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HI 
 
HISTORICAL COURSE 
 
 FOR SCHOOLS, edited by 
 Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L. 
 
 II. 
 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
[T/i 
 

 d 
 , 3 
 
 
 pis 
 
 flistoritiil Course for Srfeoals. 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 i 
 
 OF 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 r.Y 
 
 EDiril THOMPSON. 
 
 jVIii^V ED1TI0\\ REVISED. WITH MAPS, 
 
 (/> 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 AidlioriziJ by the Minister of Education for ihii use of Schooh 
 in the Erovince of Onlarij, 
 
 Soronfa : 
 
 JAMES CAMl>r>KIJ. AN I) SON, 
 
 1878. 
 
 [The Kii^hl of Tran:>LUion an. I Rcf rod iic lion is RLSCivcd.\ 
 
/ 
 
 DA32 
 
 Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 
 one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight, by Macmillan 
 & Co., in the office of the Minister of Agriculture. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The appearance of the first of the series of small 
 histories to be pubHshed under my editorship seems 
 to call for a few words from me. The present History 
 of England takes for granted the views and divisions 
 laid down in lay General Sketch of European History 
 so far as they concern the particular history of England. 
 The points in English history which were there touched 
 on as parts of general 1 story, with special regard to 
 their bearings on the hist( n >f other countries, are here 
 dealt with more fully, as onsecutive narrative of the 
 history of the particular nation and country of England. 
 It will perhaps be found to be more compressed than 
 some other volumes of the series, as the history of our 
 country naturally appealed to a wider circle than any 
 other, and it was thought right to keep the book within 
 as small a compass as might be. 
 
 The book is strictly the work of its author. I have 
 throughout given it such a degree of supervision as to 
 secure its general accuracy; but with regard to the 
 details of the narrative, both as to their choice and their 
 treatment, they are the author's own ; on these points I 
 ha"e not thought it right to go beyond suggestion. It 
 
V,n PREFACE. 
 
 may perhaps be hard for me to speak impartially of a 
 book to whose general merit I am pledged by its mere 
 appearance ; but I can honestly say that it is the result 
 of genuine work among the last and best lights on the 
 subject. I believe it to be thoroughly trustworthy, and 
 that it will give clearer and truer views on most of the 
 points on which clear and true views are specially 
 needed than can be found in any other book on the 
 same small scale. 
 
 EDWARD A. FREEMAN. 
 
 SOMEKLEAZE, WeLLS, 
 
 March %th, 1873. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 y 
 
 It having been suggested to me by persons engaged 
 in education that the addition of some maps and the 
 expansion of certain parts of the narrative would make 
 this book more useful in schools, I have accordingly, 
 and with Mr. Freeman's sanction, prepared this edition, 
 which I trust will be found an improvement 
 
 E. T. 
 
 July, 1878. 
 
 { \ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CnAP. TACt 
 
 I.— BRITAIN BEFORE THE ENGLISH CONQUEST • • I 
 
 II. — THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN 6 
 
 III.-^CONVEKSION OP THE ENGLISH TO CHRISTIANITY . I4 
 
 IV. — THE RISE OP WESSEX 18 
 
 v.— FROM iETHELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS . . 2$ 
 
 VI.— THE DANISH KINGS 32 
 
 VII. — FROM EDWARD TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST . 3$ 
 
 VIII. — THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS . . . 4O 
 
 IX. — WILLIAM 1 52 
 
 X.— WILLIAM II 57 
 
 XI.— HENRY 1 61 
 
 XII. — STEPHEN « 65 
 
 XIII.— HENRY II 69 
 
 XIV.— RICHARD 1 75 
 
 XV.— JOHN 79 
 
 XVI.— HENRY III 84 
 
 XVII.— EDWARD 1 92 
 
 XVIII. — EDWARD II 99 
 
 XIX. — EDWARD III. 104 
 
 XX.— RICHARD II. 113 
 
 XXI. — HENRY iV 121 
 
 XXII.— HENRY V 126 
 
 S,\UI,— HENRY VI 131 
 
I, 
 1 
 
 t CONTENTS. 
 
