; Sa and the other
were executed, notwithstanding the interposition of all the
foreign ambassadors.
With respect to the royalist conspiracies, it is. probable
that they were not unknown to Charles II.  Cromwell,
though he declared that he did not believe in them, threatened retaliation, and hinted that he was in no want of instruments.  The royalists in the highlands of Scotland,
headed by Middleton, whom Charles had sent over, and
encouraged by Angus, Montrose, Athol, Lorn, and other
noblemen, had bidden defiance to  he English troops; but
they were speedily dispersed by the vigor of Monk;
Ireland was completely subdued; foreign powers sought the
friendship of the protector: it only remained for him  to
terminate the war with the United Provinces, in order to
consummate his glory.
K-'                  _ _                  __I'`~ —     ___ —--------  --------------




THE'- PlROTECTORA-TE*.            2c9/:*
While all the late internxal* changes were taking place in 
England, the Dutch war was not intermitted.  In May,
1653, each country sent a fleet of one hundred sail to sea.
The' English were. commanded Jy Monk, Dean., Penn, and
Lawson; the Dutch..- by Tromp, Kunyter, Witt, and Evertson.
They met off the North Foreland, (June. 2,) the action:
lasted the entire day. Dean and Monk were in the same?
sh;p:; the former-was: killed by a chain-shot; Monk irstantly
flung his cloak over him, lest the men should be: discouraged.
In the night Plake joined with eighteen, ships,- and the: battle'
was renewed next day.  A panic seized the Dutch, and
though Tromp fired o-n them' to rally them, they fled. The
loss of the Dutch was twenty-one sail; that of the English,       i
only one.                                                          i
The States had already, at the desire' of the merchants,
appointed ambassadors to treat of peace; but they had not
set out at the time of this great victory. On their arrival in   K
England, (June 22-,) they found the demands of the council
as; high, as those of the parliament had been.  At length, 
(July 26,) Cromwell told them  that England'would be content if Tromp were dismissed for a while from his command,
and the States would' consent to a federative union between
the two countries;.  Two of them returned to the Hague for
fresh instructions;' meantime another battle was fought, and
another victory gained, by the English.  Monk and Tromp,
each with one hundred ships, engaged off the coast of Holland, (31st.)  The battle was long dubious; at length Tromp
fell, shot through the heart by a musket-ball; the Dutch. lost.
courage and fled: their loss is uncertain; Monk said, that
twenty, they themselves, that only nine sail were sunk.  No
ships were taken'.
The negotiations for peace were resu-med in October, and
after a great variety of manceuvres and delays, a treaty was
signed, (Apr. 5, 1654,) Cromwell receding' from all the lofty 
pretensions of the parliament.  By a secret article, the States'
of Holland engaged' never to elect the prince of Orange for
their,Stadtholder, or' give him the command of the army and
navy. Commercial treaties were also about this: time made
with Denmark, Sweden, and Portugal.  France and Spain
were' rivals. for the favor of the protector.
In this state' of things Cromwell met his parliament, the
elections for which had been perfectly free.  As the -3d of
September happenedi to fall on a Sunday, the protector requested the members to meet him on Monday, at sermon, inl 
lise abbey.-  He proceeded thither in great state.  First rodei
VOL. x1.     20




230             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
two troops of the life-guards; next, some hundreds of officers
and gentlemen bareheaded; his highness's lackeys and pages,
in rich liveries, walked before his coach, a captain of the
guard was on each side of it; his son-in-law, Claypole, mas-'ter of the horse, leading a charger richly caparisoned, followed, and he was succeeded by the great officers of state
and the members of the council in coaches.  After sernmon,
the protector and the members repaired to the Painted
Chamber, where he addressed them in a speech of three
hours' length, displaying the wretched, disorganized state of
the nation at the close of the Little Parliament, and contrasting it with the prosperous and settled condition to which it
had since been brought.  It was for them, he said, to put
the top-stone to the work, and complete the happiness of the
nation.  He then desired them to repair to their own house
and choose a speaker.
Lenthall was chosen speaker without a division.  Though
Vane and some others of the leading republicans were not in
the assembly, Bradshaw, Haselrig, and Scot, were there, and
it soon appeared that the party of the protector was not the
majority.  The parties came at once to a trial of strength on
the question, whether the government should be in a single
person and successive parliaments. It was debated with
great vigor during four successive days (8th to 11th) in a
committee of the whole house.  On the fourth day judge
Hale proposed a middle course, in which the republicans
seemed inclined to acquiesce, but Cromwell had already
determined how to act. The following morning, (12th,) the
members, on going to the house, found the doors locked and
the avenues filled with soldiers, and they were told that his
highness would meet them  in the Painted Chamber.  He
there showed how the Long Parliament had brought on its
dissolution by its despotism, the last by its imbecility, and
that power had been conferred on him, against his will, by
the voice of the people, signified in various ways. He told
them that in the' Instrument of Government,' in virtue of
which they now sat, four points were fundamental.  1. The
supreme power in a single person. 2. Parliaments to be successive, not perpetual.  3. Neither protector nor parliament
to have the sole command of the army.. 4. Liberty of conscience.  These they might uot touch; other points might
be amended.  HEe therefore had caused to be prepared a
Recognition, which they must sign before he could allow
them to sit again.  He then dismissed them.  About three
hundred subscribed the recognition; yet, though the more
__ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _




THE PROTECTORATE.                 231
violent republicans were thus excluded, the house did not
prove quite so manageable as had been expected.
Shortly after, an accident occurred which was near bring.
ing the protector's ambition to a sudden termination.  The
duke of Oldenburg had sent him a present of six Friesland
coach-horses.  One day (Oct. 5th) he went with Thurloe
and some of his gentlemen to Hyde-park, and dine'd under
the trees.  After dinner the fancy took him to drive his coach
himself, and he mounted the box, putti;g Thurloe inside.
For some time he went on very well, but on his beginning to
use the whip rather freely, the horses got into a gallop and
ran away.  The postilion was thrown: Cromwell himself
fell on the pole, his foot got entangled in the harness, and a
pistol which he had in his pocket went off; at length his foot
came out of his shoe, and he fell under the body of the coach,
and thus escaped.  Thurloe, who had leaped out, also received some bruises, and they were both confined to their
rooms for two or three weeks.  The cavaliers prophesied
that Cromwell's next fall would be from a cart.
Meanwhile the parliament went on discussing the' Instrument,' but carefully shunning the forbidden points.  Soon
after the protector's accident, (Oct. 13,) the question of the
succession was brought before them.  Lambert, in a long
and recommended that the office of protector should be limited to the family of Oliver Cromwell, but the motion wan rejected by a majority of two hundred to eighty, and it was resolved, that on his death the successor should be chosen by
the parliament, if sitting, if not, by the council.  Cromwell
waited patiently till the five lunar months were expired; 
the parliament then, who had just completed and read a third
time their revision of the Instrument, were once more summoned to the Painted Chamber.  In a long speech he reproached them with having done nothing during five months,
unless it were to give encouragement to the cavaliers and levellers to combine in intrigues against the commonwealth,
and he concluded by telling them  that the parliament was
dissolved.
The coalition of royalists and republicans to which Cromwell all'Aed -was no fiction.  The common hatred of him
united them, and each hoped that when he was overthrown
they would be able to subdue their allies and establish their'  "The month in law is always of twenty-eight days, unless the contrary be expressed. This seems, however, not to have been generally
understood at the tima." -Hallam. ii. 335.




232             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
own system.  Some of the leading republicans, such as colob
nel Overton and major Wildman, entered i,.to correspondence with the exiled king. Okey, Alured, Lawson, and
Hacker, held consultations with Wildman, at which Marteil
and'lord Grey of Groby are said to have been sometimes present. Of the cooiperation of: Haselrig, Harrison, Carew, and
some otfiers, there seems to have been no doubt.- The vigilance of the government; however, disconcerted all their
plans. Overton was arrested and sent up from Scotland,
lord Grey, Harrison, and Carew, were sent to various prisons.
Wildman was taken in the very act of dictating 4 The Declaration of the free and well-affected people of England, now in
arms against the tyrant Oliver Cromwell, Esq.'
The general rising of the royalists had been fixed for the
beginning of March. Wilmot (now earl of Rochester) and
sir Joseph Wagstaff came over privately to take the command
of them, and Charles himself with Ormond and others moved
from Cologne to Middleburg to be ready to pass over to England. The wakeful eye of government, however, was on their
projects, and the partial risings which they made in Yorkshire
and the west were easily suppressed.  Sir Henry Slingsby
and sir Richard Malever, who had been with Wilmot at the
head of the former, were taken, but Wilmot. himself escaped.
In the west, Wagstaff, being joined by colonel Penruddock,
captain Grove, and about two hundred others, entered Salisbury on a Sunday night, (Mar. 11th,) and seized in their beds
the judges and the sheriff who were.there to hold the assizes
next day. In the morning Wagstaff prepared to hang them
but Penruddock and others, horrified at such barbarity, inter
posed so warmly that he consented to liberate them. The
insurgents then proclaimed the king, but finding that none
joined them, and that a reinforcement which they expected
from  Hampshire did not arrive, they retired and passed
through Dorset  into Devon., where they; were attacked at
South Molton by captain Crooke, and routed.  Wagstaff
made his escape, the rest surrendered.  Cromwell resolved
to venture on trying them by jury, and; as their guilt was
manifest according to the present laws, they were all found
guilty. Grove and Penruddock were beheaded; some were
hanged, others were pardoned; the remainder, without any
regard to their station in- life,: were, in the usual way, shipped
off for:slaves to Barbadoes.
Hitherto Cromwell had been lenient to the royalists, in
the hopes of gaining them; of this he now despaired, and he
resolved to keep measures with them no longer. A great




THE PROTECTORATE.                   233
number of noblemen and gentlemen were arrested; the episcopalian clergy were forbidden to act as schoolmasters or tutors, or to use the church service either in public or private;
popish priests were ordered to quit the kingdom  under pain
of death-; cavaliers and papists were not to come within less
than twenty miles of the city:  He finally decimated the royal.
ists, that is, imposed:an annual incometax of ten per cent. or:
all possessing 1001. a year and upwards in land, or 15001. in
personal property, who had ever borne arms for the king, or
declared themselves to be of the royal. party.  He thus openl)
trampled on the Act of Oblivion, which, when it suited his -
purpose, he had pressed on so strenuously.  The reason he
assigned was, that as, by their obstinately keeping themselves
separate from the rest of the nation, they were a continua'
cause of danger, it was but just that they should be made ti
defray the expenses incurred in guarding against it.
For the collection of this tax, and for carrying into effect
his other arbitrary measures, he divided England into eleven
districts, over each of which he set a major-general.  These
officers were furnished with most extensive authority; they
were empowered to raise troops, levy the taxes, disarm cavaliers and papists, inquire into the conduct of ministers and
schoolmasters, arrest and imprison- dangerous-and suspicious
persons.  When to these we add the arbitrary system  of
general taxation continued or imposed, the high courts of
justice, the interference with the functions of judges and
advocates, we have a picture of despotism before which that
of the Stuarts sinks into insignificance.
We now turn to the foreign affairs:of the protector's government.  France and Spain, we have seen, were rivals for
his favor.  Of all the states of Europe-, Spain: was, perhaps,
the one with which there was: least ground of quarrel: it
had given no countenance whatever'o the royal family;  it
had been the first, to acknowledge the, commonwealth. But
on-the other hand, Cromwell was —a zealous protestant, and
Spain wvas bigotedly catholic, and the chief seat of the inquisition; and the gold and silver-which it drew from America were tempting to his-cupidity.  He did not see why
Spain should monopolize the wealth of an immense-country,
the innocent: people-: of which she had so barbarously' massacred, and treat. as pirates the crews of all ships -lwhich were
found in those latitudes.  He' therefore' demanded of' Car.
deiias, the:Spanish ambassador, that the trade of the English
in the Atlantic should be free.  He also required that the
English merchants settled in Spain:ishould; be securedi from
20*D I 




234              HISTORY OF ENGLANt
molestation by the inquisition.  Cardefias repllied, that the
American monopoly and the inquisition were his master's
two eyes, neither of which he would consent to have put out
The Spanish court, aware that Cromwell was equipping a
fleet, and fearing that it might be intended for the West Indies, sent the marquess of Leyda to London; but after staying there five months, he returned without having effected
any thing.
Cromwell had prepared two fleets; the one of thirty sail
under Blake had sailed in the preceding month of October
to the Mediterranean, to exact reparation for injuries done
to the English trade by the states around that sea.  Blake
first cast anchor before the port of Leghorn, and he made
the duke of Tuscany pay 60,0001. for the injuries he had
doq.n to the English nation.  He then sailed to Algiers, (Mar.
10,) and required the Dey to deliver up the English ships
and men taken by his piratic subjects.  Having received a
conciliatory reply, he proceeded to Tunis, and made a similar demand; the Dey bade him destroy the castles of Goletta
and Porto Ferino, and his fleet, if he could.  Blake speedily
silenced the fire of these castles, and then entered the harbor
and burned nine ships of war that were lying there.  HIe
sailed thence to Tripoli, whose Dey submitted at once to
his demands.  Having thus chastised these pirates, Blake returned to England.
The other fleet, which consisted of thirty sail, commanded
by admiral Penn, and carrying four thousand land forces
under general Venables, sailed about the end of December
for the West Indies, with sealed orders.  When they reached
Barbadoes, (Jan. 29,) they opened their instructions, and
having enlisted and regimented a good number of those who
had been sent thither as slaves, and thus raised their forces
to nine thousand men, to which they added twelve hundred
at St. Kitt's, they sailed to Hispaniola; but instead of entering the port of St. Domingo at once, (Apr. 14,) when the
town would probably have submitted, they landed the troops
at a distance of forty miles from it. Here a mutiny broke
out in consequence of commissioner Winslow's issuing a
proclamation, stating, in Roman fashion, that all plunder
should be public property. This being appeased by Venables,
they advanced for three days under a burning sun, and living chiefly on unripe fruit, which caused diseases among the
men. At length they joined a detachment which had landed
within ten miles of the town. As they advanced they fell into
an ambuscade; they drove off the enemy, but their success




THE PROTECTORATE.                 235
was of no avail, for the diseased condition of the troops made
It necessary for them to fall back to the station of the detach.
ment, where they remained for a week.  When they advanced
again toward the town, (25th,) the road, lying through a thick
wood, was commanded by a battery, and the sides were
lined with Spanish marksmen.  The advance guard in disorder fell back on a regiment of foot, and they on a troop
of horse; all was confusion till a body of seamen cleared
the wood.  But night then came on, and they returned to
their former station.  Here a council of war having decided
that success was now hopeless, it was resolved to reembark
the troops. They therefore left Hispaniola, (May 3;) but as
the commanders feared to return without having effected something, they made a descent (10th) on the island of Jamaica,
the people of which offered no resistance, but they had placed
the greater part of their property in security, so that the
plunder gained was trifling.  By Cromwell and the nation,
the acquisition of Jamaica was thought a matter of no inmportance; yet there were people who saw farther into things,
and regarded it as really of more value to England than Hispaniola would have been. Perin and Venables were, on
their return, both committed to the Tower by the indignant
and mortified protector.  They had shown themselves inefficient commanders, and by their want of harmony they had
almost insured failure.
Cromwell at this time added to his reputation in the eyes
of the world by his prompt and effectual interference in behalf of the Vaudois, or protestant inhabitants of the valleys
of Lucerne, Perusa, and San Martino in Piedmont, who were
persecuted by their catholic sovereign.  There are of course
conflicting statements on this subject, but from the known
intolerant spirit of the church of Rome, it is a fair conclusion,
that in cases of this kind, and where the catholics were by
far the stronger party, they were the aggressors. The Vaudois, it appears, were ordered to give up a part of the valley
of Lucerne; they expressed their dissatisfaction, and the
duke of Savoy forthwith quartered troops in their valleys.
The soldiers acted with insolence and tyranny; the people
resisted, but were overpowered, and a massacre of about
three hundred of the inhabitants of Lucerne was perpetrated,
(Apr. 21,) with all the circumstances, we are assured, of
the most revolting barbarity. When the intelligence reached
England, Cromwell lost no time in sending off under-secre.
tary Morland as his envoy to Turin; he wrote letters to all
the protestant states of Europe, and he made the security of




236              HISTORY: OF ENGLAND'.
the Vaudois a sine qua non in the treaty which- was pending:
with the court of France.  The duke was- therefore obliged
to allow his protestant subjects to exercise the religion of
their fathers, and Cromwell: sent them a sum of money from
himself' in addition to what had by his permission been collected for them in the churches.
When; the Spanish court was certified of the attempt on
Hispaniola, it was thrown into great perplexity, being already
engaged in a war with France.  It, could niot,'( wever, pass
over such an indignity, and it was resolved (Sept. 1) to lay
an embargo on the English ships and property in, Spain.
Cardefias received orders to remonstrate, and if not satisfied
to withdraw.  He accordingly left England, (Oct. 24,) and
the following: day Cromwell:put forth a declaration of the:
justice of the:war'on his part, and' he signed the treaty with
France, by a secret article of which ten Frenchmen- were to
be excluded from the British dominions, and Charles II., the
duke of York, Ormond, Hyde, land fifteen others from those
of France.
Among the events of this year may be noticed the return
of the Jews to England, where they had -not been settled
since the reign of Edward I.  Manasseh-. Ben Israel, a distinguished rabbi, came over to England to negotiate with
the protector on this subject, and though the bigotry of the
committee appointed to consider his propositions did not
allow Cromwell: to go so far as he wished, he permitted them
to come over, to build a synagogue; and to purchase ground
for a cemetery.
The motto of'political parties seems to. be Flectere si
nequeo superos, etc.; in other words, they are will:ing to join
with those whom they most hate to overthrow an object of'
common aversion.  In accordance-with:this principle, we
now meet the sectarian levellers again in alliance with the
royalists, and even with the court of Spain.  Edward Sexby,.
a man who had risen, from the: ranks to'the post of colonel,
had been. an admirer- and an agent: of Cromwell's in the
army; he had' been a leading, agitator; he was a zealot for
liberty, and when his former idol apostatized as he thought,
he became his inveterate:foe.  After the arrest of Wildman
and others, Sexby, who had not been taken, went through
the country distributing pamphlets.  In May (1655) he went
over to Brussels, where' he informed the-countmt F-uensaldagna
of the real destination- of the fleet under Penn and- Venables,
and offered the aid of the: leveliers against the protector, if
furnished witL; money. Fuensaldagna: sent; him to Madrid,




THE PROTECTORATE.                   237
where he was well received, and he obtained 40,000 crowns,
with which he returned to Antwerp, whence he sent various
sums to his confederates in England; and though Cromwell
had gotten information, and even seized a remittance of 8001.,
Sexby crossed the channel, remained some time, and returned
in safety.
Charles had made an offer of alliance to the Spanish cabinet after the rupture with England.  He engaged to recall
to his standard the English and Irish regiments in the service of France; he boasted of his influence in the English
navy, and, like Sexby, only asked for money.  After a long
period of' the usual delay, the court of Spain resolved to
accept both offers, and to effect a union between Charles
and Sexby. The latter said, that the wish of his frienus was
to have a free parliament, in which case there was no doubt
that Charles would be restored, though with some limitations.  The plan formed was, that Charles should raise four
regiments out of his subjects in the service of France, that
Spain should furnish a body of six thousand men, and that
the levellers should secure for them a port and fortress not
distant from London, where they might effect a landing.
While this conspiracy was secretly organized against him,
Cromwell issued writs for a pc:rliament to meet on the 17th
of September.  Great excitement prevailed; the government and its major-generals ai.d other instruments made
every exertion to procure favorable returns; on the other
side, pamphlets calling on the people now to make a struggle for their liberties were circulateda.  The result was, that
though Scotland and Ireland returned those recommended,
England  sent to the parliament a great number, such as
Haselrig and Scot, strongly opposed to the protector's government.  For this, however, Cromwell had a remedy; as
the council was empowered by the' Instrument' to decide
on the qualifications of the members returned, he, under
various pretexts, chiefly of delinquency or immorality, caused
their tickets of admission to be refused to about one hundred persons.  The excluded members published a bold and
vigorous' Remonstrance.'  Of this, though of a most daring
tone, the protector deemed it advisable to take no notice
for his party had now a clear majority in parliament, and
that was all that he required.
Acts were speedily passed for renouncing the pretended
title of Charles Stuart, and for the security of the protector's
person. The war with Spain was resolved to be just and
politic, and a supply of 400,0001. was voted.  In calling
I~ —.Icc~rC~;       su~.~-~    ~_ —    -— r —r~-   n- _UIL —-~-~l_~ l~.rr.




238              tIISTORY OF' ENGLAND.
this parliament Cromwell had had two main  objects in
view: the one was to obtain supplies in a legal manner; the
other to gain from it the coveted title of king. Various
motives probably concurred to make him ambitious of the
title, though he was without it possessed of more than regal
power.  He certainly felt that prestige from which few are
exempt, attached to names of dignities hallowed by time and.
long usage; he who was so affectionate to his family may
have wished to secure the succession of his son, and even
to gratify the vanity of his daughters. The name of king,
too, was interwoven into all the institutions of the country,
and the lawyers, the clergy, the nobility, and all who were
weary of military rule, would be pleased with a prospect
of legal and settled government.  There were even hopes
that the great body of the royalists, on a return to the
ancient forms of the constitution, would grow indifferent to
the exiled family, and transfer their loyalty to the new
dynasty.
Cromwell, as we have seen by what he said to Whitelocke,
had had this idea in his mind for some time.  He now consuited on the subject with Thurloe, Pierrepoint, and St.
John; and to gain the good-will of the people, he resolved
to commence with allowing the arbitrary rule of the majorgenerals to be terminated.  A bill being brought in, (Jan. 7,
1657,) of which the object was to confirm  their past acts,
and invest them with legal authority for the future, it was
opposed by Claypole, the protector's son-in-law, and by lord
Broghil, his confidant.  The debate was continued for ten
successive days; the tyranny of the bashaws, as they were
called, was detailed and dwelt on; but, headed by Lambert,
they defended themselves with spirit. One of their arguments amounting to this, that the whole body of the cavaliers
should be punished for the offences of some, HIenry Cromwell, the protector's nephew, replied, that on this principle,
all the major-generals ought to be punished, because some
of them had done ill, of which he could produce proofs.
He was called on to name, and he professed himself ready
to do so, but the debate was adjourned.  It was hinted to
him that his uncle would not be pleased with his conduct;
but he went that very night and told' the protector what lie
had done, and added, that he "had his black book and
papers ready to make good what he had said."  Cromwell
replied in a jesting manner; and taking off a rich scarlet
cloak and his gloves, gave them to Harry, who strutted into
the house with them  next day. The bill was finally lost




THE Phk rECTORATE.                239
(Jan. 29) by a large majority, and the major-generals remained exposed to actions at law for their previous conduct.
While this bill was pending, a plot to murder the protector
was discovered. The agent was Miles Syndercomb, who
had been a quarter-master in Monk's army, but had been
dismissed for his share in Overton's plot.  Sexby, when
last in England, had arranged the plan with him, and there
can be no doubt but that Charles and his court knew and
approved of it.  The death of Cromwell was to be the signal
for the rising of the levellers and royalists, and the invasion
from  Flanders.  Syndercomb  and  another named  Cecil
bribed Tooke, a life-guardsman, to give them  information
of the places where Cromwell was to pass, intending to shoot
him from  a window.  But something always occurred to
frustrate them, anrid at Wildman's suggestion they altered
their plan.  One evening at six o'clock (Jan. 9) they
entered the chapel at Whitehall, and having set a basket
of combustibles in one of the pews, lighted a slow  match,
calculated for six hours; but as they were coming out they
were all seized, for Tooke had betrayed them.  Cecil told
all he knew, which only amounted to this, that some persons
in the palace were to kill Cromwell in the confusion.  Syndercomb was tried and condemned for high-treason, (Feb.
9;) he would give no information, and he was found dead
in his bed a few hours before the time appointed for his
execution, (13th.)  The royalists and levellers maintained
that he had been strangled by Cromwell's orders; the verdict of the jury was suicide by snuffing up a poisonous
powder.
The pulse of the house on the subject of kingship having
been felt after the discovery of this plot, about a month
later, (Feb. 23,) alderman Pack rose and presented a paper,
called'A  humble Address and Remonstrance,' protesting
against the present uncertain form  of government, and
calling on the protector to assume a higher title, etc.  The
officers instantly rose in a great heat, and Pack was borne
down to the bar; but order being restored, Broghil and
Glyn, Whitelocke, and the lawyers and dependents of the
court supporting Pack, the paper was read, and it was resolved to take it into consideration.  It was debated, article
by article, and at length adopted under the title of' The
humble Petition and Advice.'
The only opposition which Cromwell had to fear was that
of the army, in which interest swayed some, fanaticism others, to oppose it. Lambert, in particular, was against it;




240              HTSTORY; OF ENGLAND.
for being the second person in the country, ana a vain, am
bitious man, he looked forward to being the next protector
His proposal to the officers was, to bring up five regiments
of cavalry and compel the house to confirm the'Instrument' and the- establishment of major-generals.  They hesitated, however, to adopt this bold measure, and he then
withdrew  from  their councils. The inferior officers also
held meetings, and they sent (2Sth,) one hundred of their
number to inform  the protector of their sentiments.  Ile
reminded them that at one time they had offered him the title of king; he said he had always been the drudge of the
officers; that the parliament had been called contrary to
his judgment; that it required to be controlled, which could
only be done by enlarging the authority of the protector.
Several were convinced by his reasons, but they had no
effiect on the majority.  They, however, agreed that if the
question of the title were kept to be last considered, they
would make no opposition to those of his being empowered
to name his successor, and of the parliament's consisting of
two houses, as he proposed.
On the 25th of March the title of king was voted, and
six days after a committee waited on the protector with'The Petition and Advice.' He spoke of the "' consternation of his mind " at the offer, and requested time " to ask
counsel of God and his own heart;" at the same time approving of every thing but the new  title to be given to
himself. At his desire, a committee was appointed to hear
and resolve his scruples.  After various conferences, he
owned (Apr. 20) that his doubts were removed, and at
length he appointed a day (May 6) to meet the parliament,
when it was fully expected that he would accept the royal
title.
Cromwell had vainly sought to gain his brother- and sonin-law,  Desborough and  Fleetwood, over to his design.
They now  told him  they must resign their commissions;
and Desborough having informed Pride of what Cromwell:I;!       was about to do, the latter cried, " He shall not."  When
asked how he could prevent it, he said by a petition signed
by the officers; and they approved of his plan and went straight
to Dr. Owen, and prevailed on him to draw one up.
The Sth was the day finally fixed for the protector to meet
the parliament. On the morning of that day, colonel Mason
and six-and-twenty;other officers came and presented the
petition, in which they asserted that the design of those
who urged the general to take the title of king was to




THE PROTECTORATE.                 241
destroy hin annd bring the nation under the old servitude,
and prayed the parliament to continue steady to'the old
cause, for which they themselves were willing to lay down
their lives.  When Cromwell heard:of this, he sent for
Fleetwood, and asked him why he let a thing of the kind
proceed so far, when he k lew that he would not accept a
crown without the consent of the army; and desired him
to go back and stop it.  Shortly after, the members were
summoned to Whitehall, and Cromwell concluded a long
and embarrassed speech by formally declining the title of
king.
The word protector being substituted for king, Cromwell
gave his assent to' The humble Petition and Xdvice.' It
empowered him to name his immediate successor, and restored the two houses, giving the protector the:right of
nominating the members of the' other house,' as it was
termed, but.subject to some restrictions. The inauguration
of the protector took place on the 12th of May, in Westminster-hall.  He stood on a platform at the upper end of
"he hall; the speaker arrayed him in a purple mantle lined
with ermine, presented him  a Bible superbly bound, and
placed a golden sceptre in his hand.  The oath was then
administered to him; a long prayer from the chaplain succeeded.  The protector sat down between the French and
the Dutch ambassadors, the earl of Warwick and the lord
mayor holding a sword at each side of him; the trumpets
sounded and the heralds proclaimed the style of the protector, to which the spectators responded.  He then rose,
bowed to the ambassadors, and walked down the hall to his
coach. The house of commons then adjourned for six
months.  Most of the officers took the oath of fidelity to
the protector; Lambert, refilsing, was deprived of his commissions, which were worth to him 60001. a year; but he
obtained a pension of 20001.
About this time, a pamphlet entitled' Killing.no Murder,'
and written with great energy, came out in Holland. The
writer of it is generally considered to have been.captain
Titus, though Sexby, who sent thousands of it over to England, claimned it as his own. Having determined that:Cromwell was a tyrant, and that it would be meritorious to kill
him, and eulogized Syndercomb, it assured the protector
that there were numbers ready to follow that example, and
that he was not safe in his bed or at his board.  Sexby soon
came over again, but he was taken and died in prison
VOL. I,.     21                      EE




242              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
We must now return to the war with Spain. L; the
spring of 1656 a fleet sailed from Portsmouth, under Blake
and Montague. Their destination was Cadiz and Gibraltar;
but not feeling themselves strong enough to attack either of
them, they sailed to the Tagus, where they obliged the king
of Portugal to ratify the treaty concluded with him, and pay
the stipulated sum of 50,0001. They then went to the Mediterranean and a-gain returned to Lisbon, leaving captain
Stayner with six frigates before Cadiz. Soon after (Sept.
10) a Spanish fleet of eight sail from the Havannah came inI
sight' Stayner attacked it and sunk four, and took two
laden with treasure. One of the ships destroyed was the
vice-admiral's, on board of which was the marquess of
Vaydes, the viceroy of Peru, and his wife and seven children.
When the ship took fire, the marchioness and her eldest
daughter fainted; the marquess would not abandon therm,
and he perished with them  and one of his sons; the other
children were saved and brought to England. The value
of the silver taken was estimated at two millions of pounds
sterling; and Cromwell, to dazzle the populace, caused it to
be conveyed in wagons from Portsmouth to London.
As Montague had returned home with the prizes, Blake
remained in the sole command, and in the spring (1657) he
sailed for the Canaries to intercept the plate-fleet from Mexico. He found it already lying in the port of Santa Cruz in
Teneriffe, the plate-ships, ten in number, being moored ina
a crescent close to the shore, with seven galleons in a line
before them; the entrance of the harbor was commnanded
b-V the guns of the castle, and around it were seven batteries.
fBlake resolved to attack. He caused a solemn fast to be
beld, and next morning, (Apr. 2V,) Stayner leading the way,
(the fleet entered the harbor under a shower of balls and
shells.  By two in the afternoon the batteries were silenced
and all the ships in the possession of the English; but the
wind which had brought them in, now opposed their egress.
Blake ordered the prizes to be burnt, and soon after the
wind changed to the south-west, and enabled them to get
out to sea. The English had- lost only forty-eight hien in
this daring action.  Blake returned home some time after,
but his health was gone. and he died (Aug. 17) as his shtip
was entering the harbor of Plymouth.  The protector gave
him a magnificent funeral, and his remains were deposited
in Westminster-abbey.
In the month of November Cromwell married his two
_.r_._ —            __._               _-_-_______




THE PROTECTORATE.                 243
youngest daughters to lord Falconberg and t, Mr. Rich.
grandson of lord Warwick.  This last, howeve  diea the
following February.                                              I
In the spring of this year, Lockhart, a Scottish judge,
who was married to Cromwell's niece, had proceeded as nis
envoy to Paris, and a treaty of alliance for a twelvemonth
was concluded with Louis XIV.  Cromwell was to supply
a force of six thousand men, and in return was to get
Mardyke and Dunkirk when reduced.  The result of the
campaign was the reduction  of the former place, which
received an English governor.
The parliament met, (Jan. 20, 165S;) it presented the ancient form of the two houses, the protector having summeoned
by writ sixty persons to form the' Other House.' Cromwell
addressed them  in the ancient style   " My lords, and gentlemen of the house of commons."  But the experiment.
proved a failure. As by the'Petition and Advice' the
commons were authorized to judge of the qualifications of
their body, the secluded members had resumed their seats
and there was now a powerful opposition, headed by Haselrig
and Scot.  They allowed the house to occupy itself with
nothing but the title and rights of the other house.  Cromrr- 
well soothed, and reasoned, and menaced to no purpose.
He then formed his resolution with his usual promptitude.
One morning (Feb. 4) he threw himself into a coach that. 
was standing at the gate of Whitehall, beckoned to six of
the guards to follow him, and drove to the parliament-house.
He summoned the commons to his presence.  He then, as!
usual, talked of his dignity having been forced on him, and
reproached them  with thwarting instead  of aiding  him, 
while he was environed with conspiracies; it was therefore
time to put an end to their sitting, " and I do dissolve this
parliament," said he, " and let God judge between me and
yo."  "Amen, amen," responded several voices.  Thus
was a fourth parliament dissolved.  Addresses to the protector from the army, and counties, towns, and boroughs, were   il
easily procured, and were inserted in the newspapers, to
convince the world of the popularity of his government.           l
At the same time several arrests took place; for the conspiracies of which he spoke were no fictions. Ormond was
actually in London at this very time negotiating with the
various political parties, and transports were collected at      i
Ostend to carry over an invading force.  But Cromwell had
a source of intelligence which the royalists little suspected   1
There was a select band of six, named the' Sealed Knot. 
X_ 




244             HISTORY Oi ENGLAND.
who enjoyed the principal confidence of Charles and his
court, and were the directors of the royalists in England
Sir Richard Willis had most influence in the Sealed Knot
and lhe was in the pay of Cromwell! For Willis:having
been arrested one time, Cromwell, it is said, undertook to
prove to him that it was for the interest of the royalists
themselves that their plots should be prevented.  Willis
was, or affected to be, convinced, and it was arranged that
he should give information, but never be brought forward as
a witness or required to name any person. For this service
he had an annual stipend of 2001.
The protector, therefore, knew of Ormond's being in
London, and when it was thought that he had been there
long enough, a hint was given him, and he hastened to
Shoreham and embarked for France. Shortly after, some
of the members of the Knot and other royalists were arrested, and sir Henry Slingsby, Dr. Ilewit, John Mordaunt,
brother to lord Peterborough, sir Humphrey Bennet, and
captain Woodcock were brought to trial before a high court
of justice.  Slingsby was a gentleman of advanced age; he
had been a prisoner'at Hull ever since the risingin 1i655,
in which he had been engaged; the charge against him was
his having given the officers of the garrison commissions
from king Charles. Hewit was an episcopalian clergyman
and an active agent for the exiled king. Mordaunt also
had distributed commissions.  Hewit refused to plead, but
that availed him  not, and he and Slingsby were found
guilty.  Mordaunt was acquitted, the principal witness
against him having been bribed to abscond. Slingsby was
mrarried to the aunt of lord Falconberg, and the lady Clh.ypole strongly interested herself for Hewit; but the protector would hearken to neither daughter nor son-in-law in
their favor: they were both beheaded, (June 8,) Bennet and
Woodcock were acquitted.
While Cromwell thus suppressed conspiracy at home, his
arms prospered on the continent. After a victory gained by
Turenne over the Spaniards, (June 8,) in which the valor of
the English troops had decided the fortune of the day, Dunkirk was invested; it surrendered in a few days, (17th,) and
was delivered up to the English by Louis in person.
Cromwell would seem to be now at the height of his
glory, victorious abroad and absolute at home, but never
was his state more precarious; he wanted money, he was
surrounded by enemies. To procure the former it seemed
necessary to call a parliament. =He appointed a council of




THE rPROTECTORATE.                245
nine to devise means of obviating the influence of the republicans in it, of raising a revenue from  the estates of the
royalists, and of settling the succession.  But after three
weeks' deliberation they cane to no conclusion of importance, and the protector, suspicious of some of the members
dissolved the council, (July 8.)
To secure himself against the secret attempts of his enemies, he adopted various precautions; he wore armor inside
his clothes and carried pistols in his pockets.  He drove at
full speed, his coach filled with attendants and surrounded
by guards, and he always returned by a different road.  He
changed his bed-chamber frequently, and often personally
inspected the night-watch of the palace.  His nights were
sleepless, or his rest was feverish and disturbed, and the
anxiety of his mind visibly preyed on his health.  Domestic
affliction also came to add to his cares. In the relations of
son, husband, and father, no one ever went beyond Cromwell
in sincere affection; and his favorite daughter, Elizabeth
Claypole, was  now dying of an internal abscess, and the
grief occasioned by the death of her youngest son augmented her danger.  Cromwell abandoned all affairs of state,
and went to Hampton-court, where she lay.  He spent much
time in her room, and always left it with an air of the
deepest melancholy. When her death took place, (Aug. 6,)
though he had long expected it, the event gave him a great
shock.  He was himself confined at the time with a fit of
the gout; he was also seized with what was called a bastard
tertian ague.  One day (24th) hearing one of his physicians
whisper to another that his pulse was intermittent, he grew
alarmed, caused himself to be put to bed, and executed his
will; but next morning, (25th,) when the physicians visited
him, he took his wife by the hand, and said, "I tell you I
shall not die this bout, I am sure of it."  Observing their
surprise, he added, "Do not think I am mad; I speak the
words of truth upon surer grounds than your Hippocrates
or Galen can furnish. God himself hath given this. answer,
not to my prayers alone, but to the prayers of those who
maintain a stricter correspondence and greater intimacy with
him. Go on, therefore, confidently banishing all sadness
from your looks, and deal with me as you would with a
serving-man."  His confidence extended to his family and
friends.  "His highness," writes Fleetwood, "has. had great
discoveries of the Lord to him, and assurances of being
restored and made further serviceable."  "0 Lord," said
his chaplain Goodwin, "we pray not for his recovery; that
21*




246              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
thou hast granted already; what we now~ beg is his speedy
reco~ ery."
But these predictions were not to be verified.  At Whitehall, whither he had moved, his disease turned to a double
tertian, (2Sth;) he became delirious, and, at times, insensible.  In one of his lucid intervals he asked his chaplain
Sterry if it were possible to fall from grace.  On his replyilng in the negative, "Then," said he, "I arm safe, for I am
sure I was once in a state of grace."  On the night of the
2d of September he was heard to pray to this effect: " Lord,
I am a poor, foolish creature.  This people would fain have
me live; they think it best for them, and that it will rev
dound much to thy glory; and all the stir is about this.
Others would fain have me die.  Lord, pardon;them, and
pardon thy foolish people; forgive their sins; and do not
forsake them, but love, and bless, and give them  rest, and
bring them to a consistency, and give me rest for Jesus
Christ's sake; to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, be
all honor and glory, now and forever.  Amen."
The next day (3d) was his fortunate day, that of Dunbar
and Worcester.  After long lying insensible, he expired about
four in the afternoon, amidst the tears of his attendants, and
in the sixtieth year of his age.  When the news was brought
to those who were assembled to pray for his recovery, Sterry
is said to have stood up and to have bid them not be troubled,
"for," said he, "this is good news, because if he was of
great use to the people of God when he was amongst us, now
he will be much more so, being ascended to heaven to sit at
the right hand of Jesus Christ, there to intercede for us and
to be mindful of us on all occasions."  Evemt his sagacious
secretary, Thurloe, writing to Henry Cromwell, says, " He
is gone to heaven, embalmed with the tears of his people,
and upon the wings of the prayers of the saints."
This extraordinary man was a gentleman -by birth, and
educated at Cambridge, whence he went to Lincoln's Inn;
but, instead of devoting himself to the study of the law,
he plunged into the vices and excesses of the town. He
speedily, however, reformed, and then running into the opposite extreme, became an enthusiast in religion.  In the
contest between the king and parliament, his latent military
talents wvere developed; these did not consist in tactics
or manceuvres, but in vigor and decision; he never sought
to surprise the enemy; his plan was to fall on with impetuosity.  He had the art of attaching the soldiers both by his
religious exercises and by a coarse kind of buffoonery and
_ _-        _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _




THE COMMONWEALTH RESTORED.             247
jocular  anguage.  As a ruler he sustained the national
honor in a manner which called to remembrance the glorious
days of Elizabeth. In his domestic relations the character
of Cromwell was every way estimable; he was, a sincere friend
and a placable enemy.  He loved justice and delighted not
in blood; yet ambition made him at times trample on the
one and shed the other: it is possible that in the case of the
king he thought himself justified both by reason and revelation. He never lost his sense of religion, though, like many
other enthusiasts, he made hypocrisy compatible with it.
His desire for the title of king is, like Cesar's, a curious instance of human weakness. On the whole, Cromwell's is a
name which Englishmen will generally be found to mention
with respect.
CHAPTER  XII.
THE COMMONWEALTH RESTORED.
1658-1660.
fIMMEDIATELY after the death of the protector his council
Gus, and it was resolved to proclaim his son Richard, whom
he was said (but the fact is very doubtful) to have nominatea as his successor.  Richard was proclaimed in the usual
malner; not a murmur was heard; and addresses poured in
from the army and navy, the churches, the cities, and the
boroughs.  The royalists and the republicans, who had
hopea to see the whole frame of government fall to pieces
when the vigorous mind of Oliver was gone, looked on in
am azement.
Richard Cromwell was a man of the most amiable, generous temper, but utterly deficient in the energy requisite for
the situation in which he was placed. He had never been a
soldier, and he made no pretensions to the character of a
saint. He had spent his early days in the Temple, and when
he married he retired to the house of his father-in-law and
led the life of a country gentleman.  His father, when protector, made him a lord of trade, then chancellor of Oxford,
and finally a member of his house of peers.
The funeral of the late protector was celebrated on a
scale of expense such as England had never witnessed be.




248              HISTORY OF ENG LAND.
fore.  The model adopted was that of the funeral of Phil.p
II. of Spain. Somerset-house was hung with black; the
effigy of the protector, clad in royal robes, with the sceptre
in one hand', the globe in the other, was placed on a bed of
state; a crown was on a cushion behind the head.  The only
light in the apartment proceeded from waxen tapers   After
two months (Nov. 1) the effigy was removed to the great hall,
where it appeared in an erect posture, with the crown onil its
head and the sceptre and ball in its hands.  Hundreds of
tapers were so arranged beneath the roof, that their light resembled the rays of a sun. At length- (923d) the effigy was
conveyed in state to the: magnificent tomb in the abbey in
which the real body had been long since deposited.
Though the officers had acquiesced in the succession of
Richard, they soon gave him reason to feel that they were
disposed to limit his power; they renewed their meetings,
and in a body of more than two hundred they presented a
petition requiring that no officer should be deprived but by
sentence of a court-martial, and that the chief command
and the disposal of commissions should be given to some
one of whose devotion to the cause there- could be no doubt
Richard assented so far as to appoint Fleetwood lieutenantgeneral, (Oct. 14,) but it would be contrary to the' Petition
and Advice,' he said, for him to part with the chief command
and the power of granting commissions.  With this they
appeared to be satisfied, -but they still continued their meetings.
The only security against the officers, and the only means
of obtaining money to pay the soldiers, was a parliament:
writs therefore were issued, (Nov. 30,) but as the plan of
giving additional members to the counties had not proved
favorable to the court, the old mode was resorted to in England, while the new forma was retained in Scotland.and Ireland, where the influence of the government was paramount
Most of the small boroughs therefore returned the court can
didates, and when the parliament met, (Jan. 27, 1659,) the
state of the. parties proved to -be as follows.  The Protectorists or adherents of the' Petition and Advice' cornposea
one half of the house; the Republicans, headed by Vane,
Ludlow, Lambert, Bradshaw, and Scot, were about fifty,
among whom was lord Fairfax, a secret royalist; the Moderates or Neuters constituted the remainder.  These were
chiefly presbyterians, but among them were several cavaliers,
or sons of cavaliers, who had their instructions from  Hyde
to embarrass the government, and to foment the dissensions




THE COMMONWEALTH RESTORED.             249
between it and the republicans.  Mr. Challoner Chute was
chosen speaker.
The question of the recognition of the protector caused
a long and stormy debate, and it was not carried witllout
great difficu-lty; that, relating to. the''Other House' was
still more violently disputed, buit the commons at length
consented "to transact business with themn" during the
present parliament, with sundry limi:tations of their authority.
Thus far the royalists had supported the courtiers; they now
began to act on the other part of their instructions.  Complaints were made of various tyrannical acts, such as selling
men for slaves in the West Indies, of extortions and embezzlement of the, revenue, and secretary Thurloe and
Boteler; one of the major-generals, were menaced with impeach nents.
These proceedings gave alarm to the officers, who feared
there would be soon a power superior to their own. They
were divided into two parties — those who adhered tq the
interests of Richard and met at Whitehall, such as Ingoldsby,
Whalley, Goffe, and others, and those who met at Wallinlgford-house, the residence of Fleetwood, such as Desborough,
Sydenham, Berry, and Haynes, whose object was to make
Richard merely a civil magistrate, and to keep the army in
their own power. A third party now appeared at St. James's,
composed of Ashfield, Lilburne, Mason, and men of strong
republican principles. The republicans in the house, finding
their weakness, soon entered into close relations with the
Wallingford-house party; there was also. a junction formed
with the party at St. James's.  A general council was formed,
and a' Humble Representation and Petition,' complaining
of the neglect of the good old cause and its supporters, etc.,
was drawn up and presented to the. protector, and by him to
the commons, who took no notice of it. They then} with
the protector's consent, called a general council of officers
to make propositions to the parliament respecting the army.
It was decided by this council that the command of the army
should be committed to some one in whom thev could all
confide, and that every officer should, declare his approbation of the death of Charles I. and the subsequent acts of
the army. The commons took alarm. and voted (Apr. 18)
that the officers should no more meet in a general council,
and also declared (21st) that the command; of the army
was only to be exercised by the protector. The officers
then appointed a rendezvous of the army at St..: James's;
the protector appointed a counter one at Whitehall  But
FF




f                                                        _
250              HISTORY OF ENGLANI
the troops all went to the- former, and at noon on that day
Desborough came from them to tell him that if he would
dissolve the parliament the officers would take care of him,
but if not they would do it without him. After consulting
with his friends, among whom  Whitelocke alone opposed
the dissolution, he consented, and the parliament was dissolved, (22d.)
The officers, having thus put an end to the parliament,
were now somewhat uncertain how to act. They wished
above all things to retain their power, for which purpose
they wure not unwilling to continue Richard in his office; at
the same time they felt the necessity of money. Their first
thought was to raise it, like Cromwell, by the power of the
sword; but this proving too hazardous, they listened to the
proposals of their republican allies, and agreed to reinstate
the  Rump parliament.  They proposed a settlement on
Richard, and the retention of the other house under the
namen of a senate; but matters not brooking delay, these
points were reserved, and a Declaration in the name of
Fleetwood and the general council of the army was issued,
(May 6,) inviting the members of the Long Parliament who
continued sitting till April 20th,.1653, to return to the
exercise and discharge of their trust. Next day forty-two
members met in the Painted Chamber, and headed by Lenthall, passed into their house through lines of officers.  Sir
George Booth, Prynne, Annesley, and others of the secluded
members attempted to enter the house, but the doors were
closed against them.
A committee of safety (all but Vane and Scot military
men) was appointed, (9th,) and a few days after (13th) a
council of state of thirty-one civilians and officers was
chosen.  Addresses poured in as usual; the house voted
(21st)"6' A free commonwealth without a single person, kingship, or a house of peers."  All this, however, was far from
being agreeable to the Wallingford-house party; those who
were members of the council rarely attended, and when they
did, they behaved with great insolence; they scrupled to
take the oath " to be true and faithful to the commonwealth
in opposition to Charles Stuart, or a single person;" they
sent to the parliament (.15th) " the things which they had
on their minds," when they restored it, in the form of fifteen
demands, bearing the modest title of' The humble Petition
and Address of the Officers.' In this they required an act
of indemnity for those who had acted under the late power,
Fleetwo)d to be commander-in-chief, the protector's debts to
[  _______________... a     r t____ _1




THE CQTOMMONWiEALTH RESTORED.           251
be paid, and an income of 10,0901. a year to be settled on
hinm, and 89001., a year on- his mother, "her highness-dowager;" the government to consist of a representation of the
people, and a select senate, etc.  The parliament replied,
that they would take these things into consideration, and
give all possible satisfaction.  The act of'.ndemnity was
passed, but in an unsatisfactory form; the debts of Richard,
a-mounting to 29,0901., were transferred to the pubJiin account,
a sum of 29001. was given him for present purposes, and the
190,001. a year was voted.  He was at the same time required to leave Whitehall, as it was suspected that the officers
kept him there for purposes of their own. It was feared that
his brother Henry, who was a man of more spirit, would
offer resistance in Ireland, where he was lord-deputy, but he
yielded obedience to the mandate of the parliament.
But the great object of the parliament was, as Ludlow
expresses it, to provide " that for the future no man might
have an opportunity to pack an army to serve his ambition."
For this purpose two bills were passed; the one nominating
a committee of seven persons to recommend officers to the
house; the other making Fleetwood commander-in-chief,
but only for the present session, or till they should take further order therein, and directing that the officers approved
of by the parliament should receive their commissions, not
from hitn, but from the speaker. These restrictions were
opposed by Ludlow, Vane, and Salloway, as needless and
only tending to disgust the army, but the fervent zeal of
Haselrig, Sidney, and Neville, would hearken to no suggestions of prudence.  Notice being given to the officers that
it was expected they would take new commissions from the
speaker, a council was held at Desborough's house, at which
Ludlow  and Haselrig, who now had regiments, attended.
The officers were very high; Desborough even said, that
he thought the commission he had as good as any the parliament could give, and that he would not take another.  But
the next morning (June 8) colonel Hacker and his officers
caime at the persuasion of Haselrig, and took their commissions from the speaker, and the ice being now broken, others
followed.  Fleetwood took his the day following, and Lambert soon after, (11th.)
It was voted at this time (6th) " that this parliament shall
not continue longer than May 7th, 1660."
WVhile the republican oligarchs were thus employed, the
royalists were by no means idle. Negotiations had been
Carried on with the leading presbyterians, and they were




252              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
now all pledged to the royal cause.  Richard Cromwell had
been offered a title and 20Q00Ol. a year; his brother was
also solicited, and he at one time is said to have meditated
declaring for the king.  Fleetwood, Lambert, and Monk
also were applied to.  A general rising on the 1st of August
was arranged:, and the king and his brothers were at the
same time to pass over with the troops which they had as.
sembled.  But Willis still kept up his correspondence with
Thurloe, and the parliament was thus put in possession of
their secrets.  His treachery, however, was at this time discovered through Morland, the secretary of Thlirloe, who
forwarded to the court at Bruges some of Willis's communications in his own hand-writing.  Willis, after his usual
manner, when the government had been put on its guard by
himself, represented to the' Knot' that the project was now
hopeless, and persuaded them to write circulars forbidding
the rising, (July 29.)  Accordingly, it was only in Cheshire
that it took place, where sir George Booth called on the
people, without mentioning the king, to rise and demand a
free parliament.  He took possession of Chester, where he
was joined by the earl of Derby, lord Herbert of Cherbury,
sir Thomas Middleton, and other royalists.  But their spirits
were damped when they learned that their friends all remained inactive, and that Lamnbert was advancing against
them with four regiments of horse and three of foot.  They
moved to Nantwich, intending to dispute the passage of the
Weever; but Lambert easily forced it, and their men broke
and fled at his approach, (Aug. 16.) Colonel Morgan and
about thirty men were killed, and three hundred were taken.
The earl of Derby was taken in the disguise of a servant,
and Booth, as he was on his way to London, dressed as a
woman,' was discovered at Newport-Pagnel in Bucks.
Lamnbert hastened up to London, leaving his army to follow
by slow marches.  A sum of 10001., which was voted him, iLe
distributed among his officers, and shortly after (Sept. 145
they sent up from Derby a petition, (secretly transmitted te
them  from Wallingford-house,) requiring that there should
be no limitation of time in Fleetwood's commission, that
Lambert should be major-general, that no officer should be
deprived of his commission except by sentence of a courtmartial, etc. This petition having bean shown to Haselrig
by Fleetwood, (22d,) he hastened into the house, and having
caused the doors to be locked, moved that Lambert and two
other officer.s should be taken into cu stody.  But on Fleet.
wood's asserting that Lambert knew lnothing of it, they con



THE COMMONWEALTH RESTORED.             253
tented themselves with passing a vote expressive of their
dislike of the petition; and it was resolved " that to augment
the number of general officers was needless, chargeable, and
dangerous." Several meetings were now held at Wallingfordhouse, and another petition was drawn up, which was pre.
sented (Oct. 5) by Desborough and other officers. It was in
substance the same as the former, but it further demanded
that those who groundlessly informed the house against their
servants should be brought to justice.  This was aimed at
iHaselrig and his friends.  The house in the usual manner
returned them thanks for their good expressions, but soon
after (llth) a vote was passed, making it treason to raise
money without consent of parliament.  Next day Lambert,
Desborough, and seven other colonels were deprived of their
commissions for having sent a copy of the petition to colonel
Okey, and by another vote Fleetwood's office was taken away,
and he and six other persons were nominated to form a board
for the direction of the forces.
Haselrig, having thus thrown down the gauntlet, prepared
for defence.  He reckoned on the armies of Scotland and
Ireland, the regiments of Hacker, Morley, and Okey, and
some others about London had assured him of their fidelity,
and the parliament had a guard of chosen horse, under major
Evelyn. Orders were given for these troops to move to
Westminster, and early in the morning (13th) the regiments
of Morley and Moss, with some troops of horse, occupied the
palace-yard and the avenues of the house. Lambert, on the
other hand, drew together his men, and posted them in Kingstreet and about the Abbey.  The two parties faced each
other, but the men were loath to fight against their brothers
in arms, and their officers did not urge them. When the
speaker came up in his coach, Lambert ordered one of his
officers to conduct the " lord general " to Whitehall, but lie
was suffered to return to his own house. The council of
state then met, and after a good deal of altercation it was
agreed that the parliament was not to sit, that the council of
officers should keep the public peace, and cause a form of
government to be drawn up, which should be laid before a
new parliament speedily to be summoned. Fleetwood was
declared to he commander-in-chief, with fuill powers, Lambert major-general, and a committee of safety was appointed.
To ascertain the feelings of the armies in Ireland and Scotland, colonel Barrow was sent to the former country, and
colonel Cobbet to the latter.  Barrow found the officers and
VOL. II.     22




254              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
men wavering and divided; Cobbet was imprisoned by Monh
who declared for the parliament.
The conduct of Monk, who now becomes the principa
object of attention, is ambiguous beyond example.  He had
early served under Goring in the Netherlands; he was in the
royal army in Ireland, and was made a prisoner at Nantwich:
he remained in the Tower till the end of the war, when he
got a command in Ireland'; he attached himself strongly to
Cromwell, by whom the government of Scotland was confided to him; he continued his attachment to Cromwell's family, and he wrote to Richard a most judicious letter, pointing
out the best modes of securing his power.  Monk was no
speculative republican, he was no fanatic in religion, though
much influenced by his wife, who was a presbyterian. He
was a man of a phlegmatic temper, and of impenetrable secrecy. The royalists always had hopes of him, and it is not
improbable, that now seeing the power of Cromwell's house
gone, his secret plan was to aid, if it could be done with
safety, in restoring the king.
The first care of Monk was to secure the castles of Edinburgh and Leith, and to occupy Berwick.  When this was
known in London, it was resolved that Lambert should march
against him; and he set out forthwith for the north, (Nov.
3,) having previously exacted a promise from Fleetwood, that
he would come to no agreement with either the king or
Haselrig without his approbation.
Monk meantime went on re-modelling his army: such of
his officers as were of the Wallingford-house party having resigned their commissions, he supplied their places with such
as he could depend on; he also displaced many who had been
put in by the parliament.  As his treasury and magazines
were well supplied, and he knew his opponents wanted
money, he sought to procrastinate; he therefore sent depiuties to London, and on their return pretending that the agreemeit which they had concluded was somewhat obscure, he
opened a negotiation with Lambert, who was at Newcastle,
in order to have it explained.  Meanwhile he went on
reforming his army, dismissing even the privates of whom he
was not certain, and supplying their place with Scots.  He
held a convention of the Scottish estates at Berwick, and
having commended the peace of the country to them during
his absence, and obtained a grant of money, (Dec. 6,) he
fixed his head-quarters at Coldstream, where he still contin.
ued lo amuse Lambert wlth negotiat;ons.




THE COMMONWEALTH RESTORED.             255
Meantime the cause of the army was losing ground in city
and country.  The apprentices in London had frequent
scuffles with the soldiers; an attempt was made to seize the
Tower; admiral Lawson declared for the parliament, and
brought his fleet up to Gravesend; Whetham, governor of
Portsmouth, admitted Haselrig and Morley into the town,
and the troops sent against them  went over to them; tile
Isle of Wight declared for the parliament.  At length the
soldiers themselves abandoned their officers, and putting
themselves under the command of Okey and Alured, they
assembled (Dec. 24) in Lincoln's-Inn-fields, and having declared for the parliament, marched by Lenthall's house, in
Chancery-lane, and saluted him as their general.  On the
26th, the speaker and those members who were in town
walked to the house, the soldiers shouting and cheering them
as they passed.  Haselrig returned in triumph, and the vivacious Rump once more flourished.
Fleetwood had on his knees surrendered his commission
to the speaker; Lambert, Desborough, and others, made
their submissions in the humblest manner, but they were all
confined to their houses at a distance from London. The
army was re-modelled; not less than fifteen hundred officers
being discharged. The Rump proceeded to punish such
members as had been of the late committee of safety; Vane
was expelled, and ordered to retire to his house at Raby;
Salloway was sent to the Tower; Whitelocke had to resign
the great seal, and narrowly escaped being committed also
Charges of treason were made against Ludlow and others.
A new council of state was appointed, and an oath, renouncing kingship and the Stuarts in the strongest terms, was
imposed on all members of the parliament.  Meantime lord
Fairfax and Monk had arranged that on the same day (Jan.
1, 1660) the latter should cross the Tweed, and the former
should seize the city of York.  The engagement was punctually performed; the royalists in York opened the gates and
admitted Fairfax.  Though the weather was severe, Monk
continued his march; Lambert's troops having obeyed the
orders sent to them to disperse, no opposition was encountered; and having staid five days to consult with Fairfax at
York, Monk resumed his march for the capital, (16th,) the
invitation to do so being now arrived.  It was Fairfax's
advice that he should remain in the north, and there proclaim
the king, but he said it would be dangerous in the present
temper of his officers; in fact he caned at York one of them
for charging him with this design. At Nottingham (21st)




j  256           HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
his officers were near signing an engagement to obey the par
liament in all things " except the bringing in of Charles Stu.
art."  At Leicester (23d) he was obliged to sign an answer to
a petition from his native county, Devon, giving it as his
opinion, that mmarchy could not be restored, that it would
be dangerous to recall the secluded members, and advising
submission to the present parliament.  At this town he was
joined by Scot and Robinson, two of the members sent, as it
were, to do him honor, but in reality to discover his intentions.  He treated them with great respect, and always referred to them the bearers of the numerous addresses that
were presented to him, for the restoration of the secluded
members and a free parliament.
The troops which Monk had brought with him did not exceed five thousand men, and those in and about London were
more numerous; he therefore wrote from St. Albans, (28th,)
requiring, to prevent quarrels or seduction, that five regiments should be removed.  An order was made to that
effect, (Feb. 2,) but the men refused to obey; the royalists
of the city tried to gain them over, but they remained faithful to the parliament, and, on being promised their arrears,
marched out quietly the next morning, (3d.)  Monk led in
his troops the following day, and took up his quarters at
Whitehall.
On the 6th Monk received the thanks of the house.  In
his reply, he noticed the numerous addresses for a free and
filll parliament which he had received, expressed his dislike
of oaths and engagements, and his hopes that neither cavaliers
nor fanatics would be intrusted with civil or military power.
By some his speech was thought too dictatorial.  " The
servant;" said Scot, "has already learned to give directions
to his masters."  Monk also excited suspicion, by demurring
to the oath abjuring the Stuarts to be taken by members of
the council of state.  Seven of the other members, he obj~ i      served, had not yet taken it, and he should like to know their
reasons; experience had shown that such oaths were of little
force: he had proved his devotion to the parliament, and
would do so again.
The tide of loyalty still continued to swell in the city.
The secluded members held frequent meetings there, and
some even of the king's judges who were in parliament held
comnmunications with them.  Th-e last elections had given a
common council zealous for a full and free parliament.; they
set the present one at nought, refused to pay the taxes inposed by it and received and answered addresses from the




THE COMMONWEALTH RESTORED               257
counties. To check these proceedings, it was resolved by
the council that eleven of the common council should be
arrested, the posts and chains which had been fixed in the
streets be taken away, and the city gates be destroyed. In
the dead of the night, (9th,) Monk received orders to carry
thlis resolution into effect. He obeyed, though his officers
and soldiers murmured; the citizens received him with
groans and hisses, but made no opposition.  When the posts
and chains were removed, Monk sent to say that he thought
snough had been done; but he was directed to complete the
demolition, and he therefore destroyed the gates and portcullises.  He then led his men back to Whitehall, and,
having there coolly considered the whole natter, he thought
he saw a design to embroil him with the citizens, and, finally,
lay him aside.  In concert with his officers, he wrote next
morning (10th) to the speaker, requiring that by the followng Friday every vacancy in the house should be filled up,
preparatory to a dissolution and the calling of a new  parliament. He then marched his troops into Finsbury-fields,
caused a common council to be summoned, and told them
that he was come to join with them  in procuring a full and
firee parliament. His speech was received with acclamations;
he was entertained at the Guildhall; his soldiers were feasted; the bells were tolled; bonfires were lighted, and the populace amlused themselves with roasting rumps at them, in
ridicule of the parliament.
Monk remained in the city till the 21st.  He had daily
conferences with all parties,.but none could penetrate the
veil of secrecy in which he enveloped himself: his words
were all for a commonwealth,  while many of his actions
spoke a different language.  It was now arranged that the
secluded members should be allowed to take their seats on
certain conditions, one of which was, that writs should be
issued for a new parliament to meet on the 20th of April.
After an absence of more than eleven years, Hollis, Pierrepoint, and the other presbyterians resumed their seats, while
Haselrig, whose eyes up to this moment had been closed to
the duplicity of Monk, retired in despair with his adherents
All the proceedings against the king and themselves were
now annulled: sir George Booth and his friends, the Scottish
lords, and several royalists were released from prison;. Lambert was sent to the Tower; the government of Hull was
taken from Overton, and committed to lord Fairfax; Lawson
was voted to be vice-admiral, and Monk and Montague to be
generals at sea.  Monk was also made general of all the
22                          G G




258               HISTORY OF ENGLANDD.
land-forces in the three kingdoms; the city chose him major.
general of their militia; he was also mar';e steward and
keeper of Hampton-court, and a sum of 20,0001. was voted
him.  The engagement was now repealed; but the Assembly's confession of faith was approved of, and the league and
convenant was ordered to be printed and hung up in the
churches; the execution of the laws against popish priests
and recusants was enjoined.  The council of state which
was appointed was composed of presbyterians, and they also
held most civil and military offices.  In this state of things,
having issued writs for a parliament to meet on the'25th of
April, the ever-memorable Long Parliament put a termination
to its own existence on the 16th of March.
Monk still dissembled; but now seeing how the elections
were going, he ventured to open his mind to a royalist agent.
Mr. Morrice, his relative and confidential friend, having informed him of the state of feeling in the West, he consented
to have a private interview with sir John Greenville, who was
also his relation, but at the same time high in the confidence
of the king.  Greenville delivered him a letter from his royal
master, which Monk received with great respect; he mentioned the difficulties of his situation, and therefore desired
him  to confer in private with Morrice.  An answer to the
royal letter was drawn up, in which Monk advised that the
king should send him a letter to lay before the parliament;
he recommended an amnesty, total or nearly so, liberty of
conscience, confirmation of the national sales, and payment
of the arrears of the army.  When it had been read, he
threw it into the fire, bidding Greenville to remember tic.
contents.
It was also a part of Monk's advice that the king should
quit the Spanish dominions.'' Charles therefore moved firom
Brussels to Breda, whence he forwarded by Greenville a
declaration, with letters to the house of lords, the house of
commons, the lord mayor and city, Monk and the army,
Montague and the navy.  Copies of them  all were sent to
Monk, who was to do as he pleased with the originals. The
declaration was very different from what he had proposed,
but he made no objection.
If ever here was a parliament fireely chosen, it was the
present one: there was no court or army now to control the
* It is said to have been the intention of the Spaniards to deta;in
Charles till Jamaica and Dunkirk should be restored. Acctrding to
Clarendon, (vii. 452 ) he narrowly escaped detention.




THE COMMONWEALTH RESTORED.              259
I.lectials; the territorial aristocracy was enfeebled, and could,ise llone but its legitimate influence; the royalists (the catholics of course excepted) were no longer deprived of the right
of voting; all parties therefore put forth their strength, and
the royalists (the moderate presbyterians included) had a
most decided majority.  The republicans obtained few seats,
and their only hopes lay now in the army, and by representing
to the officers that they would be obliged to resign their
purchases, and to the privates that they would lose their arrears, they succeeded in exciting a mnutinous spirit.  Lambert, having escaped from  the Tower, hastened down to
Warwickshire to put himself at their head. He had collected
a few troops of horse and some foot, when Ingoldsby, now a
royalist, met him near Daventry, (Apr. 21.) Captain Haselrigc
(son to sir Arthur) passed over- with his troop to!ngoldsby;
others followed their example, and Lambert, left alone, having vainly tried to induce his former fellow-soldier to let
him escape, surrendered. Colonels Cobbet, Creed, and some
others, also were taken.  At the very moment (24th) when
Monk was reviewing the militia of the city in Hyde-park
Lambert and his friends were driven by Tyburn, on their
way to the Tower, amidst the hootings of the populace.
The next day the house of commons met, and the presbyterians succeeded in having sir Harbottle Grimstone, one of
their party, chosen speaker.  Monk sat as one of the members for Devon.  At the same time the peers who had sat in
1648, assembled in their house without opposition; but it
was plain that they had no exclusive right, and some of those
who had been excluded applied to Monk.  On his replying that he had no authority to determine any claims, a few
of them; ventured to take their seats; no one opposing, others
followed, and in a few days the presbyterians formed only a
fifth part of the house.
On the 1st of May, Greenville came to the door of the
council-chamber, (by Monk's secret direction,) and requested
a member to tell the lord general that one wished to speak
to him.  Monk came to the door; Greenville put a letter
into his hand; Monk, perceiving that it was sealed with the
royal arms, directed the guards not to let the bearer depart.
Greenville was soon called in and interrogated by the president; he was ordered into custody; but Monk said that he
now perceived he was his near relation, and he would be his
security.  The drama had  now  reached  its conclusion;
Greenrille delivered all his letters, and received the thanks
of the house! and 5001.  The letters to the army, navy, and




260             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
city were read to them by Monk, Montague, ant the lord
mayor, and  addresses to his majesty were unanimously
voted.
The declaration from Breda contained a promise of pare
don to all except those who should be hereafter excepted
by parliament; a promise to consent to any act of parlia.
ment that should be passed for the indulgence of tender
consciences; a promise to allow the parliament to regulate
all differences respecting the rights and titles to lands, and
a similar promise respecting the military arrears.
How illusory all this was is plain to be seen; the king in
effect was bound to nothing, and what the complexion of
the next parliament was likely to be, no one could have a
doubt. The upright sir Matthew  Hale, therefore, with
Prynile and others, called on the house to pause, and now,
while they had the power, to make a final settlement of the
claims which had hitherto caused collision between the
crown and parliament. But Monk opposed the revival of
these disputed questions at this time, when every moment
was precious. Let the king, he said, but come, it would be
always in their power to impose limitations. The house
rang with acclamations, and unhappily the golden oppor
*unity was lost, and the king restored without any restriction.
A sum of 50,0001. was voted to the king, 10,0001. to the
duke of York, and 50001. to the duke of Gloucester. The
arms of the commonwealth were every where taken down,
and the royal arms put in their place. The king was pro4         claimed with great solemnity, (8th;) and the ministers were
ordered to pray for him and the duke of York. Commissioners were sent to invite the king to come and receive
his crown.
Charles lost no time in proceeding from Breda to the
[Fague. The States, who had hitherto neglected him, now
1reated him  with the' utmost respect and magnificence.
Montague being arrived with the English fleet in the bay
of Schevelin, he got' on board, (23d.) At Dover (25th)
Monk, at the head of the nobility and gentry of Kent, received him  as he landed. He kissed and embraced the
general, made him walk ny his side and ride in the coach
with himself and his brothers. As he proceeded, the people
crowded from all parts to see and welcome him. On the
29th, which was his birth-day, he approached the capital.
The army was drawn out on Blackheath to receive him, and
they greeed him with joyful acclainations as he passed. In




CHARLES II.                  261     -    i
St. George's-fields the lord mayor and aldermen invited  im
to partake of a cold collation in a tent. The houses from
London-bridge to Whitehall were covered with tapestry; the
streets were lined to Temple-bar by the militia on one side,
the city companies in their liveries on the other; thence to
Whitehall, by militia and regiments of the army. Troops of
gentlemen richly clad, with their footmen and trumpeters,
the city companies, the sheriffs, mayor, and aldermen, rode
along; the lord general and the duke of Buckingham  followed; the king, riding between his two brothers, succeeded; the cavalcade was closed by the general's guards,
and five regiments of horse, and two troops of noblemen and
gentlemen.  Such was the general joy displayed, that the
king, in his agreeable manner, observed, "It must surely
have been my fault that I did not come before, for I have
met with no one to-day who did not protest that he alway*
wished for my restoration."
CHAPTER XIII.
CHARLES II.                                i
1660-1667.                                 i
ENG-LAND, after nearly twenty years of anarchy and confusion, now resumed her original form. The clouds seemed
to be all dissipated, and a bright sun of royalty about to shed
peace and happiness all over the land.  But this appearance
was fallacious; Charles, bland and courteous, easy and negligent as he was, had' adopted principles and formed habits
which soon dispelled the flattering hopes in which men were
led at first to indulge.
Historians have remarked, with a kind of astonishment, the
sudden change which took place in the conduct of the people; flinging away, as it seemed, the rigor of religion, they
rushed madly into excess and licentiousness. It is, however,
an error to suppose that the people were changed; the only
change was in the ruling power. Those who had been really
religious, remained so still; but such has never been the
character of the great body of a people.. During the whole
J




~6',2            HIISTORY OF ENGLAND.
time of the suspension of royalty, the power had be n ilt
the hands of men who, though:fanatics, were religious; the
same was the character of the army.? All the outward.expressions of vice and pleasure were suppressed, and the nation wore an aspect of rigor and.sanctity which did not really
belong to it. The weight being now removed,'t resumed
its natural bent, and. ien ran wildly into excess in proportion
to the severity of the restraint under which they:had been
held.  This is one among the many evil consequences of
making men religious by law and force.
The first care of the king was to reward those vho had
been active in his restoration, and to form  his council.
Monk -was created duke of Albemarle, and Montagueearl of
Sandwich, and both had the garter.  Annesley was made
earl of Anglesea; Denzil Hollis, lord Hollis.; and Ashley
Cooper, lord Ashley.  The earl of Manchester was appointed
lord chamberlain, and lord Say lord privy-seal. Monk's
friend Morrice was made one of the secretaries of state. Of
the old royalists, Hyde was made chancellor, Southampton
treasurer, Ormond steward of the household; sir Edward
Nicholas continued to be a secretary of state, and lord Culpepper master of the rolls.
The present parliament, not having been summoned legally, was no more than a convention, and its acts were therefore
not binding. It, however, passed an act declaring itself to be
the parliament, and then proceeded to the consideration of
the many weighty matters it had to determine.
The first was to provide a revenue for the crown.  As it
appeared that a chief cause of the late -unhappy troubles
had been the inadequacy of the revenue to the exigencies
of the government, it was resolved to settle an income of
1,0i0,0001,  a year on the king.  In return, was required the
abolition of tenures in chivalry, with all their incidents, such
as wardships, marriages, etc., together with purveyance and
preeimption - all, for centuries, fruitful sources of evil, and
constant subjects of complaint and remonstrance.'This be
ing consented to, the next question was, whence the aforesaid
revenue was to arise.  A permanent tax on the lands thus
relieved was the obvious and equitable course; but he knows
little of parliaments, who thinks that this would be assented
* Whitelocke and others will furnish proofs of this.:Burnet, speak
ing of some regiments that he saw at Aberdeen,,says, " There was an
order and discipline, and a face of gravity and piety among them, that
amazed all people. Most of theni were independents and anahaptists'
they wh re all gifted men, and preached ais they wtere moved."




CHARLES II.                  263
to by tile owners of lands who sat in them, while any mode
offered of shifting the burden.  Some one mentioned the excise; the idea was at once embraced, and it was carried by
a majority of two that a moiety of the excise on beer and
other liquors should be settled on the crown; and thus this
tax, originally so odious, was made permanent.  By this act,
(12 Car. II. ch. 24,) a most important change was wrought
in the constitution, the prerogative losing its most influential branch.  We will here add, that at the close of the
session, the remaining moiety of the excise was given also to
the crown.
An army of sixty thousand men, whose pay required tn
assessment of 70,t001. a month, was alike dangerous to the
crowvn and burdensome to the nation.  Symptoums of disaffection had already appeared among the soldiers, and Monk declared that lie could no longer answer for the troops. It was,herefbre resolved to lose no time in disbanding them; money
was procured to clear off their arrears, the regiments were
reduced one after another, eulogies were lavished on the soldiers, and without mutiny or murmur they merged into the
mass of peaceful citizens; and thus disappeared that wonderful army, only to be rivalled perhaps by those of the
early days of the Roman republic and those of the first
Khalifs, in the union of religion, discipline, and undaunted
valor.  The kcing was strongly urged by the duke of York to
retain this army, or to raise another; to this course he was
hinself inclined, but he knew it was useless to propose it to
the parliament.  Monk's regiment, named the Coldstrearn,
was, however, retained, with one or two of horse, and one
formed out of the troops at Dunikirk was afterwards added;
the whole amounted to about five thousand men, and under
the name of guards formed the germn of the present large
standing army.
The bill of indemnity also occupied the attention of
parliament.  They had been engaged on this even before
the arrival of the king. Monk had recommended the king
not to except more than four persons; but the commons at
first (_May 1:6) excepted seven by name; they afterwards
enumerated twenty persons who, though not regicides, should
for their share in the transactions of the last twelve years, be
affected with penalties short of death: they finally excepted
such of the king's judges as had not surrendered themselves
on the late proclamation.  When the bill came to the lords,
(July 11,) where the old royalists prevailed, it was judged
to be far too lenient.  They voted to except all the king's




264              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
judges, and also Vane, Lambert, Haselrig, Hacker, and
Axtel; they struck out the clause respecting the twenty
persons, and then sent the bill back to the commons. But
here there were some feelings of honor and humanity.  By
the proclamation above mentioned, the king's judges were
required to surrender themselves on pain of being excepted
from any pardon or indemnity as to their lives or estates.
The obvious construction of this was, that the lives of those
who came in would be in no danger, and accordingly nineteen had surrendered. It was contended that these should
be set at liberty, and suffered to make their escape if they
could.  A compromise at length was effected.  Most of the
king's judges were excepted, as also were Hacker, Axtel,
and HughPeters; but the nineteen were not to suffer death
without an act of parliament for that purpose. Vane and
Lambert were also excepted; but by an address of both
houses, the king was requested to spare their lives if they
should be attainted.  Haselrig, lord Monson, and five others
were to lose liberty and property, and Lenthall, St. John,
Hutchinsori, and sixteen others, all members of the high
courts of justice, were to be ineligible to any office whatever.
In this form the bill of indemnity received the royal assent.
After sitting about three months, the parliament adjourned,
and during the recess the twenty-nine regicides who were
in custody were brought to trial before a court of thirty-four
commissioners, of whom some were old royalists; others,
such as Manchester, Say, Hollis, and Annesley, members of
the Long Parliament; with these sat Monk, Montague, antd
Cooper, the associates of Cromwell, whom a feeling of deiicacy should, perhaps, have withheld from the tribunal.
Most of the prisoners expressed sorrow for their crime;
others said that they had borne the king no malice, that
they thought his death an act of national justice, and that
they had acted under the supreme authority of the nation.
They were all found guilty; those who had surrendered
were, with one exception, respited; ten were executed.
These were six of the king's judges, Harrison, Scot, Carew,
Jones, Clements, and Scroop; Cook, one of the counsel on
the trial; Axtel and Hacker, who had commanded the
guards; and Hugh Peters, the fanatic preacher. The place
of execution was Charing-cross, where a gallows was erected
for the purpose. General Harrison suffered first, (Oct. 13.)
Supported here, as on his trial, by that fervid spirit of enthusiasm so perfectly free' from all alloy of worldly motives,
he gloried in the act for which he was brought to die as per.




his confidence in the revival of the good cause in happier
times. Carew was the next who suffered, (15th;) his conduct was similar. Cook and Peters were executed on the
same day, (16th;) the latter alone, it is said, showed want
of courage, and was obliged to have recourse to cordials.
Scot, Clement, Scroop, and Jones, also suffered on the same
day, (17th..)  Hacker and Axtel closed the scene at Tyburn,
(19th.)  All died with the constancy of martyrs.  It is very
remarkable, that not a single man of those who had a share
in the death of the late king seems to have voluntarily repented of the deed.
Though one must admire the constancy and magnanimity
of the sufferers, most of whom were gentlemen by birth and
education, the justice of their sentence is not to be denied,
even on their own principles; and it was impossible for
Charles to suffer such a heinous deed as the solemn execution of his father to go unpunished. But there was another
part of the royal vengeance which can be regarded with no
other feelings than those of abhorrence and disgust.  The
bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw, were taken from
their tombs in the Abbey, drawn on hurdles to Tyburn on
the anniversary of the death of Charles I., hung on the gal.
lows till evening, then taken down, their heads cut off and
fixed on Westminster-hall, and their trunks thrown into a
pit. The bodies of about twenty persons (those of Blake
and Cromwell's respectable mother included) were afterwards taken out of the Abbey and buried in the churchyard.
The lives of the remaining regicides were spared; they
spent the remainder of their days in different prisons.  The
witty and licentious Harry Marten died at the age of seventy.
eight, in Chepstow-castle. They surely had no just reason
to complain of their fate, if they recollected how many
royalists they had, as far as in them lay, subjected to a similar
destiny.
Another important point for the parliament to decide on
was the case of those who had purchased the crown- and
church-lands and the estates of royalists, which had been
sold by the public authority in the late times. A bill was
introduced for an equitable adjust nent, but it met with
much opposition; and nothing having been done when the
parliament was dissolved, the crown, the church, and the
other proprietors entered on the lands in question, and the
occupiers, having no legal titles to produce, were obliged to
VOL. II.     23                      H H




266              HISTORY OF. ENGLAND.
sit down contented with the loss of their purchase-money
But it was only the leading royalists that gained in this way.
thousands of gentlemen who had sold their lands to support
the royal cause, or to pay the sequestrations imposed on them
for their loyalty, and had thus been reduced to poverty, remained without remedy.  The sales having been legal, the
present possessors were secured by the bill of indemnity,
against which the disappointed cavaliers now  exclainmed,
saying it was indeed an act of oblivion and indemnity, but
of indemnity for the king's enemies, and of oblivion for his
friends.  They taxed the king with ingratitude, and they
conceived, on account of it, a mortal hatred to Hyde.  Their
case was doubtless a severe one, but there was really no
preventing it but at the risk of a civil war. It was observed
that the mnost clamorous were those who had suffered least,
and the petty services for which many claimed large rewards
furnished matter for ridicule.
The church was a difficult matter to arrange. Most of
the livings were in the hands of the presbyterians, and they
had so mainly contributed to the Restoration, that it woild
be both ungrateful and unsafe to attempt to disturb thetm.
On the other, hand, both the king and the chancellor were
resolved to reestablish episcopacy.  There was also a difficulty about the livings, for such of the clergy as had been
ejected for their loyalty, seemed now to have a just claim to
recover what they had lost.  This, however, was accommodated to a certain extent; but the vision of the jurisdiction
of bishops,.and the dreaded surplice, ring, and cross, alarmed
the presbyterians.  They proposed bishop Usher's model of
episcopacy, and prayed that the habits and ceremonies might
not be imposed, and that the liturgy might be revised.  The
king issued a declaration, apparently granting all they required; but when an attempt was made to have this converted
into a bill, it was frustrated by the efforts of the court-party
in the commons. It was quite plain from this that the royal
declaration was only meant to be illusory.
At length (Dec. 29) the convention-parliament was dissolved, for it was urged that it was necessary to have a true
parliament, to give the fiorce of law to what it had enacted;
and it was also expected that a new parliament would be
more purely royalist.
In the September of this year the duke of Gloucester
died of the small-pox, much lamented-by the king his brother.
Their sister, the princess of Orange, died of the same dis.
order in the winter.  The king's other sister, the princess




a CHARLES II.                 267
Hentletta, was. married about this time to the duke of:Orleans, brother to Louis XIV.
Another marriage in the royal family was that of the duke
of York to.Anne Hyde, daughter of the chancellor, who had
been imaid of honor to the princess of Orange.  She possessed wit and sense, though not beauty. The duke, whose
taste on this last point was never very delicate,. laid siege to
her virtue, which was surrendered on a private contract of
marriage; when the consequences were becoming apparent,
James kept his promise, and privately espoused her, (Sept. 3.)
He informed the king and chancellor.  The former, though
annoyed, forgave him; the latter pretended the greatest:rage
against his daughter, advised the king to send her to the
Tower, and that not being done, confined her to a room in 
his own house. The queen-mother and the princess of
Orange were highly indignant; and Charles Berkeley, to
recommend himself to favor, swore that Anne had been his
mistress, and brought lord Arran, Jermyn, Talbot, and Killegrew, as witnesses of her wantonness.  The duke was
shaken; but on the birth of her child, and her solemn assertion at that time, and Berkeley's confession of the falsehood
of his story, he resolved to do her justice. He acknowledged
her as his duchess, and she bore her new rank, it is said, as
if she had been born in it.
The new year (1661) opened with a wild outbreak of the
fanatics named Fifth-monarchy men, under their leader, Venner, the wine-cooper.  One Sunday, (Jan. 6,) having heated
their enthusiasm by a discourse on the speedy coming of Jesus
and the reign of the saints,he issued from his conventicle,
in Colman-street, at the head of sixty well-armed fanatics.
They proceeded to St. Paul's proclaiming King  Jesus.
They drove off a party of the trained-bands that were sent
against them, and in the evening they retired to Caen-wood,
between Hampstead and Highgate.  Here some of them
were taken; but on Wednesday morning (9th) they returned
Iinto the city, shouting as before, and dispersed some of the
troops and of the trained-bands. At length, some being killed,
and Venner taken, they retired into a house at Cripplegate,
which they defended, till a party, headed by one Lambert, -a
seaman, got in at the roof.  Most of them were slain; Venner and the remainder were hanged.  The attempt was
purely an isolated act, but advantage was taken of it to issue
a proclamation for closing, the conventicles of the quakers,
anabaptists, an: other sectaries; it was also the occasion of
the formation of the regiments of guards already noticed




268               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The king's coronation having been celebrated with great
splendor, (Apr. 23,)*' the new parliament met, (May S.) As
was to be expected, it was most decidedly royalist, the pres.
byterians not having more than sixty seats.  Its temper soon
appeared, by votes for obliging all the members to receive
the sacrament according to the rites of the church of England, and for having the solemn league and covenant burnt
by the common hangman. It was declared that the negative
and the command of the army were rights inherent in the
crown; and it was made treason to injure the king's person,
or to distinguish between his person and his office.  It required all the efforts of the king and Clarendon to have the
bill of indemnity passed without further exceptions.  A  bill
passed the commons for the immediate execution of the
remaining regicides; but the lords, more humane or honorable, rejected it, the king himself expressing his aversion to
it.t  The act depriving the bishops of their seats in parliament, which had been so violently extorted from  the late
king, was repealed, and the prelates were restored to their
legislative functions.  As a chief weapon in those times had
been tumultuary bodies of petitioners, an act was passed that
not more than ten persons should present any petition to the
king or either house, nor should it be signed by more than
twenty, unless with the order of three justices, or the major
part of a grand jury.4'
While the parliament was thus replacing the constitution
on its ancient basis, a conference was going on at the bishop
of London's lodgings, at the Savoy, between twelve prelates
and nine assistants, and an equal number of presbyterian
divines.  The ostensible object was a revision of the Book
Hyde was on this occasion created earl of Clarendon, and Arthur
lord Capel (son of him who had been executed in 1649) earl of Essex.
"t  I am weary of hanging," said he to Clarendon, "except for new
offences. Let the bill settle in the houses, that it may not come to me,
for you know that I cannot pardon them."
$ [It is needless to say that such an act was totally unconstitutional.
Neither, of course, can it be necessary to show that the right of petition
has ever been as freely and effectually exercised since as before the
passage of that act. The largest number of signatures ever appended
to any one document in the world was appended to a petition presented to parliament on June 14th, 1839, by Mr. Thomas Attwood, member
for Birmingharn, and ordered by the house to be printed. The demands and tone of this petition were far more imperative and dictatorial than those of any presented during any period of the reign of
Charles I. or of the commonwealth, or indeed of any, perhaps, ever
presented to anv public assembly. The number of signatures amountke
to upwards of,280,000!-J. T. S.]
- \




CHARLES II.                    269
of Common Prayer.  It ended, of course, as all such conferences do.  The bishops were predetermined to admit of
none but very slight modifications, and to retain all the
~ceremonies.  The presbyterians, under the circumstances,
required too much; yet surely the prelates might have conceded something to men at least as pious and as learned as
themselves, and but for whom  they would be probably still
without their sees. If it was puerile on the one side to
object so vehemently to the cross, ring, and surplice, it was
surely no proof of wisdom on the other to insist on them as
if they were of the very essence of religion.  So little were
the prelates disposed to concession, that even the innovations
of Laud were retained, and they remain to this day part
of the service of the church of England.  They now  are
become innocuous; no one sees in the surplice any thing
more than a decent habit; the ring is used without any
scruple, or, in general, any knowledge of its meaning; we
kneel at the communion without any apprehension of the
real presence: it was not so, however, in those times; and
we think that the chief blame lies with those who would not
concede.
The strength of the presbyterian party lay in the corporations, and in these, their strongholds, the church party proceeded to attack them.  By the Corporation-act now passed
it was enacted, that any person holding office in a corporation might be removed, unless he would renounce the solemn
league and covenant, and declare his belief of the unlawfulness of taking up arms against the king, etc.; and no fiuture
officer to be admitted unless he had previously taken the
sacrament according to the rites of the church of England.
Thus commenced that odious profanation of the most solemn
act of religion so long a national disgrace.
The revision of the Common Prayer was finally (Nov. 20)
committed to the convocation.  They made a numrber of
alterations and additions; none, however, favorable to the
presbyterians.@   The amended book was presented to the
king and council, and by them recommended to the house
of lords.
Vane and Lambert still lay in prison. As they had had no
immediate hand in the death of the late lking, the convention
had addressed the king in their behalf, and he had assured
* Will it be believed that they actually increased the number of the
Saints' days, and added the silly legend of' Bel and the Dragon, and
othe: parts of the Apocrypha, to the lessons; They surely meant to
insulN, not to conciliate.
23 ~




270              HIISTORY OF ENGLAND.
them that, if attainted, they should not be executed.  They
were now' brought to trial, at the suit of the commons
Lambert, (June 9, 1662,) who had never been an enthusiast,
or even perhaps a republican, acted with great caution.  He
excused his opposing Booth and Monk by saying that he
knew not that they were acting for the king, and he threw
himself on the royal mercy.  l-e was sentenced to die, but
he was only confined for life in the isle of Guernsey.  He
lived there for thirty years, forgotten by the world, occupying
his time in the cultivation of flowers, and in the practice of
the art of painting.
Very different was the conduct of the -pright, fervid enthusiast and republican Vane, (June 6.)  Far from suing for
mercy, he asserted that "the decision by the sword was
given [against the late king] by that God who, being the
Judge of the whole earth, does right, and cannot do otherwise;" and the parliament then became the government de
facto, and, consequently, he was entitled to the benefit of
the statute 11 Henry VII., for acting in obedience to it.
The spirit of the law, if not the letter, wvas decidedly in his
favor, and the judges could only get over the difficulty by
the monstrous assertion, that Charles had been king de
facto from the death of his father, though " kept out of the
exercise of his royal authority by rebels and traitors."  The
prisoner's defence was most eloquent' and able, but it had
been determined not to let him  escape.  Sentence of death
was passed on him, the judges refusing to sign a bill of exceptions, which he presented.  He was beheaded on Towerhill, (14th.) His demeanor was such as was to be expected
fiom his known character.  When he attempted to address
the people in vindication of himself and the cause for which
he suffered, his note-books were snatched fiom him, and the
trumpeters were ordered to blow in his face.;' It is a bad
cause," said he, " which cannot bear the words of a dying
man."  One stroke terminated his mortal existence.
The character of sir Henry Vane stands forth preminmnent
for purity among the republican chiefs.  He was disinterested and incorrupt, willing to give to all others the liberty he
claimed for himself; the enemy of oppression in all its forms.
It is difficult to regard his death as any thing but a judicial
murder, yet surely there was in it something of retribution.
Though taking no immediate share in the judicial proceedings against the late king, he had mainly contributed to his
death by his conduct at the treaty of Newport, arid his speech
in the house on his return.  By the dishonorable manner in




CHARLES nI.                     271
which he furnished evidence against Strafford, (whose sentence was little, if at all, less iniquitous than his own,) he
was a main cause of the civil war, and all the bloodshed and
misery which thence ensued.  On the same spot on which
Strafford fell one-and-twenty years before, Vane now underwent a similar fate.  As the series of blood began with the
one, it ended with the other.  As Charles I. forfeited his
word and honor in the one case, so Charles 11. forfeited his'
in the other.
Having thus far carried on the affairs of England, it is now
itime that we should notice those of Scotland and Ireland.
As Scotland had not been mentioned in the declaration
from Breda, the cavaliers of that country breathed nothing
but blood and forfeitures.  The spirit of it, however, certainly did apply to Scotland  and the earl of Lauderdale, who
was now high in the roya. favor, by representing all that the
Scots had done and suffered in the cause of-the king, disposed
him to clemency.  The marquess of Argyle, relying on an
ambiguous answer of the king, through his son lord Lorn,
came secretly up to London, but he owas immediately sent to
the Tower.
The union which the commonwealth had labored to effect
was no longer thought of.  The earl of Middleton was ap,
pointed commissioner for holding the parliament, Glencairn
chancellor, and Lauderdale secretary.  The fortresses built
by Cromwell were demolished, and the garrisons disbanded.
As the king had been thoroughly disgusted with presbytery,
and he and his chief counsellors regarded it as incompatible
with monarchy, the. restoration of episcopacy was resolved on.
The utmost efforts having been made to pack a parliament,
that assembly, when it met, (Jan. 1, 1661,) proved to be suited
to all the purposes of the court.  It was known by the name
of' The Drunken Parliament,' on account of the continued
inebriety of Middleton and his associates.  Its first proceed.
ing was to restore the prerogative in its fullest extent.  In
this there was little difficulty, but to change the church-government was not so easy, as it had been confirmed by two
parliaments held by the present king and his father.  In one
of Middleton's drunken bouts, it was resolved to adopt a
measure which Primrose the clerk-register had proposed half.    in jest, which was, a general act rescissory, annulling cn various pretexts all the parliaments held since the year 1633.
This, though vigorously opposed by the old covenanters, was
carried by a large majority, and the presbyterian discipline
was left at the ine:cy of the crown.
K   ""~^*-"~ ——;- ~  iC~*; ~   -iUi —^~ —C_ i i=ii ~ ~     r -c —-— ~-~~ —i —




272             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Those who hungered after the large possessions of Argyle,
now  hastened to shed his blood. He was transmitted to
Scotland to be tried on charges of oppression and treason.
Every national act from the beginning of the wars was laid to
ills charge, (Feb. 13.)  His defence was acute, and, in general, successful.  As he pleaded the indemnity granted in the
parliament of Stirling in 1650, the king, at the entreaty of
lord Lorrl, granted a mandate, that nothing done previous to
that time should be prosecuted, and that no sentence should
ben passed till the whole had been submitted to himself.
This secured Argyle as far as related to the death of the king;
there only remained the charge of compliance with the usurpation, and here, we are assured, the base treachery of Monk
came to the aid of his enemies.  He transmitted to the parliament some private letters in which Argyle expressed his
attachment to the protector's government: his'friends were
silenced, and sentence was pronounced, (May 25.)  He
vainly implored a respite of ten days that the pleasure of the
king might be known, but Middleton, who hoped to get his
title and estates, was inexorable.  Argyle met his fate with
piety and fortitude, (27th.)
The next who suffered was Guthrey, one of the clergy
who had promoted the western remonstrance. As he had
once excommunicated Middleton, he had little chance of
mercy.  He too died (June 1) full of hope and constancy.
Swinton, another of the proscribed list, had become a- quaker; he acknowledged his fault with so much contrition that
his life was spared, though his estate was taken.  Wariston,
who had escaped to the continent, was delivered up two
years after by the French government, and he too ended his
days on the scaffold.
The soil being thus watered with the blood of the covenanters Argyle and Guthrey, it was resolved to replant episcopacy.
Against this Lauderdale strongly remonstrated, and the king
himself was long dubious of the policy of it.; but the bigotry
of Clarendon would yield to no suggestions of prudence, and
the measure was resolved on. As there was only one Scottish bishop now living, it was necessary that some of the new
prelates should be consecrated in England.  Sharp, who had
been the agent of the presbyterians at London and Breda,
and who, in the hope of preferment, had basely betrayed their
cause, was made archbishop of St. Andrew's, the excellent
Leighton (son to Laud's victim) and two others were consecrated with him by Sheldon, bishop of Londen, and these
consecrated the remaining prelates in Scotland.  An act




CHARLES II.                    2.73
of indemnity was finally passed, but harsh and cruel, like
every Scottish measure, it seemed framed only with a view
to plunder.
Unhappy Ireland was also to be regulated anew.  No blood
was here to be shed, and the church, as a matter of course,
resumed its former position; but the adjustment of property
was a matter of tremendous difficulty.  The tide of conquest
had swept over the country, effacing all litnits and landmarks.
The greater part of the lands were now in the possession of
the adventurers who had advanced their money on the faith
of acts of parliament passed with the assent of the late king,
and of the soldiers of Cromwell's army; but there were numerous other claimants, such as the Forty-nine men, or those
who had served in the royal army previous to the year 1649,
the protestant loyalists whose estates had been confiscated,
in Flanders, etc.
The king issued a declaration (Nov. 39, 1660) for the
settlement of Ireland; but the Irish houses of parliament
disagreeing with respect to it, they sent their deputies over
to the king, and the catholics at the same time despatched
agents on their part.  Charles was, for obvious reasons, disposed to favor these last, but, like true Irishmen, they seemed
resolved that it should not be in his power.  With the indiscretion and disregard to truth distinctive of their party in
Ireland, they behaved with insolence, justified their rebellion,
denied their massacres, and finally so disgusted the king with
their conduct, that he ordered the doors of the council to be
closed against them.  The heads of a bill were then prepared
and sent over to Dublin in May, 1662, but it was three years
before the final settlement was effected.  The soldiers and
adenturers agreed to give up a third of their lands, to augment what was called' The Fund of Reprisals,' or property
still remaining at the disposal of the crown, and which had
been shamefully diminished by lavish grants to the dukes of
York, Ormond, Albemarle, and others.  Oult of this the
Forty-nine men were paid their arrears, fifty-four catholics
were restored to their houses, and two thousand acres of land;
but there remained three thousand who had put in claims of
innocence for whom no relief was provided. There can be
little doubt that only a portion of these were really innocent,
but they should not have been thus condemned unheard.
Previous to the rebellion, it is said the catholics had possessed
two thirds of the lands of Ireland; there now remiained to
L._.____~~~~~~~~~~i




274               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
theni not more than- one third.*  Dearly did. the catholics
pay for the massacre of the protestants, in the outset commit.
ted by a savage rabble, set on by an ignorant and fanatic
priesthood.  It has; been asserted, but the fact is incredible,
that a third part of the population perished by the sword,
famine, and disease, between 1641 and 1652,
We now return to England, where the marriage of the
king engaged the attention of his council.  Charles was a
notorious profligate  with  respect to women.  XWhile in
France he had a son by a Mrs. Waters, and immediately on
his coining to England, Barbara Villiers, daughter of lord
Grandison, and wife to a catholic gentleman:named Palmer,
a woman of great beauty, but utterly devoid of virtue or principle, having thrown herself in his way, made a conquest of
his heart, over which she long retained her empire, though
only one sultana out of many.  The scandal which the king
gave by his amours, caused his ministers to urge him to,
marry; but he had resolved not to espouse a protestant, and
his subjects he thought would object to a catholic. At the
suggestion of the French  king, however, the Portuguese
ambassador offered him the infanta Catherine, sister to the
king of Portugal, with a dower of 500,0001., the settlements
of Tangier in Africa, and Bombay in the East Indies, and a
free trade to Portugal and her colonies.
The money tempted the king; Clarendon and the other
ministers approved of the match, but-the Spanish ambassador
now labored to obstruct it.  He represented that the infants
was incapable of bearing children; that it might cause a war
with Spain, and the loss of the Spanish trade; and he offered,
on the part of his master, a large portion with either of the
princesses of Parrna.  Charles sent lord Bristol secretly to
Italy, where he saw the princesses as they were going to
church.  One glance sufficed; the one was hideously ugly.
the other monstrously fat.  Meantime Louis sent to urge the
Portuguese match, offering Charles money to purchase votes
in the parliament, promising to lend him 50,0001. whenever
he should want it, and to aid him' with money in case of a
war with Spain.  The Spaniard, on the other hand, propcsed
to the king different protestant princesses, whom his master
would portion equal to daughters of Spain.  He also labored
Sir W. Petty, quoted by Hallam, (iii. 528;) Lingard (xii. 74) says
that only a sixth remained to the catholics. This statement appears
to us to be -nmuch nearer thei truth.




