♦ ungjtiulr frast 7|3 from Washington A MANUAL OF ENGLISH FOR THE USE HISTORY, OF SCHOOLS. EDWARD M. LANCASTER, PRINCIPAL OF THE STOUGHTON SCHOOL, BOSTON, MASS. A. S. BARNES & COMPANY, NEW YORK, CHICAGO, AND NEW ORLEANS. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by EDWARD M. LANCASTER, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. y^'n i > PREFACE. Z /- 2 /jZ.7. \%'\ V \ This " Manual of English History ” has been prepared to meet the wants of those schools whose limited time forbids an extended course of study. The mere com- mittal to memory of the names of kings and isolated events, however important, is in no proper sense a study of history . There should be enough of explana- tion and detail to make intelligible the relation which one event bears to another, that is, the cause and effect of events. The author has sought, therefore, in the preparation of this Manual, to arrange, in the briefest manner consistent with clearness, the essential facts of English History. The most valuable lesson to be learned by American youth from the history of the Mother Country, is the worth of liberty, civil and religious. The struggle be- tween the king and the people, the one striving to main- tain the Royal Prerogative and the other to secure their Natural Rights, was happily over long before we be- came an independent nation. The principles, estab- lished by the Revolution of 1688, stand an enduring monument of the triumph of the people. Our consti- tution is but the matured product of that long and painful struggle, and a just conception of the one can be gained only by a careful study of the other. If the youth of our land, however few in number, shall be aided, by the use of this brief work, in form- IV PREFACE. ing a just estimate of the free institutions under which they live, the highest object of the author will have been accomplished. Among the many works consulted in the prepara- tion of this Manual, special acknowledgments arc due to " Knight’s Popular History of England,” val- uable for its fulness of detail ; and " Green’s Short History of the English People,” which, in the masterly comprehension and vivid expression of the spirit of English history, stands absolutely without a peer. The author remembers thankfully the assistance of numerous friends. He takes great pleasure in men- tioning the name of his esteemed friend, Henry B. Miner, Master of the Dorchester-Everett School of this city, to whom he is especially indebted for many valu- able suggestions. Boston, Feb. 22, 1877. E. M. X. KINGS OF ENGLAND SAXON LINE. HOUSE OF LANCASTER. Egbert Ethel wolf Ethel bald EMielbert Ethelred I Alfred Edward the Elder.. Athelstan Edmund I Etlvcd Edwy Edgar Edward the Martyr Ethelred ii Edmund II 827— 833—11 83S — 857—20 857— 800 — 3 860 — 866— 6 866— 871— 5 871— 901—30 901— 925—24 925— 941—16 941— 948— 7 918— 955— 7 955— 959— 4 950— 975—16 975— 978— 3 978—1016—33 1016-1017— 1 DANISH LINE. Canute I 1017-1036-19 Harold I.... 1036—1039— 3 Canute ii 1039—1041— 2 Edward— Saxon .... 1041-10:5-24 Harold II— Saxon.. 1065-1066— 1 NORMAN LINE. William i 1066 — 1087 — 21 William II*. 1087 — 1 100—1 i Henry I 1100—1135-35 Stephen ' 1135—1154—19 FLANTAGENET FAMILY. nenry II 1154-1189-35 Richard i 1189-1199—10 John 1199—1216—17 Henry in 1216-1272—56 Edward I 1272— 13*7— 35 Edward II 1307—1327—20 Edward hi 1327—1377—50 Richard II 1377 — 1399 — 22 Henry iv 1399—1413—14 Henry v 1413-1422— 9 Henry VI 1422—1461—39 HOUSE OF TORK. Edward IV. Edward v. Richard ill 1461-1483-22 1483. 74 days 14S3— 1485— *2 TUDOR FAMILY. Henry vii. Henry viil. Edward vi Mary Elizabeth.. 1485 — 15C9 — 24 1 >U9 — 154 1 — 38 1517 — 155:3 — 6 1553 — 1558— 5 1558— 1603-44 STUART FA^riLY. James i Charles I Commonwealth. Charles ii James II William & Mary, Anne 1603-1625-22 1625—1649—24 1649— 1660— 1 1 16 50— 1685— 25 1685-1688- 3 1689—1702—13 1702-1714-12 HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. George i«... George II.. George ill.. George iv. William iv. Victoria.... 1714-1727-13 1727-1760—33 1760— 1820— 60 1820— 1830— 1C 1830-1837— 7 1637— ( 5 ) Fifteenth S Fourteenth IThirteenth] Twelfth R Eleventh Century- I Century. | Century. ■ Century. ■ Century, NAMES OF KINGS AND LEADING TOPICS Roman Conquest and Occupation — the first four centuries. Saxon Conquest and Heptarchy — the next four centuries. Reign of Saxon Kings and Danish Invasions — the ninth and tenth centuries. Danish Conquest and Reign of Danish and Saxon Kings — the eleventh century. NAMES OP KINGS. LEADING TOPICS. William I. — Norman Rule — Saxon Rebellion — The Feudal System. William II. — Beginning of the Crusades — The System of Chivalry. Henry I. — First Charter of Liberties — Union of Saxon and Norman Families — Robert, Duke of Normandy. Stephen — Usurpation — Civil War and Anarchy — Compromise with Henry. Henry II. — Plantagenet Rule— Establishment of Order — Constitutions of Clarendon and Thomas & Becket — Courts of Justice. Richard I. — The Knight and Crusader — Usurpation of John. John — Contest with the Pope — Rebellion of Barons — Magna Charta . Henry III. — Rebellion of Barons — Simon de Montfort — House of Commons — Prince Edward and the Holy Land. 9 Edward I. — Conquest of Wales — War with Scotland — Arbitrary Taxation Forbidden. Edward II. — War with Scotland — Rebellion — Deposition of Edward. Edward III. —War with Scotland — War with France for the Crown— Chiv- alry and the Black Prince. Richard II. — Wat Tyler’s Rebellion — Chaucer — Wickliffe and the First Reformation. Henry IV. — House of Lancaster — Rebellions — Persecution of Reformers. Henry V. — Reformation Suppressed — Conquest of France — The Navy. Henry VI. — Joan of Arc and the Loss of France — Jack Cade’s Rebellion ~ Wars of the Roses. Edward IV. — House of York — Wars of the Roses — William Caxton and (he Art of Printing. Edward V. — Usurpation of Richard, Duke of Gloucester Richard III. — Wars of the Roses ended with the death of Richard at Bosworth. Nineteenth I Eighteenth I Seventeenth I Sixteenth Century. I Century. I Century. I Centurv. NAMES OF KINGS AND LEADING TOPICS vii NAMES OF KINGS LEADING TOPICS. Henry VII. — Tudor Family — Union of York and Lancaster — Simnel and Warbeck — Discovery of America— Revival of Learning. Henry VIII. — Catherine of Aragon and Cardinal Wolscy — Progress of Learn- ing — Separation from Rome and the Reformation. Edward VI. — Reformation Continued — Duke of Northumberland and Lady Jane Grey. Mary — Reconciliation with Rome and Persecution of Protestants — Philip of Spain — Calais. Elizabeth — Church of England — Mary, Queen of Scots — Philip and the Armada — Maritime Supremacy — Great Names. James I. — Stuart Family — Union of Crowns — Gunpowder Plot — Transla- tion of the Bible — Settlement of America. Charles I. — Illegal Taxation and CivitWai — Petition of Right — Trial and Execution of Charles. The Commonwealth. — The Monarchy Abolished and Commonwealth Established — Cromwell and the Protectorate. Charles II. — The Restoration — Plague and Fire — Habeas Corpus Act — Popish and Rye House Plots. James II. — Monmouth’s Rebellion — Attempt to Restore Catholicism — The Revolution. William and Mary. — Rebellion in Ireland — War with France and Peace of Ryswick — Bill of Rights — English Constitution. Anne. — War of Spanish Succession and Peace of Utrecht — Union of England and Scotland — The Augustan Age of English Literature. George I. — House of Brunswick — The Elder Pretender — The South Sea Scheme. George II. — Walpole and his Policy — War of Austrian Succession and Peace of Aix-ia-Chapelle — The Younger Pretender — Seven Years’ War- William Pitt— India. Gsoi^e III. — Peace of Paris Canada — American Revolution — French Revolution — Second War with the United States. George IV. — Independence of Greece — Catholic Emancipation Act. William IV. — Reform Bill of 1832 — Abolition of Slavery. Victoria. — Repeal of the Corn Laws — the Navigation Acts — and the Laws against Jews. Passage of Laws disestablishing the Irish Church — extending the Elective Franchise — substituting the Ballot for open voting — and founding a System of Public Schools. Wars with China and the Opening of Ports — the Crimean War — the Sepoy Rebellion — Civil War in the United States and the Alabama Claims. GENEALOGICAL TABLE, SAXON LINE. Egbert. Ethelwolf. Etbelbald. DANISH LINE. SWEYN. Canute I. Ethelbert. Harold. Canute II. NORMAN LINE. William the Conqueror . I Robert . Ethelred i. Alfred. Edward the Elder, I Athelstan. Edmund. Edred, Edwy. Edgar. L I Edward the Martyr. Ethelred II. Edmund Ironside . Edward the Outlaw . I Margaret . Edward the Confessor. Earl Godwin. I Harold II. William II. Henry I. Adela. I Stephen. Matilda. Richard I. Ceeur de Lion. Matilda. Union of Saxon and Norman Families. Henry II. 1 I _ I Geoffrey. John. Arthur. Eleanor. Murdered by John, Henry III. Edward I. Edward II. I EDWARD III. GENEALOGICAL TABLE IX Edward III. Edward , the Lionel , Duke John of Gaunt , Edmund , Black Prince, of Clarence . Duke of Lancaster. Duke of Yurt, 1 i Philippa . 1 1 I Richard II. 1 Henry IV. Earl of Diehard , Mortimer. | Somerset. Earl of 1 Henry V. j Cambridge. Edmund 1 Anne. Henry VI. j 1 ' Mortimer , 1 Duke of 1 Earl of March. 1 Union of second and Somerset. Pickard. fourth branches. | 1 ' Edward IV. Richard III. i Margaret. Edward V. j Diehard. Elizabeth. Henry VII. Union of York The Smothered. Princes. and Lancaster. Henry VIII. Marg aret 1 Mary. married | | | James IV i I dARY, Elizabeth, Edward VI., of Scotland. Frances. Daughter of Daughter of Son of | r 1 ^ Catherine Anne Boleyn . Jane James V. Jane Grey. Of Aragon. Seymour. 1 Mary, Queen of Scots. James I. 1 Charles I. 1 Elizabeth . Charles II. James II. Mary Sophia I married married -I Prince of Nassau. Elector of Ma i i > ry. Anne. / James . \ William III. Hanover. 1 1 | 1 1 George I. V Charles . / 1 The Pretenders. George II. Union of Stuart and Nassau. 1 Prince of Wales . 1 1 ™ (jEORGE in. George IV. William IV. Duke of Kent, Victoria. THE BRITISH EMPIRE. The British Empire includes the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and all its colonies and dependencies, having a population of more than 250,000,000, and an area of more than 8,300,000 square miles. EUROPEAN. The British Islands, the Channel Islands, Heligoland, Malta, Gozo, and Gibraltar. ASIATIC. British India, Ceylon, Aden, Malacca, Singapore, Prince of Wales’ Island, Hong-Kong, Sarawak, Labuan, and Cyprus. AUSTRALIAN. Australia, Tasmania, N^'folk Islands, New Zealand, Chat* ham Islands, and the Fiji Islands. AFRICAN. Cape Colony, Natal, Gambia and the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone; the single Islands — Ascension, Mauritius, and St. Helena ; and the groups — Seychelles, Amirante, and the Chagos. NORTH AMERICAN. British America including Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, New Brunswick, Prince Edward’s Island, Quebec, On- tario, Manitoba, British Columbia, the Northwest Territory, and Newfoundland, all, except the last named, being united under the title of the Dominion of Canada ; Balize, and the Bermudas. SOUTH AMERICAN. British Guiana, and the Falkland Islands. WEST INDIAN. Jamaica, the Bahamas, Trinidad, and most c f the Lesser An- tilles. ( 10 ) CHAPTER I. The Britons. We know little of the early history of Britain. From rude relics found in the soil, we conclude that the island was once inhabited by a race of savages who disappeared before a superior people that, at some unknown period, crossed from the Conti- nent of Europe. These Celtic invaders were found in sole possession when the Romans first visited the island, about half a century before Christ. They were a bar- barous people, divided into numerous tribes, whose principal employment was war. Their weapons were spears and. broadswords, with blades of bronze, and they also used wicker shields covered with skins, and chariots armed with projecting scythes, in which, drawn by trained horses, they rode at full speed into the very midst of their foes. Their homes were huts and caves in the forests which, at that time , covered nearly all the land. They subsisted upon their flocks and herds, and the products of the chase, and wore little clothing, painting their bodies blue, and covering them with hideous tat- tooes to make themselves terrible to their enemies in battle. But those occupying the southwestern corner of the island were superior to the rest, having been visited, from time immemorial, by other nations, for the tin found in the mines of that section. Even the mer- chants of ancient Tyre and Sidon, occasionally sent ships to barter Phoenician wares for British tin. 12 THE BRITONS. Druidism. The Britons professed a religion called Druidism. They worshiped one Supreme Being, of whom they had no just conception, and numerous in- ferior deities, to whom they offered human sacrifices. The heavenly bodies occupied a prominent place among these inferior deities. They believed in a future state of existence, in which rewards and punishments were meted out according as men’s conduct had been good or bad in this life. Much of the power and all the learning were confined to the priests, called Druids. They made the laws, administered justice, and were the sole instructors of the young. Nothing was committed to writing, and education consisted in receiving from the lips of the Druids and committing to memory a great number of verses on Geography, Astronomy, and Religion. The priests performed their mystic rites in temples, each formed of a circular row of huge stones standing upright with the altar in the centre, open to the heavens above, and located in groves of their sacred tree, the oak. Remains of these temples still exist in various places, the most notable at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. Their most holy place was the Island of Mona, now Anglesea, just across the Menai Strait. Their most solemn festival occurred on the sixth day of the moon nearest the tenth of March, their New Year’s day, when the chief Druid, clothed in white robes, with a golden knife cut the sacred mistletoe from the oak to which it clung. There were three other festivals of special interest to the English people, since to them may be traced the festivities of May-day, Mid-summer- THE ROMAN CONQUEST* 13 eve, and Harvest-koine, celebrating respectively the sowing of the seed, the ripening of the crops, and the gathering of the harvests. First Soman Invasion. Britain, lying to the west of the continent, and separated from it by quite an ex- panse of water, was too insignificant to excite either en- mity or cupidity, and long escaped the notice of Rome, the "Mistress of the World.” It was only when the tide of Roman conquest had reached the western shore of Europe, that the scheme of its addition to the Empire was first conceived. Julius Caesar, having nearly com- pleted the subjugation of the Gauls, crossed the Channel with two legions, and landed just beyond the cliffs of Dover, B.C. 55. The Britons, warned of the purpose of Caesar, had gathered in large numbers to oppose his land- ing. Though they w^ere driven back, and repeatedly beaten, so stubborn were they, that Caesar did not ven- ture far from the coast, and was glad to accept their of- fers of peace and return to Gaul. But the next year he returned with a much larger force, five legions or thirty thousand foot soldiers, and two thousand horse. Having conquered the country for some distance beyond the Thames, compelling the chiefs to pay tribute and give hostages, Caesar again withdrew from British soil. Second Roman Invasion. Occupied with weightier matters, the Romans soon practically forgot their distant and worthless conquest, and the Britons were left for nearly a century to take care of themselves. During this period, a growing trade and a better acquaintance with their neighbors on the continent, had done some- thing towards their civilization, attracting the attention 14 THE ROMAN CONQUEST. of the Emperor Claudius, who began, iu the year of our Lord 43, a second and more difficult conquest. Caractacus. Caractacus, the most important of the chiefs at that time, putting himself at the head of the inland tribes, for eight years held the Romans at bay, when he was captured and taken to Rome to grace the triumph of his captor. "Is it possible that a people possessed of so much magnificence at home could covet my humble cottage in Britain,” exclaimed the wondering barbarian as he gazed on the glories of Rome ! His kingly bearing won the respect of the Emperor, who restored him to liberty, and this is the last we hear of the noble Briton. Slaughter of the Druids. The Druids possessed almost unlimited power over the people, and this power they had used to the utmost, to arouse them to bitter hostility to Roman authority. Suetonius, the Roman general and governor, resolving to strike a decisive blow, in the year 61, crossed the strait of Menai and landed on the sacred shore of Mona. For a moment even Roman soldiers faltered, as they listened to the shrieks and imprecations of frantic priests and priestesses, and beheld the host of painted war- riors gathered to defend their altars ; then pressing resolutely forw r a^d, this stronghold of British supersti- tion and British plower was soon in their possession, and Druidism received a fatal blow in the slaughter of its priests, and the destruction of its groves and temples. Boadicea. During the absence of Suetonius a fresh insurrection broke out under Boadicea, widow of the King of the Icenians. Stung to madness by shameful abuse, THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 15 when protesting against the seizure of all her wealth by Roman officials, she went from tribe to tribe exciting the warriors to phrensy with the story of her wrongs. Under her lead they suddenly fell upon the Roman settlements, and seventy thousand soldiers and citizens were put to the sword. Suetonius hurried back from Mona to wreak a terrible vengeance on the Britons in arms. In a great battle fought near London, eighty thousand warriors sealed with their blood their devo- tion to their country, and the spirited queen, unwilling to survive the slaughter of her people and the destruc- tion of her hopes, put an end to her own life. The Roman Conquest. But the Britons were still unsubdued, and it remained for Agricola (who became Governor in the year 78), by the practice of justice and humanity as well as soldierly skill, to reconcile them to Roman authority. Under the firm but liberal policy of Agricola and his successors , the Britons rapidly improved . They gave up their heathenish rites and savage customs, and adopted the manners, dress, and, to some extent, the language of the Romans. They became peaceful and industrious. Wide stretches of gloomy forests gave place to fields of waving grain ; and the mines of tin, lead, and iron began to be worked in earnest. Their surplus products found a ready market abroad, giving rise to a moderate but increasing commerce. The con- struction by the Romans of a system of public roads not only facilitated the transportation of troops to needed points, but hastened the development of the country and the civilization of its inhabitants. A Wall of solid stone, twelve feet high and eight feet thick, 16 THE SAXON CONQUEST. running from the mouth of the Tyne to the Solway Firth, a distance of sixty-eight miles, was built by the Emperor Severus to protect the Britons from the incursions of the Scots and Piets, wild and warlike tribes occupying the highlands of Caledonia. Rome continued in un- disturbed possession of Britain until the year 420, when she recalled her soldiers to repel the Goths, who were pouring from their German homes into Italy in vast numbers, threatening even Rome itself. Tlie Saxon Conquest. The Romans had no sooner left the island than the Scots and Piets, boldly crossing the wall of Severus, renewed their ravages in the northern districts. The Britons, weakened by long subjection to Rome, were unable to defend themselves ; and, after a vain appeal to the Emperor Honorius for help, called to their aid the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. These were fierce people inhabiting the peninsula of Jutland and the country around the mouths of the Elbe and Weser rivers, who, roaming about the waters of the North and Baltic seas in their pirate boats, had long been the scourge of all the adjoining coasts. They en- tered Britain under the command of their brave chief- tains, Hengist and Horsa, in the year 449, and quickly compelled the northern marauders to retire to their native highlands. But, attracted by the mildness of the climate and the beauty and fertility of the country, and finding, in con- nection with the promised reward, a pretext for a quar- rel, they soon turned their arms against the Britons themselves. The latter, compelled to fight in defence of their homes, gradually recovered their ancient valor. For a century and a half the struggle for mastery in THE SAXON CONQUEST. 