CHARLES II.                   275
to excite the protestant feelings of the parliament and city,
but to no purpose. Tlhe Portuguese match was approved }of
by the council and both houses, and (June, 1661) the earl of
Sandwich was sent out with a fleet to convey the infanta,
when ready, to England.
The prospect of her lover's marriage made Mrs. Palmer
very uneasy.  To reconcile her he made her costly presents,
and created her husband earl of Castlemain in Ireland, with
remainder to the issue male of his wife,whof had just borne
to her royal keeper a son at Hampton-court:; and finally, lost
to all sense of honor and delicacy, Charles pledged himself
to make her lady of the bed-chamber to his queen.
On the 20th of May, 1662, the fleet which bore the infanta
reached Spithead.  Charles, quitting the embraces of the
wanton Castlemain, hastened to Portsmouth to receive his
bride., They were married privately, according to- the rites
of the. church of Rome, by the lord Aubigny, the queen's
almoner.  They then; came forth and sat on chairs in the
room where the company was-assembled, and Sheldon, bishop
of London, pronounced them  man and wife.  They thence
proceeded to:Hampton-court, where after some days Charles,
taking' The Lady,' as Castlemain was called, by the hand,
presented her to the queen before the entire court.  Catherine had so much command of herself as to give her a graciotlis reception, but in a few minutes her eyes filled with
tears, blood gushed from her nose, and she fell into a fit.
Charles now affected the tone of a man of honor; he had
been, he said, the cause of Castlernain's disgrace, and he
was bound to make her reparation, and he would-not submit
to the whims of his wife.  Clarendon and Ormond remonstrated, but were harshly reproved, and even required to
lend their aid in the royal project; and who will not blush
for Clarendon, when he reads that he actually did undertake
the odious office?  But Catherine would not listen to him.
To break her spirit, Charles then sent away her Portuguese
attendants, and the presence of Castlemain was continually
obtruded on her. The queen long bore up against these
studied insults; at length, she most imprudently resolved to
yield, and she humbled herself so far as to admit that abandoned adulteress to her familiarity and friendship.
The queen's portion was soon spent, and to raise money
for the royal expenses, Clarendon proposed the sale of Dun
kirk to the-French king: Louis was  eager to treat.  Clarendon demanded twelve millions of livres; he was offered two,
and- the- bargain was finally concluded for five, (Sept. 11.)




276              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
But Charles wanted all the money, and Louis would only
pay two millions down, and the remainder in two years.
The treaty was nearly broken off, when it was suggested that
Louis should give bills for the balance. This was agreed
to, (Oct. 17,) and a French banker came over and discounted
them. The banker was an agent of Louis, who boasted that
he made 500,000 livres on the transaction.  Dunkirk was of
no direct use to England, but the possession of it gratified
the national pride, and the people felt mortified at seeing it
sold, and the price squandered away on the king's vices and
pleasures.
But the sale of Dunkirk was a trifle to the cruel Act of
Uniformity, which now came into operation. It had been
urged on by the united bigotry of the clergy, of Clarendon,
and of the house of commons; the lords in vain attempted to
mitigate its severity; the commons were inexorable.  It provided that every minister should, before the feast of St. Bartholomew, (Aug. 24,) publicly declare his assent and consent
to every thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer, or
lose his benefice.  The appointed day came, and about two
thousand ministers, the far greater part of them men of extensive learning, sincere piety, and irreproachable life, laid
down their preferments, and rather than do violence to their
conscience, faced poverty and persecution.  It may be said,
that the episcopal clergy had done as much in the late times,
but those were times of civil war, and politics were so interwoven with religion, that it was difficult to separate them,
and they had the prospect of ample reward in case of
the king's success. But now all was peace; the king had
been restored in a great measure through the exertions of
these very men; there was no longer a political contest;
conscience alone could have actuated them.  Henry VIII.
assigned pensions to the ejected monks and friars; Elizabeth
h';d reserved a fifth of the income of the benefices for those
who scrupled to comply with her act of uniformity; the Long
Parliament had done the same.; but now no provision whatever was made, nay, care was taken that those who did not
conform should lose the last year's income of their livings,
as their tithes would not fall due till Michaelmas.
Petitions clairning  the benefit of the declaration from
Breda being presented to the king, he took the occasion of
setting forth a declaration, promising to exert. his influence
with parliament in its next session to have his dispensing
power so regulated as to enable him to exercise it with more
Un versal satisfaction.  His secret object was to procure tolk




CHARLES II.                  277
eration for the catholics, to whose religion he had a leaning,
but on this head the commons were lynx-eyed; the proteso
tantism of the royal brothers was strongly suspected, and the
RoInish priests, with their characteristic insolence and imprudence, in reliance on the court-favor, gave public offence
by appearing in their habits.  The commons (Feb. 1663)
rejected the whole scheme of indulgence, and brought in
bills to prevent the grovth of popery.
Rumors of conspiracies were now spread in order to cast
odium on the ejected clergy, and a slight insurrection which
did take place this summer in Yorkshire was taken advantage
of to pass in the following session (May 1.6, 1664) the cruel
Conventicle-act. By this any person above the age of sixteen, who was present at any religious meeting not held
according to the practice of the church of England, where
there were five or more persons besides the household, was
to be imprisoned three months for the first offence, six for
the second, and be transported seven years for the third, on
conviction before a single justice of the peace.  This iniquitous statute speedily filled the prisons, especially with
the quakers.
The repeal of the Triennial-act of 1641 was effected in
this session. The king had the audacity to declare that he
would never suffer a parliament to come together by the
means prescribed in it; and to please him, a bill was brought
in to repeal it, and passed, with a provision, however, that
parliaments should not be intermitted for more than three
years at the most.
Another measure of this session was' an address to the
king, praying him to seek redress of the injuries inflicted by
the Dutch on the English trade, and promising to stand by
him with their lives and fortunes.
The Dutch were more devoted to commerce than any
people in Europe; and as the spirit of trade is jealous and
monopolizing, they had been guilty of many unjustifiable
actions in their foreign settlements, such, for instance, as the
massacre of the English at Amboyna, in the reign of James
I. These, however, were all past and gone; treaties had
been since made with them, in which these deeds had been
unnoticed, even so late as the year 1662. Charles himself,
though he had a great dislike to the aristocratic or Louvestein
party, as it was named, which now ruled in the States, and
which had deprived the prince of Orange of the dignity of
Stadtholder, was little inclined to a war, and Clarendon and
Southampton were decidedly adverse to it; but the duke of
VOL. II.     24




27T              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
York, who was lord admiral, was anxious to distinguishhimnself at the head of the navy, which his.exertions had.brought
to a state of:great perfection; he was also a diligent fosterer
of trade, which he justly regarded as.a main pillar of the
national greatness. Jlie therefore lent his powerful aid to
the party desirous of war, and Downing, the resident at the
Hague, a man of little principle, spared -no labor to widen
the breach between the two countries.
The duke.of York was at the head of an African company for the purchase of gold-dust and for supplying the
West Indies with slaves. The Dutch, who had long traded
to Africa, thwarted them  as much as possible, and even
seized or demolished their factories.  The duke had already
sent out sir Robert Holmes, in the name of the.company,
with some ships of war, to the coast of Africa, and Holmes
had recovered the castle of cape Corse, and.taken that of
cape-Verd, and established factories along the coast.  The
duke had also sent out sir Richard Nicholas to North America, where the Dutch had settled on the tract of country between New England and Maryland and named it New Am.
sterdam. The English claimed this by right of discovery,
and:the king had made a grant of it to his brother.  The
Dutch settlers offered no resistance, and Nicholas named
the country New  York, and.a fort up the river Albany,
from the titles of his patron.
When intelligence came of what Holmes had done, the
Dutch ambassador remonstrated in strong terms.  But the
king denied all concern in the matter, said that Holmes had
been sent.out by the company on their:own authority, and
promised to bring him to trial on his return.  Holmes accordingly was sent to the Tower; but his explanations were
considered satisfactory, and he was soon released.  De Witt
was resolved to be avenged.  A combined Dutch and English fleet, under De'Ruyter and Lawson, was now it the
Mediterranean acting against the piratic cruisers, and -he sent
secret orders to the former to proceed to the coast of Africa
and retaliate on the English.  Lawson, though aware of De
Ruyter's object, did not feel himself authorized by his instructions;to follow him; but -.e:sent to:inform the duke of
his suspicions. The Dutch admiral, having accomplished
his mission on the African coast, crossed over to the West
Indies, where he captured about twenty sail of merchantmen
The duke meantime had two fleets out in the-narrowv seas,
which seized and ~detained:one h.undred and thirty Dutch
traders.




-CHARLES I-I.                 279
The war being now resolved on, the king called on parliament for the requisite supplies, (Nov. 25.)  Their liberality
was unprecedented; they voted two millions and a half. In
the bill for this purpose, two remarkable deviations froir
ancient usage were effected; the old method of' raisinq
money by subsidies, tenths, and fifteenths, which had beer
returned to, was abandoned forever, and the mode of assessments introduced in the civil war was adopted in its stead;
the clergy, who used to tax themselves in convocation, now
consented to be taxed in the same manner as the laity, by
parliament.; and in return they obtained the right of vot'ng
at elections.  This measure put a total end to the influence
and importance of the convocation; it became from  that
moment a mere shadow.  It is remarkable, that this great
change in the constitution was the effect of a mere verbal
agreement between the chancellor and the primate.
On.the 21st of April, 1665, the duke of York put to sea
with a gallant fleet of ninety-eight ships of war and four.
fire-ships. T.his prince had made wonderful improvements
in the navy. Instead of committing the command of ships
to noblemen of inexperienced valor, he placed them under
Lawson and men who had long been familiar with the sea.
He continued the practice of dividing the fleet into three
squadrons; but he required it to form into line before action,
and each captain to keep his place during the engagement;
thus substituting the regularity of the land-battle for the
previous irregular mode of fighting used at sea.  The duke
himself, with Lawson for his vice-admiral, commanded the
red, prince Rupert the white, the earl of Sandwich the blue
squadron.
For more than a month this fleet rode in triumph off the
coast of Holland.  At length, an easterly wind having blown
it to its own coast, the Dutch fleet of one hundred and thirteen ships of war, commanded by admiral Opdam, came out;in seven squadrons. The fleets encountered (June 3) off the
coast of Suffolk.  The sea was calm, the sky cloudless; for
four hours the fight was dubious; the duke displayed the great-:est conduct and valor; one shot killed at his side his favorite
*the earl of Falmouth, the lord Muskerry, and a son of lord
Burlington's, and covered aim with their blood.  At length,
observing great confusion on board of admiral Opdam's ship,
he ordered ~all:his guns to be fired into her successively, and
she blew up, and Opdam and five hundred men perished in
her.  Dispirited  by the loss of their admiral, the Dutch fled;
-the English pursued, but during the night, while the duke




280              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
was taking some repose, Mr. Brounker, groom  of his bed.
chamber, came to the master with pretended orders from the
duke to shorten sail, and thus in.the morning the Dutch got
into the Texel. This was the greatest naval victory gained
as yet by the English; the Dutch lost eighteen ships, they
had four admirals killed, and seven thousand men slain or
taken.  The loss of the English was one ship and six hundred men; but among the slain were the admirals Lawson
and Sampson, and the earls of Marlborough and Portland.
In other days the tidings of such a victory would have
spread joy and festivity over all the streets of London; but
now a gloom, not to be dispelled by the triumphs of war, sat
brooding over the capital: the plague had visited it in its
most appalling form.
In the midst of the late winter, a few cases of plague had
occurred in the suburbs.  The number slowly increased as
the season advanced, and in the end of May the disease burst
with fury forth from the filthy suburb of St. Giles's on the
city and Westminster.  The court, the nobility, the gentry,
and the more opulent citizens fled to the country; thousands
were about to follow, but the lord mayor refused certificates
of health, and the people of the adjoining towns took up
arms to ward off infection.  As usual, its first ravages were
among the lower classes, but it soon advanced higher.  Various regulations were made, (July 1;) the city was divided
into districts, with proper officers; every house in which the
disease prevailed, was marked by a red cross on the door,
with the words " Lord, have mercy upon us! " over it; pestcarts went round every night with links and the tinkling of a
bell, summoning the people to bring forth their dead, which
then, uncoffined and without any religious rite, were shot
into a common pit prepared in the nearest churchyard.  The
men employed in this mournful office, taken from the dregs
of the people and hardened in vice and brutality, committed
deeds too horrible to be told. That unfeeling race too, the
hired nurses, often, it is said, murdered the patients in order
to rob them.
As in all similar cases, different minds were va iously
affected.  While some devoted themselves to exercises of
piety and awaited their doom with calm resignation, others
recklessly plunged into riot and debauch; and the awful
silence which ordinarily prevailed was from  time to time
broken by the sound of the unhallowed orgies of the brothel
and the tavern   Superstition exerted its influence over
others; many fancied they saw a flaming sword in the sky.1                                                                          J 1




CHARLES II.:                 28
hanging over the devoted city; others assembled in the
churchyards, where in imagination they beheld ghosts stalking round the pits which contained their bodies. Fanaticism too was active; one prophet walked naked through the
streets, with a pan of burning coals on his head, denouncing woes on the sinful city; a second Jonah went proclaiming aloud, " Yet forty days, and London shall be destroyed;"
a third might be heard by day and by night crying in sepulchral tones, " 0, the great and dreadful God! "
July and August were months of oppressive heat. Though
September was less sultry, the deaths increased.  The experiment was tried of burning large fires in the streets. On
the third night (8th) they were extinguished by a copious
fall of rain, and the deaths now diminished; but the next
week the tempest of disease was more filrious than ever,
and men began to despair. The equinoctial gales at length
brought healing on their wings. The mortality rapidly decreased; and in the beginning of December seventy-three
parishes were pronounced free of disease, and their inhabitants resumed their ordinary pursuits and avocations. The
number of deaths in London had exceeded one hundred
thousand; the disease spread also over the rest of the kingdom, and its ravages in various places were in proportion to
the density of the population.
During this desolation, the fleet, which was uninfected,
kept the sea; and the Dutch Smyrna and East Indian fleets
having taken shelter in the port of Bergen, in Norway, lord
Sandwich sailed thither.  For a share of the spoil, it is said,
the Danish court agreed to connive at the capture of the
Dutch vessels. Owing, however, to some mismanagement
when the English ships entered the port and attacked the
Dutch, they were fired on by the guns of the fort, and
obliged to retire. De Witt now came with a strong fleet to
convoy the merchantmen home, but they were dispersed by
a storm, (Sept. 4,) and Sandwich captured some ships of
war and two of the Indiamen.  As he plundered these last,
and allowed his captains to do the same, he was deprived of
his command, and sent ambassador to Spain, as a cover to
his disgrace.
The overthrow of the government in England by means
of the discontented presbyterians and republicans was one
part of De Witt's plans, and he entered into correspondence
with Ludlow, Sidney, and the other exiles, for this purpose.
Lord Say and some others formed a council at the Hague,
and corresponded with their friends in England. An insig.
24*                       JJ




282             HISTOR-Y.OF:ENGLAND.
nificant plot.was discovered in London, during the height
of the plague; and when the parliament met the following
month, at Oxford, to grant supplies, an act was passed for
attainting all British subjects who should continue in:the
service of the States.
In this session, also, was passed the severe Five-mile-act.
During the plague, though many of the episcopal clergy had
remained and faced all perils in the discharge of their duty,
many had left their charges and sought safety in the country.
The non-conformists, as the ejected clergy were now named,
mounted the empty.pulpits, and preached to the despairing
people.  Their sermons were in general such as were suited to the season, but some of them could not refrain from
dwelling on. the sins of the court,.and displaying the hiniquity
of their own expulsion.  They had broken the law no doubt,
but surely the awful calamity then prevailing abundantly
justified them.  Sheldon, now prim.ate,-Clarendon, and their
other enemies, however, took advantage of it, and, under
the pretext of their having preached sedition, a bill was
passed (Oct..30) requiring every person in holy orders, who
had not subscribed the Act of Uniformity, to swear that it is
not lawful, on any pretence whatever, to take arms against
the king, etc.  Those who should refuse this oath.were to
be incapable of teaching in schools, and were not, unless
when travelling, to come within five miles of any city, town,
or village, in which they had at any time exercised their
ministry.  This act of:cold-blooded cruelty met with little
opposition inJ the commons, (who even wished to.impose this
oath on.the whole nation,) but Southampton and others resisted it strongly, though ineffectually, in the peers.  It almnost -amounted to a bill of starvation; for, as far as in it lay,
it cut off all who would not profess the doctrine of passive
obedience nearly from every means of obtaining a livelihood.
The king of France, being bound by a treaty of alliance
with the Dutch, was now  required by them  to join in the
war.  A French fleet being expected to join that of the
Dutc.h, the English fleet, under t:he duke of Albemarle
|and prince Rupert, put to sea.  Rupert went, with twenty
ships, in search of the French, who were said to be, at
Belleisle:; while Albemarle, with fifty-four,.proceeded to
l the Gun-fleet. -To his surprise, he saw (June 1, 1666) the
Dutch.fleet, of eighty sail, under De Ruyter and De Witt,
lying off the North Foreland.  Unequal as the numbers
were, he resolved to fight, and bore down without any order.
Most of the ships of the blue squadron, which led the van




C.HARLES II.                 283
were taken or disabled. Night'ended the combat. Next
morning (2d) it was renewed. Sixteen fresh ships joined
the Dutch, but the English again fought till night.  Monk
then burned:a part ot his disabled ships, and ordered the
others,to make for the nearest harbors. In the morning
(3d) he had only sixteen ships to oppose to the enemy's
pursuit.  He had lost the Prince Royal, the finest ship in
the navy, on tlhe Galloper Sand, and the others were likely
to share its fate, whlen Rupert, who had;been recalled on
the first day of the:battle, at length came to his aid. The
engagement was renewed the following morning, (4th,) but
the hostile fleets were separated by a fog. Victory was with
the Dutch, yet the English lost no honor.  "They may be
killed," said De Witt, " but they will not be conquered."
The obstinacy and temerity of Albemarle were justly censured.
The hostile fleets were soon again at sea, and an action
was fought (25th) in which the advantage was on the side
of the English, who now rode in triumph off the shores of
Holland.  HEolmes, with a squadron of boats and fire-ships,
(Aug. 8,) entered the channel, where the Baltic traders lay,
and burned one hundred and fifty of themn, two men-of-war,
and the adjoining town of Biandaris. De Witt, maddened
at the sight, swore by Almighty God that he would never
sheath the sword till he had had revenge.  He calleed on his
French ally for prompt aid. Louis, wvho was exciting the
discontented Irish catholics to insurrection, and who had
lately offered Algernon Sidney 20,O0001. in aid of his project
of raising the commonwealth party in England, would rather
not put his fleet to hazard. He, however, ordered the duke
de Beaufort, who was now at Rochelle, to advance and join
De It:uyter.  This admiral had already passed the strait of
Dover, when prince Rupert came in view. As De Ruyter
himself was unwell, and his men were little inclined to fight,
he took shelter near Boulogne, and Rupert then sailed -to
engage Beaufort, who was coming up channel, but:a violent
wind forced him to take shelter at St. Helen's, (Sept. 3,) and
Beaufort got into Dieppe.
The wind that blew the fleet to St. Helen's was a.fatal
-wind to England. On the night of Sunday the 2d a fire
broke out in a bakehouse, near Fish-street, in the city of
London.  The houses in that quarter being of wood, with
pitched roofs, the flames spread rapidly; the pipes fromn
-the New River proved to be empty; the engine on the
1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ot    ieo




-284             HISTORY OF ENGL.or D.
Thames was burnt; the wind increased every hour In vehemence, and the flames bounded along even to distant houses.
The obvious remedy of cutting off the progress of the fire
by the demolition of houses was prevented by the avarice of
their owners, and the flames spread unimpeded on all sides.
The spectacle in the night (3d) was magnificent, though
awful. For ten miles round it was light as day. A column
of fire, a mile in diameter, mounted into tht sky, the flames
bent and twisted by the fury of the wind. The heat was
oppressive.  Evermore the sound of the fall of houses or
churches struck the listening ear. Groups of people were
to be seen flying in all directions, with the little portions of
their property which they had been able to save.
For once during his reign the conduct of the king was
praiseworthy.  He displayed the utmost energy; he was
present in all places of danger, animating and rewarding
the workmen; he had provisions brought from  the royal
stores for the relief of the houseless wanderers; he employed every precaution to prevent robbery and violence.
In all his exertions he was cordially aided by his brother.
On Wednesday evening  (5th) the wind abated.  By
blowing up houses with gunpowder, the progress of the
fire to the Temple and the Tower was checked, and the
flames were gradually spent for want of fuel. Two thirds
of the city, containing thirteen thousand houses and eightynine churches, were in ashes; and two hundred thousand
people were lying in huts, or in the open air, in the fields
between Islington and Highgate.  The immediate distress
and suffering was considerable, and thousands were ruined;
but London soon rose from its ashes, better and more regularly built; the streets were wider, the houses of brick, instead of wood, and it hence became more healthy, and less
subject to the plague.
It is not to be supposed that the real simple cause would
be assigned for this calamity.  Incendiaries, it was averred,
were: seen firing the city in various parts.  Some laid it on
the French, some on the republicans, but it was finally fixed
on the general scape-goat, the papists; and the beautiful
column raised by authority on the spot where the fire commenced, long, " like a tall bully, lifted its head and lied," in
the inscription which it bore.
The parliament was liberal in its grant for continuing the
war, but, owing to the great losses and derangements caused
by the fire, the bankers coull not make advances as they had




usually done. The king was therefore induced to lay up
the larger ships, and only to keep at sea two light squadrons
of frigates.  There was, indeed, every prospect of a speedy
peace, for Louis, who claimed Flanders in right of his wife,
wished, ere lie engaged inl a conflict with Spain, to be at
peace with England; and four out of the seven United Provinces were induced by him to declare for peace.  De Witt
was therefore obliged to yield, (May 14, 1667,) and amabassadors met at Breda to discuss the terms.  When an armistice
was proposed, the Dutch objected, on account of the delay
it would cause; and, while it was under debate, De Witt
and De Ruyter left the Texel,'ordering the fleet, of seventy
sail, to rendezvous at the buoy off the Nore.  When the
ships arrived, the Dutch admirals entered the Thames in two
divisions, (June 9,) and while one sailed up to Gravesend
the other prepared to enter the Medway.  Monk, at the first
alarm, had hastened down, and erected batteries and placed
guard-ships for the defence of the boom at the mouth of that
river, and sunk five ships in the channel before it.  While
he was thus engaged, the Dutch came on with wind andl
tide, (11th,) but the sunken ships impeded them so much,
that they were obliged to fall back.  Next morning, (12th,)
having discovered a new channel, they came up, silenced
the batteries, broke the boom, and burned the guard-ships.
The following morning (13th) they advanced to Upnor, and
having there burnt three first-rates, fell down the river with
the ebb, and returned to the Nore. For six weeks De Ruyter continued to insult the English coast.
Meantime the progress of the French arms in Flanders
alarmed the Dutch, and they hastened to terminate the war
with England.  Each party yielded something, and peace
was concluded, (July 21.)
The influence of lord Clarendon had long been on the
decline.  He had made himself enemies in all classes, some
by his faults, others by his virtues.  The cavaliers hated him
for his honorable adherence to the act of indemnity; the
non-conformists for his intolerance; the catholics for his
zealous protestantism; the courtiers for his opposition to
their rapacity; above all, Castlemain hated him because he
would not allow his wife to visit her. His high notions of
prerogative disgusted the friends of liberty; his haughtiness
and dictatorial manner offended the two houses.  The king
himself grew weary of his lectures and his opposition to his
Iwill. He found that he had too great a regard for the relii




286              HISTI)RY OF ENGLAND.
gion and liberties of the country to abet his projects for the
overthrow of both, and he was therefore secretly desirous tc
get rid of him.
An attack had been already made on Clarendon.  In 1663.
the clever, but impetuous and unsteady, earl of Bristol, (the
lord Digby of the preceding pages,) who was now become a
catholic, had impeached him  in the house of lords, but the
charges were so frivolous that a warrant was issued to take
the accuser, who was obliged to conceal himself for some
time.  Bristol's plan, however, only failed because the enemies of Clarendon were not yet sufficiently strong; but when
the Dutch had burnt the ships in the Medway, and the nation
was irritated against the obnoxious minister, and the king
had become quite alienated from him, it was thought the
attack might be repeated with success.  Charles was prevailed on to s, nd his son-in-law, the duke of York, to him.
to induce him to resign the seal.  In a personal conference
with the king, (Aug. 26,) Clarendon refused, as that, he
said, would be a confession of guilt.  A few days after,
(30th,) he was ordered to surrender it, and it was transferred
to sir Orlando Bridgeman.  In the next session the commons
(Nov. 6) exhibited seventeen articles of impeachment againstthe earl; but the bishops stood firmly by their friend; the
duke of York faithfully adhered to his father-in-law; several
of the peers regarded the charges as false, or the course
adopted by- the commons as unconstitutional.  The motion
for committing him, therefore, was lost; conferences of the
houses ensued; the king, in perplexity, expressed his desire
that the accused: would secretly retire to the continent; but
this Clarendon was too proud, or too conscious of innocence,
to do.  At length (29th) the duke of York was the bearer to
him of a positive command to quit the kingdom.  To this he
yielded:a reluctant obedience; and having left a written vindication' of himself, lie retired to France.  The commons
(Dec. 9) voted this paper a libel, and ordered it to be burnt
by the hangman.  An act of banishment followed, subjecting
him to the penalties of treason if he should return.  He
fixed his residence at Rouen, in Normandy, where he died,
in 1674.




CHARLES 11.                   287
CHAPTER XIV.
CHARLES II. (CONTINUED.)
1668-1678.
THaE ministry which had hitherto regulated the public
affairs was now at an end.  Southampton was dead, Clarehi.
don banished, Nicholas had resigned, Albemarle was infirm,
and his mean avarice had deprived him of weight; Ormond
resided in Ireland.  A new ministry was formed, the most
profligate that England had as yet seen; it was named the'Cabal,' a common term, but which curiously coincided
with the initial letters of the names: of its: members, viz.,
Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale.
Clifford, the son of a clergyman, had been, as was suspected, secretly reconciled to the church of Rome; he was
a iman of great resolution, violent and impetuous.  He was
now a commissioner of the treasury, and was afterwards
high-treasurer.  Ti'he earl of Arlington (formerly sir Henry
Bennet) was secretary of state, an office he had held for
some time, and he was at the head of the party in the cabinet opposed to Clarendon.  Ile too was, perhaps, a secret
papist.  No man knew better than he how to manage the
king's temper, and he never let principle stand in the way
of his measures.  Buckingham  was the son of the favorite
of Charles I., and was married to the daughter and heiress
of lord Fairfax.  He had wit, humor, a great talent for
mimicry and ridicule, but was utterly devoid of religion or
morality.  Ashley (afterwards earl of Shaftesbury) was chancellor of the exchequer.  As sir Anthony Ashley Cooper,
he had been first on the king's side in the civil wars; he
then wmnt over to the parliament; he was a strenuous sup.
porter of Crornwell, and was finally active in the Restoration.  IIe was accused of being equally devoid of religion
and principle, but his talents were allowed to be of the highest order.  Lauderdale was a man of talent, but of violent
passions, rough and boisterous in manner, and at all times
ready to surrender his judgment and his principles to the
will of the court.  Sir William  Coventry, one of the ablest
and most upright statesmen of the time, was one of the cominissioners of the treasury.
The first measure of this ministry was a laudable one.
The rapid progress of the French arms in, Flanders giving,




2Qb             ~HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
cause of general alarm, the able and upright sir William
Temple was despatched to the Hague, to propose to the
States a union with Spain to check the aggressions of France.
In the short space of five days three treaties were concluded
(Jan. 13, 1668:) one was a defensive alliance; the second
an engagement to oblige Spain to make peace on the terms
Louis had offered; by the third (which was a secret one)
they bound themselves, in case of Louis's refusal, to join with
Spain in compelling him to confirm the peace of the Pyrenees.
Sweden joined in this league, and hence it was named the'Triple Alliance.' Louis, who had already in secret contracted an " eventual treaty " for the partition of the Spanish
monarchy with the emperor Leopold, in which he had bound
himself to do the very thing now required of him, after making
a litlde display of his usual theatric dignity, agreed to treat.
Plenipotentiaries met at Aix-la-Chapelle, (Apr. 22,) and peace
was concluded; the towns which he had conquered in Flanders being ceded to Louis, and the French frontier was thus
brought close to that of the United Provinces.  It was, however, this treaty alone that prevented Spain from losing the
entire of Flanders.
Buckinghalm  without any ostensible post, was now  in
fact the prime minister, and one so profligate in morals has
rarely been seen in England.  He was living in open adultery
with lady Shrewsbury, which led at this very time (Jan. 16)
to a duel, in which the injured husband was mortally wounded.* It served the cause of the non-conformists but little to
be advocated, as it was, by a man of such a character; the
commons, therefore, negatived by a large majority a bill introduced for their relief.  They also voted only half the suni
demanded for the navy, and instituted a rigid inquiry into
the conduct of various persons in the late war.
As money for the supply of the royal mistresses and the
other profligacies of the court was not to be obtained from
the parliament, Buckingham  began to form other projects.
The first was to reduce the royal expenditure below the revenues, but with a prince of Charles's character that was impracticable. It was then resolved to have recourse to the
king of France; Buckingham. therefore, entered into a negotiation with the duchess of Orleans, and Charles himself
apologized to the French resident for his share in the Triple Alliance. Louis, as usual, affected indifference, but the
* The abandoned countess, it is said, dressed as a page, held th6
hore of her paramour while he was fighting with her husband.




CHARLES II                     289
oommilunications gradually became more confidential, and by
the end of the year Louis had the leading English ministers
in his pay.@
It was not the mere gratification  of his pleasures that
Charles now looked to; he wished to be absolute. Not, however, that, like his father, he believed despotic power to be
his right, or that he felt any pleasure in the exercise of it;
what hae wanted was freedom  from  restraint; he could not
endure that It s private life should be publicly criticised, or
that parliaments should presume to inquire what had been
done with the money they had granted.  All this might be
obviated by a standing army, which he might make it the
interest of Louis to fiurnish him with the means of maintains
inc.  But there was another motive operating on the mind
of Charles, which, from  the tenor of his life, one would be
little apt to susptict.
The duke of York was at this time become a catholic.
His own accouut of his conversion is as follows.  When he
was in Flanders, he read, at the request of a bishop of the
church of England, a treatise by that prelate, written to
clear that church from the guilt of schism in separating from
the church of Rome.  He also, at the bishop's desire, read
a reply which had been made to it, and the effect produced
on his mind was the contrary of what was intended.  After
the restoration, he read Heylin's' History of the Reformation,' and the preface to Hooker's' Ecclesiastical Polity,'
and the result was a persuasion that none of the reformers
"had power to do what they did."  He went on inquiring,
and gradually gave his assent to all the Romish doctrines.
It must be observed, that the duke, while thus solicitous
about his religion, was leading a life nearly, if not altogether,
as profligate as that of his brother.  All this time he continued outwardly to conform  to the church of England.  At
length he consulted a jesuit named Simons, on the subject
of being reconciled, expressing his hope that on account of
the singularity of his case, he might have a dispensation to
continue his outward conformity to the church of England.
To his surprise, the good father assured him that the pope
had not the power to grant it, " for it was an unalterable
doctrine of the catholic church, not to do evil that good mnight
fellow."  The duke wrote to the pope, and the reply which
he received was to the same effect.  Thinking it dangerous
X Colbert, eie French resident, wrote that he had made them "sentil
tout 1'6tendue de la liberalite de sa majeste."
voI. I        25                       KK




290              HISTORY OF ENG.xAND.
to de ay any longer, he resolved to open his mind to tfle
king, whom  he knew to be of the same way of thinking.
He found his brother equally sensible with himself as to the
danger of his condition. It was agreed that the royal brothers should consult with the lords Arundel of Wardoiur and
Arlington, and sir Thomas Clifford, (all in the royal secret.,
on the best mode of advancing the catholic religion in tht
king's dominions.
On the i5tii of January, 1669, the feast of the conversion
of St. Paul, the meeting was held in the duke's closet.
The king spoke with great earnestness, and with tears in his
eyes, describing his uneasiness at not being able to profess
the faith he believed; as he knew, he said, that he should
meet with great difficulties, in what he proposed to do. no
time was to be lost, and it should be undertaken while he
and his brother were in full strength and vigor, and able
to undergo any fatigue.  It was resolved to apply to the
French king for aid, for which purpose his ambassador was
to be let into the secret, and lord Arundel, with sir Richard
Bellings for his secretary, was to go to the court of France.
Arundel, when at Paris, required from Louis a large sum of
money, to enable the king to suppress any insurrection thi(at
might break out, offering in return to aid him in his inutended invasion of Holland. Louis was willing to assent to
these terms; the only question was, which should be first,
the war or the king's declaration of his religion.  Charles.
urged by his brother, was for the last; Louis mnore wisely
recommended  the former.  The year passed away in disctlssions; at Christmas the king received the sacrase lenw t as usual
in public, but it was observed that the duke of York did not
accompany him.
The Conventicle-act was now near expiring.  The lord
keeper and chief justice Hale had, with the aid of bishiops
Wilkins and Reynolds, and of Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Bu'ton, and other divines, been engaged in forming a scheme
of comprehension, which was communicated to Baxter,
Bates, and Morton, an'd by them  to their non-conforming
brethren.  Nothing could  be more reasonable  than the
alterations proposed, and  an  equally rational plan  was
devised.  But Sheldon and the other intolerants tookl the
alarm; the commons had not abated in their hostility, and
the Conventicle-act was renewed with the addition of a
proviso, "that all clauses in it shall be construed most
largely and benefic ally for the suppressing conventicles, and
for the justification and encouragement of all persons to be




CHARLES lI.                   291
employed in the execution thereof."  Could any thing be
more barbarous than this?  The vile crew of informers was
now unkenneled, houses were broken open, ministers and
other persons were dragged to prison.  Sheldon and those
prelates, such as Ward and Lamplugh, who resembled himself, were zealous in causing the act to be enforced, and the
court secretly encouraged them, in the hopes of driving the
dissenters to look to a catholic government for relief.@
It is said that Buckingham  was most anxious to prevent
the succession of the duke of York.  According to this
prince's own account, his first project was to get the king
to acknowledge the legitimacy of his son by Lucy Barlow,
whom he had created duke of Monmouth, and given him  in
marriage the countess of Buccleugh, the wealthiest heiress
in Scotland; lords Carlisle and Ashley, he adds, had the
boldness to hint to the king, that if he was desirous of doing
so, it would not be difficult to procure witnesses of his
marriage, but Charles replied, "that well as he loved the
duke he had rather see him hanged at Tyburn than own him
for his legitimate son."  To get rid of the sterile queen in
some way, in order to enable the king to marry again, was
the next plan.  Buckingham proposed to seize and convey
her away secretly to the plantations, so that she might be no
more heard of, but Charles rejected this course with horror.
The next project was to deal with the queen's confessor, to
induce her to go into a convent; but she had no mind to be
a nun, and means, it is said, were employed to cause the           i
pope to forbid her.  Some talked of the king's taking an-         + i
other wife, but the public feeling was adverse to polygamy.
A divorce was then proposed, and to this the king hearkened;
but spiritual divorces were only from bed and board, and a
precedent was wanting for the legal marriage of the innocent
party.  Lord Roos, therefore, whose wife was living in open       i
adultery, got a bill to be moved in the upper house (Mar. 5)
to enable him to marry again.  The duke, seeing whither
this tended, opposed it with all his might; all the bishops       l
but Cosins and Wilkins were on his side, and all the catholic
and several protestant peers.  The king employed his in-          i
fluence in favor of it, and on the morning of the third reading (21st) he came and sat on the throne, saying, he was
come to renew an old custom of attending at their debates,
-* "The rigorous church of England men were let loose and encour.
aged underhand to persecute, that the non-conformists might be more
sensib.e of the ease they s.ouid have when the catholics prevailed." -
Life of James, i. 443.                                             I




292              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and desired them to go on as if he were not present.  The
bill was carried by a small majority, and became a precedent
for bills of the same kind, but the king took no advantage
of it.*  He continued for some time the practice of attending the debates;' it was as good," he said, "as going to a
play," and his presence was some check on the opposition.
In the month of May, Louis took occasion of a progress
he was making through his lately acquired possessions to
let the duchess of Orleans cross the sea to Dover to visit
her brother, over whose mind she possessed great influence.
Louis hoped that she would be able to prevail with him to
commence with the war against the States instead of the
declaration of religion, but Charles was immovable on this
head.  The  famous secret treaty was now  concluded.
Charles was to declare himself' a catholic when he judged
it expedient, and then to join Louis in a war with the Dutch;
Louis was to give him two millions of livres, and a force of
six thousand men; all the expenses of the war by land were
to be borne by Louis, and he was to pay three millions of
livres annually toward the charge of the English navy; the
combined fleet to be commanded by the duke of York; if
the States were conquered, Charles was to have Walcheren,
Sluys, and Cadsand, and the prince of Orange to be provided
for. It was further agreed, that if any new rights to the
Spanish monarchy should accrue to Louis, (by the death of
the king, a puny boy,) Charles should aid him in asserting
them with all his power.
Such was the conspiracy that was formed against the
protestant faith and the liberties of Europe; but many difficulties stood in the way of its success.  Charles, when he
reflected coolly, became aware of the protestant spirit of his
subjects; he did not venture to communicate the secret treaty
to his protestant ministers, and to blink them he let Buckingham conclude one (the counterpart of it except as to the
article of religion) with France,(Jan. 23, 1671.) When urged
by Louis to declare his religion, he hung back and made various objections, and the course of events soon caused Louis
to cease from pressing him.
Charles had latterly recruited his harem from the theatre,
where now, in imitation of the continent, women performed.
He had taken off no less than two actresses, the one named
Moll Davies, a dancer, the other the wild and witty Nell
* VWe do not see how he well could, as the queen had not committe4
adulttery.




CHARLES II.                  293
Gwyn. He soon grew tired of Davies, who had borne him a
daughter; but Nelly, whom he appointed of the bed-chamber to his insulted queen, retained her hold on his affections
through life, and the noble house of St. Albans derive their
pedigree from this union of royalty with the stage. With the
aid of Shaftesbury, it is said, he seduced the daughter of a
clergyman named Roberts; but her early principles retained
their hold on her mind, and Burnet says she died a sincere
penitent.  A further accession to the royal mistresses was
Mademoiselle de Querouaille, a favorite maid of the duchess
of Orleans, on whose sudden and mysterious death shortly
after the interview at Dover, Charles invited her maid over
to England, appointed her of the queen's bed-chamber, and
added her to the roll of his mistresses. He afterwards (1672)
created her duchess of Portsmouth, and Louis conferred on
her the royal domain of Aubigni, which went to her son the
duke of Richmond.
As to Castlemain, (now duchess of Cleveland,) she still
retained her place as a royal mistress; and if Charles was
faithless to her, she was equally so to him.
In the debate on the supplies in the commons, it was
proposed to lay a tax on the play-houses. To this it was
objected, that the players were the king's servants and a
part of his pleasure.  Sir John Coventry asked, whether
"his majesty's pleasure lay among the men- or the womenplayers."  This was reported at court, and the king, though
earnestly dissuaded by the duke, resolved on a base and cowardly vengeance. The duke of Monmouth was the chief
agent, with his lieutenant Sands, and O'Brien, son of lord
Inchiquin; and as Coventry was returning one night (I)ec.
21) to his lodgings, Sands and O'Brien, with thirteen of the
guards, fell on him in the Haymarket.  Coventry snatched
the flambeau from his servant, and with it in one hand and
his sword in the other, and placing his back against the wall,
he defended himself stoutly. He wounded O'Brien in the
arm, but they overpowered him, threw him on the ground,
and slit his nose with a penknife.  They then repaired to the
duke of Monmouth to boast of what they had done.  When
the commons reassembled, they were outrageous at this base
assault on one of their members, and they passed an act
banishing the perpetrators without pardon, unless they surrendered, and making it felony, without benefit of clergy,
to maim  or disfigure the person. This act is named the
Coventry-act.
A still more atrocious attempt had lately been made on
25 




L9 By jIj^ST(YiY' OF ENGLAND.ll
a  )mo0e ili:.il::  pev rso:l,.  As the duke of Ormond was
returl.iuiD:v i-'-le cldark (Dec. 6) from a dinner given by the
city, his coaIch was stopped in St. James-street, he was
draogged out of it, set behind a man on horseback, and fastened
to him by a belt.  The man urged his horse and proceeded
toward Hyde-park; but on the way the duke put his foot under the rider's, and leaning to the other side they both fell to
the ground; the sound of footsteps being heard, the assassin
loosed the belt and fired a pair of pistols at the duke, but
without effect; he then fled away and escaped.  An inquiry
was instituted by the house of lords; a reward of 10001. anl
a pardon to any of the party who would turn informer, was
offered by the king, but to no purpose.*
Some time after, a person wearing a cassock formed anr
acquaintance with Edwards, the keeper of the regalia in the
Tower.  He proposed a match between a nephew of his and
Edwards's daughter.  At seven in the morning of the 9th of
May, the pretended clergyman came with two companions
and asked to see the regalia.  While'they were in the room
they suddenly threw a cloak over Edwards's head, and then
put a gag in his mouth, and when he struggled they knocked
him down and wounded him in the belly.  The clergyman
then placed the crown under his cloak, another put the
globe in his breeches, and the third began to file the sceptre
in two to put it into a bag.  Edwards's son happening to
come by, the alarm  was given; the robbers ran, and had
nearly reached their horses at St. Catharine's gate, when
they were secured.  From  curiosity, or some other motive,
the king himself attended their examination. The chief said
that his name was Blood; that it was he that had seized the
duke of Ormond, with the intention of hanging him at Tyburn; that he was one of a band of three hundred sworn to
avenge each other's death; that he and others had resolved
to kill the king for his severity to the godly, and that he had
one time taken his station among the reeds at Battersea to
shoot him as he was bathing, but the awe of majesty overcame him, and he relented; the king might now take his life
* Some suspected Buckingham; and Ormond's son, Ossory, on
coming to court some time after and seeing him standing by the king,
said to him, " My lord, I know well that you are at the bottom of this
late attempt upon my father. But I give you warning. If by any
means he come to a violent end, I shall not be at a loss to know the
author. I shall consider you as the assassin; I shall treat you as such;
and wherever I meet you I will pistol you, though you stood behind
the king's chair. And I tell it you in his majesty's presence, that you
may be sure I shall not fail of performance.'
_ _          _  _     _  _  _  _   _  _  _  _  _  _      _  _   _  _   _  _   _




CHA.RLES IL.                 295
If he pleased, but it would be at the risk of his own; whereas
if he pardoned him, he would secure the gratitude of a band
of faithful and resolute spirits. Charles pardoned him, nay,
more gave him an estate of 5001. a year in Ireland, and kept
him at court, where he rose to the possession of much influence; lie also requested Ormond to pardon him, saying he
had certain reasons for asking it. The duke replied that
his majesty's command was a sufficient reason.  What are
we to infer from all this? Was Charles a coward? or was
some one of those who were in his confidence the secret
instigator of the attempt on the life of the duke?
The next event was the death of the duchess of'York,
(May 31.)  She died a catholic; her protestantism had been
little better than popery; the secret efforts of her husband
had had their effect, and she had been reconciled in the preceding month of August.  Her father wrote, her brother
remonstrated; but their efforts were fruitless; she received
the last sacrament froIn the hands of a Franciscan friar.
tier conversion was known, it is said, to but five persons;
but the secret gradually transpired and caused the religion
of the duke to be suspected.  She had borne him eight
children, of' whom  two daughters, Mary and Anne, alone
survived.
During the last year, the young prince of Orange had
come over to visit his royal uncle.  Charles, who had really
a regard for him, wished to draw him into his projects; but
he found him, as the French ambassador says, too zealous
a Dutchman and protestant to be trusted with the secret.
It is curious enough that, as the prince told Burnet, the king
gave him to understand that he was himself a catholic.
The war with the States being decided on, the Cabal
prepared to commence it with robbery at home and piracy
abroad. To have a good supply of money to begin with, the
fertile brain of Ashley, it is said, (but he always denied it,)
suggested to shut up the exchequer. To understand this, we
nmulst observe that, since the time of Cromwell, the bankers
and others had been in the habit of advancing money at eight
per cent. to the government, receiving in return an assignment of some branch of the revenue till principal and interest
should be discharged. The new plan was to suspend all
payments for twelve months, and to add the interest now due
to the capital, allowing six per cent. interest on this new
stock.  This was approved of by the privy-council, and
the pub,ic was informed of it by proclamation, (Jan. 2,
1672.) The consequences were, the ministers had a sum




296              HISTORY OF' ENGLAND.
of 1,300,0001. at their disposal; many of the b.lakers failed
trade in general received a severe shock; numbers of widows
orphans, and other annuitants were reduced to misery.
There had been no declaration of war against the Dutch,
with whom  Charles wais actually in alliance; but their
Smyrna fleet would be coming up channel in March, and
it was known to be wealthy, and it was supposed would
suspect no danger.  Holmes was therefore sent to intercept
it; he was desired to take: with him all the ships-of-war he
should meet;. but anxious to haves all the glory and profit to
himself, he let sir Edward Spragge's squadron, returning
from the Mediterranean, pass him by. Next morning (Mar. 3]
the Smyrna fleet of sixty sail came in sight.' But the States
had suspected the designs of their royal neighbors, and put
their naval commanders on their guard.  Many of these
ships were well armed, and Van Nesse, who was convoying
them  with seven men-of-war, disposed his force so well as
completely to baffle the English. Holmes, being reinforced
during the night, renewed the attack next day, and he succeeded in capturing one ship of war and four merchantmen,
two of which were very valuable. This piratic enterprise
(of which the disgrace was aggravated by its failure) was
condemned both at home and abroad.
The next measure was to issue a declaration of indulgence,
(15th,) in order to gain over the dissenters to the side of the
court, and to pave the way for a general toleration. The
measure itself, had it originated in good motives, was beneficent; but it proceeded on the principle of an arbitrary dispensing power in the crown that might be carried to a dangerous extent. The dissenters received it with gratitude,
and presented an address of thanks to the king; the orthodox
took alarm, and the pulpits resounded with arguments and
declamation against popery.
Both kings now formally declared war against the States.
Louis merely said that it did not consist wuith his reputation
(gloire) to put up any longer with insult from them.  Charles
(17th) enumerated several petty causes of hostility, " and
surely," says Hume, " reasons more false and'frivolous never
were employed to justify a flagrant breach of treaty."  The'king of:Sweden, the bishop of Munster, and the elector of
Cologne were drawn into the confederacy against the States.
While preparations were made to put the land forces of
the States into a condition to resist the troops of France,
De Ruyter got to sea with seventy-f ve men-of-war and a
number of fire-ships to prevent the junction of the French




CHARLES II.                  297
and English fleets: tkis, however, he was unable to effect;
and the combined fleet, having vainly tried to bring him to
action off Ostend, returned to Southwold-bay.  De Ruyter,
learning that they were occupied taking in men and pro.
visions, resolved to fall on them while thus engaged. He
was near surprising them, (May 28;) but though the wind
and tide were adverse, the duke of York, who comimanded,
got about twenty of his ships in line of battle, being part of
the red squadron under himself and of the blue under the
earl of Sandwich.  D'Estrees, with the French fleet, was
to the southward, opposed to the ships of Zealand. Though
the disparity of numbers was great, the battle was obstinate.
Sandwich, in the Royal'James, took a ship of seventy guns
and killed admiral Van Ghent; but his own vessel having
been much damaged, a fire-ship grappled on her larboard
and set her in flames, and the earl and all on board but two
or three hundred perished. The duke, when his ship, the
Prince, was disabled, shifted his flag to the St. Michael; and
this vessel being also disabled, he "finally hoisted it in the
London. In the afternoon the other ships came into the
action, and the Dutch finally fled with the loss of three
ships; the English lost but one; the French took no part in
the action.
Meantime Louis, at the head of one hundred thousand
men, had burst like a flood over the frontiers.  His disciplined legions were directed by the genius of Conde and
Turenne, while the Dutch troops were raw levies and ill
officered. Fortress after fortress opened their gates, making
hardly a show of resistance. The season happening to be
very dry, the rivers were low, the passage of the Rhine
offered no difficulty, (June 2,) and in the space of three weeks
he reduced three of the Provinces, and had advanced within
three leagues of Amsterdam.  Resistance appearing nearly
hopeless, ambassadors were sent to learn on what terms
peace might be obtained. Buckingham, Arlington, and lord
Saville (now earl of Halifax) were sent to Utrecht, where
Louis had fixed his quarters, and the demands of the two
sovereigns were there communicated to the Dutoh ministers.
Louis required large cessions of forts and territory; seventeen
millions of livres; a gold medal every year;:the churches in
the towns to be shared with the catholics, and a provision
for their clergy. Charles demanded the honor of the flag in
the narrow seas; 10,0001. a year for the liberty of fishing; a
million sterling for the expenses of the war; the dignity ef
stadtholder for the prince ofOrange.
LL




298             HISTORY OF ENGLAND
This prince, though only in his twenty-second year, had
been made general and admiral of the commonwealth; De
Witt, who was his guardian, had, though hostile to his family, given him an excellent education; and the character
of the prince himself was such as, joined with the remembrance of the services of his family, enabled him to gain the
popular favor. The people were clamorous for the repeal of
the'Perpetual Edict;' they rose in arms at Dort, (June 30,)
and then in the other towns, and every where established the
unlimited authority of the prince.  An attempt was made to
assassinate John De Witt; and his brother Cornelius, being
charged by an infamous wretch, named Tichelaer, with an
endeavor to induce him to poison the prince, was put to the
torture. A sentence of banishment was passed on him; his
brother, the pensionary, came to the prison to convey him to
his place of exile in his coach; instantly an infuriated rabble
surrounded the prison, burst open the doors, seized the two
brothers, despatched them by a multitude of wounds, and
offered every species of indignity to their dead bodies.  Such
is the rabble in every country - brutal, bloody, and unreflecting; against their sudden fury neither private virtue nor the
greatest public services are a protection.
The prince, by means of an atrocity which he abhorred,
was now left uncontrolled. He urged the people not to
despair, but to reject the humiliating conditions offered to
them, and to resist to the uttermost.  Their patriotic ardor
revived; the sluices had already been opened, and the generous resolution was taken to fly, if all should fail, to their
settlements in the East, and there to found a new empire.
When Buckingham  urged the prince to abandon the cause
of the Provinces as their ruin was inevitable, " There is one
certain means," he replied, " by which I can be sure never
to see my country's ruin; I will die in the last ditch." The
affairs of the Provinces, under the guidance of their young
hero, soon assumed a brighter aspect. A combined English
and French fleet, with a land force on board, approached the
coast; but winds and tide acted so opportunely to keep them
off, that it was regarded as a special interference of Providence.  Louis, weary of the toils of war, returned to the
pleasures of Versailles, and the French arms became inactive.
Spain had sent some forces to the aid of the prince, and the
emperor ard the elector of Brandenburg were preparing to
impede the progress of the French monarch.
Charles, however, adhered firmly to his engagements with
Louis; he also gave his own ministers proofs of his satis,




CHARLES IIo                  299
faction with their conduct by bestowing honors on them:
Buckingham and Arlington had the garter, and the latter an
earldom; Cliffobrd was -made lord Clifford of Chudleigh, and
Ashley earl of Shaftesbury.  This last, on the lord keeper
Bridgeman's hesitating in some matter, represented him to
the king as a mere old dotard, and the seals with the title
of lord chancellor were transferred to himself, (Nov. 17.)
Here he displayed the levity and eccentricity of his character. He rode himself, and made the judges and law-office-s
ride in ancient-wise in procession to Westminster; he sat
on the bench in " an ash-colored gown, silver-laced;" he
prided himself on his despatch of business; made his orders
with rapidity and after his own fancy; but so many applications were made to him by counsel for explanations, that he
became quite tame and humble in his court.  Clifford at
this time was made lord treasurer.
It was now nearly two years since parliament had met;
the king, however willing, could no longer dispense with its
services, as the only means of obtaining money. When it
assembled, (Feb. 5, 1673,) he addressed it himself. He spoke
of the war as just and necessary; and as to his declaration
of indulgence, at which some cavilled, he told them plainly he
was resolved to stick to it; he also mentioned the army, which
with their aid he intended to augmrent.  Shaftesbury ther
spoke.  He told them that the Dutch aimed at an empire as
extensive as that of ancient Rome; that they were the eternal
enemy of this country; that Dclenda est Carthago was the
maxim of the parliament,.and a wise one; and he had no
doubt but that they would be liberal in their supplies.
Though the members were the same, the house was now
different from what it had been.  The fervor of their loyalty
had cooled, and they saw clearly whither the court was tending. Their first care was therefore to vindicate their own
authority.  Ever since 1604 it had been the practice in case
of a vacancy in the house for the speaker to issue a writ for
a new  election; but Shaftesbury had taken on him, as chancellor, to issue the writs, and thus introduce his dependents
into the house. The legality of these was questioned, (6th;)
the elections were voted void, and the speaker was directed
to issue new writs. As the king made no opposition, Shaftesbury saw plainly that he could not be relied on, and he took
his measures accordingly.
The very next day (7th) the house voted a supply of no
less a sum than 1,260,0001. They then proceeded to their
grand attack on the' Declaration of Indulgence,' to which




300              HIST,)RY OF ENGLAND.
Charles had affirmed he would' stick,' and after a long and
adjourned debate, in spite of all the efforts of the courtiers,
it was resolved, (10th,) by a majority of 168 to 116, that
"penal statutes in matters ecclesiastical cannot be suspended but by act of parliament."  An address to this effect was
presented to the king, (14th;) he replied, (24th,) asserting
his ecclesiastical authority, but expressing his willingness to
assent to any bill for carrying the intents of his declaration
into effect. This was voted insufficient, and in a second address they assured him that he was mistaken in supposing
himself to possess that power.  Charles was indignant, and
talked of a dissolution; the duke, Clifford, Shaftesbury, and
the more violen  applauded his spirit; now was his time
or never, they said -concessions had ruined his father and
would ruin him. Ornmond and Arlington in vain advised him
to yield. It was resolved to oppose the lords to the commons.
The king solicited the advice of the peers, (Mar. 1;) Clifford
addressed them with his usual violence; but Shaftesbury said
that his own opinion was in favor of the prerogative, but that
he would not presume to set it against that of the house of
commons.  The lords resolved (4th) that the king's was a
good and gracious answer.  But Charles's resolution already
began to give way; the French ambassador counselled him
to yield for the present; the women too, it is said, interfered.
He sent for the declaration, and in the presence of his
ministers broke off the seal, and next morning (Sth) assured
the two houses, that " what had been done should never be
drawn into consequence."  Acclamation followed, and at
night bonfires flamed all through the city.
A few days after (12th) the Test-act, as it is named, passed
the commons. In the lords, the earl of Bristol, though
avowing himself a catholic, spoke in favor of it; the king
gave a ready consent to it; and what is most strange, it is said
to have originated with Arlington. Its object was to exclude
the catholics from places of honor and profit. It required
that every person holding any office of trust or profit should,
besides taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, receive
the sacrament according to the rites of the church of Eng.
land, and subscribe a declaration against transubstantiation
Immediately the duke of York waited on the king, and with
tears resigned to him all his commissions: his example was
followed by lord Clifford, lord Bellasis, and others.
It is remarkable that the dissenters actually supported this
bill, which excluded themselves as completely as the papists
But they willinglv joined to oppose the common enemy; and
P~~~~~~~1




CHARLES ii.                  301
in return a bill for their relief was passed and sent up to the
lords, (17th.) Here, however, it received amendments to
which the commons would not agree; Sheldon and his party
too, it is said, exerted themselves to defeat it; a sudden prorogation (29th) put an end to it, and the disinterestedness
of the dissenters was thus ill rewarded.
As the parliament had given the means, a fleet was got to
sea under prince RPupert; combined with that of I)'Estrees
It sailed over to the coast of Holland. De Ruyter gave
them battle, (May 28.)  The action was indecisive, and the
fleets again encountered within a few days, (June 4,) with a
similar result. An attempt to land an army under count
Schomberg on the coast of Holland also failed.  The duke's
party threw all the blame on the prince, as being too closely
connected with the country party to act with energy; the
prince in return complained that his powers were limited
and his ships ill supplied. The mouth of the Texel witnessed
(Aug. 11) the last naval encounter between the Dutch and
English for many years.  It was fought with great obstinacy,
(the French squadron, as usual, only looking on:) sir Edward Spragge, the second in command, was drowned as he
was quitting the second ship in which he had hoisted his flag,
in order to raise it in a third.  In this action also the victory
was doubtfill.
The reduction of Maestriceht was the only advantage
gained by Louis this year.  The prince of Orange besieged
and took Naerden, and he afterwards eluded the French
generals and formed a junction with the Imperialists, under
Montecuculi, who were besieging Bonn.  The surrender of
that town and some other places gave them  the command
of the electorate of Cologne, and the French troops in the
Provinces were thus cut off from communication with home.
A congress for peace was meantime sitting at Cologne, under
the mediation of Sweden; but the States, now backed by the
house of Austria, spurned at the conditions,fered by the
allied monarchs.
When parliament met, (Oct. 20,) the first question that
engaged their attention was the marriage of the duke of York,
who had lately (Sept. 30) espoused, by proxy, Maria D'Este,
sister to the duke of Modena, a princess only fifteen years of
age, but a catholic.  They addressed the king, praying him
not to allow the marriage to be consummated. Charles pleaded his honor. They forthwith passed votes for refusing supplies, imposing a severer test, etc., when the king came to the
VOL II,      26




3(02            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
house of lords and prorogued the parliament, (Nov. 4.) As
he considered that Shaftesbury had played him false, he took
the great seal from him, (9th,) and committed it to sir Heneage Finch   Sir Thomas Osborne, now lord Latimer, had
obtained the white staff resigned by Clifford.  Shaftesbury
now assumed the character of a patriot, and became the
secret leader of the opposition.
When the parliament met (Jan. 7, 1674) the king addressed them with his usual affability; the lord keeper then
followed, in a long speech, the object of which was to obtain
an immediate supply.  The commons first passed an address
praying the king to enjoin a public fast, that the nation
might implore Heaven to preserve " the church and state
against the undermining practices of popish recusants," and
to adopt certain measures of precaution against them; they
then voted the removal from office of persons " popishly
inclined, or otherwise obnoxious or dangerous " and, folio King up this vote, they proceeded to attack the individual
members of the Cabal.
The first attacked was the duke of Landerdale.  tie
was charged with having raised an arm) in Scotland to be
employed in setting up arbitrary power in England. and with
having said to the king in council, " Your malesty's edicts
are equal with the laws, and ought to be observed in the first
place."  It was resolved to address the king to dismi.s  him
from  his employments and from  the royal presence  and
councils forever.  Buckingham, aware that his turn Swould
come next, asked leave to address the house. His deftoce
was feeble; his chief object was to shift the blame from himself to Arlington; one expression which he used seemed to
go higher  " Hunting," he said, " is a good diversion; halt
if a man will hunt with a brace of lobsters, he will have but
i11 sport." An address was voted for his removal from the
royal presence and councils.  Arlington came off the best;
he also defended himself before the commons, and with more
spirit than was dxpected; and the motion for an address
against him was lost.
All this time the commons were silent on the subject of
a supply; and as the States just now  made, through the
Spanish ambassador, an offer of peace, which Charles, withl
the advice of both houses, resolved to accept, sir W. Tempie
was appointed to negotia e, and in three days the affair was
brought to a conclusion, (Feb. 19.)  The honor of the flag
was yielded to England; colonial and commercial questions




CHARLES II.                  303
were to be settled b? arbitration; and the Dutch agreed to
pay 800,000 crowns in four annual instalments.  Tile parliament was then prorogued, (24th.)
Two further attempts at weakening the influence of the
duke were made; the one in the commons, by a more comprehensive test; the other in the lords, by an amendment to
a bill brought in for restraining popery. This last was lost,
and the prorogation stopped the other. The duke took
alarm; his first thought was a dissolution, but to that course
the king was very adverse, and the result of it was quite
uncertain.  He then bent his thoughts to delay the meeting
of parliament; but for this purpose it was necessary that the
king should be supplied with money.  Fortunately for him,
Louis XIV. was as anxious as himself to keep the king and
parliament asunder, for he feared that England might now
join the confederacy against him. The duke therefore proposed that Louis should give the king 400,0001.; the usual
chaffering took place, and Charles was obliged to be content
with 5900,000 crowns.  The parliament was then prorogued
from November till the April of the following year.
The advantages of the campaign this year were on the
side of France.  Louis recovered Franche Comte; Turenne
was successful against the Imperialists in Alsace, and forced
the allies to repass the Rhine.  The prince of Orange,
who was opposed to Conde in Flanders, proposed, as his
troops were superior in number, to make an attempt to penetrate into France.  Cond6 avoided fighting, but, at a place
named Seneffe, observing that the prince had exposed one
wing of his army, he made a furious attack on it. A general
action ensued, which was continued, when the day-light was
gone, by that of the moon. The loss was nearly equal, and
each side claimed the victory.  "The prince of Orange,"
said Cond', " has acted in every thing like an old captain,
except venturing his life like a young soldier."  The campaign concluded by the taking of Grave by the prince of
Orange.
Of the persons who had been accused by the commons,
Buckingham  alone was abandoned by the king, and he
forthwith, as a matter of course, joined Shaftesbury and the
opposition.  Arlington saw his influence fading before that
of the treasurer, now earl of Danby; by the royal command
he sold his place of secretary to sir Joseph Williamson for
60001., and was raised to the higher but less influential post
of lord chamberlain.  To prop his falling power, he pro. 
posed to the king to negotiate a match between the prince of
1t__...._                 __.___.         _




304             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Orange and Mary the eldest daughter of the duke of York,
As the prince was well known to be a stanch protestant,
this measure, he said, would eminently serve to allay the
apprehensions of the nation on the subject of religion, and
be in fact advantageous in many respects.. The king apl
proved warmly of the project;  the objections of the duke of
York were overruled; and in the beginning of the winter
lord Arlington and lord Ossory, who were married to two
sisters of a noble Dutch family, went over to the Htague
under the pretext of' visiting their wives' relations. The
proposition, when made to the prince by lord Ossory, was
coldly received; he said that, as circumstances were at
present, he was not in a condition to think of taking a wife.
After a short stay the envoys returned to England.
During the winter, the court and country parties were
busily engaged in preparing their plans for the ensuing
campaign in parliament.  In the lords the crown had a
decided majority; but the minority, headed by Shaftesbury,
Buckingham, Salisbury, and Wharton, was formidable from
its talent and union. The country party was strong in the
commons, where it possessed lord William Russell, esteemed
for his probity and integrity.; lord Cavendish, less correct in
morals, but far superior in parts; sir William Coventry,
deeply skilled in affairs, and free from passion and private
resentments; Poule, learned ini precedents and parliamentary
usages; Littleton, the ablest in debate; Birch, rough, and
bold, and powerful above all men of the day to sway a popular
assembly; the veteran senators Lee and Garroway, together
with Vaughan, Sachbverell, and many other able debaters.
Their plan was, to urge the king to join the allies against
France; to impeach the earl of Danby; and to refuse the
supplies while he remained in office.
The plan of the court was to unite with the church, and
thus deprive their opponents of their advantage in appearing
as the champions of religion. A council was held at Lambeth,
at which several prelates attended; they were assured of the
king's attachment to the church, and called upon to give
him their support; measures were devised for crushing
popery, and a severe proclamation against recusants and
non-conformists was forthwith'issued.  The duke of York
remonstrated in vain; in contempt of his parental authority,
the princesses Mary and Anne were led to church by Compton, bishop of London, and confirmed.
When parliament met, (Apr. 13,) the address against
Lauderdale, of which the king had taken no notice, was




CHARLES nH.                   305
renewed, but to as little effect.  Seven articles of i:peach.
ment were then exhibited against the earl of Danby. He
had, however, like his predecessors, made large purchases
of votes in the house, but on a more economical plan, we
are told; for while they bought leading men at high prices,
he looked out. for those who had only their votes to sell, and
consequenty1 disposed of them more cheaply.  The articles
were therefore all thrown out. The gra nd attempt of the
ministers was made in the lords, where a bill for a new test.
was introduced.  By this, every member of either house, and
all holding any office, were required to swear, that it is unawful, on any pretence whatsoever, to take up arms against
the king; that it is traitorous to take up arms by the king's
authority against his person; and that he will not endeavor
the alteration of the government either in church or state.
Trhe debate on this bill lasted seventeen days; the king
occupied his usual place at the fireside; but Shaftesbury and
the other opponents of the bill, heedless of his presence,
employed all their eloquence and all their powers of reason
against it. It was carried by a majority of only two; had it
come to the commons, it had probably been rejected by a
much larger majority; but a question of privilege happening
just then to arise between the two houses, the king took
advantage of it to prorogue the parliament, (June 9.)
When parliament met, (Oct. 13,) the king required money for the navy, and also a sum of 800,0001., which had
been borrowed on the revenue.  This  last was refused, but
300,000L. was voted for the building of twenty ships of war,
to which it was strictly appropriated.  The contest with the
lords was renewed; and such was the heat with which it was
carried on, that it was moved in the lords to address the king
to dissolve the parliament. This was opposed by the ministers, but supported by the duke of York and his friends.
A prorogation for the long period of fifteen months was the
result, (Nov. 22.)
The campaign of 1675  was favorable to the  allies.
Conde's army in Flanders was rendered inactive by the
able conduct of the prince of Orange; and Turenne having
been killed by a random shot while commanding beyond the
ithine, his army was obliged to repass that river, and it was
followed by the Imperialists into Alsace.  The allies having
laid siege to Treves, marshal Crequi advanced to its relief;
but at Consabrie he was fallen on and routed, and the garrison of Treves, whither he had escaped, having mutinied,
capitulated and delivered him into the hands of the allies
26*                         MM




306              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The king of England, when he had concluded peace with
the States, made an offer of his mediation to the other powers.
Though from various causes they were all but the Dutch
desirous of continuing the war, they couid not decently reject
the proposal of the British monarch. The place fixed on
for the congress was Nimeguen, whither the lord Berkeley,
sir William Temple, and sir Leoline Jenkins repaired as the
English ministers.  After many delays the congress met in
the summer of this year; but, as was to be expected, the
ministers were more anxious to raise than to remove difficul.
ties.  The great object of the allies was to prevail. on Charles
to join them against France; but to this course he had many
objections, of which not the least was the state of dependence
on his parliament to which it would reduce him. Louis 
took advantage of this feeling; the ambassador Ruvignl
received directions to offer the same amount of pension as
before for his neutrality.  An agreement was made between
Charles and Ruvigni for a pension of 100,0001. a year to be
paid to the former; in return for which he was to sign a
treaty, by which the two monarchs were to bind themselves
to enter into no engagements but by mutual consent, and to
aid each other in case of any rebellion in their respective
dominions.  This was communicated to no one but the
duke of York, Lauderdale,  and Danby.  The two former
approved of it of course; Danby hesitated and advised co
consult the privy council; but the king removed all difficulty,
by writing out the treaty with his own hand and setting i is
private seal to it, (Feb. 17, 1676.)  He then delivered it to
Ruvigni, who forthwith set out for Paris in order to have it
signed by Louis. It would be difficult in the whole of history
to meet a more disreputable transaction than this barter of
honor and independence for lucre by the sovereign of a great
and powei ful nation.
Charles, thus enjoying the pension, the price of his oishonor, lived on indolently till the time came for the meeting of parliament, (Feb. 5, 1677.)  The opposition haid
discovered what they regarded as a vantage point against tne
court. There were two statutes of Edward III., which ordained that a parliament should be held "once a year, or
oftener if need be," and as fifteen months had elapsed since
the last meeting, the parliament had in fact ceased to exist.
This view was maintained with much boldness and ingenuity
in the lords by Buckingham, supported by Shaftesbury,
Salisbury, and Wh'arton; but Finch, now lord chancellor,
smaintained ii1 opposition to them, that the Triennial-act of




CHARLES II.                     307
tho 16th of the late king, and the act of the present king
repealing -that act, had extended the term  to three years.
Buckingham's motion was negatived by a large majority;
the four lords were required to acknowledge that their conduct was "ill-advised," and to beg pardon of the king and
the house, and on their refusal they were committed to the
Tower.*
In consequence, it is said, of the bribes which he liberally
bestowed, the minister had a majority on finance questions in
the commons.  Money therefore was granted for the navy;
but it was appropriated, and none of it came into the treasury, so that the king. had still need of his pension.  The
parliament now  began to urge him  to war; for Louis had
entered Flanders at the head of a large army, taken Valenciennes, Cambray, and St. Omer, and defeated the prince
of Orange at Cassel.  The king, in order to do so, demanded
an additional 600,0001., pledging his royal wordt not to
break trust with them, or employ the money for any other
purposes but those for which it was granted.  But the commons knew him too well to trust him.  They voted an address, (May 25,) praying him to enter into an alliance with
the States-general and other powers for the preservation of
the Spanish Netherlands.  Charles affected great anger at
this, as an encroachment on his prerogative, and he commanded both houses to adjourn till July.  The court of
France was still uneasy, and its envoy Courtin was urgent
for a dissolution, or at least a prorogation till the following.
April.  For this service Charles demanded an addition of!
100,0001. a year to his pension.  The usual chafferilg took
place, but the French were finally obliged to come into his.
terms, and also to consent that the increased pension should
be reckoned from  the commencement of the current year.  i
The parliament was therefore prorogued from July to December, with a promise to Courtin that if the money was
regularly paid it should then be adjourned to April.  What
* They remained there till the meeting of parliament in the following 
year, when the others took their seats, merely asking pardon. Shaftes- 
bury, who had had himself brought before the court of king's bench
by habeas corpus, was obliged to ask pardon for it on his knees.
f Hume, having noticed the -secret treaty with Louis which Charles
had signed, calls his pledging of his word on the present occasion' one of the most dishonorable and most scandalous acts that ever pro-  ii;
ceeded from a throne."  Lingard most strangely says, that the reason
given by I tmre is " because he was then negotiating for money with     i
the French ambassador;" and, on this ground, attempts to defend
Charles. He has either misread or misrepresented Hume.
-`~~~~~~~~ —   ---— ~ —-— ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




308              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Englishman can refrain from blushing at this disgr-ceful
bargain? yet Charles, though the highest, was not the only
criminal at this time; Courtin also bribed sundry members
of the opposition to impede the granting of supplies, les+
Charles might become independent of the French king.
The prince of Orange had long looked forward to a union
with his cousin the princess Mary; but the opposition party
in England, who feared that this match might unite him
more closely with his uncles, had endeavored to divert him
f'rom it. Now, however, seeing the necessity of an effort to
induce the king of England to aid in checking the career
of' the French monarch, he resolved to seek the hand of the
princess. We must not be so unjust to the memory of this
great prince as to suppose him actuated solely by political
motives in this proceeding; on the contrary, in the spring
of the preceding year, he had held a serious conversation
on the subject with sir W. Temple, in which he stated that
situated as he was, he knew he must marry one time or other;
but that, at the same time, no considerations of political expediency would induce him to marry a woman with whom
he could not look forward to a reasonable prospect of domestic happiness, and he begged that Temple would give him
his candid opinion respecting the princess. The ambassador
urged him to the marriage, and made so favorable a report
of the lady Mary, that the prince wrote to his uncles on the
subject, and requested permission to go over about it at the
end of the campaign.  These letters were brought to England
by lady Temple.
The prince does not seemnto have taken any further steps
till the present year, when, having obtained the king's permnission,> he set out at the end of the campaign, and landing
at Harwich proceeded to Newmarket, where his uncles then
were, (Oct. 9.)  He was very kindly received by the king,
to whose surprise, however, he seemed disinclined to enter
on discourse of business. Charles desired sir W. Temple to
try to find out the cause, and the prince told him that he was
resolved to see the princess before he proceeded any further, and also to settle the affair of his marriage previously
to entering on that of the peace. The king, when informed
of this, very kindly left Newmarket sooner than usual; the
prince, on seeing the lady Mary in London, was so pleased
with her that he made his proposals at once to her father and
* Danby wrote to him, by the king's order, to come over Burnet
i. 120, note.,________                          _____...~.. —-.




CHARLES,I.                   309
uncle, by whom they were well received; but they insisted
that the terms of the peace must be previously settled.. The
prince would not give way on this point; he said. that "his
allies, A ho were like to have hard terms of the peace at.
things then stood, would be apt to believe that he had made
this match at their cost; and for his part he would never selh
his honor for a wife."  The king was equally obstinate oi
his side, arf.l Temple and Danby, who were both zealous for
the match, were beginning to despair; the prince declared
that he would remain but two days longer in England -a
resolution which he desired Temple to communicate to the
king. Temple, on doing so, represented to Charles the it
consequences of a breach between him  and the prince
Charles listened attentively.  " Well," said he, " I neve
was yet deceived in judging of a man's honesty by his looks
and if I am not deceived in the prince's face, he is the hon
estest man in the world, and I will trust him, and he shall
have his wife; and you shall go immediately and tell my
brother so, and that'tis a thing I am resolved on."  The
duke, when Temple waited on him, seemed surprised, but
declared his readiness to obey the king. Danby, when in.
formed by Temple, undertook to adjust all the remaining
points; and that evening the match was declared in the committee, and next day in the council.  The king's mode of
announcing his intention to the prince was characteristic;
"Nephew," said he, " it is not good for man to be alone,
I will give you a help meet for you:" he then added, that
he would give him his niece; the duke consented in very
obliging terms.  On the fourth of November this auspicious
marriage was solemnized by the bishop of London.  It is
deserving of note, that six days after the duchess of York
was delivered of a son."
The king, the duke, the prince, and Danby and Temple
now took into consideration the question of the peace.  The
prince, convinced that Louis would never abstain from war,
insisted on a strong frontier on both sides of Flanders; the
king was of opinion that Louis was weary of war, and would
devote himself to ease and pleasure; Temple thought with
the prince  They were, however, obliged to give way a little,
* This, perhaps, may refute the insinuation of Dr. Lingard, (xii. 307,
note:) " When the offer bf marriage was made, (by Arlington in 1674,)
the prince knew that the. duchess of York was in an advanced state
of'pregnancy, a circumstance which considerably lessened its valne.'
Tile daul of Cambridge, the child now born, died the following month'Dec. 15) 




310              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and it was agreed that Louis should be obliged to restore: all
his conquests fi-om the empire, and Lorraine to its duke';
that' France: and Holland should muitually give back theplaces they had taken, but that Louis'should retain all his
conquests in: Flanders, except Ath, Charleroi, Oudenarde,
Courtrai, Tournai, and Valenciennes, which would: form  afrontier -betweenr the French dominions and the UnitedProvinces.  The lord Duras, a Frenchman and creature of
the duke's, (now created earl of Feversham,) was sent over
to Paris with this treaty. He was to demand a positive answer,
in two, days, but pretexts were made for detaining him$, and
meantime. the prince was obliged to return to the continent.
Louis was in fact highly indignant at the marriage of the
princess Mary; Charles excused himself to Barillon the
ambassador by saying, " I am the only one of my party,
except my brother;'' and the truth was, that he could not
get any minister to join, cordially in his projects, of union with
Louis. This monarch seemed resolved to listen to no terms
but such as he should dictate, and though the winter had
commenced, his army forthwith took the field and invested
Gaislain.  Charles then. (Dec. 3) appointed the parliament
to meet on the 15th of January:; Louis (17th) stopped the
paymenrt ~of his pension, offering at the same time, if he would
consent to lhis retention of Cond6, Valenciennes, and To.urnai,
to send him the value of them in bars of gold, concealed in
silk;~ and Danby was promised, if he would give his influence, any reward he should name in diamonds and pearls.
Danby, however, was not to be bought; the king and duke
were also displeased; with Louis, and the- duke looked forward
to the command of an army and the acquisition of military
fame. It is also likely, that the royal brothers thought their
schemes of arbitrary power would be more likely to, be ef'
fected by the force of a native army, than by the insidioull
aid of Louis.
When the parliament met, (Jan. 28, 1678,) Charles in-.
formed them  that he had concluded an alliance offensive
and defensive with the States for the protection of Flanders,
and that he should require a fleet of ninety sail, and an army
of from thirty to forty thousand men: After a good deal_ of
opposition, a supply for that purpose was voted, (Feb. 5.)
The king, however, was still desirous of peacee; but the
success of Louis, who  had now reducsd Ypres and Ghent,
exasperated the English nation, and the commons hastened
(Mar. S.) to pass a bill for: a part of the supply. Charles
forthwith sent a body of three thousand men to the defence




CHARLES nI.                   311
of Ostend, and he issued money for raising twenty thousand
more, to be acolomplished within six weeks.
The troops when raised were, king James assures us, "as
good as any where were to be seen."  The commons, who,
as the same prince tells us, " were in reality more jealous
of the king's power than of the power of France," took
alarm, and passed a resolution (Apr. 29) not to grant any
more supplies till filll satisfaction was given on the subject
of religion.  Charles, enraged at this disappointment, forthwith prorogued the parliament and commenced negotiations
with Louis, with whom  he subscribed (May 17) a secret
treaty, engaging, in case the States would not accept the
terms offered at Nimeguen, to withdraw his troops'rom
the continent, for which he was to receive from  Louis
450,0081. in four quarterly payments.  When parliament
met, (23d,) an address wvas made that war should be declared
or the army be disbanded.  The king's reply was evasive,
and the commaons resolved (June 4) that all the forces raised
within the last seven months, "ought to be paid off and disbanded forthwith," and voted money for the purpose.  The
king, however, was not willing to part with his army. Urged
by the duke of York, the council resolved to enter on the
war; a corps of four thousand men was sent over to Flanders,
and four thousand more, to be commanded by the duke, were
in readiness for embarkation.  At the same time (July 16)
a new treaty was concluded with the States, unless Louis
should recede from some pretensions which he had lately
made in favor of Sweden.
Louis knew when to recede as well as advance. During
a fortnight his ministers employed all the resources of diplomatic tactic(s against those of the States, and then, when all
men looked for a renewal of war, suddenly yielded, (July 31,)
and the peace between France and the States was signed
the same day before midnight.  Four days after, (Aug. 4,)
the prince of Orange attacked the French army at St. Denis,
near Mt[ons, which town they were besieging.  As it is not
possible that he could be ignorant of the actual signature
of the treaty of Nimeguen, the blood of the five thousand
men who were slain in the action may be said to rest on
his head.  He probably hoped that a victory would prevent
the ratilication of the treaty, to which he was strongly
opposed.
Spain and the emperor found it necessary to agree to the'Peace of Nimeguen,' which left to Louis a large proportion




312              HISTCRY OF ENGLAND.
of his conquests, and put it in his power to renew the way
when he pleased with every advantage.
It is not to be denied, that the opposition in parliament
this year played the game of the king of France, and thwarted
all the efforts of Temple and Danby to urgethe king into a
war which they imagined to be equally for the honor and
interest of England. It is also well known, that the lords
Hollis and Russell, and the other leaders of the country
party, were in actual communication with Barillon and Ruvigni, and arranged with theim the plan of operations. These
are points which demand inquiry and explanation.
The country party had a violent distrust of the king,
who, they well knew, was bent on making himself absolute,
and perhaps on changing the religion of the nation; they
also knew that he looked to the money or the arms of Louis
for aid in accomplishing his designs: it was therefore their
object to deprive him of this support, and they probably
thought that a few fortresses in Flanders were not to be
put in the balance with the British constitution.  On the
other hand, Louis acted on the usual maxims of state policy,
and he wished to see his neighbors weak rather than strong;
he had therefore no vehement desire that Charles should
be absolute or the nation catholic: he was of course as little
desirous of beholding a republic in England. What he
wanted was, jealousy and disunion between the king and
people, so that he might be able to play the two parties
against each other, and thus be free from interruption from
England in his project of extending the frontier of France
to the Rhine, and establishing a dictatorship over the rest
of Europe.  For this purpose he had, in the beginning of
the reign of Charles, kept up a communication with the
commonwealth-men; then, seeing a prospect of the king's
becoming his stipendiary and vassal, he entered into close
relations with him; but the marriage of the princess Mary
having proved to him that no reliance could be placed on
Charles, he resolved to try to form a connection with the
popular leaders. For this purpose, Ruvigni, who was a
protestant and first-cousin to lady Russell, came over in the
month of March, and he took occasion to assure Russell
and Hollis, that his master did not at all conceive it to be
for his interest that the king should be absolute, and that
he was ready to aid in causing a dissolution of the parliament. They agreed, on their side, to take care that the
grants sf supplies should be clogged with such conditions




CHARLES HI.                    313
as to be so disagreeable to the king that he would prefer a
reunion with France to accepting them. Ruvigni offered
to spend a considerable sum in the purchase of members'
votes, and begged of Russell to name those who might be
gained over. He replied, that he should be sorry to have
to do with people who could be bought.* He at the same
ime gave it as his opinion, that there was no chance of a
dissolution but through the king of France, whose aid for
that purpose Ruvigni freely promised. Nothing could in
fact exceed the straits in which the popular party then
were; they knew if the king coulu get an army at his devotion, he would destroy their liberties; they were dubious
of the king of France, and yet he alone could aid them:
we therefore need not wonder at their falling into a course
of tortuous policy, which, though morally wrong, is what
those who engage in politics can hardly ever escape. That
nothing injurious to the country and constitution was intended, the names of Russell and Hiollis are a sufficient
warrant.
CHAPTER XV.
CHARLES II. (CONTINUED.)
1678-1680.
THE king was now at peace, but the army was still on foot,
the country party were dejected, and began to think that
further resistance to the court was hopeless.  In this state
of things, during the recess of parliament, the Popish Plot,
as it was named, came to fill the nation with alarm.
On the 12th of August, as the king was walking in the
Park, a person named Kirby, who used to assist him in his
chemical laboratory, came up to him and said, "6 Sir, keep
within the company; your enemies have a design upon your
ife, and you may be shot within this very walk." On being
questioned, he said that two men, named Grove and Picker* Barillon, in 1680, speaks of having given various sums to the popular leaders, as 1000 guineas to Buckingham, and sums of 500 or 300
guineas to Algernon Sidney, sir Thomas Lytdleton, Mr. Garraway,
Mr. Hampden, Mr. Foley, and others. See Hallam's discussion of
this matter, (ii. 547.)
VOL. It.      27                      NN




314-            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ing, had undertaken to shoot him, and sir George W akeman,
the queen's physician,, to poison him. He gave as his authority one Dr. Tonge, rector of St. Michael's, Wood-street.
Thlis Tonge was a weak, credulous man, and a great alarmist
on the subject of popery, against which he published tracts
every year. In the evening Tonge was brought to the king,
to whom he showed a written narrative of the plot, divided
into forty-three heads. He was sent to lord Danby; he said
that the narrative had been thrust under his door; that he
knew not the author, but had a clew which might enable
him to discover him. In a few days he returned, and said,
he had met the author in the street, who had given him a
fuller account, but. required that his name should be concealed for fear of the papists.  As Danby insisted on seeing
some of the papers mentioned in the narrative, after some
delay and evasion he was told, that on a certain day a packet
of letters, addressed to Bedingfield, a jesuit, the duke's confessor, would arrive at the post-office at Windsor.  Danby
hastened down to intercept them; but they had already come
to hand, and Bedingfield, seeing that they were not the
writing of those whose names they bore, and that they contained suspicious matter, showed them to the duke, who
took them to the king.  Charles recognized in the writing
a similarity to that of the narrative, and expressed his belief
of their being forgeries.
After some days, the person from whom Tonge professed
to derive his information came forward. This was a man
named Titus Oates, son to a weaver, who, having turned
anabaptist preacher, and been chaplain to colonel Pride,
had after the restoration obtained orders in the established
church.  He sent his son Titus to Cambridge, where, having finished his.studies, he took orders and became a curate,
but being indicted for perjury on some occasion, he got to
be chaplain in the navy.  Here, however, he was charged
with an odious offence, and was obliged to quit the ship.
He then managed to be appointed as one of the duke of
Norfolk's chaplains, where meeting with many popish priests,
he became a real or pretended convert to their faith. He
was sent over to St. Omers, and thence to Spain, whence he
was no.w returned to England. He had long been acquainted with Tonge, by whom  and Kirby he was now chiefly
supported.
At the urgent desire of the duke to have the matter sifted
to the bottom, the king consented to have Oates examined
before the council. Previously to appearing there, Oates




CHIARLES 1.                   315
went before a magistrate named sir Edmtnundbury Godfrey,
(Sept. 6,) -and made oath to the truth of the narrative, which
was now: extended to eighty-one articles.  He appeared before the council (28th) in a new suit of clothes and a clergyman's gown, and deposed to the following effect.
The jesuits had resolved by all means. to reestablish the
catholic religion in the British dominions; they were organizing a rebellion and massacre in Ireland; in Scotland,
disguised as presbyterian ministers, they were opposing episcopacy; here they proposed to assassinate the king, and
then to offer the crown to the duke, provided he would consent to hold it of the pope, anid aid in extirpating protestantism; if not, To pot James must go, was their expression.
They had abundant funds, having 100,0001. in bank, 60,0001.
a year in rents, etc.  Father Leshee, [La Chaise,] the French
king's confessor, had given them  10,0001., and they were
promised an equal sums from  Spain.  In March last, two
men, named Honest William, [Grove,] and Pickering, (the
last a lay-brother of the order,) were often directed to shoot
the king with silver bullets at Windsor, for which the former
was to have 15001., the latter 30,000 masses; and on their
neglecting to do so, William  had been reprimanded, and
Pickering had received twenty lashes on his bare back.  On
the 24th of April there had been a great meeting of the
jesuits at the White-horse tavern, by St Clement's in the
Strand, to deliberate on the assassination of the king; and
two Benedictines., named Coniers and Anderton, and four
Irishmen, whose names he knew  not, were added to the
former two: 10,0001., and afterwards 15,000l1., had been
offered to Wakeman, the queen's physician., to poison the
king, and he had reason to believe he had undertaken it.
IHe had also learned, since his return, that the jesuits had
caused the fire in 1.666, on which occasion they had expended seven hundred fireballs; and they would then have
murdered the king, but they relented when they witnessed
his zeal and humanity.  They had secured, amidst the conflagration, diamonds to the value of 14,0001.; ten years after
they had made 290001. by setting fire to Southwark, and they
now had a plan or burning Westminster, Wapping, and the
shipping.  Finally, the. pope had lately issued a bull! appointing to all: the dignities.in the church of England, as the
lcatholic religion was sure to triumph as soon as the kind
was taken out of the way.
Next mlorning ('29th) Oates was again brought before




316              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the council. As it was objected to the Windsor letters, that
they were in feigned hands, badly spelt, and with out any
punctuation, he said that such was the practice of the
jesuits, that they might say they were forgeries if they were
discovered, but that their correspondents knew the secret.
As he said he had been introduced to don John at Madrid, he was desired to describe him. He said he was a
tall, thin, dark man. The king, who had often seen him,
knew that he was short, fat, and fair. He was also asked
where he saw father La Chaise pay the money; he replied,
"In the jesuits' house close to the palace."  "Man," cried
the king, "the jesuits have no house within a mile of the
Louvre."
It is to be observed, that though Oates, by his own ac.
count, had feigned to be a convert with the sole purpose of
liscovering the secrets of the jesuits and betraying them,
hough, as he said, he was so highly in their confidence that
numerous documents had been in his hands; he had not
retained a single one of them, and there was nothing but
his bare assertion for the truth of the incredible facts which
he related. His only chance, therefore, was that something
confirmatory might be found among the papers of those who
were committed on his information, and here fortune stood
his friend.
Among those named by Oates was Coleman, the secretary
of the duchess of York. Coleman, the son of a protestant
clergyman, had become a catholic; this naturally gained
him the favor of the duke of York; and, with the usual
zeal of a convert, he exerted himself to the utmost for the
advancement of his new creed. For this and for other
purposes he was in correspondence with La Chaise and
his successor in office, St. Germain. When, therefore, he
heard of his danger, he put all his papers out of the way;
but he unluckily forgot a drawer containing his correspondence in 1674 and two following years, which was found. In
one of these letters he says, " We have here a mighty work
upon our hands, no less than the conversion of three kingdoms, and by that, perhaps, the utter subduing of a pestilent
heresy, which has a long time domineered over a great part
of this northern world. There were never such hopes of
success, since the days of our queen Mary, as now in our
days. God has given us a prince who is become (I may say
by miracle) zealous of being the' author and instrument of
so glorious a work. But the:opposition we care sure to meet




CHARLES II.                   317
with is also like to be great, so that it imports us to get all
the aid and assistance we can."  Elsewhere he says, "I can
scarce believe myself awake, or the thing real, when I think
of a prince, in such an age as we live in, converted-to such
a degree of zeal and piety as not to regard any thing in the
world in comparison of God Almighty's glor), the salvation
of his own soul, and the conversion of our poor kingdom."
In other places he speaks of the interests of the crown of
England being inseparable from those of France and the
catholic religion, and he describes the king as inclined to
favor the catholics, but at the same time thoroughly venal.
When we consider this language of Coleman, and add,o
it the other proofs which we possess, we think we may venture to say that the following assertion of Hallam  is perfectly Icorrect:   " There was really and truly a popish plot
in being, though not that which Titus Oates and his associates pretended to reveal, but one alert, enterprising, effective,
in direct operation against the established protestant religion
in England.  In this plot the king, the duke of York, and
i l      the king of France were chief conspirators; the Romish
priests, and especially the jesuits, were eager cooperators."
The mysterious disappearance of sir Edmundbury Godfrey next came to increase the public alarm.  Godfrey, as
we have seen, had taken Oates's deposition. Though he was
a zealous protestant, he was on good terms with the catho.
lies, particularly Coleman, whom  he had warned of his
danger.  He seems to have had an idea that some mischief
would befall him on account of this business, for Dr. Lloyd,
the rr-ctor of his parish, heard him  say, " I am told I shall
be knocked on the head;" and he said the same to Dr.
Burnet.  To a gentleman who asked him if he had any hand
in taking the informations touching the plot, he replied in
the affirmative, adding, "I know not what will be the consequence of them, but I believe I shall be the first martyr."
To another he said, "I must not talk much, for I lie under
ill circumstances.  Some great men blame me for not having
done my duty, and I am threatened by others, and very great
ones too, for having done too much."
On Saturday morning (Oct. 12) Godfrey left his home at
an early hour, and went to different parts of town.  He was
met in St. Martin's-lane by persons, of whom  he inquired
the way to Paddington-woods; he was seen by others in
Soho and Marybone-fields.  He was in the Strand at one
o'clock, and was afterwards seen in Lincoln's-Inn-fields, and
a person supposed to be he was seen in Red-Lion-fields,
*27 
*~~~~~~~~~~~"`~ [""~~~-~I —-        ~ --  _____      ______ —




318              HISlORY OF ENGLAND.
and on the wa3 to Primrose-hill, and finally in a field neax
that hill.
His absence from horne (for he did not return) caused
great uneasiness to his family and friends, and various conjectures were made to account for it.  Some thought he
was gone out of the way from his creditors; others gave out
that he. was married, and " that not very decently,' or that
he was run away with a harlot; but the most prevalent report
was that he was murdered by the papists. For some days
no account could be got of him; but on Thursday evening,
(17th,) as two men were going toward the White-house at
Primrose-hill, they saw a cane and pair of gloves lying on a
bank by a ditch, and, on searching further, they found in
the ditch the dead body of a man, with a sword run through
him.  His rings were on his fingers, and his money was in
his pocket.  There was a double crease round his neck,
which was so limber that the face might be turned round to
the shoulder. The body was at once recognized to be that 
of the missing justice.  A.coroner's jury, swayed by the
opinions of two ignorant surgeons, brought in a verdict that
he had been strangled, and it was supposed that the assassins had run his own sword through him, that he might be
supposed to have killed himself.  That the papists had done
the deed, was a point about which few had any doubt, and
those who had, thought it most prudent to confine their
suspicions to their own bosom.
The plain truth, however, appears to be, that in this instance the unfortunate papists were perfectly innocent, and
that Godfrey died by his own hand.  There was an hereditary mnelancholy'n his family, and. for some days before his
disappearance a strangeness in his manner and behavior had
been observed.  The apprehension of being brought into
some trouble on account of having taken the deposition of
Oates probably led to the catastrophe.  As by the law the
property of a Felo de se was forfeit to the crown, it was the
interest of his brothers to have it believed that he was
murdered.  The report, laying the guilt on the papists, waa
traced to them; they kept back important evidence; and
they dealt with the coroner and the surgeons.  It is, however, not to be supposed that they foresaw the judicial rmurders that were to ensue.*
When parliament met, (21st,) the ferment was great. The
See L'Estrange s'Brief History of the Times,' etc., where all
the depositions are given.
_  _    _.__ _               ___;.____                 A     _ _______________________ I.. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -----....- ~ —---- U —~




CHARLES II.                   319
kinlg's usual application for money was neglected; but an
address was voted, praying him to appoint a solemn day of
fasting and humiliation for imploring the divine protection
for himself and his loyal subjects.  A second address followed, for the removal of all popish recusants from  London and its vicinity, and proclanations were made accordingly.  Committees, with extensive powers, were appointed
to search out the plot.  The country party became now
omnipotent in both houses.  Full credit was given to every
thing Oates asserted; and he now added, that the pope,
Lreating England as his kingdom, had appointed to all the
great offices, civil and military: lord Arundel was to be
chancellor, lord Powis treasurer, lord Bellasis commanderin-chief, with lord Petre'for his Fieutenant, sir Francis Radclffe his major, and Lambert his adjutant-general; lord
Stafford was to be paymaster-general, sir W. Godolphin
privy-seal, and Coleman secretary of state.  Similar arrang'ements were made for Ireland.  Some of those named were
disabled by age, others by infirmity, but these objections
were unheeded; warrants were issued against all who were
named, and the lords Arundel, Powis, Stafford, Petre, and
Bellasis were committed to the Tower.  Both houses finally
passed a resolution, (31st,) that " there had been, and still
was, a damnable and hellish plot, contrived and carried on
by the popish recusants, for the assassinating and murdering
the king, and for subverting the government, and rooting out
and destroying the protestant religion."
On the last day of the month the funeral of sir Edmundbury Godfrey took place, at St. iMartin's-in-the-fields.  Seventy-two of the London clergy, in their gowns, walked two
and two before the coffin, and it was followed in the same
order by more than one thousand gentlemen in mourning,
of whom many were members of parliament.  The funeral
sermon was preached by Dr. Lloyd, the rector.  At each side
of hini stood a tall, athletic clergyman, for his protection.
His text was,' As a man falleth before the wicked, so fellest
thou;" and he endeavored to show  that Godfrey had been
murdered by the catholics on account of his zeal in discharging the duties of his office.
Oates was now called' The Savior of his Country:' he
had lodgings assigned him at Whitehall, with a pension of
12001. No one'ventured to call the truth of the plot into
question.  All precautions were adopted against the rising
of the catholics which lhe had announced: the tramined-bands
were constantly on duty, the guards were doubled at the




320               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
palace, the city put up its posts and chains, in order to be
prepared for defence.*
A reward of 5001. having been offered for the murderer
of Godfrey, a letter came the day after the funeral to the
secretary of state, dated from  Newbury, requesting that
William Bedloe, the writer of it, might be arrested at Bristol
and conveyed to London.  This was done accordingly, and
Bedloe was examined in presence of the king, (Nov. 7.)  He
said he had seen the body of Godfrey at Somerset-house,
(the residence of the queen,) where he had been smothered
between pillows by two jesuits, and that he had been offered
two thousand guineas to help to remove it.  At a subsequent
examination (11th) he said that Godfrey had been inveigled
into Somerset-house about five in the evening, and there
strangled with a linen cravat.  But it happened that at that
very hour the king was visiting the queen, and the place
was full of guards, and the room in which he said he saw
the body was that appropriated to the queen's footmen, who
were always in it. At first, too, he knew nothing of the plot;
but having read Oates's narrative, his memory brightened,
an-d he called to mind many circumstances which he had
learned firom English monks, nuns, and other religious persons, whom he had met on the continent, all corroborating it.
Bedloe was, if possible, more infamous than Oates.  He
had been originally a servant of lord Bellasis; he had
travelled, chiefly as a courier, over much of the continent;
had been guilty of many acts of robbery and swindling, had
been often the inmate of a prison, and was but lately come
out of Newgate.
The popular leaders had caused a bill, for a test which
would exclude catholics from parliament and from  the royal
presence, to pass the commons, (Oct. 28.)  While it was in
the house of lords, an address was moved there by Shaftesbury; and in the commons by lord Russell, for excluding
the. duke of York from the presence and councils of the
king. The efforts to have it rejected in the commons having
proved abortive, the duke, at his brother's desire, resigned
his place at the counc.il-blxard; and Charles then having
addressed the two houses in complacent terms, the "ords
resumed the discussion of the bill, and it was passed, with
If' North may be believed, (Examen, p. 206,) sir Thomas Player,
th- city chamberlain, said to the citizens, that "he did not know but
that next morning they might all rise wit their throats cut."




C-HARLEs 1.                   321 
a proviso that it should not extend to the duke of York,
(30th.)  By this bill twenty catholic peers lost their seats,
and for a century and a half their descendants continued to
be excluded.
The two informers (urged, as was suspected, by the enemies of the duke, who wished to revive the project of a
royal divorce) now proceeded to accuse the queen.  Oates
swore that, going one time witlh some jesuits to Somersethouse, he remained in the antechamber while they went in to
the queen, and, as the door was ajar, he heard her exclaim
" I will no longer suffer such induignities to my bed.  I am
content to join in procuring his death, and the propagation
of the catholic faith."  Yet when sent to Somerset-hou-e,
he could not find the room in which he had been.  Bedloe
too deposed to a conference between the queen, lord Bellasis,
and some jesuits and other priests, which he had overheard.
Oates appeared at the bar of' the commons, (28th,) and Jin a
loud voice cried, "I, Titus Oates, accuse Catherine, queen
of England, of high-treason."  An address was voted to remove the queen and her attendants from Whitehall; but the
lords, having examined the two witnesses, positively refused
to concur in it, and the absurd and unfounded charge was
dropped.  The king in this matter behaved well, and ex.
pressed his determination not to let her be oppressed.  He
told Burnet that, "' considering his faultiness to her in other
respects, he thought it a horrible thing to abandon her."
The impeachment of lord Danby, which had long been
a-brewing, was now effected.  Montague, the ambassador at
Paris, came over, without asking permission, and got himself
chosen a member of the house of commons.  His object
was the:ruin of Danby, and he entered into relations for this
purpose with the popular leaders and with Barillon, from
which last he was to receive 100,900 crowns in case of success. Danby, having had secret information of his project,
and knowing that he had documents which might be used
to his injury, got an order of council for the seizure of his
papers; Montague, however, had secured the most important
one, and it was read before the house.  This was a letter
from Danby to him on the 25th of March, during;he negotiations for peace, directing him to offer to Louis the king's
good offices in procuring such a peace as would be for his
advantage, on condition of receiving 6,099,000 of livres a
year for a term of three years, as it was likely to be so long
before parliament would be in the humor to grant supplies.
Nothing could be more repugnant to Danby's feelings than
00




322              HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
t business of this kind, but the love of place, or an errone
ous sense of the duties of his office, induced him to give
way; and the king, to satisfy him, wrote at the bottom,
"This letter is writ by my order.  C. R."  When this cil'cumstance is considered, when it is added that Montague
himself appears to have suggested the project, and that he
stipulated for reward with the French agent, and broke
through all the principles of honor, few greater instances of
political turpitude will perhaps be found.  The house, however, heeded not allny thing but their passions: they discerned
another link of the chain of popish machinations, and they
voted an impeachment of the lord treasurer, (2ist,) for, 1.
traitorously arrogating to himself regal power by treating
with foreign courts without the knowledge of the council;
2. endeavoring to subvert the constitution by keeping up a
standing army; 3. negotiating a peace in favor of France to
the prejudice of England, that he might receive money from
France for keeping up that army; 4. being popishly inclined,
and having concealed the popish plot; 5. having wasted the
royal treasure; 6. having obtained for himself grants frorn
the crown.  Though the words tirason and traitorously were
used liberally in these charges, the lords plainly saw that the
treasurer's guilt, if any, did not go beyond a misdemeanor;
and his defence of himself was able and cogent; they therefore refused to commit him.  At the desire of the treasurer,
the king then (30th) prorogued the parliament to the 4th
of February, and during the prorogation it was dissolved,
(Jan. 24, 1679.)
Thus, after a duration of nearly eighteen years, ended
the second and last Long Parliament.  It had been elected
in the full intoxication of loyalty consequent on the restoration, and at first it seemed inclined to free the royal authority
from all limitations whatever; but time had cooled its fervor.  The jealousy on the subject of the public liberties,
which has never been extinct, had revived; the protestant
feeling, then characteristic of the nation, had been alarmed;
and, instead of a submissive body of loyalists, it had become
an assembly suspicious of the court, and not to be managed
by intrigue or daunted by power.
The courts of law were meantime proceeding in the trials
of those charged by Oates and Bedloe with being concerned
in the plot.  Space does not allow of our entering into the
details; suffice it to say, that the witnesses against them
were in general men )f the worst character; that chief-justice Seroggs and his brethren on the bench acted with the




CHARLES -II.                  323
most flagrant partiality and injustice, always assuming the
guilt of the accused, aiding the witnesses for the crown when
embarrassed, explaining away their contradictions, and browbeating, sneering at, and insulting those for the defence,
and that consequently conviction was no proof whatever
of guilt.
Coleman was the first tried, (Nov. 27:) the witnesses
against him were Oates and Bedloe, andhis own letters.  In
the eyes of the court and jury, Oates's testimony was not invalidated by his not having even known his person when first
confronted with himn.  Coleman was found guilty, and died
(Dec. 3) asserting his innocence to the last.
Grove, Pickering, and a jesuit named Ireland were next
brought to trial, (17th.)  Though the last made it clear that
he Wi'as in Staffordshire when Oates swore he was in London,
it availed him  not: " You have done, gentlemen," said
Scroggs to the jury, " like very good subjects and very good
Christians, that is to say, like very good protestants; and
now much good may their thirty thousand masses do them,"
alluding to Pickering's reward.  These men also died asserting their innocence, (Jan. 14.)
Hill, Green, and Berry, persons employed at Somersethouse, were charged by Bedloe with the murder of Godfrey.
As the law required two witnesses, one Miles Prance. a
catholic silversmith, whom  Bedloe had also charged, was
treated with so much rigor in Newgate, and so worked on
by promises and threats, that he was at last induced to confess his guilt, and appear as a witness against the other
prisoners, (Feb. 10.) Bedloe's evidence and his contradicted
each other in the grossest manner, but this was of no avail to
the accused.  The three were condemned  and executed,
protesting their innocence to the last.  Berry, it is to be observed, died a protestant.
An auxiliary to Oates and Bedloe had appeared in the
person of one Carstairs, a profligate Scot.  He swore that,
in an eating-house near Covent Garden, he heard Staley, a
catholic banker, say in French to another person, that the
king was a rogue, and that he himself would stab him if no
one else would. It was probably at first only a project to
frighten money out of the banker, for Carstairs and another
waited on him next day, and offered to hush up the matter for
2001.  Staley only laughed at the 6harge:  They then resolved to go through with the business; and he was seized,
brought to trial forthwith, found guilty on their evidence, and
hanged, (Nov. 26.) When Burnet first heard of this business.




324              HISTORY' OF -ENGLAND.
he lost no time in informing the chancellor and nttcrney
general of the ii famy of Carstairs' character, but the latter
took it ill of aim to disparage, as he said, the king's
evidence.*
At the elections for the new parliament,.the court candidates were almost every where rejdcted.  To express the
slightest doubt of the plot deprived a man of all chance of
a seat, and the new parliament therefore, it was expected,
would prove still more unmanageable than the last. As a
means of averting the storm  which he saw preparing, the
king commissioned the primate and some other prelates to
make an attempt to bring back his brother to the protestant
faith.  But all their efforts were vain on the sullen, obstinate
mind of the duke, and Charles then required him to quit the
country for a time.  To this James consented, provided the
king gave him a written order for that purpose, and also a
solemn promise not to sacrifice his rights in his absence to
the duke of Monmouth. Charles gave the order in an af.
fectionate letter, and then solemnly declared before the
council that he had never given any contract of marriage,
or married any woman but his queen. He subscribed this
declaration; and ordered it to be enrolled in chancery.  The
duke then set out with his family for Brussels, (Mar. 4.)
As soon as the duke was gone, the parliament met, (6th.)
Seymour, the former speaker, was re-chosen; the king rejected. him, and proposed another; the commons insisted on
their right, the king on his: the dispute was terminated by
appointing a third person. Henceforth it became a principle,
that the house should choose, but that the crown may reject
the speaker presented to it.
The commons now prepared to proceed with the impeachment of Danby; but the king, having previously dismissed
him from his office, summoned the two houses to his presence, and told them that what Danby had done had been by
his orders, and he had therefore granted him a pardon, and
would do so a dozen times if necessary, at the same time he
had seen reason to exclude him from his presence and council.  The commons, however, viewed this pardon as illegal,
and resolved to proceed; the lords, fearful of opposing them,
directed that the earl should be taken into custody. Danby
concealed himself at Whitehall; the lords passed a bill for
his banishment, but the commons rejected it and passed one
* Dr. Lingard [justly] adds, "And the timid divine shrunk frorn the
frown of the barrister, and left the'unfortunate man to his fate."
_______   __________   _______     —. 1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




CHARLES II.                   325|
For Iis att ainder unl ss he surrendered' against a certain dayf'
the lordls altered it; the commons were determined, and the 
lords had to give way  again, and p)ass the bill of attainder.
Danby then surrendered, (Apr:. 16',) and was committed to-the
Tower; Some: days later (25th) he gave in his answer, denying the charges and pleading the pardon he had received
fr'om the king. The commons acted; with great and indecent violence; the peers vacillated; a prorogation took place,
and the impeachinent was never renewed. 
At this time the king, acting under the advice of sir
William Temlple, made a completely new organization of his        I:
council.  It was now to consist of thirty members, (inStead 
of fifty, as before,) one half to be the great officers of state,
the remainder the leading popular members in both houses,          A
so chosen that the annual income of the members of the
council should amount to 300,0001., to balance that of the
comnfions, which was estiniated at 400,0901.; for it was then
a maxim-in politics, that influence invariably follows proper-ty. It was expected that the hostility of the popular
leaders would thus be mitigated, and with this view Charles       i 
himself nomiinated Shaftesbury president of the council.
The hopes of the king, however, were deceived; the prot-.
estant spirit of the commons was not to be lulled, and Shaftesbuiry continued to direct their movements.  A  resolution
minatory of theduke of York having been voted unanimously by the commons, (Ap-r. 27,) Charles, in order to divert the
blow which he saw comiw,,proposed such limitations on the;
Dower of a popish successor as seemed to leave hini without.ne -meana of doing mischief. But the commons took no notice
of the proposal, and the committee which they had appointed
to search for evidence against the duke, having made their
report, they proceeded (-May 15) to bring in a bill for excluding'him frorn the throne, and notw-ithstanding. the efforts
of the court party, the duke's friends, and the supporters of;I
hered:itary right, it was passed (21st)  by a majority of seventynine.
The'passing of this vote secretly determined the king to
get rid of his house of commons without delay.  There
were several of their other measures which showed the spirit 
which actuated them. In their animosity to Danby, they had
voted, that if any member of their house should without
permission support the validity of his pardon, he should be
accounte'da betrayer of the liberties of Englis}hmen; and to
di.minish-the influence of the crown in the. house of peers,
they maintainied that the bishops had no right to sit and vote
VOL. II.     23




326              HISfORY OF ENGLAND.
In cap;tal cases.  Their arguments, however, were refutedJ
and it was decided that in such cases the prelates have a
right to stay inl court " till the question of guilty or not
guilty were put."  The commons had, moreover, appointed a
committee, of which the chief object was to discover the
pecuniary corruption of ihe late parliament.  The king ac
cording!y, without advising with his council, prorogued the
parliament (27th) for ten weeks. This proceeding so disconcerted Shaftesbury, that he openly vowed he would have
the heads of those who advised it.
One most meritorious act distinguishes this parliament,
and does credit to Shaftesbury, by whose influence it was
passed.  Hitherto the operation of the writ of Habeas
Corpus had been so ineffective, that the boasted security
which it offered, mostly proved, illusory.  By the Habeas
Corpus act now passed, it was made imperative on the judges
to grant the writ when applied for; the practice of sending
persons to a prison beyond sea was abolished, and it was
directed that every prisoner should be indicted in the first
term after his committal, and tried in the succeeding term.
During the recess, the public attention was occupied with
more trials onr account of the Plot.  Five jesuits, named
Whitebread, (the provincial of the order,) Fenwick, Gavan,
Turner, and Harcourt, were placed at the bar; the witnesses
against them were Oates, Bedloe, Prance, and a man named
Dugdale, who had been steward to lord Aston, a catholic
nobleman. The evidence against the prisoners was of the
usual kind; in. their defence they impeached the veracity
of the witnesses; they produced sixteen students from St.
Omers to prove that Oates was there at the time; he swore
he was at the meeting of the jesuits in London. Against
these he produced six or seven persons who swore that they
had seen him in London at that time. The court gave
credit to these last, and the prisoners were all found guilty.
The next day (14th) Langhorn, an eminent lawyer, and the
law-agent of the jesuits, was put on his trial.  When he appeared in court, the crowd set up a hooting at him; his
witnesses were insulted and beaten, and when the jury
brought in their verdict of guilty, a shout of exultation was
set up.   
The jesuits were first executed, (20th;) they died solemnly
asserting their innocence., ILanghorn was respited for some
time:, in the hopes that he might be induced to make dis.
coveries; but as he persisted in denying all knowledge of the
plot, he shared the fate of the other victims, (July 14.),




CHARLES II                     32
Sir George Wakeman, the queen's physician, and Corker,
Marshal, and Rumby, Benedictine monks, were next put on
their trial, (18th.)  They had advantages, however, which
the others had wanted.  Though it was generally believed
that the catholics held that it was lawful to lie for the good
of their cause, the solemn protestations of their innocence
made by those who were executed had produced a favorable
impression on-the minds of many; the cause of Wakeman,
moreover, was in reality that of the queen, of whose innocence few could have a doubt.  The king's feelings on this
point were no secret, and Scroggs, now at length assuming
the character of an impartial judge, treated Oates and Bedloe as they deserved.  The jury acquitted the prisoners, and
the two baffled informers had the audacity to declare that
they would never more give evidence in a court where
Scroggs presided, and actually exhibited  articles against
him  to the council.
Seven or eight priests were executed in different parts of
England on the old laws for exercising their spiritual functions.  Two of them are said to have been upwards of eighty
years of age.  As this had been connived at for so long a
time, they surely should have got notice and been allowed to
quit the kingdom.  But the spirit of fanaticism (whether political or religious) is wild, impetuous, and overwhelming;
no mounds of justice or equity can withstand it until it has
spent its force.  Perhaps when we consider how universal
and strong was the belief in the Plot, and how artful the
modes adopted by some profligate politicians to exaggerate
its atrocity,* we shall find here, as in the civil war, grounds
for admiring the freedom  from  bloodthirst characteristic of
the English people.
We must now turn to a people of a different character.
In Scotland, as we have more than once observed, every act
of injustice or atrocity assumes a deeper dye than in England.t The religious persecutions of the reign of Charles
exemplify this position.
When episcopacy was reestablished in Scotland, (1662,)
* Sir W. Temple says, respecting the execution of the priests,
Upon this point lord lIalifitx and I had so sharp a debate, that he
told me, if I would not concur in points that were so necessary for the
people's satisfaction, he would tell every body I was a papist, affirming that the plot must be handled as if it were true, whether it
was so or no."
+ [It should be remarked that the author of this work is not himself
an Englishman, but an Irishman. The above is not, thercfkre, the
language of national prejudice.- J T. S.]




828               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
an act of indemnity conitaining nearly one thousand excep
tions was introduced, and Middleton and' his friends looked
forward to a copious harvest of confiscations.  The speedy
disgrace of that profligate minister, however, averted the storili
for a season.  The bishops meantime held their synods; in
the north the clergy in general submitted, but those off the
west resolved not to acknowledge their jurisdiction.  They
proposed to offer a kind of passive resistance; but Middleton,
in one of his drunken orgies at Glasgow, made an act of
council for displacirig all miriisters who did not obtadin-inl
duction from the prelates.  Not less than three hundr'ed" and
fifty ministers were in consequence ejected in the beginning
of the winter, and they and their families were turned out
of their houses, their stipends for- the last year remaining unpaid.  A set of ignorant, vicious curates' were bought up
fiom the north to supply the vac;ant churches.  But the pettpie would not attend to them; they crowded every Suiday to
the abode of their former pastor, and as that wVas generally too
small to contain them, the conventicles, as they were named,        i
began to be held in the open fields.  To put an end to this
practice, the council ordered the ejected clergy not to approach within twenty miles of their former parishes, and
the people were forbidden under severe penalties to contribute to their support.
If Middleton was bad, his successor Lauderdale was still
worse.  The prelates now (1663) were dominant; severe
acts were passed against the ejected clergy and their adherents, and a miniature inquisition, named an ecclesiastical commission, was appointed to enforce them.  The jails
were filled; numbers went over to Ulster; the lay commissioners at length in disgust refused to act,: and the odious
commission was suffered to expire.  But a severer scourge
succeeded, (1665i.)  A body of troops, com'manded by sir
James Turner, a dissolute, ferocious Englishman, was sent
into the west, to punish the.people: for deserting their
churches.  The curates were accusers, the soldiers judges;
enormous fines were the penalties, which were exacted with
rigor, accompanied by every species of insolence and insult.
Numbers of the gentry as well as peasantry fled from their
habitations, and took shelter in the mountains and moors.
At length an incideiit, similar to What caused a secession in
ancient Rome, gave occasiOn t( an insurrection.  An in
digent old man, being unable to pay the fines imposed on
him, was: bound and laid on the ground to be conveyed to
prison.  The sight exasperated the peasantry; -they disarmed




CHARLES II. 
the soldiers and released him, (Nov. 13, 1666.)' Despair now
ma.de them resolve on resistance; others joined them; they  
advanhed to Dumffries, (15th,) where they surprised and cap.turedTurnier; but on reading his instructiois, and finding -
that, barbarous as he was, he had not acted up to them, they 
gave him his life. At Lanark, where their numbers am'ounted to two thousand, they renewed the covenant.  They then
advanced toward' Edinburgh, and came within two miles of
that city; but find ing preparations  made for defence, and
that their friends within could not joiit them, as they had
expected, they set out on their return home, their number
being now reduced to eight or nine hlundred.  At the Pentland-liills they were overtaken by general Dalziel, (28thi;)
they drew up on the summit of a hill:; their ministers pr'eached and prayed to encourage them, and they sang the 78t:h
Psalm.  They repelled thie first charge:of the royal troops,
but at sunlset they broke and fled; the darkness befriended
them, and not niore than one hundred and thirty were taken;
the slain did not exceed fifty.  Cowardice is always cruel,
and the two archbishops, who had been in the utmost consternation, now breathed nothing but veiigeance: twenty of
the captives were execut'ed in Edinburgh as traitors; thirty-l
five were hung at their own doors in the country. At length
an order came down from  court to stop the slaughter.
Archbishop: Burnet, who was the bearer of thins order, had
the barbarity to keep; it back till Maccail, a young preacher,
had been executed, after undergoing with undaunted resolution the horrid torture of the boot.  Maccail's last words
were, " Farewell, sun, moon, and stars; farewell, kindred:
and friends; farewell, world and time; farewell, weak and
frail body: welcome, eternity; welcome, angels and saints;
welcome, Savior of the World; and welcome, God, the judge
of all."
Dalziel and Drummond, two: brutal soldiers who had long
been in' the Muscovite service, were sent to the west; Dalziel's threats to spit- and roast men were justified  by'his: deeds.
Some persons were put to death on the highway without
trial, others Were tortured: by havihg lighted' matches fastened to their fingers; a son was executed fot refusing to
discover his father; a wife was tort-ured till she died for aidiiig' her husband to escape.  Rape, robbety, anid: murder
desolated the unhappy country for the space Of seVen mnonthis
The- c\ergy abetted'all the excesses of the- soldiery, w:hOm
they caressed as theiir friends and patrons, and'he-y spoke- of
the present timnesa as- a golden dge.
28*'                         PP




330             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
A change in the Scottish ministry (1667) brought some
repose to the country; but with the return of Lauderdale
to Scotland (1669) the persecution was renewed.  The laws
against conventicles acquired new vigor, and these in their
turn assumed a more formidable appearance, as those@ who
attended carried arms for their defence, and frequent affrays
took place between them  and the military. The Scottish
law having a civil excommunication, similar to the Interdictio aquce et ignis of the Roman law, named " Letters of
Intercommuning,"' these were issued in great numbers against
those who were known to frequent conventicles or absent
themselves from church; among whom  were not only ministers and gentlemen, but even ladies of distinction. These
and the other severities drove many to adopt a vagrant life,
and gradually to acquire the feelings and habits of outlaws.
Some years before, an attempt had been made on the life
of Sharp. The assassin had escaped; but six years after,
Sharp, observing a man to eye him frequently, thought he
recognized the features of the person who had fired at him.
The man was arrested; he proved to be a fanatic preacher
named Mitchel. On the solemn promise of Sharp and the
council that his life should be safe, he confessed the attempt
on the archbishop. It was proposed to cut off his hand; but
having got a hint from a friendly or humane judge not to
confess in court unless his limbs were secured as well as his
life, he baffled the vengeance of the primate. A pretext,
however, was made for putting him to the torture, and he
was then confined in the prison on the Bass-rock, where he
languished for four years. His trial was then renewed at
the instance of Sharp, who, with Lauderdale, Rothes, and
Hatton, did not scruple to declare on oath that no promise
of life had been made to him. A copy of the act of council
was produced; but Lauderdale refused to allow the books in
which it was registered (and where it still remains, a witness
of their baseness and perjury) to be examined, and the court
condemned the prisoner. Lauderdale would have respited
him, but the primate was inexorable. " Nay, then," said
Lauderdale scoffingly, " let him glorify God in the Grass-market;;" and the prisoner was executed.
The great object of the king was to obtain a standing army,
as the only sure step to arbitrary power.  Lauderdale had,
in compliance with this desire, raised an army in Scotland;
but it was necessary to have a pretext for keeping it up,, and
there is strong reason to suspect that it was concerted at
court to drive the Scottish fanatics into insurrection with




this view.  Accordingly  the landlords in the west were
required to enter into bonds for the good conduct of all persons on their lands with respect to conventicles, etc., and
on their refusal, Lauderdale declared the western counties
In a state of revolt. Troops were therefore marched on all
sides toward them, and by the express orders of the king a
body of six thousand ferocious Highlanders were invited
-from their mountains, and in the middle of winter (1678) let
loose on the unhappy counties to exercise all the atrocities
of free quarters.  Their ravages lasted for a space of three
months, but failed to goad the people into rebellion.
At length the desired occasion was presented.  One of
the commissioners for suppressing conventicles, named Carmichal, had exercised great severities in Fife.  Nine (,f
those who had suffered lay in. wait for him one day (May 3,
1679) on Magus-moor, near St. Andrew's, intending to fall
on him while out hunting.  But he had gotten information
and retired to Cupar.  When they were about to separate,
a coach and six came in sight, and a boy cried out,'" There
goes the bishop!" The fanatics saw the hand of God in this
event, and believing that Heaven had thus delivered the archpersecutor into their hands, they mounted their horses, and
led by John Balfour, a violent enthusiast, they crossed the
moor and came up with the carriage, in which were only
Sharp and his daughter. They fired into it, and as their
shots did not take effect, they dragged their victim  out;
to his offers, reinonstrances, and entreaties, they replied that
they bore him no personal malice, but were only obeying
the command of God.  With their swords they barbarously
slew him, and left his body on the road.  They then retired
to a neighboring cottage, where they passed several hours
in prayer.
Sharp may be called the Laud of Scotland.  Like him
he was regular in his conduct in private life, a tyrant and
a persecutor in public. But Sharp was an apostate and a
traitor to those who had trusted him, and he seems to have
had little religion of any kind. No one, we should hope,
who has read the preceding History, will suspect us of
being the apologists of crime; but we cannot avoid discerning the justice of Heaven, which  permits even the
irregular punishment of offenders who are not amenable to
earthly tribunals.
Rewards were offered for the murderers, and conventicles
rwere declared to be treasonous. The assassins were now
in the west, where, in conjunction  with one iHamilton, a




'3&2             HISTORY OF EN GLAN D
preacher, they urged the people to resistance.  On Friday
the  29th of May, a party entered the burgh of R;utherglen
and publicly burnt the acts restoring episcopacy.  On the
foll0owinig Sunday, Graham of Claverhouse,.with three troops
of horse, attacked- their conventicle at Druinclog by Loudon-hill, but was repulsed with the loss of thirty of his men.
The troops abandoned Glasgow to the covenanters, whose
numbers gradually swelled; but the time which,hould be
devoted to action was employed in religious controversy, and
those whose only hopes lay in union were split into parties.'When the news reached London, the duke of Monmnouth
Was sent down as com m ander-in-chief.  His first instructions
were, to treat or to fight; but Lauderdale induced the king
secretl:, to alter them, and to direct hint not to treat, but to
attack t.ie rebels wherever they were found. MonmoutF
advanced- front Edinburgh at the head of ten thousand men;
he found (June 21) the whigs, to the number of four or five
thousand, posted at Bothwell-bridge, neat Hamilton, on the
Clyde.  They sent to treat, but were required to surren
der at discretion.  The bridge was defended for some time
against the duke; but when his troops had crossed it, the
insurgents broke and fled at the first discharge of cannon:
four hundred were slain; twelve hundred surrendered; their
lives were saved by- the humanity of Monmouth, whose gentle and clement conduct- in this expedition won the applause
of even the fanatics themselves.  On his return to court he
became their advocate; but the influence of Lauderdale
finally prevailed; the sanguinary and rapacious Claverhouse
was let loose on the devoted country, and the court of justiciary almost ruined the gentry! by unjust' and enormous
fines.
Soon after the return of Monmouth, the king, with the
advice of Essex and Halifax, dissolved the parliament, (July
16.)  The following month lie was attacked by a fever at
Windsor, and by the advice of the same ministers and some
other memiibers of the council. he recalled the duke from
Brussels, (Aug'. 23.)  James came without- delay, travelling
under a; feigned name.  The king was convalescent when
he arrived, and it Was soon after deemed advisable that both
James and Monmouth should quit the kingdom.  They
went to tIhe Low Countries; but soon after; the duke of
York returned, and got  ermnission to reside in Scotland,
whither he repaired' ithout delay.
When the new parliament met, (Oit. 17,) it presented the
samne compositiori as' the preceding one, and Shaftesbury.




CHARLES II.                  335
whom the king had just deprived of his office in the council,
looked forward to vengeance on the court by means of it.
But to his dismay, the king prorogued it the very day it met;
and successive prorogations prevented its reassembling for a
twelveinonth.  Charles, before he ventured on this step, had
agreed with Louis for a pension of a million of livres a year
for three years, and thus thought himself independent.  But
the treaty had not been signed, and Louis nowv wanted to
add some more conditions.  These Charles rejected, and he
had now no alternative but to follow the advice of his brother
and economize his income; and this he tried to do rather
than meet his parliament.
Shaftesbury now tried various expedients to rouse the popular feeling.'The old cerempny of burning the pope was
performed in London (Nov. 17.) with more than usual pomp
and expense.  Immediately after, Monmouth returned without permnssion; and though the king ordered him to depart,
and deprived him  of all his employments, he remained in
defiance of him, and went on in his endeavors to gain the
popular favor. A pamphlet called'An Appeal from the Country tp the City, etc.,' was also put forth, in which the claims of
Monmouth were warmly advocated, and great stress was laid
on the maxim that " the worst:title makes the best king."
But the grand expedient was, to pour in petitions from all
parts to the king to allow the parliament to sit at the end of
he first prorogation.  To stem this torrent, when it began
to appear formidable, the king put forth a proclamation
(Dec. 12) threatening with punishment all who should subscribe them in any manner contrary to the law of the land.
The immediate effect was extraordinary; the dormant loyalty
of the nation was awakened, and from all sides counter-addresses poured in, expressing the deepest respect for the royal
prerogative, and abhorrence of the practices of those who
sought to limit it. The two opposite parties were at first
named'Petitioners' and' Abhorrers;' but these soon gave
place to the titles of Whigs and Tories, which have continued to designate the two rival parties. in the state down to
the present day. The popular party were called by their
opponents Whigs, as being akin in their sentiments to the
Scottish fanatics who were thus named; they retaliated by
styling them Tories, as resembling the popish robbers of this
name in Ireland.
The king was now emboldened to recall the duke of York
to court, (Jar.. 28, 16SO.)  Russell, Cavendish, Capel, and
Powle forthwith tendered their resignation as members of




334              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the council, which the king said he accepted "with all his
heart," speaking no doubt most sincerely.  The duke's influence-immediately appeared.  There had long been great
talk of a black box, containing the king's marriage contract
with Monmouth's mother, said to have been left by the late
bishop of Durham  in charge of his son-in-law sir Gilbert
Gerard, and that many persons had seen and read the contract.  All these persons were now examined before the
privy-council, and they disclaimed all knowledge of the
box or the contract.  Two royal declarations were then published, in which the king solemnly affirmed that he had never
beers contracted or married to any one but the queen.
Shaftesbury's next measure was a bold one. Accompanied
by the earl of Huntingdon, the lords Russell, Cavendish,
and others, among whom was Titus Oates, he went (June
26) to Westminster-hall and presented the duke of York to
the grand jury for recusancy.  He' was: defeated by a stratagemn of the chief-justice, who suddenly dismissed the jury:
but his principal object was attained; he convinced his party
that he was resolved to seek no compromise with the duke
While these various political intrigues were going on, the
lives of persons continued to be endangered; and at this
time lord Castlemain and the countess of Powis, wife of one
of the catholic lords in the Tower, were accused by a man
namned Dangerfield, and sir Thomas Gascoygne and others
of the catholic gentry of Yorkshire by one Bolton.
Dangerfield, a man of infamous character, like most of
the informers, had been in the last summer the author of
what was called the Meal-tub Plot.  This fellow, having
become acquainted with one Mrs. Cellier, a catholic, who
followed the profession of a midwife, conceived the idea of
fabricating a plot of the presbyterians against the government.  Mrs. Cellier, through lady Powis, introduced him to
lord Peterborough, who brought him to the duke of York.
That prince gave him twenty guineas, and he had forty from
the king, with whom also he had an interview. At his instigation the revenue officers were sent to search for smuggled lace in the lodgings of colonel Mansel, who, he said,
was to be quarter-nmaster of the presbyterian army, and
behind his bed they found a parcel of treasonable papers.
As these were manifest forgeries, Danogerfield was committed
to Newgate, and there he said that he had been bribed by
the papists to forge the plot, and to assassinate the king and
lord Shaftesbury.  He asserted that documents corroboratory
of his confession would be found hid in a meal-tub in Mrs




CHARLES IT.                   33Z
Cellier's house; and there they certainly were found.  The
juries, however, both on her trial and on that of lord Castle.
main, refused to give credit to Dangerfield.  The whole
affair is, as usual, involved in mystery; the catholics may
have endeavored to get up a counter-plot; the Monmouth
party may have sought by means of a sham-plot to cast odium
on the duke of York.  All parties at this time, in their
anxiety about ends, were but too indifferent as to means.
The party opposed to the duke of York was now greatly
increased in strength. Two of the ministers, Godolphin
and Sunderland, had joined it; and the duchess of Ports
mouth, menaced with impeachment, had, through lord
Howard of Eserick, entered into the league, on condition
of all proceedings being dropped.  She was employed to offer
the [king, over whom she had great influence, a large sum
of money and the power of naming his successor.
When the time for the meeting of parliament drew nigh,
the opponents of the duke of York labored to impress on
the king's mind the necessity of his return to Scotland.
To this the duke was very adverse, as he knew that his
presence encouraged his friends and kept his brother steady.
He was, however, obliged to yield, and he departed, (Oct.
20,) the king having promised not to give up any of the
rights of the crown, and to dissolve the parliament if it
should attempt to impeach him.  James, however, did not
trust alone to the royal resolution; sooner than forego his
right to the succession, he was prepared to rekindle the
flames of civil war, and at the head of his partisans in the
three kingdoms to bid the king defiance.*  Louis, constant
to his plan of weakening England, directed Barillon to encourage him by offers of assistance.
The day after the duke's departure, (21st,) the parliament
met.  No time was lost in proceeding to the grand question,
the exclusion of the duke.  Dangerfield appeared before thein,
(26th,) and his account of the duke's knowledge of his forging the plot and encouraging him to kill the king, found real or
affec....ed... Lord Russell then moved a resolution " to
take into consideration how to suppress popery and to prevent a popish successor."  The resolution was unanimously
adopted.  On the succeeding days, the depesition of Bcedloe
on his death-bed was read, and Dugdale, Prance, and another
witness were heard, and the house voted (Nov. 2) that a bill
"II1 est persuad6 que l'autorit6 royale ne se peut r6tablir en Angle
terre que par une guerre civile." Barillon, Aug. 19, 1680.




H ISTORY OF ENGLAND.
should be introduced to disable the duke of York from sue.eed ing to the crowvn.
Besides the thick-and-thin supporters of the court and
country parties, there was in the house a third party, more
respectable perhaps than either, named the'Party volant,'
i. e. the inoependent members whose weight could incline
the beam to either side.  These united now with the whigs,
and to intimidate the court party, the same tactics were
resorted to as in the beginning of the parliament of 1640.
They caused petitions against their returns to be presented;
and having voted that it is the undoubted right of the subjects to petition the king to call a parliament, as if it followed by natural consequence that they have no right to
petition for the reverse, they forthwith fell on the Abhorrers.  They expelled sir George Withers, and appointed a
committee to inquire what other members had been guilty
of a like offence. They frightened the recorder, sir George
Jeffreys, into a resignation of his office, which they procured for sir George Treby.  Their officers -were sent all
through England to take Abhorrers into custody.  The
nation seemed to be once more menaced with the yoke of
an arbitrary parliament; but Mr. Stawell, a gentleman of
Exeter, having refiused to submit to the sergeant-at-arms,
they discovered that they were exceeding their powers, and
they quietly receded from their pretensions.
The bill of exclusion was introduced on the 4th.  It was
supported by lord Russell and the other popular leaders;
it was opposed by sir Leoline Jenkins, Laurence HIyde,
Seymour, Temple, and others.   ilhe king sent a message
ntimating that he would not consent to alter the succession; but no notice was taken of it, and the bill passed
(15th) by a large majority.  It was carried to the lords
(19th) by lord Russell.  When he read out the title, those.
behind him  gave a loud Theer.  It was supported in the
lords by Shaftesbury and Essex, and opposed by Halifax.
The kIing canvassed for his brother; the bishops were true
to the cause of the prerogative, and the bill was rejected
by a majority, 63 to 30.Y  Shaftesbury then proposed, " as
the only remaining chance for liberty and religion," a bill
of divorce.  But to this Charles was as adverse as ever; he
canvassed against it also, and it was not proceeded with.
M* onmouth very indecorously voted openly for the bill, saying he
knew no cther way to preserve the life of the king from the malice of
the duke of York. The king, in a loud whisper, likened this to thle
kiss of Judas.




CHARLES II.                  33
The commons, to gratify their spleen, addressed the king
to remove Halifax from his presence and councils; he replied, that he did not think they had given sufficient reasons
for the adoption of that measure.  They also impeached
Seymour for. malversation in his office of treasurer of the
navy —his real offence was his vigorous opposition to the
Exclusion-bill.  Their next proceeding was of a more malignant character; they revived tile impeachment against
the venerable lord Stafford, one of the popish lords in the
Tower.
The trial took place (Nov. 30) in Westminster-hall, which
was fitted up for the occasion in the usual manner.  The
chancellor, Finch, earl of Nottingham, acted as lord highsteward; Maynard, Winnington, Treby, and other lawyers
were the managers on the part of the commons. Oates,
D,.gdale, and a new witness named Turberville were the
principal witnesses against the accused.  The trial lasted
five days.
The managers commenced by endeavoring to establish
the truth of the plot in general, and then to show that the
prisoner was concerned in it.  Oates swore that he saw
Ireland deliver him a commission to be paymaster-general
of the catholic army; Dugdale, that lord Stafford had offered him 5091. to kill the king; Turberville, that he had
made a similar offer to himself at Paris.  Lord Stafford,
though a man of very moderate abilities, aided by the power
of truth, made an able defence, and showed that the testimony of the witnesses abounded in contradictions, and was
not to be credited.  On the last day, (Dec. 4,) the managers
replied; and three days after, (7th,) the lords reassembled
to give sentence, and out of eighty-six peers, fifty-five pronounced him guilty.  When brought in and informed of the
result, he said, "God's holy name be praised! I confess I
am surprised at it; but God's holy will be done and your
lordships'; I will not murmur at it."  He requested to have
liberty to see his wife, children, and friends during the short
time he had to live.  His request was granted, and it was
added that they would intercede with his majesty to remit
all the sentence except the beheading.  He burst into tears.
"My lords," said he, " it is not your justice, but your kindness, that makes me weep."
In the Tower he was visited, at his own desire, by the
bishop of London and Dr. Burnet.  He listened to their
arguments on religious topics attentively, but said he had
no time now for controversy, and they had the good sense
VOL. II.     29                      q q




.33S8             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
not to urge him.  He denied all knowvledge of any desgr             i
against the life: of the king; but he said he could discover
many other things fbr which the duke would never fbrgive
him.  At his desire Burnet spoke to lord Essex, lord Russell,
and sir William Jones, and they said that if he told what he
knew of the designs of the papists, and " more particularly
concerning the duke," they would endeavor to have him
excused from  confessing what related to himnself.  He said
to Burnet, " What if I should name some who have now
great credit, but had once engaged to serve their designs? "
The other advised him to speak the whole truth.
Lord Stafford was immediately brought to the bar of the
house of lords, (18th.)  He related the various projects of
the catholics for the security and advancement of their religion.  As they conceived this could only be done by means
of' a toleration, he said that their last plan had been a coalition with the country party, which was approved of both by
the duke and lord Shaftesbury.  But when he named the
last, he was ordered. to: withdraw; the house would hear him
no more.  He was remanded to the Tower, and that very
day the order for his execution was issued to the sheriffs.
Tlese were Bethel; and Cornish, two Independents, and
creatures of Shaftesbury.  They questioned, it is not known
why, the validity of the writ, as it was the house of lords,
not the king, that had sentenced him.  The lords, when
applied to, (21st,) said " the king's writ ought to be obeyed;"
but not satisfied with this, the sheriffs caused the conimions
to be asked whether the king or even the lords can order thep
execution; and whether the king can remit a part, or if a
part, why not the whole, of the sentence.  The commons
got over the difficulty by saying, that " the house was con:
tent that the sheriffs should execute William, late viscount
Stafford, by severing his head from  his body only."  We
fear, to the disgrace of our nature, that the mitigation of the
sentence at the request of the peers, was: the, motive of these
political and religious fanatics for questioning the undoubted
right of the crown."
Lord Stafford was beheaded (29th) on Tower liill.  When
* Echard says. that lord Russell was "one of those who, with the
sheriffs, questioned the king's power in allowing that lord to be only
beheaded;" and that., on: a similar melancholy occasion, Charles said,
"My I rd Russell will now see that I have a power to change his sentence.' Fox expresses no doubt of the truth of this charge against
lord Russell, which he ascribes to " his fear of the king's establishing
a precedent of pardoning in cases of impeachment.'
______________                        _________________   I




CHARLES II.                 339,
he first appeared, a few groans and yells were raised; but
the general conduct of the spectators was respectful, and  
most of them took off their hats. le spoke at'some length  
in vindication of his innocence, and the generous populace   
cried out, "We believe you, my lord. God bless you, mly
lord! "  He laid down his head, and one stroke terminated!
his existence.
Of lord Stafford's innocence there cannot, we think, be
even the shade of a doubt on any impartial mind. But the
whig party are perhaps unjustly loaded with the odium of
his death; for its true cause seenis to have been the prevalent delusion which darkened even the clearest understand-'
ings. The whigs were a minority in the house of lords,,'
which condemned him. The chancellor, and the duke of
Lauderdale, and other ministers of the crown voted him
guilty, while Hollis and Halifax voted in his favor. Four
of his own kinsmen, the Howards, voted against him; but  
another of themr, lord Arundel, though at enmity with him,
voted in the minority. As for the king,, he showed the ut- 
most indifference. The duke of York did perhaps all he        l
could for the unfortunate nobleman.
CHAPTER  XVI. 
CHARLES II. (CONTINUED.)                       I
161 -16S5.
TEr proceedings of the commons in the present session
strongly reminded men of the days of 1641. Thus they refused the king supplies unless he would assent to the exclusion-bill; they impeached four of the judges; they resolved
that several persons, whom they named, ought to be removed
from public employments; and that any member of their         I
house who should accept a place, or the promise of one,
should be expelled, etc. The king and his ministers be-       1
came alarmed; a resolution was taken to prorogue the          i
parliament, and it was finally dissolved, (Jan. iS, 1681,) and
another summoned to meet two months thence at Oxford.
Oxford was selected from a recollection.of the aid which
the commons had derived from: the city of London in 1641




340              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
A petition, signed by sixteen peers, against the holding of
parliament in that city, was presented by lord Essex, but
without effect. The king, to insure his independence of
the commons, entered into a new treaty with Louis for a
pension for a term  of three years. To this he had been
strongly urged by the duke of York, who on his part was
making every preparation for an appeal to arms.
When the day for the meeting of parliament drew nigh,
the king set out for Oxford, guarded by a troop of horse.
Most of the members who repaired thither were armed,
both themselves and their servants.  Those of the city of
London were followed by a train on horseback, with blue
ribbons round their hats, inscribed with " No popery! no
slavery! "  The members returned to this parliament were
in general those who had sat in the last.
The king, being now in no dread of want of money, addressed the two houses (Mar. 21) in a tone of authority.
He spoke in severe terms of the conduct of the late parliament, and declared that, as he would never act arbitrarily
himself, he would not suffer others to do so; he expressed
his rooted dislike to the exclusion-bill, but added, that he
would be "ready to hearken to any expedient by which
the religion might be preserved, and the monarchy not
destroyed," in case of a popish successor. One of the first
measures of the commons, however, was to bring in again
the exclusion-bill, but the debate on it was deferred for a
few days, and meantime another matter occurred to occupy
their attention.
There was an Irish catholic, named Fitzharris, who by
means of his cousin, a Mrs. Wall, who was in the service of
the duchess of Portsmouth, had become connected with the
court.  He cevoted himself to the discovery of the designs
of tahe country party, and his services were at one time rewarded by the king with a present of 2501. Probably with
a view to a similar reward, Fitzharris resolved, in conjunction with one Everard, a Scotsman, to write a libel on the
king and the duke of York. When it was written, Fitzharris hastened with a copy to his patroness, perhaps intending
to denounce his coadjutor as the author; but the Scot had
been too wily for him, having concealed sir William Waller,
a magistrate, and two others, behind the hangings in the
room where they were composing it. Fitzharris was therefore committed to Newgate; and now, seeing himself in real
danger, he pretended that he could: make important discoveries of the designs of the duke of York. The king, observ



CHARLES II.                  341
ing that the exclusionists were preparing to make use of
him, had him removed to the Tower, and directed the attorney-general to indict him for treason.  The commons, however, believing, or pretending, that this was a continuation
of the popish plot, and that the object of the crown was to
deprive them  of the benefit of Fitzharris's revelations, determined on impeaching him  before the lords. The peers,
when the impeachment was brought up, decided not to
entertain it; and the commons, in a fury, voted their so
doing to be a denial of justice and a violation of the constitution.
That very day (26th) the debate on the exclusion-bill
came on, and one of the ministers proposed the' expedient,'
at which the king had hinted. This was, that the duke
should only have the title of king, and be banished to a
distance of five hundred miles from England, while the princess of Orange should administer the government as regent.
After a long debate, the expedient was rejected, and it was
resolved to proceed with the exclusion-bill.  Two days after,
(28th,) as they were engaged in the second reading, they
were suddenly summoned to the house of lords.  They found
the king seated on the throne, and, after a brief address, he
ordered the chancellor to dissolve the parliament.  He then
got into his carriage and hurried away to Windsor, leaving
the opponents of the court filled with rage and dismay.
By this well-timed act of resolution and dexterity Charles
completely overthrew the country party. Their conduct now
appeared to most men to have been purely factious, and
calculated to convert the monarchy into a republic.  Loyal
addresses poured in from  all quarters; the pulpits every
where resounded with declamations in favo of the duke, and
against the non-conformists.  The declaration which the
iing put forth, stating the causes which induced him to dissolve the two last parliaments, was, on the proposal of the
primate, read out in all the churches.
The first proof which the court gave of its power was an
order to the attorney-general to proceed with the trial of
Fitzharris.  He was found guilty, and executed at Tyburn,
(July 1.) It.would appear that he was dealt with by agents
of the court to declare with his dying breath that he had
been suborned by the recorder and sheriffs to make the depositions which he had made.
Fitzharris was a profligate scoundrel, and deserved his
fate; but on the same day with him suffered a man of blaneless and innocent life, sacrificed at the altar of the king's
Dg o @




.342             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
pretended zeal for protestantism. This was Oliver Plunket,
titular prelate of Armagh in Ireland, accused of a share in
what was called the Irish plot for setting up popery in that
country by means of a French army. The witnesses against
him were mostly priests whom  he had censured for their
lewdness and profligacy.  Though five weeks were given
him to bring over his witnesses, various circumstances concurred to delay, them, and he had nothing to oppose to the
evidence against him but his simple assertion. With his
last breath he solemnly declared his innocence, and no one,
we believe, has ever doubted of it. We cannot conceive
any thing more appalling than the conduct of the king in
signing the warrant for the'death of this upright prelate, with
no other view than the retention of his present popularity,
for he had now no Shaftesbury and his party to fear: he had
completely stricken down his foes.
The very next day (2d) Shaftesbury was committed to the
Tower.  The witnesses against him were some of the scoundrels whom he had himself encouraged in the affair of the
Irish plot. The court party lent all the aid in their power
to crush this formi;dable intriguer, and the witnesses swore
most manfully:; but the grand jury ignored the bill. The
hall rang with shouts of applause, and bonfires and the
ringing of bells succeeded, (Nov. 24.)  It is true, that the
sheriffs, who were of the country party, had been careful in
selecting the jury, but it is equally true that the evidence
was utterly incredible.
The greater part of the gang of informers had now veered
round to the court. On the trial of one College, Turberville
and Dugdale were arrayed against Oates and others of the
crew. College, named the'Protestant Joiner,' from  his
zeal and his trade, was charged with having gone armed to
Oxford, in;conjunction with others, with the design of seizing the person of the king.  The London grand jury ignored
the bill; but that of Oxfordshire having found a -true bill
against him, he was taken to Oxford, tried, condemned, and
executed, (Aug. 31.) It is almost needless to add that he
was innocent.
The prince of Orange came over this summer and visited
the king at Windsor, (July 24.)  His objects were to induce
his uncle to succor Holland and Flanders, and for that purpose to summon a parliament.  He st-rongly, it is said, expressed his dislike of restrictions on the rights -of the crown,
but, with the king's permission, he undertook to confer on
the subject with the popular eaders.'What was the result




CHARLES IT.                     343
of the conferences is not known.  The prince was, as usual,
invited to d(line with the city; but the king, on being informed
of it, summoned him down to Windsor, so that he was unable to take advantage  of the invitation.  After a short stay
in England he returned to the Hague, (Aug. 5.) "
During the last year there had been an outbreak of religious fanaticism  in Scotland. which gave occasion to the
exercise of the usual barbarities on the part of the government.  Cargill and Cameron, two of the ministers who had
escaped to the continent after the affair of Bothwell-bridge,
having returned, collected some of their followers, who, from
the latter, have been named Cameronians.  At Sanquhar
(June 22) Cameron read, and'then affixed to the marketcross, a declaration stating that Charles Stuart had, by his
perjury and tyranny, forfeited all claim to their allegiance.
About a month after, (July 20,) they and sixty or seventy of
their followers were surprised by three troops of dragoons at
Aiadsmoss, in Kyle.  Cameron and his brother fell bravely fighting back to back; seven more were slain, and sixteen made prisoners, all of whom, of course, were executed.
Cargill, who had escaped, soon after, at a conventicle in the
Tortwood, solemnly excommunicated thei;r principal perse|cutors by name, the king himself included.  The persecution
was redoubled, and both men and women were executed.
Tyranny was met by enthusiasm; and when the duke of
York, on his return, offered their lives to the Cameronians,
if on the scaffold they would cry, "God bless the king! "
the very women refused to lose the crown of martyrdom by
compliance.
After the dissolution of the Oxford parliament, James
obtained permission from  his brother to hold one in Scotland.  Its first act was to confirm all the laws in favor of the
protestant religion, and against popery; it next passed one
asserting the unalterable right of succession to the crown.
A test, to be taken by all persons, was then framed; the
confession of faith of the first reformers was adopted as the
definition of the protestant religion.  "A. long, inconsistent
oath," says Laing, " was prescribed, to adhere, according to
this obsolete confession, to the protestant faith, yet, by the
recognition of supremacy, to conform -to whatever religion
* The prince told Burnet that the king said to him, "'he was confi
dent, whenever the duke should come to reign, he would be so restless and violent that he could not hold it four years to an end." Bur.
-net, ii: 415, where see the note.




344              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the king might appoint; to preseive the former presbyterian
discipline, yet to attempt no alteration in the present episco.
pal form of the church; to abjure the doctrines and renounce
the right of resistance, but at the same: time, as a religious
duty, incumbent by the confession on good subjects, to repress tile tyranny and resist the oppression of kings."
No conscientious man of any party could take this oath
in its literal sense. By dint, however, of explanations, the
episcopal clergy, with the exception of eighty honest men,
who valued their souls more than their livings, were induced
to take this presbyterian engagement.  The presbyterians
mostly declined it, and the duke of Hamilton resigned his
office rather than take it. The earl of Argyle subscribed it,
with an explanation that he did not consider himself precluded from attempting any alteration " which he thought of
advantage to the church or state, and not repugnant to the
protestant religion and his loyalty." This was accepted at
the time; but he was called on to qualify a second time, and
his explanation was then refiused, and he was committed to
the castle, (Nov. 9.)  A charge was made against him of
treason, perjury, and leasing-making; and, with the barefaced iniquity characteristic of the Scottish state-trials in
that century, a jury, of which the marquis of Montrose was
foreman, pronounced him  guilty of treason and leasingmaking, (Dec. 12.) The king sent directing that judgment
should follow, but execution be stayed. Argyle, however,
saw reason to think that the duke and his party were resolved
on his death, and he contrived to effect his escape, disguised
as a page, in the train of his daughter-in-law, lady Sophia
Lindsay.  He made his way to London, where he remained
concealed for some time, and then got over to Holland.
Some members of the council had the fiendish barbarity to
propose that lady Sophia Lindsay should be publicly whipped
through the streets of Edinburgh! The duke, who had
some of the feelings of a gentleman, replied that " they were
not used to deal so cruelly with ladies in his country."
Laing truly observes, that " there was nothing similar to
the corruption of the peers and jurors of Argyle, except the
venal evidence allotted in England to the vilest of mankind."
The objects really sought were the ruin of the head of the
presbyterian party, and the division of his spoils among the
duke's friends. The pretext employed was, the necessity of
wresting from him his hereditary jurisdictions, but these he had
already offered to surrender. They were now, together with
~hose of Monmouth and Hamilton, who would not take the




CHARLES II.                  345
test, parceled out among the creatures of the court.  Ar
gyle's estates were given to his eldest son.
An affair of no slight importance in the royal mind, the
settling a pension on the duchess of Portsmouth, caused
the duke of York to be invited to Newmarket early in the
following year, (16S'.)  When that necessary matter was
arranged, and he had obtained permission to reside in England,l he returned to Scotland to settle the administration in
that country.  But the Gloucester frigate, which carried him,
struck on the Lemon-and-ore bank, (May 6,) and was lost,
with about two hundred persons. The duke, with some of
his friends, escaped in the barge, and the generous sailors,
though certain of their own death, gave a loud cheer when
they saw him in safety.*  He brought his family up to London, and resumed his residence at St. James's, (25th.)
In the plan of despotism which was now matured, there
were two important points to be attained; the one was to be
able always to have juries who, heedless of the evidence,
would find a verdict for the crown; the other, in case it
should be necessary to return to the use of parliaments, to
possess the power of nominating a majority of the members.
These were both to be compassed by obtaining the appointmerit of the officers of the corporations.  It was resolved to
begin with the city of London, whose zeal for liberty has
always been conspicuous.
It had been the custom  for the lord mayor to designate
one of the sheriffs for the ensuing year by drinking to him at
the Bridge-house feast, and this choice was always confirmed
by the livery. This, however, was only a courtesy on their
part, for by the charter the right lay in the citizens at large.
The practice of this courtesy had for some years ceased, and
since 1641, both the sheriffs had been chosen by the common-hall. Now, however, at the king's desire, it was renewed, and sir John Moore, the mayor, drank and sent the
cup to Dudley North, brother to the chief-justice.  On the
day of election, the whig party proposed two citizens, named
Papillon and Dubois, and demanded apoll. The lord mayor,
insisting on his right to name one, refused, and adjourned
the court; but the sheriffs most irregularly continued it, and
commenced a poll, for which they were sent next day to the
Tower.  The contest was continued for some months, each
* Janles gave money to their widows and children. It was said, but
with more malice than truth, that his chief care had been to save his
dogs and priests.
RR




346              HISTO0RY OE ENGLAND.
party maintainil g its claim. Though the popular candidates
had immense majorities at the polls, the court nominees
North and Rich, were finally sworn in; and at the next
election for lord mayor, the court succeeded in having one
of its- party placed in office, so that it now had both mayor
and sheriffs, and consequently juries, at its devotion.  As a
proof of its power and its vengeful spirit, Pilkington, one of
the late sheriffs, being charged with saying, when he heard
that the duke was returning, " He has already burnt the city,
he is now coming to cut all our throats," was sentenced to
pay 100,0001. damages.  Sir Patience Ward, a former lord
mayor, for having sworn that he did not hear Pilkington use
those words, was sentenced to the pillory for perjury.
But a more deadly blow was soon after aimed at the city.
A writ of inquiry, or Quo warranto, was issued against it
as having forfeited its charter by illegally imposing a toll,
and by making scandalous reflections on the king in the
petition against the prorogation in 1679.  The case was argued in the court of king's-bench.  The advocates for the city
showed, that a corporation never had been, and could noi
be, subject to forfeiture; that the acts with which the city
was charged were both legal, but that, at all events, the persons who did them  should be punished, and not the innocent corporation.  But the judges were the mere tools of the
crown, and judgment was given (June 12,) " that the franchise and liberty of the city of London should be taken and
seized into the king's hands." On a petition of the common
council, the king consented to leave them their revenues and
form of government, provided they gave him a veto on the
appointment of their mayor, sheriffs, and other principal
officers.  The city now was bridled in perpetuity, and what
had succeeded in London was tried all over the kingdom;
Quo warrantos were issued in abundance, and as there were
few;corporations which -had not been guilty of some irregularities, most sought to make terms by voluntary surrenders
of their charters.  They obtained -new ones, making them
more oligarchic and more under the power of the court.
This course of laying the foundation of despotism went on
through the remainder of this and a great part of the succeeding reign.
The court had soon an opportunity of proving the effects
of the influence it ha-d acquired, for another conspiracy was
at this time brought to light.
Ever since the dissolution of the last parliament, the
leaders of the popular party had been in the habit of holding
1A  ~~~_________________________________________________________   _____________________________________________




CHARLES II.                   347
consultations as to the best modes of resisting the government, in case, as seemed almost certain, it should aim  at
despotic authority.  In contemplation of the necessity of an
ultimate appeal to force, they had arranged the project of a
simultaneous rising in London and in various parts of the
kingdom; but this was little more than hypothetical, for lord
Essex and lord Russell were men of too much prudence and
virtue to have recourse to insurrection without a stringent
necessity, and a chance nearly amounting to certainty.'The
impetuous Shaftesbury, maddened by disappointment,' and
fearful of the vengeance of the court, was urgent for immediate action; his party was, as he thought, strong in the city,
where he boasted that he had:ten thousand'brisk boys,' as
he called them, ready to fly to arms on the motion of his
finger.  He had of course several subordinate agents, the
principal of whom  were colonel Rumsey, a man who had
served in the republican army, and afterwards in Portugal;
Ferguson, a Scottish independent minister; West, a lawyer;
and Goodenough, who had been under-sheriff to Bethel; but
these men had little or no communication with the other pop-,ilar leaders. Finding his proposals rejected, Shaftesbury in
his;rage and fear even ventured to think of a rising in the city
alone; but at length, seeing no hope of success, he retired
to Holland, in the latter end of the year, and he died at the
1Hague of gout in the stomach on the 21st of the following
Tanuary, (1683.)
Delivered from the dangerous impetuosity of Shaftesbury,
the friends of liberty resolved to proceed with deliberation
and caution. To conduct their plans, a council of six was
formed, consisting of the duke of Monmouth, lords Essex,
Russell, and Howard of Escrick, Algernon Sidney, and John
Hampden, grandson of the great patriot.  Howard was a
man of no principle, but he was a bold talker, and he had
gained on Essex, at whose persuasion Russell (who, though
he was his first-cousin, disliked hi-m extremely) consented to
admit himl into their'association.  The marquess of WVinnhester, Ford lord Grey, and others, though not in the cou-ncil, were in the secret.
It was proposed, that in case of a rising, it should also,extend to Scotland, where the barbarous proceedings of
the government were driving the people half-frantic.  An
agreement was'made with the earl of Argyle, who was in
Holland, to supply him with Q0001. to enable him to purchase
arms, and return and raise his clansmen.  Several of the
Scottish nobility and gentry having resolved to sell their es.




348              HISTORY OF ENGLA)D.
tates and seek a refuge from persecution in the New World,
had sent agents up to London to treat with the patentees of
the new colony of Carolina. With these men the council
entered into communication, and they readily engaged in the
project.  Such was the state of the conspiracy in the summer of 1683, when it was discovered: nothing had been
done, nothing even determined on; all was mere speculation.
The discovery was made in the following manner. Rumsey, West, and the other satellites of Shaftesbury used to
hold meetings of their own, in which there was frequent talk
of " lopping the two sparks," as West expressed it, that is,
killing the king and duke. West spoke of doing it as they
were going to or from the playhouse, as then he said " they
would die in their calling."  There was one R-umbold, an
old officer of Cromwell's army, who had married a maltster's
widow, and thus become master of a house called the Rye,
near Hoddesden in Herts, close by which the king used to
pass on his wav to Newmarket.  He happened to say how
easy it would be for a man to shoot the king at that place.
West caught at the idea, and hence the plot was named the
Ryehouse-plot.  In this case also, although there was a rea.
conspiracy, nothing was actually determined, and things remained in this state till the month of June, when on the very
day (12th) that judgment was given against the city, one
Josiah Keeling, a sinking merchant, who was one of the
confederates, resolved to turn informer.  He went to Legge,
now lord Dartmouth, who sent him to secretary Jenkins;
and on the information which he gave, rewards were offered
for nine of the conspirators; but they had been forewarned
by Kee'ing's brother, and had concealed themselves.  Two
days after, West and Rumsey came in and surrendered; and
on their information, together with that of one Shepherd, a
wine-merchant, Russell and Sidney were arrested and sent
to the Tower.  Lord Grey was arrested, but he contrived to
escape from the messenger: the duke of Monmouth also
escaped, but Howard was taken concealed in a chimney in
his own house. To save his life, he discovered all that he
said he knew, and on his information lord Essex and Hampden were arrested.,
On the 13th of July, lord. Russell was put on his trial.
The moment he was arrested he looked on his life as lost,
not so much from an idea that any thing could be proved
against him, as from his knowledge of what witnesses were
capable of swearing, and of the vengeful temper of the royal
brothers. VHe had therefore turned his thoughts to another




CHARLES II.                   34C
world, and passed his hours reading the Scriptures.  The
duke of Monmouth had sent to assure him, that if it would
be of any service to him, he would come in and run fortunes
with him; but he replied, that it would not benefit him to
have his friends to die with him. Lord Essex would not
save himself by flight, lest it might prejudice the cause of
lord Russell, and the very morning that his friend was put
on his trial, this excellent nobleman terminated his existence.
He was constitutionally melancholy, and the circumstance
of his having been the means of putting it into lord Howard's
power to injure lord Russell, had weighed heavily on his
spirits.  The evening before he sent to assure the earl of
Bedford that he was more concerned for his son's condition
than even the earl himself.  His servant, on entering his
room the next morning, found him lying with his throat cut.
There is hardly a doubt of his having done the deed himself; but attempts were afterwards made to prove that he had
been murdered. Lord Russell, the day before his own death,
described him  as " the worthiest, the justest, the sincerest,
and most concerned for the public, of any man he ever
knew."
Lord Russell was tried at the Old Bailey, before Pemberton, chief-justice of the common pleas, and a jury of citizens.  His admirable wife, the glory of her sex,`' suppressing
all womanish fears and scruples, acted as his secretary on
this occasion. The witnesses against him were Rumsey,
Shepherd, and lord Howard.  The first deposed to a meeting at Shepherd's, at which lord Russell was present, where
there was a conversation about a rising at Taunton, and
about seizing the guards at the Savoy and the Mews, in
which the prisoner took a part.  Shepherd deposed much
to the same effect. Lord Howard was next examined; he
stated the existence of the council of six, of which lord
Russell was a member, and their communication with Argyle and the Scots; and he deposed to two meetings at
which the prisoner was present, one being at lord Russell's
own house.
Lord Russell, in his defence, acknowledged that he had
been at Shepherd's, but accidentally, he said, having gone
thither for the purpose of tasting some wines.  Lord Anglesea swore that lord H-oward said to the earl of Bedford
in his presence, "I know  nothing against your son or any
* She was the daughter and heiress of the earl of Southampton, se
distinguished for his attachment to the royal family.
VOL. II.      30




,350             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
body else of such a barbarous design, and there-ore your
lordship may be comforted in it."  Mr. Howard and Dr.
Burnet also proved that Howard had denied all knowledge
of the plot.  Howard was reixamined, and he explained
what lord Anglesea had heard, by saying it was his object
at that time to outface the king for himself and his party.
Pemberton treated the prisoner with, much more moderation
and decorum than was usual at that time, and his charge
was such as might have produced an acquittal from an impartial jury; but the present one had been selected by North
and Rich, and they found the prisoner guilty. On the following Saturday, (14th,) sentence of death by hanging, quartering, etc., was passed on him.  The king afterwards commuted this sentence to decapitation, saying sarcastically, (if
Echard may be credited,) " Lord Russell shall now find that
I am possessed of that prerogative which in the case of lord
Stafford he thought proper to deny me."
Lord Russell was now placed in Newgate, where he had
the constant attendance of dean Tillotson and Dr. Burnet.
Every effort was made to save his life; his father is said to
have offered the king 100,0001. for his pardon; but the reply was, "he would not purchase his own and his subjects'
blood at so easy a rate."  Lord Dartmouth urged on the
king the impolicy of provoking the resentment of so great
and numerous a family as the Russells, and hinted that some
regard was due to the daughter of Southampton and her children.  But mercy, magnanimity, or gratitude had no place
in the bosom of Charles; he answered, " All that is true, but
it is as true that if I do not take his life he will soon have
mine."  Yielding to the entreaties of his wife and friends,
lord Russell consented to petition the king for his life, and
the duke of York for his intercession.  To the former he
denied having any thought against his life, or design to
change the government; he excused his opposition to the
last on the plea of principle.  He offered to live any where
the king should appoint, and engage never to meddle in the
affairs of England.  Both petitions were slighted.
The week which passed between the sentence and the
death of this virtuous nobleman is a beautiful scene to cotntemplate.  His own serene and cheerful piety, the zealous
affection of his incomparable wife, and the sincere attachment of his friends, a.l combine to raise our estirrate of the
worth of our nature.  He spoke to Burnet of his death as
giving him less apprenension than the drawing oft a tooth;
it was only, he said, being gazed at by his friends and ene




CHARLES I.,                  351
rnies, and a moment's pain.  Lord Cavendish having sent
c propose changing clothes with him, and remaining ill the
/rison while he made his escape, he smiled, sent him his
thanks, but said he would make no escape.  He dined and
supped as cheerfully as ever, and talked of the affairs of
Europe in his usual easy manner.  As Saturday was the
day appointed for his execution, he received the sacrament
on Friday morning from Tillotson, and Burnet afterwards
preached two sermons before him.  He said, " he could
not pretend to such high joys and longings, (as the preacher
had spoken of,) but an entire resignation of himself to the
will of God, and a perfect serenity of his mind."  After
dinner he saw and took leave of his children; at supper he
was so cheerful as to amaze Burnet.  Hie had said to his
wife, " Stay and sup with me; let us eat our last earthly
food together."  A little before she went away, he took her
by the hand, and said, " This flesh you now feel, itn a few
hours must be cold."  At ten o'clock she rose to depart;
he kissed her four or five times; she. controlled her feelings
so as not to add to his- distress, and they parted in silence.
When she was gone, " Now," said he, "the bitterness of
death is past;" and he continued for a long time dilating
on her many virtues and perfections.  Observing that it
rained hard, he said, " Such a rain to-morrow will spoil a
great show, which is a dull thing on a rainy day."
At twelve he went to bed, desiring to be called; at four.
He was asleep when his servant came, and he fell asleep
again while he was preparing his things for him to dress.
Hle prayed several times with Tillotson and Burnet, and
also by himself.  He wound up his:wah-, which he intended to give to the latter, and then said, " I have done
with time, now eternity comes."  As he came down, he
met lord Ca~vendish, and took leave of him, but then turned
back to urge on him the necessity of attending more to his
religion.  He rode in his own carriage to Lincoln's-Inn
fields, where he was to die. Tillotson and Burnet observed
that he was singing to himself; on their inquiry, he said it
was the 119th Psalm, but he should sing better very soon.
As they turned down Little Queen-street, he looked toward
his own house, and a tear stood in his eye; he said, " I have
often turned to the other hand with great comfort, but now
turn to this with great.r."  He expressed his wonder at seeing so great a crowd assembled.  IHe addressed the sheriff
briefly, and delivered him a written speech, prayed by himself, then laid his head onI the block, and at the second




352              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
stroke it was severed from  his body.  The paper which he
gave the sheriff, and which contained the vindication of his
conduct, had been already sent to the printer's, and in less
than an hour it was sold through the city, to the great annoyance of the court.
On  occasions like the present, there will always be found
parties ready to seek the favor of the prevailing power, by
the sacrifice of truth, justice, and all that is valuable to man.
The university of Oxford now took the lead in the career
of adulation.  The very day on which the blood of Russell
was shed, it passed a decree, in which, assuming the truth
of the plot to assassinate that sacred person who was the
" breath of their nostrils, the anointed of the Lord," they
proceeded, "to the honor of the holy and undivided Trinity," etc., to decree twenty-four propositions, taken from the
works of jesuits and protestants alike, to be " false, seditious,
and impious, and most of them  heretical and blasphemous,
and destructive to all government in church and state."
Among these atrocious doctrines are the following: All
civil authority is derived originally from the people.  There
is a mutual compact, tacit or express, between a prince and
his subjects; and if he perform  not his duty, they are discharged from theirs.  The sovereignty of England is in the
three estates, king, lords, and commons; the king has but
a co6rdinate power, and may be overruled by the other two
It will hardly be believed that, ere five years were passed,
this loyal university actually gave its plate to aid in dethrone
ing an anointed of the Lord!  This should teach learned
bodies to use more caution in their public proceedings, and
to be sure that the language which they speak be that of
truth and soberness.*
Essex and Russell were now removed: the fate of Sidney
was next to be decided.  Jeffreys, infamous for brutality and
cruelty, had lately been made chief-justice of the king's
bench, and it was before him  that Sidney was tried, (Nov.
2A1.)  The only witness against him was lord Howard; but
two were required by the law, and the records of legal iniquity will hardly furnish a parallel to the mode in which the
deficiency was supplied.  Among the prisoner's papers had
been found a manuscript treatise on government, written
* Sir Walter Scott thus designates it, (Somers's Tracts, viii. 420,) —
"The following piece of' adulation and servility was presented to king
Charles II., and afterwards burnt by the hangman by order of parlia.
I        imeat."