17 the island went on, fresh hordes of Germans pouring in, from time to time, to the help of their countrymen. The battle of Chester, fought in the year 607, estab- ished, beyond a doubt, the supremacy of the invaders. The districts still occupied by the natives being severed one from another, could no longer act in concert, and the struggle, though lingering, ceased to have a national character. The brave but hapless Britons, beaten on all sides, and pursued with fire and sword, at last found a safe retreat among the mountain fastnesses of Wales and Cornwall. There, animated by a burning love of liberty, they continued in almost unbroken war for six hundred yearfe, defying the whole power of Eng- land to subdue, them; and there, their descendants, the Welsh, live to-day, a hardy, vigorous race, and at one with the English, who have long since shared with them the blessings of a common country. During the Roman occupation, Christianity had sup- planted the native religion. The Latin language, too, had gradually come into use, especially among the upper classes and in the larger towns. The entire disappear- ance of Christianity, and both the Latin and native lan- guages, attests the thoroughness of the German or An- glo-Saxon conquest. A few slaves held for the pleasure or profit of the conquerors were all that were left of the native population. King Arthur. Of the many heroic Britons, who struggled against the German conquest, the most fa- mous, whose name has come down to us, is Arthur, chief of one of the tribes in the West. But so much of fable has been woven into the story of this patriot Briton and his sixty " Knights of the Round Table,” that we can 18 THE SAXON CONQUEST. only say with confidence, that such a prince lived and bravely fought the enemies of his country. The Heptarchy. The conquerors gradually estab- lished separate kingdoms as they won new territory, each having its independent king. Seven of these, from their greater prominence, have been called, in history, the Heptarchy.* After the Saxons had be- come firmly established in their new homes, and the sharpness of the struggle with the Britons had begun to decline, jealousy and ambition for pre-eminence involved them in wars with each other. Constant changes, therefore, took place in the number and boundaries of the kingdoms. The stronger gradually absorbed the weaker, until Wessex, under its vigorous king Egbert, brought them all under one government in the year 827. Introduction of Christianity. Britain first became Christian under Rome, but how or when is not known. Possibly, a Christian soldier in a Roman legion told the story of the Cross at a native fireside, or some name- less but devoted priest, going on a mission to heathen- Britain, achieved a conquest under the banners of the Cross, more glorious than that of Roman arms. St. Al- ban is recorded to have suffered martyrdom as early as the year 304. With the advent of the Anglo-Saxons * Kent, or Canfcia, was founded by Hengist,in 457. South Saxony, or Sus- sex, by Ella, in 490. West Saxony, or Wessex, by Cerdic, in 519. East Sax- ony, or Essex, by Ercewin, in 527. Northumberland (North of the Humber.) by Ida, in 547. East Anglia, comprising Norfolk (North folks ) and Suffolk (South folks ) by Uflfa, in 575. Mercia (Marchmen, or people on the march or frontier ) by Cridda, in 582. THE SAXON CONQUEST. 19 the Christian religion disappeared, and, for a century and a half, Britain remained under a paganism more debasing than that of the Druids. Christianity was introduced, a second time, by Augus- tine* and a band of forty monks from Rome, in the year 597. Ethelbert, king of Kent, who married Bertha, a Christian lady, and daughter of the king of Paris, was the first convert. His people followed his exam- ple and accepted Christianity. Augustine became Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the church of England, and his successors have retained their supe- riority ever since. Ethelbert’s daughter Ethelburh, married Edwin, king of Northumbria, and through her influence and that of her priest Paulinus, Edwin and his people were converted. The other kingdoms became Christian during the next century. Anglo-Saxon Religion. The principal deity of the Anglo-Saxons was Woden, the God of war, from whom all their royal families claimed descent; the next in rank being Thor, or Thunder, the God of storms. Each day of the week was dedicated to a particular deity, from whom it received its najne — a name it still continues ♦The venerable Bede, our principal authority for early English history, tells how Christianity was now introduced into Britain. Gregory, a priest, one day saw in the market-place of Rome, some very beautiful boys for sale, and asked who they were and whence they came. He was told they were heathen boys from the Isle of Britain. He then asked the name of their nation. “Angles ” was the answer. “Angles,” said Gregory, “ they have the faces of Angels , and they ought to be made fellow-heirs of the Angels in Heaven. But of what tribe of Angles are they ?” “Of Deira ,” was the reply. “ Deira ! ” said Gregory, “ then they must be delivered from the wrath of God. And what is the name of their king?” “ASlla.” “uBlla'then Alleluia shall be sung in his land.” Sometime afterwards Gregory became pope and sent Augustinci and forty other monks to convert the English. 20 THE SAXON CONQUEST. to bear.* Like barbarous tribes in general, making the future existence a realization of their highest ideal of the present life, they filled their Valhalla or Heaven with scenes of war, Avhere happy Saxons would live for- ever, occupying the days in the slaughter of their ene- mies, and the nights in wild carousals of victory. Anglo-Saxon Government. The king was assisted in the government by a great council, called Witenagemot, or "Assembly of the Wise,” composed of the great no- bles, the Ealdormen or Earls, and, after the introduc- tion of Christianity, Bishops and Abbots. This council met regularly at Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, and on special occasions when summoned. At the death of the king it assembled to elect his successor, who was taken from the royal family, but was not always the next in line. Besides the Earls , who acted as judges and rulers in their districts, there was an inferior class of nobles, called Thanes , men who had risen to nobility by personal attendance on the king. The Churls were freemen of the middle and lower classes, the lowest class of all being the Serfs , or slaves, who composed about two-thirds of the inhabitants. * Sunday, (Sun’s day), or day for the worship of the sun. Monday (Moon’s day ) or day for the worship of the moon. Tuesday (Tiw’s day) the day of the Dark God Tiw, to meet whom was death. Wednesday (Woden’s day) the day of Woden, the War God. Thursday (Thor’s day) the day of Thor, the God of storms. Friday (Frea’s day) the day of Frea, the goddess of peace and fruitfulness. Saturday (Saturn’s day) the day of Sat- urn, a God borrowed from Roman Mythology. CHAPTER II. The Saxon Line, 827 to 1013 — 186 years. EGBERT. ATHELSTAN. EDMUND I. EDRED. EDWY. EDGAR. EDWARD THE MARTYR. ETHELRED II. ETHELWOLF. ETHELBALD. ETHELBERT. ETHELRED I. ALFRED THE GREAT. EDWARD THE ELDER. Egbert — 827 to 837 — 10 years. Saxon. The Danish Invasions. Egbert called the country England from the Angles, the most powerful of the three tribes. This is generally regarded as the begin- ning of the English monarchy. No sooner were the different kingdoms united under one government and at peace among themselves, than a new danger appeared from without. Inroads began to be made by the Danes, a piratical people of Denmark, who, descend- ing upon the eastern coast during the summer, would load their boats with plunder, and retire for the winter to their strongholds on the shores of the North and Baltic Seas. They came year after year in ever increas- ing numbers, until at last, from pirate bands in search of plunder, they grew into invading armies bent on conquest. They planted themselves at various points along the coast, and waged perpetual w r ar with the English in the interior. 22 EGBERT. They even colonized the coast of Ireland, forcing the inhabitants back to their native bogs. From the reign of Egbert to that of Ethelred the Unready, a period of nearly two hundred years, the struggle between Saxon and Dane went on, ending as we shall see a little later, in the establishment of Danish rule. Egbert was succeeded by Ethelwolf, a good and pious king, who was followed by his four sons in succession ; Ethelbald, who died lamented by his people; Ethel- bert, a vicious and unworthy king; Ethelred I, a brave soldier, under whom Alfred learned the art of war, and whom he succeeded. Alfred the Great, 871 to 901 — 30 years. Saxon. War with the Danes. During the early part of his reign, Alfred was engaged in constant warfare with the Danes. Defeated in battle after battle by the overwhelm- ing number of his foes, he was compelled, for a time, to hide in a secluded spot in the swamps and forests of Somersetshire, still known as Athelney, or Prince’s Island.* Wishing to learn the strength and arrange- ment of the Danish camp, he presented himself before Guthrum, the Danish king, disguised as a minstrel. * Alfred, while a refugee, found temporary shelter in a herdsman’s cottage. The herdsman’s wife one day set him to watch some cakes that were baking over the fire; but Alfred, intent on mending his bow, let the cakes burn, and was sharply reproved by the indignant woman when she returned. The whole story may be a mere legend or come from an ancient ballad. There are two old Latin verses that quaintly express the good woman’s alleged reproof “ Urere quos cernis panes gyrare moraris , Quum nimium gaudes hos manducare calentes 44 There, don’t you see the cakes on fire ? Then wherefore turn them not ? You are glad enough to eat them when they are piping hot.” ALFRED THE GREAT. 23 For several days lie amused the unsuspicious Danes with harp and song, when, having gained the desired information, he disappeared as mysteriously as he had come. Putting himself at the head of his trusted fol- lowers, he made a sudden attack on the Danish camp and gained a signal victory. By treaty, Guthrum and his followers received bap- tism, withdrew from Wessex, Alfred’s native kingdom, and settled in the eastern districts as nominal vassals of the English king. Peace was broken after an inter- val of ten years by the arrival of Hastings, the famous sea-king, with a great fleet. Alfred once more took the field, and by his skill and genius the Danish fleet was captured, its army routed, and Hastings compelled to take refuge in France. Alfred’s Government. Peace being restored, Alfred devoted the few remaining years of his life to the bet- ter organization of his kingdom and the elevation of his people. He invited wise men of other nations to his court, and founded schools of learning, among them the University of Oxford. He translated into the English tongue, portions of the Scriptures, the history of Bede, the early English chronicler, and Latin works of merit, and thus gave an impulse to learning. He compiled a code of laws, chiefly from the systems of his predecessors, containing principles of the greatest value in modern jurisprudence. He organized a mili- tia, and divided the country into counties, hundreds, and tens, after the old Saxon system, making each section responsible for the good behavior of its inhabitants. So complete and successful was his system of government, that violence and disorder disappeared from the land. 24 ALFRED THE GREAT. The boast is handed down to us that gold and jewels, left unguarded by the roadside, would remain untouched by dwellers or passers-by. As a soldier, statesman, and scholar, Alfred has never been surpassed by any English sovereign. Alfred’s Successors. He was succeeded, in order, by Edward the Elder, *who first assumed the title of King of England, — Athelstan, a good and valiant king, who caused the Bible to be translated into Anglo-Saxon, and a copy placed in every church in the kingdom, — Edmund, who was stabbed at his own table by the ban- ished robber, Leolf, — Edwy, wdiose romantic marriage with his beautiful cousin Elgiva brought upon both the vengeance of Dunstan the Abbot, Elgiva dying by vio^ lence, and Edwy with grief, — Edgar the proud but peaceable, — Edward the Martyr, young and promising, who was killed at the gate of Corfe Castle, by order of his step-mother, — and then by Ethelred the Unready. Massacre of Danes. Ethelred, afraid to fight the Danes in an open and manly way, purchased peace by promising to pay them an annual tribute, called Dane- gelt, raised by a tax on land, the first on record in England. This tax proving very unpopular, Ethelred planned a massacre of all the Danes in the kingdom as the easiest way of getting rid of both Danegelt and Danes. The Danish Conquest. This massacre took place on the Festival of St. Brice, in the year 1002, and so enraged Sweyn, king of Denmark, whose sister, a hostage of peace, was among the slain, that he assem- bled a large army, transported it to the English coast, and commenced the work of vengeance. Through and O O THE DANISH CONQUEST. 25 through the kingdom of Wessex went the furious Dane, " lighting his war beacons as he went,” leaving behind him only the bodies of the dead and the ashes of their dwellings. Ethel red lied to France, and Sweyn became king of England, establishing the Danish line in the year 1013. Sweyn died before coronation, and for a short time, the Saxon line was restored in the person of Ethelred, and then in that of his son Edmund, called Ironside. Between the latter and Canute, son of Sweyn, there was a short and furious war to decide which should be king, ending in the division of the country between them. The death of Edmund soon after, led to the submission of all England to the rule of Canute. Comparison between Saxon and Danish Conquests. A brief comparison should be made between the Saxon and Danish conquests. The Saxons and Danes were of the same Teutonic stock, and in their German homes spoke the same language with dialectical differences. They worshiped the same heathen gods, and had essen- tially the same laws and customs. The Saxons had, long before their invasion of Britain, roamed about the waters of the German ocean in fleets of black pirate- boats, swarming up all the rivers and scouring all the coasts in search of plunder. It was while they were on just such a piratical raid, that the Britons first obtained their help against the Scots and Piets, So clouds of Danish pirates hovered about the Eng- lish coast before the Danish invasion, plundering their somewhat civilized and christianized Saxon kindred. The Saxons were a century and a half in com- pleting their conquest, the Danes somewhat longer in 2 6 TIIE DANISH CONQUEST. effecting theirs. There was the same savage ferocity in battle, and the same ruthless slaughter of the con- quered. Tile Danes regarded the Saxons as renegades from their ancient faith, and so it was, in either case, a war of heathenism on Christianity. But the final results were widely different. There was nothing in common between Briton and Saxon, and the war they waged was, on the part of the latter, one of extermination. But there was much in com- mon between Saxon and Dane, and they could easily assimilate. The barbarism of the conquering Dane yielded to the civilization of the conquered Saxon, so that, in process of time, the former became, as it were, transformed into the latter. CHAPTER III. Danish Line, 1017 to 1042 — 25 years. CANUTE THE GEEAT. j HAEDICANUTE. HAEOLD. Canute the Great, 1017 to 1030 — 19 years. Danish. The Reign of Canute. Canute •well deserved to be called the Great, lie enlarged his kingdom, then com- prising England and Denmark, by bringing under his sway Norway and Sweden. But his chief claim to greatness rests not on his exploits in war, but his achievements in peace. Coming to Eugland from his native Denmark a fierce and blood-thirsty savage, he became in time a good, wise, and great king, * impar- tial in his sway over Saxon and Dane. Peace and the welcome sounds of industry soon took the place of war and its horrid din. By wise and popular laws, rigidly but impartially executed, he united and harmonized the discordant kingdoms, and healed the animosities of the *IIis courtiers, wishing to flatter him by exalting his power, once told him that he was lord alike of sea aud land, and would be obeyed by both. Wishing to show them how foolish as well as impious these praises were, he gave orders that his throne should be carried to the sea shore at Southampton, and sat down upon it while the tide was coming in. 41 Now,” said he, “ O sea, I am thy lord; come no nearer, presume not to wet my feetl n The waves, of course, instead of attending to him, rolled on, till they flowed around his throne and washed over his feet. Turning to his attendants, he bads them remember that there is only One who can say to the deep, ‘‘So far shalt thou go, and no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” lie afterwards hung up Lis crown over the altar in Winchester Cathedral, and never wore it again. [Yo.vge. (* 7 ) 28 CANUTE TIIE GREAT. different races, laying, for the first time, the founda- tions of national unity and greatness. Canute and the Christian Church. Canute’s treat- ment of the Christian church is worthy of notice. The barbarous Danes had been merciless in the destruction of churches and monasteries, and in the slaughter of their inmates ; and, in consequence, all the powers of the church had been arrayed against them. Canute, on coming to power, instead of taking vengeance on the Christian church, yielded his heart -to its holy faith, and became its friend and patron. He re-built and re- endowed the religious houses which he and his father had burned, and even protected Christian pilgrims journey- ing to Rome, from the robbers of the Alps. On the other hand, with a keen sense of justice, he protected his people from the exorbitant demands of the church itself. He died in 1036, lamented by all his people, and was succeeded by his son Harold, called Harefoot, whose only claim to fame was his swiftness in running ; and then by his second son Hardicanute, or Canute II., who died of intemperance after a reign of two years. The people, disgusted with their later Danish rulers, then called to the throne Edward the Confessor, brother of Edmund Ironside, and son of Ethelred II., thus restoring the Saxon line. Edward the Confessor, 1041 to 1066. — 25 Years. Edward had opent all his early years in exile in Nor- mandy, and thus naturally had become Norman in his tastes and habits. On coming to the English throne he surrounded himself with Norman companions, whom he appointed to the principal offices of church and EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 29 state, greatly to the discontent of the English people. But he had the wisdom to appoint, as his principal adviser, Godwin, Earl of Wessex, an Englishman, and the ablest statesman in the kingdom. Edward being in feeble health, Godwin became the virtual ruler of -England, and by his skill and wisdom kept peace be- tween the jealous English and the haughty Norman. Once exiled, he was soon recalled; and at his death, which occurred shortly after his return, his son Harold, who had inherited all his father’s greatness, took his place at the head of the affairs of state. Character of Edward. Edward was a wise and pious king, and caused England to be governed by just and equal laws. For generations afterwards the people, when ground down by tyranny, would look back with longings to the " good laws of Edward.” His time was chiefly spent in deeds of charity and in the exercises of religion, and he attained to a purity and sanctity of character that, about a hundred years after his death, placed his name among those of the Saints in the calendar of the church, and that have hallowed his memory, even to this day. Edward was popularly believed to have the miraculous power to cure the scrof- ula, or "king’s evil,” by a touch, — a strange supersti- tion in connection with the sovereign of England that found credence among the masses of the people, even down to the reign of Queen Anne. Edward had mar- ried a daughter of Godwin, but died without heirs in the year 1066. On his death-bed he named Harold as his successor, and the Witan the same day elected him as king. William, Duke of Normandy. William, Duke of 30 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. Normandy, had been planning for years to take the English throne at the death of Edward. lie affirmed that Edward, with whom he had been educated at his father’s court, had even promised him the kingdom, and that Harold, when once wrecked on the coast of Normandy and thrown into William’s power, had sworn to support his claim. However this may be, on hearing of Harold’s election, William, "speechless with rage,” at once commenced the most vigorous preparations to enforce his claim. He built a great fleet, and gathered about him an army of sixty thousand knights, the flower of the chivalry of Normandy ; and having first obtained the Pope’s sanction to the enterprise, crossed the channel, and landed on the coast of England, the last of September. Battle of Hastings, A, D. 1066. William’s merci- less ravages of the adjoining country brought Harold to battle at Senlac,* near Hastings, about the middle of October. After a desperate struggle of nine hours’ duration, just at dusk, Harold fell, pierced to the brain with an arrow, and his broken and panic-stricken army fled away during the night. William entered London in triumph, two months later, and was crowned, on Christmas day, at Westminster. This is called, in history, the Conquest. * In commemoration of his victory, William built a Monastery called Cattle Abbey, on the very spot where Harold’s standard had been planted. Although this has long since passed away, its successor, in ruins, reminds the traveller of the famous battle of Hastings. CHAPTER IV. Norman Line, 1066 to 1154 — 88 Years. WILLIAM I., the Conqueror. I HENRY I.. Beauclerk. WILLIAM II., Rufus. | STEPHEn. William the Conqueror — 1066 to 1087. — 21 Tears. Rolf, the Dane. William was descended from Rolf, a Danish pirate, who, in 912, just after the time of Al- lred the Great, had planted himself with his pirate crew, at the mouth of the river Seine. The king of France, being unable to dislodge him, finally, by treaty, gave him his daughter in marriage and a title to Normandy, in return for which Rolf agreed to receive baptism and acknowledge himself a vassal of France. In process of time, the same change befell the Danes in France that had befallen them in England; they were absorbed by the more civilized people among whom they settled. As in England the Dane became an Englishman, so in France he became a Frenchman. Revolt of the English. Soon after William’s acces- sion to power, and during his temporary absence in Normandy, there was a wide-spread revolt of the English. The signal for the rising was the appearance on the coast, of a Danish fleet designed to restore Danish authority to the island. With a heavy bribe, the crafty William induced the Danish commanders to (31) 32 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. abandon their purpose and return to Denmark. He then turned upon the rebels in arms with a ferocity lie only could show. He ravaged the sea-board so that no Dane should find either foothold or plunder in future, and laid waste with fire and sword the old district of Dcira, between the Humber and the Tecs, the source and centre of the rebellion. So complete was the de- vastation, that, for the space of sixty miles north of York, the whole district remained for half a century without an inhabitant, a barren waste, and marked only by blackened ruins. One hundred thousand human beings, who had lied to the woods at William’s coming, crept back to the ashes of their homes, only to die of starvation. Although it was mid-winter when the cruel work was done, the ruthless king started at once for the West, where the revolt was still formidable. Through an unbroken wilderness, covered with drifts of snow, and crossed by swollen streams, the starving army toiled painfully on, with the tireless king ever at the head. Chester* was reached at last, and with its fall the rebellion virtually came to an end. Confiscation of English Estates. Then commenced, under the direction of the revengeful king, a wholesale confiscation of rebel estates. These were distributed * Chester is one of the most interesting as well as one of the oldest towns in England. It shows more plainly than any other the marks of the Roman occupation. It is the only town in England that has maintained its walls in tlifir original form, the foundations of which were laid by the Romans them- selres. Its long and interesting history is indicated by the iollowing inscrip- tions, made from time to time upon its walls: A. D. 01. Walls built by Romans. 73. Marius, King of the Britons, extended the walls. 607. The Britons defeated by the Saxons. 900. Rebuilt by daughter of Alfred the Great. 1399. Ilenry of Lancaster mustered his troops under the walls. 1615. The Parliamentary forces made a breach in the walls. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 33 among the Norman knights and nobles who had fought around William’s standard, while their former Saxon owners either found refuge in foreign lands, or, form- ing in hostile bands, waged a desultory warfare with their Norman conquerors. Hereward, a Saxon noble, retired to the isle of Ely, where, protected by almost ' impassable swamps, he long defied the Norman power. But William, building a causeway across the swamps, finally forced the valiant Saxon to surrender. The Feudal System Established. The conquest of England now being complete, William turned his at- tention to the organization of the government, with a view to its security in the future. Normans were put into all places of power and trust. The military power of the government was based on the Feudal system that already prevailed in Spain, France, and Germany. Under this system, the great nobles were granted al- most unlimited power over the persons and property of their tenants, on certain conditions, the most impor- tant of which was, that they should come to the sup- port of the king with all their retainers in time of war. These nobles, generally living in strongly fortified cas- tles, and constantly surrounded by devoted bodies of men-at-arms, thus became petty sovereigns, spending their time in the pleasures of the chase, or in making war on each other, and sometimes on the king himself. William erected the Feudal system in England as a bulwark to the throne ; and such it was as against the conquered English. But when the spirit of disaffec- tion crept into the Norman nobility, thus made powerful and independent, the Feudal system became its chief danger. 34 WILLIAM TIIE CONQUEROR. The Doomsday Book. For the better organization of the kingdom, and the more certain collection of its revenues, he ordered a great survey, the results of which were embodied in the "Doomsday Book,” show- ing the ownership, extent, and productions of all the estates in the kingdom. From this register the crown dues were carefully calculated and rigidly collected. The Curfew Bell. William established the curfew (fire-covering) bell. This w^as rung from every church- tower and monastery in England, at sunset in summer, and at eight o’clock in winter, as a signal for the peo- ple to cover the fires on thb hearth, and retire to rest. The law of the curfew had long prevailed in various parts of Europe as a safeguard against conflagrations, which were frequent and extensive in the wood-built towns. The Norman Language. After the Saxon rebellion, Normans had been put into all responsible places, both of church and state. Of necessity, therefore, all the business of the government and courts of justice, the services of the church, except such as regularly em- ployed Latin, and the exercises of the schools, were conducted in the Norman language. Norman thus came largely into use, even among English people ; but the English masses still continued to talk in their Anglo-Saxon tongue. It is said that William tried, though in vain, to learn the Anglo-Saxon language, that he might be the better qualified to govern his whole people. Character of William the Conqueror. Reserved, haughty, severe in his rule, and ruthless in his revenge, " stark to baron or rebel,” but " mild to them WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 35 that loved God,” he inspired a mingled sense of respect and awe in all about him. This sense was heightened, no doubt, by a consciousness of his great physical strength, no ordinary man being able to swing his bat- tle-axe or bend his bow. There was a grandeur about the Conqueror that belongs to no other English king, as manifest in his fearless humanity as in his dauntless ferocity. If, with a ferocity that finds few parallels in all history, he blotted out rebellious towns, and brought the silence of death upon offending dis- tricts, with a humanity in striking contrast with the spirit of the age, he formally abolished capital punish- ment, and but one person suffered death for crime dur- ing his whole reign. To gratify his love of solitude and his fondness for the chase, he laid waste an extensive tract in Hamp- shire, reaching from Winchester to the sea, driving out its inhabitants and burning their dwellings and churches. But he also abolished the slave trade that had long been a source of wealth to the merchants of Bristol, and became the friend and patron of the Jews, then a hated race, allowing them to build dwellings and synagogues in all the principal towns. He was a true Catholic, and strengthened the church by the establishment of ecclesiastical courts, after- wards, in the reign of Henry II., the source of so much trouble; but he bluntly refused to obey the command of the pope to do fealty for his realm. If he removed English prelates and abbots, he required of their Norman successors the most exemplary lives, and instantly dismissed those found unworthy. 36 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR Although lie could not brook opposition, and was like a raging lion to all who withstood him, there was one man, Anselm, the good abbot of Bee, in whose presence lie always became gentle and patient. William’s end was characteristic. lie died on an errand of vengeance. He had become corpulent during the latter part of his life; and once, when ill, had been made the subject of a silly jest on the part of the king of France. William took it to heart, and, on his recovery, commenced to lay waste the border lands of France. While riding through the burning town of Mantes, his horse reared among the hot embers that filled the road, and he received injuries from the pommel of his saddle that terminated, in a few weeks, in his death, at Rouen. He left the kingdom of England to his second son William, called Rufus or the Red King, from the color of his hair. To Robert, the eldest son, set aside on account of a rebellion in which he had engaged, he gave the dukedom of Nor- mandy. William’s wife was Matilda,* daughter of the Earl of Flanders, through whom the present royal house of England traces its descent from Egbert. * Ethel wolf, eldest sou of Egbert, had by his first wife four sons, Alfred the Great being the youngest. Ilia second wife was Judith, daughter ot Charles the Bald tf France. lie was succeeded by his son Elhelbald, who also married Judith, his father’s widow. At Ethelbald’s death Judith went back to her father’s court and eloped with Baldwin, after- wards Earl of Flanders. Their son married hlfrida, daughter of Alfred the Great, and from them sprang Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror. The famous “ Bayeux Tapestry ” was the handiwork of Matilda. This was a piece of canvas sixty-eight yards long and nineteen inches wide, on which were embroidered in wool, scenes and figures, giving a complete pictorial history of the Conquest. WILLIAM II. 37 William II. 1087 to 1100 — 13 years. Norman. Rebellion of the Barons. William II. was greeted, on his arrival in England, with a rebellion of the barons in behalf of Robert. By the aid of the English, whom he rallied to his support by the promise of good laws — a promise that was forgotten as soon as the danger was past — the rebellion was quelled. Still another attempt was made by the barons, later in the reign, to dethrone the king and put in his place, Stephen, a grandson of the Conqueror; but this, too, failed, for the Red King proved himself every inch a soldier and equal to any emergency. Character of William II. In personal courage, violence of temper, and strength of will, he was the equal of the Conqueror himself, but in all the higher moral qualities he was greatly his inferior. He was coarse and profane in speech, mean and covetous in disposition, and prodigal and licentious in his habits. He kept his ministers busy devising means to wring new taxes from his people. By a law of the realm, the revenues of vacant secs and abbeys went to the crown. The Red King refused to fill vacancies that occurred during his reign, that he might appropriate their incomes, thus robbing the church of its rights, and the people of religious privi- leges. The money thus obtained went to gratify his desire for debasing pleasures, and to enrich worthless courtiers. He was twice engaged in hostilities with Malcolm, King of Scotland, compelling the latter to do him homage as his superior. 38 WILLIAM II. The lied King met with a tragic death while hunting in the new forest which his father had made. He was found pierced to the brain with an arrow, whether by design or accident was never known. But he is supposed to have been killed by Walter Tyrrcl, one of the king’s party, who immediately fled from the country. He was succeeded by his younger brother Henry, Robert the elder brother not having returned from the Holy Land, whither he had gone on a Crusade. The Crusades. The reign of William II. marks the beginning of the Crusades. These were military expe- ditions, undertaken on a large scale by the Christian nations of Europe, to free the Holy Land from the rule and presence of the Saracen. Christians from all countries, since the fourth century, had made long and painful pilgrimages to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, cither as a penance for sin, or as a means of attaining to greater piety; but they had been subjected to such dan- gers and indignities from the predatory infidel, that the Crusades were undertaken as a religious duty. They began in the year 1096, under the lead and preaching of a monk named Peter the Hermit ( who had himself suffered while on a pilgrimage) , and con- tinued, at intervals, through a period of two centuries, sacrificing, it is computed, two millions of lives, and leaving the Holy Land still in the hands of the Saracen. The Benefits of the Crusades. Though failing to accomplish their primal object, the Crusades were pro- ductive of great good in other directions. They brought the Christian nations into greater harmony with each other by uniting them in a common cause, and into im- mediate contact with the East, making them familiar with WILLIAM II. 39 its arts, institutions, and laws, and opening to them its rich and varied commerce. They caused the construc- tion of numerous vessels for the transportation of cru- saders, thus stimulating ship-building and navigation, and ultimately turning men’s attention from the arts of war to those of peace. They enlisted and sent abroad the dangerous and turbulent elements, for the most part never to return, thus purifying and making society at home safer and more peaceful. They struck the first great blow at the Feudal system, by compelling the nobles to sell or divide their great estates to raise money for their outfit. Finally they gave birth to the spirit and system of Chivalry, whose value at this period, the darkest of the Dark Ages, can hardly be over-estimated. The System of Chivalry. Christianity had to a great extent lost its power; and superstition, gross and degrading, reigned supreme. War with all its unmeasured depths of vice and crime and woe, was the pastime of kings or the mere instrument of personal ambition and passion, and even peace, when it came, instead of bringing new life to art and industry, left men to sink into a more degrading ignorance and a still grosser superstition. During the Middle Ages spiritual dark- ness brooded over all the nations. Sleep, like the sleep of death, rested on the human intellect. The spirit of Chivalry was light breaking upon the long and dreadful night, a clarion note awaking the world from the sleep of ages. It appealed to the nobler sentiments of the soul, inspiring the love of truth, honor, and religion, and enjoining the practice of courtesy, chastity, and humanity. 