C HARLES II.                 353
some time before, and never published; it contained some
of the doctrines lately condemned at Oxford, but which,
even Hume says, were " such as the best and most dutiful
subjects in all ages have been known to embrace."  This
dumb evidence was pronounced by Jeffreys to be equivalent
to two-and-twenty witnesses, and, under his direction, the
jury found the prisoner guilty.  When the sentence was
passed, (26th,) Sidney exclaimed, " Then, 0 God! 0 God!
I beseech thee to sanctify my suffierings, and impute not my
blood to the country or the city; let no inquisition be made
for it; but if any, and the shedding of blood that is innocent
must be revenged, let the weight of it fall only on those that
maliciously persecute me for righteousness' sake."  "I pray
God," cried Jeffreys, losing his temper, " to work in you a
temper fit to go to the other world, for I see you are not fit
for this."  "My lord," rejyied Sidney, stretching forth his
arm, " feel my pulse, and see if I am disordered.  I bless
God I never was in better temper than I am now."
Sidney did not disdain to petition for mercy, but it was
in the tone of one who only asked for justice, and Charles
was not a man to be affected by an appeal of that nature.
rhe execution took place on Tower-hill, (Dec. 7.)  Sidney
had neither friends nor ministers of religion with him.
When asked if he would not address the people, he replied,
that " he had made his peace with God, and had nothing to
say to man."    L He gave the sheriff a written speech, which
concluded with thanks to God that " he died for that good
old cause in which he was engaged from his youth, and for
which God had so often and so wonderfully declared himself."  He made a short prayer, and laid down his head,
which was taken off at one blow.
The name of Algernon Sidney is invested with a lustre
derived from the iniquity of his sentence and the heroism
of his death but his character seems to us in reality not to
be deserving of much eulogy.  He was a determined republican, and, like most such, he was self-sufficient, arrogant, and
impatient of contradiction.  To set up his beloved repub.
lic, he cared little what mischief he produced, or whether
the nation were inclined to it or not.  He received money
from the French king, the notorious enemy of liberty, and
he abetted his designs on the Netherlands.  A man of deJ.
icate honor, too, would, we think, have abstained from plotHe had had independent ministers with him in prison.
30                          s




354              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ting against the government of a prince who had pardoned
and allowed him to return to his country.
The duke of Monmouth had lately been reconciled to
the king by means of lord Halifax, who wished to enploy
him as a counterpoise to the duke of York.  As a condition
of pardon, he was obliged to acknowledge the truth of the
conspiracy.  He was required to write a letter to that effect
to the king, and, after a hard struggle with himself, he did
so; but, ashamed of his weakness, he obtained the paper back
from his father, and he was in consequence forbidden the
royal presence.
The court was now triumphant; the country party seemed
annihilated, for the people in general, confout ding the two
plots, believed that they had conspired to murder the king.
Loyal addresses, therefore, poured in once more from all
parts: charters were every where surrendered.  Jeffreys,
who went the northern circuit this year, we are told by
Roger North, " made them all, like the walls of Jericho, fall
down before him, and returned laden with surrenders, the
spoils of towns."  At the saine time the king was careful to
avoid, as much as possible, the suspicion of an inclination
to popery, and chiefly with this view lie had given, in the
summer of the last year, his niece, the princess Anne, in
marriage to prince George, the brother of the king of Denmark, whose only merit was the being a protestant.
The duke of York, in defiance of the test-act, was restored to his'office of lord high admiral, and to a seat in the
council; and his brother's indolence threw the direction of
affairs very much into his hands; but his violence and impatience gave much uneasiness to the king, who was now
only anxious for ease and repose, and he was overheard one
day saying to the duke, " Brother, you may travel if you
will; I am resolved to make myself easy for the rest of my
life."  There appears, in fact, to have been a complete
chance of measures projected.  Monmouth came over fiom
the Netherlands, and'had a secret interview with his father,
and it was proposed to send the duke of York back to Scotland, under the pretext of holding a parliament.  What the
result might have been is not to be known, for an event now
occurred which altered all the existing relations.
The king, who was only in his fifty-fifth year, had naturally a robust constitution;though he had somewhat impaired
it by early excesses, he was now regular in his living, and
seemed likely to attain a good old age.  On Sundav, how.
_ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___.i 




CHARLES.II.                  355
ever, the 1st of February, (1685,) he felt rather unwell, and.next morning he fell down in a fit of apoplexy.  Speedj
reinedies restored  him, but he still languished, and or
Wednesday his recovery was considered hopeless.  From
the first-the queen and the duke of York had been most
assiduous in their attendance on him; the primate and some
of the other prelates were also constantly about him.  On
Thursday, Ken, bishop'of Bath, announced to him his danger, which he heard with an air of resignation.  The prelate.then -read the officeefor the visitation of' the sick, and the
king having expressed his repentance in a general way, he
also read the fornl of absolution.:He wished' to administer
the sacrament, but the king said it was- time enough: the
elements were brought and laid on a table in readiness, but
the only reply the prelate could get was, ", I will think of it."
The duke.of York then motioned -the company to. retire to
the other. end of the room, and- in a whisper asked his brother if he should send for a catholic priest: "For God's. sake,
brother, do," he replied, " and please to lose no' timle; but,"
he added, "will you not expose yourself too much by doing
it?"  The duke was not a man to fear danger in such a
cause.  He went out, and father Huddleston being the only
priest he could find, he brought him up the back stairs into
the king's closet.  All.were then directed -to withdraw,
except the duke and the lords Bath and Feversharn.  The
duke then brought in the priest, saying, " Sir, this worthy
man once saved your body;,  he now comes to save your
sotil."  The king made his confession, chiefly bewailing
his having so long deferred his conversion.  He pronounced
an Act of Contrition with great fervor, and continued making pious ejaculations, such  as "Mercy, sweet Jesus,
mercy! " till the host, which had been sent for, arrived.
The priest, who'had already given him extreme unction,
then administereu the eucharist, and withdrew  by the way
he came.  The chamber-door was opened, and the secret
transaction. soon transpired.
The king passed an uneasy night.  When the. queen sent
to excuse her absence,-and to ask his-pardon,'"Alas, poor
woman," he cried, "she beg my pardon! I beg hers, with
all my heart.  Take back that answer to her."  He spoke
in the kindest terms to his brother, wishing him a long and
a prosperous reign.  He had his children all brought to him,
* Huddleston had been chaplain at Moseley at the time of the king's
escape after the battle of Worcester.




356              YTISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and gave them each his blessing. One of the courtly prel
ates then saying that the king, the Lord's anointed, was
the common father of all his subjects, all present fell on
their knees, and the dying monarch pronounced a blessing
on them. He commlended the duchesses of Cleveland and
Portsmouth to his successor, and said to him," Let not poor
Nelly [Gwyn] starve."  Before noon next day (6th) he
breathed- his last.
In person Charles was tall, his complexion was swarthy,
his features harsh and repulsive; but his manners were the
most gay and affable that could be conceived. He had
much wit, and he conversed and told stories with considerable grace and humor. He hated pomp and parade, and
found his chief delight in social intercourse. For his brothers, his sister, his mistresses, and his children he seems to
have felt an affection, but only for them, for the selfishness
of his character was such that he never attached himself to
any friend. His ill qualities were numerous: he was a bad
king and a bad man; careless of the national honor, hating
liberty, insincere, mean, rapacious, ungrateful, vindictive,
and remorseless: such was Charles II. The people, caught
by his affability, and feeling the advantages of the peace
which his base subserviency to France maintained, were
partial to him. He was popular in his life, and his death
was lamented.
CHAPTER  XVII.
JAMES II.
685 -1688.
IMMEDIATELY on the demise of king Charles, the privy
council assembled, and the new monarch addressed them,
assuring them of his determtnnation to follow the example
of his late brother, " especially in that of his great clemency
and tenderness to his people;" that " he would make it his
endeavor to preserve this government, both in church and
state, as it is by law established; " and that "he would always take care to defend and support the church."  Lord
Rochester requested that this address, which had filled them
all with joy, might be made public. The king said he had




oft e. JAM                   351           I
no copy-; out one of the council wrote it down from mem
ory, and -he king, who had not expected this result, found
it necessary to consent to its publication.  He was forthwith
proclaimed, amid the loud acclamations of the populace.
The king's speech gave great satisfaction to those who
called themselves the loyal part of the nation. It was regarded as a security greater than any law. "We have now
the word of a king, and a word never broken," was the c.oir
mon phrase.  The pulpits resounded as usual; loyal addresses poured in from  all sides; the university of Oxford
promised obedience, " without limitations or restrictions;"       i
the. London clergy, more sincere, said,' Our religion estab-       i
lished by law is dearer to us than our lives;." and this ex-,
pression gave offence at court -a proof of what was the real     i.
feeling in the royal bosom.
The first act of the new monarch was an illegal, but not
unjustifiable, stretch of power.  He issued (9th) a proclama-;
tion, ordering -the duties to continue to be levied on mer-        a
chandise till the meeting of parliament, which he summoned
for the 19th of May.
The funeral -of the late king was private, (14th,) for the
successor was unwilling, as he says himself, to commiunicate
with the church of England in spiritual things, as he must       i'
have done had it been public.,i
James resolved to continue his brother's ministers.  To
the marquess of Halifax, who apprehended his displeasure, 
he said that he remembered only his opposition to the exclusionl-bill; and, chiefly owing to the representations of the      -
French king, Sunderland and Godolphin, who had supported
that bill, in like manner experienced no displeasure.  The;
cabinlet was thus constituted: Halifax president of the council, Rochester lord treasurer, his brother Clarendon privy
seal, Sunderland and Middleton secretaries; Godolphin was
made chamberlain to the queen.  This last, with Rochester and Sunderland, alone possessed the royalt confidence.,
There was also a secret council for catholic affairs, of which
Sunderland alone of the ministers aad knowledge.  It consisted of the earls of Powis and Castlemain, the lords Arundel, Bellasis, and Jermyn, lord Dover, Richard Talbot, an
Irishman, and father Petre, a jesuit, brother to the late lord
of that nane..
The king was resolved to make no secret of his own or
his brother's religion.  With respect to the latter, he caused
Iuddleston to publish an account of the king's reconcilement, and he gav:eto the world two papers in favor of poptery




358              HISTORY OF' ENGLAND.
found;in the late king's strong box, and written by his owln
hand. For himself, on the second Sunday of his reign, he
caused the folding-doors of the queen's private chapel to be.
thrown open- whlile he was at mass, that his presence'thereo
might be seen   On Holy Thursday'(Apr. 16) he was
attended to the door of the chapel by his guards and the
pensioners, and on Easter Sunday by the knights of the garter and several of the nobility- a proceeding. which causedgreat uneasiness in the minds of zealous' protestants.  Their
suspicions were further excited by a proclamation for the
discharge of all recusants.  They saw in this a manifest advance to the establishment of popery,.which was in reality
the object nearest to the king's heart.  Meantime every
effort was made to get Louis to continue the pension, in
order that James might be independent of his parliament.
On the third of May the king and queen were crowned
with the usual ceremonies, the only part omitted being the
communion.  The king of course solemnly swore to maintain the true profession of the: Gospel, and the rights and
Privileges of the church and clergy.  Like a true Stuart and
pupil of the jesuits, he told Barillon that he did so, as these'ights and' privileges were those which had been granted by
king Edward the Confessor, of whose being a catholic there
was not the slightest doubt.  During the whole ceremony he
had been under apprehensions for his personal safety, though
without any just cause.
On the 19th the parliament [net. In consequence of the
power which' the surrender of charters had given to the
crown, the returns had been so much to the royal satisfac-;ion that James declared there were not forty members whom
he would, not have nominated himself.  In his speech from
the throne he repeated his address to the privy council; he
then called on them to give hitm a revenue for life such. as
his brother had enjoyed, and hinting that nothing else would
content hirnm, he added, "The best way to engage me to meet
you often, is always to use me well;" he concluded by in'.
forming them of t'he' news he had just received of the landing
of Argyle" in Scotland, and calling on them to give him his:
revenue as' he desired it, and' without delay.
In most respects the commons proved as dutiful as the king
could have desired.  By a unanimous vote, they settled on
hihtn for life the same revenue that the late king had enjoyed,
They accompanied it with a declaration that. they had implicit confidence in the king's promise to support the church,
which', they added, was dearer to them than their lives.  On




JAMES II.                   359
the intelligence of the landing of Monmouth, they made an
additional grant of 400,00901., and passed a bill for the security of the king's person, in which they enlarged the original statute of treason.  In the midst of this exuberant
loyalty, however, it was manifest that the parliament, with all
its servility, was jealous on the subject of religion.
Immediately on the accession of James, the English and
Scottish exiles began to consult on the mode of delivering
their country fromt the yoke of popery and despotism which
they were persuaded the new monarch would endeavor to
impose on it. They met at Rotterdam, whither Argyle and
Monmouth, who were at Brussels, repaired at their invitation,
and it was arranged that these noblemen should simultaneously head expeditions to England and Scotland; to keep up
the union between themn, Argyle was to be attended by two
Englishmen, Ayloffe and Rumbold; and Monmouth by two
Scots, Ferguson and Fletcher of Saltoun.
Argyle sailed the first, (May 2.)  He stopped at the
Orkney isles, where two of his party were captured, and the
government thus got information of his strength and destination. He landed in his own country, (17th,) and forthwith
issued two declarations, and sent the fiery cross, according to
Highland usage, to summon his clansmen to arms.  But the
gentlemen of his name had been secured; the militia was
raised and advancing on all sides; only two thousand five
hundred men joined him, and instead of hastening to the
western counties, he lingered in the hopes of being joined by
more.  His stores and arms, which he had placed in the
castle of Ellengreg, fell into the hands of the royalists. When
at length he descended into Lenox to pass the Clyde, he
found bodies of armed men every where opposed. to him.
His army lost itself by night in a morass; the greater part
of it sought safety in flight.  Argyle, in the disguise of a
peasant, was met and wounded, as he was crossing a stream,
by five militia-men; as he fell he cried, "Alas unfortunate
Argyle! "  His captors would fain have concealed his rank,
as they durst not release him; but he was recognized by
their officer.  He was led to Edinburgh, where he was
treated'with the same indignities as had formerly been the
lot of Montrose.  As the king had ordered him if taken to
be put to death within three days, he was executed on his
former iniquitous sentence, (30th.)  He met his fate with
piety and fortitude; embracing the instrument of death, he
called it (in allusion to its name) the sweetest maiden he
had ever kissed.




360              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Various circumstances detained Monmouth so long, thai
it was the Ilth of June when he landed at Lyme in Dorset.
He was attended by lord Grey of Werk, and about eighty
other exiles and their attendants.  He forthwith raised his
standard, and published a. declaration styling Ja'mes a usurper, and charging him with the burning of London and every
atrocity which had been laid to the ac-count of the papists,
adding that of poisoning the late king. This declariation
drew numbers of the people to his standard, and on the fourth
day (15th) he marched from Lyme at the head of four thousand men. At Taunton (18th) he was received with acclarmations and presented with a splendid stand of colors;
and twenty young ladies in their best attire came to offer him
a naked sword and a pocket Bible. He here caused himself
to be proclaimed king, (20th;) and in proof of his royalty,
touched for the king's-evil.  He thence (q21st) proceeded to
Bridgewater, where he was also well received. The militia
every where retired before hir,d and he proposed to cross the
Avon near Bath and advance against Bristol.  But it was
now ascertained that the royal troops? under the earl of
Feversham, were at hand; that project therefore was abandoned, and it was debated in his council whether to marc'
for Salop and Cheshire, where he expected good support, oa
to direct their course into Wiltshire, where he was led to
hope for powerful assistance.  This last was preferred, and
the army arrived (26th) at Philips-Norton on the confines
of that county, where they had an encounter with a part of
the royal forces, in which they had rather the advantage.
They fell back, however, to Frome, and here Monmouth firs.
learned the defeat of Argyle.  He had been for some time
desponding; for he saw that none of the nobility-or gentry,
without whose aid no civil movements have ever succeedea
in England, had declared in his favor, and he therefore had
begun to. view his cause as hopeless.  It was propose(l that
the army should be disbanded, and Monmouth and his friends
should endeavor to escape by sea; but this course was vehemently opposed by lord Grey and others, and the army was
led back to Bridgewater, (July 1.)  As the royal forces
were reported to be encamped at no great distance on the
edge of a Inorass named Sedgemoor, it.was resolved to try
the effect of a nocturnal attack.  The duke led out his forces,
the horse being commanded'by lord Girey, whose courage
was very dubious. They reached the moor at'about one in
the morning, (6th,) but found'themselves stopped by a deep
drain in front of the royal camp. Grey, on coiming -to the




J AMES 11.                  36 
ditch and perceiving the troops to be on the alert, turned
after a brief stand, and led his men off the field.'The whole
plan was now disconcerted; a firing was kept up till daylight, when Feversharn ordered his infantry to cross the drain,
while his horse took the insurgents in flank.  The half
armed peasants made a gallant but ineffectual resistance,
then broke and fled in all directions.  Their loss was five
hundred slaini and fifteen hundred taken; the victors had
three hundred killed and wounded.
Monmouth fled, it is not known at what time; his first
thought was to get over to Wales; but Grey, who was his
evil genius, dissuaded him  from  it, and with him  and a
German named Busse he directed his co urse toward she New
Forest.  As a reward had been set on his head, an active
search was kept up for them.  Early the rpxt morning Grey
was captured, and though Monmouth and Busse then escaped,
the latter was taken the following morning, (8th;) and as he
owned that he had parted only four hours before from  the
duke, an active search was made for him. In a couple of
hours that unfortunate prince was found in a ditch, covered
with fern and nettles.  He was in the dress of apeasant, and
in -his pockets were some green peas, the only sustenance he
appears to have had.  Broken in mind and body, he wrote
a most humble letter to the king, entreating a personal interview, and promising to make some important discovery.
He was, therefore, the very evening he reached London,
(13th,) led into the royal presence with his arms pinioned.
He threw himself on his knees, confessed  his guilt, castingf
the blame on others, and implored for mercy in the humblest
terms, but made no discovery.  Jamnes, reminding him of his
early education, asked him if he would have a priest.  "Is
there then no hope? " said he. The king made no reply,
but ordered him to be taken away to the Tower, where lie
was told to prepare for death on the second day. When
Monmouth was gone, Grey was brought into the royal presence, and he behaved with more spirit than the unfortunate
duke.
James is usually condemned for inhumanity on this oc
casion. It is said that he should not have seen Mon-mouth
if he was resolved not to pardon him; hut there is-no proof of
this resolution; he saw the prisoner at his own desire, atid
was led to expect disclosures which he did not ieceive.
Surely Monmouth, after his invasion, his declaration, and
his assumription df the title of king, had no claitns to'mercy.
As to his being the king's nephew, this was a duibious point,
vOL. II.     31                      TT




362-             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
and James appears to have always doubted his being his
brother's son.
The next morning (14th) Monmouth was visited by his
duchess, the heiress of Buccleugh, whom he had abandoned
to live with lady Harriet Wentworth.  The meeting was a
cold one; her object was, for the sake of herself and children,
to get him to declare that she was ignorant of his projects.
On this subject he gave her ample satisfaction, and she then
withdrew.  le wrote again to the kinig and to the queen and.
the queen-dowager, (which last kind-hearted princess earnestly interceded for him,) and to others, but with no effect.
The bishops Ken and Turner came to prepare him for death.
When they were announced, he was overwhelmed-with terror; but it passed away, and henceforth his mind was serene
and composed. They found him in a religious frame of
mind in general; but on two points he proved immovable;
he strenuously maintained the right of resistance to oppression, and he would not allow that there was any thing morally wrong in the connection between him  and lady Harriet
Wentworth, though she had borne him a child; she, he said,
was his real, the duchess was only his legal wife; his love for
her had weaned him from vice; both had prayed to God to root
out their affection if displeasing to him, but it had only increased with time. The prelates therefore declined giving
him the sacrament.
In the morning (15th) they returned with Drs. Hooper
and Tennison; but none could make any impression on his
mind.  The duchess and his children came to take their
final leave of him; he was kinder than before; she sank to
the ground and was carried away in a swoon.  At ten
o'clock he entered the carriage which was to convey him to
rower-hill. The concourse was immense; tears, sighs, and
groans were succeeded by an awful silence. On the scaffold,
the divines conscientiously, but cruelly, pressed him on the
two above-named points; he was still inflexible.  He made
no speech, but gave a paper to the sheriff.  He laid down
his head, telling the executioner to do his work better than
in the case of lord Russell. The man, unnerved, it would
seem, by the' charge, gave but a feeble stroke; the duke
raised himself, and turned his head, as if to upbraid him; he
struck twice more, and then flung down the axe, swearing
that his heart failed him. The sheriff made him resume it,
and at the fifth blow the head was severed; and thus perished, in his thirty-sixth year, James duke of Monn'louth.
Vengeance, both military and judicial, was let loose on




JAME S II.                     363.
the unfortunate adherents of Monmouth.  Feversharn hanged
several of his prisoners without any trial; and colonel.Kirke,
who- was'left in command, is said to have acted with unusual
barbarity.@   The sname of Kirke's Lambs, as his soldiers
were called from  the figure of a lamb which their colors
bore, was long famous in the  west.  But these' military
atrocities sink into nothing when compared with'Jeffeys'
Campaign,' as the king loved to call it.
This unprincipled man, beingg joined in commission with
four' other judges, commenced, operations at. Winchester
(Aug. 27) by the trial of Mrs. Lisle, the aged widow of one
of the regicides. The charge against her was that of having
given shelter to Nelthorpe and Hickes, two of the fugitives
from  Monmouth's army.  Her defence was, that of' Nelthorpe she knew nothing, and that she thought Hickes, whc
was a dissenting teacher, onulyfled from  a warrant agains
him on that account.  Jeffreys undertook himself to examine
a peasant who had- been their guide to her house, and he so
terrified: the poor rustic by his vehemence and scurrility,
that he admitted sufficient to give reason to think that the
prisoner knew  of their having beens in Monmouth's army.
Jeffreys took care to conceal the fact that Hickes had not
been convicted or outlawed, till when she could not legally
be tried as3 the receiver' of a traitor.  The jury long'hesitated,
but were at-length overawed. into a verdict of Guilty.  "Gentlemen," said the brutal judge, " had I been among you, and
had she' been my own mother:, I should have found  her
guilty."  Next morning he sentenced her to be burnt alive
that afternoon, but the clergy of the: cathedral obtained for
her a respite' of three days, during which applications were
~mnade to the king in her favor by noble ladies whom she had
befriended in the days of her husband's power, and by lord
Feversham, who was promised 10001. for her pardon. It
was also shown that her son had served in the army against
X Thus, it is said, he ordered prisoners to be hung while he and his
officers drank the king's health, and when their feet quivered in the
agonies of death, he said he would give them music to their dancing,
and ordered the drums to beat and the trumpets to sound. Again, a
maiden applied to him for the life of her brother; he granted it on
condition of her complying with his desires; she consented, and passed
the night with him; when she rose in the morning, the first object thati
met her eyes on looking out of the window, was the body of her orother hanging from a gibbet. At the sight she lost her reason'This
tale, however, rests on very 3lender evidence, and is arobably a fiction.
It is the same as that of RI nsault in the Spectator, (No. 491 ) Sam
Mackintosh, Hist. of Revol. -h. i.




36-4             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Monmouth; but all was in vain; the king, pleading, it is
said, a prom~.se to Jeffreys not to spare her, declared he
would not give her a reprieve for a single day.  lie consented to change the sentence to beheading, and the venerable
matron perished on -the scaffold, (Sept. 2,) praying for the
prince who could not pardon the performance of an act of
hum anity.
The commission thence proceeded to Dorchester, where
eighty persons were executed; thence to Taunton and Wells;
and the number of deaths -in the county of Somerset is s.aid
to have been two hundred and forty at the least. The whole,
country presented a horrible and most un-English aspect;,
every where gibbets land the mangled limbs of men met the
eye, and the stench that exhaled firom them: rendered the
roads hateful to travellers.  The trials were few; men, seeing
no hopes of justice, confessed their guilt,:as to do so offered
the only chance of escape.
But blood alone did not satisfy Jeffreys; he filled his
coffers by the sale of pardons.  It was also the royal pleasure
that the courtiers should improve their circumstances by
the rebellion.  Sunderland wrote to Jeffreys to say that one
thousand prisoners were to be bestowed on certain courtiers,
and one h-undred on a favorite of the queen's, on their giving
security that they should be slaves for ten years in the West
India islands.  Against this Jeffreys remonstrated, as they
might, he said, be sold for 101. or 151. apiece.  The young
ladies who gave Monmouth his colors were excepted by
name from the general pardon, that they might purchase
separate ones, of which the profits were given to the maids
of honor! and William  Penn, the celebrated quaker, whose
conduct in this reign does him  little credit, was appointed
their agent.  The maids of honor, it appears, proved hard
dealers in the article of mercy.
James received daily intelligence friom Jeffreys of his
proceedings, which he constantly spoke of to the foreign
envoys and others as that juidge's campaign; and during the
hottest part of.it he was amusing himself with horse-races at
Winchester.  He raised Jeffreys, on his return, to a peerage
and the chancellorship; and w:hen that savage judge had,
through hiis habitual drunkenness, brought on a fit of illness,
he was much concerned, and declared that his loss could
not be easily supplied.  Jeffreys is said to have declared on
his death-bed that he had done nothing without orders., and
that he had not been half bloody enough for him  that sent
/   ~       ~         _




JAMES 11.                   365
him. It is vain,'herefore, to attempt to deny the king's ape
petite for blood.
Alderman Cornish, the fbrmer sheriff, was tried (Oct. 19)
and found guilty for being concerned- in the Ryehouse-plot
on the evidence of Rumsey, though this witness owned that
his evidence now was contrary to what he had given on the
trial of lord Russell.  Cornish was executed, but.his limbs
and estate were restored to his family; and Rumsey was
confined for life -a clear proof of the king's opinion of the
value of his testimony.
On the same day with Cornish, two men, named Ring
and Fernley, and a Mrs. Gaunt, were tried and condemned
for harboring rebels. Ring had sheltered his near relation;
Fernley, one Burton, who had been in the Ryehouse-plot
and with Monmouth; Mrs. Gaunt, who had aided his escape
before, visited him at Ferhley's, and undertook to save him
again; but he was taken, and, to save his life, he was base
enough to appear against his benefactors.  The benevolent
Mrs. Gaunt was burnt alive at T'yburn.  She settled the
t fi f   straw round her so as to produce a strong flame, and died
amid the tears of the spectators.
Hampden was now tried a second time for his share in
the Ryehouse-plot; but it had been secretly arranged that
he was to be pardoned, on his pleading guilty and paying
60001. to Jeffreys and father Petre.  The drama between
him and the judges was enacted to perfection.  Lord Brandon was found guilty on the evidence of lord Grey and of
Rumsey and one Saxton, but he was afterwards pardoned.
Grey himself was pardoned, as his life-estate had  been
granted to lord Rochester.  Wonderful to relate, lord Delamere was actually acquitted by a jury of thirty peers, the
perjury of Saxton, the chief evidence against him, being
apparent.
The suppression of the rebellion had elated James, and
led him to think that nothing now could oppose his.will.
I-He had three objects in view as the means of establishing
despotism; these were, the abolition of the Test, which
would enable him to fill all offices with papists; the repeal
of the Habcas Corpus act, which the late king and himself
had often declared to be subversive of government, i. e. of
despotism; to keep up the army, which now  amounted to
nearly twenty thousand men, and in which there were several
catholic officers, as a permanent force. As he knew: that
Halifax was opposed to all these projects, he lost no time in
dismissing him from the council.
31*
ii_ —. —— ~ —




366              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
When the parliament met (Nov. 9) James addressed them
from the throne.  Late events, he said, had shown that the
militia was inadequate to the defence of the Country, and
that a permanent force was necessary; he had, therefore,
increased:the regular army, and he now called on them for
the funds for maintaining-it.  He then noticed the employment of catholics.  " And I will deal plainly with you,"
said he: " after having had the benefit of their services in
such a time of need and danger,'I will not expose them to
disgrace, nor myself to the want of them, if there should be
another rebellion."
From this haughty tone it is plain that James reckoned on
absolute submission, and that parliament would simply register his edict; but here, as on most occasions, his blind fatuity led him astray.  The dread and the hatred of popery
were implanted in every protestant bosom; and, in the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis, at this very time,
they had had a specimen of popish good faith and tolerance.
The commons, therefore, when voting a supply of 700,0001.,
coupled with it a bill for the improvement of the militia;
and, while offering to pass a bill of indemnity for the catholic
officers, prayed that they might be discharged. The danger
of a standing army and the employment of catholic officers
was also strongly exposed in the house of peers by lords
-Halifax, Nottingham, Anglesea, Mordaunt, Compton, bishop
of London, and others, and, in spite of the opposition- of
Jeffreys, it was resolved to take the king's speech into consideration; but James prorogued the parliament, and it met no
more during his reign, except to be prorogued anew. It was
fortunate for the country that James's bigotry led him to assail the test-act first, for in all probability this subservient
assembly would have surrendered the Habeas Corpus without a struggle.
James was resolved, come what might, not to part with
his army.  The annual cost of it was 600,0001.; and, by
frugality, by neglecting the navy, by putting off the payment
of his brother's debts, and by other expedients, he could defray it without the aid of parliament.  To put the chief commands into the hands of catholics was necessary for his
ulterior projects, and to effect this he had recourse to the
following plan.
It had from very ancient times been a part of the prerogative to grant aispensations from  the penalties of particular
laws. This had, as usual been spoken of in exaggerated
terms by courtiers and lawyers, even Coke saying thatnce




JAMES I{.                    36 
fct of parliament can restrain it. Practice, however, had
for many years confined it to merely trifling cases; but sir
Edward Herbert, the present chief-justice, had formerly suggested to the king, when duke of York, that by means of It
the test-act might be eluded, and James now  resolved to
bring it into action through a legal decision.  Of Herbert
nimself he was sure, and, as he could dismiss the judges at
his pleasure, he reckoned on the obedience of the others,
but, on privately asking their opinions, he found four refractory; these he dismissed forthwith, and appointed others:
and the bench being now  adjusted, a sham  action was
orought for their decision.  Sir:Edward Hales, a recent
confvert, was appointed to the command of a regiment, aiid
his coachman was directed to bring an action for the penalty
of 5001. incurred by his holding a command without having
qualified.  Hales pleaded a dispensation under the great
seal.  The case was tried before the twelve judges, and
eleven decided in favor of the dispensation, (June 21, 1686.)
This decision was not, properly speaking, illegal, but it was
highly unconstitultional; and, as'it declared that no restraipn,
could be placed on the monarch, and that acts of parliamen
were mere cobwebs, there being a power paramount to them
men plainly saw  that there was no alternative between E.
tame submission to the overthrow of their religion and liberties and a bold effort to maitntain them.  In effect, this
decision sealed the doom of the House of Stuart.
James little thought so; he had gained, he considered, a
complete victory; the test-act and all other barriers against
popery could no longer impede him, and the army, the
council, and every department of the state might now be
filled with catholics.  He had even, as he conceived, the
power of gradually making the church itself catholic.  Early
in this year, Obadiah Walker, master of University college,
Oxford, and three of the fellows, had declared themselves
catholics, as also had Sclater, the curate of Esher and Putney, and a royal dispensation allowed them still to enjoy the
emoluments of their situations; Sclater, however, being
enjoined to provide for the performance of divine service
in his churches.  Walker was allowed to have a catholic
chapel in his college, and a press for printing catholic books
of theology.  But the spirit or' Compton, bishop of London,
gave occasion to a further mode of bridling the church, or
rather of accelerating the downfall of the monarch.
Compton., brother to the earl of Northampton, had, like




368              HIST RY OF ENGLAND.
the reigning pontiff, been a soldier.  He was ni man of a
bold spirit, and a zealous protestant.  To punish his late
opposition in parliament, the king struck him out of the list
of the privy council, and deprived him of his office of dean
of the chapel. This only increased his popularity and the
suspicion of the king's designs, and the London pulpits
thundered with controversy.  TIhe king, as head of the
church, issued orders for the clergy to abstain from controversy in the pulpit. Few obeyed; it was therefore resolved
to make an example. Dr. Sharp, dean of Norwich and
rector of St. Giles's, was fixed on, and Compton was ordered
to suspend him, but he replied, that he must hear him first
in his defence.  It was now determined to make the bishop
himself the victim.
The odious court of High Commission had been abolished
in 1641. A part of the act of abolition was repealed at the
Restoration, but a clause of it, prohibiting the erection of
any similar court, had been retained.  James, however,
issued a commission, in nearly the very words of that of
Elizabeth, to certain persons to act as a court of commissioners in ecclesiastical causes.  These were the primate,
chancellor, bishops of Durham  and Rochester, the earls
of Rochester and Sunderland, and chief-justice Herbert.
Three were to form a quorum, of whom Jeffreys was always
to be one. "God," said James to Barillon, "has permitted
that all the laws made to establish protestantism now serve as
a foundation for my measures to reestablish true religion."
Before this court Compton was summoned.  He defended
himself with much address.  The primate Sancroft was not
there to uphold the interests of the church, for he had
timidly obtained leave to be absent on the plea of age and
infirmity; but the earl and the bishop of Rochester and the
chief-justice took the side of Compton, and even Jeffreys,
whlo, in the midst of his excesses, clung to the protestant
faith, supported them.  The presence, however, and the influence of the king prevailed, and Compton was suspended
by a commission, three fourths of whose members had
declared in his favor.  The people soon nicknamed the
commission the'Congregatio de propaganda Fide.'
Of the royal advisers there were two classes, the protestant and the catholic.  The former, headed bv Rochester,
seem to have been willing to aid the king in all his projects
against liberty, but they were steadfast in their adherence
to the church.  The catholics were divided into two parties




IJAMES HI.                    369
most of the laymen, such as Bellasis and Powis, were for
moderation; they saw the difficulties in the way of establishing their religion, and they would have been content
Wvith the repeal of the penal statutes, and security for their
religion under a protestant successor.  The queen herself
was inclined to this party; but the king was under the influence of father Petre and the jesuits, and these, with the
usual heat and imprudence of political churchmen, urged
him  on to extreme measures.  Sunderland, an ambitious,
unprincipled statesman, though still professing himself a
protestant, allied himself closely with this party, in the hope
of supplanting Rochester; and the influence of father Petre,
when all other applications had failed, raised him to the post
of president of the council, in the rooni of Halifax, with
which he still retained his post of secretary.
But the protestant party had a supporter who they thought
might counterbalance the queen and the priests.  James,
with all his zeal for his religion, and his anxiety to diffuse
it, made no scruple of violating one of its most important
precepts.  -His amours had  always been notorious, and
neither of his wives could boast of his fidelity.  Arabella
Churchill, maid of honor to his first duchess, had borne him
two children.  His present mistress, Catherine, daughter of
the witty, profligate sir Charles Sedley, was a woman so
devoid of' personal attractions, that king Charles used to say
his brother kept her by way of' penance; but she had a
coarse, roistering kind of humor, which pleased her lover,
who was a man of no delicacy whatever, and she did not
spare to employ it even on his religion and his priests.  In
the beginning of his reign he had been induced to break off
his intercourse with her, but he afterwards renewed it, and,
at the suggestion, it is said, of Rochester, created her countess of Dorchester.  The queen, who was a woman of spirit,
testified the utmost indignation, and, by Sunderland's advice, she assembled one day in her apartment the chancellor and himself, with the priests and the catholic nobles,
and when the king entered it he was assailed by their united
reproaches and remnonstrances.  He promised to separate
from the countess, and he sent her orders to retire to the
continent; but she asserted her rights as a freeborn Englishwomnan, and appealed to Magna Charta.  She at length
consented to go to Ireland, where Rochester's brother,
Clarendon, was lord lieutenant.  She returned, however,,within six months, and the king renewed his intercourse
{i^-                        _______________      ______________________________________ —~-  IJ 1




370               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
with her; but it was of no political effect, as the jesuits'had
got the advowson of his conscience.'
It might be supposed that the court of Rome would have
zealously cooperated with James in his project of restab.
lishing the catholic faith; but so adverse were all things to
this prince, that even there he found no support.  The pres,
ent pontiff, Innocent XI., who had been a soldier, was a man
who knew or cared nothing for the disputes and differences
of theology, but he was an able terporal prince and statesman; he was on ill terms with Louis XIV. on account of
that prince's insolence; and he regarded with little complacency both the jesuits and the king of England, whom he
looked on as partisans of Louis.  James, on his accession,
had sent Mr. Caryl as his private minister to Rome to solicit
the purple for the queen's uncle, the title of bishop for one
Dr. Leyburn, and the appointment of a nuncio to the court
of St. James's.  Caryl succeeded in the two last points; and
the count D'Adda came over in November, 1685, but did
not assume any public character.  The zeal of the king,
however, was not to be restrained, and the following February he insisted on D'Adda's taking the title of nuncio, to
which the papal court gave a reluctant consent.  The nuncio, a prudent, clear-sighted man, viewed with concern the
rate at which the king and his aclvisers were disposed to drive
matters, and he gave the weight of his authority to the moderate catholic party.
James, being resolved to have a resident minister at the
papal court, chose for this purpose, with his usual infelicity,
the earl of Castlemain, the husband of the duchess of Cleveland, a man who owed his title to the infamy of his wife.
Castlemain behaved at Rome with such indiscretion, that the
nuncio was directed to make a formal complaint.of his conduct.  All the influence of James failed to procure a nominal bishopric for Petre, whom  he is thought to have designed to place in the see of York, which he kept vacant.
lie was equally unsuccessful in his efibrts to procure for hin  
a cardinal's hat.
If the pontiff was more swayed by politics than religion,
we may easily believe the same to have been the case with.,ii:': the courts of Madrid and Vienna; and accordingly we find'~:      the Spanish and Imperial ministers cooperating with the
Dutch, and opposing the French ambassador.  James, who,'l:i     to his misfortune, had some vague ideas of the dignity be-.ong'ng to a king of England, and of the line of policy!      _____ ______________________  ____________________...
-I.:cnLiz —     -------   ~  ~~




JAME S'II.                  371
which, as such, he should adopt, irritated Louis by vain assumptions of' independence, at the very time that he was
receiving his money and relying on him  for aid in his
projects.
To accustom the public eye to the view of popery, convents were established in various parts of London: that of
-the Carmelites was in the city, that of the Franciscans in
Lincoln's-Inn-fields, while the Benedictines were  at St.
James's; and the jesuits opened a school at the Savoy.
They all went about publicly in their habits, and London
was gradually assuming the appearance of a catholic city.
To awe the tumultuous, the army, of 15,000 men, was encamped on Hounslowv-heath; -and in the tent of lord Dunbarton, the second in comiand, mass was openly celebrated,
and missionaries labored to convert the soldiers.  A paper
calling on them to adhere to their religion being circulated
through the camp, Johnson, its author, the chaplain of the
late lord Russell, was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to
stand thrice in the pillory, and to be whipped frorn Newgate
to Tyburn, which sentence " was executed with great rigor
and cruelty," he being previously degraded from his sacred
character.
In the laxity of, principle which may be supposed to have
prevailed in a court for five-and-twenty years the abode of
profligacy and corruption, conversions, real or pretended,
might be expected to be abundant; yet the failures of the         i
king were numerous and mortifying.  Lady Dorchester, as
we have seen, stuck to her religion, reconcilingc it, like her
royal paramour, with the breach of its duties.  A priest came
to convert secretary Middleton: "Your lordship believes
the Trinity?" began lie.  " Who told you so?  You are
come here to prove your own opinions, not to ask about
mine," was the reply  and the priest retired in confusion.
Lord Mulgrave is said to have replied to a monk, "I have
convinced myself, by much reflection, that God made man,
buit I cannot believe that man can make God."  Colonel
Kirke is reported to have told the king that he was preengaged, having promised the emperor of Morocco to become
a Mohammedan, if ever he changed.  But the great object
was to gain the princess Anne, and for this purpose the lure
of the succession was -held out to her; but, though of weak
disposition, she was firm.  The bishop of' London had been
her tutor; and lord and lady Churchill, who ruled her, were
zealous for protestantism; and all the efforts made on her
proved abortive.  LSord Dartmouth, tnlough sincerely attached




-372             HISTORY t F ENGLAND.
to James, refused to abandon his religion. When admirat
Herbert, a man of loose life and laden with the royal favors,
refused him, James said to Barillon, that he never could put
confidence in any man, however attached to him, who affected
the character of a zealous protestant.
The year 1686 closed with an act which convinced the
people that the overthrow of their religion was the object really proposed by the king. This was the dismissal of Rochester from his office of treasurer, effected by the secret influence of Petre and Sunderland. The king was real.y
attached to his brother-in-law, but he now told him that he
must either go to mass or go out of' office.  Rochester's
friends and the Spanish and Dutch ambassadors were desirous that he should keep office at any rate. A conference,
it was agreed, should be held in his presence on the points in
dispute between the two churches.  At the end of it he desired a further delay to consider, but, as his object evidently
was to gain time, the king consented to dismiss him. The
treasury was then managed by a board, of which lord Bellasis, a catholic, was the head; and he, Powis, and Dover, were
now members of the privy council.  The king was also about
to appoint father Petre to a seat in it, and he was only withheld from doing it by the entreaties of the queen.
A dismissal of protestants from office and a resignation of
commissions in the army soon followed. The king, previous
to the meeting of parliamen, wishing to ascertain the opinions of the members who held offices, summoned them separately to his closet in order to confer with them.  The result
of these' closetings,' as they were named, proved unsatisfactory, and they were either dismissed from their offices or they
resigned.  Their places were generally supplied with cathoics.
It being now evident that a sufficient number of the memrn!  ers of the established church could not be induced to betray
it, the king was advised to endeavor to gain the non-conformists; not but that there were even on the episcopal bench
men who set little value on religion as compared with their
interest; such were Crew of Durham, Cartwright, and Parker,
to whom the king had lately given the sees of Chester and
Oxford, knowing them to he men for his purpose, to whom
may perhaps be added Sprat of Rochester, and one or two
more. A declaration was issued accordingly, suspending the
penal laws and forbidding the imposition of tests. Of this
the dissenters took advantage, though dubious of the motives
whence it proceeded; and many addI sses of thanks were
r~~l-tr_~~~l-_~~-~:-~~:~~:~:_~~-~~-~_~-~~:~~-~ —--- J,




JAMES II.                   373 
presented from them at court. The king, in his self-delusion,
congratulated himself on the success of this measure in weak
ening the church party, and he now thought he might venture
to: attack them in their strongholds, the universities.
As Oxford had so strongly asserted the doctrine of passive  
obedience, James commenced; his attack- on the church in
that university.  He appointed Massey, a fellow of Merton
and a recent convert, to the deanery of Christ Church, and
true to its principles, the university made no opposition.
The king next made trial of Cambridge.  He wrote (Feb. 7)
to the vice-chancellor, Dr. Peacheil, commanding him to admit to the degree of master of arts, without the usual oaths, a
Benedictine monk, named Alban Francis, who was acting as         i'
a missionary in that neighborhood.  Peachell refused, and
he was summoned before the ecclesiastical commission; the        i
university supported him, and it ended in the compromise of
the appointment of a new vice-chancellor and the withdrawal
of the claim of Francis.  Shamned or emboldened by the example of Cambridge, Oxford soon began to shake off its
slavish trammels.  On the death of the president of Magdalen     i
college, letters mandatory were sent, (Apr. 4,) recommending Mr. Anthony Farmer, a man of low, dissolute habits, but
a recent proselyte.  The fellows petitioned the king, but to 
no purpose; they then proceeded to the election, and chose
Mr. Hough, (15th.) They were summoned before the ecclesi-        i
astical commission, and the election was pronounced void.
But Farmer was withdrawn, his character being too notorious, and they were directed to choose Parker, bishop of Oxford,
(Aug. 14.)  They still refused, and when the king came to
Oxford the following month on his progress, he chid them
severely and insisted on their obedience.  Still they would
not yield.  A commission was then issued, appointing extraordinary visitors of their college, (Oct. 21,) and Hough
and twenty-five of the fellows were expelled and declared incapable of holding any clerical preferment, (Dec. 10.)  The
king thus gained a victory, but, as Lingard justly observes,
" he had no reason to be proud of it, for it betrayed the hollowness of his pretensions to good faith and sincerity, and
earned him the enmity of the great body of the clergy, and
of all who were devoted'o the interests of the church."
In the summer (July S) the king had given another intimation of his designs, by publicly receiving D'Adda as the papal nuncio - a measure to which the pope had yielded an
unwilling consent.  He now advanced a step further, and
by the royal command (Nov. 11) father Petre took his seat
VOL I1.      32
~~~~~~~J 




374              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
among the privy councillors, to the grief and dismay of th,
moderate catholics and the astonishment and vexation of
the people.
The king had also dissolved the parliament, (July 2.)  It
was represented to him in vain, that in all points but that
of religion this was a more compliant assembly than he
could ever again expect to obtain; religion was with him the
point, and he resolved to make the trial.  in order to get a
more complete control over the corporations, he appointed a
board of seven'Regulators,' all catholics except the chancelior, with powers to appoint and remove officers and freemnen
at their discretion.  To obtain county members to his purpose, the lords lieutenant were directed to inqlfire of their
deputies and the magistrates, whether, if elected to parllament, they would vote for the repeal of the test-act and the
penal laws; whether they would support candidates who
would promise to do so; and whether they would support
the declaration.  Loss of office was to be the penalty of
non-compliance.  This measure, however, did not succeed.
Fourteen lords lieutenant were removed, and their places
supplied with catholics; a like change was made among the
sheriffs and in. the magistracy; yet, aiter all, James saw that
he could not have a parliamnent to his mind, and of the house
of lords there was no hope.  Sunderland, however, had conceived the then unknown project of swamping this house by
a large creation.  "O silly " cried lie to lord Churchill,
when the opposition of the peers was spoken of; " why, your
troop of guards shall be called to the house of lords."  This
bold measure was not ventured on; the king seemed inclined,
if he could not get a pliant house of commons, to continue
to rule by prerogative.
The Scottish parliament had proved as uncomplying as
the English on the subject of religion.  The king had there
in like mnanner issued a proclamation, granting toleration to
sectaries, and suspending all laws against catholics, " by his
sovereign authority, prerogative royal, and absolute power,"
-words which he did not yet venture to employ in England.
In Ireland the lord lieutenancy had been given to lord
Clarendon, but the c )mmand of the forces was separated from
it for the first time, and intristed to Richard Talbot,* now
earl of Tyrconnel, an Irish catholic of the English race, a
man of some talent, but no judgment, rude and boisterous
* See abive, p. 267, for his conduct with respect to the duchess of
fork.




JAMES I1.                    375
in manners, with no control over his passions und appetites,
handsome and showy in his person; he was in effect a genuine Anglo-Irishman of that day.  Being in the confidence
of the king, he treated the viceroy with insolence and contempt, and though the object ifr which he was sent was ta
raise the catholic interest, he could not refrain from insulting
the native Irish by calling them the O's and Mac's.  Having
aided Sunderland in overthrowing the Hydes, he bullied him
out of the chief government of Ireland, though he was known'o be the enemy of the act of Settlement, and the devoted
slave of Louis XIV.  He was appointed lord deputy, (Feb.
1687,) and by the end of the year the Catholics formed the
majority in the privy council, the magistracy, the army, and
the corpor(ations.  The chancellor and three fourths of the
jucdges, and all the king's council but one, were of this persuasion. The protestants now began to emigrate in great numbe.rs; the officers sold their colmmissions for little or nothing,
arid sought service with the prince of Orange.  The object
of the king was to make Ireland an asylumn for the catholics,
and for himself if needful; but Tyrconne! had a deeper design, and he proposed to the French envoy, Bonrepaux, that
in case of the succession of the prince of Orange, Ireland
should become an inidependent state under the protection of
France.  To this project Louis gave a most willing consent,
but it was studiously concealed fromi James, and even from
Barillon.  Yet suspicion was afloat; and it was one of the objects of Dyckveldt, whom the prince of Orange sent over. in
the beginning of the year, to ascertain the king's designs
with respect to Ireland.
James now fondly deemed that the overthrow of the protestant church was nearly certain.  The steadfastness of his
daughters in their religion had been to him a source of anx-;ety, as they umight undo all his work; but an event now
occurred which promised to relieve him from all apprehen.
sion.  The queen, who hai ceased from child-bearing for
five years, announced that she was pregnant.  This event,
which the kinll and his friends ascribed to the efficacy of his
prayers at St. Winifred's well, which he had lately visited, or
to the prayers on earth and intercession in heaven of the late
duchess of Modena, was ha, ed by the whole catholic party
with transports of joy, and they even, as formerly in the case
of queen  lary,* ventured to assign the sex of the embryo.
The protestants, on the other hand, openly expressed their
* See vol. i. p. 428.




376              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
doubts, and hesitated not to assert that those whose interest
it was to have a prince of Wales would be at no loss to pro.
cure one.
We now enter on the year 1688, a year ever memorable
in the annals of England, and even in those of the world.
To the royal view the whole political horizon seemed calm
and unclouded. The king had triumphed in his contest with
the church; in his late progress he had been greeted and
cheered by bodies of the dissenters, whom he took for the
nation; he had the prospect of the birth of a son to exclude
his heretical daughters, and to go on with the good work of'
spreading the true faith; London was even already putting
on the appearance of a cathplic city; monks and friars in
their appropriate habits were to be seen parading the streets;
a papal nuncio sanctified the court by his presence; and
Corker, a Benedictine, who had been tried for his life during the popish plot, being appointed envoy by the elector of
Cologne, the king insisted that he and his attendant monks
should come to court in the habit of their order -a piece of
bigoted folly which the more sagacious Louis XIV. strongly
condemned.  Finally, James had filled Magdalen college
with popish fellows; and on the death of bishop Parker,
(Mar. 23,) Dr. Giffard, one of the four catholic prelates
whom he had induced the pontiff to consecrate for England,
was by the royal mandate chosen to succeed him.
But all this triumph and all this security was fallacious;
the tempest was secretly brewing which was to level the
fabric of despotism and superstition in the dust.  The Tories, who had long been restrained by their notions of unlimited obedience, now alarmed for their religion by the
queen's pregnancy, began to unite with the Whigs; several
influential noblemen were in secret correspondence with the
prince of Orange, and an armed resistance to the crown
with his aid was contemplated.
In this state of the national feeling, the king made his final
and fatal step.  Having caused (Apr. 25) his declaration for
liberty of conscience to be republished with additions, he
by the advice of Petre, it wUs said, afterwards (May 4)
made an order of council that it should be read out in all the
churches during the time of divine service, and the bishops
were enjoined to distribute it for this purpose. The London
clergy met and deliberated; several were inclined to submit
or to try to gain time; but the more generous-spirited, being
supported by a declaration of the leading non-conformists.
calling on them  to make a stand- for religion and liberty,




"AMES II.                   377
prevailed.  The learned Dr. Patrick had the courage to be
the first to put his signature to a refusal to. comply:; it was
then subscribed by eighty clergymen and forwarded to Lambeth, where, on the 12th, the primate, bishops Compton,
Turner, and White; with Dr. Tennison and lord Clarendon,
took it into consideration.  It was resolved not to read the
declaration, but to petition the king and to summon the otheprelates to their aid.  The call was quickly responded to by
bishops:Lloyd, Ken, and Trelawny, and on the 18th another
meeting was held at Lambeth, at which Tillotson, Tennison,
Stillingfleet, Patrick, Sherlock, and Grove assisted; it rwas
agreed to present without delay to the king:a petition written
by the primate, and signed by himself and bishops Lloyd,
Ken, Trelawny, Turner, White, and Lake.  As the primate
had been forbidden the court, the six prelates went to Whitehall at ten: o'clock: that very night, and were admitted into
the royal bed-chamber.  They fell on their knees, and Lloyd
presented the petition.  The king, when he had read it, expressed his surprise, and said it was " a standard of rebellion," and, spite of their professions of unshaken loyalty, he
dismissed them  with the assurance that he would maintain
the dispensing power which God had given him, adding, " I
tell you, there are seven thousand men, and of the church of
England too, that have not bowed the knee to Baal."  That
very night the petition was printed and distributed through
the city, though the bishops had given their only copy to
the king, and he had never let it out of his possession.
The next Sunday (20th) was the first day for the reading
of the Declaration in the churches. It was read only in
seven; the country clergy, countenanced in general by their
diocesans, were equally disobedient, and out of a body of
ten thousand, not more than two hundred complied. On
the very 20th of May, the venerable Richard Baxter, the renowned non-conformist who had been so often persecuted by
the church, praised from his: pulpit the bishops for their resistance to that Declaration by virtue of which he was then
able to preach publicly.  It was thus plain that all hopes
from the dissenters were vanished. The whole church party
were firm to the prelates, and the: king must now either yield
at discretion or engage in a contest- with all his protestant
subjects.
In the council, Sunderland, the catholic: lords, and even
Jeffreys, were for, moderation; but their opinions were overruled, and it was resolved to prosecute the bishops in the:
court of king's-bench.  They were accordingly summoned
32*                         vv
_                --          --         ------— ~~~~~~~~




378              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
before the privy council, (June 8,) where, after somrre hesita7
tion, they acknowledged their signatures, they were then
required to enter into recognizances to appear at Westmini
ster-hall they declined, pleading their peerage; a warrant
for their committal to the Tower was then made out. As
they proceeded to the barges which were to convey them to
that fbrtress, the people vented their feelings in tears and
prayers, and earnestly implored their blessing.  Both banks
of the river were lined with spectators, who fell on their
knees and prayed for them. At the Tower the officers anL
men of the guard asked their blessing; and the men every
day drank their health in spite of the catholic lieutenant.
The nobility of both sexes resorted daily to the Tower; a
deputation of ten non-conformist ministers appeared there
one day, and when reprimanded for it by the king, they replied, that they could not but adhere to the bishops as men
constant to the protestant religion.
Had the king had the prudence to recede, an opportunity
was afforded him within two days by the birth of the prince
of Wales, (10th.)  His moderate advisers urged him then to
publish a general amnesty, which would include the bishops;
but his priestly guides and his own obstinacy determined him
to proceed.  On the 15th the prelates were brought up by
Habeas Corpus in order to plead. The people at their landing received them as before; in the court they were attended
by twenty-nine peers, ready to be their securities.  Their
counsel claimed a delay for them till the next term; but the
court decided that they should plead at once. They pleaded' Not Guilty,' and were released on engaging to appear on
the 29th.  The popular joy burst forth in shouts and acclamations, and numbers again begged their blessings; when
the primate landed at Lambeth, the soldiers there a)lo fell
on their knees to receive his blessing. Bonfires were lighted
in the evening, and some catholics were insulted.
On the appointed day the bishops appeared in court,
attended by a numerous troop of the nobility and gentry.
Of the four judges, one, Allihone, was a catholic; two
others, Wright (the chief) and Holloway, were the slaves of
the court; one only, Powel, was impartial and honest; the
king had taken pains to have l jury returned that he could
rely on; and at court there was not a doubt felt of the result.
The speech of the attorney-general was timid, and there
was great difficulty in proving the signatures; a question
then arose, whether the petition which had been written in
Surrey, and not proved to have been published in Middlesex,
LL__~~~~__~~~_~~~~__:~




JAMES II.                   379
could be tried in the latter county.  At every failure of the
crown lawyers, the audience set up a laugh or a shout, which
the court was unable to repress.  W\right began to sum up 
but he was interrupted by Finch, one of the prisoners' counsel. Williams, the solicitor-general, then requested the court
to wait for the appearance of a person of great quality. After a delay of an hour, lord Sunderland arrived in a chair,
amid the hootings of the populace: he proved that the
bishops came to him with a petition, and that he introduced
them to the king. But now the counsel for. the accused took
new ground, and assumed a bolder tone; they arraigned the
dispensing power; they maintained the right of the subject
to petition.  Wright and Allibone charged against Holloway and Powell in favor of' the prisoners.  The jury retired
at seven in the evening; the obstinacy of Arnold, the king's
brewer, one of their number, kept them  in debate till the
morning, when at nine o'clock they came into court and
pronounced their verdict' Not Guilty.' Instantly a peal of
joy arose; it was taken up without; it spread over the city;
it reached the camp at Hounslow, and was repeated by the
soldiers.  The king, who was dining.with lord Feversham,
on inquiring, was told it was for the acquittal of the bishops:
"So much the worse for them," was his remark.
The birth of his son might seem a sufficient consolation
to the king under this defeat; but here too his usual ill-fortune pursued him.  If ever there was a prince about whose
birth there would seem to be no possibility of doubt, it was
this prince of Wales.  His mother had long since spoken of
her pregnancy; the birth took place in the morning, in the
presence of the queen-dowager, most of the privy council,
and several ladies of quality, many of whom were protestants
-yet not one in a thousand of the protestants believed in
its reality.  Some maintained that the queen had never been
pregnant; others, that she had miscarried at Easter, and
that one child, or even two successive children, had been
substituted for the abortion. The princess Anne remained
incredulous; so did the able bishop Lloyd for many years.
It was in fact a general delusion, from which neither reason
nlor good sense preserved men; it was most certainly no
party fiction, though party might, and did, take advantage
of it.
The birth of the prince seems to have decided the unprincipled lord Sunderland to make public at this time his
apostasy from the protestant faith. He and Sheflield earl of
_i   ________^__._______ ___ _____l.__




380              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Mulgrave had been privately reconciled by father Petie a
year before
On the other hand, the birth of the prince decided thosel
who were in communication with the prince of Orange.
While the next heir was a protestant, the attempts of James
might be borne with patience, as they could only continue
for a few years; but now there was born a successor whoi
would be nurtured in popery, and a popish regency under the,
queen would be formed in case of the king's demise. No
time was therefore to be lost; an invitation to the prince to,
come to the relief of the country was drawn out and- signed'
in cipher (June 30) by the earls of Shrewsbury, Danby,
and Devonshire, lord Lumley, the bishop of London, admiralI
Russell, and colonel Sidney.  The bearer of it to Holland is
supposed to have been admiral Herbert, in the disguise of a
common sailor.
The prince of Orange, by far the greatest man of his time,
had for many years devoted all his thoughts and energies to
the humbling of the power of Louis XIV.  In 1656 he had
succeeded in engaging the emperor, the kings of Spain and
Sweden, and several of the German princes, to subscribe the'League of Augsburg,' of which this was the real object
The following year, some of the Italian states, the pope himself included, joined the league, and! the greater part of'
Europe was thus banded, under the prince of Orange, to
check the ambition of Louis.  The proper place of England
was in this confederation; but the policy of her king withheld her from it: hence the prince aspired to the power of
directing her councils and adding her means to the great
cause of national independence.
The death of the elector of Cologne in the spring of this
year proved most favorable to the designs of the prince, as
it brought Louis ind the confederacy into collision. This
elector, who also held the bishoprics of Liege, Munster,
and Hildesheim, had proved a most useful ally to Louis in
1672: and all the efforts of this- monarch were directed to
procure the election of the coadjutor, the cardinal of Furstemberg, who was his creature, and to whom he had given
the bishopric of Strasburg, of which it -was requisite that
he should previously divest himself. The pope, however,
out of hostility to Louis, refused to accept his resignation;
and at the- election, (July 9,) though Furstemberg had a
majority of votes over his competitor, prince Clement of
Bavaria., he did: not obtain the requisite two thirds. The




JAMES II.                   381
appointment then fell to the pope, and he namned Clementd
who was only a youth of seventeen years of age. The can.
didates of the allies were equally successful at Liege, Mun
ster, and Hildesheirn, and both sides now began to prepare
for war. This gave the prince of Orange an opportunity of
making his preparations for the invasion of England, under
color of providing for the defence of his own country and
the empire.  A large force was encalnped near Nimeguen;
cannon and ammunition were taken from the arsenals to be
sent to it; soldiers and sailors were engaged; the Dutch
navy was augmented, and the different fleets were placed
in adjoining ports.  These mighty preparations naturally
awakened the suspicions of D'Avaux, the French minister
at the Hague; but it was long before he could get certain
information of their object.  When at length he ascertained
that they were destined for the invasion of England, and had
informed his court, Louis lost no time in comimunicating it
to James, making at the same time an offer of his aid; but
that infatuated prince refused to give credit to it.  Skelton, the English minister at Paris, then proposed to Louis
that D'Avaux should declare to the States that there was an
alliance between his master and James, and that Louis would
regard as a breach of peace any attempt against his ally.
{  This inanceuvre disconcerted the friends of the prince of
Orange; but James, instead of taking advantage of this, in
his silly pride took offence, denied the alliance, recalled
Skelton, and committed him to the Tower.  Had he owned
it, Louis would perhaps have made war on Holland, and thus
have prevented the expedition of the prince; whereas he
now declared war against the emperor alone, put his troops
in motion, and laid siege to Philipsburg on the UTp,r Rhine,
(Sept. 14.)  All was now tranquil on the side 4f I-Holland;
the prince found his motions unimpeded, and having arranged
with his German allies for the defence of the republic during
his absence, he lost no time in preparing for the in' asion
of England.'rhe eyes of James at length were opened to his danger,
and he attempted to retrace his steps.  Almost every day of
the month of October was marked by some concession.  He
asked and graciously received the advice of the bishops;
he restored the. bishop of London and the president and
fellows of Magdalen college; he. gave the city of London
and the towns and boroughs back their charters; recalled
the writs he had issued for a parliament, etc.  Meantime he
was a Ative in preparing the means of resistance; a fleet of




382               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
thirty-seven sail, with seventeen fire-ships, was stationed a4
the Gun-fleet under lord Dartmouth, whose fidelity was
beyond vispicion; he called out the militia; gave commissions for raising regiments and companies; recalled
troops from Scotland and Ireland; and the army, under the
command of lord Feversham, now amounted to forty thousand men.
The prince of Orange had declarations prepared, addressed
to the people of England and Scotland, stating the motives
of his coming over, namely, to procure a free parliament;
the redress of grievances; the security of the church; a
comprehension fbr dissenters who desired it, and toleration
for all others; and to inquire into the birth of the prince of
Wales.  lIe also wrote to his catholic allies, disclaiming all
intention of injuring the king or his rightful heirs, and assuring them that he would employ all his influence to secure
toleration for the catholics.  The States issued a circular
letter to the same effect.
The fleet collected for the invasion consisted of sixty menof-war and seven hundred transports; the troops were 4500
horse and 11,000 foot.  Marshal Schornberg and the counts
of Nassau and Solms, with general Ginckel and other able
Dutch officers; a band of eight hundred French refugees;
the English exiles, such as lord Macclesfield, Dr. Burnet,
and others, and those recently arrived, namely, the earl of
Shrewsbury, who had raised 4},00)01. for the expedition, the
sons of the marquesses of Winchester and Halifax and of
lord Danby, admirals Russell and Herbert, -.all prepared to
share the fortune of the prince.
The first fiull-moon after the equinox was the time appointed for sailing; but for the first half of October the wind
blew tempestuously front the west.  Public prayers to Heaven
were made in all the churches; on the 13th the storm abated,
and Willianm then (15th) took a solemn leave of the States,
commending to them  the princess if any thing should happen to himself.  The aged pensionary Fagel replied in their
name.  The whole audience were deeply affected; William
alone remained  apparently unmoved.  A  solemn fast was
held on the 17th, and two days after (19th) the expedition
sailed from Helvoetsluys; but during the night a storm came
on and dispersed the fleet, anid next day the ships were
obliged to return to the different ports to repair and to lay
in additional stores.  At length the' Protestant East-wind,'
as it was termed, came, and the prince again put to sea,
(Nov. 1.)  He first sailed northwards, intending to land in




JAMES II.                    383
Y'orkshire; bu then changing his course he passed  (3d)
between D;over and Calais; wind and tide prevented lord
Dartmouth from attacking; the people of the opposite coasts
gazed with various emotions on the magnificent spectacle of'
a fleet extending twenty miles in length and laden with the
fate of empires.  On Monday the 5th the fleet safely anchored
at Torba3 in Devon.
The king had in the interim  been making new efforts to
sustain his sinking power.  He caused a solemn investigation to be made into the birth of the prince of Wales, and
the numerous depositions to be enrolled in chancery, in
order that his title, in case of his own death, might be put
beyond doubt.  He dismissed friom  his council (Oct. 2i")
Sunderland, whose fidelity, after all the lengths he had gone,
was now suspected, and not wholly without reason.  Father
Petre had already ceased to appear at the council-board.
As the prince had stated in his declaration that " he had
been invited by divers lords spiritual and temporal," the
king called upon the prelates and peers in the capital to admit or deny the truth of this assertion.  They all denied it;
for none of them had signed the invitation but bishop Conipton, who adroitly evaded the question by saying, " I am confident the rest of the bishops will as readily answer in the
negative as myself."  The king insisted on having their denial in writing, with an' abhorrence' of the designs of the
prince; but this they declined to give, (Nov. 6.)  He then
left them in anger, telling them  that he would trust to his
army.
The prince was now at Exeter, but hardly any one as yet
had joined him, for the memory of' Jeffreys' campaign' was
still fresh in the minds of the people of Devon.  He suspected that he was deceived, and he began to think of reembarkt.
ing, being resolved on his return to Holland to publish the
names of those who had invited him.  At length sir Edwa-rd
Seylnour and some of the western gentry came in to him;
and at the suggestion of Seymour, a bond of Association             i
was drawn out, engaging the subscribers to support one
another in defence of the laws and liberties of the three
kingdonms, the protestant religion, and the prince of Orantge.
They were followed by lord Colchester, lord Wharton, Mr.
Russtll, and the earl of Abingrdon.  Soon after, (10th,) lord
Cornbury, son of the earl of Clarendon, attempted to carry
over three regiments of horse that were stationed at Salis.
bury; but the far greater part of the of Xcers and men proving
loyal, he led but a small party to join the army of the prince




384              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The ice was now broken; distrust spread through the whole
army; the friends of the prince were emboldened; the lords
Danby and Lumley began to raise men in Yorkshire, lord
Delamere in Cheshire, and lord Devonshire in Derbyshire.
James was strongly urged to seek an accommodation with
the prince, but he still confided in the loyalty of his troops,
and he resolved to put himself at their head. Father Petre,
anxious, perhaps, for his own safety, pressed him to remain
in London, as quitting it had been the ruin of his father.
At his suggestion the infant prince was sent to Portsmouth,
and he himself made his escape to France after the king's
departure for the army.
James, on reaching Salisbury, reviewed the troops that
were there, (20th.)  He was to go the next day to Warminster, to inspect the division of general Kirke, but a violent
bleeding of the nose came on him, which continued, with
intervals, for three days. During this time a council of war
was held, (22d.) Lord Churchill, the lieutenant-general,
advised to remain at Salisbury; Feversham and his brother,
the colunt de Roye, proposed to retire behind the Thames.
This last course was approved of by the king; and that very
night Churchill, the duke of Grafton, and others went over
to the prince, and they were followed by several of their
officers in the morning. It is even said that Churchill,
Kirke, and some other officers had conspired to seize the
king at Warminster, and deliver him up to the prince.
The king on his return to London stopped the first night
(24th) at Andover. He invited prince George of Denmark
to sup with him. After supper, that prince, the duke of Ormond, and two others mounted their horses and rode off to
the prince of Orange.  When James reached London, the
first news that met him was that of the flight of his daughter
Anne.  Hie burst into tears: "God help me," he cried;
my very children have forsaken me."  The princess had
left her bed-chamber in the night (25th) v th lady Churchill
and Mrs. Berkeley; the bishop of London and lord Dorset
had a carriage ready for her, and she was conveyed to the
bishop's house, and thence to Northampton.  Disaffection
now spread rapidly over the whole kingdom. Bristol, Hull,
York, and other towns were occupied by the adherents of
the prince.  The university of Oxford sent him its adhesion
and an offer of its plate!
The first act of the king was to hold a great council of the
peers who were in London, and by their advice he issued
writs foi a parliament, and sent lords Halifax, Nottingham,.~~~..__




JAMES II.                   385
and Godolphin, as his commissioners, to treat with the
prince; but some days elapsed before they were admitted
to his presence, and meantime a spurious proclamation in
his name, menacing all papists bearing arms or holding
office, was circulated in London.  James was now resolved
on placing himself and his family under the protection of the
king of France.  He had his san brought back from Portsnouth, whence he could not now  be conveyed, and, on a
dark and stormy night, (Dec. 9,) the queen, with her babe
and his nurse, crossed the river in an open boat to Lambeth;
but the expected carriage was not there, and they had to
stand for some time, only sheltered by an old wall from the
torrents of rain. At length the coach arrived, and the queen
proceeded to Gravesend, where she got on board a yacht
which conveyed her to Calais.
The king had promised the queen to follow her in twentyfour hours.  The letter which he received next day (10th)
from his commissioners, stating the prince's terms, made no
change in his resolution. He wrote to lord Feversham,
dispensing with the further services of the troops; and he
called for and burned the writs for a parliament, and then
retired to rest.  At one in the morning (11 Ith) he rose, and
telling lord Northumberland, who lay on a pallet in his
cnamrnber, not to open the door till the usual hour in  the
morning, he went down the back stairs, and, being joined
by sir Edward Hales, got into a hackney-coach and drove
to the horse-ferry, and there getting into a small boat, crossed
over to Vauxhall, throwing the great seal into the river on
his way.  Horses were there ready for them, and at ten in
the morning they reached Feversham, where they got on
board a custom-house hoy which had been engaged for the
purpose.
As soon as the news of the king's flight was known in
London, the mob attacked the catholic chapels and the residences of the catholic ambassadors.  Those who felt themselves to be obnoxious attempted to fly to the coast, but
several were taken and committed to prison.  Jeffreys was
discovered at Wappinfg in the disguise of a common sailor.
it was with difficulty that he was saved from the rage of the
nmob.  At his own desire he was committed to the Tower,
where he died shortly afterwards.  The nuncio, disguised as a
footman of the ambassador of Savoy, was seized at Gravesend,
t)ut the prince sent him a passport without delay.
The government meantime was exercised by a council of
peers, with the lord mayor and aldermen.  They sent a dec.
VOL. II.     33                     w w
~I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




386              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
laration of adhesion to the prince, on condition of his prc~
curing a free parliament; but their deliberations were soon
disturbed by tidings of the detention of the king.  The hoy,
having stopped to get in more ballast, was boarded by three
boats, and the crews, taking the king and his companions
for jesuits, brought it back to Feversham.  The king, being
recognized, sent for lord Winchelsea, the lord lieutenant of
the county, and he was placed at the house of the mayor
whence he wrote (14th) to the supreme council at London
who forthwith ordered lord Feversham to take two hundred
of the guards for the protection of the royal person.  James,
on being joined by them, resolved to return to the capital.
He sent lord Feversham  to the prince, who was now oa
Windsor, to propose a personal conference; but the envoy
was placed under arrest, on the pretext of his having come
without a passport.
The king, on reaching London, (16th,) was received with
every demonstration of popular joy: the crowds shouted, the
bells were rung, and the bonfires were kindled, in the usual
manner. Next day he held a court, met his council, and
exercised other acts of sovereignty.  But tlie prince and his
council had decided that Jamres should not remain at Whitehall; and the following evening (17th) count Solms came
with a body of the Dutch guards, and, having occupied St.
James's, led them to Whitehall.  Lord Craven, who commanded the English guards, was preparing to resist; but
the king, knowing opposition to be useless, repressed the
ardor of the veteran of eighty, and the Dutch guards took
the place of the English.  A little before midnight the king
went to rest, but he had not been long asleep when he was
waked to receive the lords Halifax, Shrewsbury, and Delamere, who were come with a message from the prince.  Ile
had them admitted.  They told him it was the prince's wish
that, for the safety of his person, he should go to Hamn-house
in Surrey, where he would be attended by his own guards,
and that he must depart at ten in the morning, as the prince
would arrive by noon. James objected to Ham, as damp
and cold, and proposed Rochester.  They departed, and returned at nine next morning (19th) with the requisite permission.
At noon the king took leave of the nobility, and entered
the royal barge, and went down the river, followed by a party
of the Dutch guards in boats. The assembled crowds viewed
with mournful looks this final departure of their sovereign, a
captive in the hands of foreigners.  James slept that nigh i




JAMES 11.                    387
at Gravesend, and next day came to Rochester, where he
remained for four days, deliberating on his further course.
His friends in general urged him not to think of quitting the
kingdom, as it was the very course his enemies seemed to
wish him to adopt; for, though the front of the house ill
which he resided was guarded, the rear was neglected.  He
sent, offering to place himself in the hands of the prelates, if'
they would answer for his safety; but they declined so deli.
cate a charge.  IHe then resolved on flight, to which he was
moreover urged by a letter from  the queen; and, having
written a declaration explanatory of his motives, and informed some friends of his design, he went to bed as usual,
(22d.)  After midnight he rose, and. with his natural son
the duke of Berwick and three other persons, he went out
through the garden.  A fishing-smack had been hired to
convey him to France, but the weather was so rough that he
could not reach it. -He got on board the Eagle fire-ship,
where he was received with all marks of respect by the crew,
and next morning (24th) he embarked in the smack.  On
Christmas-day he landed at Ambleteuse in Picardy, and he
hastened to join his queen at St. Germain.  His reception by
Louis was cordial and generous.
At two o'clock on the day of the king's departure fron 
the capital, the prince of Orange came to St. James's.  Al!
classes crowded to do him homage.  He summoned the lords
spiritual and temporal to meet on the 21st, to consider the
state of the nation.  They came on the appointed day, to the  
number of about seventy: five lawyers, in the absence of the
judges, were appointed to assist them.  It was proposed that      i
they should previously sign the Exeter Association: the temporal peers, with four exceptions, subscribed; the prelates
all but Compton, refused.  Next day (22d) they met in the
house of peers, and, having chosen lord Halifax their speaker,
issued an order for all papists, except householders and some
others, to remove ten miles from London.  On Christmasday they resolved that the prince should be requested to take
on him the administration of all public affairs till the 22d of
January, and that he would issue letters for persons to be       i
elected to meet as a convention on that day.  The following
day (26th) all those who had served in any of the parliaments
of Charles IT., and were in town, with the aldermen and
*fifty common-council-men, waited on the prince by invitation, and thence went to the house of commons,  where next       l
d y (27th) they voted an address similar to that of the
peers.  The prince accepted the charge, and issued the let,..... __.,. _. _                                j




.38S3            HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ters of summons for the convention.  Next day, being Sun.
day, he received the sacrament according to the rights of the
church of England.
On the 22d of January, 16S9, the memorable convention
met.  A joint address of thanks and praying him to continue
the administration of affairs was presented to the prince.
After a few days' necessary delay, the commons entered on
the great question of the state of the nation, (2Sth;) and it
was resolved, " That king James II., having endeavored to
subvert the constitution of the. kingdom by breaking the original contract between king and people, and, by the advice
of jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this
kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne
is thereby become vacant."  Next day (29th) it was resolved,
"That it hath been found by experience to be inconsistent
with the safety and welfare of this protestant kingdom to be
governed by a popish prince."  It is remarkable that this is
the very principle of the exclusion-bill which had brought
such odium on its supporters.
In the lords this last vote was unanimously agreed to, but
various questions arose on the former.  The first was, supposing the throne vacant, whether they would have a regent
or a king. It was decided in favor of the latter by a majority of only two.  It was then carried, that there was an original contract between king and people. For the word'abdicated' they substituted' deserted;' and they struck out the
clause declaring the throne to be vacant, as it was maintained that the crown devolved to the princess of Orange.
To these amendments the commons refused to agree.  Two
conferences took place between committees of the houses,
which terminated in the lords' giving way to the firmness of
he commons, though their arguments were clearly superior
n the principles of the constitution and of common sense;
biut the cogent motive was political necessity.  The wholelome regard for the forms of the constitution certainly involved the whigs in apparent absurdity, for the word' abdicated,' it was acknowledged, was used in an improper sense;'deserted' was in truth no better, but it sounded softer; the
prlper word was'forfeited,' but all parties shrank from employing it.
The throne being vacant, the next question was, by whom
it should be filled. The young prince of Wales was passed
over by common consent; for his birth should be previously
inquired into; and should his legitimacy be proved, as there




JAMES lf.                   389
was no doubt but that he would be brought up a catholic, it
would be necessary to appoint a protestant regent, and then
the strange sight might be presented of a succession of kings
with the rights and title of the crown, and of regents exercising all its powers. The simple course seemed to be, to
make the princess of Orange queen; b the princess of Orange queen; but the prince signified his dislike of that, saying he could not hold any thing
by apron-strings, and threatening to return to Holland; the
princess had also strongly expressed her disapprobation of it.
It was finally resolved (Feb. 12) that the prince and princess
of Orange should be king and queen during their lives and
that of the survivor, but the sole exercise of the royal power
to be in the forlner; the succession to go to the heirs of the
princess, and, in default of such issue, to the princess Anne
and her heirs, and, in their default, to those of the prince of
Orange.
The princess landed that very evening, and next day (13th)
she and the prince, seated on a throne at Whitehall, received
the two houses.  A declaration of rights which had been
agreed on having been read to them, lord Halifax, in the
name of the two houses, made them a solemn tender of the
crown.  The prince made a brief reply, accepting the proffered crown, and declaring his resolution to support their religion, laws, and liberties, and to promote the welfare of the
kingdom.  King William and queen Mary were proclaimed
that same day with the usual ceremonies.
Such was the Revolution of 1688, justly, we think, termed
GLORIOUS. It terminated the struogle, which had continued
from the reign of John, between the crown and people of
England.  We  have seen the barons and commons lay various restraints on the despotism of the Plantagenets; but
when the power of the barons had declined, the crown, relieved from the pressure, rose with renovated vigor in the
line of Tudor.  The Stuarts, with inferior ability, and thwarted by a more formidable opposition, sought to uphold the
authority to which they had succeeded; the result was, a
civil war, the shedding of royal blood on the scaffold, and a
military despotism. Untaught by experience, the restored
Stuarts labored to free their authority from all constitutional check, and, had they left the national religion un33 




390              HISTORY OF. ENGLANED
touched, they might have long, perhaps, continued to trample
with impunity on the national liberties; but James ill his
folly attempted to overturn the church, and the nation rose
and drove him from the throne. For, however men might seek
to deceive themselves by specious terms, such was the real.i a!      fact: James did not abdicate; he was expelled; and the house
i Pus     of Brunswick now occupies the throne by the choice of the
nation, and not by hereditary right.*  The line of succession was broken when William III. was placed on the throne;
indefeasible right was at an end; but the monarchy, with its
prerogative, remained uninjured.
It is this last circumstance that appears chiefly to cause
our republican writers of the present day to vilify the Revo{t, ~      lution, and pour forth their gall on its authors.  They are!^,        angry that a democracy was not substituted for the ancient
F'i ~      constitution of England, and they are therefore anxious to fix
~'i.      every possible stigma on the memory of king William  and
the other agents in effecting the change.  A measure of pol..';!        icy, however, is not dependent for its moral quality on the
characters of those who accomplish it; and we may freely
grant that Danby and the other signers of the' Invitation'
were not men of immaculate virtue, and that there were
instances of treachery and ingratitude; yet still these men
merited well of their country, for the risk they ran, in case
of failure, was tremendous; and it ill becomes those who
i}:1        are enjoying the benefit of their services to delight in heap..:t,,:i   ing obloquy on their names.
~~~~~~~~~Sen,,                 Vo.LE"
[!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~  ~   ~    ~    ~    ~   ~    _  _ _  _    _:..




T H X
HISTORY OF ENGLANDa
HOUSE  OF  STUART.   PARaT I.
CHAPTER I.
WILLIAM  III. AND MARY II.
1689-1694.
THIE new reign was commenced (Feb. 14) with a proclama
tion confirming all protestants in the offices which they held.
The king then nominated the privy council and appointed to
the offices of state; in both cases selecting from the ranks
of whigs and tories, with a preponderance, however, of the
former.  Danby was made president of the council; Halifax,
privy seal; Nottingham and Shrewsbury, secretaries of state.
The treasury, admiralty, and chancery were put in commission.
Judging it inexpedient,;rnder the present circumstances
of the country, to risk the experiment of a new election, the
king and council resolved to convert the convention into a
parliament. This was effected by the simple expedient of
the king's going in state to the house of peers, (ISth,) and
addressing both houses from the throne.  A bill declaring
the lords and commons assembled at Westminster to be the
two houses of parliament was then passed, and the royal
assent being given; (23d,) the convention became a parliament. In this act a new oath to be taken on the first of
March was substituted for the old ones of allegiance and
sulpremacy, It was refused by the primate and seven of his
________________N                               ~




89~2              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
suffragans; * and among the temporal peers, by the duke of
Newcastle, the earls of Lichfield, Exeter, Yarmouth, ana
Stafford, and the lords Griffin and Stawell. Hence the party.
of which they were the heads derived the name of Nonjurors; their principle was a blind, stupid veneration for absolute power, and for the hereditary divine rights of princes - a
principle, if followed out, utterly subversive of every kind of
liberty.
The settlement of the revenue was an important question
The courtiers maintained that the revenue settled on'he late
king for life came of course to the present king; but the
commons could only be induced to grant it for one year.
The) readily granted a sum of 600,0001. to remunerate the
States for the expense they had been at; and on information
of king James having landed in Ireland, they voted funds for
an army and navy.
The coronation took place on the 11th of April; the
bishop of London officiating in place of the nonjuring primate.  Several titles and honors had previously been conferred.  The marquess of Winchester was made duke of
Bolton; lords Mordaunt and Churchill, earls of Monmouth 
and Marlborough; Henry Sidney, viscount Sidney; the
king's  Dutch  favorite  Bentinck, earl of Portland, etc.
Shortly after, (24th,) the earl of Danby was created marquess of Carmarthen.  The celebrated Dr. Burnet was also 
rewarded for his.exertions in the cause of civil and religious
liberty by being raised to the see of Salisbury.  The judicial
bench was purified and filled with men of sound constitutional principles; Holt, Pollexfen, and Atkins being placed
at the head of the three law-courts: Treby was made attorney, and Somers solicitor-general.
It was the earnest wish of the king and of the more liberal
statesmen, to reward the dissenters for their meritorious conduct during the late crisis by removing all disqualifications
under which they labored.  It was first attempted to have
the sacramental test omitted in the new oaths; but that
failing, a bill was brought in to exempt them from the penalties of certain laws. This, named the' Act of Toleration,'
was passed: though the catholics were not included in it,
they felt the benefit of it, and William always treated them
with lenity. A bill of comprehension piassed the lords, but
v Naraely, Turner of Ely, Ken of Bath, Lake of Chichester, White
i," Ecterborough, Lloyd of Norwich, Thomas of Worcester, and Frampton of Gloucester.
_                                                  f~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




WILLIAM III. AND MARY II.           393
miscarried in the commons. The attainders of lord Russell,
Algernon Sidney, alderman Cornish, and Mrs. Lisle, were
reversed. Johnson's sentence was annulled, and he received
1001. and a pension.
William's main-object, as we have seen, was to engage
England in the great confederacy lately formed against the
French king. As Louis was now openly assisting king'
James, the commons presented an address (Apr. 26) assuring the king of their support in case he should think fit
to engage in the war with France. William required no
more; he declared war without delay, (May 7.)
We must now take a view of the state of affairs in Scotland and Ireland at this time.
As Scotland had been the victim of a civil and religious
despotism such as the Stuarts had never dared to exercise
in England, the friends of William  were necessarily the
majority in that country. After the flight of James, such
of the Scottish nobility and gentry as were in London presented an address to the prince, vesting in him the administration and the revenue, and requesting him to call a convention of the states of Scotland.  With this request he
of' course complied; and when the convention met, (Mar.
14,) the whigs had a decided majority. It was voted, that
king James "had forfaulted [forfeited] the right of the
crown, and the throne was become vacant."  On the 11th
of April William and Mary were proclaimed king and queen
of Scotland, and three deputies were sent to London to administer to them the coronation-oath.  The convention was
converted into a parliament, as in England.
The adherents of the late king, foiled in. the convention,
resolved to appeal to force; the duke of Gordon, a catholic,
refused to surrender the castle of Edinburgh, of which he
was governor; and Graham of Claverhouse, (now viscount
Dundee,) the ruthless persecutor of the Carneronians, fired
with the idea of emulating the fame of Montrose, quitted
Edinburgh with a party of fifty horse and directed his
course toward the Highlands. General Mackay, who had
been sent with five regiments from England, was despatched
in pursuit of him.  Dundee succeeded in drawing together
a good body of Highlanders; he got possession of' the castle of Blair in Athol; and James sent him  from  Ireland
lavish promises and a corps of about three hundred men.
Dundee had retired into Lochaber, when hearing that lord
Murray was pressing the castle of Blair, and that Mackay
was coming to his aid, he' rapidly returned, drove off lord
XX




394             HISTORY OF ENGI FND.
Murray, and as Mackay was now coming through the pass
cf Killicrankie, he resolved to give him battle in the plain
between the pass. and the castle, (May 26.)  The superiority in numbers and discipline was greatly on the side of the
troops of Mackay; but the Highlanders, in their usual manner, having discharged their muskets, fell on with their
hroadswords and targets, and speedily routed their opponents with the loss of fifteen hundred slain, five hundred and
all their artillery taken. The victory on the part of Dundee was complete; but he lived not to improve it, as he
received a wound in the action of which he died next day
There was no one to take his place; the clans gradually laid
down their arms and took advantage of the pardon offered
by king William.  The duke of Gordon also submitted and
delivered up the castle of Edinburgh, (June 13,) and the
cause of James became hopeless in Scotland.  The aboli-.ion of episcopacy and the reiestablishment of presbytery
took place soon after; and thus finally terminated the struggle between the crown and the people on the subject of
rel igion.
It was different in Ireland, where the whole power of the
state was in the hands of the catholics. Tyrconnel had at
first signified an inclination to submit to William, who had
sent over general Hamilton, one of the officers of James's
army, with proposals to him; but Hamilton proved a traitor,
and advised against submission; and Tyrconnel, whose only
object had been to gain time, had already sent to assure
James of his fidelity. He also disarmed the protestants in
Dublin, and he augmented his catholic army. It has always been the fate of the Irish protestants to have their
interests postponed to those of party in England; and they
were now neglected by William, by some, it is said, fromi
Halifax's suggestion, that if Ireland submitted he would
have no pretext for keeping up an army, on which his retention of England depended.  But in truth William does not
seem to havre had an army to send at that time; he could
not rely on the English troops, and he therefore could not
venture to part with the Dutch.
James embraced a resolution worthy of a sovereign: hav.
ing obtained from Louis a supply of arms, ammunition, and
money, with some officers, and collected about twelve hundred of his own subjects, he hastened to Brest, and embarking in a French fleet of twenty-one sail, proceeded to
Ireland.  He landed in safety at Kinsale, (Mar. 12.)  At
Cork he was met by Tyrconnel, who gave him an account




iWILL1AM ITI. AND MARY II.          395
i of the state of atfairs.  He described the army as numerous,
tut ill-armed; and the protestants as being in possession of
Ulster alone. On the 24th the king made his solemn entrance into Dublin amid the acclamlations of the catholics.
He was met by a procession of popish prelates and priests
in their habits, bearing the host, which he publicly adored.
He forthwith removed all the protestant members of the
council.  He issued proclamations; by one raising the value
of the current coinl; by another summrioning a parliament
for the 7th of May; and having created Tyrconnel a duke,
ne set out for his army in the north.
The only towns that offered resistance were Londonderry
and Enniskillen.  The people of the former had shut their
gates against lord Antrim's regiment, and bidden defiance
to the lord lieutenant.  They sent to England for assistance, and two regiments under colonels Cunningham  and
Richards arrived in Lough Foyle; but on the intelligence
of the approach of king James, these officers, agreeing with
Lundy, the governor, that the place was not tenable, reemnbarked their troops.  An officer was sent to negotiate with
Hamilton, who commanded the Irish army, and he agreed
that the king's troops should halt within four miles of the
town; James, however, on arriving, set this agreement at
nought; but he was obliged to retire with disorder.  The
cowardly governor refused to act, and he stole out of the
place in disguise to escape the indignation of the people.
They appointed in his room major Baker and a clergyman
named George Walker, who had raised a regiment for the
protestant cause. Their works were slight, their cannon
few and bad, and they had no engineer; the men had never
seen service, their stock of provisions was small, and they
were besieged by a large army well supplied and commanded
by able officers; yet the brave protestants dreamt not of
surrender.
On the 20th of April the batteries began to play on the
town; the attacks of the besiegers were gallantly repelled;
but the want of provisions soon began to be felt. General
Kirke now arrived in the lough with troops and supplies;
but the enemy had placed a boom across the river and raised
batteries, which prevented him from sailing up. Ile sent to
the governors, urging them  to hold out, and promising to
make a diversion in their favor.
The king at this time went up to Dublin to hold his par.
liament, leaving the command with the French general
Rosen. This office-, inured to his master's barbarous deal1__     __    ___
i. —



896              HISTORY OF E&NGLAND.
ings with his own subjects as well as foreigners, and ill
censed at the gallant resistance of the besieged, sent out
parties of dragoons, and collecting all the protestants, men,
women, and children, within a circuit of thirty miles, to
the number of four thousand, drove them  under the walls
of Derry, there to perish if the garrison did not surrender.
The king, who had given protections to most of these peopie, sent orders to the general to desist; but his mandate
was unheeded; the threat of the garrison to hang all their
prisoners was of more avail; and after three days' starvation,
the poor people were permitted to return to their homes,
which had meantime been plundered by the papists.  Several hundreds of them died of fatigue and hunger.
Famine was now raging in the town; horses, dogs, cats,
rats and mice, and even starch, tallow, and salted hides, were
the only food of the garrison, and these were nearly exhausted, when Kirke, who had retired, reappeared in Lough Foyle.
He ordered two transports and a frigate to sail up the river;
the batteries firom both banks thundered on them, while the
garrison gazed with anxiety from their walls. The Mountoy transport ran against the boom and broke it, but the shock
Irove her aground; the enemy attempted to board her; she
fired a broadside and righted.  The three vessels then sailed
up to the town, and that very night (July 31) the besieging
army retired, having lost between eight and nine thousand
men before the heroic town. The besieged had lost three
thousand - nearly the half of their original number.  The
Enniskilliners showed equal courage, and defeated the panists wherever they encountered them.
The houses of parliament which met in Dublin were filled
with popish members, the protestants not exceeding half-adozen in either house.  James, in his speech, made his usual
parade of respect for the rights of conscience; and in a subsequent declaration, he expatiated on his regard and favor to
his protestant subjects.  One of his earliest measures, however, was to give his assent to an act for robbing them of
their properties. A bill was introduced into the lower house
for repealing the Act of Settlement; it was received with
shouts of joy, passed at once, and transmitted to the lords.
Here the protestant bishop of Meath fully exposed its iniquity, as it made no allowance for improvements, gave no
time for the removal of cattle or corn, made no provisions
for widows, paid no regard to the rights of bona fide purchasers, etc.  In England such considerations of equity
would have been attended to; in Ireland there has always
__




WILLIAM III. AND MARY II.           397
been a magnanimous contempt for truth, justice, and humanity, when the purposes of party are to be served. Fitton,
the popish chancellor, a man who had actually been convicted of forgery, paid little heed to the arguments of the prelate.
The bill passed; in vain the purchasers under the Act of
Settlement petitioned the king; he replied, " that he would
not do evil that good might come of it;" yet he gave his
assent to the bill.
The preamble of the bill declared the Irish innocent of
rebellion in 1641, and it vested in the king the real estates
of all who did not acknowledge him, or who aided or corresponded with those who had rebelled against him since
the 1st of August, 1688, that is to say, of nearly every Irish
protestant who could write. This was followed by an act of
attainder against between two and three thousand persons,
by name, of all orders and sexes from the peer to the yeoman, of whom, as Nagle, the speaker of the commons, said
to the king on presenting the bill, " many were attainted
on such evidence as satisfied the house, and the rest on
common fame."  By a clause in the act, the king was even
deprived of the power of pardoning any of the proscribed
after the 1st of November.  Meantime the act was carefully
concealed from its victims, being kept close in the custody
of the chancellor.
As a further means of robbing the protestants, a base
coinage of brass, bell-metal, tin, and pewter, was issued, at
the rates of coin of the precious metals, and ordered to be
taken in all kinds of payments.  When the protestants attempted to get rid of the base metal thus forced on them, by
purchasing with it corn, hides, etc., the king fixed his price
on these articles, seized them to his own use, and paid for
them in his bell-mlIetal coin. Yet the catholics afte,,r all were
the chief losers, for they happened to be the principal holders
of the base money when James fled from Ireland.
To ruin the protestant clergy, the catholics were directed
to pay their tithes to their own priests.  As livings became
vacant, they were filled with popish incumbents.  The fellows of Trinity college having refused to admit a papist
named Green into their body, they were all expelled, and
their plate and other property were seized.  A respectable
catholic named Moore was made provost, and he saved the
library from the soldiery.  Even the protestant Worship was
suppressed, for an order was issued forbidding more than
five protestants to meet together for any purpose on pain of'leath.
VOL. II.     34
i:I-:::l:__:_____-I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-:~~~~~~




398              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
While James was thus exemplifying his notions of reil.
gious liberty,'William was preparing the means of recovering
Ireland.  A force consisting of eighteen regiments of foot
and five of horse having been levied, the command was
given to duke Schomberg. But various delays occurred,
and it was late in the summer (Aug. 13) when the.duke
landed at Bangor in Down, with a body of ten thousand
men, leaving the remainder to follow.  He invested Carrickfergus, which surrendered after a siege of a few days. The
enemy continually retired before him, and he reached Dundalk on his way to Dublin.  As he had not yet got over his
artillery, and he was weak in cavalry, he did not deem it prudent to proceed.  He fortified his camp, but the site he had
chosen was damp and unhealthy, being surrounded by mountains and bogs.  Disease soon spread its ravages among his
troops; king James advanced up to the camp at the head of
his army, but. the cautious marshal would not accept the offer
of battle, and the kirng drew off. At length, after losing one
half of his men by disease, Schornberg placed his army in
winter-quarters in the northern towns.
This year was marked by only one naval engagement.
Louis had sent a squadron, under count Chateau-RPenault, to
convey some transports with supplies to Ireland.  Herbert,
who had been sent to intercept them, having been driven
by stress of weather into Milford-haven, they got safe into
Bantry-bay.  When Herbert found theatm there, (May 1,) he
stood in to attack them, though he was much inferior in force.
The French weighed and stood out; Herbert tried in vain
to get the weather-gage, and after a running fight of some
hours, he bore away, leaving the honor of the (lay to the
French."  On his return to Portsmouth, as the crews were
discontented with their want of success, king William came
down, dined aboard the admiral's ship, knighted captains
Ashby and Shovel, and gave the men ten shillings each.
Herbert was soon after created earl of Torrington.
In the spring, (1690,) having received supplies, and a reinforcement of 7000 Danish troops, and his mner, being now
in good health, Schomberg besieged and took (May 12) the
fort of Charlemont. James had received 6000 French troops,
under count Lausun, in exchange for as many Irish-but they
embarrassed more than they served him, and he remained
* When D)'Avaux, the French ambassador, told James that the
French had defeated the English, he peevishly replied, C'est bien Ia
premiere fois dlone.;_____________________________________.