40 WIJJ.IAM II. Though, with its solemn oath, imposed on all who aspired to its honors, and its iron garb, the insignia of knightly character, it could not always transform rude and brutal men into true and chivalric knights, it did place upon rudeness and brutality a needed and effec- tive check. Who can estimate its worth to woman , in the protection it gave her, through those long and gloomy ages, when sensual pleasure was the chief aim, and brute force the highest law, known to most men? The system of chivalry, both ludicrous and imprac- tical in some of its features, when viewed from the stand- point of the nineteenth century, passed away before an advancing civilization; but its spirit , enlarged and purified by true religion, still exists in the enlightened public sentiment of modern times. Henry I., 1100 to 1135 — 35 Years. Norman. First Charter of Liberties. Henry I., surnamed Beauclerc the Scholar, w r as clearly a usurper. Being opposed by the barons, who espoused the cause of Robert, now on his way home from Palestine, Henry following the example of William, fell back on the support of the English. He gave them a Charter of Liberties, in which he restored the laws of Edward, renounced the right to plunder the church by allowing its sees and abbeys to remain vacant, and shielded the people from the unjust exactions of their lords, the barons. IIENRY I. 41 To conciliate the English still further, he married Matilda, or Maud,* as the English loved to call her, a descendant of Edmund Ironside, thus uniting the Saxon and Nonnan families. Robert, Duke of Normandy. The enthusiasm of the English masses, at the elevation of an English prin- cess to the throne, was unbounded, and when Robert landed in England, and raised his standard as the rightful heir to the crown, he found himself, face to face, with sixty thousand resolute English yeo- men, and surrendered to Henry without a battle. A treaty was made between the brothers, Robert yield- ing all claims to the crown, for a pension for himself and pardon for all his followers. And now occurs the darkest act of Henry’s reign. Robert had no sooner returned to Normandy, and the barons dispersed to their castles, than commenced under Henry’s direction the confiscation of the estates ot all implicated in the rebellion. The chivalric Robert, indignant at the treachery of his brother, at once called his retainers to arms and renewed the war. The king, claiming that the treaty had been broken, invaded Normandy, de- feated Robert’s army, took Robert himself prisoner, and doomed him to life-long confinement within the walls of Cardiff Castle. It is affirmed that having once attempted to escape, Henry caused his eyes to be put out with a hot iron. This noblest of the sons of the ♦When Canute seized the crown in 1017, he sent the infant sons of Edmund Ironside to Germany. The Confessor on coming to the throne, twenty -four years later, invited Ed- ward, the only survivor of these sons, to return to England. Edward died soon alter his arrival, and his family, at the coming of William the Conqueror, took refuge in Scotland, where his daughter Margaret married King Malcolm. Maud was the offspring of this marriage. 42 IIENIIY I. Conqueror lingered twenty-nine years in sightless con- finement, dying, at last, in his dungeon an old man of eighty years. Character and Reign of Henry. Henry’s character was a strange admixture of virtues and vices. lie was unscrupulous, false-hearted, and revengeful, but he promoted the welfare of his people, encouraged manu- factures, improved the coinage, established a system of weights and measures, repealed the odious law of the . Curfew, and re-organized the courts of justice. Henry’s system of justice, with modifications and improvements, is the system of to-day, both in England and America. Ho dealt a heavy blow at the Feudal system, and gave an impulse to liberty, when he endowed the great towns with charters of freedom. The White Ship. The last years of Henry’s life were sad and gloomy, on account of the death by ship- wreck, of his only son, Prince William. They had been on a visit to Normandy, to secure the acknowledgment of the Prince as heir to the crown, and to complete his marriage contract with the daughter of the Count of Anjou. Both matters being satisfactorily arranged, they embarked for the return, on different ships. The White Ship, in which William had taken passage, being delayed, attempted to overtake the rest of the fleet by moonlight. Speeding swiftly along under the sweep of its fifty rowers, it struck on a rock in the race of Alder- ney and went to the bottom. Only a single soul escaped to tell the sad tale to the bereaved father, wdio is said never to have smiled again. Henry left a daughter Matilda, whom lie had married to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou, to strengthen IIENRY I. 43 bib pu sessions bej’ond the channel. Before she could return to England to take the crown that belonged to her, it was seized by Stephen, Count of Blois, nephew of the late king. Affable in his manners and familiar in his address, Stephen had made himself a general favorite with the people of the capital, and so paved his way to power. — Stephen, 1135 to 1154 — 19 years. Norman. Civil War. Matilda endeavored to secure her rights by force of aims. David, King of Scotland, was the first to espouse her cause. With an army of wild and lawless highlanders, he invaded the northern counties, inflicting havoc alike on the friends and foes of Matilda. Against this army of marauders, the Archbishop of York took the field, and, in the battle of the Stand- ard, put them to utter rout and drove them across the border. Matilda herself reached England the next year with a small force, and her adherents quickly gathered to her support. In the battle of Lincoln the army of Stephen was defeated, and Stephen himself captured and sent, in chains, to Bristol Castle. Matilda entered London and was acknowledged queen of England. But her haughty manners and violent temper, so much in contrast with the generous and good natured ways of Stephen, soon changed even her friends to foes. The rapid approach of Stephen’s heroic queen at the head of an army, and the ringing of the alarm bells in London, having caused a sudden uprising of the people, Matilda fled, in haste, from the city, and took refuge within the walls of Oxford Castle. 44 STEPHEN • Stephen, once more at liberty and at the head of his army, in 1142, surrounded her place of refuge, so dis- posing his men as, apparently, to cut off every avenue of escape. The garrison ran short of provisions, and Matilda with three devoted knights, clad like herself in white to resemble the snow that covered the ground (for it was mid-winter), passed silently through the lines of Stephen’s army in the night, crossed the frozen Thames, and found refuge among the loyal people of the west, whence, four years later, she withdrew to France. Her son Henry had now grown up to manhood. Possessed, by inheritance and marriage, of the larger part of France, he collected an army of his own subjects, crossed the channel, and re-opened the war with Stephen. Compromise Between Stephen and Henry. But the bishops of England, under the lead of Theobald, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, weary of a struggle that had brought such fearful waste, and to which they could see no end, finally, in 1153, effected the treaty of Wallingford. It was mutually agreed that the crow r n should remain w T ith Stephen while he lived, and descend to Henry at his death. It w r as also decided that the grants of crown lands made by Stephen should be can- celled, the new castles demolished, and the foreign troops dismissed. The Robber Barons. Two things influenced Stephen to consent to this arrangement, the death of his eldest son, and the defection of his principal nobles, some of whom had turned against him, while more had abandon- ed the contest and retired to their estates. We find here a practical illustration of the workings of the STEPHEN. 45 Feudal system. To win the support of the barons, Stephen had, at the beginning of his reign, given them permission to build new castles on their estates, besides granting new titles of nobility to his chosen adherents. One hundred and twenty-six fortresses were thus erect- ed, many of them of great strength and frowning from inaccessible heights. Secure in these, the barons lived like petty princes, defying the authority of the king, and renewing old family quarrels. They plundered the country around their estates, and taxed its inhabi- tants till famine stared them in the face. Even churches were robbed of their wealth. The rich were waylaid as they journeyed, and held or tortured for ransom. These nobles have gained in history the well- deserved title of Robber Barons. The Outlaws of the Forest. Following their exam- ple, criminals and outcasts, unemployed soldiers and starving peasants, everywhere took to the woods and became outlaws, making it dangerous to travel in some districts without an armed escort. Banded together, sometimes in large numbers, they set laws and authori- ties at defiance, or, retreating to their hiding places in the dense recesses of the forest, were safe from pursuit. While many of these bandits were rude and ruthless men, sparing neither age nor sex, others were generous and courteous, robbing the rich to relieve the wants of the poor. Such was Robin Hood, the very prince of bandits, who, some fifty years later, in the reign of Richard I., with a hundred free and jovial companions, occupied the depths of the Sherwood forest. It is difficult to depict the anarchy and misery to which England was reduced in the reign of Stephen. 4(5 STEPHEN. Towns were abandoned, farms were left to decay, the sanctuaries were crowded with helpless, starving peo- ple, and thousands fled, in terror, to foreign countries. Stephen lived but a year after the treaty of Walling- ford, and Henry, quietly and unopposed, assumed the crown. Having both Saxon and Norman blood in his veins, a new name, that of his father, Plan- tagenet,* was given to the royal line he founded. ♦The name Plantagenefc is derived from Planta Genista , a common shrub called broom, which the fiist Earl of Anjou wore as an emblem, while on a pil- grimage to the Holy Land. CHAPTER V. Planfagenet Family, 1154 to 1485 — 331 Years* Henry II., 1154 to 1189 — 35 years. Plantagenet. The Condition of England. No king ever mounted the English throne under circumstances more peculiar, and, in some respects, more appalling, than greeted the first Plantagenet on his accession to power. During the reign of Stephen, the entire fabric of society had fallen to pieces, and both regard for law and respect for religion had been swept away in the general wreck. Beginning with the nobility, the spirit of lawlessness had permeated the priesthood and the peasantry. It is no wonder the helpless peasant either became an outlaw, or, in consternation, abandoned home and har- vest-field and fled beyond seas, when priest and noble turned robber ! This was the peculiar and appalling aspect of the case, that the best and highest elements in society had become, for the time being, most demor- alized. Henry, though but twenty-one years of age when he ascended the throne, undertook the work of reconstruction with a courage and an intelligence that HENRY II. RICHARD -I., Coeur-de-Lion. JOHN., Lackland. HENRY III., of Winchester. EDWARD I. EDWARD II., of Caernarvon. EDWARD III. RICHARD II., of Bordeaux. HOUSE OF LANCASTER. HOUSE OF YORK. 48 HENRY II. challenge our admiration. His efforts were mainly directed to the accomplishment of two distinct ends, the establishment of order, and the correction of the abuses of the church. The Establishment of Order. The Robber Barons were, one after another, subdued, and their castles razed to the ground; and the less noble, but no worse, highwaymen, the forest outlaws, were mercilessly hunt- ed down. The crown lands were also reclaimed, and foreign soldiers expelled. To increase the power of the crown, and weaken that of the baronage still more, two sweeping edicts were issued. One, in 1159, sub- stituted the payment of money, called '"shield money,” for the personal services of the barons in time of war, enabling the king to keep a paid and standing force. The other, in 1181, restored the militia, making every freeman a soldier, always to be suitably armed, and subject to the call of the king in time of national danger. Contest between Church and State. Henry’s con- test with the church was not only more difficult, but more dangerous, than that with the barons. Ancient- ly, judges and bishops sat together on the civil bench- es, but the Concpieror had established separate courts for ecclesiastical cases, over which the bishops pre- sided alone. Criminals in holy orders were thus put beyond the reach of the civil authorities, and as, by a canon of the church, the priesthood could not impose the death penalty upon one of their own order, these priestly criminals were also put beyond the reach of extreme punishment. It is not surprising that the church had grown arrogant and independent, or that one hundred murders were proved to have been com- HENRY II. 41) mitted, during the first few years of Henry's reign, by priests, who either suffered no punishment, or one not at all commensurate with the crime. They merely suffered some trifling penance or degradation in office. The Council of Clarendon. At the summons of the king, a council of nobles and prelates met at the castle of Clarendon in 1164. It was decided by this council, among other things, that the civil courts should have a certain jurisdiction over the church courts, and that law-breaking priests, on conviction in the latter, should be stripped of their orders and turned over to the civil authorities for punishment. Thomas a Becket and King Henry. Thomas a Becket had been Henry’s bosom friend and compan- ion. Henry had raised him from poverty to affluence, from the position of tutor to his children, to that of Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest office of the church in England. Becket at first accepted, then re- jected, the "Constitutions of Clarendon and then began that long and bitter struggle between himself and the king, in which personal animosities are strangely mingled with the graver affairs of church and state, ending in the violent death of Becket in 1170, and the ultimate triumph of the king. The priesthood and the laity were made equal before the law. The supremacy of the state over the church was achieved. Although, after the death of Becket, the king assented to a modification of the "Constitutions,” it was merely nominal, the practice of the courts and the submission of the bishops showing that the king still retained all the substantial fruits of victory. 50 HENRY II. The Death of Thomas a Bechet. The death of Becket was tragic. Four knights in attendance on the king in Normandy, interpreting too seriously his rash and impatient wish " to be rid of the turbulent priest,” silently left the royal presence, and secretly crossed the English Channel. Making their way to the gray old Cathedral of Canterbury, — where shortly be- fore* on Christmas day, Becket, sad but undismayed, had preached to the peasantry from the text "I come to die among you,” — the knightly assassins, backed by their followers, murdered him before his own altar. A cry of horror arose from all Christendom. For the first time during the bitter struggle Henry bent before the storm. He disclaimed all responsibility for the crime, and afterwards publicly expressed his sorrow for its commission, by walking barefooted to the tomb of Becket, and submitting his back to the scourge of the monks ; and the threatened excommunication was averted. The guilty knights went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where they died; and on their tomb was inscribed this epitaph, " Here lie the wretches who mur- dered St. Thomas of Canterbury.” The Judiciary System. One of the most interesting works of Henry’s reign was the improvement of the judiciary system founded by Henry I. England was divided into six judicial districts, each with three itiner- ant judges, who went regularly on their circuits, having jurisdiction alike over peasant and noble. The most radical change was made in the form of trial. The Anglo-Saxons brought with them, from Germany, a form of trial called Compurgation, A person charged with crime was acquitted or convicted. TIENRY II. 51 according as his kinsmen or neighbors, generally twelve, or some multiple of twelve, in number, made oath to his innocence or guilt. Another and very singular method of trial was called the Judgment of God. Among other things, if a suspected person could cany a bar of red hot iron a certain distance, or plunge his hand into boiling water, and in three days show no scar, he was pronounced innocent, otherwise, guilty. Sometimes he was thrown into deep water, and if he sank he was innocent, if he swam, guilty. The Con- queror introduced Wager of Battle, or Single Combat. An accused person was allowed to challenge his accuser to mortal combat, and if he came out of the fight vic- torious he was declared innocent, otherwise, guilty. Trial by Jury. “The first clear beginnings’’ of Trial by Jury are found in the reign of Henry II, when, by the Assize of Clarendon, in 1166 , twelve freemen chosen from the hundred, and four from each township, acting in the two-fold capacity of judges and witnesses, pre- sented reputed criminals for the Ordeal of Battle, or the Judgment of God. By the same Assize, Compurgation was abolished.* * Trial by Jury has generally been attributed to Alfred the Great, but there is every reason to believe that the Jury trials in Alfred’s time were, like those of all other Saxon kings, trials of Compurgation. Haydn makes the following statement, illustrating the fact that juries of twelve men existed before Ai- fied’s time. “In a cause tried at Uawarden, nearly a hundred years before the reign of Alfred, we have a list of twelve jurors; confirmed too, by the fact that the descendants of one of them of the name of Corbyn of the Gate, still preserve their name and residence at a spot in the parish yet called the Gated' At the Fourth Council of Lateran held at Rome in 12i6, Henry III. being King of England, all Ordeals were abolished, and went rapidly out of use. f After a brief interval of uncertainty as to the method of trial and punishment in England, the Petit or Trial Jury came into use. In the reign of Edward I, persons having particular knowledge of the facts in any ca e, were added to the jury. In the reign of Edward IV, a division was made, the origi- 52 IIENUT II Conquest of Ireland. In this reign Ireland was con- quered by Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, and added to Henry’s dominions; but the English authority was lightly regarded for a hundred years to come. Henry’s Rebellious Sons. The last years of Henry’s life were greatly embittered by estrangement from his wife and children. He had five sons, William, Henry, Geoffrey, Richard, and John. Encouraged by their mother, who was a divorced wife of Louis VI., a former king of France, and also by Louis VII., the present king (whose daughter Prince Henry had married), these unnatural sons repeatedly attempted the overthrow of their father. In one of these attempts, in 1173, they were aided by William, King of Scotland. It was just at this time that King Henry, to propitiate divine favor, performed his penance at the tomb of a Becket. King William was captured the very day the royal penance nal jurors ceasing to be special witnesses, though they still made use of their personal knowledge of the tacts in making up a verdict, and the added wit- nesses ceasing to be jurors. From this time witnesses simply gave testimony, and the jurors decided whether it was sufficiently grave to warrant an indict- ment of the accused. This is our modern Grand Jury . Henry II. restored the King’s Court. After the Great Charter this court w as divided into three distinct courts, the King’s Bench, Exchequer and Common Pleas , which in the reign ol Edward I. came to have distinct judges. On account of the cor- ruption that gradually crept into the Circuit Courts established by Henry, he authorized an appeal from their decisions to the King in Council, thus forming a Court of Appeals , from w hich has sprung the Privy Council , now an impor- tant element in the government. t Though Wager of Battle was abolished by the Catholic Council, the Eng> lish Statute authoriz ng it was not repealed, and it still remained a legal form of trial, occasionally resorted to, especially while the age of Chivalry lasted. The last instance of its use in England is of comparatively modern date. In 3817, reign of George III., a joung maid was believed to have been murdered by ore Abraham Thompson, who, in an appeal, claimed his right to Wager of Battle, which the court allowed. He challenged the brother of the maid to mortal combat, but the latter refusing to fight, the accused man, in accordance with the old statute, was at once set at liberty. But the next year the law of Single Combat was stricken from the Statute Book. HENRY II. 53 was completed, and was not released until he consented to acknowledge himself a vassal of the English crown. It was on this acknowledgment that Edward I., after- wards based his claim to the sovereignty of Scotland. In their last attempt, Henry was compelled to submit to the most humiliating terms. After the treaty of peace was signed, the king, who was sick in bed, asked to see the list of rebels he had agreed to pardon, and the first name that met his eye was that of John, his youngest and his favorite son. He turned his face to the wall, heart-broken, saying, "Now let the world go as it will, I care for nothing more.” He died soon after, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Richard. Richard I., 1189 to 1199 — 10 years. Plantagenet. Slaughter of Jews. Richard’s inauguration took place in the midst of a cruel slaughter of Jews. They had come to the coronation with rich gifts to propitiate the royal favor. A cry having gone forth that the king had decreed their death, they were beset by an ignorant and blood-thirsty rabble. Blood once shed, passions once inflamed, these hated but helpless people were mercilessly slaughtered, and their dwellings burned, throughout the city. As the news spread from town to town, the same terrible scenes were enacted, the same horrible butchery of innocent people. At York, five hundred Jews, with their families, took refuge in the Castle, which was speedily surrounded by an armed force. The Jews vainly offered their wealth as a ran- som for their lives. Having no hope of mercy, they plunged their daggers into the bodies of their own wives and children, rather than see them fall into the 54 RICHARD I. hands of their infuriated enemies. Richard had accepted their gifts, but, though he issued a proclama- tion in their favor, he took no adequate measures for their protection. Richard in the Holy Land. The Christian nations were preparing for the third Crusade. Richard and Philip of France arranged to go in company, at the head of their forces. To raise sufficient money for his outfit, Richard freely offered for sale the lands of the crown, besides titles, offices, and pardons. At the rebuke of one of his friends, on account of his wholesale disposal of crown property, he is said to have exclaimed, " I would sell London, if I could find a purchaser.” His career in the Holy Land is full of the stirring incidents of battle and adventure. He captured Acre and defeated Saladin, the great Saracen, at Ascalon. Philip, jealous of Richard’s grooving fame, abandoned the Crusade and returned to France. John, Richard’s brother, probably instigated by Philip, usurped the government of England, and w^as planning to seize the crown, when Richard, alarmed for the safety of his kingdom, prepared to return home. Effecting a treaty with Saladin, by which pilgrims could visit the Holy Sepulchre unmolested, Richard reluctantly turned his back upon Jerusalem, the goal of many hopes, whose walls were, indeed, in sight, but within which he was destined never to enter. Richard a Captive in the Tyrol. Being wrecked in the Adriatic, and attempting to make his way overland to England to escape the cruisers of Philip, ho fell into the hands of his enemy, the Emperor of Ger- many. After lying a captive for more than a year, in RICHARD I. 55 the Tyrol, lie was released on the payment by the Eng- lish people of one hundred thousand marks, as ransom. The English people were reduced to the greatest dis- tress to raise the money, the churches even melting down their plate. Richard returned, in 1194, after an absence of four years. "Take care of yourself,” wrote Philip to John, who hastened to leave the country. But returning at Richard’s command, he confessed on his knees his traitorous designs, and humbly asked for pardon. Said Lion Heart with characteristic generos- ity, "I hope I shall as easily forget his ingratitude, as he will, my forbearance.” War with France and Death of Richard. Richard remained in England a few months, and then crossed the Channel to wage war with Philip. Learning that the Viscount of Limoges, one of his vassals, had found hidden treasure in one of his fields, Richard demanded its surrender, under the common law that made treasure- trove the property of the Crown. The demand was refused, and Richard at once besieged the Viscount in his castle of Chalus. During the siege he received a mortal wound, and died, as he had lived, in armor. Though ten years' king of England, he had spent less than one in his kingdom. Character of Richard I. Richard the Lion Heart was a valiant and romantic knight, who loved tilts and tournaments better than royal courts, daring deeds on hard-fought battle-fields, than the irksome cares and dry details of government. His very name, embalmed iu song and story, has become a synonym for Chiv- alry. In Richard, the king was subordinate to the knight, and since he made so poor a king, it would, 56 RICHARD I. doubtless, please the young who may read this book, could we represent him as, at least, a model knight, famous for humanity and true nobility, as well as match- less valor. But beneath Richard’s iron armor there beat a hard, cold, selfish heart. Though fearless of danger and mighty in battle, courteous to a gallant enemy and generous to a fallen foe, a skilled musician and familiar with the songs of the Troubadours, Rich- ard was brutal and unscrupulous, and stained his knightly honor by many a dark and cruel deed. He cared little for the happiness or welfare of his people, the power to gratify an inordinate love of military glory and daring adventure being the limit of his am- bition. Though dazzled by his brilliant personal quali- ties, and proud of his world-wide renown, England mingled a sense of relief with a sigh of regret, when her roving soldier-king, whose genius had both impov- erished and glorified her, rested forever at Fontevrault. John., 1199 to 1216 — 17 years. Plantagenet. Character of John. John, the craven-heart, was as base and cowardly, as Richard the Lion Heart was gen- erous and knightly. He had, indeed, a brazen bold- ness in the midst of safety, but it quickly vanished at the presence of danger. Though grossly impious in his treatment of the sacred rites of the church, he was childishly superstitious, wearing charms and relics about his person as a safeguard against evil. Other English kings have been corrupt, but there is no king in all the list so basely licentious as he. JOHX. 57 Loss of Possessions in France. He is generally believ- ed to have murdered, with his own hand, his nephew Arthur, a boy of fifteen and the rightful heir to the throne, and to have kept Eleanor, sister to Arthur, in close confinement, till she wasted away and died. In retaliation for his treatment of Arthur, he was stripped of all his possessions on the continent by the king of France, and was ever after called Lackland. To recover them, he raised a large army and invaded the territories of France. When the opposing armies were on the eve of battle, John proposed peace, and ignominiously fled to England in the very midst of negotiations. John’s Quarrel with the Pope. John quarrelled with the pope about the appointment of an Archbishop of Canterbury. He had secured the election, by the monks, of John de Gray, but Pope Innocent III. appointed Stephen Langton. The monks, submitting to the decision of their superior and recognizing Langton, were turned out of doors and reduced to beggary by the enraged tyrant. The Papal Interdict. He made light of the papal threat to lay the kingdom under an Interdict, and when it fell, in 1208, with all its horrors, upon the land, he alone seemed insensible to the blow. The pope waited one year, and then issued against John, who still remained obdurate, a bull of excommunication. Even this had no terrors for John, and in about three years more was launched against him the last and crowning 58 JOHN. decree of the church, that of Deposition. * Philip of Prance was specially commissioned with the execution of this final decree. John’s Submission to the Pope. For a while John continued defiant. But when Philip had assembled a great army ready for invasion, with seventeen hundred ships for its transportation across the channel, and the elements of opposition at home were beginning to gather like a dark cloud about him, his bravado forsook him, and his submission to the pope was as abject and pitiful as it was sudden and complete. Said William the Conqueror, when Pope Gregory VII. called on him to do fealty for his realm, "Fealty I have never willed to do, nor do I will to do it now. I have never promised it, nor do I find that my prede- cessors did it to yours.” Every true Englishman expe- rienced a share of the national shame, when the degen- erate descendant of the Conqueror, on his knees, at the feet of the papal legate, acknowledged himself a vassal, and his kingdom a fief of the Papacy. It was *It is difficult to realize at this day the horrors of the Papal Interdict. To the people, it was nothing less than the curse of God. All England was at once plunged into deepest gloom, for the blessings and benedictions of religion were suddenly withdrawn from all except the unconscious infant and the dying. For four long years it was as though a pestilence had swept over the land. The churches were closed, and their bells hung motionless in the belfries. “ No knell was tolled for the dead ; for the dead remained unburied. No merry peals welcomed the bridal procession; for no couple could be joined in wedlock.” Excommunication adds but little to the miseries entailed by the Interdict, except to the one who suffers it. According to the tenets of the church and universal belief at that age, an excommunicated person was cut off from all hope of Heaven as well as all fellowship in the church on earth. The decree of Deposition absolved the people from their allegiance, the throne being declared vacant. It was made lawful and Christian for any man to kill a deposed king. JOHN. 59 the first And the last time, in its history of a thousand years, that a king of England surrendered to a foreign potentate the independence of his country. Magna Cliarta, A.D. 1215. With John’s submission, the papal decrees were recalled, and the French inva- sion stayed. Elated at the ease with which he had escaped the threatened danger, and relying on the sup- port of the pope, whose servant he had become, John next undertook to punish the barons for refusing to join him in a fresh war with France. Three years of royal outrage brought affairs to a crisis. A league, formed in secret among the barons, culminated in a general muster of their forces, and John suddenly found him- self face to face with all England in aims. At a conference on an island in the Thames, John was forced to assent to the terms of the barons, and the next day, in the valley of Runnymede, signed the Magna Charta, the most remarkable instrument known in English history. It was not entirely new. Some of its most important principles can be traced to Anglo- Saxon origin, having been set aside by the Norman conquest. Others were brought from the reigns of the Henries, but all were made more broad and liberal and couched in more explicit terms. The two most impor- tant sections run as follows : — Section 45. " No freeman shall be taken, or disseized, or outlawed, or banished, or anywise injured, nor will we pass upon him, nor send upon him, unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land.” Section 4G. "We will sell to no man, we will not deny or delay to any man, right or justice.” GO JOHN. Ill other sections, the royal prerogative was limited and defined ; the rights of the church guaranteed ; the Feudal system relieved of some of its grievances ; unlawful fines and punishments forbidden ; the free disposal of personal property by will allowed ; the means of obtaining a livelihood, such as the tools of the mechanic and the goods of the merchant, were exempt from fine or forfeiture for crime ; fines were to be pro- portioned to the offence ; the circuit courts brought into the neighborhood of all, and the liberties and cus- toms of free towns confirmed. So far only freemen were benefited. The larger part of the people of England were serfs, and but two sections related directly to them. In one of these, agricultural implements were exempt from fine or for- feiture on account of crime, and in the other, guardians were charged, in the management of the property of their wards, " to make no destruction or waste of the men and things .” Such is a partial notice of the Great Charter, called by Hallam "the keystone of English liberty.” The people of England did not realize, for hundreds of years to come, all the benefits conferred by the Great Char- ter. Its provisions were often ignored and openly trod- den under foot by John and his successors, but the great principles of justice and liberty which they embodied Avere never forgotten by the people. They became, amidst the oppressions of after times, the centres around which clustered national hopes, the goal towards which were directed national efforts. They were so many beacon lights in an almost shoreless sea of mis- rule, guiding an oppressed people in their struggle for JOHN. 61 freedom. They are to-day the basis and the bulwark of those rights and immunities that make England and America the most free and happy countries on the earth. Patriotism of the Bishops of England. The rest of John’s ignoble history is soon told. He surround- ed himself Avith foreign soldiers, for the double pur- pose of taking vengeance on the barons, aa t 1io had been the authors, and A\ 7 ere now the guardians, of the Char- ter, and of overthroAving the Charter itself. JohnAA r as assisted by the pope, who as over-lord of England an- nulled the Charter, and excommunicated all Avho sus- tained it. The patriotism of Archbishop Langton and most of the bishops of the English church, at this period, should never be forgotten. Langton himself became the leader of the barons in their opposition to the tyranny of John and the assumptions of the pope, lie first presented to them, at a preliminary meeting, the charter of Henry I., as a basis for their demands. The bishops and the barons stood side by side at Kunnymede, alike indifferent to the execrations of the king and the anathemas of the pope. In the midst of the contest, John suddenly died. Overtaken by the incoming tide, as he Avas crossing a treacherous place by the sea-side, called the Wash, his treasure and material Avere SAvept aAvay, and his army thrown into confusion. Vexation and exposure, or, as some think, poison administered by a monk at the abbey Avliere John found shelter, tlireAV him into a fever, of Avhich he died in a few days. His son Henry, a youth of ten years, was at once croAA r ned King of England. 