WILLIAM III. AND MARY II.            399
inactive.  William, meantime, aware of the importance of
reducing Ireland, had resolved to conduct the war there in
person. Hie landed at Carrickfergus, (June 14,) and declaring that " he was not come to let the grass grow under
his feet," summoned all his troops to his standard.  On reviewtig them  at Loughbrickland, he found himself at the
head of 36,000 effective men.  lie moved southwards without delay: James, who had left Dublin for his army, (16th,)
advanced to Dundalk, but not thinking that post tenable, he
fell back and took a position near Oldbridge, on the right
bank of the river Boyne, near Drogheda, with a bog on his
left and the pass of' Duleek in his rear.  His army is said to
have numbered 33,000 men.* On the morning of the last
day of June, the English army reached the Boyne. William
rode out to reconnoitre the enemy; he was recognized, and
two pieces of cannon were secretly planted bellind a. hedge
opposite an eminence where he had sat down to rest.  As he
was mounting his horse, they were fired, and one of the
balls, having touched the bank of the river, rose and grazed
his right shoulder, tearing his coat and flesh. His attendants
gathered round him, a cry of joy rose in the Irish camp, the
news of his death flew to Dublin, and thence to Paris, where
the firing of cannon and lighting of bonfires testified the exultation of Louis.
The armies cannonaded each other during the remainder
of the day. At nine o'clock William held a council, and
gave his orders for the battle next day; at twelve he rode by
torchlight through the camp; the word given was W.s'rMINSTER; each soldier was directed to wear a green bough
in his hat, as the enemy was observed to wear white paper
The army was to pass the river in three divisions; the right,
led by young Schomberg and general Douglas, at the ford
of Slane; the centre, under Schonmberg himself, in front of
the camp; and the left, under the king, lower down toward
Drogheda.
Early next morning (Tuesday, July 1) the right division
set out for Slane, where it forced the passage, and passing
the bog, drove off the troops opposed to it.  The centre
crossed unopposed; on the further bank they met a vigorous
resistance, but they finally forced the enemy to fall back to
the village of Doilore, where James stood a spectator of the
battle.  William, meantime, had crossed at the head of his
* He says himself, (Life, ii. 393,) it was not more than 20,000, while
ble makes that of William from 40,000 to q0,00(0.




400              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
cavalry; the Irish horse, led by Hamilton, fought gallant.
ly, but they were broken at length, and their commander
made a prisoner."  Lausun now urged James to remain no
longer, but to retire with all speed to Dublin before he was
surrounded.  He forthwith quitted the field; his army then
poured through the pass of Duleek, and forming on the other
side, retreated in good order.  Their loss had been fifteen
hundred men; that of the victors was only a third of that
number, among whom were duke Schomrberg, and Walker,
the brave governor of Derry.
James stopped only one night in Dublin; he fled to Duncannon, where, finding a French vessel, he got on board,
and landed safely at Brest, (10th.)
William reached Dublin on the third day after his victory,
(4th.)  He issued a proclamation promising pardon to all
the inferior people engaged in the war, but excepting the
leaders. He then advanced southwards and reduced Waterford; but hearing of a victory gained by the French fleet,
and a descent on the coast of England, he returned to Dublin,
deeming his presence necessary in England.  Finding, however, the danger not to be so great as he had apprehended,
he resolved to remain and finish the war.  He advanced and
laid siege to Limerick, (Aug. 9,) but his artillery was intercepted on its way from Dublin, and destroyed by general
Sarsefield, and an attempt to storm (27th) having failed with
great loss, he raised the siege, and retiring to Waterford, eimbarked for England, (Sept. 5,) leaving the command with
count Solms and general Ginckel. The earl of Marlborough,
who had commanded the British troops in the Netherlanlds
this year, having proposed the reduction of Cork and Kiusale, landed at the former place (21st) with 5000 men, and
being joined by the prince of Wurtemberg Nwith an equal
number of his Danes, he in the space of twenty-three days
obliged both places to surrender.  The French troops in
Ireland now returned home, leaving the Irish to their fate.
We now return to England to notice the state of affairs
there for the last twelvemonth.
The parliament which had been prorogued having met
again, (Oct. 19,) the king in his speech pressed on them the
necessity of a supply for carrying on the war; he also strongly
* William asked Hamilton if he thought the Irish would fight any
more. " Upon my honor," said he, " I btlieve they will; for they
have yet a good body of horse."  "Honor!" said William;  y'eour
honor! " This Hamilton is said to be the author of'The Memoirs of
the Count de Grammont.'




WtLLIAM III.: AND MARY II.             401
urged.the passing of a-bill of indemnity.  They- readily voted'
a supply,-o-f -two, millions;; but ithe whigs; with! the.i natural
jealousy: of power, wishing to keep the lash over thei.heads
of. their- rivals- the -tories, threw' every: possible obstruction
in. the way. of the indemnity; impeachments were nmenaced
against those who had turned papists; a committee was
appointed to inquire who were. the -advisers, etc-.,, in,: the
murd(lers of Russell, Sidney, and others; and as Halifax-, whot
had been thenin the ministry, saw that he was aimed at, he
retired from office and joined thertories.  A bill was brought
in for. restoring corporations, by a clause of which all who
had acted or concurred in the surrender of charters were:to
be excluded from office for. seven years.  As there could be
no doubt of the object of — this- clause, the tories -put -forth
their whole strength, and' having gained the court to their
side, the clause was defeated in the commons, and the bill
itself was, lost in the lords.
The refilsal of the whigs.to grant him a revenue for life
had greatly: alienated the:mind; of the king from them.. He
was in fact- so disgusted with' the ungenerous. treatment, as he
conceived it, that he met with, that he seriously meditated a
return toHolland, leaving the queen to reign in England.
From this he was diverted:by the entreaties of Carmarthen'
and Shrewsbury'; and the tories having promised him-lavish
supplies if; he would- dissolve the parliamenti he resolved on
that measure, and on conducting the Irishi war in person.
Hle therefore prorogued the parlianient, (Jan. 27, 1699,) and
a few days after, (Feb.. 6,) he issued a proclamation dissolving
it, and summonillng a new one to'nmeet on the 20th of March.
In the new plarli;nment.the tories had the preponderance
but the whigs were, notwithstanding, very formidable.  This
appeared in; the settlement of the, revenue, as, though the
hereditary, excise was given to:the king for life, -the customs
were granted only for four' years.  The great struggle' of
parties. took place on a bill brought into thoe lords. by the
whigs for recognizing their majesties as' the rigotfulS anid
lawqutcl sovereigns of.these realms, and declaring all the acts
of the'last parliament to. be good, and'valid.- This - was
obviously contrairy to'the principles and professions: of the
tories;;: they:caused the words rrighl;tftl and''lawful to. be
omitted as superfluous, and they would' only-consent that tlehd
laws of the late par~liament,should be-:valid for: the'time:to
come.: The bill was committed, but- the declaratory clause
was- lost on the report.'A vigorous protest of soine of the
leading w'igs: caused it to-' be restored.,Thhe tories now,
34*                             y




02             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
protested in their turn, but the whigs caused the protest tc
"e expunged from the journals. The bill passed the commons without opposition, as the influence of the crown was
exerted in its favor. As the tories were thus instrumental in
putting the last hand to the settlement of the crown, they had
no excuse for ever again opposing it.
A bill requiring every person holding any office to abjure
the late king and his title, was rejected by the commons at
the express desire of the king..In act wvas passed for
investing the queen with the administration during the
absence of the king, and one for reversing the judgment
against the city of London, and finally the bill of indemnity
which contained the names of thirty excepted persons, none
of whom, however, were ever molested in consequence of it.
The session was then closed, (May 21,) and the king soon
after set out for Ireland.
The situation of the queen was by no means an easy one.
Her mind was distracted with anxiety for the fate of both
her father and her husband in Ireland; the Jacobites, as the
adherents of James were now called, were preparing an
insurrection in England and Scotland, and the French were
ready to assist them; she had to hold the balance between
the two parties in her cabinet.  Her difficulties, however,
gave occasion to the display of the nobler parts of her
character, and she acquired by her firmness, mildness, and
prudence, the applause of all.
As it was known that a fleet was getting ready at Brest,
lord Torrington proceeded to St. Helens, and took the command of the combined English and Dutch fleets. On the
20th of June, the French fleet of seventy-eight ships-of-war
appeared off Plymouth. Though Torrington had but fiftysix sail, orders were sent to him to fight the French. The
hostile squadrons engaged (30th) off Beachey-head; the action lasted from nine till five in the afternoon, whern a calm
came on. As the Dutch had suffered severely, Torrington
retired during the night; next day the French pursued them
as far as Rye, and then retired. The loss of the English
was two, that of the Dutch six ships. Torrington, having
brought his fleet into the Thames, repaired to London, where
he was deprived of his command and committed to the
Tower. He was afterwards tried by a court-martial and
acquitted, out he was never again employed.
As an  invasion  was apprehended, the queen  issued
comrmisslons for raising troops, directed a camp to be formed
at-Torbiy, and caused several suspected persons to he ar.




WILLIAM III. AND MARY 11.           403
rested, Btut the'French, after burning the fishing-village of. Tinglouth, returned to Brest, and the news- of the victory
at the Boyne soon dispelled all alarm.
On the return of the king, the greatest harmony prevailed
between him  and his parliament. They granted four millions for the war, and William, having put an end to the
session, embarked at Gravesend (Jan. 16, 1691) in order to
be present at a congress of the allies at the Hague. All
there proceeded to his wishes, it being unanimously resolved to prosecute the war with vigor.  He staid a few
weeks in Holland, and then returned to England, (Apr. 13.)
A conspiracy in favor of James had been discovered before
the king left England. About the end of December, a boatowner of Barking in Essex having informed lord Carmarthen
that one of his boats had been engaged to convey some
persons to France, it was boarded at Gravesend, and lord
Preston, Mr. Ashton, a servant of the late queen, and a Mr.
Elliot, were found in it. A parcel of papers of a suspicious
nature were taken on the person of Ashton.  Preston and
Ashton were both tried and found guilty; the latter was
executed, (Jan. 28;) he died a protestant.  Preston obtained
a pardon by revealing all he knew.  Lord Clarendon was
committed to the Tower; bishop Turner, lord Preston's
brother Graham, and Penn the quaker, being implicated,
went out of the way.
It was now beyond doubt that there was a very extensive
conspiracy organized for bringing back the late king. Untaught by the experience of his whole reign, and of his late
doings in Ireland, men were so infatuated as to suppose that
he could be content to reign the king of a protestant people.
Preston and Ashton were to propose to him to make the
majority of his council, even in France, protestant; to assure
him that though he might live a catholic, he must reign as a
protestant giving all offices of state to those of this religion
and seeking nothing but liberty of conscience for his own
They were a'so to require that the French force, which thef
wished him to bring over, should be so moderate as to give
no alarm for the liberties of the nation.  A wilder project
than this never was conceived, yet in a memorandum of lord
Preston's were found the names of Shrewsbury, Monmouth,
Devonshire, and other whig lords, as if they were participators
in it. It is certain that Halifax, Godolphin, and Marlborough
were at this time in communication with the Jacobite agents,
though the second was actually at the head of the treasury,
and the last had lately done James all the injury he could




f104            -HIS.TORY OF ENGLAND. 
n Ireland.,iBut  INMalborrQpghr did.-not ~.fitund~'his:ambition,
sufficiently gratified, and hie thought it probable that James
might be restored.  Hei. resolved. in that case to secure his
pardon,- and therefore,pretending the greatest remorse. for his
base ingratitude, he gave an exact account of the numbers.
and condition of the arpmy and navy, and of the plans of king:
William. as far as.he:knewt them; he promised, if: the king
desired it, to bring over the troops that were in Flanders, but
thought it better that he and the rest of the king's friends in
parliament should strive to have the foreignr troops sent away,
in which case: the Engligh should, he brought back- and the
king's restoration might then be easily effected.
William'now  resolved to; keep measures no longer with
the nonjuring prelates, for. they had refused to perform their
functions, even if:excused from  their oaths.  He therefore
proceeded to fill up the,:vacant sees.  Tillotson (a name with
which that of Sancroft will ill bear comparison) was selected for Canterbury.  The names of Cumberland, FowlerPatrick, Beveridge,: and others, do equal honor to the discernment of the.king and his advisers.  A.s Sanrcioft and his
brethren gave the most decisive proof of theirsincerity, we
must respect them as,honest men; but at the. same time it is..
difficult not to feel contempt ifor those who were willing to
sacrifice the civil (and consequently the religious) liberties
of their country on the altar of their false god, Passive Obe-        I
dience.  If -too, as they maintained, this was the principle
of. Christianrity, that perfect law of liberty,. they should have
submitted  with the meekness. of martyrs, and not,, poured
through  the press, from  the pens of themselves and their
adherents, a continued stream  of vi-rulent.pamphlets against
their opp~onents. 
On the, 2d of May king William, attended among others
hy the e:arl of Marlborough, sailed for Hlo!land:, in order -to
take: the field in person against the French.: We deem: it
necessary here. to remind.our readers, that owing to our
narrow: limits, our plan. has been to be as brief as possible
on-foreign affairs.; - Ir England Is henceforth so mixed up
(n the affairs: of.the continent, that to relate in detail those
n11 which she. is concerned;  would be to writW the history of
Europe.  We,will therefore aim  at nothing more than to
explain the.origin and termination of -the: various general
wars, and occasionally to notice more circumstantially the
events, in which the English were immediate partakers.
The war was carried, on simultaneously in Flanders,,on
6he Rhine, in Savoy and Piedmont, but no. battle of any inot 
III




WILLIAM  III. AND MARY 11.              405
signalizied this campaign.   At the end i( (fit William returned
to England; (Ocit. 1i9, where the cheeiing intelligene, of the
corhplete reduction of Irel'afi-d' aw aited h'im'.
Owing to the wVqnt of'the dheedffil supplies, Ginckel had
not been: able toitlake th' fildltl  till   onth of, J une.  lie
then advanced to lay siege to6 Athloneo: a' stronig town in the
ceritre of the'kingdom, on the, ri'ver Shannon.  Like many
of the;towns ini reland, it-cohnsisted of two parts, an English
and'an Irish' t'wn; the lAtte:r \ras beyond the river, and at a
distahce of6  to tmoiles from it the hr'h army, comnianded by
the FPr'ench gdneral St. R     aith, lay ecampiied.
When the English arm;y approached,  (June'8,)  the Irish'
sent to oppose them' retired into the towna.iind when the
assault was given to'the E Elish townI, (h20t'. h,) they fled after
a brief resistanc  in't6 the Irish'town,  breaking an arch of
the bridge' bei d hem.To'te           to cor the broken
arch with wooden Wr-k failed, "hd' ait was'onfidently expected that the English would be obliged to retire.  It onlyt
remaimned to attempt to pass by a deep, stony ford between
the. towns.  Ac;cordingly, a body of two thousand men, led
by Mackay, plunged into the river, (3Bth;) the batteries on
both sides' thundered-; the troops boldly advanced under the
fire, gained the shAir, anid imouited the breach which had
been effected';'the rest bf the arny p.ressed on: over the
bridge.;or by ponitobons; the Irish fled'to their camp, and
within h'alf an hour fron' the en'trance'f' the troops into the
river, the Irish town was won.. The castle made no resistance..
On the 10th Ginckel' marclied from  Athlone to engage
the Irish  arrmiy.- He fournid therm'(l0~th) posted on iiilcommoden-hill, with a bog in their; font in which there were
only two passes; the one on their left,'t the village and old
castl:e of Aghrim, the other on their right;'tlie slope of the
hill down to' the bog Was. intersected- by hledres and ditches.
Their force is said' to hakie' amounted t;` c5-,Ob,   that of the
Engiish'6nly t to'1,090 men.'
It -was noon' when the Eliglish advanced to the attack.
T'e'p:ass"Oih th'e Irish right was'first attemnpted-,itid  at length
gained.'Ablout five o'clock, an attack  was made on the
enemy's iiglht wing, and' whlen St. R'dth had, drawn off part
of1 his' ~caa iy fromi the left io its support, the'English cavalry
ander geIeral.Tollenmache pressed  forward'to g(ain the pass
at Aghrinm.  At th'same tiime a part pf the in finy.  of tlie
centi'e plfnged into the b     rg in front, M iad fOu'nieine: through,
gained ttie oppsite side.  But instead  ofihIptigie:'is directed




406              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
for the cavalry to join them  from the right, they began to
ascend the hill.  Horse and foot lliw charged them; they
were driven back with loss.  "Now," cried St. Ruth, " will
I drive the English to the very walls of Dublin."  But Tollemache pressed forward on one side, and Mackay at the
other; St. Ruth came down the hill, and was advancing at
the head of a body of horse against the former, when a
cannon ball struck himl.  His death spread dismay through
the army; the order of battle had not been communicated to'
E': /    Sarsefield, the second in command; and he was uncertain
how to act. The English pressed on vigorously, and the
Irish broke and fled. In the battle and pursuit 7000 men
|  were slain, and only 450 taken; the loss of the victors did
not exceed 700 killed, and 1000 wounded.
Galway  surrendered (20th) on  honorable  terms,  and
Bi 2     Ginckel now prepared to end the war by the reduction of
Limerick, the last stronghold of the Irish.  On his coming
before the town (Aug. 25) the batteries were opened in the
usual manner; but though  breaches were effected, the
strength of the garrison was too great to allow him to hazard
i >      an assault.  The general saw that the town must be invested
on all sides in order to insure success.  An English fleet
was in the river, the town was closed in on the Limerick
side, but it freely communicated with Clare by Thomondbridge.  A. bridge of; tin-boats was therefore secretly con.
structed, and a body of troops got over to the Clare side;
but those not proving sufficient, Ginckel himself led over a
larger body, (Sept. 22,) and after a furious conflict the works
which covered Thomond-bridge were carried. Next day
the garrison proposed a cessation, in order to adjust the
terms of surrender.  The terms which they required were
extravagant; but Ginckel, who knew how much it was for
his master's interest to have the war concluded, agreed to
(give very favorable ones.  The Irish were to exercise their
i  eligion as in the time of Charles II.; all included in the'
capitulation were to enjoy their estates and follow  their
professions as in the same reign; their gentry were to have
the use of arms, and no oaths were to be required but that of
allegiance; all persons wishing to retire to the continent
should be conveyed thither, with their families and effects, at
the expense of the government.  These articles were drawn
up and signed, (Oct. 3,) and the war in Ireland, after having
inflicted three years of calamity on the country, was at length
terminated.  Sarsefield and about 12,000 men passed over to
France, and were taken into the pay of the Frer-.h monarch. _... " "...                  _   _




WILLIAM IIIl. AND MARY TI.          407
A barbarous deed enacted in the Highlands of Scotland
opens the occurrences of the following year, (1692.)  An
order had been issued for the Highlanders to submit and take
the oath of allegiance before the 1st of January. The chiefs
all obeyed; the last was M'Donald of Glenco, and the snows
and other impediments prevented him  from reaching Inverary, the county-town, till the day was passed. The
sheriff, however, administered the oath, and certified the
cause of delay. But the earl of Breadalbane was M'Donald's
bitter enemy, and the Dalrymples.f Stair, the president and
secretary, thirsted for blood. Both the oath and certificate
were suppressed, and William was assured that Glenco was
the great obstacle to the pacification of the Highlands.  An
order, countersigned by the king, was obtained " to extirpate
that sect of thieves," and Dalrymple forthwith wrote to the
commander-in-chief ample directions how to perpetrate the
massacre in the most barbarous manner.
A detachment from  Fort-William, under Campbell of
Glenlyon., to whose niece one of Glenco's sons was married
came to the Glen, where they were hospitably received and
quartered among the inhabitants.  In about a fortnight, (Feb
12,) orders to fall on and massacre all the men of the clan i,
the night arrived. Glenlyon passed that evening at cards at
his nephew's, and all were to dine at Glenco's the next day
But that night, when the people of the vale were buried in
sleep, the massacre began. The young M'Donalds, overhearing the discourse of the soldiers, suspected danger and
made their escape, but they were unable to warn their father,
and at break of day the old man was shot in his bed; his
wife was stripped naked, and she died the next day of terror.
Of the men of the glen, two hundred in number, thirty-eigh
were massacred; the remainder, hearing the shots, fled.to the
hills; for a storm providentially came on and hindered the
march of the troops that were to have seized the passes to
prevent their escape. The houses were all burnt to the
ground, the cattle driven off or destroyed, the women and
children stripped naked, and left to perish in the snow.
Of Scottish barbarity and ferocity we have seen abundant
instances, and certainly the great offenders here were those
two detestable men, Breadalbane and I)alrymple: but the
king himself was not guiltless; he should have inquired
more accurately before he signed suh an order. Judging,
however, by his general character, there can be little doubt
that he was deceived, and that he thought he was only
sanctioning a wholesome act of severity  Political necessity




'408              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
will perhaps accOunt for, though not justify, his not puiish
ing the authors of the massacre.
A great' outcry at tiiis deed was raised; all over Europe by
James aanfd his -adherent's, which certainly came with a good
grace from  the plar ty which ihad to boast of Jeffreys' caimpaign, and the tbotunings and mn assacres of th'e':ameroniadms!
Early in the spring (Mar. 5) the king' retuined to Holland to prepare for the ensuing campaign.  The eixiled
monarch meafitime had made his arrangements for the inivasion'ofEngland.' The Jacobites and catholics secretly enlist.
ed tmen and formed regiments; the prinicess Anne hiad' lately
wlitten to',implore her father's forgiveness, which: e i'egatided
as a proofof th'e inclination of the church pairty; MarlWo0rough
continued to give him  assurances of his fidelity';'and: even
Russell, out of pride and pique, became a traitor t'o thle'cause
of the revolution.'Louis gave Jtames some troops, which,
with the regiments from Ireland and the Scotch and English
exiles, forming a force of from  fifteenD to twenty thousand
imen, were enc.amped at La H'ogue, whlere a large flAeet was
assenbled to convey them  to England.  At th.e sarne time
James published a declaration, offering pardon and indennity to his subjects, (with, however, a long list of exceptions:,
and promising to protect the church.
The queen, on intelligence of these preparations, causec
M larlborough and other suspected persons to be arrested; a
camp was formned near'Portsmouth,  and Russell, who cornI         manded' the fleet, was ordered to put to seai.  As reports
j    were very prevalent of disaffection in the navy,'lord Nottingham, by the queen's directioin Wrote to the admiral to say
that she gave no credit  to them;'and a most loyal' C(ldress
from the officers was the result of the royal magrianimity.
Russell, when joined by the squadrons of ad/hiralh'sDelaval
and Carter, and by the ships,of Holl'and,d found himself at the
bhead of a fleet of' ninety-nine ships of the line.  Tlie count
de Tourville,' who commanded the French' fleet, had only
sixty-three' ships; bbut Louis had  sent him  positive orders
to fight, reckoning that t'he Dutch wotuld''noit'iave joined
so soon.  The engagenent commence'd off cape Barfleur,
|(May 19,) and lasted from ten o'clock till four, when a dnrise
fog came on.  About six it cleared off,'nd the Frencfh were
seen towing away their ships; the English gaive chase.  Carter, withl part of the blue squadron, came up Wifh them'; he
enraged them  for half an hour, till he'ree'ived a' mortal
wound; and the French got off with the loss of''ol'' ships
The chase was kept up the two following d:ays:.'On' theinlorn
L..._




WILLIAM  III. AND' MA:RY II.             409
mig of the 22d, part of the Frenoh fleet being seen near thle
Race of A.lderney, chase was acain giveh, aid Tourville's
Own ship,'t;h;8le'il " R;yal, ofi Ik 6Uhs, andItwO others,"wnere'
drive{-'a'shoi6  iiarl  ChebrI'urg,  wh6ere y thw:We re- burnt' by
Del;val';'a' taimade their escape thtough the: Race to St.
Malo; eighteen ran aground at: La Ho1gtie:;:ivice-admiral
Ro~oke ipmmed:i tately~ manned his' borat toaltacl themn, arid,
despite of the carnnion which thu'derd fromn all-'sides,    -the
brave British tars 8u6ei'led-d in burinng, thlirteiens ail of the
line and a nu mber of'ftari)p6rts,'Jaffi~es;, who'- from: his camp
beheld'ttis frustrrioiin of all his h6pes,'could rnot, it is' said.,
refr'ain  firom  excla'inmingr repeatedly, "' See' roy: brave English I"    He dismiiissed'his troops for' the presen:t to their
quai;ters, and. r'etuirnled hinmself to S't. Germain.:' The  rcorre,
spondence was sill kep;t up with Marlb6r6ugh ia'd' Russell,
who pro-fessed to b'e as zealotis aS ever' in his service'. 
The principal evenhts of the war in Flanders this'dampaign
were the takinrg of Nainur by the Frendh, (June.5) and the
b'attle of $teeniki'rk -(July 24) between king  William  and
marshal'Luxembutrg.  The latter, deceived by: one of lhis
spies, suffered himself to be surprised; but t'he ill condnct
of count'Solmns inii not supporting the van of the allies, and
the arrival (jf marshal Bdiifflers'With a large body of French
dragoons, caused the' beam finally to tu'rn'a'gains't- the al'lies.
XThey retired, with the loss of three'- thouannd slain (amng
whorm  were' generals M  iackay'and' Linier)- anld ni leq ial
nuizber wounded and' takeh.  The loiss of'the FrenCh was
not interior.'' 
Shortly afte', a plot to assassina'te king William'was discovered: tle' agents -i it w'ere, tle'Ji6cobite colonel Parker,
Grandval a I aptain of French'drao'6nils, and a M. Duimonti.
King James is s'aid to-have both kno  n'and approved'df it.
It was, howeverS, fortunaitely discovered,'and Gr'afidval, vwho
had been inveigled ihnto the q'u:arters of the allie's, was executed by seentence of a cour t-nartial 
Fortune' was every whrie'faiorable t tho e French' the following year, (169,3.)' hey  redude'd' the strong fo 6wns of
Huy (Julyv  3) anhd Charlevroy,' (Oct.i')  Iitfihe bttle of
Neer-Winden, or Landen, (July 09,) the honor of the day
remained  with; them, but their loss was, equal to that of the
allies.  The 1loss. of a part of the rich  Smiyrna fleet was,
however, more severeyv felt- in England:than th:at of the
battle' of Lan-de n. Lo'uis had'imad'e ini;'ed.ible effottsito renew
his navy, anld when sir George Ro0ok' was sesnte,to the Straitos
[,o convoy the great Smyrna fleet of England and her allies,
VOL. II.       35, 7,




410              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
consisting of 400 vessels, he fell in with a French fleet of
eighty ships of the line off Cape St. Vincent.  There was
nowv no escaping. Two Dutch men-of-war were taken, and
a Dutch and an English ship burnt; forty of the merchantmen were captured, and fifty sunk.  The total loss was estimated at a million sterling.
In the commencement of this year one of the Jacobite
agents, a priest named Cary, came over to James with eight
proposals from some of the English nobility, on his agreeing
to which they undertook to restore him.  James sent them
to Louis, and by his advice he assented to them; and a
declaration based on them having been drawn up by those
lords, James published it, (April 17.)  In this he promised
pardon and indemnity to all who would not oppose him;
engaged to protect and defend the church of England, and
secure to its members all their churches, colleges, rights,
immunities, etc.; pledged himse'f not to dispense with the
test, and to leave the dispensing power in other matters to be
regulated by parliament; to assent to bills for the frequent
meeting of parliament, and the freedom  of elections, etc.,
and to reestablish the Act of Settlement in Ireland.  James
owns that in this document he put a force on his nature,
which he excuses by the necessity of the case. He consulted
both English and French divines about the promise to protect and defend the church; the former thought he could
not in conscience do it, the latter (including Bossuet) that"
he could; but the king says that these last finally coincided
with the others in thinking that he could only promise to
maintain the protestants in their possessions, benefices, etc.
This declaration did no service whatever to the cause of
James.  Those who proposed it became doubtful of his sincerity when they saw him so readily agree to it; the leading
Jacobites * were offended at it, saying, that if he came in or.
these terms it would be the ruin of himself and his loyal
subjects; they therefore sent him word " that, if he cn.nsidered the preamble and the very terms of it, he was not
bound to stand by it, or to put it out verbatim  as it was
worded," with more to that purpose.  Marlborough wrote. * James (Life, ii. 514) names the nonjuring bishops of Norwicih
(Lloyd,) Bath, (Ken,) Ely, (Turner,) and Peterborough, (White,) the
marquess of Worcester, and earl of Clarendon. " A decisive proof,'
observes Hallam, "' how little that party cared for civil liberty, and how
little would. have satisfied hem at the revolution if James.lad put the
church out of danger."
[~~ ________________________________




WILLIAM III. AND MARY II.           411
pretty much to the same effect; arid indeed James owns tha
he did not consider himself bound by it.
The machinations of the court of St. Germain were con,
tinued through the bollowing year, (1694.) Russell, Marl.
borough, and Godolphin were as profuse as ever of their
professions of devotion, yet James observes that they performed nothing. He very properly judged that they regarded
only their own interest; and he even seems to have suspected that Russell was only deluding him. It is much to be
regretted that the name of lord Shrewsbury should be mixed
up in these traitorous intrigues. It is a curious fact, but one
for which there seems to be sufficient authority, that William
made use of his knowledge of Shrewsbury's communications
with the Jacobite agents to oblige him to accept the post of
secretary of state. Shrewsbury was a man of honor, and
William had no reason ever to regret his magnanimity.
On the 6th of May the king sailed for Holland.  He had
previously made several promotions in the peerage. The
earls of Shrewsbury, Bedford, and Devonshire were created
dukes of the same name; the marquess of Carmarthen duke
of Leeds, and the earl of Clare duke of Newcastle; the earl
of Mulgrave marquess of Normanby, and lord Sidney earl
of Romney.
No action of importance took place in this campaign.
The allies recovered Huy, and the advantage in general was
on their side. William returned to England in the begin
ning of November.
Early in the month of June a combined fleet of thirty sail
under lord Berkeley, with 6000 troops on board, corn
manded by general Tollemache, had sailed with the inten
tion of destroying the fleet anid harbor of Brest. The fleet,
however, had already sailed for the Mediterranean, and they
found all due prieparations made to receive them. Their attempts to silence the guns of the castle and forts having
proved unavailing, Tollemache made a desperate effort to
land his troops. In this attempt he received a mortal
wound, and seven hundred of his men we-e slain or taken;
it was then found necessary to abandon the enterprise. Tolletmache declared that " he felt no regret at losing his life in
the performance of his duty, but that it was a great grief
to him to have been betrayed:" and betrayed he certainly
was. On the 2d of May Marlborough had written to king
James an account of the strength and destination of the expedition, and Godolphin, one of William's ministers, is said
to have done the same; yet, ere the fleet sailed, Marlborough




412                li1STORY OF ENGL'ND.
thirough Shrewsbury, had offered his:services to Williaml
" with all the expresslons of'du'ty an'd fidelity'imagitable."
After'the' failure on Bitet Bi-Berk'eley bohmbarded andinearly
destr-oyied dDieppe carid Haire, and damaged' Calais atid' DiuI
kirlk.  fRussell meantime rbode triumphant in the Mediterranean; and'his'wintering'by the king's' expre'ss ic'o'nI'and,
against'his bowi will,'with  hi's fleet of sixty sail; at "adiz,
insureid the p'reponderance of Englaind both in that sea and
on the oceani..
Shortly after tIe: return of the king, the excellent arvchoish6p  of Cahtitrbury died, (Nov. 22.)  Sancroft, his' nonJlluriig predecessor,; had' paid the' debt of nature just a- year
before; hi5m.  Both  tvere' emnl)hatically go'od  men,'though
differing in opinion.  It' is gireatly to' Sancroftsi holnor: th-at
he never engaged in any of the irntrigties'against the'government; but, giving allegiance for proteetiori, he lived and di!ed
a        peacefulison subject.  Tenso   succeededed  Tillotsor  in
the urimacy.
Shortly after;the' death; of tl-ie primate; that of the queen
plunged the n'atiofi into affliction.  She was attacked by the
smiall-pox, (Dec. 211,) arid being irnproperly fIeated- by: Dr.:tatcliffe, she' Wivhs 6airried off in' abo'ut a wee-k, (28th;) in the
thirty-third year of her age.  She bore her illness with the
geatest piety and resignation, and'died in- the sincere: professioi:i of tie protestant faith.  1Her;ch'aracter.wras every'ay amiable,  and no one, could thaVe better sustained  the
difficult part she was called on to act in the drama of the
world, Wv'here the most sacred duties came into ecolli'sion.*
By her hisbaild shi  was loved with an intensity of whifch his
naturue was liaridly thought to be capable, and his grief at her
loss- was so great as to eause appre'hensions for his'lhealth.
The  obsequies of the queen  were celebrated  with, great
magnificence, (Mar. 5,) and her remains were d'eposited in
We stm inster-abbey.t;
*Hallam beau'tifully applies to her Virgil's' well-'known line,!  telix uteunque  ferent ea facta minores."..
i' t':A Jacobi'ie dliPne'had the bruta lity to preach at this titie on the
teit, "G6, now, see this' accursed womnian, and bury her, for she is a
kingg s dau'gliter".                -',....




WJI4LIAMI III.                    413.
CHAPTER, II.
WILLIAM  T1-I.
1695-,1701.
TH.E princ ss Anne, a weak woman, entirely guiied by lo.rd
arud lady; M:,rlborough  hliadh:b een:.for sonie, time on ill terms
with the king and queen.'~ When  the.latter was, on  her
death-bed,,the princess sent.exprqssing her desir'e, to see her.;
but:the physicians objectedj and the queen sent her her forgiveness.'  Lord, -Sunde.landa,who.was. now  in favor with
William,,  seized  -the ocoasion Of, his grief to. ffeect a reconciliatio'n- between:: him,'anid the princess   A'nine. therefQre
wrote to:him;. she -was. thenl receivied at, court,.and the kliig
gave- her -St: Jawes';s for hepr: reidence, and, presented her
with, the -greater pairt of the1,late queen's jewels.,'The-mosti imp.ortant bill-, passelthis sesi.o. n w.s that for,
triennial parliaments, by!.which. i.t was. enaqte4 that every
parliarient should.de'termine within three years, from' the
time- of:its' nmeeting,. - Th  king hhad twice refused. hig assent
to a similar- bill, rut, he'now, thQughti it; expedieon.t' yelid.
C-h'arges bf!-bribery -an1t- eolrrupltiron were'  maede,a'gqinstv~arious persons.; Sirl John. Tr.evqr, the! speaker.. f f the; house
of; coninons;.was -,expelled:for having received' a bribe of
100 guineas: fron the- city of London.  It- having appeared
that. thee East India. Company had etmployed an unprecedeleted
sum in secret-'service,- money during the,.last year, their  governor- was calledon to account for itj and it proved to have
been- spent, for the: punpose of:procuring. the, rene w.al of their
charter;- ifnI'brib.s.to: infl uential persons.  o.'n't4e information
which -was;elicited, the: commons impeathed - the duke. of
leeds-;:but an- imptortant -witness bhavingl gone. put. of the
way,- and a prorogation haitlg.taken place,, the m-atter ifell
to the ground.-  The stigma; of,course -adhered to the' duike's
character,~ andi his name does:; not appear in the- regelncy
whlich fthe; king -appointed whep departing.,for the, continent.
"The great event of- the campaign of ~9,51was the taking
of N4amur;by king, William  in person, (Aug. 29',) after a
si;'ge'gof seven weeks, in face of a French -army of one hund ed;- thousand;- men. - The intelligence; diffqUte. joy;all, over
Elngland,:and the king was, received, on. -.his ireturn (ct.,.)
as' aglorxoios 6onqlrleor...
35 *




414              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
William's first act was to dissolve the parliament and sum
mon a new one to meet on the 122d of November.  lie then
visited Newmarket, and made a progress through the midland counties in order to increase his popularity.  In the
new parliament the whig interest preponderated.  A bill for
regulating trials for treason, which had failed before, was
now brought in by the tories, and it was passed unanimously.
It enacted that the accused should have a copy of the indictment and of the panel of the jury, and the aid of counsel; that every overt act should be proved by two witnesses;
that the prisoner should be enabled to compel his witnesses
to appear, and be allowed to challenge peremptorily thirtyfive of the jury, etc.  As the silver coinage was in such a
wretched state that a golden guinea was worth thirty shillings,
a new coinage was resolved on, and was carried into effect
by the chancellor of the exchequer, aided by sir Isaac Newton, the master of the mint. A third measure caused much
annoyance to the king. His Dutch favorite, Bentinck earl
of Portland, who was somewhat rapacious, had begged and
obtained three royal lordships in Denbighshire. The gentry
of the county petitioned against the grant; the commons
addressed the king to recall it, and William complied with
heir wishes; but he forthwith conferred on the favorite
manors and honors in no less than five several counties.
The discovery of a nefarious plot against the life of the
king soon drew the whole attention of' parliament and the
nation. One captain Fisher called on lord Portland (Feb.
11, 1696,) and informed him of a plot for seizing the king
and invading the kingdom; he afterwards (13th) gave the
particulars of the conspiracy to sir William Turnbull the
secretary. T.he attempt on the king: who was in the habit
of going on Saturdays to hunt in Richmond-park, was to
be made in the lane leading fiom Brentford to Turnhamgreen.  He was therefore urged not to hunt o'l that day;
but he laughed at the idea of the plot, and declared his resoiution of taking his sport as usual. On Friday evening,
however, (14th,) an officer named Prendergast came to lord
Portland, and advised him to persuade the king to stay at
home the next day, or else he would be assassinated. He
gave the same details as Fisher had done; but both refused
to name any of the parties.  He said he was an Irishman
and a catholic, but that though his religion was accused of.
sanctioning such deeds, the thought of it had filled him with
horror. Portland went to the king that very night; and
William, now thinking there was something in the matter,




WILLIAM  III.                415
put off his hunting for that week. Next day a third witness,
named De la Rue, gave exactly similar information, and he
and Prendergast, being examined personally by the king,
were prevailed on to name the conspirators. These had
deferred their project to the following Saturday, (22d,)
when, finding that the king did not go to Richmond, they
suspected that the plot was discovered, an! thought of providing fot their safety. That night, however, several of them
were arrested in their beds, and next day a proclamation was
issued offering a reward of 10001. for each of the persons
who had escaped.
On Monday (24th) the king went in person and informed
both houses of the discovery of the plot. They made in return a most loyal and affectionate address, empowered him
to suspend the Habeas Corpus act, and drew up a form of
association, binding themselves to the support of his person
and government against the late king James and his adherents, and to revenge his death on his enemies, and to maintain the Act of Settlement. All the members of both houses
signed this bond.  As some of the tories scrupled at the
words rightful and lawful king, a slight change was made
to content them.
The plot seems to have been as follows. King James had
sent sir George Barclay, a Scottish catholic officer of his
guards, over to England with a commission authorizing and
commlanding  all his loving subjects to rise in arms and make
war on the prince of Orange and his adherents. About twoand-twenty officers and men of James's guards came over
to aid in the project, which was communicated to several of
the king's friends in England. Various places were proposed
for making the attempt, and the above-mentioned lane was
finally fixed on. Meantime a French fleet and army were
to be assembled at Dunkirk and Calais, of which James
himself was to take the command. The principal persons
charged with this conspiracy were the earl of Aylesbury,
lord Montgomery, sirs George Barclay, John Fenwick, John
Freind and William Perkins, major Lowick, captains Charnock, Knightley, and Porter, with messieurs Rookwood,
Cooke, Goodman, Cranbourne, and others. Of these, Porter, Goodman, and some others were admitted as witnesses;
and on their evidence, with that of Fisher, Prendergast, and
De la Rue, Freind, Perkins, Charnock, Lowick, King,
Cranbourne, and Rookwood. were found guilty and executed. Cooke and Knightley were also found guilty; but
She former was banished, the latter pardoned.




:416              HISTORY:OF ENGLAND.
At, the execution of. Freind and, Perkins, the celebra ed
Jererny Collier and two- other nonjuring d.ivines gave, themn
absolution in sight of the people with;a solemn.imposition
of, hands.  For this they: were indicted, but not punished
The two! archbishops.and twelve. of the bishops (all that
were in town) published a declaration, strongly censuring
their conduct,, as the dying persons,had made no confession
ans  expressed no abhorrence of the crime for which they
suffered... at
King James, who had come,i Calais, after remaining
there some weeks, returned disconsolate to St. Germain
He utterly denied all knowledge of'the assassination plot;
but.there seems to be sufficient evidence of his having sance
tioned this and other attempts on the life of king William.
Sir John: Fenwick. was arrested at New'Romnney, on his
way: to France,, (June:1.)  He instantly wrote a letter in
pencil to his lady, saying that nothing could save him  but
the endeavors: of her.nephew lord Carlisle and others with
the king and his friends, or the bribing some.of.-the jury to
starve. out the rest.  This letter was intercepted, and onl
Fenwick's assertion of: his innocence before the lords justices it was produced to his utter dismay..When he heard
that the grand jury had found the bill against him, he prayed
for a delay, offering to tell all'he knew, provided he got a
pardon'and.was not. required to appear as a witness.  The
king, when this proposal was transmitted to him in Flanders,
refused to accede to it.  Fenwick then threw himself on his
mercy, and wrote him an account of the plots of the Jacobites,
in which he mientioned the secret dealings of lords: Marlborough, Shrewsbury, Godolphiiin,  Bath, and admiral Russell
with the court of St. Germain; but the duke of Devonshire
told him, "that the king was. acquainted with most of those
thiutg-s before.". An order,therefore was issued to bring himn
to trial unless he imade fuller discoveries. z Penwick then
took to tampering with the witnesses Porter and Goodman;
the forner. betrayed the intrigue to government, but the latter
wais induced to go to, France.'  As he could not now be convicted by law, his enemies. took another course.  Adnliral
Russell, with the king's permission, (Nov.. 6). laid before the
house the inforimations of Fenwick against himself and others,
and desired that they might be read in order to. give him an
opportunity of justifying himself.  Fen.wick'wa~s brought to
the bar:. and examined; but as. he had had. his information.
only at second-hanhd, he could- not prove his assertions, and lie:
thought it the wiser course not to repeat them, HIHis papers




WILLIAM  III.                    417
hietefore were voted to be false and scandalous, and it was
resolved to bring in a bill to  attaint him.  The bill was
founded on Porter's evidence, supported by the production
of' Goodman's examination before the privy council, and by
thle evidence of t3wo of the grand jury as to what he had
sworn before them; proof was also given of his having been
tam'npered with by lady Mary Fenwick.  Tihe bill was vigorously opposed in all its stages; but it filally passed the
coilmmons by a majority of 33.  In the lords the divisions
xvere still closer, the majority being only seven.  In  the
minority voted the dules of Leeds and Devonshire and lords
Pembroke, Sunderland, Bath, and Godolphin; the duke of
Shrewsbury was absent; Marlborough voted in the majority,
revenge proving stronger than his toryism.  A vigorous protest signed by forty-one peers, includino eight prelates, was
entered, in which it was justly said, thet Feinwick was " so
inconsiderable a man as to the endangering  the peace of the
goverrnment,   that there needs no necessity of proceeding
against him  in this extraordinary  manner."  One of the
most strenuous suplporters of the bill, we are sorry to say,
was bishop Burnet.  Fenwick was beheaded on Tower-hill,
(Jan. 28, 1697.)
In the course of the proceedings against Fenwick, a circu.'nstance came to light which covered lord Monlimouth with
diskgrace.  Findirin  himself not named in Fenwick's discoveries, he wrote a paper of instructions for him to found his defence on, so as to implicate Godolphin and the others; and
on Fenwick's not doing so; he came and spoke for two hours
in fiavor of the attainder.  Fenwick then on a re/xamination
told the whole story, and Monmouth was committed to the
Tower alnd deprived of his employmernts.  The king, however, did not wish to drive him to extremity; he sent bishop
3Burnet to soften him, and made up his losses secretly.";efore the kIinc  left England this year he raised to the
J  era'ie  the celebrated John Somers, who had been for some
time lord keeper, and made him  chancellor.  Admniral Rus-,-ell was created earl of Orfbrd, and lord Sunderland was noa
an'a1 e lord chamberlain.
The war had languished of late, and in the course of this
ear,' it was terminated by the Peace of Ryswvick, (Sept. 0O.).  Monmouth was afterwards the celebrated earl7 of Peterborough.
Spegaker Onslow says of him on this occasion, "I wonder any man of
Ilonor could keep him company after such an attempt. He was of' the
worst principles of any man of that, or perhaps of any age; yet from
uomne glittering in his character he hath some admirers."
A AA




418              HISTORY OP ENGLAND.
Louis g   uve up all his late conquests except Strasburg, and he
acknow edged William as king of England. James published
manifestos in assertion of his rights; but they were unheeded.
It appears that Louis had proposed to William  to have the
crown settled on the prince of Wales after his death, and
that the latter, who had no affection for the princess Anne,
seemed inclined to consent.  But the princess had a sure
ally in the bigotry of her father and his queen.  Thie idea of
their son being reared a protestant, as in such case he must
be, filled them both with horror, and they rejected the proposal without hesitation.
The peace was on the whole an honorable one, considering that all the advantages of the war had been on the
side of France; it was also absolutely necessary from the
exhausted state of the English finances.  But William  knew
that it was likely to be little more than a truce, and in his
speech to the parliament (Dec. 2) he gave it as his opinion,
" that for the present England cannot be safe without a land'brce."  The necessity, however, of reduction and economy
was strongly felt, the war having caused a debt of seventeen
millions, and a dread of standing armies as the instruments of
despotism pervaded the minds of most people, not considering
that in the mutiny-bill and the necessity of annual votes of
supply, they had abundant security against those dangers.
It was therefore voted that all the troops raised since 16Sf)
should be disbanded, and it was finally resolved (18th) that
ten thousand men should be the force for the ensuing year.
To gild the pill for the monarch, and prove that they were
not wanting in gratitude and affection to him, they voted
(2bth) that a sum of 700,09001. should be granted him for li'fe
for the support of the civil list.  The king, however, neglected the former vote, and when he was next going to Holland,
he left sealed orders with the regency to keep up a force of
sixteen thousand men.
During the king's absence a new parliament was elected.
The members were mostly men of Revolution principles,
attached to the government, but not very courteous to the
king.  When, on his return from the continent, the parliament met, in the speech from the throne (Dec. 9) he hinted
his opinion of the necessity of a large land force.  But the
commons, irritated at his neglect of the vote of their predecessors on this point, forthwith resolved that it should not
exceed seven thousand men, and these to be his majesty's
natural-born subjects.  As this last clause went to deprive
the king of his Du:h guards, to which he was so much at.




WILLIAM  II.                  419
tached, and of the brave regiments of French protestants,
the insult, coupled with ingratitude, (as he deemed it,) sank
deep into his mind.  He seriously resolved to abandon the
government and retire to Holland, and he had actually written the speech which he intended to make on that occasion,
when he was diverted fronm his purpose.  Ile therefore gave
his assent to the bill, (Feb. 1, 1699.) Ere, however, he dismissed his guards, he made a final appeal to the good feelings
of the commons.  He sent them (Mar. IS) a message in his
own hand-writing, to say that all the necessary preparations
were now made, and that he would send them away immediately, "unless, out of consideration to him, the house be
disposed to find a way for continuing them longer in his setr
vice, which his majesty would take very kindly."  But the
comnmons were inexorable, and the guards departed.  We
feel it impossible to approve of this conduct of the commons;
though it was termed national feeling, it showed more of
party spirit.  They should have recollected, that had it not
been for these troops, who won the battle of the Boyne, they
would probably have had no power over them  or any other
troops.
In the following session the commons proceeded a step
further in making the king feel their power.  The lands of
those who had fought on the side of James in Ireland were
forfeited, and, iln a legal sense, were at the disposal of the
crown; yet still in all equity they should be applied to the
public service.  But William, who was of a generous temper,
and who never could divest himself of the idea that as king
he was entitled to all the prerogative exercised by his predecessors, had granted them  away to the extent of a million
of acres, chiefly to his mistress, Mrs. Villiers, now countess
of Orkney, (for in this respect William, though possessing so
excellent a wife, had thought fit to imitate his uncles rather
than his grandfather,) to the insatiable Portland, to Ginckel
earl of Athlone, to Sidney lord Romney, and to another
Dutch favorite, Keppel, who had been page, then private secretary to the king, and who now had eclipsed Portland in hit
favor, and had been created earl of Albemarle.  Still he had
only exercised a lawfiul prerogative, and the commons were
not justified in the act of resumption which they passed, and
still less in tacking its provisions to a money-bill to prevent
the lords from altering them.
The king was tolerant in his own temper, and he was
pledged to the emperor and his catholic allies to indulge his
catholic subjects.  But the commons now, on the resort of




420               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
priests to England and their usual imprudence, brought in a
terrific bill to check the growth of popery.  By this act any
one informing against a priest exercising his functions was
to receive 1001. reward, and the priest to be imprisoned for
life; every person professing the popish religion must, after
attaininlg the age of eighteen, take the oaths of allegiance
and supremacy, and subscribe the declaration against transubstantiation and the worship of saints, or become incapable
of inheriting or purchasing lands, and during his life his next
of kin being a protestant was to enjoy them.  The lords
and the king gave no opposition to the will of the commons;
but the spirit of liberty and equity rendered the barbarous
enactment of none effect, and no properties were lost by it.
The earl of Sunderland, foreseeing the coming storm, had
already resigned his office of chamberlain, much against the
wishes of the king.  Lord Orford, fearing the commons, followed his example; the duke of Leeds was dismissed from
his post of president of the council.  The tories had persuaded the favorites Albemarle, and Villiers lord Jersey, that
it would be for the king's advantage to employ them  instead
of the whigs. The king himself seems to have thought that
course necessary, and in compliance with the wishes of the
tories, he consented to take the great seal from lord Somers,
the leader of the whig party.  William wished him to resign
it of his own accord, but this Somers declined doing, as it
might appear to be the result of fear or guilt.  The earl of
Jersey was then sent (Apr. 7) to demand it; he delivered it
up, and it was committed to sir Nathan Wright.  The duke
of' Shrewsbury immediately resigned.
When the king returned from the continent this year, he
modeled the ministry to the content of the tories.  Godolphin was set again over the treasury, lord Grey of Werk, now
e;arl of Tankerville, was made privy seal, and Rochester
lord lieutenant of Ireland; and to diminish the power of the
wlhis in the commons, their leader in that house, Charles
Montaole,  was raised to the peerage under the title of baron
of' Ialifx.  The ministers havingo advised a dissolution, a;ew-lV parliament was summoned, and when it met, (Feb. 10,
470!,) iMr. Robert Harley, a man who, though of a presbyterian family and connections, had constantly acted with the
tories, was chosen speaker.
The two great measures which were to occupy the attention of the parliament were the succession and the partition
treaty.
Of all the children which the princess Anne had borne,




WILLIAM  III.                 42g
only one had survived.  This was William duke of Glouces.
ter, born in 1689.  When this young prince had attained
his ninth year, the king assigned him  a peculiar establishment, and appointed the earl of Marlborough to be his governor, and bishop Burnet his preceptor.  But the prince,
having over-exerted himself on his birth-day, (July 24, 1700,)
took a fever, of which he died.  The next heir to the crown
was the duchess of Savoy, daughter of Henrietta, youngest
child of Charles I., but her religion excluding her, the
nearest protestant to the throne was Sophia, dowager-ele,
tress of Hanover, daughter of the queen of Bohemia, the
sister of that monarch.  In the speech from the throne, the
subject was pressed on the attention of parliament, and no
time was lost in preparing a bill for tile purpose.
T'he' Act of Settlement' now passed, limiting the succession of the crown to the princess Sophia, and the heirs of
her body being protestants.  It further provided, that no
foreigner should hold any place of trust, civil or military,
or take any grant fromn the crown; that the nation should
not be obliged to engage in war for the defence of any
dominions not belonging to the crown of England; that the
sovereign should join in communion with the church of
England, and not go out of the country without the consent
of parliament; that no pardon should be pleadable to an
impeachment; that no person holding an office or pension
under the crown should be capable of sitting in the house
of commons; that judges' commissions should be made
quamdiu se bene gesserint, and their salaries be ascertained;
that all business properly belonging to the privy council
should be transacted there, all the resolutions be signed by
the councillors present, etc.
The regard for liberty shown in this important bill certainly does honor to the tories.  Some of the articles
seemed, no doubt, to reflect on the king, but recent experience had shown their necessity, and future experience
proved their utility.  There was, however, one fatal omission in the bill; the foreign prince coming to the throne
should have been required to surrender his former domin-~
ions.
The affair of the treaty of partition was much more i,,
tricate.  Charles II. of Spain was childless; the emperor,
the elector of Bavaria, and the king of France had all married daughters of Spain.  Louis's queen, it is true, had at
her marriage solemnly renounced her right of succession,
but the ambition of Louis, it was well known, would not be
VOL. II.     36




422              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
held in by so slender a cord; and if he could add the Span.
ish dominions to his own, his power, it was feared, would
be irresistible.  In 1698, William, having seen, from  the
temper of parliament, how little chance there was of prevailing on the English nation to engage in a war, resolved,
if' he could not avert the evil entirely, to diminish it as much
as possible.  Louis, too, was, or pretended to be, satisfied to
be secured in a part rather than have to fight for the whole.
Accordingly, when William returned to Holland that year,
1i:      a secret treaty was concluded between the kings of England
and France, and the states of Holland, for partitioning the
Spanish dominions, by which the dauphin was to have
/i lNaples and all the other Italian dominions of the crown of
Spain, except the duchy of Milan, which was to go to the
emperor's second son, Charles.  The dauphin was also to
have the province of Guipuscoa, in the north of Spain; but
the crown of Spain, with all its other dominions, was to go
i;. to the electoral prince of Bavaria. The death of this young
prince having frustrated this arrangement, a new  one was!?1      concluded, (Mar. 15, 1700.)  By this the archduke Charles
1         was to ha-e Spain, the Indies, and the Netherlands, while
the dauphin should have Guipuscoa and all the Italian
X!    1&dominions, but Milan wa, to be exchanged for Lorraine.
The object proposed by William and the States was, to pre-! j       serve the balance of power as much as possible; but it was
certainly a bold step thus to parcel out the Spanish monarchy without the consent of the crown or people of Spain.
Accordingly, the pride of the Spanish nation was roused,
and through the arts of the French ambassador arid his
i e       party, the king, when on his death-bed, (Nov. 1,) -was
induced to make a will leaving all his dominions to Philip,
the second son of the dauphin.  Louis, after an affected!+es 8hesitation, allowed his grandson to accept the splendid bequest.  He then used all his arts to obtain the acquiescence
of. the king of England and the States, but finding them
unavailing, he had recourse to stronger measures.  By what
i  was called the Barrier treaty, Namur, Antwerp, and some
other places in the Netherlands were garrisoned by Dutch
troops; and by a secret and rapid march, the French in one!         night surprised  and captured all these garrisons, which
amounted to 12,000 ient.  The States, to free their soldiers,
and urged by the clamor of a large faction at home, and the
terror of the French arnms now at their doors, acknowledged
Philip, and king William found it necessary to follow  their
example, (Apr. 17, 1701.)
___i_____                             __   _____________________
______________1_____                       _____   ____________________________________




WILLIAM  III.                 423
It is asserted that Louis scattered his gold,vith nc sparing
hand among the members of the English parliament, in
order to avert the danger of a war. Be this as it may, his
game was played effectually in that assembly.  The peers
(Mar, 21) presented an address condemnatory of " that fatal treaty" of partition, and the commons, after a furious
debate, in which Mr. Howe termed it a "felonious treaty,"
imade a still stronger address, and then proceeded to impeach
the earls of Portland and Oxford, and the lords Somers and
Ialifax, for their share in it.  Disputes, however, arising
between the two houses, the commons refused to go onl with
the imnpeachments, under the pretext that they could not
expect justice, and the lords them  acquitted the accused
peers.
The war-spirit, however', was on the increase in the country, and the king on his return to the continent was party (Sept. 7) to a second Grand Alliance with the emperor
and the States for procuring the Netherlands and the Italian dominions of the crown of Spain for the emperor, and
for preventing the union of France and Spain under one
government.  Just at this time, an event occurred which
roused the indignation of the whole English nation against
Louis.  King James died, (16th,) and Louis, who hlad
promised the dying monarch to recognize his son as king
of England, performed that promise under the influence of
Madame de Maintenon, in opposition to his wisest ministers.
William  immediately ordered his ambassador to quit the
court of France without taking leave, and the French secretary of legation to departfrom  England. The city of
London made an address, expressive of their indignation at
the conduct of the court of France, and their resolution to
stand by the king in the defence of his person and just
rights; and similar addresses soon poured in from all parts
of the kingdom.
The current had evidently set in against the timid antinational policy of the tories, and the sagacious Sunderland,
when consulted by the king, strongly advised him to discard
his tory ministers and bring. in the whigs. William  wrote
to lord Somers, their acknowledged leader, for his advice,
and that statesman urged him to dissolve the parliament, and
to rely on the p-esent temper of the nation.  Accordingly,
the king, soon after his return, acted in conformity with that
counsel.
When the new  parliament met, (Dec. 30,) the tories




424              HISTORY OF' ENGLAND.
proved stronger in it than had been anticipated, but man)
of them were of that moderate party which was headed by
Harley, whose election to the office of speaker was carried
by a majority of either four or fourteen.  The speech from
the throne, the composition of Somers, was a most able
piece, showing the danger of England and of Europe, and
calling on the parliament to act with vigor and unanimity.
The two houses responded to the royal call; they voted
90,000 men for the land and' sea service; a bill was passed
for attainting the pretended prince of Wales, and another
obliging all persons employed in church and state to abjure
him, and swear to William  as rightful and Iawftl king, and
his heirs, according to the Act of Settlement, (1702.)
The nation had not been so united or the king so popular
at any time since the Revolution; but William was not fated
to enjoy the happy results.  He felt his constitution to be
so greatly broken, that he had told lord Portland this winter,
in confidence, that he could not expect to live another summer.  Toward the end of February, (21st,) as he was riding
through Bushy-park, on his way to Hampton-court, he put
his horse to the gallop on the level sod; but the animal
stumbled and fell, and the king's collar-bone was broken.
It was set immediately, and he was brought back to Kensington.  For some'days he seemed in no danger whatever;
but one day, (Mar. 3,) after walking for some time in the
gallery, he sat down on a couch and fell asleep.  He awoke
with a shivering fit.  A fever ensued; he grew worse daily;
on Sunday (7th) he received the sacrament from archbishop
Tennison, and at eight o'clock  next morning (Sth) he
breathed his last, in the fifty-second year of his age.  A
black ribbon with a ring, containing some of his late queen's
hair, was found tied round his left arm - a proof of his sincere affection for that estimable woman.
William was slei'der in person and delicate in constitution.  His countenance was grave and manly, his nose
aquiline, his eye bright, his forehead large.  He had a
strong sense of religion, and was generally correct in his
conduct.  His manner was dry and unpleasant, and those
who had been used to the affability of Charles found his
court intolerable;  and his retiring to Holland every summer,
and usual residence at Hampton-court for the sake of privacy and hunting, tended very much to alienate the minds
of the public.  He was an able. though not successful
general; the great object of his life was the abasement of
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _~ ~ ~~~~~__-1.1 — _ _ _  _ __ —-------   - 9 —---------




ANNE.                      425
the power of France; it was only with a view to this that
he sought the throne of England; and he is the last mnonarch of superior talents who has occupied that throne.  In
fine, he was the greatest prince of his age.
CHAPTER  III.
ANNE.
1702 1714.
THE new queen was in the thirty-eighth year of her age.
She had always been remarkably firm in her attachment to
the protestant religion, and her inclination was strong to
the tory party.  This, however, was much controlled by the
great influence:exercised over her mind  by lady Marlborough, who was a whig,* which led to a hope that the
high-tory party would not be dominant during her reign.
When waited on by the. privy council the day of Williamr's
death, she spoke with great respect of that monarch, and
announced her intention of treading in his steps.  She renewed this declaration in her speech to the parliament, and
her resolution was communticated without loss of tine to
the States-general, who had been overwhelmed with affliction at the news of the king's demise.
King William, with that noble spirit of patriotism  which
distinguished him, though aware of the treachery of Marlborough to himself, had destined him  to the commaild of
the: English troops in the approaching war, for of his mili.
tary and diplomatic talents he had the highest opinion.  For
this reason he' had confided to him the task of negotiating
the Grand Alliance, and Marlborough's conduct of it had
fuilly justified: his anticipations. The queen now declared
him captain-general of all the forces of Great Britain, and
appoinlted him her ambassador at the Hague, whither lihe
repaired without delay (2Sth) to assure the States of' the
intentions of his royal mistress, and to arrange the plan of
the ensuing campaign.
* In her familiar intercourse: with lord and lady Marlborough, the
queen called' herself.and was called by them, Mrs. Morley, and ithey
were Mr. and Mrs. Freeman
36 i                        B B B




426              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The commons settled on the queen for life the -cvenae
of 700,0001. a year enjoyed by the late king, 100,0001. of
which she assured them  she world annually devote to the
national service.' The oath of abjuration was taken by all
persons without any, difficulty.
Ill forming her ministry queen Anne gave the preference
to the tories.  Godolphin was made treasurer, Nottingham
and sir Charles Hedges secretaries, Normanby privy seal,
and sir Nathan Wright chancellor; while of the whigs the
duke of Somerset was president of the council, and the
duke of Devonshire lord steward.  Anne made her husbard,
prince George, generalissimo of all her forces by sea and
land and lord high admiral. Seyrnour, Howe, Harcourt,
and other tories also got employments.
On the very same day, (May 15,) as had been previously
arranged, war was declared against France  at London,
Vienna, and the Hague.  In the beginning of July Marlborough took the command of the allied army in Flanders
He forthwith crossed the Meuse and advanced to Hamont.
The caution of the Dutch field-deputies restraining him from
action, no battle was fought in Flanders this campaign; but
by the capture of Venloo and other places on the Meuse, and
finally of Liege, the navigation of that river was completely
opened. With this last acquisition the campaign closed.
It had been the plan of king William  to send an expedition against Cadiz.  The queen's ministry, in pursuance
of that design,'fitted out a fleet of thirty ships of the line,
which,- joined with twenty Dutch men-of-war, with frigates
and transports, and carrying a body of 14,000 men, was
destined for that service.  The supreme command was given
to the duke of Ormond; sir George Rooke commanded the
fleet under him.  On the 23d of August the,expedition
arrived off Cadiz; but, instead of landing. at once, three
days were spent in debates and discussions about the place
of landing and other matters which should have been arranged long before.  By this delay time was given to Villadarias, the captain-general of Andalusia, to store the city
with provisions and to place a boom across the mouth of the
harbor.  The English commanders resolved to reduce the
forts on the main land, instead of debarking in the isle of
Leon; they therefore landed in the Bay of Bulls, and
advanced to Rota, which was given up by the governor;
they thence moved to Port St. Mary's. a wealthy town; they
found it deserted, and they fell at once to the work of
plunder and destruction, not even sparing the churches
I.- -  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _   _________   _______________   _____________   ________________________   ________




ANNE.                     427
By this conduct they completely alienated the minds of the
Andalusians from themselves and their cause; and seeing
but slender hopes of any final success, they resolIved to
abandon the enterprise. They departed, (Sept. 30,) as Stanhope, one of those in commnand, expressed it, " with a great
deal of plunder and of infamy."  The naval and military commanders charged each other with the blame of the failure.
Fortune, however, seemed resolved to save them from the
popular indignation at home. They learned on the coast
of Portugal that the great Cadiz plate-fleet had put into
Vigo-bay, in Gallicia, and they resolved to attempt its capture. On reaching that bay (Oct. 22) they found the entrance defended by a boom and two ruinous old towers;
while the convoying ships of war, of which ten were French,
lay moored along the shore, and the peasantry were all in
arms.  Ormond landed with 2000 men, and reduced the
towers; the English ships broke the boomn; but while the
ships-of-war gave theni occupation, the galleons ran farther
up the gulf to try to save their cargoes; the English, however, soon overtook thrm. The crews then began to fling
the cargoes into the sea, and to burn the galleons, but six
of them and seven ships-of-war were captured. The total
loss of the Spaniards exceeded eight millions of dollars, of
which the captors did not get more than one half.
Admiral Benbow, a brave and able seaman, but rude ana
rough in his manners, was at this time in the West Indies
with a squadron of ten ships. He fell in (Aug. 19) with a
French squadron of equal force, under M. de Casse. A
running fight was maintained for several days; but Benbow
found that the greater part of his captains neglected his
orders, and would not come into action. His right leg
being broken by a chain-shot, (24th,) and his captains still
continuing refiractory, he gave up the chase and bore for
Jamaica, where he ordered a court-martial to be held on six
of them; and two, Kirby and Wade, were sentenced to be
shot, which sentence was executed at Plymouth, when they
were sent home.  Benbow died of his wounds at Kingston.
During the summer the parliament was dissolved, and a
new one summoned.  When it met (Oct. 20) it proved tory
and high-church.  In its address to the queen it reflected on
the memory of the late king, saying, for example, that Marlborough had retrieved the ancient glory and honor of the
English nation.  It was proposed to substitute the word
maintained for that invidious term, but the proposal was
rejected by a large majority  They also talked of the church




428                HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
being restored to its due rights and privileges.  ha; the dissenters. all belong-ed to the whifg party, the commons now
opened a battery on them, which long continued in operation.
This was the bill for preventing occasionl.l co-formity; for
many of the dissenters, viewing thie different sects of pL otestants
as merely different forms of the common Chri-tianity, made no
scruple to conform to the church of England, by taking the
test and receiving the sacrament in it, as a qualification for
office, but still adhered to their own. sect.'Tlhe pride of the
church party had also been wounded by the imprudent vanity
and insolence cf sir Humphrey Edwin the lord mayor of
London, in 1697, who went to the meeting-house of Pinners'hall with all the insignia of his civic dignity.  The bill now
brought in enacted penalties against persons in office who should
frequent dissenters' meeting-houses.  It passed the commons
by a large majority, but the lords made sundry amendments in
it, which the commons would not admit, and it thus was lost
for this session.
At the desire of the queenl, an annual income of 100,0001. was
voted to her consort in case of his surviving hler. The earl of
Marlborough having been created a duke for his services in the
late campaign:, the queen informed the house of commons that
she had granted him 50001. a year out of the post-office revenue
for his life, and that she wishel an act to be passed for continuing it to his heirs; but the commons were indignant at the
proposal, aiserting, with truth, that hle had been abundantly
remunerated for his services; and the duke prudently requested
the queen to recall her message.
We will now briefly narrate in continuity the events of the
War of the Succession, by land and se:t, in which the troops and
fleets of the queen of England were engaged.  Our narrative
shall extend over a space of eight years.
The campaign of 1703 was opened b':v the captulre of the city
of Bonn, in the electorate of Colotgne; the toiwns of tiuy, Limburg, and Guelder were also reduced; but the energy of NtMarlborough was so cramped by ihe cantion and dilatoriness of the
Dutch, that he could venture on no action of impooitane e  in
this: year the king of Portugal and the duke of Savoy joined
thfe confederacy, and the archduke Charles assumed the title of
kingof' Spain. He- came to England in the close of the year,
and, having partaken of the Christmas festivities of the court,
was conlleyed: by sir George Rooke with a powerful squadron,
to Lisbon.
The; year 1704 open-ed with gloomy prospects for the. con



ANNE.                      429
federates.  The emperor, pressed by the Hungarians, who
were in rebellion, onone side, and by the Bavarians and
French on the other, and totally unprovided with troops,
was expecting every day to be besieged in his capital. Marlborough, who saw that,, if the emperor was forced to yield,
the confederation was at an end, resolved to make a bold effort to relieve him. He secretly arranged his plans with
prince Eugene of Savoy, the imperial general, and then, pretending to his own government and the States that his object
merely was to act on the Moselle, he induced the latter to be
content with the protection of their own troops, and allow
him to open the campaign where he proposed.  It is not in
our power here to display the masterly arrangements and proceedings of this consummate warrior.  Being joined by an
imperial army under the prince of Baden, he forced the lines
of the Bavarians at Schellenburg, on the Danube, (July 2,)
with great slaughter; and, having occupied the town of Donawerth, he transported his army over the river. The elector
retired under the walls of Augsburg; and the country was
wasted far and wide.  Being joined, however, by a French
army from the Rhine, under marshal Tallard, the elector recrossed the Danube, in order to attack prince Eugene, who
had arrived with 18,000 men at Donawerth. Marlborough,
therefore, joined the prince without delay. The allies were
advancing up the river to take a position at Hochstadt.
when they discovered that the enemy was making out a
camp between Lutzingen and Blenheim.  The allied generals resolved to attack them  at once; and next morning
(Aug. 13) at two o'clock they put their troops in motion,
At seven the enemy, who was not aware of their approach,
descried the heads of their columns, and began to prepare to
engage them.  The Gallo-Bavarian army amounted to about
5(,~000 men; that of the allies to about 52,000.
At one o'clock the battle began, with an attack on Blenheim by the English under lord Cutts, and a simulltaneous
attack on the enemy's left by the troops under the prince of
Anhalt.  The contest was desperate, especially on lhe right;
out ere night the allies had won a most splendid victory.
Trhei,.-s3 of the French, in killed, drowned, taken, and deserters, was 40,000 men; among the prisoners was marshal
Tallard and 12200 of his officers. The allies had 45(!0 killed
and 7500 wounded. The victory would have been still more
complete but for the misconduct of the imperial troops, which
enabled the elector to retire in good order, and with little
Ioss,




430             HISTORIY OF ENGLAND.
Ulm and several other places were reduced; the allied
army recrossed the Rhine; and the campaign was termi
nated  with the sieges of Landau, Treves, and Traerbach.
In December the duke returned to England; he received the
thanks of the queen and the two houses; the royal manor
and honor of Woodstock was conferred on him and his heirs,
and the queen gave orders for a splendid mansion, to be
named Blenheim-castle, to be erected on it at the cost of the
crown.
Sir George Rooke had sailed from  Lisbon, carrying a
corps of 5000 troops; under the prince of' Hesse Darmstadt,
for an attempt on Barcelona; but their strength not proving
sufficient, they abandoned the'enterprise; and on their way
back they attacked and captured the strong fortress of Gibraltar, of which Rooke took possession in tilhe name of the
queen of England.  He then fought an indecisive action
with a French fleet off Malaga.
The campaign of 1705 in Flanders produced no great
battle, owing to the opposition of the Dutch field-deputies.
Its most important event was the forcing of the French lines,
extending from Namur to Antwerp, defended by 70,000 men,
and strong by nature as well as art.  This exploit was performed in a masterly manner, and without any loss. Marlborough came up with the French army on the banks of the
river Dyle, but, when he would attack it, the Dutch deputies
interposed and prevented him. Toward winter he visited the
new emperor, Joseph, at Vienna, by whom he was created a
prince of the empire, and the principality of Mindelsheim
was conferred on him.  He there arranged the terms of a
new alliance between the emperor and the maritime powers.
On the 3d of June lord Peterborough sailed from  Portsmornth with a land force of about 5000 men.  His instructions were, to aid the duke of Savoy, or to attack one of the
Spanish ports, and make a vigorous plush in Spain. At Lisbon he was joined by the archduke Charles, and at Gibraltar
by the prince of Darmstadt.  They touched at Altea, in Va-,encia, where they found the people zealous in their favor.
Peterborough then formed the daring project of making a
dash for Madrid, which was only fifty leagues distant, but
the archduke and Darmstadt insisted on proceeding to Barcelona. The want of money was another obstacle, and
Peterborough gave way.  When they came to Barcelona
(Aug. 16) they found the fortifications of that town strong
and in good repair, and the garrison as numerous as their
own force. Peterborough and most of the officers were




ANNE.                       431
against making any attempt, but the archduke and DarmI    stadt were as obstinate as ever.  To gratify them, the troops
were landed, and lay for three weeks inactive before the
town. Dissension plrlvailed among the commanders, and
there seemred no course but to reembark the troops, when
Peterborough, (Sept. 13,) by a fortunate and well-colnducted
piece of temerity, made himself master of the strong frt of
Montjuich, which commands the city.  Numbers of the MAiquelets, or armed peasantry, now flocked to the standard of
Charles, and the siege was carried on with vigor.  At length
a breach was effected; but ere'the assault was given the soldiers forced the brave old viceroy, Velasco, to propose terms.
An honorable treaty was concluded, (Oct. 9;) but severalu of 
thile Miquelets had stoleow ilnt, the tovIi and they and the discontented townsmen appeared in arms early next morning,
with the resolution of massacring the viceroy and his friends.
Peterborough, on heari.ng the  ui-iult, rode to one of the
vates of the city and demanded admittance.  The gate was
opelled to him.  His first act was to save a noble lady firom
the pursuit of the Miquelets. He suppresed the riot, enabled
the viceroy to escape to Alicant, and then withdrew from the
town till the term of the treaty should liave expired.  The
viceroy, however, had left orders for an immediate surrender.
All Catalonia now rose iin favor of,_,harles, and its example
was followed by Valencia.
Wearied by the opposition of the Dutch generals and fielddeputies, and disgusted with the slowness and indecision of
the Imperialists, M'Laorlborotj:,.i planned for the campaign of
1706 the leading an army in person into Italy to cooperate
with prince Eugene, while a rritstis army should land on the
1  toast of Saintonge to endeavor to raise the Huguenots of the
south of France.  But the French having been successful
on the Upper 1Rhine, the States became alarmed, and they
implored NMarlborough to retain the command in the NetherIlands, offering to fiee him from the control of the deputies.
Hie- complied with their wishes, and prepared to open the
campnlaign  by the siege of Namur.  The French court sent
positive orders to marshal Villeroy to risk a battle in defence
of that town.  He therefore advanced to the village of PRamillies beyond Tirlemont, where, on Whitsunday, (May 23,)
he was attacked by the allied army of 60,000 men, his own
force being about 62,000. The action commenced after one
o'clock, and lasted ti12 the evening. the French sustained a
total defeat, losing 13,000 men in killed, wounded, and taken,
besides 2000 who afterwards deserted, eighty stand of col.
t'.    _   -. s-e;-~......_.._...................,.




432              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ors, and nearly all their artillery and baggage; the loss of
the allies was 1000 killed and 2500 wounded. The immediate consequence of this glorious victory was the submission
of the states of Brabant to king Charles, and the surrender
of Brussels, Ghent, Oudenarde, Antwerp, and the other
towns of that province.  Dendermond, Ostend, and Aeth
stood each a siege, and the campaign closed with the capture
If this last.
In Spain this year Barcelona was invested by land and sea
by the French and Spaniards under Philip in person, while
its small garrison of not more than 2000 men was animated
by the presence of Charles.  The enthusiasm  almost peculiar to the Spaniards was manifested in the defence; monks
and women appeared in arms, and Peterborough, advancing
from Valencia, carried on a guerilla warfare (for which no
man was better adapted) in the enemy's rear.  The city,
however, would have been reduced but for the arrival of an
English fleet with troops, at the sight of which the blockading squadron retired to Toulon, and the garrison being now
reinforced, the besieging army marched off with all speed to
Roussillon.  In the mean time the Anglo-Portuguese army
under the earl of Galway and the marquess Das Minas had
entered Spain, and, on hearing of the relief of Barcelona,
they advanced and occupied Madrid.  But instead of pressing at once on Philip, who was at Burgos, they loitered for
a month in the capital.  Charles in like manner staid at
Barcelona, and then went to Zaragoza instead of Madrid.
The national antipathy between Castilians and Aragonese
revived; the former showed themselves enthsuiastic for Philip; and the allies, unable to get back into Portugal, had to
retire into Valencia, pursued by the dule of Berwick. Philip
then returned to Madrid.
After the misfortunes of the last campaign Louis had
made proposals for a treaty, first to the States alone and then
to them and Marlborough, offering to cede to Charles either
Sp)ain and the Indies or the Italian dominions, with a barrier
to the Dutch and cormpensation to the duke of Savoy.  His
offers, however, were rejected, and Marlborough again took
the field, (1707.)  But the campaign proved utterly inactive,
as the duke of Vendme,, the French general, would give no
opportunity for fighting.  In Spain the allied forces under
Galway and Das Minas (contrary to the opinion of Peterborough, who advised a defensive system) advanced into the.|ingdom of Murcia to engage the duke of Berwick.  They
found him  (Apr. 25) encamped on the Vega or plain of'I-~ —---  --  -~



ANNE.                      i33
Almanza: his army, which had been reinforced'rom France,
amounted to about 25,000 men, while that of the allies did
not exceed 17,000.  His superiority in cavalry was very
great; his troops were fresh, while theirs were fatigued with
a morning's march. The battle commenced at three in the
afternoon; the contest was for some time most obstinate 
but Galway and Das Minas both being wounded and obliged
to leave the field, -the allies were, finally routed. - Th ey left
4090 Mten dead on the spot; nearly all the remaining, infantry were obliged to surrender;-the generals fled to Catalonia
with about 3500 cavalry.  Valencia and Aragon were speedily reduced to the obedience of Philip, and the campaign
closed with the siege and capture of Lerida.
In the month of July the duke of Savoy and prince Eugene had entered Provence swith an army of 30,000 men, and
laid siege to Toulon, while a British fleet under sir CloudesIey Shovel attacked it from the sea.  The defence of the
garrison, however, was gallant; and as a large army was
said to be hastening to its relief, the duke raised the siege 
and retired.  As admiral Shovel was returning to England
his fleet ran on the rocks westward of Scilly.  His own
ship, the Association, foundered, and himself and all his
crew perished; the same was the fate of the Eagle and the
In the spring of 1708 Louis, encouraged by intelligence
of the discontent which prevailed in England, and still more
in Scotland, fitted out a fleet at Dunkirk, in which the son
of James II., now called the Chevalier de St. George, and in
England the Pretender, embarked and sailed for Scotland.
But sir George Bynge was at the Firth of Forth with an
English squadron, and they found it impossible to effect a
landing.  After being beaten about by storms for a month,
they got back in a shattered condition to Dunkirk.
The French army in the Netherlands was commanded by
the king's grandson, the duke of Burgundy, aided by the
duke of Vendome.  They surprised Ghent and Bruges and
laid siege to Oudenarde.  At the approach of Marlborough
to its relief they retired; but he brought them to action at
no great distance from that town, (July 11.)  The battle
did not commence till evening, and the coming on of night
saved the French from a rout which might have ended the
war.  They lost 3000 men killed and 7009 taken; the loss.
of the allies was about 2000. After thais victory Marlborough invested (Aug. 13) Lisle, the capital of French
Flanders, a city of remarkable'strength and largely garriq
V OL. II     37                      c c




434-              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.. soned..  Every possible effort for its relief was mniade by the 
French generals-; but at lengLh the town,. (Oct. 25,)- and
finally the citadel, (Dec. 10,-) was forced  to surrender.
Ghent was then besieged and -recovered, and the campaign-.
regarded as one of the -ablest during the war, terminated.
The taking of the islands of Sardinia and Minorca gave
some -lustre to the cause- of the allies in the south.
The -losses which France had sustained now  made Louis
sincerely anxious for peace, and he was willing to-surrender
all the Spanish'dominions except:Naples, give the Dutch a
sufficient-barrier, etc.  The allies, however, insisted-on the
cession of the; Spanish dominions without exception, and
even on Louis's aiding to-drive-his grandson out of Spain.
These terms he: rejected as an insult; -he addressed a manifesto to-his subjects.; and, exhausted as they were by famine
and taxation, -the eminent loyalty of the people enabled him
to-renew the war with augmented vigor.
The fortune of war was, however, still adverse to France.'rhe first act of: the drama was the investment of Tournay by
the allies, and its surrender, after a gallant defence, (Sept.- 3.)
Prince Etugene and,Marlborough then prepared to invest
Mons; marshal Villars hastened to its relief; -he posted his
army between two woods- near Malplaquet, and fortified his
camp with redoubts and entrenchments.  Here, however, he
was -attacked (Sept. 11) by the allies.  The armies were
nearly equal in number, each being —about 90,000 men; the
action was- the most desperately contested during the -war;
the honor of the day-remained to the allies with a list of
20,000 -killed-and wounded, while the French retired with
the loss of 14,000.  The'siege and capture of Mons ter-minated the campaign.  In Spain fortune was adverse to the
allies; they lost the town of Alicant, and they were defeated
on the plain of Gud-iina.
Negotiations for peace were resumed in 1710, and e.
congress sat at the-little town of Gertruydenburg.  Louis
seemed to be- most moderate; but his sincerity was doubted,
and the conference- was broken off.  The taking of Douay
and some other towns alone signalized the campaign in the
Netherlands; but events- of, greater importance took place
in Spain.
The army of Charles was commanded by the English
general: Stanhope and the Austrian -marshal Staremburg;
that of Philip  by the marquess of Villadarias.  The former
entered Aragon, whi.e the latter invaded Catalonia; as it was 
On -its return,, the allies wished to cut it -off from Lerida, and.ISA  
W.In..5.......  