62 HENRY III. -Henry III., 1216 to 1272 — 56 Years. Plantagenet. The Regency. The Earl of Pembroke was appointed Regent, and under his vigorous rule England was soon reduced to order. Louis, a prince of France, who, in the midst of the struggle with John, had been invited by the barons to assume the English crown, soon left the country with all his followers. The Charter was confirmed, and the severities of the forest laws miti- gated, by the substitution of tine and imprisonment, instead of mutilation and death, for killing the king’s deer. Unfortunately, in 1219, the able Pembroke died, and England quickly relapsed into a state of disorder. Henry had placed foreigners in all the principal offices of the state, to the great disgust of his own people. The pope, too, as over-lord of England, had filled the vacant livings with foreign priests, and had even de- manded a share in the government. The king and Hubert de Burgh, the new Regent, were at variance with each other, and both at times with the pope. But in one thing king and pope were always agreed, in the mutual endeavor to wring from the poverty-stricken people their last farthing. Redress, the Condition of a Yote of Supplies. In 1225, a great council was summoned to consider the question of supplies to the crown. A grant was made conditioned on a new confirmation of the Charter. From this time the practice prevailed of making a con- firmation of the Charter, or a redress of grievances, the condition of a vote of money to the crown. Some of the most precious rights now enjoyed by the English people were retained or acquired in this way. HENRY III. 63 Henry’s Attempt to Overthrow the Charter, In 1227, Henry, being twenty-two years of age, took the reins of government into his own hands. He inaugu- rated his full assumption of power by an attempt, in the following declaration, to make the Great Charter subordinate to the royal prerogative : " Whenever and wherever, and as often as it may be our pleasure, we may declare, interpret, enlarge or diminish the aforesaid statutes, and their several parts, by our own free will, and as to us shall seem expedient for the security of us and our land.” This declaration was the key-note to Henry’s policy for forty years, while the barons, on account of feuds among themselves, stood idly by. The history of the whole period is but a dreary and monotonous record of royal recklessness and folly, of royal beggary and extor- tion. The king, when in need of money, would swear on his honor as 46 a man, a Christian, a knight, and a king,” to preserve inviolate the provisions of the Char- ter, and the next moment, when his wants had been supplied, trample them, in mere wantonness, under his feet. Under the royal influence, even the courts of justice became but a legalized system of extortion and robbery, the judges on the circuits compounding felonies and selling justice to the highest bidder. Rebellion of the Barons. In 1258, a crisis was reached. There had been a failure in the crops, and a famine was imminent. Corn sent from Germany to relieve the general distress, was seized and sold by the king ; and being still in want, he summoned the barons to a great council at Westminster. Aroused by outrage and united at last, they obeyed the summons ; 64 HENRY III. but they came at the head of their men-at-arms. As Henry entered the great hall at Westminster and looked upon the stern array of mail-clad barons, whose clank- ing swords alone broke the stillness, he asked in the sud- denness of his alarm, "Am I a prisoner?” "No, you are our sovereign,” was the answer ; "but your foreign favorites and your prodigality have brought misery upon the realm, and we demand that you confer authority upon those who are able and willing to redress the grievances of the public.” Henry was powerless to resist, and consented to a commission of twenty-four barons, one-half to be appointed by himself, empowered to act in behalf of the realm. But all attempts at a permanent settlement failed, and both parties finally prepared for war. In 1264, the opposing armies met on the downs of Lewes. The royal army was defeated, and the king and liis gallant son, Prince Edward, taken prisoners. Simon de Montfort and the House of Commons, A. D. 1265. The kingdom was now at the disposal of the barons. The ablest man among them was Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, whose brief but bril- liant career furnishes the one bright page in the black record of Henry’s reign. In a Parliament, summoned by Montfort, at Westminster, in 1265, he invited rep- resentatives of the people, two knights from each county, two citizens from each city, and two burgesses from each borough (anciently a community of ten families, now a town) to take their seats side by side with prelates and barons. This was the first House of Commons. As from the tyranny of John sprang the Great Charter, the corner-stone of English liberty, so IIENRY III. 65 from the oppressions of Henry rose the House of Com- mons, its bulwark and defence. Evesham. Prince Edward, having escaped from cap- tivity, quickly assembled the royal forces, won the battle of Evesham, and placed the liberated king once more on the throne. Though the barons were beaten, and the noble de Montfort slain, no attempt was made to undo their one great work, the establishment of the right of the people to representation in Parliament. Order being restored, Prince Edward went on a Cru- sade, the last in the series, in 1270. In two years Henry died, and the same day the nobles took the oath of fealty to the absent Prince. In two years more, King Edward, having made a ten years’ truce with the Saracens, returned to England, and was formally crowned at Westminster. Edward I. 1272 to 1307 — 35 years. Plantagenet. Conquest of Wales. Llewellyn, Prince of Wales, had repeatedly refused to acknowledge Edward as his feudal superior. In 1277, an English army was sent into Wales, and the Prince, deserted by most of his chieftains, was compelled to sue for peace and accept Edward’s terms, the surrender of the sovereignty of his country. In 1282, the Welsh people, fired by patriot bards, whose stirring songs had kept alive in their hearts the love of liberty, rose in rebellion against their English rulers. Edward once more invaded the country at the head of an irresistible force, and Llew- ellyn being early slain in a skirmish, the Welsh chief- tains quietly submitted and the country was formally annexed to England. Edward wisely gave the Welsh 66 EDWARD I. people the English system of courts and laws, and for n hundred years, with a single exception, they remained at peace. Edward’s queen, who had accompanied him on the march, gave birth, in the castle of Caernarvon, to a son, some twenty years afterwards called Prince of Wales, a title still given to the eldest son of the reign- ing sovereign. Returning to England, Edward devoted himself to the administration of the government. He secured the adoption of a code of wise and wholesome laws,* thereby winning in history the name of the Eng- lish Justinian. Arbitrary Taxation Forbidden. By far the most important of these laws . was . parsed in the year 1297, when by excessive and arbitrary taxatibn, Edward had provoked a rebellious confederation of the barons. He was compelled to assent to a new confirmation of the charter, and the addition of a clause forbidding the king to tax the people without the consent of Parlia- ment. Edward not only made wise laws, but he greatly improved the courts, f rendering the adminis- tration of justice more sure and equal. * Among these were laws basing more thoroughly than ever the defence of the kingdom on an armed militia, ever at the immediate call of the king; en- suring the freedom of elections against menace or forcible interference; for- bidding judges and officers receiving rewards for official services, lawyers using deceit to beguile the court, persons uttering slanders and jurors render- ing a false verdict; requiring the gates of walled towns to be kept shut from sunset to sunrise, and a watch to be set; ordering every man to cut away the bushes and undergrowth on his own land, two hundred feet on each side of the principal roads, to make an ambush by highwaymen difficult; and a statute for London, forbidding armed men to appear in the streets, or taverns to sell ale or beer, after Curfew. t The ecclesiastical courts were confined to purely spiritual matters. The county court was undisturbed, but by the appointment of “ Justices of the Peace,” as local magistrates, its business was somewhat limited, and the people in the rural districts better accommodated. From the Court of Appeal sprang the Court of Chancery, with the Chancellor at the head, a court gov. EDWARD I. 67 Beginning of the Wars with Scotland. The King of Scotland having died, thirteen claimants appeared for the vacant throne, of whom Iiobert Bruce and John Baliol were the most prominent. Unable to settle peacefully the question of their claims, it was referred, in 1291, to the arbitration of Edward of England. Ed- ward decided in favor of Baliol, on condition that the latter should acknowledge himself a vassal of the Eng- lish crown. Edward’s claim to superiority was based on the fact already stated on a previous page, that Wil- liam, a Scottish king in the time of Henry II., being taken in battle, was held in captivity until he acknowd- edged the King of England as his feudal superior. Baliol received the kingdom at the hands of Edward, but soon rebelled against the humiliations imposed upon him, and thence arose those fierce and bloody wars between the two countries, that continued through successive reigns to desolate the border lands of both. The earlier ballad and legend, wild and weird like the Scotch character itself, and the later tale and song with their warp of fact and woof of fiction, have involved the whole, story of the struggle between England and Scotland in the fascinations of romance. * Battle of Dunbar. In the battle of Dunbar, in 1296, the Scots suffered a signal defeat. Edinburgh was be- sieged, Sterling taken, and finally, at Montrose Abbey, Baliol surrendered into Edward’s hands all right and title to the kingdom of Scotland. The Scottish kings were wont to be crowned at Scone, on a fragment of erned by the principles of equity, and not common law, and designed to have jurisdiction, when the technicalities of law, and the inability of the other courts to vary from fixed methods of procedure, prevented the administration of exact justice. 68 EDWARD I. rock, called the Stone of Destiny. There was a Scotc 1 tradition that wherever that stone might be, there the Scots would reign. By Edward’s order, it was taken to Westminster Abbey, then just completed, and placed beneath the Coronation Chair, in which all the kings of England are crowned. William Wallace. But Scotland found a champion in the patriot William Wallace. Mustering an army of stalwart peasants, he put to flight the English knights at Stirling. Castle after castle fell into his hands, until all Scotland was once more free from English rule. He pushed his victorious arms across the border and ravaged the north of England. The war-like Edward, who had been abroad while these events were occur- ring, now returned, and putting himself at the head of a large force, brought Wallace to bay at Falkirk, in 1298. The latter had been appointed Guardian of the Realm of Scotland, but proud Scottish lords, scorning to serve under one of humble birth, forsook, if they did not betray him, at Falkirk, and Wallace was utterly defeated. For seven years, outlawed, and with a price upon his head, hiding among his native mountains, he waged a pitiless war on the English, and w r as then basely betrayed by a Scotch noble. He was taken, in chains, to London, and there tried as a traitor, with a crown of oak leaves upon his head, to indicate that he w^as king of outlaws. Being condemned to death, he was tortured and executed in the most horrible manner. From lowland moor to highland glen, from peasant cot to lordly castle, sped the story of his cruel death. What Wal- lace living failed to do, Wallace dead achieved. Scotch EDWARD I. 69 jealousies died. The fierce resentment that united all hearts in a stern resolve to avenge his cruel death, united them in the nobler resolve to free their country from the hated English yoke. Robert Bruce. In four months all the clans were in arms under their second champion, Robert Bruce. Edward, bowed with years, but resolute still, once more took the field. But he sank under exertion and excitement, and died just as his army, at Burgh-on- Sands, came in sight of the blue hills of Scotland. In his dying moments he enjoined upon his son to prosecute the war with vigor, and even desired that his dead body should be carried at the head of the army as it marched. Character of Edward I. Edward I. was a wise legis- lator, a skilful soldier, and a gallant knight. Though a despot in disposition, and doggedly tenacious of the royal prerogative, he was just and even generous to law-abiding subjects. To others he was severe and even cruel. The Jews tampered with the coinage, and three hundred of the guilty died on the scaffold ; and finally, in 1290, the whole Jewish people, number- ing sixteen thousand souls, were banished from the realm. Ilis natural sternness was tempered by gentle- ness and affection in his domestic relations, but he would not shield from the consequences of his crime, even his own son, who once went to prison like a com- mon felon. Under the pressure of want, Edward at one time levied money contrary to the Charter ; but, convinced of his error, he acknowledged it in tears, in the presence of his Parliament, and reformed. In this reign Parliaments became more regular and met per- 70 EDWARD II. manently at Westminster, but as yet the Commons had no voice in matters of legislation, simply voting money. Edward II., 1307 to 1327 — 20 Tears. Plantagenet. Character of Edward II. Edward II. was weak, though childishly wilful, and utterly destitute of the knightly qualities that shone so brightly in his father’s character. He had neither vigor nor virtue enough, to be just himself, or to enforce justice among his people; and much less did he rise even to a faint conception of the one grand purpose of his father’s life, the extension of English dominion over the whole island. He had but a single aim, indulgence in sensual pleasures. Piers Gaveston. The first five years of Edward’s reign were spent in contentions with his barons, on account of one Piers Gaveston, a dissolute Gascon knight, to whose corrupting influence he had wholly sur- rendered himself. One of Edward the First’s dying injunctions to his son was, never to recall the banished Gaveston. This injunction was forgotten by the son, the moment the father was dead ; and the recalled favorite acquired, besides his old influence over Ed- ward, entire control of the government. But it was Gaveston’s insolent manners, and his stinging witticisms on the barons, quite as much as his assumption of authority, that won for him their cordial hatred. Twice by force of arms they compelled him to leave the king- dom, and twice the infatuated king recalled him. He was seized by the barons on his re-appearance in 1312, and thrown into Warwick Castle, whose lord he had nick-named the " Black Dog of the Wood.” After a EDWARD II. 71 form cf trial, he was taken to Blacklow Ilill, a little rise of giound a short distance from the castle, near the river Avon, and there beheaded. The quarrel between the king and the barons over the worthless knight is only important as out of it came an advance in constitutional liberty. Parliament established the right to investigate the public expendi- tures and punish bad advisers of the king. Bannockburn, A. D. 1311. While Edward and the barons were wasting their time in petty strife, the Scots under Bruce were gaining their independence. Linlithgow, Roxburgh, Ediubunrh and Perth succcs- sively fell into their hands. * Stirling Castle was besieged, and its governor, under the pressure of want, agreed to surrender on a certain day, the Feast of St. John, if not relieved by the Eng- lish. Edward, roused from his lethargy by the critical state of affairs at Stirling, hastily gathered an army of a hundred thousand men and pressed forward to its relief. lie was met at Bannockburn by Bruce, at the head of thirty thousand Scots. In the battle that followed, the English suffered the most disastrous defeat, considering the disparity of the forces engaged, to be found in the history of English warfare. Edward’s treasure, and all the vast material ♦The accounts of the 6ieges of castles held by English garrisons are full of romantic interest. Linlithgow was taken somewhat after the manner of ancient Troy. A Scotch peasant had been in the habit of supplying the gar- rison with forage. lie came one day with a load of hay in which Scotch sol- diers were concealed. Having crossed the drawbridge, he placed his load in such a position that the gates could not be shut. The concealed soldiers, sud- denly appearing, held the gates until reinforcements lying in ambush camo lip, and the garrison was overpowered. 72 EDWARD II. of his army, fell into the hands of Bruce, while his panic-stricken soldiers were butchered without mercy. The Scots again ravaged the northern counties. Fresh armies were raised by the English, but little was accomplished. After the battle of Bannockburn, Edward fell under the influence of two new favorites, the Spencers, father and son. It is but the story of Gaveston repeated, a brief use and abuse of power, a short but desperate struggle with the enraged barons, and a violent death at their hands. Queen Isabella in France. In 1325, the year before the fall of the Spencers, Queen Isabella had been sent by Edward to the court of her brother, Charles IV. of France, to arrange terms of peace be- tween the two kings. She accomplished her mission in a manner more favorable to France than to England, but declined to return at Edward's earnest entreaty, pleading her fear of the Spencers. She had little love for her husband, and had formed a violent attachment for Roger Mortimer, who had been condemned to the Tower on account of his enmity to the Spencers, but had escaped to France. He became the chief officer in Isabella’s household. While abroad, the Queen, wdio was accompanied by her son Edward, Prince of Wales, visited the Court of William, Count of Hainault, and while there arranged a marriage contract between the Prince and Philippa, daughter of the Count. Deposition and Death of Edward. In 1326, with a small force furnished by the Count, Isabella returned to England, and at once raised the standard of revolt, ostensibly to overthrow the Spencers, but in fact to EDWARD II. 73 gain for herself and Mortimer the supreme power. She was hailed as a deliverer by all classes, and soon had an overwhelming force at her command. The king, deserted and helpless, embarked for the Isle of Lundy, oif Bristol Channel, but was driven upon the Welsh coast and landed at Swansea. lie soon surrendered himself to his enemies, and was hurried like a felon from place to place, and finally lodged in Berkeley Castle. Parliament, in 1327, declared the throne to be vacant: and thus was established the parliamentary right to de- pose the king. The young prince was crowned under the title of Edward III. To satisfy the feigned scruples of Isabella, Parliament extorted from the captive king a formal abdication of the throne. Edward never left Berkeley Castle. Its gloomy walls one autumn night rang with heart-rending shrieks, and the next day the distorted features of the dead king told only too plainly the tale of his cruel death. A few years after this, Mortimer, when about to expiate his crimes on the gallows, confessed that he sent two hired assassins to murder the hapless king. — Edward III., 1327 to 1377 —50 years. Plantagenet. The Regency. Edward III. became a powerful monarch, and his reign was one of the longest and most brilliant in the history of England. Being crowned at the early age of fourteen, a Council of Regency, composed of twelve principal lords, was appointed to administer the government during the minority. But this Council being controlled by Queen 74 EDWAUI) III. Isabella and Mortimer, the real power still remained in their hands. Treaty of Northampton. The Scots under James, Earl of Douglas, continued their ravages across the border, and the young king raised an army and marched against them. But the light-armed and well- mounted Scots, skilfully avoiding battle and eluding pursuit, forced Edward to retire for want of supplies. Finally, in 1328, by the Treaty of Northampton, the independence of Scotland was acknowledged. Fall of Isabella and Mortimer. Edward, now eighteen years of age, resolved to take the reins of government into his own hands. Isabella and Morti- ce mer occupied a strong castle at Nottingham. Every night the keys of the castle gates were brought to the bed-side of the suspicious queen, while guards were stationed at every avenue of approach. Under the guidance of the governor, a small but trusty band of Edward’s friends entered the castle at night, through a subterranean passage, and being joined by Edward himself, took its garrison completely by surprise. Mortimer was seized and borne away , the queen piteously entreating her son "to spare her gentle Mortimer.” From this moment, Edward was king in fact as well as name. lie summoned a Parliament, before whom Mortimer was brought charged with various offences, including the murder of Edward II. He was pro- nounced guilty and hanged on an elm at Tyburn, in 1330, while Queen Isabella was consigned to life-long imprisonment in Castle Risings. She lingered twenty- seven years in hopeless captivity, visited once a j^ear by her son, the king. q Bast OF IP RAW © 31 and Parts of the Adjacent countries SCALE, or Ml LES ^ EDWARD III. 75 Halidon Hill. Robert Bruce, the heroic old king of Scotland, died in 1321), and the crown descended to David his son, then but seven years of age. His- tory now repeats itself. Edward Baliol, son of John Baliol who figured in the reign of the first Edward, asserted his right to the sovereign power, as his father had done before him. Defeating the forces of Bruce, near Perth, he seized the powder, while Bruce fled to France. To gain the support of Edward of England, he, too, agreed to reign as a vassal of the English crown. The indignant Scots sprang to arms and drove him from the kingdom. o After a show of reluctance, on account of the treaty still in force between the two countries, Edward pronounced in favor of Baliol. Raising a large army, he marched into Scotland, and, by one great battle at Halidon Ilill, in 1333, placed Baliol again upon the throne, and compelled Bruce once more to take refuge in France. The very name of Baliol was hateful to the Scots, and upon the with- drawal of the English army, he was a second time driven from the kingdom. The “ Hundred Years’ War 55 with France. The cause of Bruce had been warmly supported by the King of France, and Edward, convinced that English supremacy in Scotland could never be made secure, so long as the ships and soldiers of France were at the call of the Scots, resolved to strike a decisive blow at France herself. Two convenient pretexts were at hand, the encroachments of the French qn the English possessions on the continent, and the claim of Ed- ward to the French throne itself. 76 EDWARD III. The war that now began between England and France is known as the 6 4 Hundred Years’ War,” because, with intervals of peace, it continued for a hundred years. * Though English kings won a world-wide renown, and English soldiers covered themselves with glory, during its progress, it ended in the loss to the English people of all their possessions in France, except Calais. Cressy, A. D. 1316. The first conflicts were inde- cisive. Edward gained a great naval victory over the French, off Sluys, in the English Channel. Landing some years afterwards on the French coast, he won the famous field of Cressy. It was in this battle that Ed- ward, Prince of Wales, called the Black Prince, from the color of his armor, bravely won his spurs, entering upon a career that, for brilliancy of achievement and the splendid exhibition of knightly qualities, finds no paral- lel in the annals of chivalry. Calais. Five days after the battle of Cressy, Ed- ward laid siege to Calais, a strongly fortified town on the seaboard, opposite the cliffs of Dover, which French privateers had long made their haunt, while lying in wait for unguarded English traders. In * The ground of Edward’s claim will be seen in the following statement:— Philip IV., predecessor of the present King Charles IV., of France, left three sons and a daughter, Isabella, who became the wife of Edward II. of England. The daughter was the youngest. The sons left only female issue, while the daughter left male issue, Edward III. of England. Edward was thus the near- est male heir. It was maintained by the French that Edward’s claim was barred by the Salic law, a law that had long prevailed in France, forbidding female succession. Edward sought to evade the force of this law by asserting that, though a female could not inherit the power, she could transmit it to her male descendants. To this the French replied that a female could not trans- mit a right she did not herself possess. The French practice was in strict accordance with their theory, for on the death of Philip’s sons, his heirs direct being females, or the issue of females, were passed over, and the crown was given, without opposition, to Charles, a nephew of Philip. EDWAKD III. 77 twelve mouths it was starved into surrender, but the fortitude of its inhabitants, and the heroism of the im- mortal six, who offered their lives as a ransom for the people, will challenge the admiration of all ages. Though Edward’s army had been greatly wasted during the siege, and lie had threatened to put the whole city to the sword, on account of its obstinate defence, lie promised, at last, to spare the lives of its inhabitants, if six principal citizens, bare-headed, barefooted, and with halters about their necks, would bring to him the keys of the town and castle, and deliver themselves up to his will. Six noble men offered themselves for the sacrifice. They presented to Edward the keys, and were ordered to instant death. But Edward’s gentle Queen Philippa, falling on her knees before him, begged their lives, and they were spared. Neville’s Cross. The Scots, who were in alliance with France, taking advantage of Edward’s absence, appeared in large force in the north of England, under the command of Bruce, their king. They were de- feated by Philippa (who had not yet joined her husband in France), in the battle of Neville’s Cross, Bruce him- self being taken captive. The exhaustion of an expen- sive foreign war, and the ravages of a fearful plague, called the Black Death, forced Edward to make a tem- porary peace with France. Foictiers, A.D. 1356. But war was renewed in 1355, by the Black Prince, who marched from his Duchy of Aquitaine with a small but well-appointed force, and penetrated to the very heart of France. When about to return laden with spoils, he found him- self opposed, a few miles from the city of Poictiers, by 78 EDWARD III. the French king at the head of an overwhelming army. By a wise choice of ground and a skilful disposition of his little force, he inflicted upon the French host a ter- rible defeat. Among the prisoners was John, the French king, who was brought by the gallant prince to London. Edward now held two captive kings. Bruce was released in 1357, after a period of eleven years, and, by the peace of Bretigny, in 1360, John was ran- somed for three million gold crowns. Failing to raise the ransom money, the chivalric king returned to a life-long captivity. By the same treaty, Edward relin- quished his claim to the French crown, holding his French possessions, no longer as a vassal, but as an independent sovereign.' Up to this period his career had been one of brilliant success. Loss of French Possessions. A few years of peace, and disasters came thick and fast. The Black Prince, broken in health by a fruitless expedition into Spain , returned to England, a mere wreck of his former self ; and the war being renewed by the French king at a favorable time, one after another of the English pos- sessions on the continent was wrested away, until, in 1374, nothing remained but Calais, Bordeaux and Bayonne. Spanish fleets had all but destroyed the navy of England, and swept the seas of her commerce. Internal Disorder. At home were misrule and dis- content. Edward’s noble consort, Philippa, having died, the enfeebled old king fell under the influence of an infamous favorite, one Alice Perrers. John, Duke of Lancaster, one of the king’s sons, having got control of the government, the people were ground down with taxes, the courts of justice overawed, and the elections EDWARD III. 79 corrupted. The Catholic church at this time owned about one-third of the real estate of England, and the taxes for church purposes exceeded all other taxes put together. Although more money was annually raised in England for the pope than for the king himself, the former had demanded the payment of the tribute money, 1000 marks a year, promised by John when lie made England a fief of the Papacy, now in arrears thirty- three years. The tJood Parliament. The Good Parliament, sum- moned by Edward to consider this claim, promptly rejected it, and then proceeded to reform the many abuses that had crept into the affairs of the state. It was nobly supported by the Black Prince, who, though slowly dying with disease, devoted his last remaining energies to the work of reform. Officers of the crown were impeached and removed, and the Duke of Lan- caster, the source of many of the prevalent abuses, was forced to retire. The death of the Black Prince, closely followed by the return of the Duke to power, and the election of a new Parliament in his interest, brought the work of reform to a sudden close. John Wickliffe. In one thing the Duke had been in harmony with the Good Parliament and the people, in resisting the demands of the pope. He had a power- ful ally in John Wickliffe, an Oxford professor, who, beginning with a denunciation of the exactions and corruptions of the Church of Borne, ended, as we shall see in the next reign, in a bold attack on its doctrines, thus inaugurating the first Deformation. There was little in common between the Duke of Lancaster and John TTickliffe, the former being selfish and unscrupu- 80 EDWARD III. lous, caring little for the corruptions of the Church, hut coveting its wealth ; the latter, of exalted purity of character, opposing the Church on account of its abuses and assumptions. Lancaster is said to have planned a sweeping confiscation of church property. The English Language. There are several impor- tant landmarks in the reign of Edward III. The Anglo-Saxon had always been the language of the peasantry, Latin the language of business and the graver literature, and French the language of society and the lighter literature. During this reign a marked change took place. The Anglo-Saxon, with an admix- ture of both Latin and French, was slowly becom- ing the national tongue. The writings of Wickliffe, sent broadcast over the land, gave both shape and impetus to the movement. Wickliffe may be called the morning star of English prose, as Chaucer has been of English poetry. Towards the close of Edward’s reign, the English language was taught in the schools instead of French, and a statute, passed in 1357, required its use in the courts of justice. Even French romances began to be translated into English. The English People. There had always existed feelings of hatred and jealousy among the people of the different races. The native Briton could never forgive his Saxon conqueror, and both alike detested the proud and domineering Norman. The reign of Edward witnessed the blending of these discordant races into one harmonious people. They fought, side by side, at Cressy and Poictiers, and their animosities melted away amidst rejoicings of victory. From that time they looked back with a common pride to a glori- EDWARD III. 81 ous past, and forward with a common hope to a more glorious future. Change in the Methods of Warfare. A change was gradually taking place in the methods of warfare. Hitherto, mail-clad knights had been the main reliance in battle, but Edward, following the example of William Wallace at Falkirk, had won his most brilliant cam- paigns with English archers. At Cressy and Poictiers, the knights of France were first thrown into confusion by clouds of arrows sped with unerring aim by English bowmen. It is said that cannon were first used on the battle-field, at Cressy ; but heavy cannon, throwing stones, were used before, for siege purposes. The Two Houses of Parliament. Edward had in- creased the number of towns allowed to send represen- tatives to Parliament, making the latter so large, that it was found necessary to divide it into two distinct bodies, the one composed of lords and bishops, called the House of Lords, and the other, of representatives of towns and counties, called the House of Commons. And thus was perfected the legislative branch of the government. The Witenagemot of the Saxons had developed into the Great Council of the Normans, and that, first into the single Parliament of Earl Simon, and now into its perfected form of two independent Houses. From this moment, the Commons, who had been overawed in the presence of lords and bishops, assumed a more independent character. It is a signi- ficant fact, in this connection, that Edward, forced by his necessities during the French wars, confirmed the Great Charter thirteen times. 82 EDWARD III. Death of Edward. Enfeebled by age, and over- whelmed by the disasters that had befallen him, Ed- ward survived the Black Prince but a year, dying in 1377. His last years were gloomy, and his death peculiarly sad , and a striking commentary on the vanity of human glory. As the end drew near, lie was utterly forsaken. Even Alice Perrers snatched a ring from his unresisting finger, and fled. At the last momenta compassionate priest entered the silent chamber, and held a crucilix before the fast glazing eyes of the dying king. It is difficult to realize, that this is the Edward who was the very prince of that proud race, the Plan- tagenets, the hero of the French wars, and the pride of England. Chivalry was then at its zenith, and Ed- ward’s court had been Chivalry’s capital. Hither gal- lant knights had been wont to gather from all parts of Europe, to mingle in the scenes of Feudal splendor, that constantly dazzled the eyes of the wondering people. But, whether in the friendly lists of the tour- nament, or the deadly shock of battle, Edward’s plume had always been pre-eminent. Richard II., 1377 to 1399 — 22 years. Plantagenet. The Regency. No king ever came to the English throne more heartily welcomed, or left it less regretted, than Richard II. The fact that he was the son of the Black Prince, that mirror of Chivalry and idol of the people, opened all hearts to him. He was handsome, but effeminate, a mere lover of pleasure and royal dis- play. His retinue numbered ten thousand persons, and its passage through the country was dreaded little RICHARD II. 83 less than that of ail invading army. Being hut eleven years of age when he inherited the crown, a regency was appointed. Causes of Wat Tyler’s Rebellion. Four years after his accession, the Peasants’ Revolt, or Wat Tyler’s Re- bellion, broke out. This revolt is worthy of very brief mention, considered alone in the incidents attending it. It had none of the " pomp and circumstance of war,” and was little better than tumultuous gatherings of ill- organized mobs, whose subsidence was as sudden as their uprising. But the social and political questions involved lift it into a plane of grave importance. It was a revolt founded on social distinctions, the begin- ning of an irrepressible conflict between the poor and humble oppressed, and the rich and noble oppressor ; of an antagonism between labor and capital, that, in one form or another, has continued unabated to this day. Emancipation. During the preceding reigns, the serfs had, in various ways, gradually risen to the con- dition of freemen. The work of emancipation had been hastened by the necessities of the lords themselves, who, to maintain the pomp and splendor of Chivalry, expensive even in time of peace, but doubly so in time of war, resorted to every artifice to raise money. It was a ready and productive way, to commute the services of the serfs for their estimated value in money. Edward himself, to raise funds for the French wars, sent agents to all the royal estates to sell to the serfs their freedom. So that by the middle of the fourteenth century, free labor had, to a considerable extent, taken the place of slave labor, and was then abundant and cheap. 84 RICHARD II. The Black Death. In 1348, in the reign of Edward III, a terrible plague, called the Black Death, originat- ing in Asia and traversing the continent of Europe, swept England as with the besom of destruction. One-half its inhabitants were carried off, but it was especially malignant among the lower classes. At its close, labor was scarce and high, and as it naturally sought the best market, in some sections harvests could not be gathered for want of help. The Statute of Laborers. The landowners appeal- ing to Parliament for relief, an Act, called the " Statute of Laborers,” w r as passed, re-establishing the old low price of labor, and compelling the laboring classes to seek employment within the limits of their own par- ishes. This virtually restored the old and odious system of serfdom, creating the most intense discon- tent among the peasantry. They gathered in large numbers at the different centres, to listen to the harangues of their leaders depicting in bitter language the wretched condition of the poor, and the luxurious estate of the rich. By the close of Edward’s reign, the oppressed peasantry were ripe for revolt. The Breaking out of the Rebellion. In the fourth year of Richard’s reign, a tax of one shilling was im- posed on every person in the kingdom, above fifteen years of age. It was not the amount of the tax, but the fact that the poor were taxed as heavily as the rich, that kindled the smouldering spark into a flame of rebellion. The most formidable rising took place in Kent, where a hundred thousand peasants gathered under Wat Tyler, and taking up their line of march for London, poured into the city in a vast disorderly RICHARD II. 85 mass. Many excesses were committed, but the fury of the multitude was chiefly directed against those concerned in the odious tax and previous oppressive legislation. The king, who at first had taken refuge in the Tower, met them by appointment at Mile-end, just out of London. During the conference, Tyler placed his hand on the dagger at his side, and was instantly stricken down by one of the king’s attendants. The lives of the royal party were in imminent peril, for the bows of the enraged insurgents were already bent, when the king, riding hastily forward, exclaimed, " Tyler was a traitor ; I will be your leader.” They quickly gathered about their new and youthful leader, praying for liberty for themselves and their children. This achievement of Richard’s seems almost heroic, and is all the more conspicuous from the long and ignoble career that followed it. Richard professed to yield to their prayers, and thirty clerks were set to work preparing and distributing free papers. The pacified insurgents began to break up and return home. In the meantime the nobles were assembling their forces and hastening to the support of the king. The latter, false to his word, quickly cancelled all the free papers he had issued, and caused the leading rebels in all the towns to be tried and punished. Though the revolts were suppressed and the peasants nominally returned to a state of serfdom, the newly awakened desire for personal liberty could not be extinguished, and the work of emancipation went slow- ly but surely forward, until, in a century and a half, serfdom may be said to have disappeared from England. >4 86 RICHARD II. Wiekliffe and the First Reformation. The Peas- ants’ revolt, charged, as it was, by Romanists, to the seditious teachings of Wiekliffe and his followers, was a serious blow to the reformation.