ANNiE.                      435;
on the evening of the 27th of July, their cavalry, led& by`Stanhope- in person, engaged and routed, near the village of
Almenara, a superior' body of- the Spanish cavalry.'; Night
sav~ed tihe: Spanish army ftom a total: rout.- They retired to
Lerida aind thence -to- Zaragoza, whither'they- were followed
by the allies, who passed the- Ebro unopposed.  The rival
mnnarchs were- present with their armies; that of Philip
counted 25,000, thatof- Charles 23,000 men. — A battle was
fought under the walls of that ancieilt city, (Aug. o20,)0  which
ended in tfhe total defeat of the Spaniards, wio' lost 5000
slaini and:wounded,'4000- prisoners,' and'all their- colors: and
artillery.  The loss of:the victors wasv'only 1500 men. Philip
fled to.-Madrid and thence to Valladolid,: and Charles soon
after entered' the capital, but he; found it nearly deserted.
The fidelity -ofthe- Castilians to his rival-: was'invincible, -and
their efforts soon placed him at'the head of'another army,
of:'which'the duke of"Vend6me took. the commnand.` As
Catalonia' was: menaced' by the French, the allies-' resolved
to return thither-; on account of the difficulty of procuring
supplies they- were obliged to march in separat' divisions,
and  Vendome, having with his' entire army- surrounded
Stanhope,- who had' about 5000- English troops, in. the town
of Brihu-ega, forced him to surrender, (Dec. 9,) after a most
gallant defence.  Next day Vendome gave battle- on: the
plain'of Villa' Viciosa to Staremburg, who- was — advancing to
the relief' of' Stanhope.  The. honor of the day remained
with the German';' but he was so harassed- by the' partisans
in his! retreat that he did not'bring more than -7000 men
back to Barcelona.' The war in Spain was now virtually at
an end;' it was plain-that the Castilian spirit'was' not to be
subdued; and the- succession of Charles to the;- imperial
throne boon' altered the relations of Europe.
We:now return to the domestic affairs of England during
the timhe of the'wri. w- r-                  -. 
Since the- accession of James I., the necessity of a closer
unioni between the two British kingdoms had been apparent
to judicious statesmen.  The Act,-of Secu'rity passed by the
Scottish parliament in 1704 proved the danger of delaying
that measured any longer;- for by this- it was. enacted; that
on the death of the queen without issue, the Estates- should
appoinit-a successor of the royal line and a-protestant; but
that it should not be the same person' who' would! succeed
to the throne of England, unless- the independenee of the
Scottish -nation and; parllament, arid'the'religion, trade,  and
liberty of: the people,' had previously -been secured against




136             ]HISTORY OF.ENGLAND.
English influence... The. qu'ee'n gavee her assent to-this act by
the advice of Godolphin, whose object is. said to-'have been
to frighten the English into.a union of the, kingdoms be,
the terror of;a separation.of the two.British- crowns.  If
such was his. plan, it; was eminently successful,' The act
was regarded in England as almost a. declaration.of war.,A.
bill: rapidly passed- both houses, empowering the queen to
appoint commissioners for.a.union of:the kingdoms, declaring
the Scots aliens-if they did not accede to, a treaty or. adopt
the Hanoverian succession within a year; prohibiting: the
imtportation. of their cattle and linens-; and  appointing
cruisers to prevent their- trade- with France.; An address
was made to;the; queen toeput'the towns of Carlisle, Berwick,
Newcastle, and Hull' in::a state of defence:; troops were.
marched to the borders;' and the six northern counties were,
called on to; arm for their defence.
In the. Scottish parliament there were three parties;' the
court party, headed by the'duke of Queensbury; the. Jacobites, whose chief. was the: duke of Hamilton; and the
country party, who, though zealous for, the independence
of the kingdom, were attached to the protestant succession.
In this party there were various: shades of opinion; it contained royalists and republicans, of which last class Fletchers
of Saltoun was by far the most eminent.  This man was
the' perfect model of those who with pure,motives seekito
convert, a monarchy into a republic.  He, was " brav'e as the
sword he wore," of unstained honor, of strict probity, of
ardent patriotism, of simple and nervous eloquence, of extensive reading and knowledge of mankind; but he was stern
and obstinate,. impatient of: contradiction, chimerical-in his:
projects,. and'enthusiastic:in- his spirit;;in a word,.a man who
would dictate but not concede, and;who. would -meliorate on
his; owf. principles or- not;at all.,A' portioni.of the country
party, comprising the marquess of Tweeddale,'lord Belhaven, and' other late minister.s of -the crown, formed what was
termed the Squizdrone;Volante, and sought to itrim  the balance between the:twoiparties of court and opposition.'
An Aict for.a treaty. of union: with" England wias by: good
management. carried in the Scottish parliament, (1705,) and
thfe "queen: was empowered to'appoint. commissioners.fort
arranging it.. The parliament was then'iadjourned, and' the,
commissioners selected; by' the queen.. held. their'conferences
at the Cockpit in Westminster,:(1706;)
The Scot's proposed a federal instead of; an incorporating'
union';, but the English -insistingl on this, last', they readily:
------ - -- - c —-- ----  — L-   -~LYI Yi




ANNE.                     437..                 -.:; 
gave way, and the following termsof union were agreed on.
The succession.of the united kingdom  to remain to. the
princess Sophia and the heirs of her body being protestants;
in the parliament of Great Britain, the number of peers for
Sc6tiand to be sixteen,' elected for every parliament out of
the Scottish peerage; of commons, forty-five, two thirds fbr
~counties and one third for boroughs; the same duties of
excise and.customs to be levied in both parts of the united
kingdom; and when England raised two millions by a land, 
tax, Scotland was to raise 48,0001. etc. etc.
The number of representatives allotted to Scotland was
loudly exclaimed against; and it was argued, that as its
population was a sixth of that of England, its representatives    i
should in justice form a sixth instead, of a twelfth part. of the
leogislature as proposed: but it was replied, that mere number
was not to be the only basis; that. the burdens borne were  
also to be taken into computation; and that the Scots had
insisted on not. paying more'than a fortieth of the land-tax.
It was also intimated that on this point the English ministry
were resolved not to yield, and prospects of English peerages
were held out to' the Scottish nobles.  The great hope of
carrying the union, however, rested on what was termed the        i
Eluivalent, a sum   3 of 398,0001. which England was to pay      i; )
for the customs and excise of Scotland in as far as they were    8 i
appropriated toward the discharge of its national debt. This
was to go'to the payment of arrears of salaries, etc., to the 
compensation of the shareholders in a company which had  
been formed in Scotland for colonizing the Isthmus of Da. -
rien, and which had met with the fate due to so wild a
project.  In short, the. Equivalent was to form'a specious
fund of bribery.
The Scotiish parliament met on the 13th of October: the
duke of Queensbury, a man of the highest rank. ar  host
coniciliating manners, prudent and resolute, sat as the royal
commissioner.  The treaty was read, and then printed and
published. Forthwith a storm of indignation burst forth
over the whole kingdom; each class saw danger to its own
peculiar" interests; all fired at the thought of the loss of
national independence.  Addresses against it were poured in
from all parts; tumults arose in Edinburgh; the 6ameronians
of the west'were preparing to take up arms and dissolve the
parliament by force. Two thirds of the nation in fact, were
decidedly opposed to the union.'
The court party argued in favor of the'union from. the
injurious ascendency which England'had long possessed over
37'




438             HtISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Scotland  and for which it was the oply remedy likely to pe
efficacaious, as history proved that federal unlions were only
-sources'of'discord; a share in the trade of' Englarid would
thus be' obtained;it was, in fine, the part of prudence to
submit cheerfully to what.was inevitable;  the union {woild
be like the marriage of a maiden chaste and prudent; but
conscious of her weakness, to a. man noble and powerfli,
thus preserving her identity and honor under ater  natme.
ix,        -The countiry party argued from the aversion of the nation;
they denied the right of parliament to a'lienate whiat was
only a trust; they'drew highly-colored pictures of the ruin
and degradation which miust inevitably overwhelm Scotland.'They appealed to the interests, the passions, the imnaginiation.
In prophetic vision lord Belhaven saw the barons, whose
ancestors had exacted tribute throughout England' walking
like attorneys in'the court of requests, and English excisernmen
receivinrg more-:homare than had been given to their ancestors: he saw  the tradesmen eating saltless pottage, aind
l~ i  drinking water instead of ale,; the daughters of the gentry,.fi  petitioning for husbands, their sons for employment; " But
above all,' cried he, ":I see our ancient mother Caledonia
f E       like C.asar, sitting in the midst of our'senate,  oo00ing
mournfully around,' overing herself with her royal garment,;i ~      and breathilng out her last words, And thou'too, t my son!
{ ~;      while:she, a4ttends the" fatal blow from our hands."
The force of reason, the force of argument, but, above all,
the force of the Equivalent,- prevailed against all the efforts
i ofmistaken patriotism.  The  Squarone gVolante was gained
to the court;:Hailton proved false to  his party; and the act
of ratification was passed by the large majority of 1 10.  By
a separate act the presbyterian form of church government
was secured.  To gratify the poor nobility so numerous in
i t     Scotland, the privilege of freedom'from personal "arrest was
accorded to the Scottish peerage.  The act of union,, when
transtnitted to Enpgland, after encountering some opposition
from'the high t'ories in the. house of peers, received the approbation of' the'English legislature, and,! (May 1, 1707,) tie
two kingdom is were incorporated into one, to be called
GREA:  BRIITAIN.
Durin-g tihis time. the st'uggie of parties went on.in the
English par liiment and cabi'et  The      tories twice renewed
their'efforts to carry their, bill- gainst.occasional conformity,
even attemnpting      k  tota to   e ibill for the land-tix.  In
the cabinet, Marlborough and! Godolplin were thwarted by
them- in their views respectin,  -the moe of condlicting the
Is  e of':'!,..




ANNE.                      X439
war  They contrived, hqweyve:, to get rid of Rocihester-in
1703; and,;in the following: year they were ecually successfill
withl respect to Nottingham,r, Jersey,,and sir Edward Seymiiour.  The  duchess was most anxious to effect a, union
kbetween  Marlborou.gh:and the,whigs, but, great as her
influence  was over him), she did not succeed.  Harley
became secetary in place of Nottingham; and Henry St.
John, a youngl man. of grieat promise,. was made secretary-atwar.  The attempts of the tories to depreciate his glorious
victory at Blenheim  tended greatly to alienate Marlborough
from that party; and the result of the elections for a new.parliament in 1705, which gave a clear majority to tIhe whigs
-in the commons, led him.and Godolphin to contemplate a
union with that party.  Even previous to the meeting of
parliament the whig influence had been sufficient to cause
the dismissal of the duke of Buckiongham (late:marquess of
Normanby) from the privy seal, and'the appointment of the
duke of Newcastle; and the transfer of the great seal from
sir Nathan Wright to Mr. William  Cowper.  The contest
for the office of speaker was bqetween Mr. Smith of the whig
and Mr.- Bromley of the tory puarty.: the former was supported
by ithe court., and carried it by a. majority of forty-three.
The speech from the throne accorded with the views of the
whigs,.and the addresses of the two houses reechoed it.
The first attackof the tories on their rivals was a motion
i-n the lords (N.cv. 15) to address: the.queen to invite the
I presum-ptive heiress of t.he,rown to reside in England.
By this they hoped to reduce the whigs to a disagreeable
dilemma; for, if they supported it, they would: offeld.the
queen; if they opposed it, they, would injure themselves both
with the liouse of lHanover and with the nation.  They,
however, manfully opposed it, jand brouguht in a bill for the
l appointment of a regency to; act in case of tihe queen's
demise, and another for naturalizing the. whole of the electoral.family.  These bills were caried, after much oppdsition to
t,he formuer from the t.ries; and the.dislike o.f the queen to.lue.whigs was now  evidently diminished..As much had
been said during _the..debate of the danger opf. the church,
lordHalifax moved to appoint a day for inquiry into these
ldangers.  When the. day.. ame, an angry debate tpolk place;
b.utboth houses concurred, by.large majorities,,in a reso-.lution- that: the church,was in.a most.safe and flourishing
condition.
The strength of the tory party was weakened- by division,
while the:whigs,acted in one compact body, under the




440               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
direction of the junto, as -it was named, which was composed
of the lords Somers, Halifax, Wharton, Orford, anid Sun.
derland; this last, the son of James's minister, and son-in.
law' of Marlborough, but the devoted admirer of Somers.
The bias'of the queen, the general, and the treasurer was
to the tories; but the first had been offended by their late
conduct; and the two last saw that it-was only from the whigs
that they could expect support in their foreigni policy.'The
junto felt their power, and *insisted on a larger' share for
their party in the profits and influence of office. c:They
required that sir Charles Hedges should be dismissed and
Sunderland made secretary in his place;' but it'was the policy
of the queen to give'sway to neither party; and she'had,
moreover, a personal dislike to Sunderland.'The policy
of her two great ministers had been' the same' as hers, but
theyj saw  the necessity of giving way; yet it cost them a
year's labor and'the threat of resignation' to overcomhe the
reluctance of the queen.
They had, however, been secretly thwarted in the whole
affair by their colleague Harley, and a bed-chamber influence
of which they were not aware.  The duchess had'a cousin
who was married to a Mr. Hill, an eminent Turkey merchant,
who became a bank'rupt; his family fell of course into great
poverty, and the duchess kindly provided for his children.
She placed Abigail, one of the daughters, about the person
of the "queen as bed-chamber-woman, reckoning th'at she
would always adhere to the interests of her patroness.  But
Mrs.' Hill soon found that she might aspire higher.  The
queen, weak and yielding as she was,'gradually becalne
weary of the domineering temper of the duchess,'and she
poured "her complaints into the ear of her obsequious attendant, who;t was soon observed, was fast rising ifi favor
and influence.  It happened that Mrs. Hill was related to
Harley, on the father's as to the duchess; on the mother's'side;
and, as her politics were tory,'that wily statesman entered
into a close alliance with her; and by her means influenced.
the queen.  The du6h1ess's friends warned her in' vain of the
way' in which her power was uridermined.  At length the
private marriage of' Mrs;. Hill'with Mr.; Mashahm,' an officer
of- the'royal' household,' celbrated in the presence of only
the queen~and'Dr. Arbuthnot, opened her eyes.  Godolphiil
about the same time obtained convincing proofs of Harley's
secret machinations.'lThe  policy of Marlborough and Godolphin in   joining
neither party had the usual fate; both were alienated from




ANNE.                      441
them.  The ill success of the war in 1707 afforded topics
of attack to the discontented.  The two ministers saw more
strongly than ever the necessity of conciliating the whigs;
and they received further proofs of Harley's' treachery.  The
whigs having given theim the strongest assurances of theiJ
support, they waited on the queen, and told her that they
could serve her no longer unless Harley were dismissed.
She remained firm'.  On the next' meeting of the- cabinetcouncil the two ministers were absent. Harley was proceeding
to business,'when the duke of Somerset said he did not see
how they could deliberate without the general and treasurer.
The looks of the others expressed their assent; -Harley was
disconcerted; the queen' broke up the council in anger and
alarm.  The commons and the city gave signs of'their
discontent.  Still the queen  was unmoved;  but Harley
himself saw the difficulties of his situation, and resigned.
St. John and the attorney-general, sir: Simon Harcourt,
followed his example, and their places'were given. to Mr.
Boyle, Mr. Robert Walpole, and sir James  Montague,
brother of lord Halifax.  This last appointment was'long
resisted by' the queen; and all the influence of Marlborough.
and Godolphin failed'to procure a seat in the cabinet, though'without office, for Somers.  The queen, in fact, disliked the
whigs more than ever, and was still secretly actuated by
Harley'; and they showed themselves as factious as the tories
had been; for, bent on coming into  bffice; they resolved to
annoy'both the'queen and Marlborough by an attack on the
admi'ralty, that is, on iter husband and on his brother,
admiral Churchill, by whom the prince was guided.' Marlborough had:consented to give' up' his brother, when the
opportune death of the prince (Oct. 28) removed all difficulties. Lord Pembroke was made lord high admiral, and
was succeeded by Somers as president of the council; and
Wharton became lord' lieutenant of Ireland.
Nothing,' however, would content the whigs short of the
possession of all offices of emolument and influence; and' the
condition of the general' and treasurer, between them and the
queen;, was far from envi'abld. To add to their embarrassments, the desire of peace was' becoming general.  The
apparent willingness of Louis t'o'oncede, weighed with
many; the pressure of taxation with others; aid'the want of
French wines'and other foreign' luxuries: rendiered numbers
pacific; and'Marlborough was charged with desiriiig' to
prolong the war from selfish motives.      - i
Orbfrd having replaced Pembroke at the admiralty,:the
DDD




mini.trvy may be regarded as whig from the:close of the yeat
1708,when. a new parliament met: and sir Richjard Onslow,
a whig,: was chosen, speaker.  In its second session, (1709,)
the violence, of party:zealhurried.it into a measure which
ev!.entualy.   overthr the ministry.
There was a clergyman,,, named Sacheverell, a preacher
at St. Savior's, Southwark, one of those men. of little talent
and less learning,, but of a restless and ambitious temper,
such as may be found at timnes among the clergy.  This man
took on him. to. be a champion of high-church doctrines; and,
in a sermon preached before the lord mayor and aldermen
on the 5th of November, he asserted the monstrous doctrine
of passive obedience, in the most unqualified terms; attacked
the dissenters and the.toleration; styled the moderate bishops
"perfidious prelates. and false sons of the church;" and
called on the people to stand up in its defence.  He also
assailed the administration, particularly Godolphin, whom he
styled Volpone.  This wretched farrago was published. at
the desire of the lord mayor; the tories extolled it as almost
inspired, and they circulated.4q,000 copies of it.  The ministers. held, several. consultations.  Somers and Marlborough,were for leaving the matter to the ordinary tribunals; but
Godolphin, whose feelings were wounded, and the others
resolved  on  an  impeachment.  Articles  were  therefore
exhibited against.Sacheverell, and the 27th, of February,
1710, was the day fixed for the trial in Westmipster-hall.
In the interval the tories and the clergy in rgeneral made
every effort to inaene,the minds of the populace and excite
their zeal for. the church.
The trial lasted for three,weeks.  The managers were sir
Joseph Jekyl,,general Stanhope, Walpole, King, and others.
The Doctor, asi he wascalled, was defended by Harcourt
and, Phipps, and assisted:by Drs. Atterburyv, Sprmallridge, and
Friend.  He was brought eacah day: from the. Temple to the:Hall in n  coach,iround which the people! pressed, eager to
kiss,hisl hand.  The,queen came every day to hear the trial;
and the populace used to crowd round her sedan, crying,
".God- lbess your majesty andd the church; we hope your
majesty.is for Dr.: Sacheverell."
The managers had a delhicate part to act; for as Sacheverell
had asserted,tat the revolution was not a case of resistance,
(he did not impugn it,). they thad to show that,:it was, and
thence to, assert the l,awfulness qof ttaking arms against the
law, and that in the presence of. the: queen.  They, however,:did not shrink from their duty.  Sachieverell's.counsel freely




ANNE.                       -4
acknowledged the lawfulness of resistance, but they.maintained that he was. justified in.his doctrine of non-resistance
by- the homilies and the writings of eminent Anglican divines.
lHe was voted:guilty by a majority of 69 to 552, of which last
34 signed.a protest.   He was sentenced.to be.suspended
from preaching for three years,; and his sermon to be, publicly
b.urnt; and. the Oxford decree of 1683 was condemned to
share its fate. —'his gentle -sentence was regarded by the
tory party as a triunlph, and such in; fact it was.  _Bonfires
dand illuminations, in London;and all over the kingdom,
testified their joy;,and addresses in favor,of non-resistance
poured in from all quarters.
Harley and'the favorite, now sure of the temper of the
nation, resolved. to hesitate.no longer. -They.had. already
sought to mortify Marlborough, by getting the queen, on the
death of Lord Essex,.to give his-regiment to Major Hill, -Mrs.
Masham's brother.  Marlborough, highl!y indignant, insisted
on the, favorite's being dismissed, or,else he wpould resign;
but the efforts of.Godolphin and other-friends accommodated
the matter, and lhe was:.contented with.the disposal of the
regiment. being, left with him.  To prove, as. it were,..the.influence of, the fa~vorite, the queen soon.after gave,Hill a..pension of 1000L.. a, year:;. and she made: the. duke consent to, raise him to thexrank iof brigadier.
lt was H~arley's plan to overthrow the ministry by degrees..He:begas by causing the.queen to.take the office of lord
chamberlain.from. the marquess. of Kent, -pd confer it on the
duke. of Shrewsbury.; for, this amiable but versatile nobleman,
who. had:returned from Italy, where he. had.resided for some.:years,.was.now.alienated. in,some degree:from. tble:whigs.on,public:and e.ven on, private-groPnds, as ftheydid,not,,he:.thought,; pay. due!attention to his lady, an Italian countess
who:had been originally his mistress, and who,: as is. usu
ally the c.ase, now,g.over!ed him.  He.was there.foree,easily:gained. over'by - Harley.  T Ihe queen - ade the, appointmnent,
(Apr. 13,) while Go'dolphin  was,at Newrarket,  and -an
Jnounced it to. him  by a...dry,letter.,  The treasurer, acted,with, his usul-al inidecision; the,whigs feared a dissolution, and
~ let themselves be. -cajoled. by.-Sbrewsbury; and Harley, now
reckoniing. the vijctory sure, made his next, attack.,on, Sunderland,:ia,man whose overbearing temper had. raised _him
manj enemies, and to whom  the queen had a peculiar
antipathy..The: traesurer.was as usual without spirit;. his:hitg  colleagues clung. to their places with- the pertin.acity
listinctive )f their party, and abandoned Sunderland; and




_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _    _ -    -
444               HISTORY- F ENGLAND.
the'queen hiad the gratification (June 14) of dismissing him
and giving- the -seals to lord Dartmouth, a zealous; high.
churchman'..Jacobites and high tories now flocked to court
and congratulated the:queen on her emancipation, as' they
affected'to regard -it; the' duke of Beaufort.,'for instance, said
to her, " Your majesty is tnow queen indeed."'
The   next'stroke stunned the'whigs' On the 7th of
August, Godolphin, who saw that the queen was annoyed. at
some things he had said in council, had' an audience of her.
He concluded his discourse by asking, "IIs! it the; will of
your majesty' that I should go on? "." Yes," said she without
hesitation.  That very evening he received a lett'er from her,
desiring ~him to break his white staff of office! The treasury
was put'into'commission, Harley taking the chancellorship
of'the exchequer.;'''Tie' temper of the nation had now been ascertained in
various ways, and the prevalence of the high-church and tory
spirit was beyond question.  -That wretched tool Sacheverell' having been presented by a Mr.'Lloyd with a living in
North "Wales, his party took advantage of' his going to take
possession of; it to inake a demonstration.  His progress
thither, as' it was -termed, resembled those of the monarchs
in former times.  The nobility entertained him sumptuously
at their houses; the university of Oxford showed' him  equal
honor;'the magistrates of corporate towns met him  with
their insignia of office.  The hedges were for miles decked
with garlands'and'lined with spectators, streamers waved
from the' steeples bf the churches,'the air resounded'with the
cry of " The:church- and Dr. Sacheverell!"  At Bridgenorth, a Mr. Cresswell met him at the head of four thousand
men on horseback, and as many on foot, wearing  white
krvots edged with gold; and leaves of'gilt laurel in their hats.
It is a pity that so much really good and honest feeling
should have been wasted on so unworthy an object.*Emboldened  by these signs of the popular sentiment,
the cabal thought they might now safely venture on a'd,ssolution and a total change of ministry.'The queen therefore
came' to the couincil, (Sept.21,) and ordered a proclamation to
be issued for dissolving the parliament.  The chancellor rose
to spe'ak, but she said, " she would'admit of no'debate, for
that'such was her pleasure."'.   A general change of adminis.
* Harcourt, when chancellor, actually'tried to obtain a'bishopric
for hirdi, ut thie queen would not consent.'He, however, got the liv-'nfg'of St. Andrew's, HoIjorn.. 




ANNE.                      445'sat.on  immediately followed; lord Somers, the duke of
Devonshire, and Mr. Boyle resigned, and their places were
taken by lord Rochester, the duke of Buckingham,. and Mr.
St. John.  Wharton and Orforda having also resigned, the
lieutenancy of Ireland was given to:.the duke of Ormond,
and the admiralty was put in commission.  All the efforts
of Harley and the queen. having failed -to induce lord Cowper
to retain the great seal, it was put in commission, but was
soon given to sir Simon Harcourt.  Of all the whigs, the
dukes of Somerset and Newcastle alone remained in high
offices.
Thus fell the most glorious, the most able, and we may
add, perhaps the most virtuous and patriotic administration
that England had possessed since the days of Elizabeth.
It fell by disunion in itself, by the imprudent impeachment
of a contemptible divine, and by the intrigues of the bedchamber, where a weak woman, [i. e. queen Anne,] whom
the constitution had invested with power, was domineered
over by one waiting-maid and wheedled and flattered by
another.
When the parliament met, (Nov. 25,) it proved almost
entirely tory, and Bromley. was chosen speaker with little or
no opposition.
Marlborough on his return was subjected to every kind of
indignity.  The queen herself desired him  not to allow a
vote of thanks to him to be moved in parliament, and he
had the mortification to see the thanks of the houses bestowed on Peterborough for his Quixotic exploits in Spain.
In spite of his most urgent solicitations, his duchess was
deprived of her places at court, which were divided between
the duchess of Somerset and Mrs. Masham, and an attempt
was even made to convict her of peculation.  Swift and the
other libellers in the service of the ministry poured out all
their venom on him.  " I-Ie was. ridiculed,"' says Smollet,
"in public libels, and reviled in private conversation.  Instances were every where repeated of his fraud, avarice, and
extortion; of his insolence, cruelty, ambition, and misconduct. Even his courage was caJled in question, and this
consummate general was represented as the lowest of mankind."  Among his other annoyances, he had to'listen to
ectures on his military conduct: from Harley and St John.
Yet he did not resign; for Godolphin and the whigs, the
emperor, and all the allies implored him to-r-etain the corn
mand of the army, as otherwise all their hopes would, bh
gone. 
VOT II.      38




146              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Harley, in the midst of his triumph, fouand that: he was
not to-lie on a bed of roses.  Tbhe-more violent tories, headed
by Rochester, regarding him  and his friends as lukewarm,
formed, to contrdl him, a combination of not less than 130
members of the- house of commons, under the name of the
October Club, and- the whigs on their part -had a powerful
auxiliary in the-duchess of Somerset,, a lady of high character, and loved and respected by the queena. Harley and
St. John immediately began to make overtures to the duke
of Marlborough, and it is probable that they- must have
come to terms with the whigs, or have succumbed to the
October Club, ha:d not a fortunate event arisen to extricate
them, (171-11 )
There was a' French refugee, called the marquess,Guiscard. who had had the: command of a regiment; which being
broken after the battle- of Almanza, he obtained a pension
of-5001. a year.  Harley reduced this pension to 4001., and
Guiscard in his rage proposed to the French cabinet-to acquaint them  with- sundry secrets of state of which he was
possessed.  His letters were intercepted, and he was arrested on a charge of high-treason.  He was brought before
the council at the Cockpit, (Mar. 8,) and an order was made
to convey him  to Newgate.  He resisted the messenger,
and, rushing forward, struck Harley in the bosom with: a
penknife which he had concealed; the: blade broke against
the: bone;- he struck' again with the stump, but St. John and
the others, drawing their swords, fell on and gave him several
wounds.  He' was then taken to Newgate, where he died of
the injuries which he had received.  The general sympathy
was thus awakened for Harley, and he was regarded as a
victim to his Zeal for the public service.  The death of lord
Rochester (May 2) was also of advantage to him, and he was
forthwith (24th) raised to the peerage by the title of earl
of Oxford and: Mortimer, and (29th)' made lord high treasurer.  The- duke of Buckingham  succeede':Rochester.
(June 12,) and' several other; promotions took place in -the
course of the year.
-The military events of this year, the last of Marlborough's
glorious career of victor). were few; but no campaign more
displayed his consummate military skill.  Villars:had drawn
strongly-fortified lines from Bouchain on the Schelt to Arras, and he proudly: styled: them M;:arlborough's ne plus ultra.
Yet the'duke,-by a skilful maneuvre, passed them without
the loss of a single man, and then invested and took: Bouchain, (Sept. 14,) Though' situated in a morass strongly forti




ANNE.                     447
field, and dCefended by -a large garrison,;with an arnmy more
numerous than that -of the allies. at hand to -relieve it.
But it: wasneedless for Marlborough to gain victories and
capture towns; -the:ministry were so-bent on -peace that they
were actually in secret negotiation with the: court of France.
In the beginning of the year (Jan. 11) their agent Gaultier
a French:priest, waited on M. de Torcy,.and abruptly asked
him -if he wished -for.peace, which was, says Torcy, ":like
asking a isick man whether:he wishes to recover."  Louis,
however,.saw his advantage, and affected not to be inigreat
need-of -it; -he endeavored to draw- the; English cabinet into
a separate negotiation.  Matthew Prior; the' poet, was sent
secretly to Paris,.and M. Mesnager.to London, and-preliminary articles were- agreed.on, (Oct. 8,) which.were then
commrnunicated:to the: Dutch:and imperial ministers at the
court of- London,- the latter of whom -caused.them to-be inserted in the paper called the-Postboy, and:their-appearance
excited-the indignation of all who had -a:feeling of national
dignity -andd honor.
The ministers of:the allies: made strong representations
against the peace,. and: the whig.-party was iow strengthened
by the accession of lord Nottingham,  who was offended- with
the ministers.  The queen tried, to no -purpose,-the effect
of closeting on Marlborough, Sorners, Cowper, and others;
arn amend-ment to the address, declaring that no peace could
bee safe or honorable if Spain' and -the West Indies-were to
be allotted to any branch of the house-of Bourbon, w-as proposed by Nottingham and-carried against,the ministry, who,
however, had influence enough to have -a similar.clause rejected- in the commons by a-lar'ge:majority.  But-the queen
herself now gave symptoms-of.wavering, and:the timid and
self-interested: in both houses began to look about them.
Oxford saw that he must act with decision or be lost.  As
he ascribed the power of the opposition -chiefly: to: the- influence of Marlborough,- he resolved to strike him:, down;
charges of fraud and peculation were therefore madeagainst
him, and the queen, over whom. the bed-chamber party had
recovered their influence, wrote him. a letter on New-year's
day (1712) dismissing him  from.all his employments.  To
follow up their victory,.the very next daythey- had -recourse
to a most unconstitutional act:-f prerogative, by calling -no
less than twelve new-peers to the upper house, among whom
was the,:husband;of the: favorite,*  -The queen then  sent- e
i:* -It is the:, only instance. that has as yet- occurred in our historyi.




448              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
message, desiring the house to adjourn to the 14th: as this
was an unusual measure, a debate arose, and the resolution
was carried only by the votes of the twelve new peers.
When the question was put to them, Wharton asked one
of them, if they voted individually or by their foreman.
Secure of majorities in both houses, the ministry proceeded in the charges against Marlborough.  These were
two: the one, the having received an annual sum from the
contractor of bread for the army; the other, a deduction of
2~ per cent. on the pay of the foreign auxiliaries; and the
whole was mnade to amount to the sunm of 282,3661. sterling.
These charges had been made before the return of the duke,
and he had sent home a refutation of them. With respect
to the first, he said& that it had been a perquisite of the general commanding-in-chief in the Low Countries even before
the revolution; and this was proved by sir John Germain.
who had been aid-de-camp to prince Waldeck in 1689.
The per-centage, lie said, was the voluntary gift of the allied
princes, to be employed for secret service. It had been
originally granted for that purpose, to king William by the
members of the Grand Alliance, and had been continued to
the duke, with the approbation of the queen, whose warrant,
countersigned by sir Charles Hedges, was produced.  It
amounted only to 30,0001. a year; and the duke was always
better served than king William had been, who spent 50,0001.
a, year in this way.  But it was useless to refute; the ministers were sure of their majority; and it was voted, by 270
to 165, that the former was illegal, and that the latter was
public money, and ought to be accounted for.  An address
was made to the queen, and she ordered the attorney-general
to prosecute the duke; but there the matter ended:  The
ministers did not dare to impeach him, or to reply to a vindication of him which was published, or to prosecute it as a
libel.: An attempt to fix on him the stigma of'trafficking
in commissions only served to show the malignity of his
enemies.
During, these disgraceful proceedings prince Eugene arrived in London (Jan 5) with proposals from the emperor
for carrying on the war with vigor. He was received, of
course, with all due marks of attention, both public and
private, and the queen presented him with a sword worth
45001.; but the ministers were! too much bent on a dishon.,
orable peace to attend to his proposals,:and he quitted England in disgust, (March 17.)  Some of the ministers had
even countenanced a profligate jesuit, named Plunket, in his




ANNE                      449
pretended discovery of a plot of Eugene, Marlborough, and
the leading whigs to seize the queen, murder Oxford and his
friends, and place the elector of Hanover on the throne.
The negotiations for peace were now going on at Utrecht,
whither all the allies had sent ministers; but the courts of
Paris and London were still treating in secret. In the midst
of the negotiations an event occurred which threatened to
put an end to them. The dauphin had died in the preceding
year, and death now swept away his son the duke of Burgundy, with his wife and their eldest son, and there only
remained his youngest son, a sickly infant in the cradle, bhotween Philip and the throne of France. As his retention
of the crown of Spain had been all along a condition of the
peace, Louis offered that he should make a formal renui.ciation of his right to that of France; at the same time candidly owning that such an act would be, by the laws of
France, utterly invalid.  Yet even this feeble security contented the English cabinet, and they agreed to desert their
allies if they refused to consent to it.
The English troops in the Netherlands were now commanded by the duke of Ormond; the whole confederate
army of 122,000 men was directed by prince Eugene.  The
French army under Villars amounted only to 109,Q00 men,
ill equipped and dispirited.  To force their camp, pour the
allied troops over the plains of Picardy and Champagne, and
dictate peace under the walls of Paris, were now not only
possible but probable events. But no glory awaited Ormond.
When the queen had informed parliament of the preliminaries having been agreed on, orders were sent to him to cease
from all operations, and march with his troops to Dunkirk,
which Louis had engaged to give to the English. The foreigll troops in British pay spurned at the orders to separate
from the confederates.  "The Hessians," said their gallant
prince, "will gladly march, if it be to fight the French."
" We do not serve for pay, but for fame," said another commander.  A general hiss ran through the English camp when
the cessation of arms was proclaimed; the soldiers tore their
hair with rage, and reviled their general; the officers shut
themselves up in their tents: tears flowed from their eyes
when they thought of Marlborough and his glories. Ormond's troops were refused admittance into the fortified
towns, and he had to seize Ghent and Bruges. Louis hlesitated to give up Dunkirk, till admonished of the danger of
efusal.
Eugene captured Quesnoy, but the desertion of England
38*                       IF. Z




450              HISTORY -OF EN4- AND.
had struck a damp to the hearts of the allies,.and Villati
restored the ascendency of France.  The Peace of  Utrecht,
"the indelible reproach of the past generation," as lord
Chatham called it, was signed on the  4mtn of April, 1783,
by all the powers except the emperor and the empire.
By this peace Philip was to retain Spain and the Indies,
giving the Netherlands and Italian dominions to the emperor, and Sicily to the duke of Savoy. The title of the
queen of England and the protestant succession were acknowledged; Gibraltar and Minorca, and some parts of
America, were ceded to England; and an asiento, or contract for supplying the Spanish colonies with negroes for
thirty years, was granted to the English merchants.
There can be no doubt that by this peace all the ends of
the Grand Alliance were frustrated, and the splendid victories of Blenheim  and Ramillies rendered useless; and had
not Heaven preserved the life of the puny heir in Francae,
another general war must have ensued, or Philip have been
tamely suffered to unite the two crowns.  On the other hand,
it seemed manifestly unjust to impose a sovereign on the
Spanish nation; yet it was hardly less so to dismember the
monarchy.  In whatever light this treaty be viewed, this fact
is certain, -that it was the deed of an unprincipled minister,
the secret foe of the protestant succession, and supported by
the Jacobites and high tories, and. not the act of the nation.
While the treaty which was to blight all the glor io~W
promises of his administration was pending, lord Godolphin
died. This upright and disinterested statesman, who had
enjoyed so many opportunities of amassing wealth, left only
12,0001. behind him.  Yet the present ministry had made a
base attempt to fix a charge of peculation on him also; they,
however, had signally failed.  Marlborough now put in execution his design of retiring to the continent.  The ministerf and their friends in the house, and Swift, Mrs. Manly,
and their other hired writers out of it, were continually as.
sailing his character, both public and private; and a shabby
attempt was made to fix on him the expenses of.Blenheim.
house, for which the crown stood engaged. The receptiois
of the greatest man of the age at Antwerp, Aix-la-Chapelle,
and the other places which lie visited, was enthusiastic, an6
consoled him in some measure for the ungenerous treatmnent
which  he had met with in his owii country.
An attempt to dissolve the union between England and
Scotland at this time offers a curious instance of the change
of party tactics. It.was moved in the house of lords by one




ANNE.                     451
of the Scottish peers, was supported by the whigs and op.
posed by the tories, and lost by a majority only of four.
Oxford and St. John (lately created viscount Bolingbroke,)
though they had united to overthrow the Godolphin ministry,
had never: been cordial friends.  The former had the superiority in principle and in knowledge of business;.but he
was cautious, procrastinating, mysterious, and intriguing,
and therefore unable to gain the confidence of any party.
i-e was of that class of statesmen who deal in expedients,
and are always manoeuvring; whose minds are too little to
conceive any thing grand and vast. The character of Bolingbroke was the very opposite; his talents were splendid,
his eloquence commanding, his manners and person graceful
and elegant; but he was dissolute and unprincip.ed   ani
English Alcibiades. While Oxford leaned to the whigs and
favored the protestant succession, Bolingbroke sought for
support among the high tories, brought many of them. into
office, and formed a close alliance with the lady Masham.
Devoid of religion, he affected to be a champion of the
church; and, with a thorough contempt of the Stuarts and
their maxims of government, he engaged in projects for their
restoration. In these projects the dukes of Ormond and.
Buckingham, the chancellor Harcourt, sir William  Wyndham, and other members of the cabinet shared; but the
duke of Shrewsbury, the lords Dartmouth, Trevor, and Paulet, and Robinson bishop of London, were firm to the protestant succession. Lady Masham.was a zealous Jacobite.
The queen hated the electoral family, and had no love for
her brother, though she had some scruples about his right,
which, however, were balanced by her attachment to the
church.  She veered about as the influence of lady Somerset
or lady Masham prevailed.
The. parliament having been dissolved, a new one met,
(Feb. 16, 1714.)  Its composition was much the same as be-! i
fore; but the tory portion was less powerful, being divided
into Hanoverian tories, nicknamed Whimsicals, and Jacobite
tories, i. e. friends of the electoral family, or of the Pre*tnder. The danger was now in fact thought to be very imminent. The queen during the winter had a severe attack
of gout, and it was manifest that she was fast drawing to her
end; Oxford's influence was on the decline; the adherents
of the house of Stuart were put into civil and military posts;
and the Jacobites gave open demonstrations of their designs.
It was the general opinion that whichever of the coinpetitors
had the start would get the crown; and Schutz,.the Hano.
verian envoy, therefore, by the advice of the whig leaders




452             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
demanded a writ of summons for the electoral prince, as
duke of Cambridge, with a view to his residence in England.
The writ could not be refused, but the queen was highly indignant: she forbade Schutz the court, and wrote in strong
terms to the electoral family. The sudden death, by apop]exy, of the princess Sophia (June 7) was by some ascribed
to the effect on her of the queen's letter.
At this time no one was more zealous in the cause of the
elector than the duke of' Marlborough.  He sent general
Cadogan over to arrange with general Stanhope and the
Hanoverian leaders for the transport of troops to England;
and proposed himself to gain over the garrison of Dunkirk,
and embark at its head. He urged the elector not to be sparing of his money, and offered him a loan of 20,0001.
Bolingbroke at length triumphed over his rival.  The
treasurer's staff was taken from Oxford, (July 27,) and the
secretary was regarded as the future prime minister. After
a slight attempt at cajoling the whigs, he was proceeding to
the formation of a Jacobite cabinet, when the untasted cup
of power was suddenly dashed from his lips. The queen
grew alarmingly ill on the 29th; and as a committee of the
privy council was sitting to make arrangements in case of her
death, the dukes of Somerset and Argyle suddenly entered
the room. Shrewsbury rose and thanked them. They proposed that the queen's physicians should be examined; and,
when assured of her danger, they said that the post of treasurer should be filled without delay, and the duke of Shrewsbury be recommended for it to the queen. Bolingbroke and
his party were stunned. A deputation waited on the queen,
who approved of their choice, and gave the staff to the duke,
bidding him use it for the good of her people. She soon
after fell into a lethargy, and on the morning of the 1st of
August she expired, in the fiftieth year of her age. The
elector of Hanover was proclaimed as George I.
With Anne ended the dynasty of the Stuarts. She was
a woman of narrow  intellect, but of good intentions; a
model of conjugal and maternal duty. The title of'Good
QAueen Anne,' given to her, proves the public sense of her
virtues. She possessed, however, a portion of the obstinacy
)f her family, and had some of their notions of prerogative.
in person the queen was comely, and her voice was so meo
lodious that it acted like a charm on the auditors when she
spoke from the throne. All through her reign she was highly and deservedly popular.




THE
HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK.
CHAPTER 1.
GEORGE 1.
1714-1727.
THiE measures taken by the friends cf the protestant succession had been so prompt and energetic, and the confusion
of Bolingbroke and his party so complete, that George I. was
proclaimed without a murmur being heard; and he was acknowledged at once by the king of France and the other
potentates of Europe.@ He was in the fifty-fifth year of his
age, with the reputation of being a prudent, moderate prince;
he had shown valor and skill in war, but he loved peace.
He was totally ignorant of the language, constitution, and
manners of England.
On the 18th of September George I. landed at Greenwich.
A new ministry, almost totally whig, was formed.  The two
secretaries were lord Townshend and general Stanhope;
Cowper was chancellor, Marlborough commander-in-chief,
Wharton privy seal, Sunderland lord lieutenant of Ireland,
Nottingham president of the council, Walpole paymaster of
* [In order to show the manner in which the house of Hanover
came to the throne of England, it may be well to repeat that George I.
was son of Sophia, wife of Ernest Augustus, elector of Hanover; Sophia herself being daughter of Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, daughter
of James I. of England. The crown was settled upon this branch of
the original stock, (see ante, p. 421,) as being the nearest in direct de.
ucent professing the protestant faith. —J. T. S.]




154              HISTORY OF ENGL IND.
the forces, etc. The treasury and admiralty were put in
commission, with Halifax and Orford at their heaa.
It has been usual to condemnithe king and his advisers
for thus giving power exclusively to a party; but what other
course could they pursue?  The experience of the two last
reigns (which all subsequent experience his confirmed) had
shown the ffitility' of' attempting to goverf  by a co'alition
ministry; and when a preference must be given to one party
or the other, no one surely will blame the king for preferring
his friends to, if not his enemies, his lukewarm  supporters.
The tories, if they recollected their own conduct in 1710,
had little right to complain;- at the same time it must be
owned that the —whig's"' showed' too' vinidi'c'ative" a spirit; but
party spirit is never moderate, and least of all could it claim
to be so at that time.
The parliament being' dissolved, a new one met, (Mar. 17,
1715.)  It proved decidedly whig, and it proceeded without
delay to the impeachment of: sobime6f'the late ministers for
the peace of Utrecht and other matters; and a committee of
secrecy, with Walpole for its chairman, was appointed to examine the papers of Bolingbroke and others which had been
seized.  When it had made its report, Walpole arose and
impeached Henry lord Bolingbroke of high-treason.  Lord
Coningsby then rose and said, " The worthy chairman of
the committee has impeached the hand; but I impeach the
head; hehas impeached the clerk, I impeach the the master;"
and he impeached Robert earl of Oxford and Mortimer of
high-treason.  On the 21st of June, Stanhope impeached the'duke of Ormond of high-treason; and next day lord Straf,
ford was impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors by'
Mr. Aislabie.  Sir Joseph Jekyl, a whig of unquestionable
honesty, was against impeaching either Oxford or Ormond,
and he spoke warmly in favor of the latter; but the spirit of
the commons was not to be controlled.  Bolingbroke and
Ormond both fled to the continent; Oxford more manfully
stood his ground, and was committed to the Tower.
The subsequent fate of these nob'lemen was as follows:
Bolingbroke repaired to the court'of the Pretender, which
was at Commerci in Lorraine, and became his secretary of
state.  He exerted all his abilities in the service of that
prince-;' but the' factions of the' petty court proving too
* Boilingbroke, in his' Letter to, Sir William'Wyndham,' says that
it had:been the intention of himself' and his, party " to. fill tihe employs
meats of the kingdom, down t.the meaaiest, with- tories."




GEORGE I.                    455
tron:l foir hirr he was'charged witlh treachery, and disnissedJ
LHe then bent all his efforts to procuring the reversal of his
attainder in England, which' he, at; length obtained, (1723.)
Ormond, against whom nothing could be proved, unwisely
followed the example of Bolingbroke, and was: like him attainted;: he remained to the end, of his life in the cheerless
court of the Pretender, almost its solitary ornament. Oxford,
after lying two years in the Tower, took occasion of a new modification of the ministry to petition for his trial being brought
on. All the customary. solemn preparations were made for
it; but a disagreenlent arising between the two houses, the
commons refused to proceed with their impeachmerit, and
the peers acquitted the earl, who, howeverj was excepted
from an act of grace then passed, of which the' only consequence to him was a prohibition to appear at court.!
Meantime the Pretender and his partisans were secretly
preparing to make an effoirt for' the overthrow of tile new
government.  The earl of Mar, disgusted at the manner in
which- his' declaration of loya'ty' had been received: by the
king on' his landing, and alai'ned at- the; vindictive spirit
shown by the whigs, lent an ear to the agents of the Pretender, retired to the Highlands, and in concert with some
noblemen and chiefs-of clans, raised the standard of James
IHI. (Sept. 6.). Two vessels arrived with arms, ammunition,
and officers' from France, and' he was soon at the head of
1O,000'men. The government proceeded to act with great
vigors; the Jlrabeas Corpus was suspended, and' several suspected- noblemen and members of the house of commons
were arrested.' The death at this conjuncture:of Louis XIV.
was a great prejudice to the cause of the- Pretender; for the
duke of Orleans, who: became regent for the minority of
che young king; founid it hisi interest. to attach himself to the
house of Brunswick.
While Mar had his head-quarters at Perth,' and the duke
of Argyle, who commanded the royal forces, lay at Stirling,
the Pretender was'proclaimle'd in the north of England' by the
earl of Derwentwater and' Mr. Forster, who were joinledby
the Scottish lords Wintoun, Nithisdlle, Carnw'ath, and KenI1muir.  At Kelso -they were reinforced by a body of Highlanders sent by' Mar, under the command of brigadier Mackmntosh.  They thence proceeded to Penryth, where the posse'
coxmitaths of- Cumberland fled' at their' approach, and advanceed till'they- reached Preston in. Lancashire; but herethevywere assailed by the'roval troops:under- generals- Willis:




456              HISTORY:OF ENGLAND.
and Carpenter, and obliged to surrender at'discretion,
(Nov. 13.)
The very day of the surrender at Preston a battle was.fought between Argyle and Mar. As the latter was pre.
paring to march southwards, the duke advanced from Stirling
and spread his camp from the village of.Dunblaine to the
Sheriff-muir. His forces did not exceud 4000 men, while
the army with which Mar attacked him amounted to 9000
The left wing of the royalists.was in the short space of
seven minutes routed and driven off the field by the clansmen; but the right wing, led by the duke in person, defeated and chased the left of the.enemy. When the victorious
troops on each side returned from the pursuit, they found
themselves facing each other, each occupying the ground
held by the other previously. They remained. inactive till the
evening, when the duke retired. to Dunblaine and the rebels
to Ardoch. Next morning the duke returned and carried
off the wounded and four pieces of cannon left by the enemy. The loss was five hundred slain on each side; each
claimed the victory, but it was really on the side of the duke.
Mar returned to Perth, and soon after (Dec. 22) the Pretender himself landed at Peterhead, and having been proclaimed, issued proclamations and received addresses as he
passed through Aberdeen, Dundee, and Scone. He joined
the army at Perth, and his coronation was fixed for the 23d
of January, (1716;) but ere that day arrived, the intelligence
)f Argyle's being strongly reinforced had convinced his supporters of the hopelessness of resistance.  The Pretender
therefore, with the lords Mar, Melford, and some others, got
aboard a French vessel;at Montrose, and' standing for the
coast of Norway to. escape the English cruisers, arrived
within five days safely at Gravelines.: The rebel army was
disbanded at Badenoch; the common people retired to their
homes; most of the leaders escaped to France.
The.noblemen who surrendered at Preston were impeached for high-treason, (Jan. 10.)  They all pleaded guilty except Wintoun. Derwentwater, Kenmuir, and Wintoun were
beheaded; Nithisdale escaped in! woman's clothes brought
by his mother the-'night before the day appointed for his
execution:; the lives: of the rest were spared. Four other
rebels were hanged in London, and twenty-two. at Preston
and Manchester. Jacobite writers talk of.the barbarities
exercised by:the. government as akin to those of Marius. and
Sulla; but surely rebellion is not to- go unpunished, and it




GEORGE 1.                    45"
would be difficult to show one in which less blood had been
shed after its suppression than this.  We may remind theim
of' Jeffleys' Campaign.'
As. by the act for. triennial parliaments the actual one
would determine in 1717, and the ministry thought it unsafe
to hazard a general election in.the present unsettled state of
the public mind, they resolved to bring in a bill for repealing
that act and extending the duration of parliament to seven
years  The measure was introduced in the lords by the
duke of Devonshire, (Apr. 10,) on the grounds that triennial
elections kept up party divisions, caused family feuds and
ruinous expense, and occasioned the intrigues of foreign
princes.  After a severe debate it passed the lords by a majority of 96 to 61: in:the commons also the tories put forth
their utmost strength; but the final majority in its favor was
264 to.1,21. The Septennial Bill received the high approbation of lord Somers, and it was regarded by competent judges
as the foundation of the power of the house of commons.
But the tories were at that time, and the democrats since
are, bitter in their hostility to it. To say, as has been done,
that it was unconstitutional, is absurd; before the passing of
the triennial act, parliaments sat as long as the king pleased,
and it surely was competent to the legislature to repeal that
act and return to the ancient course. It also seems to be
supposed that the commons, like the Long Parliament, assumed an independent power and prolonged their existence by
their own authority;, but they only acted as.a branch of the
legislature, and the bill did not even originate in their house.
A dissolution would have exposed the government to the very
evils which. it sought to shun: necessity justified a slight de.
parture from the strict rules of the constitution, and the
ready acquiescence of the nation in the measure testified
their approvdi of it. It continues still:to be the law; custom
has made six years to be the period of a parliament; but
few last so long, and we have seen nothing in the arguments
against it which hold out any advantage from a substitution
of triennal or annual parliaments.
The. leading persons at this time in the minitry were lord
Townshend, the secretary, and Walpole, now chancellor of
the exchequer; Halifax and Wharton were dead, and Nottinglham had been dismissed and was gone back to the tories.
Marlborough was totally. without influence: his son-in-law,
Sunderland, now privy seal,.was discontented; he intrigued
with ~he tories, he secured several leading whigs, and, to be
vOL. II,     39                     FF F




453               HISTORY OF' ENGLAND.
thie more' certain'of the overthrow of the two millisteri;he:
paid court to' the Hanoverian.Julto.'iThis junto was composed of mistresses and ministers.
The king's: wife, the princess Sophia, of Zell, was: languishing:-in the castle of Alden, iri which she had been confined'
in the time' of his father, on a charge of adultery, generally
thought to be false. In her' plae George had two mistresses,;
the baronesses of' Schulenburg' and- Kilmanseck.  The for|mer, wholm:he is said to have espoused with the left hand; was
tall and thin, with little or' no beauty, but she had great influence over himl; he made her duchess of Munster- in Ireland, and in: 1718 duchess of Kendal in England.  In  rapacity she was'a perfect harpy, and so venal, that Walpole said:
she would have sold the king's honor for a shilling, advance
to the highest bidder:. Yet she affected great relig-ion,- often:
appearing at several ILutheran:chiapels in the same day.. The'
other was a young and handsome. woman till she became
enormously fat; the- king made her countess -of Leinster, and
then of Darlington in- England, but she never possessed the
l  same influ'ence as her rival. The minister s were baron' Bothmar, who had beenl the Hanoverian agent in England in the
late reign; count Bernsdorf, on whom the king chiefly- relied: in foreign affalirs-; and Robethon, a French refugee, his
French secretary, a: clever' intriguer.
Mistresses- and: ministers' were alike rapacious and venal; they panted after English estates and English titles, but
the Act of Settlement stood in the way; and Walpole and
Towushend resisted their; attempts: With vigor.  They' there-'
fore, hated these'rministers, and readily coalesced' with Sunderland.  This- artful intriguer had also the address to detach secretary Stanhope from his friends Townshend andV Walpole, and at length (1717) these ministers resigned, and a new
cabinet was: formed' with:Stanhope, now an' earl, at its head,
tnd Sunrderland and- the celebrated Joseph Addisdn secrearies of state.
The; two: principal; measiures of the Stanhope' administraiion were the peerage-bill and the South-sea-bill, both of
which were' strenuously opposed; by: Walpole, the former
with' success..The  object of Sunderland, With whom  the peerage-bill
prince of Wales; with whom:- he was at enmity, by clipping:the pterogative of the crown, and to increase: his:own'
influenced in' th:e: house of peers by an enlargement of'theii
I __ _ _ _   __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
1 ----------------------------                             ~~~~~~~~




GEORGE I.                    459
power and dignity.  It was propoied by-this bill to limit the
house' of lords, afterl a creation of six peers, to- its actual
mumber, and to;give the Scots twenty-five! hereditaryl instead
of sixteen- elective members.  The bili on- its first introduction into the. house of lords, (Mar. 2, 1719,) met with a most
favorable receptioi, its only strenuous opponent' being lord
Cowper.  On the third reading, however, earl Stanhope
deemed it advisable to' withdraw it for the present,-on. account of the opposition to it out of doors.  In the next
session it was' brought in again,- (Nov. 25,) having-been prev.iously noticed in the speech from the throne.  It passed in
lie lords, of course, by a large majority, as its object was to
increase the power of that house, but it met a very different
reception in the commons.  As the whigs' had been vehement in their; reprehension of the' abuse of the prerogative
in this matter in the late- reign, it seemed at first that they
could not consistently oppose this limitation of it;' but Walpole showed them so clearly the ill: effects of it, that they
agreed to resist it in the commons'. On the second reading
in: that house,. (Dec. 8,) Walpole rose, and thus began:
"Among the Romans the temple of Fame was placed behind the temple of Virtue, to denote that there was no
cominog to the temple of Fame but through that of Virtue.
But if this bill is passed: into: a law, one of the most powerful incentives to virtue would be:taken away, since6 there
would: be no arriving at honor but through the- winding-sheet
of an old decrepit lord, or the grave of an extinct noble'family."  He then proceeded to expose in a masterly manner
the motives of the proposers, and the ill effects' likely' to result' fromn the' measdre; and the influen'ce of his eloquence
was such, that the bill was rejected' by' a majority of 269 to
177, and the attempt has never been renewed.  If it had
passed, the house of lords would have presented the anomaly
of being the only: branch';of the legislature without a constitutional check, and it might from factiousness or obstinacy
have: at times impeded' the action of government.  The
crown has since tended toward the opposite extreme, and'he strength of the house of peers has been' weakened by
dilution.
The: South-sea Company owed its origin to a project of
Harley's, in 1711, for clearing off the public debt.  A large
portion of this debt- was' funded,' and the ptoprietors were
formed into a company, who were to have the'monopoly of:a
trade to the Spanish' colonies'on the coast of the Souith sea,
but: the: court of Spain- refused to sanet ion'that trade, and
I




460              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the only advantage which the company enjoyed was the Asi; 
ento. In 1720, a plan was arranged between the ministers       i
and the directors of the company for reducing all the irredeemable annuities to a redeemable form, payment to be
undertakien by the company on being assured of certain advantages.  The measure was introduced in the commons by
Mr. Aislabie, the chancellor of the exchequer; as the house
resolved to admit of competition, the bank offered to advance
to government 5,500,000l., but the company was determined
not to be outbid, and they agreed to give 7,567,5001. Walpole spoke in favor of the bank, and exposed the fallacy of
the Sotth-sea scheme, and, Cassandra-like, accurately fore-    i
told the evils that would ensue if it were adopted.  But the
house was dazzled, and voted in its favor by a majority of
more than three to one. The opposition of earl Cowper and
others in the lords was equally fruitless, and the bill received
the royal assent, (Apr. 7.)
To raise the sum to be advanced, the company were empowered to open books of subscription, grant annuities, etc.
Forthwith every engine was set at work to delude the public; mysterious reports were spread of secret treasures in
America, where ports were to be given to the English; and
as the wealth of Peru and Mexico had always been thought
inexhaustible, men were ready to believe any thing respecting
it. To keep up the delusion, the directors began to vote
dividends of 10, 20, nay, of 50 per cent. It was also reported that the company, by being the sole national creditor,
would be able to dictate to parliament, and thus rule the
country. The most uncalculating of all passions perhaps is
avarice; the splendid bait was greedily'swallowed.  The
stock which at Christmas had been at 126, rose on the open
ing of the first subscription (Apr. 14) to 325, and finally
(Aug. 26) reached 1.000 ter cent   The mania was univer
sal; all sects and parties were smnitten alike. "Exchangealley," says Smollet, " was filled with a strange concourse
of statesmen and clergymen, churchmen and dissenters,
whigs and tories, physicians, lawyers, and tradesmen, and
even with multitudes of females."
Other bubbles, as they were afterwards called, rapidly rose
and danced in prismatic radiance before the public eye.
There was the Welsh Copper Company, with the prince of
Wales at its head; the York Building Company, with the
duke of Chandos, etc.; there was a company for making
quicksilver malleable; one for the trade in human hair;
another for importing jackasses from  Spain. The whole




GEORGE.                     161
number of these bubbles was nearly two hundred.  Any one
who recollects the American mining projects of 1824, the
joint-stock companies in their train, the knavery, the cupidity, the gullibility then exhibited, can form some conception
of the bubbles of 1720, and perhaps will doubt of the vaunted' march of intellect.'
Every bubble must burst sooner or later.  The directors
of the grand one would have a monopoly of the public creaulity; they applied for writs of. Scire facias against Ihe directors of the others, and thus suppressed them   But in
the process they let some light in on the general b- bble system, and the public awoke from its dream of fairy-treasures.
The stock began to decline, and so rapid was the panic that
by the eni of September it was down to 150.  Ruin now
was widely spread; goldsmiths and bankers who had lent
money on the stock stopped payment; thousands saw themselves reduced from comfort to beggary., The Bank, at the,
instance of Walpole, made an effort to sustain the credit of
the company; but alarmed at the magnitude of the danger,
it soon drew back in dismay.*
Sunderland, unable to keep his engagements with the
junto, had been obliged to seek a reconciliation with Townshend and Walpole.  They were now again in the cabinet,
and the latter was regarded as the only man who could alleviate the evil done by the South-sea bill.  Accordingly,
when parliament met, he introduced a bill for transferring
nearly one half of the South-sea stock to the Bank and East
India Company on certain conditions.  This bill was passed,
and by means of it and some other measures public confidence was restored.
A select committee being appointed for the purpose of inquiry, the whole tissue of iniquity was displayed.  Fictitious
stock, to the amount of 574,0031., had, it appeared, been created, and given to those who had influence to promote the
bill.  Among these were the two mistresses and Sunderland,
Aislabie, and secretary Craggs and his father. By the exertions of Walpole, Sunderland was acquitted; death saved
the two Craggs from the vengeance of parliament, but the
estate of the father was confiscated, as also was that of
Aislabie, who, with Sawbridge and some other members, was
expelled the house.  The estates of sir John Blount, the
i i'       * WT dlpole, determined to profit by the folly he could not restrain,
bought stock, and by selling when it was at 1000 gained a large sum of
money. The duke of MAariborough in.ik? manner made 100,0001.
I,  s.            ~~~3  9




162              HISTORY OF ENGI AND.
original projector of the scheme, and of the other gcvernors
directors, and officers of the company, were also confiscated.
and- the proceeds applied to the relief of the sufferers.
Sunderland, on account of the odium under which he lay,
folund it necessary to resign; earl Stanhope, in consequence
of the warmth with which he repelled an imputation the
duke of Wharton cast on him  in the.house of lords, was
seized with a pain in the head, and the following evening he
breathed his last, lamented by the king, and honored and regretted by the nation.  The reins of government therefore
again fell into the hands of Town,3hend and Walpole, the
fornmer becoming secretary, the other first lord of the treasury, (Apr. 2, 1721.)  Sunderland, who possessed the favor
of the king, continued to intrigue against them.;His death
just a year. after freed them from his machinations. He was
an able man, but restless, insidious, proud, and overbearing.
Shortly after the death of Sunderland, his father-in-law,
John duke of Marlborough, was also consigned to the tomb,
(June 16, 1722.)  This illustrious man had been early
placed in the licentious court of Charles II., where it wasi
almost impossible to escape pollution; but a marriage of
affection with a virtuous and beautiful woman, Sarah Jennings, his subsequent fidelity to whom was never even suspected, saved him from the effects of the tainted atmosphere.
He early showed his passion for a military life, and he served
with great reputation in the English auxiliary force under
Turenne in 1672 and the following years.  In the war of the
Succession, he placed himself on a line with the greatest
generals of ancient or modern times. He was nearly equally
eminent as a statesman.  A  leading trait in his character
was humanity; he really cared for his soldiers, and their
familiar name for him,'Corporal John,' proved their confidence and affection.  He had a profound sense of religion;
divine service was regularly performed in his camp, and he
strongly discountenanced all licentiousness and profaneness.
In manners he was highly polished, and had a most perfect
command of temper.  ks a husband, father, friend, and
master, he was without reproach.  Frugality carried to the
extent of parsimony and a strong appetite tor wealth was his
great fault.  His desertion of his patron James II., and his
subsequent secret correspondence with him, have exposed his
character to much reproach.  Perhaps the solution will be
found in Marlborough's firm adhesion to the protestant religion, combined with his attachment to the person of the
exiled monarch.  At all events, his conduct was not more




,GEORGE 1.                    463
extraordinary than that of many other eminent mer. tt the
time.
The hopes of the Jacobites had been excited by:th:e dis.
content produced by the South-sea project, and they prepared to mlake an effort in favor of the Pretender.  Secret
information of their designs is said to have been given by
the French regent.  The plan was to be the usual one of a
foreign invasion,. combined with a domestic insurrection.
Atterbury bishop of Rochester, tle Iords. Ossory, North,
and Grey, with several persons of inferior rank, were arrested.  A barrister named Sayer was convicted of treason,
and executed for having enlisted men for the Pretender.  A
bill of pains and penalties vwa passed against the bishop,
and he was sentenced to be deprived and banished: he forthwith entered the service of the Pretender, and became a
medium of communication with the disaffected in England
and Scotland.  Atterbury was a proud, restless, ambitious
high-churchman,. but. he was constant to his religion; he was
a man of learning and taste, thefriend and patron of Pope
and the wits of the day, whose eulogies have given him a
reputation of which he was not altogether deserving.
The remaining years of the reign of George I. passed
away in tranquillity.  The chief domestic event was the
impeachment (1724) of the earl of Macclesfield, lord chancellor, for selling at exorbitant rates the offices of mastersin-chancery, and for embezzling the properties of widows,
orphans. and lunatics.  He was convicted and sentenced to
pay a fine of 39,00/1.  His successor in office was sir Peter
King, the lord chief-justice, now created baron King of Ocklamn ix: Surrey.*
The ancient order of the Bath was revived at this time.
(1725.)  Walpole was one of the knights, and he henceforth
styled himself sir Robert Walpole; soon after (1726) he
was invested with the -ribbon of the order of the garter, an
honor which had been since the accession of the Stuarts
reserved to the nobility.  His son had already (1723) been
created a baron; for Walpole declined the honor for himself
feeling his sphere to be the house of commons.
The foreign transactions of this pacific reign (lo not offer
much to interest.  The acquisition for Hanover of Bremen
and Verden, the property of the crown of Sweden, by purchase from the king of Denmark, caused the English morn* That distinguished nobleman earin Cowper, who had been twice
lord chancel r, died in 17'23.




464              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
arch (1715) to join in the coalition against Charles X.I,)
who in return prepared to aid the Pretender; but the death
of the Swedish king (1717) removed all apprehension from
that quarter.  Mutual interest caused an alliance between
the king of England and the regent of France; and when
the aspiring genlius of cardinal Alberoni, the prime minister
of Spain, aimed at recovering the Italian dominions of the
monarchy, the'Quadruple Alliance' was formed (1718)
between England, France, the Empire, and Holland, to
}maintain the peace of Utrecht. Sir George Byng was sent
with an English fleet into the Mediterranean, where he
totally destroyed a Spanish fleet of twenty-seven sail of the
line off the coast of Sicily. For this brave action he was
created  viscount Torrington.  At a subsequent period,
(1725,) when the Imperial and Spanish courts had formed
the treaty of Vienna, those of France and England, with
Holland, Prussia, Denmark, and Sweden, to counteract its
supposed secret articles, entered at Hanover into a treaty of
defensive alliance for fifteen years. A British fleet under
admiral Hosier was sent to blockade the galleons in the
ports of Spanish America; but his men perished with disease, his ships were destroyed by the worms, and he himself
died of chagrin or malady.
In 1727 George I. left England as usual for Hanover,
whither he was in the habit of going every year. On the
road between Delden and Osnabrick, he was seized with
paralysis, and he died before he reached the latter place.
(June 11,) in the 68th year of his age.
CHAPTER  II.
GEORGE 11
1727-1760.
GEORGE II. was in the 45th year of his age when he as.
cended the throne; his character was therefore generally
known and appreciated.  In person he was small, but well
proportioned; he possessed a large portion of natural couiage, was regular and methodical in his habits, and capable
af great app/ cation to business; his temper was irascible




GEORGE 11.                   465
tlnd obstinate; his manner reserved and cold. Like his
father, his predilections were German, and he viewed the
interests of his kingdoms as subordinate to those of his
electorate. To his queen, Caroline of Anspach, a woman
of very superior mind, he was devotedly attached, and deferred implicitly to her judgment; yet he was faithless to
her, and the court of England continued to exhibit the spectacle of royal mistresses in the persons of lady Yarmouth
and Mrs. Howard; but the king- allowed them no influence
whatever in affairs of state.
It had been supposed that the accession of George II.
would be followed by a change of administration; even
Bolingbroke was not without hopes of attaining to power.
The king, when prince, had taken offence at some expressio:s used by Walpole, and had declared that he would
never employ him, and that minister now regarded his dismnissal as certain. George had actually fixed on sir Spencer
Compton for his prime minister, and his obstinacy was well
known; yet after all Walpole retained his post and held it
for many years. For this he was indebted to the queen,
who knew his abilities; she recollected that the late king
had said to her that Walpole could "convert stones into
gold."  Walpole also engaged to obtain from the commons
an augmentation of 13),0001. to the civil list, and a jointure
of 10,0901. a year for the queen; and as Compton candidly
avowed his own incompetence for the situation, the king
gave up his purpose; the ministry remained unchanged, and
Walpole, when the new parliament met, performed his engagements to the king and queen.
Walpole continued to be the moving power of government for a space of nearly fifteen years, during which period
England enjoyed tranquillity.  Cardinal Fleury, who governed France, was a decided lover of peace; and though
Hanover was the means of engaging England in the mlazes
of German politics, there'was no war till toward the close
of Walpole's administration, when hostilities broke out with
Spain. We will therefore  avert our view from  foreign
affairs, and confine ourselves to the leading domestic events
during the first two periods of his ministry, namely, from
the king's accession to the resignation of lord Townshend,
(1730,) and thence to the death of the queen, (1737.)
The ministerial majority in the house of commons was
considerable; but there was a strong opposition composed
of three sections. These were, the discontented whigs,
headed ly William Pulteney, a man of high character and
GGG




466             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
great abilities, supported by sir John Barnard, Sandys, Pitt,
Littleton, and the Grenvilles; the tories, about 1L10 in number, chiefly country gentlemen, led by sir William Wyndham; and the Jacobites, who counted fifty, under the able
and honest Shippen. The principal supporters of the minister were his brother Horace Walpole, lord Hervey, sir
William Yonge, Henry Pelham, and Mr. Winnington. In
the'Craftsman,' a periodical conducted by Bolingbroke,
aided by Pulteney, the opposition had a powerful organ of
offenllce.
Various attacks were made on the ministry on the subjects of the standing army (the great bugbear of the age)
and the subsidies paid to some of the petty sovereigns of
Germany; but they were always repelled by numbers if
not by arguments. On the subject of pensions the minister
felt his position less tenable, and he found it necessary to
vary his tactics.
There were already acts incapacitating the holders of pensions from sitting in the house of commons; but they had
proved useless, as government would not tell who had pensions, and the amount of secret service money was consid.
erable. Mr. Sandys therefore brought in a bill, (1730,) by
which every member was to swear that he did not hold a
pension, and that, in case of his accepting one, he would
make it known to the house within fourteen days. This the
king called a "villanous bill;" but Walpole would not
incur the odium of opposing it, and it passed the commons
by a majority of ten. But, as he expected, it was thrown
out in the lords, and its fate was similar whenever it was
brought in again.
Shortly after the rejection of the pension-bill a partial
change took place in the ministry. Lord Townshend and
Walpole, though brothers-in-law, had been for some time
at variance on questions of foreign and domestic policy:
their tempers were opposite; the former being frank,
haughty, and impetuous; the latter cool, calm, and pliant.
They have, not unaptly, been compared to Mark Antony
and Augustus, lady Toutishend being their Octavia. But
she was now dead; and Townshend, finding his influence
inferior to that of Walpole, gave in his resignation. He
retired to his paternal seat of Rainham  in Norfolk, where
he devoted himself to agriculture, and abandoned politics
so completely that he never even revisited the capital. The,      two secretaries now were Pelham, duke of Newcastle, and
Starnhope, lately created earl of Harrington.




GEORGE II.                   467
Sir Robert Walpole far outwent his contemporaries in the
knowledge of the true principles of finance and trade; and
having had ample information of the ruinous extent to which
the practice of smuggling had been carried in consequence
of the defective state of the laws of the customs, he formed
a grand scheme of abolishing the land-tax, preventing fraud,
increasing the revenue, and simplifying the taxes and collecting them at the least possible expense. This was what was
called the Excise-scheme, of which Dean Tucker, a most
competent judge, asserts that the effect would have been
the making "the whole island one general free port, and
a magazine and common storehouse for all nations."
Walpole's plan, which he introduced in an uncommoi y
able and lucid speech, (Mar. 7, 1733,) was in effect what is
now termed the warehlousing and bonding system, of the advantages of which no one can have a doubt.  He confined
himself to the article of tobacco; proposing that it should,
when imported, be deposited in warehouses after paying a
small duty, the remaining duty to be paid when the article
was sold, thus converting custom into excise. Nothing, it is
plain, could be more rational than this plan; yet never did a
measure encounter more violent opposition.  The word
excise was odious in the ears of the people, and the Craftsman had been for some time ringing the changes on the
evils and dangers of it; those engaged in the smuggling
trade were numerous beyond conception; the opposition,
ignorant or factious, exerted themselves to the utmost, and
recurring, after a long interval, to the tactics of 1641 for
getting up a "pressure from  without," they actually employed the parish-officers to procure a large number of
people to assemble about the house to overawe the supporters of the minister.  Walpole furnished a handle to his
opponents by giving in his speech their true name, that of
sturdy beggars, to these supplicants, who were near tearing
him to pieces as he was leaving the house.
The minister's motion for a repeal of the subsidy and additional duty on tobacco was carried by a majority of 61;
but so many of his supporters were daunted by the popular
clamor, that though the bill was read a first time, he re.
solved to abandon it. At a meeting of his party, where the
general voice was for perseverance, he said, that "in the
present inflamed temper of the people, the act could not be
carried into execution without an armed force; that there
would be an end of the liberty of England if supplies were
to be raised by the sword;" and that if they persisted, he,             ___                               ___________________________  J




468             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
would resign. This declaration ended the affair; the bil.
was abandoned; rejoicings and illuminations took place all
over the kingdom; the minister was burnt in effigy; cockades were worn inscribed with "Liberty, property, and no
excise." Even the university of Oxford joined in the
triumph of ignorance, prejudice, self-interest, and brute
force over legislative wisdom.
As the earl of Chesterfield and several other noblemen
who held posts under the crown had of late opposed the
minister, he resolved to let them feel his power, and they
were dismissed. Among these were lord Cobham and the
duke of Bolton, whom he deprived of their regiments. The
self-styled patriots took occasion forthwith to show their willingness to sacrifice the constitution to their spleen against
the minister, and lord Morpeth moved for leave to bring in
a bill for preventing officers above the rank of colonel from
being deprived of their commissions otherwise than by judgment of court-martial or an address of either house to the
throne. This was warmly opposed and defended; Walpole
exposed the danger -of it and the stratocrasy or military
despotism to which it would lead, and its advocates did not
venture to come to a division on it.
The opposition now began their assaults on the Septennial-act, which they henceforth annually renewed. On this
occasion, (Mar. 13, 1734,) sir William Wyndham delivered
his well-known philippic, which owes its fame to its personalities against Walpole and the king. The minister, in
reply, drew an extemporary portrait of Bolingbroke, of whom
Wyndham was the puppet, and so satisfactorily answered all
his arguments, that the bill was rejected.
In 1736 a remarkable tumult took place in the city of
Edinburgh. A smuggler, named Wilson, was hanged in
the usual place, and as the executioner was cutting him
down, the populace rushed forward to get possession of the
body. They assailed the city-guard  with stones, whose
captain, named Porteous, being struck himself, ordered his
men to fire, and five of the mob were killed. For this,
Porteous was tried and condemned to death; but as there
was only a majority of one in the jury against him, and there
were extenuating circumstances in the case, a reprieve was
sent down from London. The Scots are a stern, unrelenting people, and it was secretly -resolved to have his life.
The day fixed for his execution had been the 8th of September, and at ten o'clock on the preceding evening a multitude assembled, mastered the city-guard, secured the town



GEORGE II.                   469
gates to keep out the military, broke open the Tolbooth
prison, dragged out Porteous, hung him from a dyer's pole
in the Grass-market, and then silently dispersed.  Rewards
were offered in vain, for no discoveries were ever made.
Two events of great importance to the royal family occurred in the year 1737- a quarrel between the king and          i
the prince of Wales, and the death of the queen.
From the Revolution down to the present day, it seems to
be like a principle of the constitution that the heir to the
throne should be at enmity with its possessor. The cause
of this is perhaps rather to be found in human nature, and
in the state of political parties, than in a moral obliquity of
the house of Brunswick. The actuating cause has usually
been, the prince of Wales's desire for an increase of income,
the opposition assuring him that he is ill used, and promising to aid him  in obtaining it. So it was in the present
case; Frederick prince of Wales, who was lately married to
a princess of Saxe Gotha, affecting to think that his income
of 60,000l. a year was not sufficient, Pulteney moved an
address to the king to settle on him 100,0001. a year. It
was opposed by the minister, but would have been carried;
were it not for the honorable conduct of forty-five of the       i
tories, who, viewing it as unconstitutional, and (rare case!)
preferring principle to party, quitted the house in a body
before the division. The breach between the king and
prince now became irreparable.
On the 20th of November queen Caroline breathed her
last. The cause of her death was a rupture, which false
delicacy caused her to conceal till it was too late. This
excellent princess was a pattern of all the public and private
virtues. During the king's frequent absences on the continent she held  the reins of government, which always
were committed to her, with a firm  and steady hand; sincerely religious, she attended carefully to the interests of the
church, and the names of Hoadley, Clarke, Butler, Seeker,
and others favored or preferred by aer, speak her praise.
The king was deeply affected by her death, and in her Walpole lost his main support.
The state of internal and external tranquillity which that
minister made it his task to maintain, was not allowed to
continue. For many years the merchants had been making
complaints of the injuries.done to our trade in the Wesl
Indies by the right of search for contraband goods exercised
by tile Spanish Guarda-costas, or guardships, and the cruel
treatment experienced by our mariners. Various attempts
VOL. II.     40




470             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
were made by Walpole to settle the matter by negotiation,
at length (1739) he found it necessary to yield to the public
will, and war was formally declared against Spain.
Admiral Vernon, a brave but presumptuous and self-suff
ficient officer, who commanded in the West Indies, with a
squadron of six ships-of-war took, plundered, and destroyed
Porto Bello, (Nov. 21.)  His success having given a false
idea of his abilities, he was selected to command an expedition on a large scale against Carthagena, having on board
a body -f land-forces under general Wentworth. It, however, proved a total failure.
A squadron, under commodore Anson, had been sent to
sea in September, (1740,) in order, to attack the Spaniards
in the Pacific ocean. The history of this celebrated voyage
must be familiar to the minds of most persons. We need
therefore only notice the dreadful ravages committed by the
scurvy; the furious tempest encountered in the straits of Le
Maire, in which the Wager was wrecked, and the Pearl and
the Severn forced to return to Rio Janeiro. After a short
stay at the island of Juan Fernandez to recover his men,
Anson, with his two remaining ships, the Centurion and
Gloucester, proceeded along the coast of Peru capturing
the Spanish traders, and he took and burned the town of
Paita. To capture the galleons from  Manilla, he sailed
with the Centurion alone (being obliged to burn the Gloucester) across the Pacific. He stopped to refresh his crew at
the isle of Tinia:n, and then proceeded to Canton in China.
Hle afterwards captured a galleon immensely rich, and returned to England by the Cape of Good Hope, being the
first Englishman who had circumnavigated the globe since
the time of Drake.  He arrived on the 15th of June, 1744,
after an absence of nearly four years.
The success of this unjust war was not answerable to the
wishes of those who had urged it on. British trade suffered from the Spanish privateers, and the French gavesymptoms of an intention to share in the contest. The
blame of course was thrown on the minister, and the opposition now resolved to make a strenuous effort for his overthrow. Sandys moved, (Feb. 13, 1741,) after a long speech,
for an address to his majesty to remove him from his presence and councils forever; Pulteney exerted all his eloquence in favor of the motion; but the minister was supported not only by his own friends, btut by several of the
tories who regarded the motion as tending to an inquisitorial
system, and HONEST SHIPPEN left the house at the head of




GEORGE II.                   471
thlrty-four of his adherents. After an ablk eply from Walpole, it was negatived by a large majority; the same was the
fate of a similar motion in the lords.,
A dissolution succeeded. Walpole is said to have relaxed
in his usual exertions on these occasions, while all branches
of the opposition made the utmost efforts; even the Pretellder wrote, directing his adherents to labor strenuously
against the obnoxious minister. There was also a schism in
the cabinet, many of his colleagues being his secret foes
In the new parliament the proceedings on contested elec
tions (decided by party-spirit rather than justice) showed the
minister that his power was gone; and when that of Chippenham was decided against him, (Feb. 3, 1742,) he declared
to the successful candidate that he would never again sit in
that house. An adjournment followed; Walpole was created
earl of Orfobrd, (9th,) and resigned, (1Ith.) The king accepted his resignation with tears, and never ceased to repose his
confidence in him. An attempt made by a secret committee
of the commons for an inquiry into his conduct, for the purpose of fixing on him a charge of corruption and peculation,
failed. Lord Orford died of the stone, on the 16th of
March, 1745, in the 69th year of his age.
As a minister, Walpole was prudent and safe rather than
brilliant.  He loved peace; he was adverse to innovation,
but a promoter of gradual improvement; to the commerce
and revenue of the country his services were most valuable;
and his wise administration produced that national vigor
and prosperity which led to the dazzling greatness of a
future ministry. Walpole' was a stanch whig, never swerving from the principles of the revolution; he was also an
honorable man; and the charges of organizing and governing by corruption made against him are false as regards himself, libelous with respect to the nation. He had his faults,
no doubt; like a minister of our own days he heaped places
on his family, and justified his conduct in the same manner.
In his conversation lie was gross and indelicate; and he was
licentious with respect to women. He was profuse and riotous in his sty'e of living; he collected pictures at a great
expense, but he had little taste for literature, and, unfortunately for his fame, he never patronized men of letters.
The construction of the new ministry was intrusted to
Pulteney, whose movements are said to have been secretly
controlled by Walpole. The tories were excluded from it;
it was composed of Newcastle and other members of the
Walpole ministry, with lord Carteret, Sandys, and a few




172             HISTORY OF ENGLANDI
others. For himself, Pulteney would take no office; a. lihe
required was a peerage and a seat in the cabinet; and he     j
was created earl of Bath. But those who were disappointed
became his bitter enemies; he was charged with treachery
and corruption; he was lampooned in ballads; and he found
himself powerless in the cabinet. He had dearly purchased
his triumph over Walpole.
The country was now engaged in a continental war also.
The'  Silesian War,' that unprincipled attempt of Frederick
Il. of Prussia to rob the queen of Hungary of a part of her
dominions, had commenced in 1741; and as, by what was
termed the' Pragmatic Sanction,' which guarantied the succession to all his dominions to the heirs general of the emperor
Charles, the king of England was bound to supply a force
of 12,000 men, the queen now called on him to perform his
engagement. A  subsidy of 300,0001. had therefore been
granted. France having joined the confederacy against the
queen, a British army of 16,000 men, under lord Stair, was
sent to cooperate with the Austrians in Flanders; and the    i
king himself, eager for military glory, joined it in June,    I
1743. The allied forces of 40,000 men, on their march
from  Aschaffenburg to Hanau, found themselves, on appreaching the village of Dettingen on the banks of the
Main, fronted by a much larger French army, under marshal Noailles. Retreat also was cut off by the vigilance of
the French general, and nothing seemed to remain but a       i
surrender., when (June 26) the imprudence of the duke of
Grammont, the marshal's nephew, gave them an opportunity
of fighting, and the French were forced to cross the Main,   I
with a loss of from 5000 to 6000 men killed, wounded, and
taken; that of the allies amounted to about 2000. The
king of England, though now sixty years of age, had shown
all the fire and heroism of youth.
France and England were not at war as yet, but the next
year (1744) they mutually declared it. In the spring of
1745 a numerous French army under marshal Saxe, but in
which the king and dauphin were present, laid siege to
Tournay. The allies, under the duke of Cumberland, son
of the king of England, advanced to its relief. Though
their numbers were much inferior, it was resolved to attack
the French, who were posted near the village of Fontenoy.
The action began at nine in the morning, (April 30.)  The
British and Hanoverian infantry, advancing under a tremendous fire, drove the French beyond their lines; but the
Dutch failed on the left. Some errors were committed by




GEORGE Ii.                  473
the English commanders; Saxe brought up his reserve; the
English were environed; a tremendous fire of artillery was
poured on them from all parts, and they were obliged to
retire, with the loss of 10,000 men. The French purchased
their victory by a loss of men nearly equal, but they became
masters of Tournay, Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, and other
towns.
For many years the Pretender had been treated with neglect by the continental powers, but now the French cabinet
resolved to use him as a means of alarming the court of St.
James's, and perhaps causing a revolution in England, where
there was abundance of discontent and very few troops. As
the Jacobite spirit was still vigorous in the Highlands of
Scotland, it was determined to commence in that part. The
Pretender himself being old and infirm, the task of contending for the British crown was committed to his son, prince
Charles Edward, common!y called the Young Chevalier. He
sailed from France (July 14) in a small frigate, attended by
the marquess of Tullibardine and some Scottish and Irish
adventurers, and reached the Western Isles, whence he
passed over to the Highlands, and being joined by several
of the clans, he raised his standard at Glensinnen, (Aug.
19.) Sir John Cope, who commanded in Scotland, having
marched with his troops to Inverness. leaving the capital
and the southern counties defenceless, the Chevalier made
a rapid march to Perth, where his father was proclaimed
king; he then advanced to Dundee, passed the Forth near
Stirling; Edinburgh opened her gates, and he took up his
abode in Holyrood-house, the ancient palace of his fathers.
Cope, having embarked his troops at Aberdeen, landed at
Dunbar, where he was joined by two regiments of dragoons
which had retired from  Edinburgh.  His force was now
about 3000 men, and he was advancing towards the capital,
when at the village of Preston-pans (Sept. 21) he was attacked early in the morning by the Chevalier, at the head
of between 2000 and'300 of the clansmen. The rout of
the King's troops was instantaneous and complete: the dragoons fled; the infantry were all killed or taken;,he baggage, ammunition, and artillery fell into the hands of the
victors.
The Chevalier had been joined by some of the nobility,
such as lords Nairn, Strathallan, Kilmarnock, Balmerino,
and Pitsligo, and lords Elcho and Ogilvie, the sons of the
earls of Wemys and Airlie, but they were none of them
of any weight in the country. The unprincipled Simon
40*                      H H H




174             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Frazer, lord Lovat, was a man of more influence; but all
the great nobility and most potent heads of clans re nained
faithful to the government. The presbyterians were to a
man in favor of the house of Brunswick.  The Jacobite
party in England were perfectly inactive; the kingdom in
general evinced a strong feeling of loyalty; troops were recalled from Flanders; the Dutch furnished, as bound by
treaty, 6000 men; the train-bands were arrayed, and volun
teer corps were formed.
The adventurer, whose forces did not exceed 5000 men,
resolved to try his fortune in England. As Newcastle was
occupied by general Wade, he entered it by the west border,
(Nov. 6.) Carlisle surrendered. He pushed on rapidly, for
he was assured that a French force would be landed on the
south coast. At Manchester (29th) he was received with
every demonstration of joy. He thence marched to Derby,
(Dec 4,) but here his progress terminated.  He found, to
his mortification, that few had joined him, that there were
two armies superior to his own in his rear, and that, though
he might possibly defeat the train-bands and other troops
under the royal standard on Finchley-common and enter
the capital, ultimate defeat must await him. The word was
given to return, (6th;) and in, spite of all the efforts of the
royal commanders, he reached Carlisle without loss, (19th.)
Leaving there his English adherents, he hastened to Glasgow, where he levied heavy contributions. He finally fixed
his head-quarters at Perth; and, being joined by the earl of
Cromarty with 2000 men, and some others, he laid siege to
Stirling-castle. General Hawley advanced from Edinburgh
to its relief.  At Falkirk (Jan. 17, 1746) he was attazked
and routed by the insurgents, with a loss of about three
hundred men. At the approach of the royal army, under
the duke of Cumberland, the rebels raised the siege, and
the duke advanced to Aberdeen, where he remained till
April.  As the enemy was at Inverness, he crossed the Spey
and advanced to Nairn; learning there that the Chevalier
was at Culloden, about nine miles distant, he prepared for
battle. On reaching that place next day, (Apr. 16,) he
found the rebels, to the number of 4000, prepared to engage his far superior force. The battle commenced at one
o'clock, and in thirty minutes the rebels were driven off the
field. Orders had been issued to give no quarter, yet the
loss of the vanquished in killed and wounded did Iot exceed
1200 men.  The victory was tarnished by a cruelty disgraceful to the duke and his cause: numbers of innocent
_ _ _ _.




GEORGE II.                  475
people were put to death, or exposed to the brutality of a
licentious soldiery; and when, in the next month, the duke
advanced into the Highlands, the men were slaughtered, the
women violated, the cattle and provisions carried off, the
houses burnt, and the country converted into a desert.
The adventures of the unfortunate Chevalier were romantic and affecting.  A reward of 30,0001. was set on his
head; he was hunted through the mountains and islands;
he endured every kind of privation, assumed every species
of disguise; had to confide in the fidelity of people of all
oraers, yet not a single individual was so base as to betray
him - conduct which confers lasting honor on the national
character.  At length (Sept. 20) he embarked on board a
French privateer, and reached France in safety.
The earls of Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Cromarty, and
lord Lovat (that veteran in iniquity) were tried for hightreason and convicted. Cromarty was pardoned, the others
were beheaded, the last instances of decapitation in England.
About fifty persons (most of them officers) were executed in
England, and more than double that number in Scotland.
The hopes of the exiled family were now at an end; the
feelings of the British nation had been fairly tested, and
their claims had been rejected. Henceforth Jacobitism became merely a name only expressive of discontent with the
government.
Since the resignation of Walpole the prime minister had
been the able lord Carteret, now earl of Granville, but in
the end of the year 1744 he had to yield to the influence
of his colleagues, the duke of Newcastle and his brother,
Henry Pelham. The new ministry, of which Pelham was
the head, was called the' Broad Bottom,' as it included all
parties, tories as well as whigs. William Pitt, already distinguished, and soon to be glorious, now took office for the
first time, as paymaster of the forces. The lieutenancy of
Ireland was conferred on the accomplished earl of Chesterfield.
In the year 1748, a general peace was signed at Aix-la.
Chapelle; France and England remaining as they were,
the house of Austria losing, the king of Prussia being the
only real gainer. The English had in the preceding year
sustained their naval reputation by two victories, but on
each occasion they were superior in force. Admirals Anson
and Warren (May 3) engaged the squadron of M. De la Jon.
quiere, and took, after a gallant action, all the ships of the
enemy. For this service Anson was raised to the peerage,




476             HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
and Warren made a knight of the Bath. Admiral Hawke
likewise defeated (Oct. 14) the French admiral De l'Eten
deur, and took six ships of the line.' The order of the Bath
was conferred oi this gallant officer also.
A few years of peace ensued, during which England lost
by death Frederick prince of Wales and the minister Mr.
Pelham. The prince was in his forty-fifth year when he
died, of a pleurisy, (Mar. 20, 1751,) and his eldest son
George, a minor, became the heir-apparent. Mr. Pelham
died in March, 1754, sincerely regretted by the king and
people, as an able, upright, and honorable minister. His
brother, the duke of Newcastle, a man of far inferior abiliies, assumed the guidance of the administration.
Among the bills passed under the auspices of Pelham,
may be noticed that for the reformation of the calendar.
This had been done in the sixteenth century by pope Gregory XIII., but the English were too zealous protestants to
adopt a papal improvement, and they continued to begin
the year on the 25th of March, and were always eleven days
behind in their reckoning. It was now directed that the
year should begin on the 1st of January, and that the day
after the 2d of September, 1752, should be called the 14th.
By an act passed in 1752, the British Museum was formed;
the collection of sir Hans Sloane, the Harleian manuscripts,
and the Cottonian and Westminster libraries being purchased by the nation.
The original cause of the general war which ensued was
the extensive designs of the French in America. The British colonies, by their charters, were granted the whole country from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but the French, who had
settled on the St. Lawrence to the north, or on the Mississippi to the south of them, denied their claims, insisting that
their natural boundary was the range of mountains running
within 150 or 200 miles of the east coast; and they formed
a grand plan of connecting their provinces of Canada in the
north, and Louisiana in the south, by a chain of forts, and
thus cutting the English off from the great lakes, and from
the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi. The remonstrances
of the British government being disregarded both in America
and at the Tuilleries, orders werF sent out to the colonies to
employ force, and an expedition under major Washington of
Virginia proceeded to the Ohio, but they were compelled to
surrender to a superior force of French and Indians, (1754.)
Early in the next year (1755) general Braddock was sent
out to America with a body of troops, to act against the
I I




GEORGE II.                   477
French on the Ohio.  He was joined by the provincials under Washington; but he held them in utter contempt, and
would not listen to the advice of their sagacious leader
respecting the mode of carrying on war in the woods of
America.  He moved on as heedlessly as if he was marching over the plains of Germany, till one day at noon, (July
9,) when they were in the midst of the woods, the war-whoop
assailed their ears, and a heavy fire was poured on their front
and flank. The enemy was unseen; instead of trying to
dislodge them from their covert, Braddock, as if engaged
with a regular army, sought only to make his men, who were
thrown into co(nfusion, form again; at length he was mortally wounded; the regular troops then turned and fled; the
provincials formed the rear, and saved them from destruction, Washington displaying the coolness and skill of a veteran commander.
During this summer the French received a check from
general Johnson on the shore of Lake George, but the next
year (1756) they succeeded in taking Fort Oswego on Lake
Ontario, and Fort William-Henry on Lake George, and they
thus obtained the command of the whole range of the lakes
In 1756 a general war commenced. It was named the' Seven Years' War' from its duration, and it presented the
hitherto unexampled appearance of a strict union between
the houses of Bourbon and Austria, supported by Russia
and Sweden. Their opponents were England and Prussia,
whom community of interest united; France aiming at the
depression of the former, Austria seeking to recover Silesia
from the latter.
War was formally declared against France by England in
the month of May. As various acts of hostility had previously been committed, the French in their manifesto loudly
complained of British perfidy; but France had already commenced assembling an extensive army and flotilla on her
northern coast, for the invasion of England.  The English
ministry had recourse to the expedient in use for the last
half century, namely, calling in the aid of foreigners, and
a body cf Hessian and tIanoverian troops was brought over.
But while the eyes of the nation were thus fixed on the
opposite side of the channel, it was ascertained that an expedition was fitting out at Toulon. Admiral Byng was despatched (Apr. 7) to the Mediterranean, and on arriving at
Gibraltar, he learned that a French fleet of thirteen sail of
the line under M. De la Galissoniere, with transports carrying 15 000 troops, had reached Minorca, and were besieging




473              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the castle of St. Philip.  Byng, when joined by the ships at
Gibraltar, had a squadron equal in number to that of the
enemy, but from contrary winds it took him ten dlays to
reach Minorca. The British flag was still flying on St.
Philip's castle, which was gallantly defended by general
Blakeney, and next day (May 19) the French fleet was seen
to the south-east.  At noon on the following day, Byng, having the advantage of the wind, made the signal to engage,
and admiral West, who commanded the van, closed with the
enemy; but Byng, in his anxiety to preserve the line )f
battle according to the tactics of those times, did not support
him, and the French admiral bore away toward evening, and
was out of sight next morning. In a council of war, it was
resolved to return to Gibraltar to refit; the French fleet then
resumed its station off the island. Blakeney finally (June
IS) surrendered on most honorable terms, and Minorca was
thus lost to England.
A letter of Galissoniere, communicated to the Spanish
resident at London, gave the first account of Byng's action
ill England. Without looking beyond the Frenchman's gasconade, the ministry forthwith despatched admirals Hawke
and Saunders to supersede Byng and West, and send them
home under arrest. The public indignation rose to a great
height; Byng was burnt in effigy in all the great towns, and
his seat in Hertfordshire was attacked by a mob. When it
was known that Minorca was lost, various addresses from the
city of London and other places, calling for justice on the
culpable, were presented to the king, and the timid ministers
did all in their power to shift the odium from themselves
and place it on the unfortunate admiral.
Byng arrived at Portsmouth on the 26th of July.  He was
forthwith made a close prisoner, and sent under a strong
guard to the capital. He was confined in Greenwich-hospital, the brutal governor of which, admiral Townshend, shut
him tip in one of the garrets, with only a deal table and
chair in it, and had the windows and even the chimney secured with iron bars, as if the prisoner would attempt an
escape.
While Blyng lay in confinement, the press was occupied in
attacking  or defending. Dr. Samuel Johnson lent the aid
of his powerful mind to the cause of the admiral, while the
hireling pen of David Mallet (a writer of all work) was employed by the ministry to exasperate the public against him.
A change of admin:stration took place, but this did not
kffect the condition Of Byng. He was brought before a




GEORGE II.                   4'9
court-martial on board the  St. George, at Portsmouth,
(Dec. 28,) and after a long trial it was determined that he
fell under a part of the 12th Article of War, in not having
done his utmost to take or destroy the ships of the enemy
and assist those of his majesty. The penalty of this article
was death, but the court, acquitting him  of cowardice or
disaffection, strongly recommended him to mercy. But the
lords of the admiralty, in their application to the king, instead of appealing to his mercy, stated that the court doubted
the legality of the sentence, (which they did not:) the case
was referred to the judges, who decided that it was legal.
The lords of the admiralty were therefore obliged to sign a
warrant for his execution.
At noon on the appointed day, (Mar. 14,) Byng, having
taken leave of his friends, came on the quarter-deck; he
handed a paper to a friend, sat down on a chair, bandaged
his own eyes, gave the signal to the marines, and dropped
dead, pierced by five bullets; the whole transaction having
occupied only three minutes.
There never was a sentence more rigorous, if not unjust,
than that executed on Byng, who was evidently sacrificed to
political expediency, to divert the popular clamor from a
timid ministry.  It is much to be regretted that the minister
at this time should have been Mr. Pitt.
Changes of a curious nature had in fact been of late
taking place in the administration.  When in November,
17i55, the address was moved in reply to the king's speech,
in which it was stated that he had concluded subsidiary
treaties with Russia and Hlesse Cassel, Mr. Pitt arid Mr.
Legge opposed it. The former showed the absurdity of attempting to defend Hanover at a ruinous expense, and maintained that the war ought to be solely a naval one, and he
spoke in very disparaging terms of he electorate. Pitt,
Legge, and G. Grenville were therefore dismissed, (29th,)
and J. Grenville resigned.  Mr. Fox, the secretary, was then
almost the sole stay of the ministry, the duke of Newcastle
being merely the ostensible head. When the loss of Minorca had exasperated the nation, a change of ministry became
unavoidable, and in November, 1756, Pitt returned triumphantly to office as principal secretary of state; the duke of
Devonshire being first lord of the treasury, and Legge chancellor of the exchequer.  But though Pitt delivered and
supported a message to the house of commons, asking for
supplies for the maintenance of an army in Hanover, he
could not conciliate the court, and in April, 1757, he and
o __X.._.




I80              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Legge were unceremoniously dismissed, and F(s regaineG
the ascendant.  But petitions were poured in from all quarters, and the national feeling in favor of Pitt was so unequivocally manifested, that Fox would not venture to resist
it. Pitt and Legge therefore resumed their stations, Newcastle became once more the nominal chief, and Fox obtained the lucrative post of paymaster of the forces. Al
opposition in parliament was now at an end, and Pitt had the
entire conduct of the war.
His first operations, however, were eminently unsuccessful.
A powerful expedition sent in September against Rochefort,
under sir Edward Hawke and sir John Mordaunt, proved a
total failure.  q he chief blame was laid on the general, but
a court-martial acquitted him. I-le had done nothing at all;
poor Byng had only not done his utmost; yet how different
their fates!  In Germany, the duke of Cumberland, at the
head of 40,000 Hessians, Hanoverians, and Brunswickers,
being hemmed in by the French between the sea and the
rivers Elbe and Weser, actually capitulated at Closter-Seven,
and the electorate was thus given up to the French. In
America the marquess De Montcalm, governor of Canada, had taken Fort William-I-enry, on the shore of Lake
George, and thus obtained the command of the entire range
of the lakes.
The following year (175S) the tide of war'began to turn
in favor of England.  Admiral Boscawen and general Amherst took the island of Cape Breton in America. On the
coast of Africa the French settlements at the Senegal and
Goree were also reduced. Another of those expeditions to
which Mr. Pitt was so much attached was sent to the north
coast of France; it took Cherbourg and destroyed the harbor and shipping; but it failed at St. Malo.  This expedition, in which the cost was great and the damage done to
the enemy trifling, was not unaptly styled'A scheme to
break windows with guineas.'
The year 1759 is one of the most glorious in the naval
and military annals of England.  Admiral Boscawen, who
commanded in the Mediterranean, where he was blockading
the port of Toulon, being obliged to retire to Gibraltar for
water and repairs, the Toulon fleet under M. De la Clue
came out with the hope of being able to pass the Straits.
They succeeded in their object; but they were descried
off the coast of Barbary; and Boscawen, though he did not
hear of it till seven in the evening, and most of his ships
had their topmasts struck and sails unbent, by great exer




GORnGE II.                   481,ions got to sea by ten that night. Next day (Aug. 10) he
came up with them and took one ship, and the following
day, off the bay of Lagos, he destroyed the admiral's ship,
the Ocean, and three others.  Sir Edward Hawke had during the summer and autumn blockaded the port of Brest.
In November (9th) a violent gale of wind having forced him
to take shelter at Torbay, the French admiral M. De Conflans took the opportu.nity to come out; but that very day
(14th) the English fleet sailed from Torbay, and admiral
Hawke, on learning that the French were at sea, went in
pursuit of them. On the 2Oth they were seen in pursuit of
an English squadron which had been stationed in Quiberonbay. Tlhe action commenced at half past two, and in this
and the followingo day six of the enemy's ships were destroyed, the remainder escaping into the Vilaine and to
Rochefort.
But it was in America that the greatest triumph was
achieved.  General Amherst having taken the field, the
French abandoned the forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point,
on the lakes, at his approach, and that of Niagara was taken
by general Johnson. A plan had been formed for the invasion and conquest of Canada by three simultaneous expeditions which were to meet under the walls of Quebec; but
Amherst thought it too late in the season to advance, and
only one of them appeared before that city. This was the
one from Cape Breton, the fleet being commanded by admiral
Saunders, the troops by brigadier-general Wolfe, an officer,
though young, of high reputation. It reached its destination on the 26th of June, but found the French army so advantageously posted that success seemed very dubious.
The city of Quebec stands on and at the foot of a lofty
rock, which runs parallel to the river St. Lawrence; behind
it is the river St. Charles, between which and that of Montmorenci, his rear defended by dense woods, Montcalm lay
encamped with 10,000 men.
An attack on the French camp having failed, (July 31,)
the English lay for some time inactive, and the mind of their
gallant general was deeply depressed. At length he formed
the daring project of scaling the Heights of Abraham (as the
rocky plain on which the city stands is named) at its further
extremity. The troops were therefore landed in the night,
(Sept. 12,) and by the aid of the projecting rocks and trees
they attained the summit and formed in line of battle, (13th.)
Montcalm instantly led back his troops to the defence of the
town, and a smart engagement ensued  In the action both
voL, IVi    41                     I I




482              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the generals were mortally wounded.  Wolfe, as he lay expiring, hearing the cry of " They fly, they fly!" asked,
"Who fly?"  On being told the French, " Then," said he,
"I depart content," and expired. Quebec surrendered, and
in the following year Montreal capitulated to general Amherst;
and the conquest of Canada was thus completed.
In this year also was fought (Aug. 1) the great battle of
Minden, in which the English infantry covered themselves
with glory, while the blame of the victory's not being more
complete was laid on the inactivity of lord George Sackville,
who, commanded the cavalry of the right wing.  By sentence
of a court-martial in the following year this officer was dismissed the service, and his name was struck out of. the list
of privy-councillors.
The British arms were also successful at. this t me in
India. Of the ~vents in that country we shall presently have
occasion to treat consecutively.
On the 25th of October, 1760, George II. died suddenly
of an apoplectic fit at the palace of Kensington, in the 77th
year of his age.  He was succeeded by his grandson of the
isame name.
CHAPTER III.
GEORGE III.
1760-1784.
MANY circumstances conspired to give happy presages tfo
the reign of the new monarch. The fame of the nation
never stood so high; all danger from intestine commotion
was at an end, the spirit of Jacobitism being totally extinct;
the king himself, now in his twenty-third year, was English
by birth and education, had never been out of the country,
and had therefore no German predilections.  He was affable
and polished in manners, and virtuous and sincerely pious in
sentiments; but by his mother and by lord Bute, a Scottish
nobleman who had been placed about him, rather high notions of prerogative had been instilled into his mind.
The young king met his parliament on the 18th of No.
vember. In his speech from the throne he declared his
resolution of continuing the war, and called on them to aid




GEORGE IIl.                    483
him in prosecuting it. The addresses were dutiful and warlike   A civil list of 800,0001. a year was granted, the king
allowing parliament to regulate the hereditary revenues of
the crown.  When the parliament was prorogued prepara
tory to its dissolution,* (Mar. 19, 1761,) a partial change took
place in the ministry, the earl of Bute becoming secretar3
of state in place of lord Holderness, a selfish, worthless man
who received a pension and the reversion of a lucrative place
for his resignation.  Mr. Legge was dismissed, and sir Fran.
cis Dashwood, a tory, made chancellor of the exchequer in
his place.  It was the secret intention of the court gradually to form a tory administration with lord Bute at its head.
For this, among other reasons, peace was desired, as Mr.
Pitt, who was the great object of apprehension, could not
well he removed while the war lasted.
The war, however, was still prosecuted, and an expedition
under commodore Keppel and general Hodgson succeeded in taking the isle of Belleisle on the coast of Brittany,
(June 7.)  The island of Dominica in the West Indies was
also reduced.
France had hitherto been a great sufferer by the war; for
she made no progress in Germany, she had lost her colonies,
and her commerce had nearly been destroyed.  She was
therefore anxious for a peace with England, and a treaty for
that purpose was entered on; but as she required that England should abandon the king of Prussia and make certain concessions to Spain, Mr. Pitt spurned at the proposals.  A treaty, named the'Family Compact,' had been secretly arranged between the courts of Versailles and Madrid,
where Charles TII. (late king of Naples, and the only able
monarcll that Spain has possessed since the days of Philip.II.) now reigned.  It was signed at this time, and Mr. Pitt,
who, it is said, had procured secret information of its contents, which were hostile to England, proposed in the council to recall our ambassador from Madrid and to send a fleet
to intercept the Spanish galleons.  But the majority of the
council rejected the measure, affecting to regard it as contrary to good policy and to justice and honor.  Finding he
could not prevail on them, the haughty minister exclaimed,
"I was called to the administration by the voice of the
3* During this session, at the royal recommendation, the act rf Wil
lam LII. for continuing the judges during their good behavior was
extended, as by it they were liable to be removed on the demise of the
crown. Henceforth they have held their office for life, dum bene at
gesserznt




484              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
people; to them I have always considered myself accountable
for my conduct; and therefore I cannot remain in a situation
which makes me responsible for measures 1 am no longer
allowed to guide."  Lord Granville, the president, made a
dignified and sensible reply. The secretary repaired to St,
James's, (Oct. 5,) and delivered the seals to the king, who
calmly received them, expressing his agreement with the
sentiments of the majority of the council, but offering Mr.
Pitt any rewards in the power of the crown to bestow. The
minister was affected; " I confess, sir," said he, "I had but
too much reason to expect your majesty's displeasure.  i
did not come prepared for this exceeding goodness. Pardon me, sir; it overpowers-it oppresses me."  He burst
into tears.
Mr. Pitt accepted a pension of 30001. a year for three
lives and a peerage for his wife and her issue. His successor in office was lord Egremont, son of the celebrated sir
William  Wyndham.  His brother-in-law, lord Temple, retired with him.
In the autumn of this year the marriage of the king with
the princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz took place,
(Sept. 8.)  Shortly after, (22d,) the splendid ceremony of
the coronation was performed with all due magnificence. As
both the king and queen were highly moral and decorous
in their sentiments and conduct, the court now assumed an
aspect of propriety suited to that of a serious and religious
nation.
The new minister, however anxious for peace, found it
necessary to continue the war with vigor.. As the intentions
of Spain were no longer concealed, war was formally declared
against that power, (Jan. 4, 1762.)  A new change in the
British cabinet took place in the following month of May;
the duke of Newcastle resigned, and lord Bute now occupied
the post of which he was so covetous, but for which he was
utterly unfit, and became the prime minister. The duke of
Newcastle, whose fidgety temper, vanity, jealousy, meanness
of spirit, and disregard of promises were the general topics
of ridicule, had, by his great wealth, his command of votes
in the commons, a certain degree of talent of his own, and
the far superior abi'ities of his late brother, maintained him.
self in office with little interruption since the year 1724. He
now retired with some dignity; for though he had greatly
injured his private property by his zeal for the house of
Brunswick. he refused a pension when offered, saying, that
__________________________________________._.._      _It6




GEORGE III.                   485'if he could be no Ion rer permitted to serve his country, he
Was at least determineiL not to be a burden to it."
Witlh that nice regard to morality of which crowned heads
and statesmen have given so many examples, the courts of
France and Spain called on the king of Portugal to break
through all the ties of gratitude, honor, and interest, and join
in the confederacy against England.  On his refusal they
both declared war against him, and their troops invaded his
kingdom at three sevel I1 points.  The king called on England for aid, which was promptly afforded. English troops
were sent to Portugal, where the supreme command was
given to the count De la Lippe-Buckeburg, a German prince
of high military character, and the invaders were speedily
obliged to recross the frontiers.
An expedition of considerable magnitude, under lord Aloemarle and admiral Pocock, had sailed from Portsmrouth on
the 5th of March. Its object was to give a heavy blow to
the Spanish commerce; its destination was the Havanna,
in the isle of Cuba, which it reached on the 5th of June.
Many difficulties, from climate, and from the number of the
garrison, the strength of their defences, and the gallantry ol
their resistance, impeded the operations of the besiegers;
but the abilities of the commanders, seconded by the indomitable spirit and courage of their men, overcame them all,
and the town at length surrendered, (Aug. 14.) The loss to
Spain was fourteen sail of the line and four frigates taken or
destroyed in the harbor, and treasure and merchandise to
the amount of 3,000,0001. sterling.  This was perhaps the
greatest and richest conquest ever made by the British arms.
It was not, however, the only loss sustained by Spain.  An
expedition from Madras in India, under admiral Cornish and
sit William Draper, took Manilla, the capital of the Philippine islands.  All the public property was given ufp to the
English, and a ransom of four millions of dollars was agreed
to be paid for the private property.  Two ships of the Dritish squadron then intercepted and took the Santissima Trinidad, a ship from Acapulco, with a cargo worth three millions of dollars.  To add to the misfortunes of Spain, the
Santa HIermione, from Peru, with treasure on board to the
amount of a million sterling, was captured off cape St
Vinicent.
The losses of France this year were the islands of Martinique, Grenada, St. Lucia, Tobago, and St. Vincent, it
the Wast Indies.
41*




486              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
These brilliant successes almost turned the head of the
nation; visions of glory and wealth floated before the public
eye; and the mercantile interest, always selfish, (but what
interest is not?) clamored loudly for continuing a war by
which they were great gainers.  The ministry, however,
were not so dazzled; they saw that all the objects of the
war were gained, the p-:ide of the house of Bourbon was
humbled, the king of Prussia was secured; at the same time
the expense to England had been, and would be, enormous.
The overtures of France for peace were therefore readily
listened to; and both parties being in earnest, the prelimiti; a'.   naries were readily settled at Fontainbleau, (Nov. 3.)  In
~ i,   spite of the declamation of Mr. Pitt and his party, they were, i~       approved of by large majorities in both houses of parliament,
ind a treaty was finally signed at Paris, (Feb. 10, 17'63.)
By this treaty, England was to retain all Canada with
j Jo        Cape Breton and the other islands in the gulf of St. Law$i ilrence, and Louisiana eastward of the Mississippi; in the
West Indies, Dominica, St. Vincent's, and Tobago; in Africa, Senegal.  She was to receive Ainorca in exchange for
Belleisle, and was secured divers advantages in India. Spain
ceded to her the two Floridas, gave up all claim  to fish on
the banks of Newfoundland, and allowed the English to cut
logwood on the coast of [Honduras.  England restored all.' S      her other conquests.
England has never concluded a more honorable peace
than this, and lord Bute was justified in declaring that' he
wished no other epitaph to be inscribed on his tomb than
that he was the adviser of it."  Mr. Pitt, who, great as he
undoubtedly was, had too violent a lust for war, condemned
it; the selfish king of Prussia exclaimed against it, as if
i~ )England were bound to waste her blood and treasure for his
t ~        aggrandizement; but history pronounces the' Peace of Fontainbleau' an honorable termination of a war which had,!,~       added seventy-five millions to the national debt of Great
Britain.
Soon after the conclusion of the peace, lord Bute retired! B       from office.  He was never popular; his manners were cold
and repulsive; his partiality for his countrymen, the Scots,;' )was extreme; and the outcry against the peace was general.
i!        The passing of a bill for an excise on cider raised the clamor
to its height.  He therefore resigned a post for which he felt
himself unsuited, alleging his preference for domestic life!!?and literary retirement.  A new ministry, with Mr. George!!




GEORGE III.                  487
Grenville at its head, was formed.  Sir F. Dashwood was
called to the upper house as lord Le Despenser, and Mr
Fox as lord Holland.
The Grenville administration was unpopular, and it held
its power only two years. The dispute with the demagogue
Wilkes, which we shall presently relate, and the commencement of that with the American colonies, are the events
which most signalize it. In 1765, the duke of Cumberland
organized a new ministry on whig principles, with.the marquess of Rockinghain at its head. But the duke died that
very year, (Oct. 21;) the cabinet was feeble and disunited;
it had not the support of the people, and it soon lost the favor of the king. The following year. (July 12,) his majesty,
by the advice of the chancellor, lord Northington, empowered Mr. Pitt to form a ministry.
This great statesman proposed to place lord Temple at
the head of the cabinet, but to retain the appointment of all
the members of it in his own hands.  Lord Temple spurned
at such limited power, and Mr. Pitt, baffled in all his attempts to induce influential men to join him, hastily patched
up a motley cabinet, which was ingeniously compared by
Mr. Burke to an inlaid cabinet, or a tessellated pavement,
with " here a bit of blackl stone, and there a bit of white;
patriots and courtiers; king's friends and republicans; whimgs
and tories; treacherous friends and open enemies."  The
duke of Grafton was placed at the head of the treasury, Mr.
Charles Townshend was chancellor of the exchequer, the
earl of Shelburne and general Conway were the secretaries,
lord Camden was chancellor.  For himself, on account of
his ill health, Mr. Pitt selected the privy-seal, and he was
raised to the peerage by the title of earl of Chatham.  By
accepting a title lihe injured his popularity, and at length
finding that he could not rule despotically in the cabinet,
and that measures of which he disapproved were adopted in
his absence, he sent in his resignation, (1768,) and bade a
final adieu to office. In the beginning of the year 1770, the
duke of Grafton laid down his power, and lord North, eldest
son of the earl of Guilford, who had been chancellor of the
exchequer, was appointed his successor; and the administration of this nobleman lasted for twelve yea-s of the most
eventful in English history.
When the Grenville administration was formned, a tremendous fire was opened on it from the press. The most de.
structive battery was a periodical named the North Briton,
conducted by John Wilkes, Esq., member tor Aylesbury, a




488             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
man of considerable talent, who commenced a series of at.
tacks on the persons and measures of the ministers.,  01
these they took nc notice, till in the XLVth number of his
paper he assailed the speech from the throne,.(Apr. 19,
1763,) accusing the king of having uttered direct falsehoods.
A general warrant was issued from the office of the secretary
of state to seize the authors, printers, and publishers of the
North Briton, and their papers, and bring them before the
secretary.  Wilkes was accordingly taken and committed
to the Tower.  On his application to the court of comm;on
pleas for a writ of Habeas corpus, it was granted, and chiefjustice Pratt having decided that his privilege of parliament
(which can only be forfeited by treason, felony, or breach of
the peace) had been violated, he was discharged. The attorney-general then commenced proceedings against him for
a libel, and Wilkes, now the idol of the mob, took every
mode of courting prosecution. The ministers, instead of
leaving the courts of law to deal with him, unwisely brought;
the matter before the house of commons, by whom  No.
XLV. of the North Briton was voted to be a false, scandalous, and seditious libel against the king and both houses,  
and was ordered to be burned by the common hangman.            l
At the same time, as Wilkes had printed at a press in his      i
own house a poem  called an'Essay on Woman,' in which
[as was commonly asserted] impiety contended with obscenity, and had affixed to the notes on it the name of bishop
Warburton, it was voted in the house of lords to address
his majesty to order a prosecution against Mr. Wilkes for
breach of privilege and for blasphemy. It was very injudi-     i
ciously arranged that the mover should be lord Sandwich,. a
man whose own private character was any thing but immaculate.
The question of privilege was thon taken up in the house      i
of commons, and in spite of the eloquence of Mr. Pitt, and
in, the face of the decision of" the court of common pleas, it
was decided by a large majority that privilege, of parliament
does not extend' to the. case of writers and publishers of seditious libelfs.  With this decision the house of lords concurred after a long debate.
A riot took place when the attempt was made to burn the
North Briton; and when several of the persons who had
been arrested brought actions against the messengers, juries
gave- them damages; Wilkes himself brought actions against
tle two. secretaries of state, and against Mr. Wood, the un
der-secretary, and he obtained a verdict against the latter for




GEORGE TII.                  489
10001. and costs.  On this occasion chief-justice Pratt pronounced the general warrant to be illegal, and a similar decision by lord Mansfield set the question at rest.
Wilkes was expelled the house; he was tried and convicted for publishing No. XLV. and the Essay on Woman;
and as he did not appear in court to receive sentence, he was
outlawed.  He remained in France, whither he had fled, till
the duke of Grafton came into office, (176S,) when a fawning application which he made to that nobleman being treated with silent contempt, he boldly came over on the eve of
an election, and stood for the city of London. He was, of
course, the favorite of the rabblee; but, prone as that constituency generally is to favor demagogues, he was rejected.
The ministers, instead of trying to d3isarm  him by clemency,
or of crushing him at once by putting his sentence into execution, rested contentt with his lettei, to the law-officers of
the treasury pledging his honor to appear in the court of
king's bench.  He forthwith stood for Middlesex; and was
chosen by a large majority.  When he surrendered himself
he was committed to the king's bench prison; meantime the
city was kept in a constant state of terror by the riots of his
partisans.
The court of king's bench reversed Wilkes's sentence of
outlawry on account of some irregularity in it, but the two
verdicts against him were confirmed, and he was condemned
to pay two fines of 5001., and be imprisoned for two years.
Subscriptions were forthwith raised among his admirers to
pay his debts; he received abundance of presents, and his
face became the ornament of numerous signboards. Soon
after, having got hold of a letter from lord Weymnouth, the
secretary, to the Surrey magistrates, approving of their conduct in putting down a riot in St. George's-fields, in which
some lives were lost, he published it with a preface, calling
thlat affairs "a horrid massacre, and the consequence of a
hellish project deliberately planned;"- and as, at the bar of
the house, he claimed the thanks of his country for having
set " that bloody scroll" in a proper light, he was expelled
the house and a new writ was ordered for Middlesex.
Wilkes was reielected;: but the house decl'ared him ircapable of sitting during that parliament.  He was returned
again, and again his election was declared to be void.  He
stood once more, and' colonel Luttrell who opposed him was
pronounced to be duly elected, though Wilkes had an imnmense majority of the votes.  Wilkes had already been relieved by a subscription, and the citizens of London, honors




490              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
ing the mere namnes of liberty and patriotism, elected him
to the dignity of alderman. A political club, named the'Soc ety for supporting the Bill of' Rights,' of which he was
a principal member, was formed in 1770. He was lord.
mayor in due course, and finally obtained the lucrative post
of city-chamberlain.
It was also at this time that that most powerful of political
satirists who subs(cribed' Jui'ius' to his letters, attacked the
king and his ministers in the most envenomed style. His
letters now form a portion of our literature, and are models
in their class of compositions.  His secret was never divulged, and ingenuity has long been exercised in the attempt
to discover the real author. Lord George Germaine and sir
Philip Francis are those in whose cases the strongest apparent proofs have been given.
At this period, too, Edmund Burke, a native of Ireland,
the most profound and philosophic of statesmen, commenced
his legislative career, being brought into parliament by lord
Rockingham, to whom he was private secretary.  As an
orator Burke was somewhat ungraceful in manner, but his
speeches teemed with political wisdom and sparkled with the
gems of a rich imagination; and at the present day, when
the argumentative or impassioned harangues of his great
contemporaries are only subjects of curiosity, those of Burke
are studied, like the writings of Aristotle and Machiavel, as
depositories of political wisdom and enlarged philosophy.
The names of general Conway, colonel Barre, sir George
Saville, Mr. Dunning, and others, appear as able debaters at
this time. Charles James Fox, second son of lord Holland,
was made a lord of the admiralty in the North administration, and afterwards (1772) a lord of the treasury; but having opposed the sentiments of lord North, he was dismissed,
and he forthwith joined the ranks of the opposition, (1774.)
We are now arrived at an event hitherto nearly unexampled in the annals of the world, an event which every one in
whose veins British blood circulates, if not divested of kindly
feeling, must deplore- not that in itself it is to be regretted, for it has proved advantageous to both parties; but it
is to be lamented that it should have occurred in the manner
it did -that a protracted war, and not a friendly and voluntary dissolution of the ties which bound them, should have
disunited the parent and the child now grown to maturity
and vigor. But such a wise and generous proceeding is, we
fear, incompatible with human nature; and power is never
resigned as long as it can be retained. The event of which




GEORGE III.                     491
we speak is the war between England and her American
colonies.
The names of these colonies are now so familiar to every
person, that we hard y need enumerate them.  Virginia was
planted in the reign of Elizabeth; Maryland, soon after;
New England by the puritans in that of Charles I.; the Car.
olinas and Pennsylvania in those of his sons; and Georgia
since the accession of the present royal family.  All these
colonies had charters from  the crown, empowering them to
hold legislative assemblies, elect officers, and levy taxes for
domestic purposes.  Their governors were sent out from
England, and the mother country enjoyed the monopoly of
their trade.  Being masters of a rich and boundless soil, and
aided by large emigrations, the colonies increased rapidly in
population, and they had attained to the number of three
millions when dissension arose between them  and the mother country.
When sir Robert Walpole was foiled in his project of an
excise on tobacco, the governor of Virginia proposed to him
to lay a tax on the American colonies; but that able statesnan shrewdly replied, "s You see I have Old England against
ile already; do you think that I can wish to set New England against me too? " and the plan was thought of no more.
Now, however, the king himself, or those by whom  he was
secretly actuated, revived it; and his majesty proposed it to
Mr. Grenville in 1764, and, on his hesitation, gave him the
option of resignation or bringing it forward in parliament.
The minister then promised compliance, and a resolution
was proposed by him, which passed the commons, that it
would be expedient to impose certain STAMP-duties on the
colonies, for the sake of raising a revenue.  He postponed
the bill for this measure till the next session, in order to give
the colonies an opportunity of petitioning against it if they
thought fit, or of offering an equivalent.*
* [As some of the earlier circumstances which preceded the imposi.
tion of the stamp-tax had a great influence in exciting a spirit of complaint and disgust in the minds of the colonies towards the conduct of
the mother country, it may be well to make some brief allusion to
these circumstances.
For some time before and after the termination of the war of 1755,t
a considerable intercourse had been carried on between the British and
Spanish and French colonies; consisting of the manufactures of Great
Britain, imported by the former and sold to the latter, by which the
Brit;,h c lionies acquired gold and silver, and were enabled to make
t| See Ramsay's Hist. U. S. Vol. T1. p. 324.
L'I____________________




492                 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The colonists protested in the strongest terms against the
claim of the British parliament to impose taxes on those who
were not Yepresented in it. When it was urged that Americia
should contribute her share to the general burdens of the
enmpire, and that the late expensive war had been entered
into chiefly on her account, they replied, that she never had
been backward, and that in the last war her exertions had
been so far beyond her means, that various sums, amounting
in the  whole to nearly two  millions, had  been  voted  by
parliament to the several colonies to indemnify them, and
that they were  still in debt to about the same  amount.
They added, that the monopoly of their trade, her right to
regulate which they did not deny, was the proper 2ompen-                   I
emittances to the: mother country. The trade thus carried, on, however, though it might be an immediate source of gain to some, was,
undoubtedly, injurious in many respects to the increase of the commercial importance both of the colonies and of the mother country. It was,
indeed, at the time, a contraba'nd trade. being expressly contrary to the
letter of the JVaxigation-act, by which the trade of the British colonies
with foreign ports was regulated.* On account, however, of the immediate advantages which were found in this mode of trade, it had,
though contraband, been long winked at; but, at the period named,
sorme new regulations were adopted, by which it was almost destroyed.
In 1764, this trade was in some degree legalized, but under circumstances that brought no relief to the colonists; for it was loaded with
such enormous duties as were equivalent to a prohibition. It was also
enacted, that the moneys arising from these duties should be paid into
the receipt of his majesty's exchequer, there to be entered separately,
and reserved, to be disposed of by parliament towards defraying the
necessary expenses of defending, protecting, and securing America.
Till that act passed, no act avowedly for the purpose of' revenue, and
with the ordinary title and recital of such, was to be found in the parliamentary statute-book relating to America. The wording of it made
the colonies fear that the parliament would go on In charging them
with such taxes as they pleased, and for the support of such military
force as they should think proper. The act was the more disgusting
because the moneys arising from the duties it imposed were ordered to
be paid in specie, a nd regulations were adopted against colonial paper
money. The methods adopted for securing the collection of these duties were looked upon as even more obnoxious, and were thought contrary to the spirit of the British constitution. That the trade of the
colonies: should be cramped, and that too in a way which was contrary
to the spirit of the British constitution itself; was a fruiltful source of
declamation and complaint; but these murmurings would have evapo
rated iin words, had Great Britain proceeded to no further innovation
In 1764, however, as stated in the text, the proposition was made of'
raising from tle. colonies an efficient revenue, by direct internna taxes
laid by authori~ty of parliament..- J. T. S.]
* For an account of the origin of th. r'avigation-act, see Russell's JModern Furop.a
Part II. Letter XI.




aGEDomfE.n.                493
sation to the mother country. These arguments, however.
were of no effect; the Stamp-act, though strongly opposed
by general Conway and colonel Barr6, was passed by both
houses, (March 22.) Its arrival in America caused cornmmotions in the principal towns, and spread discontent through
the colonies. A general congress met at New York to draw
up petitions; resolutions were entered into not to use stamps,
or to import goods from England; it was even resolved to
stop exports as well as imports; and a society was formed
for the encouragement of native manufactures.
The Rockingham administration repealed the stamp-act,
(1766;) but by a declaratory bill the right to tax the colonies
was asserted. The southern colonists in general were now
content, but the people of New England still murmured.
In 1767 a bill was passed for laying duties on glass, tea,
paper, and painters' colors, imported into America; these,
however, were all taken off, (1770,) except that on tea. But
when the East India Company sent their ships to the ports
of America, (1773,) they were not allowed to land their
cargoes; and at Boston, a party of men disguised as Mohawk
Indians went on board of them, broke open the chests, and
flung the tea into the sea. When intelligence of this violent
proceeding reached England, (1774,) the legislature passed
bills for closing the port of Boston, and for better regulating
tile government of Massachussetts-bay. The people of that
state forthwith entered into a' Solemn League and Cove..
nant' to suspend all intercourse with Great Britain till those
acts should be repealed. The collecting of arms and stores,
and the military training of the young men, which had been
already commenced, now went on with redoubled activity.
At length, (Sept. 5,) the celebrated congress of deputies firom
all the provinces met at Philadelphia.  They drew  up a
petition to the king, addresses to the people of England and
the Canadians, and a declaration approving of the conduct
of the people of Massachusetts.
Every clear-sighted statesman must have been long aware
that there was in reality no alternative between war and the
acknowledgment of American independence. Lord North
very properly resolved to take the sense of the nation by a
dissolution of the parliament, and the returns proved that
the great body of the people were resolved not to part with
the supremacy over the colonies without a struggle.  Mr.
Burke in vain brought forward, (March 22, 1775,) and
enforced with all the splendor of his eloquence, his thirteen
articles for restoring tranquillity. The die was cast, and ere
VOL. T.      42._ v^.sEw~__z_____                                   _____ j..........  i.\.. __  _




494             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
these articles could cross the Atlantic, hostilities..ad zont,
menced
On the 19th of April, general Gage, who commanded
at Boston, learning that the provincials had collected a
quantity of stores at Concord, sent a detachment of his
troops to seize them. At a place named Lexington, on the
way, they found the militia drawn up to oppose them; they
drove them off, and proceeded to Concord, where they accomplished their object; but on their way back they were
greatly galled by the fire of the Americans from houses and
from  behind walls and hedges. They had 65 men killed
and 180 wounded; the provincials 50 killed and 38 wounded.
Soon after the militia assembled to the number of,20,000 at
Cambridge, and blockaded Boston. On the night of the 16th
of June they threw up some entrenchments on an eminence
in Charlestown overlooking that town; the British advanced
next day to drive them from it, and, though they suffered
severely from the well-directed fire of the provincials, they
succeeded in their object.@
The congress meantime had reassembled, (May 10.)
They again drew up a petition and addresses expressing
the strongest desire for accommodation, at the same time
adopting all possible measures for continuing the contest.
The man on whom they fixed their choice for commanderin-chief of their forces was George Washington, of whom
we have already had occasion to speak. He accepted that
post of honor and danger; and, on joining the army at
Cambridge, he found himself at the head of 15,000 men,
ill appointed and undisciplined.  Fortunately for him, the
forces of Gage were inferior in number, and his temper
unenterprising; and his successor, general Howe,'also remained inactive.  By fitting out armed cruisers, the Americans succeeded in intercepting much of the stores and supplies destined for the troops in Boston.
In the spring of this year the provincial,- had conceived
the daring design of invading Canada. They reduced the
forts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point; and while one force,
under general Montgomery, advanced and took Montreal,
anothei, under colonel Arnold, made its way through the
wilderness to Quebec, where it was joined by the former,
(Dec. 1,) and the city was besieged. An assault was attempted, (31st,) in which Montgomery was killed and Arnold
* The eminence was named Breed's-hill, though the affair has taken
xts namne from the adjoining Bunker's-hill.




GEORGE III.                  495
severely wounded, but he still kept up a olockade. He was
reinforced in the spring, but was eventually driven out of
the province by general Carleton.  On this occasion, captain
Forster, who had taken a great number of prisoners, released
them, Arnold engaging that an equal number of the royal
troops should be returned; but the congress broke this
cartel, on the pretence, which was notoriously false, that
Forster had treated his prisoners barbarously.
The opening of the year 1776 found Washington still
engaged in the blockade of Boston; but the difficulties he
had to encounter were many. THis force was mere militia,
bound to serve only for the term of a year, so that a new
army was to be raised at the end of that period, and the
knowledge and discipline acquired in the campaign became
useless; he was ill supplied with the munitions of war, while
he could not venture to make his real condition known, and
even found it prudent to exaggerate his strength; and hence
successes were expected from him which he could not accomplish. Add to this, the thwarting and paralyzing influence of a popular form of government and the jealousies of
the different states.  Fortunately for him, he had an ally in
the incapacity of the British general, who remained on the
defensive, with a disciplined and well-appointed army.
In the spring Washington resolved to make a bold attempt
on Boston.  On the night of the 4th of March a body of the
provincials threw up works on Dorchester-heights, which
commanded the harbor, in which no ships could now remain; and the attempt to dislodge the enemy offered so
many difficulties, that general Howe agreed to evacuate the
town. The British troops proceeded by sea to Halifax, in
Nova Scotia, whence they sailed (June 10) for New York,
and landed on Staten Island.- Having here received large
reinforcements of British and Hessian troops, general Howe
passed over to Long Island, and routed the provincials, with
a loss of 2000 slain and 1000 taken, among whom were
their generals lord Stirling, Sullivan, and Woodhull.  But,
instead of attacking at once their lines at Brooklyn, he
resolved to proceed by regular approaches, and Washington
thus had time to convey his troops over the river. New
York, however, surrendered, and remained in possession of
the English during the war.  Washington was finally driven
over the river Delaware, and the province of New Jersey
was reduced. On the night of Christmas-day, however, this
able commander secretly crossed the river, and surprised
and captured a party of Hessians at Trenton; and he finally
recovered a great part of New Jersey.
X~~rr_ ~~_-~.r-r~- Cr-LLL~e_~- -ri~lU-IU — 3i  _~~l h~~~-L~~.' —~rl..',-;~~~ Lc




496              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
On the 4th of July, 1776, the congress of the United
States of America, as they now styled themselves, put forth
their' Declaratimn of Independence.'  It detailed every real
and imaginary grievance, laying the blame of every thing on
the king himself, whom they scrupled not to designate as a
tyrant.  The object of those who devised it was evidently to
cut off all hope of reconciliation with the mother country,
and to afford a pretext for France and other powers to aid
them; for they felt that single-handed they could not resist
the power of Great Britain; in fact, they had already entered
into secret relations with the court of France, which had
agreed to assist them in an underhand manner.
In the campaign of 1777, the British general, after an
ineffectual attempt at bringing Washington to action, embarkied his troops for the invasion of Pennsylvania. They
landed at the head of Chesapeake-bay, and (Sept. 11) routed
the American army on the banks of a river named the Brandywine. After an ineffectaal attempt to save Philadelphia,
Washington retired, and (27th) the British troops entered
that city.
While sir William Howe was thus successful in the central
states, general Burgoyne was advancing from Canada to the
Hudson with an army of about 10,000 British and Canadians.
The Americans retired before him; but the impediments
offered by the nature of the country were tremendous, and
all the supplies had to be brought through Canada. Ac.
cessions of strength came every day to the enemy, who were
successful in two or three affairs. At length Burgoyne
reached Saratoga, not far from Albany, whence he advanced
to a place named Still Water.  He repelled two attacks of
the indefatigable Arnold; but judging it necessary to fall
back to Saratoga, he there found himself surrounded by an
American army, under general Gates, three times as numerous as his own, exposed to a constant fire of cannon
and rifles, and with no means of procuring provisions. In a
council of war a capitulation was resolved on. The most
honorable terms were obtained, the troops being granted a
free passage to England, on condition of not serving again
in America during the war. Desertion and other losses had
reduced the British force to about 5800 men, who laid down
their arms, (Oct. 14,) and were marched to Boston. Nothing
could surpass the delicacy and humanity with which Gates
and his officers treated their captives; but their conduct was
not imitated by th.e congress.
Washing.on took up his winter quarters at a place named




GEORGE III.                  497
Valley Forge, and nothing could exceed the sufferings of
the gallant men who served under him, unless it be their
patient endurance. In miserable huts, without blankets or
shoes, beneath the frost and snow of an American winter,
often without food, they still endured, under the influence of
their incomparable commander.
The intelligence of Burgoyne's surrender decided the
court of France, and a treaty was signed, in which the
independence of America was acknowledged. A loan was
granted, and a fleet prepared to aid them. The English
ambassador was recalled from Paris.
The command of the troops in America was now transferred to sir Henry Clinton; and, in the prospect of a French
war, it was resolved to evacuate Philadelphia and concentrate
the forces.  The army crossed the Delaware unopposed, but
Washington impeded their march to New York in every
possible manner. At a place named Monmouth an attack
was made on the baggage, which brought on a partial action,
in which the loss was between three and four hundred on
each side.  At the place of embarkation the British offered
battle, which was declined, and they reached New York in
safety, (July 5.)  A French fleet, under count D'Estaing,
with troops on board, having arrived, a combined attack was
made by him and 10,000 Americans under general Sullivan
on a British force at Newport, in Rhode Island; but lord
Howe, the English admiral at New York, though inferior
in strength, having appeared off Newport, D'Estaing came
out to engage him.  An indecisive action was fought, after
which D'Estaing, in spite of the remonstrances of his allies,
went to Boston to refit; and Sullivan was soon driven out of
Rhode Island.
The British troops were chiefly employed in petty expeditions, in which they did the provincials much injury by
destroying their shipping and property in general.  A corps
of 350t) men, under colonel Campbell, reduced the province
of Georgia.  In the West Indies, the island of Dominica
was taken by the French- but St. Lucie surrendered to the
English, after D'Estaing had been repulsed, both by sea and
land, by inferior forces, in his attempts to relieve it.
The following year, (1779,) Spain followed the example of
France in declaring war against England, and a combined
fleet of more than sixty sail of the line, with frigates, etc.,
appeared off Plymouth. Sir Charles Hardy, who commanded
the channel-fleet, had only thirty-eight ships of the line, but
he offered them battle, which they declined; and they quitted
42                        KK IK




498             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the channel without having done more than give the minisC
try and the nation a fright.  Though D'Estaing ated mostly
on the defensive in the West Indies, the islands of St. Viil
cent and Grenada fell into the hands of the French.
Washington directed his efforts chiefly to prevent the
British from navigating the Hudson, for which purpose he
fortified West Point, a strong position on that river, giving
the command of it to general Arnold, and two other point'named Stony Point and Verplank. These last were taken
and retaken by the British during this year.'An expedition
from New York did great mischief in Connecticut, burning
towns and shipping, and carrying off stores and ammunition.
Another expedition did the same in Virginia. The chief  
seat of the war, however, was the southern provinces.  At       I
Savannah, in Georgia, general Prevost was besieged by
D'Estaing, who had two-and-twenty ships-of-war, and was
aided by an American army under general Lincoln.  Colonel
Maitland, who, with 800 men, had routed this officer and
5000) men in John's Island, arriving at Savannah, preparations were made for a vigorous defence.  A proposal to
D'Estaing to allow the women and children to leave the town  
was barbarously refused. An attempt, however, to storm 
the British lines having failed, with great loss the assailants
raised the siege and separated, and D'Estaing returned to
France.
The year 1780 opened inauspiciously for England. Gibraltar was besieged by a combined Spanish and French
force, and Minorca was equally hard pressed by the same
nations. At the impulse of the empress of Russia, most of
the European powers entered into an' Armed Neutrality,'
on the principle that " free ships make free goods, with the
exception of arms and munitions of war," in opposition to the
right of search claimed by belligerent powers.  But the sea
is the element on which British glory has always risen in
triumph, and England now had a hero equal to the eamer.
gency.  Sir George Rodney had been selected for command
by the king himself. He was to proceed for the West Indies,
and, on his way, to convoy a squadron of transports for the
relief of Gibraltar.  As it was expected that he would leave
them to proceed alone in a certain latitude, the Spanish
admiral, don Juan de Langara, was sent with eleven menof-war to intercept them; but off Cape St. Vincent he was
encountered by Rodney, (Jan. 16.)  The action commenced
at four in the afternoon, in a violent gale of wind, and was
continued through a stormy night, and the whole Spanish,
4 _________~.____________ ___________ _____ ~.. __..............Y:/-.




GEORGE MlI.                  499
fleet was taken or destroyed. Rodney relieved both Gibraltar
and Minorca, and then sailed for the West Indies, where,
soon after his arrival, he engaged off St. Lucie the count De
Guichen.  Rodney had 21, the count 23 ships. By able
manceuvres the English admiral had secured the prospect
of a complete victory, but his captains, (as formerly with Benbow,) from jealousy, cowardice, or ignorance, disobeyed his
signals, and the French fleet escaped. He brought one of
the captaihs, Bateman, to a court-martial, and he was dismissed the service. Rodney tried ineffectually to bring the
PFrench fleet again to action, but De Guichen sailed to Eur: pe with the merchant-fleet, and Rodney then proceeded to
the coast of America.
Though the independence of the revolted provinces had
now been acknowledged by France and Spain, and these
powers were, as it were, armed in their cause, never were
the prospects of the colonists so gloomy.  Even the firm
mind of Washington began to despair.  Their danger arose
not from the increased power of Great Britain, or from the
reverses of the war, but from their own dissensions and
selfishness, from  their local jealousies, and from  that absorbing love of gain, the auri sacra fames, which seems to
form [so large a part of] the national character of the Americans.  Faction reigned, a childish dread of a standing army made them give their general nothing but militia, and
numbers of the citizens made the public distress their gain.
It was only the aid of France that saved them from ruin.
Relieved of all apprehension from  Washington, sir lt.
Clinton resolved to attempt the reduction of South Carolina.
in person.  He sailed from New  York and laid siege to
Charleston, into which general Lincoln had thrown himself
with 7090 provincials.  When he had completed his works,
and was preparing to batter the town, a capitulation was
proposed and accepted.  The whole province was speedily
reduced, and sir H. Clinton then returned to New York,
leaving lord Cornwallis in Carolina with 4000 men. The
American government sent thither general Gates, who assembled at Camden an army of 6900 men; lord Cornwallis
advanced to attack him with nlot more than 20190, and (Aug.
17) gave him a complete defeat, killing 800, and taking 2000
men, with all the baggage, stores, and artillery; his own loss
in killed and wounded being only 350 men.
In July, a French fleet, having 6000 troops on board,
under the count De Rochambeau, arrived at Rhode Island.
It waJ proposed, when De Guichen, who was expected,




500              HISTORY OF ENGLAND,
should arrive, that a general attack by sea and land should
be made on New  York; but the activity of Rodney, as we
have seen, disconcerted this plan.
While Washington was absent at a conference with count
Rocliambeau, Arnold, who had been in secret correspond.
ence with sir H. Clinton for betraying West Point, desired
that some trusty agent might be sent to him.  Major Andre,
adjutant-general of the British army, volunteered his services, and he landed in the night from the Vulture sloop-ofwar. At day-break, when his conference with Arnold was
concluded, he found it impossible to return to the sloop, and
being furnished by Arnold with a pass under the name of
Anderson, he attempted to reach New York by land.  He
was, however, met and stopped by three militia men.  He
wrote without delay a letter to Arnold under his assumed
name, and that general escaped on board the Vulture just
before Washington's order to arrest him arrived.
Andr6, who no longer concealed his name or quality, was
brought before a court-martial, and tried as a spy.  He
denied that he was such, as he had come on shore under a
passport or flag of truce from Arnold.  The court, however,
found him guilty, and sentenced him to be hanged.  Every
exertion was made to save him  by sir Il. Clinton, but in
vain; Washington was inexorable; even the urgent request
of the prisoner to be shot was refused, and he was hangea
(Oct. 2) amid the sympathy of the officers and soldiers of the
American army.*
The year 1781 virtually terminated the war. The blockade of Gibraltar still continued; famine preyed on the garrison and people, but admiral Danby conveyed supplies to it
in the face of a superior Spanish fleet lying in the bay of
Cadiz.  The besiegers then kept up for the space of three
weeks one of the most tremendous bombardments in the
annals of war, and they had brought their works to cornpletion when a sally of the garrison totally destroyed them.
A combined force of 16,009  men was landed at Minorca
for the attack of St. Philip's castle, and a combined fleet of
seventy ships of war appeared in the channel.
The Dutch had perfidiously joined in the war against
* In the summer of this year occurred a most dreadful riot in London
by a No-Popery mob,headed by lord George Gordon. It lasted nearly
a week; catholic chapels were destroyed, Newgate was broken open,
the other prisons were burnt, lord Mansfield's and other houses were
demolished, etc  By the emplcyment of'military-force the rioters were
it length reduced.
____ ~ ~ ~~ i; —~i-W hol~l i~~3P  -i-~  I.iYhl~*~lW~~ -~- - Lbl ~      _




GEORGE lIT.                  501
England, but they paid: dear for their treachery. Admiral
Parker, as with six ships of the line and some frigates he
was convoying a fleet from the Baltic, was encountered off
the Doggerbank (Aug. 5) by the Dutch admiral Zoutman,
with ten sail of the line and frigates.  The action, which
lasted nearly four hours, was terrific; the English had 500,
the Dutch 1200 killed and- wounded; both fleets were disabled, and the Dutc-h hardly got into their own ports. In
the West Indies, Rodney took their island of St. Eust athins, in which, being a free port, immense wealth in goods
and stores was collected: all this became the prize of the
victors, who also captured a great number of merchantmen.
Sir Henry Clinton, having sent general Arnold with a
force into Virginia, directed lord Cornwallis to form a junction with him. As he was advancing for that purpose, he
sent colonel Tarleton with a corps of 1100 men, to oppose
general Morgan, who was acting on his left.  At a place
called the Cowpens, Tarleton came up with the enemy,
(Jan. 17,) and in the hard-fought action which ensued, the
British were defeated for the first time in an open field of
battle. The American general Greene displayed considerable ability in impeding the measures of lord Cornwallis till
he found himself strong enough to engage him; he then
(Mar. 15) gave him battle at Guildford court-house. The
Americans had' 5000 men, the British half the number.
The latter gained the honor of the day, but want of provisions and the severity of the weather obliged them to retire,
leaving their wounded to the care of the enemy.  Lord
Cornwallis now pushed on for Virginia, while Greene,
advanced toward South Carolina.  At Hobkirk's-hill (Apr.
25) he was attacked and routed by lord Rawdon.  After a
variety of operations he encountered (Sept. 8) at Eutawsprings colonel Stewart, who now commanded the British.
The action was the. most obstinate that had yet been fought;
the American militia acted nobly; both sides claimed the
victory, but the British found it necessary to retire to
Charleston.
Lord Cornwallis, in spite of opposition, having reached
the Chesapeake,' fortified York-town and Gloucester-point.
He applied in vain for reinforcements to sir H. Clinton, who
feared for New York. A large French fleet, under count
De Grasse, entered the Chesapeake, and Washington and
count Rochambeau having joined their forces, their united
army of 12,000 men appeared before York-town, while De
Grasse blocked up the mouth of the York river. The Brit



502              HISTORY CG ENGLAND.:shl force did not amount to 7000 men.  A gallant defence
was made, but they were obliged to yield to numbers and
capitulate, (Oct. 19.)  With this unfortunate event the con.
test in America terminated.
Fortune was elsewhere unfavorable to Great Britain,
whom France had now deprived of all the Leeward Islands,
except Antigua and Barbadoes. Minorca was lost; St.
Philip's castle, after one of the noblest defences oil record,
and the reduction of its garrison to 800 men, having been
obliged to surrender.
The surrender of York-town sealed the doom  of the
North administration.  An unfortunate minister is seldom
secure in his power; the country gentlemen now opened
their eyes to the folly of continuing the war; a formidable
plan of attack was conceived and executed by the opposition, led on by general Conway and Mr. Fox, and sustained
by their usual champions, with the accession of William
Pitt, son of the great earl of Chatham, and Mr. Sheridan,
both of whom had displayed great talent in debate.  Day
after day the ministerial majority declined.  At length
(Mar. 1782) lord North announced that the cabinet was
dissolved.
The opposition, having gained the victory, had now to
divide the spoils.  But herein lay a difficulty.  It consisted
of two almost hostile parties; the one headed by the marquess of Rockingham, which was for conceding total independence to the colonies; the other, led by the earl of Shelburne, though willing to yield up the right of taxation and
terminate the war, trod in the steps of lord Chatham, who
almost with his dying breath had protested against a dismemberment of the empire.  The new ministry was formed
of five of each party; lord Thurlow, to gratify the king,
being allowed to retain the great seal.  Lord Rockingham
was premier; lord Shelburne and Mr. Fox secretaries;
general Conway commander-in-chief; lord John Cavendish
chancellor of the exchequer; Mr. Dunning (now lord Ashburton,, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, etc.; Burke
was paymaster of the forces; Barre- treasurer of the navy;
Sheridan under-secretary of state.  Pitt declined taking any
office.
The watcnword of the new ministry was peace, economy,
and no patronage.  Yet, when Mr. Pitt brought in a bill
for a reform in parliament, it was rejected, and the whole of
the retrenchments made amounted only to 72,0001. a year,.he far greater part of which was in the department of' Mr
~~ —"-~~-~-~-   I —-`-   ~ —' —-— ~` —~ —-----  ------- -________________




GEORGE III.                  503
Burke, the great advocate of the measure.  What further
they might have done is not to be known, for the death of
lord Rockinghaln in the summer broke up the cabinet, as
Fox and his friends refused to act inder lord Shelburne, and
retired. Mr. Pitt now took office as chancellor of the exchequer, though only twenty-three years of age.
Negotiations for peace had been commenced, but the war
still continued. On the 12th of April Rodney brought De
Grasse to action in the West Indies, and by executing the
manouvre of breaking the line, he gave him a complete defeat, taking or destroying eight ships, and reducing almost
to wrecks the remainder, two of' which were captured a few
days after by sir Samuel Hood.  But as admiral Graves was
conducting the prizes to England, and convoying the homneward-bound merchant-fleet, a terrific storm calne on, in
which all the prizes but one, two British men-of-war, and
several of the merchantmen, perished, and 300}0 lives were
lost. At home, the loss of the Royal George of 100 guns,
which was upset by a squall (Aug. 29) at Portsmouth, and
went down with admiral Kempenfeldt and a thousand men
and women on board, increased the calamities of the year.
The storm of war beat this year with unprecedented fury
on the rock of Gibraltar and its heroic defenders. The
duke of Crillon, the conqueror of Minorca, took the command of the besieging army; ten floating batteries, proof
against shot and fire, were constructed, forty-seven sail of
the line, besides frigates and other craft, were collected in
the bay, while batteries mounting 200 guns and protected
by 40,000 men were raised on the isthmus. The whole
force by land and sea amounted to 100,000 men. On the
13th of September a simultaneous canonnade was opened
on the fortress, which was returned by shells and red-hot
balls. The whole peninsula seemed one blaze of flame,
while the roaring of the artillery was not intermitted for a
second. During the day no effect seemed to be made on
either side, but in the night two of the floating batteries
burst into flames; the lighti enabled the besieged to direct
their guns, and by morning six more were in the same condition; the fire from twelve gun-boats prevented the enemy
firom  bringing off their crews, all of whom  would have
perished but for the humanity of the British, who saved
about 400 men. The siege was now at an end, and the war
was thuls concluded brilliantly by England in Europe as well
as in the West IFlies.  Her success had been uniform in




504             HISTORY OF ENGLAND
the East. General Elliot, the gallant governor of Gibraltar
was raised to the peerage by the title of baron Heathfield.
As the Shelburne administration could not command a
majority in parliament, it was necessary to seek the support
of lord' North or Mr. Fox.  With the former Mr. Pitt would
have nothing to do; duty, he said, forbade him to unite with
a man who had brought such -calamity on the country, and
whose principles he had so often condemned.  He- agreed
to mak-e. a personal application to Mr. Fox, but the antipathy
of the latter to lord Shelburne was invincible.  The nministry therefore resolved to go on as they were with the public business. The preliminary treaties of peace with France
and Spain were accordingly executed; but when the day
came for submitting them  to parliament, (Feb. 17, 1783,)
the address was carried in the lords only by a majority of 72
to 59, and in the commons the minister was defeated by a
majority of sixteen. The cause of this was the celebrated
coalition between Fox and lord North.  After an ineffectual
struggle the ministry resigned; the king made every effort in
his power to avoid capitulating to Fox; he even meditated a
retreat to Hanover.  At length he yielded, and in the beginning of April a new ministry, with the duke of Portland at
its head, was formed; lord North and Mr. Fox were the
secretaries of state, and lord John Cavendish chancellor of
the exchequer.  Mr. Burke returned to his former situation.
By the treaty of peace which had been concluded, the independence of the United States of America was acknowledged; between England, France, and Spain there was a
restitution of conquests, and the last power obtained Minorca and: the Floridas.  The only loss of England was
100,000,0001. which she added to her debt, for a very few
years showed that the trade' with the in-dependent states of
America was infinitely more valuable than when they were
colonies. The madness of the house of Bourbon in en,
couraging the principles of revolution out of hatred to England, was destined erelong to meet its chfastisemnent from
these very principles.  As for the United States, they have
since advanced rapidly in wealth and population.  In every
point of view, the separation has been a blessing to England; it is only to be regretted, as we have already observed,
that it was not effected amnicablv.
The coalition ministry soon met with the fate it meiAed.
The want of confidence in the public appeared by the de.
cline in the funds, th,!hree per cent. consols fal!ing from




GEORGE Ill.                  505
70 to 56. Mr. Pitt's motion for reform was negatived.  At
length Mr. Fox introduced his India-bill, and its rejection
by the lords (Dec. 16) sealed the doom of the ministry
A new cabinet was formed with Mr. Pitt for its chief, and
this extraordinary man sat at the helm of the state, with but
one interruption, for the remainder of his life. Mr. Fox
remained the leader of the opposition.
When we consider the youth of Mr. Pitt, the political wisdom which. he displayed in this crisis is astonishing.  Instead' of dissolving the parliament, he went on suffering lhim;
self for some time to be beaten in every division. At length
(Mar. 24, 1784) he appealed to the country by a dissolution,
and the number of' Fox's Martyrs,' as those opposition
members who lost their seats were called, being 160, his
triumph was complete, and the power of the whigs was
finally overthrown.  Henceforth, till the horrors of war were
renewed, Mr. Pitt went on steadily improving the internal
condition of the empire.
CHAPTER IV.
GEORGE III. (CONTINUED.)
1784-1789.
As India now formed an important portion of thel British
empire, we will sketch the origin and progress of the English dominion in that vast region.
Toward the close of the reign of queen Elizabeth tile
English merchants oegan to aspire to a share in the lucrative
commerce of the East, then engrossed by the Portuguese.
The distance, danger, and expense of the voyage, proving
too great for individual enterprise, the queen in the year
1600' granted a charter to a company of m'erchants for the
trade to India.  The- original capital of the coompa.ny was
72,0001., divided into 501. shares. Jn 1-612 they established
their first factory at Surat on the west coast of India.
They formed settlements also in. the Spice Islands; but from
these they were driven by the Dutch by a series of aggqressive acts ending in the massacre of Ambo.vna in 1623.
Toward the middle of the 17th century they established
VOL. II.     43                    L LL




5016             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
factories at Madras and Fort St. David on the coast of Coro.
mandel, and at Hoighly on the river of that name in Ben.
gal, whence they afterwards removed to Calcutta, lower
down on the same river.  Charles 1i. gave to them  the
island of Bombay, which he had received in dower with his
queen, and the isle of St. Helena in the Atlantic. James
II., a great fosterer of trade, enlarged their charter very
much, empowering them  to build fortresses, raise troops,
coin money, etc.  By the extravagance, mismanagement, and
corruption incidental to a company of the kind, they soon
incurred a debt of 2,000,0001.; and in 1698 a rival company,
by offering a large advance of money at eight per cent. to
the government, obtained a charter. The old company also
obtained a renewal of theirs, and after a trial of a few years,
finding the competition ruinous, they united in 1702 under
a new charter, and took the name of'The United East
India Company.' Their affairs were directed at home by a
court of twenty-four directors chosen annually by the proFrietors of the stock, and each of their settlements was
governed by a president and a select committee.
At this time, the Portuguese, whose dominion had never
been stable, were powerless in India; but the French had
settlements at Pondicherry, on the coast of Coromandel,
and at Chandernagore, on the Hooghly.  The Dutch also
had a factory at Chinsura on this river, and others on the
Coromandel coast.
The political condition of India was of the following nature. In the close of the 15th century, Baber, a descendant
of Timoor, invaded and conquered a great part of India
with an army of Mogul Turks.  This empire was gradually
extended by his successors, and under the great Aurung*
zebe it attained its utmost limits. But after the death of
that monarch in 1707, the decline of the empire rapidly
advanced, and the invasion of Nadir Shah, the Persian, in
1738, reduced it to the lowest ebb. Many of the subordinate chiefs became independent, yielding only a nominal
obedience to the emperor of Delhi.
Permanent conquest in the East is little more than a
change oi rulers; the laws, the customs, the property of
the people, remain as before. So it was in India; a Hinldoo
rajah was in many cases succeeded by a Mohammedan nabob, but the cultivator only paid his land-tax as before: the
finances of the state were managed by Hindoos, and the
native Soocars, or bankers, and opulent merchants retained
the iv'luence which wealth never fails to confer. Large por
L1                                                                        1




GEORGE 1II.                  50 I
tions of the empire were placed under the government of
Soobahdars, or viceroys, under whom Mogul Nabobs or
Hindoo Rajahs ruled over smaller districts.
The English long abstained from taking any concern in
the affairs of the native princes, and they would probably
have continued this prudent course had it not been for the
ambition of their restless rivals the French.  When the Silesian war broke out i1l Europe, France and England extended their hostilities to the East. - A French fleet, under
La Bourdonnais, reached India in 1746; the English fleet
there retired before it, and La Bourdonnais reduced Madras.
HEe engaged that it should be restored on payment of a ransom; but when he was gone, Dupleix, the governor cf Pondlcnerry, refused to perform the agreement. Dupleix attempted the following year to take Fort St. David, but he
was obliged to retire, and was himself besieged in Pondi
cheiry by admiral Boscawen, (1749;) owing, however, to
the lateness of the season, want of skill in the engineer
and other causes, the siege proved a failure. By the peace
of Alx-la-Chapelle Madras was restored; but as both the
English and French companies had now good bodies of
troops, they engaged them in the disputes of the native
princes, till the breaking out of the Seven Years' War placed,
them  again in hostilities with each other.  These troops
consisted of Europeans and of natives called Sepoys, a corruption ot the Persian term Sipahi, a foot-soldier.
The soobahdar of. the Deckan, (South,) or that part of
India south of the river Nerbuddah, Nizam-ul-Mulk,. had of
late years rendered himself nearly independent of the Great
Mogul. tUnder him the nabob of Arcot ruled the Carnatic,
a region extending for more than 500 miles along the east
coast, and in which both Madras and Pondicherry lie. After
the death of Nizam-ul-Mulk the succession to his dignity
was disputed in the usual oriental manner, and it chanced
that thqre was also a contest for the nabobship of Arcot.
Dupleix saw a prospect of power and wealth if he were to
take. part in the affair, and he embraced the cause of Mu.
zuflir Jung, a grandson of Nizam-ul-Mulk, and of Chunda
Sahib, a pretender to the nabobship. The English saw that
they also must become parties in the contest or tamely submit to be driven out of the country, as the candidates sup,
ported by Dupleix were now triumphant.  They accordingly
took the side of Nasir Jung, son of the late soobahdar, and
ol' Moharnmmed Ali, son of the late nabob. But they were
at this time greatly inferior to their rivals in power and influ



o08              HISTORY OF ENGLAND
ence, aud Dupleix had obtained a large share of the treasures
of Nizam-ul-Mulk, and been appointed governor of all the
country south of the river Kistna.  To relate the contest in
detail falls not within our province; but as it served to bring
to view the great qualities of Clive, the founder of the Anglo-Indian empire, we will dwell on it for a short space.
Robert Clive, the son of a respectable family in Shropshire, came out to Madras as a writer in 1744, at the age
of nineteen. Not relishing the civil service, he obtained in
1747 an ensign's commission in the company's troops, and
oil various occasions he showed himself, by his courage,
coolness, presence of mind, and fertility of resource, to be a
born soldier; he rose to- the rank of captain, and his talents
were generally acknowledged, especially by Major Lawrence,
the able commander of the troops at Madras,
In 1751 the affairs of Mohammed Ali were at so low an
ebb, that nothing, it was plain, could save them from ruin
but some extraordinary effort. As Chunda Sahib was absent, besieging his rival in Trinchinopoly, Clive proposed a
bold attempt to besiege his capital, Arcot. At the head of
a force of not more than 200 Europeans and 300 sepoys he
set forth to attack a fort garrisoned by 1100 men, and in a
city with 100,000 inhabitants; but the garrison retired at his
approach, and the people received him favorably.  Chunda
Sahib sent his son to recover the fortress, and Clive soon
found himself with only four officers, 120 Europeans, and
200 sepoys, (to this his force was now reduced,) in a ruinous
fort of more than a mile in circumference, and with provision only for sixty days, besieged by a force of 150 French
and 10,000 native troops well supplied with artillery. Here,
however, he maintained himself for fifty days, repelled every
attack, and finally forced the enemy to raise the siege and
retire from the town.
Being reinforced from Fort St. David, and joined by a
corps of Mahrattas, he defeated a body of 300 French and
4500 natives, and took the pagoda of Conjeveram; and afterwards, at the village of Coverspak, he totally routed aforce
of about the same number, (Jan. 1752.)  The seat of war
was now transferred to Trinchinopoly and its vicinity, where
Clive cheerfully served under major Lawrence.  Success at
tended all their operations; the power and influence of the
French sank every where. The death of Chunda Sahib relieved Mohammed Ali from a competitor; and the recall of
Dupleix, (1754,) and the pacific character of his successor,
Godeheu, seemed to promise a period of tranquillity.  Clive




GEORGE -III.                 509
took advantage of this state of affairs to return to England
for the reestablishment of his health. After an abode of
two years in his native country, he returned to India as governor of Fort St. David, with a commission of lieutenantcolonel in the British army, to enable him to command the
king's troops.  He reached Fort St. David on the 20th of
June, 1756; and that very day an event occurred in Bengal
— the capture of Calcutta -which called him away to that
province which was to be the great scene of his glory.
For the last fifteen years the klingdorns of Bengal, Bahar,
and Orissa had been ruled by the soobahdar Aliverdi Khan,
an able and prudent man. On his death, (April 9,1756,) he
was succeeded by his grand-nephew, Suraj-ud-Dowla, a licentious youth of violent passions. The new ruler, jealous
of the English, or coveting their reputed wealth, resolved to
make a pretext for robbing and expelling them.  He first
charged them with fortifying Calcutta, arip this being disproved, he accused them of protecting oi.. of his subjects
who had fled with great treasure. The treasure it was
shown did not exist; and the person in question he was assured should be reserved for his pleasure.  But the rapacious
youth would listen to no excuse.  At the head of a large
army he appeared before Calcutta.  Little or no attempt
was made at resistance; most of the English, including Mr.
Drake the governor and captain Minchin the commandant
9f the troops, got on board the ships and hastened down the
river.  About 159 persons were left behind in the fort; and,
during two days, (though we are assured that a single sloop,
with fifteen men, could have carried them off in spite of the
enemy,) such was the ignoble terror which possessed the
filgitives, that not a single effort was made to relieve them.!Ir. Holwell, who had taken the temporary comnmand, then
Iroposed a surrender; but before he could obtain a reply the
fort was stormed and all in it made prisoners.  When night
came on, the victors placed their captives, 146 in number,
in a room twenty feet square, with only two small windows,
named the' Black Hole,' and which the English had made
for a place of confinement.  The dreadful heat and the
want of air quickly deprived some of existence; others lost
their reason, and expired in delirium; their entreaties and
offers of money to their guards to give them water, or to remove them, were mocked at or disregarded; and when the
prison was opened next morning only twenty-three remained
alive. There is no reason to suppose that the soobahdar
l designed their death, but he expressed no concern when in.
43 *




510              HISTORY OF ENGL.ND.
formed of it.  Having plundered the town, he departed
leaving in it a garrison of' 3000 men.
The right of the English to Calcutta was fully as good as
that of the soobahdar to his dominions, for they held it by a
grant from the emperor.  Justice was therefore evidently on
their side in the contest in which they were now about to
engage. When the intelligence reached Madras, (Aug. 16,)
it was resolved at once to send an expedition to Bengal, and
Clive was appointed to the command of it. It consisted of
900 Europeans, and 1500 sepoys, and was conveyed by five
of his majesty's and five of the company's ships, under a.'iniral Watson.  On the 22d of December they reached
Fulta, a village on the Hooghly, not far from Calcutta, and
in the course of ten days (Jan. 2, 1757) they recovered that
city, whence an expedition sailed up the river to attack the
large town of Hooghly.  The fort was taklen, (11th,) after a
slight resistance; they then destroyed the granaries at various places farther tip the river, and returned to Calcutta with
a booty of a lac and a half of rupees, (15,0001.)  At the end
of the month, Suraj-ud-Dowla approached Calcutta; he professed friendship, and offered to make restitution of property; but Clive soon ascertained that he was only amusing
them, in order imperceptibly to get possession of the city,
and cut off supplies from the fort; he therefore resolved on
an immediate attack, and at six in the morning (Feb. 5) he
entered the camp of the enemy, at the head of nearly all his
forces.  He crossed it in about two hours, doing considerable execution; but at daybreak his army became enveloped
in so dense a fog that they lost their way, and thus partially
failed in their object.  The nabob, however, was so alarmed,
that lie retired to some distance, ana  again made overtures
of peace, to which Clive, apprehensive of his joining with
the French, readily listened; and treaties were signed, by
which the nabob restored and extended the privileges of the
company, and engaged to make compensation for all their
losses; while they pledged themselves to look on his enemies
as their own.
As war had broken out anew between France and England, and the French were now very strong in southern
India, the government at Madras were urgent with Clive to
attack their settlement at Chandernagore, in order to depress their power in Bengal.  Accordingly, having drawn a
reluctant consent from the nabob, Clive and Watson attacked
and took that settlbment, (March 23.)  Clive was always of
I _ _ _ _ i_                                                   _ _ _       J 




GEORGE ILI.                    51?
opinion that it was impossible for the French and the Eng.
lish to co6xist in India, and that one or other must be expelled; and he soon had indubitable I roof that it was the
intention of the nabob to unite his forces with the former.
As he had also formed an entrenched camp at a place named
Plassey, and interrupted the communication of the English
with their factory at Cossimbazar, Clive did not hesitate to
take share in a conspiracy now organized for the dethronement of Suraj-ud-Dowla.  The principal persons engaged inll
it were, Meer Jaffier, the Bukhshee, or general; Rov Dullub, the Dewan, or minister of finance; and Jugget Seit, tilhe
richest banker in India.  A treaty was concluded, by which
Meer Jaffier was to be placed on the musnud, or throne; he
was in return to give forty lacs of rupees to the army and
navy, and twelve to the committee at Calcutta.
When all was arranged, Clive set forth with a force of
3000 men, of whom not quite a third were Europeans.  lie
directed his march for Plassey, which place he reached before day on the 23d of June.  At daybreak, the nabob's
army, of 15,000 horse and 35,000 foot, advanced to attack.him.  Clive's troops were posted in a grove defended by
mud-banks.  After cannonading them  till noon, the enemy
retired to their fortified camp; and shortly after Olive stormed
an angle of it, put them  to the rout, and pursued them for
a space of six miles.  In this battle, which  decided the
fate of the English in India, the loss of the enemy was only
500 men.
Suraj-ud-Dowla fled to his capital Moorshedabad, and
sending from  it what treasure he could, he followed it himself at midnight.  He was afterwards taken and put to death
by the son of Meer Jaffier.
It has always been the custom in the East to pay for political services liberally, and this custom was adhered to in
the present instance.  In the treaty concluded by Clive with
the new soobahdar it was stipulated that 100 lacs of rupees
should be paid to the company for their losses and for the
expenses of the campaign, with compensation to all the sufferers at the taking of Calcutta; the company was also to
have the zemindary' of a tract of country to the south of
that city.  In his donations to those to whom he was indebted for his throne the soobahdar was most profuse.  His gifts
* A zemindar was a person who farmed the portion of the produce
of the soil claimed by the crown. He paid a certain sum unnually,
but had no property in the soi,




512              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
to Clive amounted to 180,0001.; but though offered presents
by Roy Dullub and others, Clive refused them; for he
considered that in receiving gifts from the prince whom
he had benefited he was justified by the usages of Asia,
and not condemned by the general principles of morality; the presents of individuals he viewed under a different light. It is well known what an outcry was afterwards raised against this distinguished man on this account.;
but, as it has not been shown that avarice was his motive to
action, or that he sacrificed in the slightest degree the interests of the company to his own, we cannot see any grounds
whatever for condemning him for making a fortune when an
honorable occasion was presented.
Meer Jaffier was a weak, imprudent man, and his conduct
speedily drove some of his most powerfiul subjects into rebellion. His only stay was Clive, whose wisdom saved him
from the consequences of his own ill conduct. With all his
defects, Meer Jaffier was not ungrateful to his benefactor,
he procured from the court of Delhi the title of an Omrah
for him; and when Clive, (1759,) by'marching his troops
into Bahar, which had been invaded by the emperor's eldest
son, had saved Meer Jaffier from the ruin which threatened
him, that prince, of his own free motion, conferred on him a.jagheer, or estate of three lacs of rupees a year, assigning
for that purpose the quitrent of the company's zemindary.
Htere again it may be asked, who can justly condemn Clive?
In 1760 Clive returned to England. He was now only
thirty-five years of age, and he was possessed of an income
of more than 40,0001. a year. He received abundant marks
of respect; but his constitution was enfeebled, and he felinto a long and dangerous illness. He obtained a seat in
parliament; and by means of his money he brought several
of his friends into the house of commons. He also obtained,
an Irish peerage.  A very unwarrantable attempt to deprive
him of his iagheer was soon, however, made by the court of
directors, acting under the influence of their chairman, Mr.
Sullivan; for surely they could have no claim to it, and his
right stood o a precisely the same grounds as theirs to their
zemindary.  Though the highest legal authorities were
against theri-, they persisted in withholding payment, and he
was obliged to have recourse to a bill in chancery.  But in
1764 such.dings came from India, that the safety of the
British possessions in that country seemed to depend on his
return to it; and in a court of proprietors he was unanimously appointed governor-general of.Bengal. He accepted




GEORGE III.                  513
the high office, and quitted England for the third and last
time.
The affairs of the company in Bengal were now in a deplorable state, in consequence of the unprincipled rapacity of
its servants. " I shall only say," writes Clive after his arrival,
"that such a scene of anarchy, confusion, ccrruption, and
extortion was never seen or heard of in any country but
Bengal; nor such and so many fcrtunes acquired in so unjust and rapacious a manner." Elsewhere he says, " There
are not five men of principle in the whole settlement." It
was at this time that England first beheld the spectacle of
the return of the' Nabobs,' as they were called; men who,
having quitted her shores perhaps penniless, revisited them
in a few years gorged with wealth wrung from the natives of
India, and displayed in the use or abuse of it the habits of
pride, insolence, and luxury acquired in the East.
The modes by whkich these gentlemen acquired their
wealth were various. The first and simplest was that of extorting contributions, as lord Clive says, " from every man
of power and consequence, from the nabob down to the lowest zemindar.  But much greater gains were made by trade.
The emperor had granted a firman, by which goods under
the company's flag and dustuck, or permit, should pass dutyfree; but this. was clearly understood to apply only to goods
belonging to the company, and being either European goods
for sale or native productions for export, and not to interfere
with the internal trade of the country. The company, with
that ill-judging parsimony into which such bodies sometimes
fall, had given their servants paltry salaries, but had permitted them to trade on their own account; hence, when the
power of the company had become paramount i. Bengal,
their serxants there, from the highest to the lowest, resolved
to employ it to their own private advantage.  They insisted
tha  the company's d ustuck should cover all goods whatever;
and they nmonopolized the trade in salt, betel-nut, and tobacco, and the extortion of themselves and their gomzastahs, or
native agents, was ruinous to the country.  It may easily be
conceived what a task lord Clive had before him, to cleanse
such an Augean stable, and what opposition he had to encounter, not merely from Messrs. Leycester, Gray, Burdett,
Johnstone, and others, members of council and prime offenders, but from even the lowest servants of the company.
The; political transactions of this interval had been as follows. In 1760, Mr. Vansittart, Clive's successor, acting
under the inf:ence of Mr. Holwell, who hated Meer Jaffier.
MM M




514               HISTORY OF ENG:LAND.
concluded a treaty with Cossim  Ali, that nabob's son-in-law
for his dethronement, by which the provinces of' Burdwvan,
Midnapore, and Chittagong, were to be made over to the
company, and large rewards given to the members of coun.
cil.  This unjustifiable pact of spoliation  was easily carried into effect.  Meer Jaffier could make no resistance, and
Cossim All became the nabob.  But Mr. Vansittart, who is
said to have been a welln-leaning man, was no Clive; he
was domineered over by an insolent, rapacious majority in
the council, and he was completely mistaken in the characiter
of Cossim Ali, who proved to be a man of considerable energy and of much financial ability.  He first caused the
English to lose consideration in the eyes of the people of
India by seizing and putting to death Ram  Narrain, the
Hindoo governor of Patna, whom  they had pledged thenmselves to protect; and then, in pursuance of his plans for
reestablishing his finances, he resolved to put an end to
their monopoly of trade and evasion of duties.  He required
that Mr. Ellis, a violent, rapacious man, who had always opposed him, should be removed from  Patna; but the council
sent Ellis orders to seize the citadel of that town.  Cossimn,
however, retook the fort, and he put Ellis and one hundred
and fifty other Europeans to death.  He then, fearingi the
English, fled to Sujah-ud-Dowla, vizier of Oude, who armled
in his favor; but that prince was defeated at Buxar by mnajor
Munro, and was obliged to sue for peace.
The council now replaced Meer Jaffier on the musnud;
and on his death, which occurred soon after, they raised to
it his son Nujum-ud-Dowla, making him  pay, of course,
largely for his elevation, for money was the only object of
these low-minded, sordid men.
Such was the state of affairs in Bengal when Clive landed,
(May 3, 1765.)  He remained in India till the end of January, 1767, during which period he effected reformations in
both the civil and military departments, which perhaps lhe
alone could have accomplished.  His suppression of the
conspiracy, into which not less than 200 of the European
officers had entered, to resist the reduction of the double
batta, or pay, first given them by Meer Jafier, is justly rejI'  e  garded as one of the greatest actions of his life  It was
also at this'time that the English became the real sovereigns
of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, as Clive obtained for the coMnpany from  the emperor a deuiannee, or deed empowering
them to collect the revenues of those provinces.  Out of
themn were to be paid, to the emperor 26 lacs a year, to the
~~"" u"'U" 9 —— ~~ L~ N*I~*PIll —-~1~~^ -IVi-~~*-lil~   ^~ —-_~~Ch ci —-~.-_-. —-  __..~~-.Y-~I —~-;,!~-~
{~~~ —---------                ----------- -r I- — e —-~~-.-c~.._._ _.._.._~._ ~




GEORGE II.                  515
nabob 53 lacs; and Clive computed that there would re,
main to the company an annual surplus of 122 lacs, or
1,650,0001.
To conclude the history of'this great man. He was received with all due honors on his return to England; but he
had soon to encounter the bitter hostility of Johnstone and
the other persons whom he had made his foes in India, and
who now, by large purchases of stock, were become powerful in the court of proprietors, where they joined with the
Sullivan party.  They also, by means of the newspapers and
of pamphlets, kept up a constant discharge on him. At
length, in 1773, at a time when the affairs of India much
occupied the attention of parliament, colonel Burgoyne,
(the future hero of Saratoga,) as chairman of the select 
committee, moved a resolution that lord Clive, in the affair
of the deposition of Suraj-ud-Dowla, had " abused the powers with which he was intrusted, to the evil example of the
servants of the company, and to the dishonor and detriment
of the state."  Lord Clive, in the course of the debate,
Xmade a noble defence of the whole of his conduct in India.
He concluded by saying, " I have one request to make to
the house; that, when they come to decide on my honor,
they will not forget their own."  On a division, the clause      i;
condemnatory of lord Clive was omitted; and it was finally
resolved that he had received the sum of 234,000/., but that
at the same time he had rendered great and meritorious ser
vices to his country.                                            A,
The proud spirit of Clive, it is said, never recovered the
shock of being thus dragged like a culprit to the bar of his
country; but, though it preyed on his mind, it cannot justly      i
be regarded as the immediate cause of his death.  The
founder of the British empire in India died, as is well'
known, by his own hand, (Nov. 22, 1774,) at the age of    
forty-nine.  He was originally of a nervous, melancholy           i
temperament; his liver had long been deranged, and his fits
of illness frequent. It was in a paroxysm of bodily pain,
caused by gall-stones, that he committed the fatal deed.
Now that the clouds of malignity have passed away, his name
most justly ranks among those of England's most illustrious
men.
We now resume the affairs of the company.  The great
acquisitions made by lord Clive produced attacks on their
revenue from two parties, the proprietors and the government. The former, insisting on their right to the advantages,'7
totet. themselves dividends of 10 and. 12  per cent.; the...... _.... ~~~~~~~~




516               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
latter claimed all the territory that had: been acquire(l, but
compromised the matter for the present for 400,0001. a year
But the affairs. of the company were not by any means in
the flourishing condition that was supposed; and they were
obliged to apply, erelong, for a loan of 1,500,0001. Two
committees, named the' Secret' and the'Select,' had been
appointed to inquire into their affairs.  A new  arrangement
oi the court of directors took place; the qualification for
voting in the court of proprietors was raised; a court of
justice, consisting of a chief and three puisne judges appointed by the crown, was to supersede the mayor's court at
Calcutta; the governor of Bengal was to have the superiority over the other presidencies.  Warren Hastings, Esq., a
gentleman who had long been in India, was appointed the
first governor-general, with general Clavering, colonel Monson, and Messrs. Barwell and Francis as his counsellors,
(1773.)
Mr. Hastings had gone out in the preceding year as
governor of Bengal, where he was to restore the company's
finances, and at the same time establish a fortune for himself. In accomplishing these objects, it is not to be denied
that he displayed abilities of a very high order, but it is
equally true that deeds were enacted revolting to justice
and humanity.*  To enter into the details in our restrictae
limits is, however, a matter that cannot be expected; we
can only undertake to sketch those acts which were most
notorious.
The giving up the people named Rohillas to Sujah-udDowla, the tyrannical vizier of Oude, was the first of these
acts. Rohilcund, which lies northward of Oude, was, from
the prudence of its ruler, in a state of high prosperity.
Owing to an invasion of the Mahrattas, the Rohillas found
It expedient to form  an alliance with the vizier; and that
rapacious prince instantly resolved to make himself master
of their country.  On his engaging to pay the company 40
lacs of rupees, if successfiul, and allow their troops a certain sum  a month, Mr. Hastings (1774) ordered colonel
Campion to join his forces with those of the vizier for the
invasion of Rohilcund.  The Rohillas made a brave but ineffectual defence. The cowardly, atrocious vizier, whose
* [The reader must be put upon his guard against receiving these
charges against Mr. Hastingrs to their full extent. He has been much
wronged. It is certain that no one has ever been more devotedly beloved by the natives than Mr. Hastings; which fact of itself is almost
enough to disprove the usual charges brought against him. - J. T. S.]