* Wiekliffe was for- saken by his most powerful friends, including the Dukts of Lancaster himself. But there was another reason for this defection, — Wickliffe’s extreme views in regard to some of the tenets of the church. So long as lie merely exposed its corruptions, he was applauded by all classes; but when he assailed its cardinal doctrines, lie lost the sympathy of all good Catholics. It was in this emergency that Wiekliffe displayed the real grand- eur and versatility of his genius. Instead of the scholarly arguments in classic Latin he had hitherto addressed to the great and learned, he now directed his appeals in plain Anglo-Saxon to the masses of the Eng- lish people. Pamphlet after pamphlet against both the doctrines and the practice of the church, issued from * The teachings of some of the leaders, and so the tendency of the times, are clearly indicated in the following sentiments, attributed to John Dali, the “ mad priest of Kent”:— “Good people, things will never go well in Eng- land so long as goods be not in common, an 1 so long as there be villains (simply vassals) and gentlemen. By what right are they, whom we call lords, greater folk than we? On what grounds have they deserved it ? Why do they hold us in serfage? If we all came of the same father and mother, of Adam and Eve, how can they say or prove that they are better than we, if it be not that they make us gain for them, by our toil, what they spend in their pride? They are clothed in their velvet and warm in their furs and their ermines, while we are covered with rags. They have wine and spices and fair bread, and we eat oat-cake and straw and water to drink. They havo leisure and tine houses. We have pain and labor, the rain and the wind in the fields. And yet it is of us and of our toil that these men hold their state.” The following couplet is also attributed to Ball : — “ When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman ? ” It is hardly to be wondered at, that multitudes of ignorant men, bitterly con- scious of their own wretchedness and the sumptuous estate of their masters, both equally undeserved, in their mind3, should enlist in an enterprise that promised to make them all more equal. RICHARD II. 87 his prolific pen, and was sent broadcast over the land. An order of preachers, called the Simple Priests, was instituted to disseminate his doctrines. Such progress was made, that "every other man you met was a Lol- lard,” * to use the bitter language of a careful observer of the times. The crown, at last, came to the aid of the church; WickliiTe was banished from Oxford, and his writings condemned as heretical and ordered to be burned. Retiring to Lutterworth, he devoted his energies to the last and grandest work of his life, the translation of the Bible into English. December 30th, 1384, he had a stroke of paralysis, while attending mass in the parish church, and. passed peacefully away the next day. Otterburn and Chevy Chase. There is little of interest in the foreign relations of this reign. The border lands of both England and Scotland were wasted by hostile incursions. In 1388, occurred the battle of Otterburn, a mere border-fight between two hostile noblemen, Percy and Douglas, and their retain- ers, but made forever memorable by that celebrated ballad, "Chevy Chase.” Chaucer. In the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. lived Chaucer, the “ Morning Star of English poetry,” whose “ Canterbury Tales,” the most famous of his works, is still read with delight. Thirty pilgrims from all classes in society are represented as travelling together from London to Canterbury, to visit the shrine of St. Thomas, and whiling away the tedium of the journey * The name Lollard, derived from the old German lollen or lullen, to sing , was first applied to the Reformers as an epithet of derision, from their prac- tice of singing hymns in their meetings. 88 RICHARD II. by telling stories, which furnish the most accurate picture of the manners and customs of the times that has come down to us. Tyranny of Richard. Richard was in a constant quarrel with his uncles and guardians. When twenty- two years of age, he assumed entire control of the government. After reigning a few years with moder- ation and justice, he became more despotic than any of his predecessors. By a cunningly devised statute, granting him a life income, and placing the legislative power in the hands of a select number of lords and burgesses, Parliament was virtually abolished. Though the king now seemed more secure in the possession of power than ever, his downfall was near at hand. Deposition of Richard. A personal quarrel having arisen between two young noblemen, an appeal was made to 64 wager of battle.” On the day appointed for the contest, and in the presence of the multitude gath- ered to witness it, Richard banished both from the kingdom, and soon after seized the estates, to which one of them, Henry Bolingbroke, his own cousin, had fallen heir. Taking advantage of the absence of the king in Ireland, Henry landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, and raised the standard of revolt. His twenty followers increased to sixty thousand fighting men by the time he reached London. Richard hastened back to England, only to fall into Henry’s hands, sufler dethronement by Act of Parlia- ment, and disappear within the walls of the Tower. With Richard, end the Plantagenet kings, on the whole an able though a tyrannical race. But the worst of these kings were the best for England in the end, RICHARD II. 89 for with intolerable tyranny came rebellion, and ulti- mate relief. Rebellion founded in a just cause does not often end in mere bloodshed and anarchy, but in a permanent advance in justice, liberty, and law. CHAPTER VI House of Lancaster, 1399 to 1161 — 62 years. HENRY IV., Bolingbroke. I HENRY VI. of Windsor. HENRY V. of Monmouth. I Henry IT., 1399 to 1413 — 14 years. Henry’s Title. Henry IT. gained the crown by his prowess. Conscious that his title* was defective, and his possession of power precarious, he sought to win to his support those most powerful elements in the State, the nobility and the church. To the nobility, flushed with pride at the memories of Crcssy and Poio tiers, but burning with shame at the loss of Aquitaine, he held out the gains and the glory of another French campaign. To the church, fully conscious of the steady growth of reformed ideas, especially among the *To explain The four eldest sons of Edward III. were Edward, the Clack Prince; Lionel, Duke of Clarence; John of Gaunt, Duke c f Lancaster; and Edmund, Duke of York. Edmund, Earl of March, was descended from Lionel t he second, and Henry IV'., from John of Gaunt, the third son of Edward III., so that when the eldest branch of the royal family became extinct, as it did at the death of Richard II., son of the Black Prince, the crown belonged of right to the Earl of March, the representative of the second branch. This usurpa- tion of Ilenry IV. was all the more glaring, since it really occurred before the death of Richard II., and it led, some sixty years later, in the reign of Ilenry VI., to a series of wars, called the “Wars of (lie Roses.” One other fact ought to be mentioned in this connection. Shortly after this usurpation, the second and fourth branches of the royal family were united by the marriage of their two surviving representatives, Anne, and Richard of Cambridge. Richard, Duke of York, the issue of this marriage, was the one, in the reign of Henry VI., to press the claims of his house to the throne. IIENRY I Y. 91 masses, he promised persecution of the reformers. Incessant domestic troubles prevented his renewing the war with France, but his promise of persecution was fulfilled with terrible fidelity. The First Martyr at tlie Stake. By an Act of Par- liament, called the 64 Statute of Heretics,” the bishops were empowered to imprison all writers, teachers, and preachers of heresy, and, on their refusal to abjure, to hand them over to the civil authorities to be burned. William Salter, a London preacher, was the first mar- tyr at the stake. Being condemned by the bishops, ho was handed over to the civil authorities aud burned, in accordance with the statute, in 1401. Henry IV. has the unenviable reputation of being the first king of England to impose on his subjects, by statute, the penalty of death, and that, the awful death by fire, solely on account of their religious belief. And thus was inaugurated the system of horrible intol- erance that blackens, for so long a period, the page of English history, of which Catholics and Protestants were alike guilty, and whose only palliation is the spirit of the age. To the prayer of the House of Commons, that the cruel statute might be repealed or mitigated, Henry replied that 6 6 he wished one more severe had been passed,” and gave a terrible proof of his sincerity by immediately signing the death warrant of another reformer. Revolt in Behalf of Richard II. Henry’s reign wit- nessed a constant succession of revolts. Three of these will be noticed. The first was in behalf of King Richard, who was rumored to have escaped from con- finement, and to be still living in concealment in Scot- 92 HENRY IV. land. This was quickly suppressed, and in less than a month a report was current that Richard had died at Castle Pontefract. His body was even brought to London and exposed to the public gaze, that all might see that he was really dead. Strange and conflicting stories were told of the manner of his death, but nothing is positively known. He is supposed to have been con- signed by Parliament to an unknown dungeon, and to have died a violent death, at the instigation of Henry himself. Revolt of the Welsh. Another revolt broke out in Wales, under Owen Glendower, who claimed descent from the royal line of Llewellyn and the ancient Britons. As in the times of Edward 1. , patriot bards, journeying from place to place with song and story of the early heroes of Welsh history, fired the Welsh heart anew with its old love of liberty. Glendower, being de- feated in the open field, retired to the fastnesses of Snowdon, and throughout Henry’s reign defied the whole power of England. What became of him was never known. He lived for some time after Henry V. came to the throne, a wanderer and an outlaw, refusing all overtures of peace, and making his home in hidden caves among his native hills. A cave still called " Owen’s Cave ” is to be seen on the coast of Merioneth. Revolt of the Percies. But the insurrection most dangerous to Henry’s throne suddenly broke out under the Percies, who had hitherto been its most powerful supporters. The cause of their defection is not clear. It may have been Henry’s inability to pay the expenses of their previous campaigns in his behalf, or his un- willingness to ransom the elder Mortimer, Hotspur’s IIEXRY IV. 93 brother-in-law, who was a prisoner to Glendower ; hut its declared object was to place upon the throne the Earl of March, whom Henry held as a state prisoner at Windsor. They were assisted by Glendower and Douglas, each at the head of a band of his country- men. Henry gained a complete victory over all these foes at Shrewsbury, in 1403, Hotspur, the younger Percy, being killed on the field of battle. The elder Percy per- ished in a subsequent revolt. The Poet-King of Scotland. Prince James, a youth of twelve, and heir to the Scottish throne, had embarked for France, to escape the perils that menaced the royal family of Scotland. His ship was taken by an English cruiser, and the young prince remained a state prisoner in England for nearly nineteen years, two of which were spent in the Tower, and sixteen in the Keep of Windsor Castle. He was provided with good instruct- ors, and became the famous " Poet-king of Scotlaud.” When released, he assumed the crown to which he had fallen heir, and made one of the noblest of Scottish kings. He married Lady Joanna Beaufort, an English princess, to whom he had become attached while in prison. Henry’s Troubles. Henry lived in constant dread of • the Lollards, who w r ere known to be active in foment- ing insurrections. He was conscience-smitten, too, it is said, at the part he had taken in their perse- cution, as well as at the means he had used to attain to power. Forced to be ever on the alert against the friends of the dead Richard on the one hand, and the living Mortimer on the other; morbidly jealous of the growing popularity of the Prince of Wales, and in con- stant fear lest the latter should snatch the crown from 94 HENRY IV. his head ; distressed at the Prince’s wild and reckless conduct; and shattered in mind and body by epileptic fits to which he was subject, no wonder he grew morose and unpopular towards the end of his reign, and was hurried prematurely to his grave. He died in a fit, while praying before the shrine of St. Edward’s at Westminster. " Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown,” was Shakspeare’s sage reflection on the stormy years of Henry’s reign. - Henry Y., 1413 to 1422 — 9 years. Lancaster. The Wise Beginning of Henry’s Reign. The reign of Henry V. was short but brilliant, happily disappoint- ing those who feared that the reckless prince would make a reckless king. Calling together his old com- panions in folly, he told them of his purpose to change his life, and forbade them to enter his presence until they should follow his example and reform. In proof of his sincerity as well as wisdom, he selected as his principal advisers in the government, men of known integrity of character. Among them was Gascoigne, who, as Chief Justice, once sent Prince Henry himself to prison, for interfering with the course of justice. Several just and noble acts, at the very outset of his career, did much to disarm the enemies of his house. He pacified the York family by setting free the long imprisoned Earl of March, and by giving to the bones of Richard II. a truly royal burial among the kings of England at Westminster. He gained the support of the powerful family of the Percies, by restoring to them their forfeited estates. IIEXRY V. 95 Suppression cf the First Reformation. Henry’s attention was early called to the Lollards. Their doc- trines had been gradually spreading, during the preced- ing reign, not only in England, but on the continent. John IIuss, rector of the University of Prague, had become, through the influence of Wickliflfe’s writings, a convert to Lollardism, which he openly preached, until silenced at the stake. The Catholic clergy, early i:i this reign, saw the necessity of acting with more vigor against the "new heresy,” and marked as their first victim, Sir John Oidcastle, the leader of the Lollards in England, whose castle they had made a place of refuge. The king, inspired by an old friendship, sought to save him from death; but Oidcastle, refusing to recant, was cast into the Tower, and, after trial and condem- nation by the prelates, was turned over to the civil authorities to be burned. TIiq king again interposed, granting a respite of fifty days, during which Old- castle made his escape, and planned, so it was said, and so the king believed, an immediate rising of the Lol- lards. Henry at once took decided ground against the Reformation, and the most violent persecution followed. The severest statutes were enacted, com- manding the arrest of all persons, even if suspected of heresy, and entailing forfeiture of estate and blood on all convicted. Oidcastle and many others perished, and the first Reformation, in all that was outward and visible, was soon at an end. Elsewhere allusion has been made to the decline of the Reformation among the influential classes, on account of its connection with the "Peasants’ Revolt.” A word more seems proper HENRY V. 90 before leaving the subject. Some of the leaders of the Reformation, lacking the singleness of purpose that inspired its founder, Wickliffc, sought, as we have seen, to bring within its sweep the removal of social distinctions and the equalization of property, — our modern communism. At the time of its suppres- sion, it also rested under the odium of conspiring to subvert the government. The Reformation, branded on the one hand as communistic, and so, dangerous to society; on the other as revolutionary, and so, destruc- tive to public order, gradually arrayed against itself not only the rich and powerful, but also the more thought- ful and conservative. Outwardly, the Reformation ceased to exist, but in the hearts of many there was all the while taking root a simpler and a purer faith, based on the open Bible that Wickliffe had put into their hands. As Knight has beautifully said, "Out of Wickliffe’s rectory, at Lutterworth, seeds were to be borne upon the wind which would abide in the earth till they sprang up into the stately growth of other centuries.”* % ♦Thirty years after Wickliffe’s death, and in the early part of Henry’s reign, the Council of Constance, the same that condemned John Hubs, issued a decree that Wickliffe’s remains should be disinterred and burned. This was done, and his ashes were cast into a little brook that runs past Lutterworth, into the Avon. The Avon leads into the Severn, the Severn into a narrow sea, and the sea into the ocean. In the following beautiful lines the poetic fancy of Wordsworth makes the scattering of Wickliffe’s ashes an emblem of the spreading of his doctrine: — “As thou these ashes, little brook, wilt bear Into the Avon— Avon to the tide Ot Severn— Severn to the narrow seas— Into main ocean they— this deed accurst, An emblem yields to friends and enemies, Ilow the bold teacher’s doctrine, sanctified By truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed.” IIENRY Y. 5)7 Renewal of the “Hundred Years’ War.” During the reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV., there had been an intermission in the "Hundred Years’ War” with France. It was renewed by Henry V., a year after he be- came king, by a revival of the old claim to the French throne. The time was a favorable one. The French King, Charles VI., was insane, and his son, the Dau- phin, too young to rule ; while the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans had involved the nation in a bloody war to decide which should be regent during the Dau- phin’s minority. Henry crossed the channel and cap- tured Harfleur, near the mouth of the Seine, but with a loss, by sickness and death, of two-thirds of his army. Against the advice of his nobles, he formed the daring purpose of marching through the country to Calais, following the old route of Edward III. He had about ten thousand men. The French factions, startled at the new danger, ceased their fratricidal strife, and prepared to meet the common foe. Agincourt, A. B. 1115. The French army, esti- mated at one hundred thousand men, planted itself directly across Henry’s path, near the village of Agin- court. The hostile armies joined battle about noon, October 25th. In three hours, the battle won added new glory to English arms, and fresh laurels to her kings. Considering all the circumstances of the day, it was the most brilliant victory English soldiers ever gained over those of France. Agineourt at once took its place iu history by the side of Cressy and Poictiers, but outshone them both ; Cressy in the fearful odds against which the English contended, and in the brilliant personal achievements