GEORGE oI:.                  517
declared object was their extermination, was let loose to
glut his malignity on them; and the barbarities enacted
were declared by colonel Campion to be in many instances
beyond description.  As the emperor had placed himself
under the protection of the Mahrattas, Mr. Hastings with- 
held the portion of the revenues of Bengal allotted to hinm
by Clive; and he sold to the vizier for 50 lacs the provinces
of Allahabad and Corah, which lord Clive had secured to
the emperor.
The arrival of the members of the council from Europe
(Oct. 1774) put a check on the excesses of Mr. Hastings
as he and his friend Mr. Barwell were on all occasions outvoted by the other three. The council-board was a scene
of constant altercation: and Mr. Hastings was so galled at
finding himself continually thwarted, that (1777) he authorized Mr. Maclean, who was returning to Europe, to
tender his resignation to the directors.  It was accepted,
and Mr. Wheeler was appointed to succeed him. But ere
the intelligence reached Bengal, the death of colonel Monson had given Mr. Hastings the supremacy in the council,
and he now disavowed his agent, refused to resign, and
seemed determined to retain his power by force of arms, if
needful. His opponents declined the contest, and he again
began to run his despotic career uncontrolled, and to undo
all that had been done of late against his wishes or interest.
A quarrel between him and Mr. Francis, in 1780, whom he
accused of breach of promise, terminated in a duel, in
which the latter was wounded. His immediate return to
Europe left Mr. Hastings unfettered, and the effect was
soon visible in the results of the governor's journey to the
Upper Provinces.
Since the year 1764 the rajah of Benares (the great seat
of Hindoo devotion) had been under the protection of the
English. In 1774, the rajah, Cheyte Sing, was relieved
from all dependence on the vizier of Oude, and he was to
pay a fixed tribute to the company; and it was unanimously
resolved by the council, that while he performed his engagements "no more demands of any kind should be made on
him, nor any person be allowed to interfere with his author
ity."  The rajah paid his tribute regularly till the time of
what Mr. Hastings is pleased to term " the attempt to wrest
from  him  his authority; " in other words, to carry the
orders of the directors into effect, in June, 1777.  At that
time Mr. Hastings found that Cheyte Sing had deputed a
person to general Clavering, his opponent, and he secretly
VOL. II.     44




~518         HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
resolved to make him feel his vengeance. He forthwith
began to make requisitions on him. A present of two lacs,
in 1781, lid not suffice to mollify the governor.  The exactions were increased; the reluctance to submit to them  was
termed a crime, and was to be made the pretext for robbing
the rajah.  "I was resolved," says Mr. Hastings, "to draw
from  his guilt the means of relief to the company's distresses.  I had determined to make him  pay largely for his
pardon, or to exact a severe vengeance for his past delin.
quency."   With this righteous object in view, Mr. Hastings,
in  7S1, proceeded to Benares.  He placed the rajah under
arrest; but the people, to whom he and his father had been
mild and upright rulers, rose and massacred his guards, and
he made his escape to a fortified palace on the other side
of the river, and the troops sent to assault it were repulsed
with loss.  The whole district rose in revolt; the contagion
spread to Oude and Bahar.  Mr. Hastings was obliged to
fly by night to the fortress of Chunar.  All the supplications
of the rajah for peace were rejected with scorn.  When
troops arrived, his hasty levies were easily routed, and he
fled from the fort of Bidgegur, taking with him his treasi    ures, and leaving in it his mother, the Rannee, (whose
residence it was,) his wife, and the rest of his family.  The
Rannee endeavored to make terms, but Mr. Hastings would
only grant safety and respect for her person; and in his let-,    er to major Popham, who commanded, he said, "I appreiend that she will contrive to defraud the captors of a considerable part of the booty by being suffered to retire without
e amination; but this is your consideration, and not mine."
This hint was not lost on the soldiery; the capitulation was
broken; the Rannee and the other women, to the number
of three hundred, were plundered, and their persons rudely
treated by the soldiers and camp-fbllowers, in spite of the
efforts of major Popham.
The plunder after all amounted only to 23 millions of rupees, and the troops, in erpreting the above passage of the
governor's letter in their own favor, claimed it all as their
prize-money; they would not even lend it to the conipany,
to whose burdens Mr. Hastings's attempt at robbery thus
added the expenses incurred by the revolt.  The directors
strongly reprobated his conduct in this affair.
Disappointed in his hopes of plunder at Benares, the
governor turned his view to Oude. The vizier visited him at
Chunar, and it was arranged that he was to be relieved from
the burden of a heavy number of British troops, of which
i  l_______________________




GEORGE III.                  519
he had long complained, and be allowed to resume any
jagheers which the company had not guarantied. This was
apparently very moderate and reasonable; but it contained
a deep scheme of spoliation.
The Beguims, as they are named, that is, the grandmother
and mother of the vizier, were in possession of extensive
jag'heers assigned them by his father, who had also left them
most of his treasures. They resided at Fyzabad with the
numerous families of the late viziers, which they were bound
to support, and they managed, according to custom, their
jagheers by their own agents.  They had often already had
large sums extorted from them by the vizier; but the governor now resolved to make him the instrument of robbing
them of all they possessed, under pretence (mere pretence)
of their having encouraged the people of Oude to aid the
Insurrection of Cheyte Sing. The vizier, bad as he was,
scrupled to act in such a business; but when he found that
Mr. Middleton, the resident, was authorized to proceed without him, to keep up his consequence in the eyes of his subjects, he issued the warrants required of him, and he and
Middleton appeared before Fyzabad at the head of a body
of troops; and, after some time spent in negotiation, the
town was stormed, but without bloodshed, as there was no
resistance.  There was a difficulty, however, in getting at
the treasure, as the zenanas, or women's apartments, are
sacred over all the East; from a passage, indeed, in one of
Mr. Hastings's letters, it would appear that it would have
been no difficulty to him; but it was to the nabob and resident.  A plan, however, was devised; two eunuchs, men of
venerable age, the confidential servants of the princesses,
were seized, laid in irons, kept without food, and tortured
in other ways, to work on the compassion of their Mnistresses, and the diabolical plan succeeded; for upwards of
509,0091. was thus extracted from the Begums, though they
had to give up for sale even their table utensils. They had
themselves, in the interval, been often in danger of starvation from want of food.
On this occasion Mr. Hastings no doubt made money for
his masters; he also took care of his own interest. The
vizier, in the midst of his embarrassments, found money for
a present of ten lacs (100,0001.) to the governor.  As it was
now forbidden to accept gifts, and the present one could
not be concealed, Mr. Hastings informed the directors of it,
at the same time asking their permission to retain it.
Space does not admit of our noticing any more of the




520              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
acts of this eminent man.  He left India, after a reign Af
twelve years, in 1785.  He had raised the revenue to douole
its previous amount; but he had added 12~ millions to the
debt of the company.  It is said that he was popular at all
times in India, as well with natives as Europeans.@  In the
case of the former, his popularity was probably much increased by the attention he paid to the literature of the
country, having been one of the first servants of the comnpany who sought to acquire a knowledge of the eastern languages. On his return to his native shore, a trial which
perhaps he had not anticipated awaited him.  The splendid
eloquence of Burke, Fox, Sheridan, and others, displayed in
such appalling colors his various enormities, that the house
of commons resolved on his impeachment, and his trial
commenced on the 13th of February, 1788; the managers
for the commons being Messrs. Burke, Fox, Sheridan, Grey,
and others.  It was on the 23d of April, 1795, that judgment was at length given in favor of the prisoner-  to such
a length had the process been spun out by the artifices
chiefly of Hastings's counsel, headed by Law, afterwards
lord Ellenborough; for, unlike a man who, conscious of
innocence, disdains all subterfuge and dares his adversaries
to do their utmost, Mr. Hastings had recourse to every
quirk that legal subtilty could devise for the suppression of
evidence.  It would almost seem as if his noble judges were
predetermined to acquit him, for they did every thing that he
could have wished; they rejected evidence continually, and
guided themselves by the narrowest maxims of the inferior
courts.  The Indian interest, as it was named, was powerful,
the highest family in the realm interested itself for the culprit, the managers were not always discreet, the length of
the proceedings caused many to regard the accused as a
persecuted man, the press was engaged  in his favor, his
money went in all directions; in short, he was acquitted:
but no one, we believe, who reads his deeds, not merely in
the fervid declamations of Burke, but in the calm  pages of
history, will hold him  guiltless — unless he be prepared to
assert that the retention of empire justifies every crime.  As
to impeachment, it is now  only a judicial drama, such
changes having taken place in the constitution as render it
quite impotent.
* [It is certain that he was one of the inost popular governors tihat
ever ruled in India. He was, indeed, enthusiastically beloved. Mere
attention to the native literature was not sufficient to secure this. Sel
iote, p. 516. -J. T. S.]




GEORGE III.                   5-2 1
During this period the affairs of the company in the presidency of Madras also offer much to interest.  The same
career of oppression and injustice was run there as in Bengal, and the treatment of the rajah of Tanjore was worthy
of Hastings himself. The nabob of Arcot, his intrigues
and his debts, the deeds of the notorious Paul Benfield and
others, attracted the attention of the British legislature.
When lord Pigot, the governor, attempted reformation, he
was actually placed under arrest by the insolent, rapacious
men who formed the majority in the council.  His successor, sir Thomas Rumbold, followed a different course, and
in little more than two years he was able to remit to Europe
164,9001., though his salary, etc., did not exceed 20,0001. a
year.  The directors, however, dismissed him  and som:,
others from their service.
The external operations of this presidency were, war with
the French, in which Pondicherry was taken, and with Ityder
Ali, the prince of Mysore, who overran the Carhatic andc
dictated peace under the walls of Madras.
The affairs of India, as we have seen, had attracted the
attention of parliament, and various measures were proposed
respecting them. At length, in 1783, during the short sway
of the coalition ministry, Mr. Fox brought forward his celebrated'East India Bill,' in the preparation of which Mr.
Burke had a large share.  In this it was proposed to do
away with the courts of directors and proprietors, in whose
room were to be seven commissioners, named by parliament,
who were to have the administration of all the affairs of the
company, and the sole power of placing and displacing its
servants.  They were themselves only removable by the
king on the address of either house.  A court of nine assistant-directors, being proprietors, each of not less than 20001.
of India stock, also chosen by the legislature, were to manage the details of the company's'affairs under the superior
board. The bill also contained a number of other regu-.
lations.
The outcry raised against this project is well known.
The East India Company and the city of London petitioned
against the bill, Mr. Pitt exposed its apparent evils with his
usual ability, but it passed the commons by a majority of two
to one. In the lords it was strenuously opposed, among
others by lord Camden; and earl Temple, in a private conference with the king, so impressed him with an idea of its
tendency to limit the prerogative, that he received permission to assure the peers privately, that his majesty would
44*                        NNN




522              HIISTORY OF ENGLAND.
regard as his enemy any one who voted for it.  The bill was
therefore rejected, and the king dismissed his ministers.
The following year Mr. Pitt introduced his' East India
Bill,' which was passed; in 17S6 it was amended by an ex
planatory act, and it continues to be the fundamental law of
the Anglo-Indian empire.  Its chief feature is the introduction of the' Board of Control,' composed of six members
of the privy council, named by the king, (of whom the chanchellor of the exchequer and one of the secretaries of state
were always to be two,) to whom the court of directors were
to communicate all their correspondence respecting the
government of their territories, and to whose control they
were to be subject.
It is a commnh, and therefore a true saying, that'one
man may steal a horse while another is hanged for looking
over the hedge.' The great alarm  caused by Mr. Fox's
bill was the enormous power it would give the minister, by
investing him with the Indian patronage; and who, it may
be asked, possesses that patronage now but the minister?
Have the court of directors any more freedom  in choosing
a governor-general, or any other great officer in India, than
the clergy of a cathedral in electing their bishop? The
president of the board of control is, in fact, secretary for
Indian affairs, and his authority is as great in his department
as that of his brother secretaries, only that he has to exercise
it in a more circuitous manner.  There is just the same
scope for patronage and favoritism, and like to many other
ministers of state, the president sometimes enters on his
office with a profound ignorance of the condition of the empire whose affairs he is to direct.  But these evils are unavoidable; such extensive patronage must fall into the hands
of the executive.
The first governor-general sent out under the new constitution was the marquess Cornwallis; and ever since, that
high office has been, with one or two exceptions, consigned
to a nobleman connoetod with the party in power at home.
No better choice could have been made at he time, for the
noble marquess possessed every estimable, and many a great
quality. He was successful in a war with Tippoo Sahib, the
successor of Hyder Ali. An extensive system of financial
and judicial reform, or rather change, was effected under
the administration of this nobleman, but its consequences
proved widely different from the sanguine anticipations of
its authors. This is in a great measure to be ascribed to
their ignorance of the feelings, hfhits, prejudices and insti.




CEORGE III.                  523.utions of those for whom they were legislating, and to the
unconscious application of European principles and analogies to a state of society so totally different from  that of
Elurope.
CHAPTER V.
GEORGE III. (CONTINUED.)
1789-1801.
WE are now arrived at the most awful and important period in the history of man; a period when a nation of slaves,
acting under the impulse of men, some of philanthropic but
unenlightened views and inexperience in the great science
of politics, but others devoid of principle and seeking only
for change, in the hope of profiting in the confusion, flung
off the bonds of ages, and madly plunged into the chaos of
turbulence and anarchy.  The French Revolution, of which
we now speak, burst forth like a moral volcano, shaking the
stability of' the most ancient thrones, overwhelming justice,
law, and equity, in its career, and, after involving Europe in
a calamitous war of nearly a quarter-century, terminated in
the national humiliation of the conquest of France by those
monarchs who had felt her insolence and suffered by her
power in the days of her strength.
To narrate the events of this revolution would be beside
our purpose.  Suffice it to say, that it owed its origin to the
absurd privileges of the nobility and their galling insolence;
to the heavy and unequal weight of taxation laid on the ur.
privileged classes; to the corruption and profligacy of the
court; to the enormous wealth and often scandalous lives
of the superior clergy; to the writings of the so-styled
philosophers, which sapped the foundations of religion and
morality; to the short-sighted policy of the government,
who, out of mean jealousy of'England, encouraged the re.
volt of her colonies, and sent their troops to receive the
revolutionary infection, and to other causes which we need
not enumerate.  Its atrocities, not to be paralleled, arose
from the natural character of the French people, of which
a part is the absence of moral courage; for the coward is
cruel, and the moral coward more so than the physical ore




524               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
In every event of the revolution, in every character, from
the king down to the lowest ruffian of the Fauxbourgs, the in
fluence of this principle may be traced. Men were dragged
like sheep to the guillotine; they died like heroes; but
they had not the mental energy to combine and crush, as
they might have done, by well-directed efforts, the ferocious
bandits by whoml they were slaughtered. Above all deserving of contempt and execration were the nobles, whose insolence had been a chief cause of the evil, but who, in the
moment of agony, abandoned their king, and fled by thousands to seek the aid of foreign powers, instead of boldly
facing the demon of discord at home, and crushing it by
efforts of united energy, justice, and patriotism.  How dif
ferent was the conduct of the English nobility and gentry in
the struggles of the 17th century! But herein lies the difference of the national characters; and if the British aristocracy is fated to fall beneath democracy, it will fall, we may
be confident, without dishonor.
In England, the progress of the French revolution was
viewed with different eyes by different men.  There is a
class of people who are easily beguiled by specious terms;
to these the mere word liberty came associated with visions
of social happiness and national blessings.  They viewed in
the revolution of France the commencement of a golden
age, the return of Astrea to earth, the dawn of the day
which would shed peace and tranquillity over the whole
earth.  There were others who were anxious to convert the
balanced constitution of England into a pure democracy.
And there was that profligate class to be found in all countries, who, devoid alike of religion, morals, and property. rejoice in the prospect of going a-wrecking.n the peoltical
tempest.  It was chiefly among the dissenters that the nmembers of the first two classes were to be found; they had ali
ways a strong leaven of republicanism  in their body; they
had shown it openly since the commencement of the Amer
can war; and we may safely predict, that if ever Englanoi
becomes a democratic republic, they will be active agents in
the change.*
* Among these the Unitarians were most prominent. If lord Clar.
endon's remark of clergymen, that they 1" understand the least and
take the worst measure of human affairs of all mankind that can write
and read," be correct, we may say that it applies with peculiar force to
dissenting teachers, whose education and habits of life tend greatly to
disqualify them for the discussion of political questions. [This last remark is certainly comp!imentarv, rather than otherwise, to the dis



GEOR4GE 111.                 525
On the other hand, the whole tory party viewed the revolution with unmingled horror and disgust.  They soon found
themselves joined by an ally in the cause of true liberty and
the constitution, whose powers in such a cause were without
a parallel  Edmund Burke, to whom, on this occasion, his
very prejudices combined with his profound study of history
in a philosophic spirit to give the vision of a prophet respecting the ultimate effects of the political changes now
going on in France, early denounced them  as fraught with
ruin to the civilized world.  When parliament inet in Februmary, 1790, Mr. Fox pronounced a eulogy on the proceedings in France, commending, among other things, the revolt
of the French guards.  The house expressed strong indignation at such language, and a few days after (9th) Mr. Burke,
having adverted to the danger of such opinions, sanctioned
by so great a name, proceeded to animadvert on the revolution.  "The French," said he, "have shown themselves the
ablest architects of ruin that have hitherto appeared in the
world; in one short summer they have pulled down their mon
archy, their church, their nobility, their law, their army, and
their revenue." " Our present danger," he added, " is that of
being led from admiration to imitate the excesses of a people, whose government is anarchy, whose religion is atheism."
He reprobated the comparison between that event and the
revolution in England; he said he never loved despotism in
any land, but there was a despotism more dreadful than that
of any monarch of a civilized people, - that "of an unprincipled, ferocious, tyrannical democracy; of a democracy
which had not a single virtue of republicanism to redeem its
crimes. This was so far fromnt being worthy of imitation, as
had been said by his honorable firiend, that it was worthy of
a11 abhorrence; and he would spend the last drop of his
blood, would quit his best friends, and join his most avowed
enemies, to oppose the least influence of such a spirit in
England."  Mr. Burke had now taken his ground for life;
it was plain that a schism must ensue in thfe whig par
Sheridan inveighed against, Fox tried to soothe, the excited
orator; but the breach had commenced, and on the 16th of
Maiy in the following year, Mr. Burke, in presence of the
house, renounced the friendship of Mr. Fox, and their connection terminated forever.  With Burke, Mr. WindfIam
seaters; since it implies that they attend more strictly to their spiritual
calling than their orthodox brethren of the established church.J. T. S.]
L                                             __i=_Ai_   _____



526              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the duke of Portland, lord Spencer, and other whigs who
preferred their country to their party, seceded from it, and
gave their support to the minister.
By the publication of his immortal' Reflections on the
Revolution,' and by other writings as well as speeches, Mr.
Burke rendered most essential services to his country in exposing the arts of the French demagogues to public view.
Dr. Priestley and other revolutionists attempted to reply.
The'Rights of Man,' by Thomas Paine, was the work
among them which was best calculated to [have an influence among the common] people, being written with much
ability and adapted to their comprehension; even at the
present day it continues its influence. The' Vindiciae Gal.
licte' of Mr. (afterwards sir James) Mackintosh attempted
also the defence of the revolutionists of France and their
admirers in this country.  Many years, however, did not
elapse before the author saw that the views of Burke were
more correct than his own.
The desire of parliamentary reform gave origin to various
clubs or societies, such as that of the' Friends of the People'
and the' London Corresponding Society.' Mr. Grey, a member of the former, having given notice (Apr. 1792) that he
would move -for an inquiry into the state of the representation, Mr. Pitt, formerly the strenuous advocate of the measure, rose and opposed it in the most decided terms.  Mr.
Fox seized the occasion of charging the minister with inconsistency.
The policy of Mr. Pitt toward France had been hitherto
that of strict neutrality.  But it soon became manifest that
the policy of the faction which now lorded it in that country
would be aggressive and revolutionizing.  On the 19th of
November, 1792, the National Convention decreed that " it
would grant fiaternity and assistance to all people who wish
to recover their liberty;" i. e. to rise in rebellion against
their government.  A  few  days before, (7th,) an address
from the' London Corresponding' and four other societies,
impregnated with revolution, had been presented to the convention, whose president openly boasted (21st) that " these
respectable islanders, once our masters in the social art,
have now become our disciples; and, treading in our steps
soon will the high-spirited English strike a blow which shall
resound to the extremities of Asia."  At the same time.
(16th,) the French, who had now conquered the Netherlands, ordered their general to open the navigation of the
Scheldt, which by the Peace of Westphalia was to be forever




GEORGE II1.                  527
closed, and they had committed aggressions on the Dutch,
who were in alliance with England.  An angry correspondence ensued between the English ministry and the French
ambassador.  At length the execrable murder of Louis XVIi
took place, (Jan. 21, 1793,) and the French envoy, M. Chauvelin, was ordered to quit London: on the 25th it was proposed in the Convention to invade England with 40f,000 men,
and on the 3d of February war was declared against Great
Britain.
The king had sent a message to the house of commons on
the 28th, calling on them to enable him to resist the ambitious views of France.  Mr. Pitt, with his usual ability, developed the gro'unds on which he proposed an address in
accordance with the royal message.  Mr. Fox, supported
by lord Wycomb and Mr. Whitbread, opposed, as usual;
but the address was carried without a division. The separation between the old and new whigs was now complete and
final: the former became anmong the most strenuous sup.
porters of the war; the latter were forced to be content with
opposing the measuires which they could not prevent.
On the policy of the war opinions were then, and still are,
divided; but surely any one who peruses the history of those
times must see that it was inevitable.  It was productive of
ruinous expense to England; but it probably saved her from
the curse of [such scenes as disgraced the name of France,
and of liberty.]
In the course of the year treaties were formed with most
of the continental powers, both great and small, and a confederacy was organized against France, which, had it been
directed by wisdom, animalted by zeal, controlled by una- -
nimity, and conducted by military skill, might have saved
Europe from years of misery.  But all these qualities were
wanting.  Mr. Pitt, with all his great qualities, was not,
like his father, a superior war-minister; he lavished with
reckless profusion, in subsidies to treacherous or lukewarm
allies, the sums which his financial skill enabled him to
raise, and almost every one of his military projects proved
a failure. In baseness and selfishness the government of
Prussia, we may observe, stood conspicuous.
A body of Hessians and Hanioverians was, after the usual
manner, taken into British pay, and troops were sent from
England to join them.  England certainly at the time had
no able officers; but it might have been expected that some
one who had seen service in America would have been selected for the chief command.  But this was given to the
l   I




HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
duke of York, the king's second son, whose military experi
ence did not go beyond a review in Hyde-park.  Though
his military exploits were not such as to crown him with
glory, the ocular proof which this prince obtained of the
wretched state of the British army at that time in many respects, especially in the medical department, enabled him to
effect improvements, when commander-in-chief, which raised
it to its future perfection and conferred lasting honor on his
own name.
The British troops remained in Holland till the January
of 1795, when, pressed on by an overwhelming force of the
French, and finding the people of the country hostile, they
retreated to Bremen, and embarked for England, after suffering dreadful hardships and enduring every kind of privation.
in the month of August, 1793, the people of Toulon, having declared for Louis XVII., delivered up the town to lord
Hood, tile British admiral in the Mediterranean.  Mr. Pitt,
however, refused to send a sufficient force for its defence,
and a medley of Spanish, Piedmontese, and Neapolitan
troops, worse than useless, occupied the place which should
have been filled with British soldiers.  The consequence
was, that the town was evacuated in December, and the inhabitants were left to be massacred by the sanguinary republicans.
The capture of the French West India islands and the
glorious victory of the 1st of June gave spirit to the Brit~ish
nation in 1794.  As France was suffering greatly from the
want of provisions, admiral Villaret Joyeuse was ordered to
put to sea with the Brest fleet of twenty-seven sail of the
line, in order to protect a large fleet, laden with flour, etc.,
which was coming from  America.  Lord Howe, who, with
the channel fleet of twenty-six sail, waa on the lookout for
that fleet, discovered that of Villaret on the 2Sth of May.
On that and the succeeding day there were partial actions;
fogs then concealed the hostile fleets for two days; but on
Sunday, June 1, the sun shone bright and unclouded.  Howe
broke the line,like Rodney; the French lost six ships taken
and one sunk; bhut the victory, it is said, might have been
more complete if Howe had burnt his prizes and pursuea
the enemy, as he could then with ease have destroyed their
entire fleet.  The loss of the French was 8000 men slain
and taken.
About a year after (June 22) lord Bridport, with the
channel fleet, descried a French fleet off Belleisle. He gave
chase, but the enemy escaped into L'Orient with the loss
11~ ~ ~~_,,    _~,,i-rl~LI^-LU-              — 1"" ~~ —" —\""`     p




GEORGE  III.                   529
of three sail of the line. An expedition to Qtiberon-bay, in
support of the royal cause, succeeded; with the usual error
of the British cabinet, it was on too small, a scale, and its
only result was the massacre of a number of the French
emigrants by their ferocious countrymen.  As the Dutch
were now in alliance with France, -war was declared against
them, and their settlements at the Cape.of Good Hope and
in the East and West Indies were all reduced.
In.1796 a fruitless effort for peace was made in compliance with the wishes of the nation.  Lord Malmesbury was
seut to Paris to treat; but the demands of the Directory,
who now governed, were so unreasonable, that nothing
could be effected.
The following year (1797) was a crisis in the affairs of
Gre:t Britain.  The great increase of the taxes caused discontent; the menaces of invasion by the French republic
terrified timid and selfish people, who, anxious to hoard their
cash against times of danger, made a run on the Bank,
already drained of its specie for the remittances to the continent.  To avert the evil, cash payments were prohibited
by an order of council, and acts were afterwards passed
making Bank-of-England notes -to a certain extent a legal
tender, and legalizing the issue of small notes by private
persons. The country was speedily inundated with paper
money; rents, prices, and every thing rose, and a delusive air
of prosperity spread over the empire; and thus, while Eng
land was actually year after year destroying large masses of
her capital, she seemed to be growing richer every, day.
But the pressing and imminent danger this year was the
mutiny in the channel and North-sea fleets, occasioned by
that inattention to the wants and comforts of the lower
classes of which governments are but too often guilty. -t
took place in the following manner.
Though prices had risen considerably in this century, the
pay and allowances of the seamen remained the same as in
the reign of Charles II., and their rations were actually not
sufficient for their complete nourishment.  The sailors of
late had made their compliments in anonymous letters addressed to lord Howe; but their'father,' as they styled him,
treated them with neglect. At length (Apr. 15) when lord
Bridport, who commanded the channel fleet at Spithead,
made the signal to prepare for sailing, the crews of all the
ships replied by three cheers, and declared that they would
not weigh anchor till their just demands were complied with,
"unless the enemy's fleet should put to sea."  They apVOL. II.     45                      o o o
J




30              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
pointed delegates from  each ship, who held their meetings
in the admiral's cabin on board lord Howe's own ship, the
Lueeill Charlotte.  On the 22d, lord Bridport returned to
his ship, the Royal George, and acquainted the crew that lihe
was authorized to comply with all their demands. The men
declared themselves satisfied, and the fleet dropped down to
St. Helens.  But on the 7th of May, when ordered to prepare for sailing, they again refused, alleging that government
did not intend to keep faith with them. They appointed
their delegates to meet on board the London, the ship of
vice-admiral Colpoys; but that officer caused the rnarines to
fire, and five of the seamen were killed.  They seized and
imprisoned the admiral and his officers, and afterwards sent
them-on shore, and several of the other ships' crews treated
their officers in a similar manner. On the 14th lord Howe
came to Portsmouth with full powers to settle all matters,
and an act of parliament lately passed in compliance with
the desires of the sailors.  The crews returned to their duty,
the delegates had the honor of dining with the earl and his
lady, and on the 17th the fleet put to sea.
The mutiny in the channel fleet had hardly been appeasec
when one of a much more unjustifiable character broke out
in the fleet at the Nore, joined by four ships from the Northsea fleet under admiral Duncan in Yarmouth-roads.  They
struck the flag of admiral Buckner in the Sandwich, and
gave the command to one of the seamen named Richard
Parker, a man of resolute character and of considerable
ability. They blockaded the mouth of the river and allowed
no merchantmen to come up; the greatest terror prev:tiled
in the capital, and the three per cents fell to 471.  The mutinous fleet consisted of thirteen sail of the line, besides h'Mfates, etc.; but the desertion of the Clyde and( two frigates
damped the spirits of the mutineers, and most of them begrn
to show great attention to their officers who were in confinement.  To prevent their retreat, all the buoys. hadf been
taken up; the forts at Tilbury, Gravesend, and Sheernes
were put in repair, and fuirnaces set up for heating shot, ant:i
ships were coming down to attack them.  Some of the more
desperate proposed to carry the fleet over to the enemy; but
this was rejected with indignation.  The ships now  rapidiv
deserted, and on the 13th of June the Sandwich hauled
down Parker's red flag, and the mutiny was ended. Parker.
a man worthy of a better fate, was tried by a court-martid,
and sentenced to be hanged.  IIe met his doom  with piety
and fort'tude, acknowledging the justice of his sentence; 




GEORGE III.                    581
few more'of the delegates were executed, the rest were pardoned. By the agreement with the fleet at Spithead the sea.
nlen's pay was raised; and the government, fearing a similar
mutiny in the army, soon after voluntarily raised that of the
soldiers to a shilling a day.
This year was distinguished by two important naval victories.  On the 14th of February, sir John Jervis, with only 15
sail of the line, engaged off Cape St. Vincent a Spanish
fleet of 27 sail, of which he captured four.  In this action
the gallant Nelson was the most conspicuous character, and
he here laid the foundation of his future glory.  The admiral was created earl St. Vincelrt, with a pension of 3001. a
year.  Nelson received the order of the Bath.
Admiral Duncan, with the North-sea fleet, was stationed
off the coast of Holland, to watch a fleet in the Texel destined for the invasion of Ireland.  A storm  having driven
him to Yarmouth-roads, the Dutch government ordered their
admiral, De Winter, to put to sea.  Duncan, having gotten
information, returned, and he found (Oct. 11) the enemy's
fleet of 15 sail and fi-igates off Camperdown, about nine
miles from the shore.  His fleet, consisting of 16 sail beside
frigates, had the advantage in weight of metal, and he boldly
resolved to place himself between the enemy and the shore.
The action lasted four hours; the Dutch fought with their
usual obstinate valor; but they were defeated with the loss of
nine ships and two frigates, and their marine was destroyed
forever.  Admiral I)uncan was raised to the peerage by the
title of viscount Duncan of Camperdown, with a pension of
309t)1. a year.
The rebellion in Ireland, which the fleet of Holland was
intended  to aid, broke out in  the  following  year.  We will
briefly trace its origin.
It had been the wish of the Irish protestants in the reign
of queen Anne to form an incorporating union with England; but their desire not being acceded to, they proceeded
to protect themselves against the catholics by a penal code
equalling, or rather exceeding, in severity the English laws
against recusants.  Barbarous, however, as this code was in
the statute-book, it was tolerably mild in practice, and the
chief disadvantages which the catholics felt were, exclusion
from office and the legal profession, and the inability to acquire landed property.  The protestants themselves suffered
from the jealous, monopolizing spirit of the English merchants  and manufacturers, at whose clamor Paws were
passed destructive of their industry and commerce. Then




5.32             HISTORY OF  ENGLAND.
too, that fruitful: cause of Ireland's misery, the universal use
of the potato for food, attained its full extent; and the most
wretched peasantry: on the face of the earth met the eye of
the traveller. in Ireland.
The chief governor was usually absent; the families of
Boyle and Ponsonby, under the title of: Undertakers,managed the public affairs in-the parliament; which assembly,
however, by what was termed' Poynings' law,', could not initiate. any measure, being only. empowered to accept or reject
such as were proposed to it by the council. Powerless as
the parliament was, there was, however, gradually: growing up
in it a patriotic party in opposition to the government and
the undertakers, and it increased in strength by the contest
between the last two for the patronage, that is, for the places
and pensions; for the whole system of government was: one
of the most barefaced corruption. In 1767 the lord-lieutenant, lord Townshend, became resident, and he succeeded in
reducing the oligarchy; but he failed in securing the English ascendency. The American war gave a great advantage
to the patriotic party, more especially when in 1779 most of
the troops were withdrawn from the country, and the English
ministry, on being applied to for protection by the maritime
towns,: informed the Irish nation that it must protect itself.
The protestants instantly formed themselves into a kind of
national guard, under the name of Volunteers.  Having
arms in their hands, they soon obtained freedom of foreign
trade; but their great object was to have:the independence
of their parliament acknowledged by that of Great Britain.
On the 13th of February, 1782, a convention of delegates
from the different corps of volunteers met at Dungannon in
Ulster, and passed a number of resolutions in furtherance of
that object; the Irish parliament took its tone from the convention, and the successors of lord North cheerfully repealed
the act of the sixth of George I. " for securing the dependence of Ireland." The Irish nation was profuse in its
gratitude to Henry Grattan, the great leader of the patriots
in the commons; numerous add.resses were: made, and the
title' Savior of his country' was given to him; but the vote
of 50,0001. by parliament, to purchase him a house and
lands, was a more substantial proof of their sense of his
merits.
Now commenced the brilliant, but meteoric career of the
Irish legislature.  In Grattan, Flood, Burgh, and other orators, it exhibited fervid and splendid effusions of eloquence,
of a nature almost: peculiar to Ireland; but political, science




GCEORGE II1.                  533
and legislative wisdom were absent; the mental horizon of
the orators was bounded; they could only discern Ireland
and her local interests; they could not extend their view over
the whole empire.  There was danger every moment of a
collision between the two legislatures, and the principal tie
which held them wts the unblushing venality of a great portion of that of. Ireland.  All really wise statesmen saw the
absolute necessity for an incorporating union.
But Ireland is not a soil in which wisdom thrives spontaneously.  There was a set of men who, regarding as a model
the new state of America, and undismayed by the horrors
sanctioned by the abused name of liberty in France, wished
to-convert Ireland into a democratic republic.  These men,
who were mostly protestant dissenters of Ulster, formed, in
the winter of 1791, the society of the' United Irishmen,' "for
the purpose," as they expressed it, " of forwarding a brother.
hood of affection, a communion of rights, and a union of
power amongst Irishmen of every religious persuasion, and
thereby to obtain a complete reform in the legislature,
founded on the principles of civil, political, and religious
liberty."  Their plan of reform was to the following effect:
The kingdom was to be divided into 300 equal electorates,
each (to return a member to the parliament, which was to be
annual; the members were to receive stipends, and no prop.
erty-qualification was to be required; every man of sound
mind and of the full age of 21 was to have a vote in the
electorate in which he resided; his vote was to be given by
voice and not by ballot.*  It is pretty clear that where such
was the parliament there could be no monarchy.  But these
men could not see that, with such a population as Ireland
contained, their republic was an impossibility; the great
mass of the people were in the lowest state of mental degradation; and it was to these that, in case of a separation
from England, the real power must come. The only notion
of liberty the lower Irish catholics ever have had, is the triumph of their own religion and the destruction of every
thing. opposed to it; and imagination cannot conceive the
scenes of spoliation, destruction, and massacre that would
have ensued had the plans of the United Irishmen proved
successful. Its leaders might have been the last victims, but
immolated, beyond a doubt, they would have been. at the
altar of tyranny and superstition.
* This last clause does them some credit; they weret enthusiast
and they therefore loved the light.
45 *




534              IIISTORY OF ENGLAND.
The catholics had long had a'committee' for managing
their political concerns; but of late the lords Kenmare and
Fingal, and most of their aristocracy, had seceded fiom it,
on account of the tendency which it had taken.  A barrister
named Theobald Wolfe Tone, a nominal protestant, became
its secretary; and an alliance was soon formed between it
and the United Irishmen.
There had, since the accession of George III., been illegal associations of the peasantry in the south of Ireland
under the names of White-boys and Right-boys, but they
were not political; they were directed against the tithes,
which were at times collected in a harsh and oppressive
manner.  The landlords rather encouraged these societies,
knowing full well that if tithes were abolished the amount
of them must, under the name of rent, come into their own
pockets; and it pains us to state, that in no part of the world
are to be found landlords more griping and merciless than in
Ireland.  But when they found that these rustic legislators
would rectify the scale of rents and wages also, they became
alarmed, and an act was passed in 1787 to prevent their assemblies.
In the county of Armagh, in Ulster, there sprang up subsequently parties of the opposite religions; the catholics
were named Defenders, the protestants, Peep-of-day Boys,
from their custom of attacking the houses of the catholics
at day-break, in quest of arms. On the 21st of September,
1795, the two parties fought a regular battle, at a village
named the Diamond, in which the protestants, though much
inferior in number, were victorious.  They now assumed the
name of Orangemen, bound themselves by a secret oath, and
commenced a barbarous persecution of the catholics, with,he-view of driving them out of the county; and great nu mbers were in fact forced to abandon their houses and seek a
livelihood elsewhere. The Orange association quickly spread
over the kingdom.
It was in the year 1797 that the United Irishmen became
finally and perfectly organized.  The plan was very simple
and ingenious.  The lowest division was composed of twelve
nmen, mostly neighbors; these chose a secretary, and the secretaries of five societies formed a' Lower Baronial Committee;' ten of these committees sent each a member to an'Upper Baronial Committee,' each of which again sent a
member to the'County Committee.'  In each province
tnere was a'Provincial Committee,' to which those of the
counties sent each two or three deputies; and the provincial




GEORGE Il.                   535
committees chose by ballot five persons, who formed the
Executive or Directory.  Each of the lower secretaries was
also to act in a military capacity, as a corporal or sergeant;
the lower baronial rnmibers were captains, those of the upper were colonels.  Like all secret societies, the members
of the lower grades knew not who composed the upper ones;
the executive, for example, were only known to the secretaries of the provincial committees.
The revolutionary government of France early directed
its attention to Ireland.  In 1794, the reverend William
Jackson, an English clergyman, appeared in Dublin as an
agent from the French directory; but he was apprehended,
and being found guilty of treason, he took poison, and expired in the court. Tone, who was deeply implicated with
him, was permitted by the Irish government to expatriate
himself.  He made no delay in passing from  America to
France, where, under an assumed name, he acted as the
agent of the revolutionists of Ireland.  In reliance on the
statements of him and others, a formidable expedition, of 17
sail of the line and 13 frigates, carrying an army of 15,000
men, commanded by Hoche, one of their ablest generals,
sailed from  Brest, (Dec. 15, 1796.)  Had this armament
reached its destination in safety, it is impossible to predict
the result: the overthrow, at least for a time, of the British
dominion in Ireland would in all probability have ensued, for
the country was actually defenceless.  But it would seem as
if Heaven watched in an especial manner over the destinies
of the British empire.  Storms assailed the French fleet
from the moment it left the port. Only 16 sail, with about
6500 troops, and without the general, reached Bantry-bay;
and while Grouchy, their commander, hesitated about landing, a violent gale blew off the shore, and again scattered
them over the ocean.  In the following year another expedition was prepared in the Texel, but the victory at Camperdown again saved the British interest in Ireland.
The heads of the conspiracy in Ireland were as follows:
lord Edward Fitzgerald, brother to the duke of Leinster, an
amiable, but imprudent and giddy young man. He was
married to the daughter of Madame de Genlis by (as was
said) the infamous duke of Orleans, and he was the intimate
friend of Thomas Payne.  As he had served for a few
months as a subaltern in the American war, he was to be
the principal military leader in the insurrection.  Arthur
O'Connor, the nephew of lord Longueville; Thomas Addis
Emmet, a barrister; Dr. M'Nevin, a physician; Oliver Bond,




536             HISTORY" OF ENGLAND
a-merchant, and some others, all protestants, had establishea
newspapers, named the Northern Star, the Union Star, and
the Press, for disseminating their principles; and when these
were put down by the arm of the law, they circulated inflammatory -hand bills. In many things the French revolution
was copied, but-the general proceedings were the usual Irish
ones, such ass are going onl before our eyes at the present
moment, with this exception, that the priests in general were
not active agents in it - many of them, in fact, were eminently loyal.; but they were that better generation which
had  bee'n trained at the foreign universities;
Though-the government could not get a clew to the con
spiracy, they knew that'a rebellion was in preparation.  Having received information of a' plan for a general rising in the
north- in the summer' of 1797, they- issued a proclamation.
ordering all persons'not authorized to keep arms to surrender
those they had; and, going beyond the rigid rule of law,
they directed the troops to burn the houses and property of
those who did not produce the arms which informers said
they possessed.  Persons were flogged, picketed, and tortured
in various' ways, to make them discover; and imany innocent
people'were barbarously treated.  But this did not last more
than:a month, and the rising of the north was prevented.
At length the government: obtained the information they
required. A person  named Thomas Reynolds, delegate and
colonel' for the county of K-ildare, travelling in company
with- a loyalist, was induced by him to disclose what he knew
of the conspiracy; and on the information which he gave,
thirteen of' the principal conspirators were arrested at the
house of Bond, (Mar. 12, 1798.) O'Connor was at this
time in the Tower, having been arrested at Margate, on his
way to France.  Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who happened not
to attend the meeting at Bond's, escaped for the time, but he
was discovered on the 19th of May.  He made a desperate
resistance with a dagger, wounding two of those who seized
him, one of them mortally; he himself received a pistol-shot
in the'shoulder, of which he died on the 3d of June.
Convinced' now of-the extent of the conspiracy and of
the correspondence with France, the government, by a polil
cy at which one shudders, even while conceding its necessity, resolved to cause the mine to explode as soon as possible
A proclamation was therefore issue-d on the 30th of March,
declaring the kingdom in'a'tate of-rebellion; and the troops
were-orlered to act for its suppression in tlie most summary
manner.  Scenes'of cruelty i nd oppressionl sufficient to goad




GEORGE Iln.                  537
a people to madness were speedily enacted.  The soldiers
lived at free quarters; houses and property- were burnt-;
suspected persons were half-hanged, flogged, and picketed.
The peasantry in some parts were in terror, giving up their
arms and taking the oath of allegiance; the leaders, fearing
that all their projects would- be thus disconcerted; resolved
to delay no longer, and orders were issued' for-a general rising on the night of the 23d of  May. The'plan formed was
to make a simultaneous attack on the camp" at Loughlinstown and the artillery at Chapelizod, both near Dublin-,
and then on the castle and o-ther parts of the city; the
mail-coaches were to be stopped' and destroyed, and their
non-arrival was to be the signal throughout'the country.
But'government had timely information; more of the
leaders were arrested, and the'attempt on- the camp and city
was frustrated.  The rebels of Kildare rose at the appointed
time, and attacked Naas and other towns, but, with one
trifling exception, they were defeated; and though bodies
of them  kept together for some tinme, little of importance
occurred in that county during the rebellion.  An attack on
Carlow on the 25th likewise proved a failure.  The Meath
rebels were defeated (26th) on the hill'of Tarah.
During the month of June; partial risings took place in
the counties of Antriln and down in'the north, and in that
of Corkilln the south, which were easily' suppressed. It was'
in the county of Wexford that the rebellion really' rageda county which would probably have remained at" rest had
not the people been goaded' into rebellion by the cruelties'
inflicted by the military and the self-styled loyalists. It was:
only in this county that priests appeared' among the rebels,
and it was only here that murders on a large scale were perpetrated by them.  On the: night of: the 26th a'fanatic priest
named father John Murphy -raised his standard; and' next
morning, Whitsunday, two rebel camps were formed on the
hills of Oulartc and Kilthom as, near Gorey.
The troops which the government had to oppose to the
rebels were of- a very insufficient character. AX very, small
portion were of the line; the, remainder were Irish militia,
English fencibles, as they were named, and' the! corps of'
yeomanry, composed of loyalists, which, being mostly cavairy, were of very. little use against the rebel pikernen. Many
of the officers in command were utterly devoid of military
skill.
The rebels on Oulart, having: defeated' a small detach:
ment sent against them, advanced' (28th) to attack- the town
PPP




538             HISTORY OF ENGLAND
of Enniscorthy, which the garrison, after a gallant defenoee
were forced to abandon. On the 30th, having routed some
small detachments, they appeared 15,000 strong before the
town of Wexford, which was evacuated at their approach
They made these towns tl eir head quarters; their principal
bivouac (we cannot call it camp) being on Vinegar-hill, near
the former; for it was their tactics always to take their post
on heights commanding extensive prospects, where the royal
troops must attack them at a disadvantage, and where, if
they saw danger approaching up one side, they could escape
it by flight down another.  At this time they had a great
number of protestant prisoners in their hands, whom they
confined in the jail and other places in the towns and camp.
The whole southern part of the county, except Duncannon and New Ross, was now in the hands of the rebels;
and on the 4th of June they made a furious attack on this
last town. Fortunately, general Johnson, a man of courage
andl military skill, commanded there.  The rebels fought
with desperation during a space of ten hours, but were finally repelled, with a loss of more than 1000 men; that of the
army being 90 killed and upwards of 100 wounded. During
the battle, some cowardly ruffians came to the house of Skuliabogue, where above 200 protestants, of all ages and sexes,
had been left under a guard, and pretended to have an order
for their execution, as the soldiers, they said, were butchering the catholics at Ross. They piked or shot 37 on the
hall-door steps, and then shutting up the remaining 184 (including a few obnoxious catholics) in the barn, they set fire
to it and burned them all. A. priest named Murphy was said
to be the chief instigator to this atrocity.
On the same day, in the northern part of the county,
general Loftus and colonel Walpole, with 1500 men, advanced in two divisions from Gorey to attack a rebel army
on Carrigruah-hill. The rebels, having had timely informa
tion, were approaching the town, when they encountered
Walpole, who, with the usual strategic ability of the day,
knew nothing of their motions till he met them. He was
himself killed and his troops were routed; and Loftus, deeming discretion the better part of valor, retired to Tullow, in
Carlow, leaving Gorey to its fate. On the 9th, the rebels,
27,000 in number it is said, advanced from Gorey against
Acklow, in the county of Wicklow, with the intent of
marching for Dublin. They met with a gallant resistance
from about 1600 men, under general Needhamn; and their
leader, father Murphy, who pretended to catch the flying




GEORGE III.                  539
bullets, being killed by a cannon-ball, they retreated to
Gorey.
The rebels having concentrated their forces at Vinegarhill, general Lake prepared to make a simultaneous attack
on them from different quarters, with a force of 13,000 men.
On the 21st, the several divisions advanced to the attack,
wvhi1ql commenced at seven in the morning.  The rebels
stood the firing of cannon and musketry for an hour and a
half; they then broke and fled to Wexford, by what was
called' Needham's Gap,' that officer not having arrived at
his post till after the battle. The town of Wexford was
surrendered to the royal troops; and though various bodies
of the insurgents still kept together, the rebellion was in
effect ended.
While the rebels lay at Vinegar-hill, scarcely a day passed
in which they did not put to death some of their protestant
prisoners.  It is computed that about 400 were thus butch.
ered.  At Wexford the prisoners were saved, chiefly.by the
influence of the. catholic inhabitants, till the 20th, when a
leader named Dixon commenced a massacre similar to that
of September, 1792, in Paris.  The victims were conducted
in parties of ten or twenty to the stately wooden bridge over
the Slaney, at the particular request of Mrs. Dixon, that, as
she expressed it, " the people might have the pleasure of
seeing them " put to death. The usual mode was, for two
pikenmen to stand before and two behind the victim, and
thrusting their pikes into his body, to raise and hold him
suspended as long as any signs of life appeared.  In this
manner 97 were murdered.  Human feelings still showed
themselves in the midst of these barbarities.  Some of the
priests proved themselves men of humanity.  Father Philip
Roche, a military leader, and brave as a paladin, though
rough and boisterous in manner, exhibited the humanity always attendant on triie courage.  Some of the lowest of the
people saved the charitable r'ector of Wexford.  Many other
inistances could be given.  We fear, that if a fair balance
were struck of the blood shed and the cruelties and other
enormities committed during those unhappy times, the preponderance would be greatly on the side of the loyalists.
Courts-martial made little discrimination between the inno.
cent and the guilty; nay, to have saved the life or property
of a protestant was construed into a proof of guilt, as it
argued influence over the rebels.
To the honor of the rebels it is to be recorded, that
though they had in their hands a number of protestant fe



540               HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
rales of all'ages,; not th'e-slih-test insult was sffered to:theit
chastity, Widely different in this respect was the conduct
of the royal troops, with the exception of the Highlanders,
who on all occasions behaved with honor and humanity.
At length the arrival of lord Cornwallis as viceroy  announced-the return of tranquillity.  An amnesty was. pu:b
lished, and the rebels were permitted to return to the;r
homes -and resunre their- avocations.  O'Connor, Emmet,
and the other chiefs who were in prison. obtained leave: to
expatriate- themselves, on giving all the information in their
power respecting the plans and proceedings of the United
Irish,society.  Every appearance of rebellion had disappeared, when a French; force of, 1100-men, under general
Humbert, landed (Aug. 22) at Killala, in Connaught.  They
were joined by a part of the peasantry, and they pushed on
at once for the heart of the kingdom.  A- force of- 3000
men, or- more,; under generals Hutchinson: and Lake, at
Castlebar, actually ran away, leaving their artillery behind
them, and fled to Athlone.  As the lord lieutenant was advancing with a considerable force, Humbert moved toward
Sligo; but he afterwards'crossed the Shannon, and reached
a place named Ballinanmuck, in the county of Lonlgbrd,
where, finding himself surrounded by an army of more th:-ll
20,000 men under lord Cornwallis, he surrendered, (Sept. S.)
Htis rebel auxiliaries were pursued and slaughtered without
mercy.  Thus terminated the last (as we hope it.may prove)
rebellion in- Ireland, after a loss of more than 50,000:lives,
and the destruction of property to the amount of upvwards
of'a million sterling.
No tim-e-was now lost in preparing measures for the proposed Union. The usual and only course was adopted -
arguments were addressed to men's interests, not to their
reason.  All the boroughs to be suppressed were to be lavishly paid for to their proprietors; titles of nobility, bishoprics, judgeships, places in all the public departments, inl
many cases ready money, were given or promised to the
great aristocracy and to the members of the legislature.
Thie boon of emancipation was held out to the catholics.
The chief opponents of: the measure were the people of
Dublin, who saw in it a loss of consequence and: profit to
the city and theemselves; and the lawyers who were-in:parliament; and therefore foresaw' a; diminution of their own
importance.  There were, however, many who were actuated o ly by pure motives: of mistaken patriotism.  In
March, 1800, the measure~ was passed by; the Irish parlia.




GEORGE II.                    541
ment. Its principal opponents in the British legislature
were lords Holland, King, and Thanet, and Messrs. Grey
and Sheridan.:On the 2d of July it received the royal
assent, and the legislatures were joined, never, we trust,- to
be:dissevered.  Ireland was to-send 32 elective peers to the
house of lords (of: whom  four are prelates, who sit in rotation) and 100 members to the house of commons.
We will now  proceed to make -a rapid sketch of the
foreign affairs of Great Britain. Restricted by our narrow
lifmits, we can only promise a bird's-eye view to our readers.
On the 19th of May, 1793, a' fleet of 13 sail-of the line,
with frigates, corvettes, transports, etc., carrying a land force
of' 20,000 men, under general Buonwaparte, sailed from TouIon; its destination was Egypt, its chief object the destruc.
tion of the Anglo-Indian empire. It took the isle of Malta
on its way, and reached Alexandria in safety, (June 30.)
Lord St. Vincent, who commanded the:British fleet off
Cadiz, sent sir Horatio Nelson -with 14 ships-of-war in
search of the Toulon fleet as soon as he heard of its having
sailed. Nelson, after exploring various quarters, at length
(Aug. 1) discovered it moored in line of battle in Aboukirbay, by Alexandria. He adopted the plan of Duncan at
Calnperdown, (though in a more hazardous form,) and
placed a part of his fleet between the enemy and the shore,
and the hostile squadron was thus engaged on both sides.
The advantage in size of vessels, weight of metal, and
number of men, was greatly on the side of the French;
their admiral, BriLeys, was an officer of superior ability, and
they were aided by the batteries on the land; but nothing
could withstand the skill and heroism  of the British and
their illustrious admiral.  The engagement lasted through
the day and night, and at two in the afternoon next day the
firing ceased. Two only of the French ships escaped; two
were burnt, nine were captured; 5222 men (including the
admiral) perished; while the British had only 895 killed and
wounded. For this great victory Nelson was created a baron,
with a pension of 20001. a year; but the king of Naples,
more liberal than his own sovereign, gave him the dukedom
of Bronte, with an estate in Sicily.
It is a painful duty to have to chronicle the infamy of so
great a man as Nelson; but it is not to be concealed, that
he was the slave to a passion for lady Hamilton, a woman
of great beauty and talent, formerly the mistress, then the
wife, of the British ambassador at the Neapolitan court
Acting under her influence, Nelson actually annulled a
VOL. 11.     46




542             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
solemn treaty concluded with the revolutionists of Naples
To the admiral prince Caraccioli, a man of advanced age
whose only offence was having (it was said on compulsion;
commanded the republican navy, he would not grant even the
favor of being shot. The prince was found guilty at 12, and
hung at 5 o'clock of the same day, lady Hamilton feasting
her eyes with the sight to which she had urged her paramour.
Posterity is just; admiration, not respect, is the general feeling toward the character of Nelson.
On the 27th of August, 1799, a British force under sir
Ralph Abercrombie landed at the Helder, in Holland. It repulsed the troops which opposed it, and captured the fleet in
the Texel. Being joined by a Russian force, it amounted to
35,000 men, and the duke of York came and took the command. It is lamentable to observe the mischief that has been
done to England by'titled incapacity assuming the post only
suited to professional skill. Had Abercrombie remained in
command, disgrace might have been averted. The royal
duke was obliged to engage for the release of 8000 prisoners
of war, in order to be permitted to depart unmolested.
Buonaparte made a rapid conquest of Egypt; he then advanced into Syria.  Already in imagination he had subdued
the Turkish empire, when the defence of Acre by the pasha
Jezzar, aided by sir Sidney Smith, checked his career.  He
returned to Egypt, and thence to France, where, by a masterstroke of boldness and policy, he subverted the directory
which governed, and placed himself at the head of the nation
under the title of F rst Consul. One of his first acts was to
make proposals of peace to Enrland, which, however, were
rejected.
Early in the year 1501 a change took place in the British
cabinet Mr. Pitt, after a retention of power for so many
years, reuiring from office, and being succeeded by Mr. Addington, the speaker of the house of commons. The cause
assigned by Mr. Pitt was his inability to realize the hopes he
had held forth to the Irish catholics in consequence of the
scruples entertained by the king. It was thought by many
that the new cabinet was only temporary, and that Mr. Pitt
would resume his post when he deemed it advisable.
The northern powers, acting under the influence of the
emperor of Russia, had again asserted that " free bottoms
make free goods," and entered into an armed neutrality to
resist the right of search claimed by England.  All attempts
at negotiation having failed with them, it was resolved to have
recourse to stronger measures, and a fleet of 18 sail of the
line, with frigates, etc., under sir Hyde Parker, with Nelson




GEORGE 111.                   5-3
second in command, was sent to the Baltic. It was proposed
to commence with the Danes; but instead of proceeding at
once to Copenhagen, they were to land Mr. Vansittart with
a flag of truce to try to negotiate. This delay gave the Danes
time to prepare; and when the fleet anchored off Copenhagen,
(Mar. 31,) a line of 19 ships and floating batteries, with land
batteries and other modes of defence, had been made ready.
Nelson undertook the attack with 12 sail of the line and the
small craft, (Apr. 2.)  The action commenced at ten o'cloclk;
at one, the admiral, whom the wind prevented from coming
up with the rest of the fleet, made the signal of recall, as
some of the British ships had suffered severely, and the enemvy's fire had not slackened; but Nelson ventured to neiglect
the signal. At two the fire had ceased along the greater part of
the hostile line. The slaughter had been immense arnonr the
Danes; and, as they were now suffering also from the fire of
their own batteries, Nelson wrote to the crown-prince to urge
him to assent to measures for stopping the carnage.  An armistice was agreed on for 24 hours, and the English were allowed to carry off their prizes.  Nelson declared this to have
been the most dreadful battle he had ever witnessed.  I-He
was raised now to the rank of viscount, the ministry being
resolved to dole out their favors to him.
The assassination of the emperor Paul, and the accession
of his son Alexander, put an end to the armed neutrality.
The northern powers recognized the principle on which
England acted.
On the 8th of March, a British force of 12,000 men, under
sir Ralph Abercrombie, landed in Aboukir-bay. They thence
advanced to Alexandria, where (21st) they defeated the
French under general Menou, the enemy losing nearly 4000 in
killed and wounded, the British about half the number; but
their able general received a wound in the thigh, of which
he shortly after died. General Hutchinson, who succeeded
to the command, instead of besieging Alexandria, advanced
against Cairo, in concert with the Turkish forces under the
grand vizier and the capitan pasha. Gencral Belliard, who
commanded in that city, surrendered on honorable terms,
and the combined army, now joined by an Anglo-Indian force
of 7500 men, advanced to lay siege to Alexandria.  Menou,
after making a defence for some days, accepted the terms
granted to Belliard, and Egypt was thus cleared of the French
and restored to the Porte.
Buonaparte, who had now routed the Austrians both in
Italy and Germany, and compelled them to sue for peace




544              HISTORY- OF ENGLAND
was making vast preparations for the invasion of England,
who on her part adopted the most energetic measures for
defence; and such was the military ardor shown by the peo-;ple, that in addition to a force of nearly 500,000 men by sea;and land paid by the nation, the whole kingdom  was filled
with corps of volunteers,: ready to encounter the victors of
Marengo and Hohenlinden in defence of their liberties and
properties.  But peace was necessary to the French ruler,
and after much negotiation a treaty was signed at Amiens,
(Mar. 25, 1802,) England agreeing to restore all her conquests except Trinidad and the Dutch settlements in Ceylon.
The war had largely increased:the national debt,.and it had
greatly deranged the internal relations:of the country; every
one therefore rejoiced at the prospect of tranquillity.
CHAPTER VI.
GEORGE III. (CONCLUDED.)
1802-1837.
THE peace of Amiens proved to be nothing more than a
truce. Buonaparte, who soon transferred the whole power
of the state to himself, went on extending his influence over
the continent, and preparing the way for the universal dominion at which he even then seems to have aimed. The
English government, aware of his object, hesitated at restoring Malta to the Krfights of St. John, in this offending against
the letter of the treaty of Amiens; and discussion having
proved useless, the minister of England left Paris, (Mar. 12,
1803,) and orders were issued for seizing the ships of France
in the British ports. Buonaparte retaliated by detaining all
the British subjects who were in France at the time.  The
war was now renewed; of the justice of it on the part of
England few pretended to doubt, and all the national energies were put forth to sustain it.
The Addington administration was too feeble to direct the
nation in this great crisis, and after holding the reins with an
unsteady hand for a twelvemonth longer, they threw them up,
(May 12,1SQ04.) and Mr. Pitt resumed his proper station.
The duke of Portland, lords Eldon, Hawkesbury, and Cas



GEORGE III.                    545
tlereagh, and some other members of the former cabinet remained in office; lords Melville, Harrowby, and Camden
came in with Mr. Pitt; Messrs. Huskisson  and Sturges
Bdurne became secretaries to the treasury, and Mr. Canning
treasurer of the navy.
On the 18th of Mlay, Napoleon Buonaparte caused himself to be declared emperor of the French, and at his summons the pope came to Paris and crovwned him in the cathedral of Notre Dame, (Dec. 2.)
The new emperor appears to have had serious intentions
of invading England.  His plan is said to have been to distract the attention of the British government by sending out
his fleets in various directions, and while the British.nE vy
was scattered in pursuit of them, they were to re-assemble
aid aid the passage of the large army which he had colle cted on the coast.
Nelson, who was in the Mediterranean, (IS05,) learning
xlat the Toulon fleet under Villeneuve was at sea. went
every where in search of it, but to no purpose.  Villeneuve
got into Cadiz, where he was joined by the Spanish admiral
Gravina, and the united fleet of eighteen sail of the line with
fiigates put to sea; Nelson pursued them with ten sail of
tile line. lHavirng. searched for them without effect in the
West Indies, he returned to Gibraltar; he then sought for
them in the bay of Biscay, and off the north-west coast of
Ireland.  On his return to Portsmouth, he at length received
certain intelligence.  Sir Robert Calder, who, with fifteen
sail of the line, was on the look-out for the combined fleet,
fell in with it (July 22.) sixty leagues west of Cape Finisterre.  Though it consisted of twenty-seven sail of the line,
he boldly attacked it, and succeeded in capturing two ships.
The hostile fleets then remained in sight for four days, after
which Villeneuve retired to Ferrol.  For this gallant action
sir R. Calder was brought to a court-martial, and severely
reprimanded!
Villeneuve, having taken out the squadron which was at
Ferrol, proceeded to Cadiz; he was followed thither by a
British fleet under Nelson, who took his station fifty miles
to the west ofethat port, using every precaution to conceal
his arrival and the number of his ships.  Villeneuve, who
had received orders to put to sea immediately, came out of
Cadiz (Sept. 19) with 33 sail of the line and five large
frigates; Nelson, whose force was 27 sail of the line and
four frigates, kept out of view, lest the enemy should put
back, On the 21st Oct. the two fleets came to action off
46*                         QQQ




546             IHISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Cape Trafalgar.  Villeneuve formed his line of battle in a
double crescent; the British fleet bore down in two columns,
one led by Nelson in the Victory, the other by admiral
Collingwood in the Royal Sovereign, Nelson's last signal
was,'England expects every man to do his duty.' He wore
that day the stars of all the orders with which he had been
invested, and he seems to have had a presentilnent of his
fate.
Our limits do not admit of the details of this greatest of
naval conflicts. The victory of the English was glorious
nineteen sail of the line becoming their prizes, and one
having blown up; but their joy was clouded by the death
of their illustrious leader.  He was shot in the shoulder by
a ball from the mizzen-top of the Redoubtable, and fie
breathed his last at the close of the action, saying,' Thank
God, I have done my duty.'
This was the most important victory for England that
ever was achieved. It annihilated the French navy, and put
an end to all Napoleon's projects of invasion.  Nelson's
brother was made an earl, with a pension of 60001. a year,
and 100,00W. lor the purchase of an estate; Collingwood
was raised to the peerage; gold medals, etc. were bestowed
on the other officers.
Mr. Pitt did not long survive this great triumph of hi.s
administration.  His health had long been declining, and
he expired early in the following year, (Jan. 23,) in the 4ath
year of his age. He was buried at the public expense in
Westminster-abbey, and parliament granted 409,001. for the
payment of his debts. His death dissolved the cabinet. The
king, in spite of his antipathy to Mr. Fox, was obliged to
apply to lord Grenville to form  a ministry which he knew
must include that statesman. Lord Grenville became first
lord of the treasury, Addington (now lord Sidmouth) privy
seal, lord Erskine chancellor, Grey (now lord lowick) first
lord of the admiralty, earl Spencer, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Windham, the three secretaries, lord Henry Petty chancellor of
the exchequer, etc. The change effected extended to the
lowest officers, and the whigs now seemed to think themselves secure of a long lease of power..
Mr. Fox lost no time in endeavoring to negotiate a peace,
but he soon found how much easier it is as an opposition
leader to declaim against war, than as a minister to effect
a peace with an ambitious and encroaching enemy. In justice to Mr. Fox it must be stated, that he scorned to sacrifice
a particle of the national honor even for that peace which




GLORGE III.                  547
he loved so much. He did not live to know the termination
of his ineffectual negotiation.  He died (Sept. 13) in his
59th year, worn out by the fury of the parliamentary warfare, and he reposes side by side with his great rival in the
Abbey. He had the satisfaction, during his short tenure of
power, to have measures passed for the suppression of the
slave trade.
The whig tenure of office was much shorter than they had
anticipated. They were personally odious to the king;
their pretensions to superior wisdom and abilities caused
them to be nicknamed'All the Talents,' and Mr. Canning
assailed and ridiculed them without ceasing on this head;
their conduct of foreign affairs, moreover, indicated little
wisdom  or vigor. The public expectation, in fine, was
disappointed; and the king, taking advantage of their introduction of a measure for the relief of the catholics, dismissed them from office (Mar. 24, 1807) with the general
approbation of the nation. The duke of Portland was the
nominal head of the new ministry, with Mr. Perceval, an
eminent barrister, as leader in the commons; the three secretaries were lords Castlereagh and Hawkesbury, and Mr.
Canning; and lord Eldon was made chancellor.  A dissolution of parliament ensued, and the alarm of' No Popery!'
gave the ministers an overwhelming majority.
In the preceding year the victory at Austerlitz had prostrated Austria at the feet of Napoleon, and now that of
Jena broke the power of Prussia, and those of lEylau and
Friedland reduced Russia to sue for peace. A treaty was
concluded at Tilsit, of which. the real object was the 9verthrow of national independence all over Europe. Napoleon
now commenced his grand system of measures for excluding
England from the trade of the entire continent, by declaring
the British isles in a state of blockade, and prohibiting all
intercourse with them. The English cabinet, in return, by
orders in council, declared every port from which England
was excluded to be in a state of blockade, and all vessels
trading with it liable to capture.
As it was evident from the treaty of Tilsit, that Napoleon,
who was never restrained by any feeling of justice or honors
would, when he saw fit, occupy Denmark, and add her re.
sources to his empire; the British ministry, acting on tOe
principle of self-preservation, resolved to anticipate hind,
even at the expense of justice. A fleet under admiral Gamin
bier, carrying 20,000 troops, commanded by lord Cathcart,
appeared in the Baltic, and an envoy was sent to Copen




548'             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
hagen to require the surrender of the Danisn fleet, to be
restored when peace should be concluded between France
and England. The reply being a positive refusal, the troops
were landed, (Aug. 16,) and Copenhagen was invested by
sea and land. After a bombardment of four days, a capitulation was made, (Sept. 8,) and all the ships, stores, timber, etc., were surrendered, and were conveyed to England.
In the year 1SOS8 commenced the memorable Peninsular
War, which, persevered in with energy, in spite of egregious
blunders on the part of the British cabinet, of the unpatriotic conduct of the opposition, of the baseness, treachery,
and pusillanimity of the Spanish and Portuguese governmne ts, was carried, though at a ruinous expense, to a glorious termination, and led to the overthrow of the despotism which oppressed Europe. Providence had so arranged
that England should possess another Marlborough in sir
Arthur Wellesley, who had already in India reduced the
power of the Mahrattas, while his brother the marquess
Wellesley was governor-general.  To attempt to detail the
military achievements of this illustrious warrior in our restricted limits would be mere presumption.  More fortunate
than his great predecessor, he has met with ain historian
worthy of him, and the publication of his own despatches
has given to his fame the only addition that it could receive.
We shall aim at nothing beyond the enumeration of his
victories.
Napoleon was resolved to add the Spanish peninsula with
its colonies to his dominions.  In the year 1807 his troops
occupied Portugal, the royal family having fled  to the
Brazils.  Large bodies of troops were under various pretexts introduced into Spain; the king and his eldest son
were obliged to appear before the emperor at Bayonne, and
to resign the crown. They were sent as prisoners into the
interior of France, and the emperor's brother Joseph was
appointed king of Spain. But the pride and jealousy of the
Spanish people took fire at the insult offered to the nation,
and all the provinces of the monarchy prepared to resist.
Deputations were sent to London, and the British govern
me it bestowed with lavish profusion money, arms, and sup.
plies of all kinds. Spain was now to be the arena on
wilich the battles of European independence were to be
fought.
A force of 10,000 men under sir Arthur Wellesley sailed
from Cork (July 12) to cooperate with the Spaniards and
Portuguese. He debarked in Mondego-bay to the north of




GEORIE III.                  549
Lisbon. Reinforcements raised his troops to the number of
16,000 men, and at the village of Vimiero (Aug. 21) he engaged the French general Junot, and defeated him with a
loss of more than 2000 killed and wounded. The victory
would have been more complete but for the folly of the
British ministry, who had appointed not less than two generals, sir Harry Burrard and sir Hew Dalrymple, over the
man whose superior talents they must have known. The
former arrived just before the battle, and though he did not
interfere with sir A. Wellesley's movements, he assumed the
command in time to prevent the victory from being cornpleted. Sir Hew arrived next day, and Junot having sent to
pr(yose a convention by which the French should evacuate
Portugal, it was agreed to, and the Convention of Cintra, as
it was named, was made, by which the French troops, with
their property, both public and private, were to be landed in
France.  This convention was generally regarded as dis.
graceful to England, and sir Hew received a vote of censure
from parliament, which, it is evident, the secretary-at-w ar deserved much better.
In the latter part of the year Nfpoleon poured immense
masses of troops into Spain, where he now came to take the
command in person.
The British army in Portugal was now commanded by sir
John Moore, a very able officer; but lord Castlereagh, with
the usual ministerial presumption, took upon himself to direct the military operations.  Moore was ordered to proceed
to the north of Spain to join an expedition from England.
He advanced to Salamanca, where finding the Spanish, armies, whose cooperation he had been led to expect, routed
and scattered, and the people lukewarm, if not hostile, he resolved to retreat to the coast, and by drawing the French
after him give the Spaniards time to recover. It was now
the depth of winter; the toils and sufferings of the army were
extreme; a superior French force under marshal Soult
pressed on their retreat; but they reached Corunna (Jan.
11, 1809) unimpeded. They had embarked their sick men
and artillery, whep (16th) they were furiously attacked by
Soult with a force of 20,000, theirs being only i4,500,
after a severe action, the assailants were repelled with a
loss of 2000 men, the British losing half the number and
heir excellent commander. They buried him at night in.he citadel, and Soult, as a generous enemy, raised a monu.
ment over him. The troops embarked during the night, and
proceeded to England.




550              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
Marshal Soult thence advanced into Portugal, and made
himself master of Oporto.  At the same time the regency
at Lisbon having applied for a British officer to discipline
and command theil troops, general Beresford was the person
selected: sir A. Wellesley also arrived with a British army,
(Apr. 22,) and he took the supreme command of both the
British and Portuguese forces.  He marched without delay
against Soult, whom he forced to evacuate Portugal; he theni
advanced into Spain to cooperate with the Spanish general
Cuesta against marshal Victor.  A severe engagement was
fought (July 27 and 28) near the city of Talavera in Estramadura; the British were 19,000 men, the Spaniards 34,000,
while the French had 50,000 veteran soldiers.  The enemy
was finally repulsed with a loss of more than 7000 in all; the
British had near 5500 killed and wounded; the Spaniards
said they had lost 1200, for on this, as on most occasions,
the Spaniards proved of little use in action.  Sir A. Wellesley, aware of this and of the baseness of the Junta at Seville
who administered the government, resolved to remain no
longer in Spain, and he retired into Portugal.  For his conduct of this campaign he, was created viscount Wellington.
Fortunately for Spain, Austria was now at war with Napoleon.  His defeat at Aspern raised hopes that his despotisin might be overthrown; but at Wagram all these hopes
were crushed. The British cabinet, while Austria maintained
the contest, prepared to make a diversion in her favor, and
lord Castlereagh planned a mighty expedition to the coast
of Holland. But Castlereagh, the most ignorant and inefficient of war-ministers, knew nothing of the country to which
he was sending the troops; he selected to command them
the worst general possible, in the sluggish, inert, and ignorant earl of Chatham, whose only merit was his being a Pitt;
and he delayed the expedition till the season of utility was
past. A fleet of 39 sail of the line, with frigates, gun-boats,
etc., and carrying 40,000 soldiers, sailed from the i)owns on
the day of the battle of Talavera, but without a Wellington.
We will not relate the details of this lamentable offspring of
incapacity; it merely took the pestilential island of Walcheren, and the greater part of the men composing it perished by
disease.
Mr. Canning, who was certainly the first statesman of his
party, cl-early saw the total unfitness of lord Castlereagh for
the situation which he held, and he tenderef his own resignation to the duke of Portland unless his brother-secretary
were removed. This led to a duel between the two ministers,




rO.Gain Ill.                 551
and to their subsequent resignations, and the foreign departs
ment was committed to thte marquess Wellesley, a man of
undoubted talent and energy.
In 1810 the malady with which the king had more than
once been attacked returned, never to be removed. On the
aberration of his intellect being ascertained, the chief executive power was confided to the prince of Wales as regent,
and though the prince had long been connected with the
whigs, he made no change in the ministry.
Napoleon was now able to direct his whole force against
the peninsula. In the month of May marshal Massena took
the command of 87,000 men destined for the conquest of
Portugal. Lord Wellington, conscious of his inferiority of
force, tormed three lines of defence across the peninsula
on which Lisbon stands.  Ile posted his troops at Viseu,
Abrantes, and other places; he suffered Malssena to take Ciudad Itodrigo and Almeida.  He then fell back to his first line
of defence at Torres Vedras, having given the enemy a smart
check at the heights of Busacos, (Sept. 27.)  Massena, after
lying about three weeks before the impregnable lines of
Torres Vedras, fell back to Santarem, and in the following
spring (1811) he commenced his retreat, cautiously pursued
by lord Wellington, who invested Almeida, which city being
abandoned by the enemy, he led part of his troops to Badajoz, which marshal Beresford was besieging.  This officer
had, however, raised the siege, and with a force of only 6000
British, in conjunction with a Spanish army, he gave battle
(May 16) to marshal Soult at Albuera.  Never was British
valor more conspicuous than on this day; by incredible
efforts the enemy was routed, but of their whole number only
1500 remained unwounded. The loss of.the French was
8000 killed and wounded, among whom were five generals;
the Spaniards lost 2000 men. When lord Wellington arrived, an ineffectual attempt was made to storm Badajoz;
leaving some troops to blockade it, he returned to Portugal.
and he soon after laid siege to Ciudad Rodrigo, but marshal
Marmont obliged him to raise it.
In the early part of this year the British troops in Cadiz,
under general Graham, gained (Mar. 5) a victory over marshal Victor at the heights of Barrosa; but the ignorance and
cowardice of the Spanish general rendered it useless.
On the 11th of May, 1812, Mr. Perceval was assassinated
in the lobby of the house of commons by a man named Bel.
ilngham, who fancied himself injured by the government.
This fatal event led to a re-modeling of the cabinet.  Over.




552             HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
tures were made to lords Grey and Grenville; but, with he
usual dictatorial spirit of the whigs, they would, to use their
own phrase,' ride rough-shod through Carlton house,' or not
enter it; and this affair terminated in that upright and able
though not brilliant statesman, the earl of Liverpool, becoming the premier.
While in this year Napoleon was engaged in preparing. for
his inauspicious conflict with Russia, lord Wellington resumed the offensive.  Early in January he took Ciudad Rodrigo by storm; he then led his troops against Badajoz, which
city, after a most gallant and able defence by general Phillipon, was stormed (Apr. 6) and taken, with great loss on the
part of the allies. Lord Wellington then moved northwards,
and engaged near Salamanca (June 22) the army of marshal
Marmont. The defeat of the French was complete, the
prisoners alone amounting to 7000 men. After this victory
the British general entered Madrid in triumph, (Aug. 12;)
but having wasted thirty-five days in besieging Burgos without heavy artillery, he found it necessary, on account of the
approach of the French armies, to retire into Portugal.
The dominion of Napoleon was now fast drawing to its
close.   The  fatal retreat from Moscow  was succeeded by
the defection of allies and the insurrection of nations in the
cause of independence.  While the British government were
aiding the confederacy of the North by subsidies, they did
not neglect their great commander in the peninsula, and on
the 16th of May, 1813, he was able to put his army of
48,000 British, 28,000 Portuguese, and 18,000 Spaniards in
motion. The French army, equal in number and led by
king Joseph and marshal Jourdan, retired before him toward
France; but at Vittoria (June 21) they found it necessary to
give battle. The victory of the allies on this day was one
of the most decisive and glorious ever gained. The enemy
fled, abandoning their baggage, stores, artillery, and every
thing; the victors soon approached the Pyrenees; but Soult,
the ablest of Napoleon's generals, had now taken the command, and in the defiles of the mountains much severe fighting occurred.  Both armies took up their winter quarters on
the shores of the bay of Biscay. The strong fortress of St.
Sebastian had been reduced by the British, after sustaining
great loss, owing to the want of skill in sir Thomas Graham,
their commander.
In January, (1814,) the allies crossed the Rhine and
entered France; lord Wellington at the same time entered
it from the South, Soult retiring before him. At Orthes




GEORGE III.                  553
(Feb. 27) another complete victory,as gained, and the
British general still advanced till he again encountered his
rival under the walls of Toulouse, where, at the very time
that Napoleon was signing his abdication at Fontainbleau,
(Apr. 10,) a furious battle was fought, which terminated, as
usual, in the defeat of the French, and concluded the war.
A portion of the victorious troops of Wellington had now
to cross the Atlantic to engage a new enemy. In 1812,
when the liberties of mankind were in agony, and England
was straining every nerve in their defence, it might have been
expected that the government of the United States would have
sympathized with the glorious efforts of the mother country,
and, ii she were guilty of a few violations of the strict letter of
the law of nations, would have overlooked them. But though
England had expressed her willingness to revoke her orders
in council, Mr. Madison could not wait with patience; and,
while the European despot was pouring his myriads into
Russia, the president of the United States ordered his troops
to advance to the conquest of Canada; defeat, however, awaited them; they were obliged to surrender to far inferior numbers. At sea they had more success, for they succeeded in
capturing the British frigates the Guerriere and Macedonian
They had also some success upon the lakes.
In the campaign of 1813, the British, though greatly
inferior in force, maintained their superiority on land; but
the Americans had the advantage on the lakes. A brilliant
exploit at sea reestablished the glory of the British flag.
Captain Brooke, being off the port of Boston in the Shannon
frigate, challenged the Chesapeake, which was lying there,
to come out. The challenge was accepted; the American
was superior in number of men and guns and weight of
metal; yet in fifteen minutes she was a prize, and on her
way to Halifax.
The overthrow of Napoleon in 1814 was calculated tc
bring the president to reason, and negotiations for peace were
commenced. But the republicans longed for Canada, and
the English wished to punish them for their ungenerous
conduct. Hostilities were therefore continued, and at midsummer a body of Wellington's warriors landed in Canada;
but the utter incapacity of sir George Prevost, the corn
mander-in-chief, paralyzed their valor. A fleet carrying a
body of troops commanded by ge;eral Ross sailed up the
Chesapeake, and the troops, having landed and defeated (Aug.
24) an American army of 8000 or 9000 men, took the city
of Washington, where private property was respected, but all
VOL. I11     47                      R R




554              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
the public buildings and stores were destroyed.  The fleet
and army then made an unsuccessful attempt on the city of
Baltimore.
A most unfortunate expedition was sent up the Mississippi
toward the end of the year, in the hope of surprising New
Orleans. But, as usual, the secret transpired, and general
Jackson, who commanded there, had time to prepare for its
defence, and his dispositions were most able.  Never did the
nobler qualities of the British soldier show in greater lustre
than in this disastrous affair. The Americans were posted
behind intrenchments, with a deep canal in their front; from
batteries and vessels of war they kept up an incessant fire;
while their riflemen, taking deliberate aim, did murderous
execution.  In fine, the British were obliged to retire, having
lost their leader, the gallant Pakenham, and between 2000
and 3000 of their peninsular heroes, (Jan. 8.) Peace had
meantime been concluded at Ghent, and a war terminated
which should never have commenced.
The sudden return of Napoleon to France in 1815 rekindled the flames of war. The most energetic measures
were adopted by the allied nations to oppose him; large
armies were rapidly assembled in the Netherlands.  The
great and decisive battle was fought (June 18) between
Napoleon and Wellington at Waterloo.  To give the details
of this important contest is out of our power; suffice it to
say, that a victory more complete never was won, and that it
crushed forever the hopes of the despot, who, erelong, sought
refuge on board of a British man-of-war, and at length died a
captive on the rock of St. Helena.
A general peace, which has not since been interrupted,
was now  established.  During the remaining years of the
reign of George III., England was internally agitated, in
consequence of the difficulties and sufferings necessarily
attendant on a return to peace from  a state of war, which
had greatly altered the relations of society: in many places
the lower classes broke out into riots, which it required
military force to quell; for [the members of these classes
too easily become, when involved in political ignorance and
darkness,] the victims and dupes of artful and unprincipled
men, who seek to make them the ladder of their own ambition.* These men carefully instil into their minds a belief' The following description of the genus demagogue is drawn by an
American writer —'" Demagogues are the natural fruit of republics;
and the fabled Upas could not be more poisonous or desolating to the
soil from which it springs. Envious of his superiors, panting for honors




GEORGE IV.                     555
that their misery, whenever it occurs, is attributable to the
upper classes of society, and can be remedied by legislative
enactments; [than which, greater, more absurd, or more
injurious error cannot be conceived or propagated].
During the reign of George II1., the subjugation of India
was effected, chiefly under the administration of the marquess'Wellesley, whose brother, the future vanquisher of Napoleon,
first displayed his transcendent abilities in the war against
the Mahrattas; and the names of Delhi, Assye, and Dargaum
open the roll of the numerous and splendid military achievements which shed glory on his name. The whole of India,
with the exception of Lahore, Nepaul, and a few other states,
is now, more or less, directly under the dominion of Great
Britain, whose rule is evidently, though not to the extent to
be desired, a blessing to that vast region, and which would
be ill exchanged for the withering despotism of Russia, or a
return to the former state of turbulence and oppression.
On the 29th of January, 1820, the reign of George III.,
the longest in our annals, reached its close.  The venerable
n.onarch was in the 82d year of his age. The sterling
goodness and the sincere piety which marked his character,
had always, in spite of the party violence and anarchic
principles which had prevailed so much in England during a
great part of his reign, secured him the love and veneration
of the great body of the people; and though so long shut out
from the view of the world, his death caused a feeling of
regret and melancholy. The prince regent mounted the
throne as George IV.
The chief events in the reign of George IV. are the
prosecution of the queen for adultery, and the emancipation
of the Roman  Catholics.  Over the former, for the sake
of all parties, we would willingly cast the veil of oblivion.
Suffice it to say, that the queen was not spotless, but that she
had been originally harshly, and even barbarously treated.
There never had in fact been a more ill-assorted union;
never were two persons less suited to each other than
George IV. and his queen.
The bill for the emalcipation of the catholics Was intro.
which he is conscious he never can deserve, endowed with no highem
fiaculty than cunning and an imprudent hardihood, reckless of conse.
qnences, and groveling alike in spirit and motive, the demagogue seeks
first to cajole the people. then to corrupt, and last of all to betray and
ruin them   When he has brought down the high to a level with
himself, and depressed the low till they are pliant to his will, his work
is achieved." - Sparkes's Life of Washington, i. 427.




556              HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
duced in 1829 by the duke of Wellington and sir Robert
Peel, hitherto its most strenuous opponents, but who now
saw no other mode of averting a civil war in Ireland.  [The
imperious demands of the improved moral sense of the age,
and which the whole nation, as with one voice, urged upon
them, compelled these ministers to introduce the measure.
It was carried with universal approbation.]
George IV. expired on the 25th of June, 1830, and was
succeeded by his brother, the duke of Clarence, as William IV.
This monarch was hardly seated on the throne, when a
revolution took place in France; and the excitement caused
by it was not without effect on the elections for a new parliament.  The feeling that a reformation in the house of
commons was required, and that it would be productive of
much benefit to the country by the correction of abuses, had
become very general.  An injudicious declaration of the
duke of Wellington against reform hastened the crisis.'he
whigs at length arrived at office, and a ministry was formed
with the veteran statesman earl Grey at its head.
A bill for the reform of parliamnent was introduced without
delay. It was vehemently and unwisely opposed by the tory
party, whose obstinate refusal of the right of sending members to parliament to such towns as Birmingham  and Leeds
had occasioned it. The whigs [with the whole voice of an
enlightened nation urging and sustaining them] were equally
resolute in their determination to carry it. The bill was
finally passed, (June 7, 1832.) It abolished a great number
of the small, or, as they were called, rotten boroughs, and
gave representatives to many places which had not possessed
them; it also altered the elective franchise, giving a vast
accession of strength to the democratic principle.  Public
opinion [had, however, at this time,] by means of the press,
become so powerful, that it was comparatively of little impor
tance how the niembers of the legislature were chosen.
Several reformatory measures have been since passed,
such as opening the China trade, emancipating the negro
slaves in the colonies, amending the poor laws, reforming
corporations, etc., some of which are undoubtedly beneficial;
the wisdom and goodness of others can only be tested by time.
[In truth the " Reform Bill " ought only to be regarded
as the commencement of a series of moral efforts which the
improved tone of intelligence and morality of the present age
is urging forward for the advancement of the social condition




WII LIAM IV. — VICTORIA.               557
of man; for withdrawing the public energies of governments
from  those merely animal ambitions which  have so long
engaged the attention of all nations, and concentrating them
upon the promotion of the real, internal happiness of the
people. The tide thus once set in can never be driven back,
and the effects will be felt, not only throughout Great Britain and her dependencies, but throughout the world. The
passage, more recently, of the " Postage Bill," - a bill infinitely more important, in its objects and results, than any
that was ever before introduced in any legislative assembl y
-  is a most marked and glorious testimony to the truth of
these remarks.]'William IV. died, after a brief reign, on the'2Oth of June,
1837, and was succeeded by her present majesty, Victoria,
the only child of the late duke of Kent.  [The most remarkable event of her reign has been the passage of the " Uniform  Penny Postage Bill," (August, 1839;) a bill characteristic of the age and country; and the happy moral and
intellectual, and therefore universally beneficial, effects of
which are incalculable; effects which, unlike those of most
measures of legislative bodies, will be felt by every individual
of every class throughout the British Empire.*]
"[Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the power and efficacy
of an enlightened public opinion and public press, - no example of the
like kind had ever before been exhibited in any country, - than the
nistory of this measure of Postage Reform. Mr. Hill's pamphlet on the
subject was " printed for private distribution only " at the end of 1836
tand beginninog of 1837. It was afterwards published. In the ensuing
sission of parliament five petitions were presented on the subject. In
the next session, (1837-38,) three hundred! and twenty petitions were
presented; commit:ees were formed; and the whole of the public press?came advocates c'the measure. In August. 1839 it was the law 4f
she land.-J. T. S 
47J




CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
OF K INGS OF EN GLAND
Saxon.*,Saxort
A. D.                                    A. D.
Egbert, first king  of Eng-              Edward the Confessor.             1041
land....................  827  Harold II..............   1066
Ethelwolf.................  837
Ethelbald.................         858
Ethelbert...............    861            Saxon and N'ormnan  tnited. t
Ethelred I...........                6f(;
Alfred....................  872  William  1..........  1066
Edward the Elder..........   301  William  II................ 1087
Athelstan................  925  Henry I..........-......... 1100
Edmund.....          940  Stephen...................         1135
Edred.............  947  Henry  II.................. 1154
Edwy....................  955  Richard  I................ 1189
Edgar....................  959 John.....................                   1199
Edward the Martyr........   975 Henry Il................. 1216
Ethelred II................   978 Edward I................. 1272
PEdmund Ironsides.......... 1016  Edward  II............... 1307
Edward III............... 1327
Richard II............... 1377
Danish.                   Henry  V................. 1399
Henry  Y..................    1413
Canute....................  1017  Henry VI................. 1.422
Harold I.................. 1036  Edward  IV...............  1461
Hardicanute...............  1039  Edward V...............   1483
* The Saxons, Danes, and Normans, as they are usually called, were not distinct
races, but immediate branches of the same original Gothic or Scandinavian stock.
The settlement, at different times, of parties under these different names in England,
was therefore but the union of branches of the same race, and not, in any instance,
the intermixture of a foreign race.
t William the Norman was himself nearly connected with the Saxon line, and
claimed the crown as his by bequest and election, and not by conquest. (See vol. i. p.
61, note.) Edgar the Atheling was the only one who had a legal claim to the crown
against William; aed, in order to cement his throne, andl expressly for the purpose of
gaining the affections of the people, William's son Henry 1. married the daughter of
Margaret, the sister of Edgar Atheling, so that all his descendants have the blood of
the Saxon monarchs in their veins. All the other nearest branches of the ancient
Baxon line have, at various,ther periods, been united to the English crown.




CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.                      559
A. D.                             A. D
Richard III..............   1483 James J......              1685
Henry VII........          1485 William  and Mary........  1689
Henry VIII..............  1509 Anne..................... 170
Edward VI................ 1547 George 1.................  1714
Marv...................  1553 George II................. 1727
Elizabeth................ 1558 George III.                    1760
James I..................  1603 George IV.............. 1'2
Charles I............ 1625 William IV............. 153(
Charles II................  1649 Victoria............ e.
MAY 1 4 1915