 XXIV. — EDWARD IV 1 38 
 
 XXV.— EDWARD V I43 
 
 XXVI.— RICHARD III I45 
 
 XXVII.— HENRY VII I52 
 
 XXVIII. — HENRY Vin I57 
 
 XXIX. — EDWARD VI I68 
 
 'ikXX.^— MARY •••••a**. '75 
 
 XXXI. — ELIZABETH 180 
 
 XXXII.— JAMES 1 193 
 
 XXXIII. — CHARLES I 205 
 
 XXXIV.— THE COMMONWEALTH 219 
 
 XXXV. — CHARLES II. . ^ 23O 
 
 XXXVI.— JAMES II 240 
 
 XXXVII. — WILLIAM AND MARY : WILLIAM III. . . 255 
 
 XXXVIII. — ANNE 264 
 
 XXXIX. — GEORGE I. 272 
 
 XL. — GEORGE II. 277 
 
 XLI.— GEORGE III 292 
 
 XL II. — GEORGE IV 3^5 
 
 XLIII. — WILLIAM IV 330 
 
 XLIV.— VICTORIA 337 
 
 INDEX ••• 349 
 
LIST OF MAPS, 
 
 THE BRITISH DOMINIONS, 1878 .... Front, 
 
 BRITAIN IN 597 . T> face page 10 
 
 THE ENGLISH EMPIRE IN THE lOTH AND IITH 
 
 CENTURIES , ,, 33 
 
 DOMINIONS OF THE HOUSE OF ANJOU , . ,,69 
 
 FRANCE AFTER THE TREATY OF BREllGNY , „ IO9 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 Caesar lands in Britain .••••. 55, 54 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Claudius in Britain 43 
 
 Caradoc subdued 50 
 
 Revolt of Boadicea . 61 
 
 Agricola governs Britain 78 — 84 
 
 Hadrian in Britain 120 
 
 Severus dies at York 211 
 
 Martyrdom of St. Alban about 304 
 
 The Roman legions leave Britain .... about 410 
 
 The English Conquest :— Landing of Hengest and 
 
 Horsa in Thanet 449 
 
 Hengest founds the Kingdom of Kent .... 455 
 Landing of ^Ue and Cissa — settlement of South-Saxons . 477 
 Landing of Cerdic and Cynric — settlement of West-Saxons 495 
 Cerdic and Cynric found the Kingdom of Wessex . .519 
 Arthur defeats the West-Saxons at Badbury . , . 520 
 Ida founds the Kingdom of Bernicia .... 547 
 
 /Bthelbert of Kent converted by Augustine . . . 597 
 
 Edwin converted by Paulinus 627 
 
 Oswald King of the Northumbrians ; Aidan Bishop of 
 
 Lindisfarn 635 
 
 Ine King of the West-Saxons 688—726 
 
 Oflfa King of the Mercians 757—796 
 
 First landing of the Danes in England .... 789 
 
M 
 
 riv CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 Egbert King of the West-Saxons ..... 802 
 Egbert becomes Lord over all llie English Kingdoms . • 829 
 
 ^thelwulf 837 
 
 ^thelbald 858 
 
 ^thelbert 860 
 
 ^thelred I .... 866 
 
 The Danes land in East-Anglia 866 
 
 Alfred 871 
 
 Battle of Ethandun ; Peace of VVedmore .... 878 
 
 Edward the Elder 901 
 
 Edward becomes Lord of all Britain 924 
 
 ^thelstan 925 
 
 Battle of Brunanburh 937 
 
 Edmund the Magnificent 940 
 
 Edred 946 
 
 Final submission of the Northumbrians . . about 954 
 
 Edwy , 955 
 
 Edgar 959 
 
 Edgar crowned at Bath 973 
 
 Edward the Martyr 975 
 
 /Ethelred II 979 
 
 The Danish invasions begin again 980 
 
 Battle of Maldon ; Danegeld first paid .... 991 
 The Danish Conquest : — Swegen acknowledged King. 1013 
 Death of Swegen ; restoration of ^thelred . , . 1014 
 
 Edmund Ironside 1016 
 
 War between Edmund and Cnut ; the Kingdom divided . 1016 
 The Danish Kings: — Cnut chosen King of all England . 1017 
 Harold and Harthacnut ; the Kingdom again divided . 1035 
 
 Harold King of all England 1037 
 
 Harthacnut 1040 
 
 House of Cerdic restored : — Edward the Confessor. . 1042 
 Struggle against the foreigners .... 1051 — 1052 
 Revolt of the Northumbrians ; consecration of Westminister 1065 
 House of Godwin : — Harold II. . . . . 1066 
 Battle of Stamford Bridge, Sept. 2$ 1066 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 Xf 
 
 A.D. 
 
 The Norman Conquest :— Battle of Hastings, Oct. 14 1066 
 The Norman Kings : — William I. crowned, Dec. 25 . 1066 
 
 Harrying of Northumberland 1069 
 
 Defence of the Isle of Ely 1071 
 
 Domesday drawn up 1085--1086 
 
 Meeting at Salisbury — all freemen to swear allegiance . 1086 
 
 William II 1087 
 
 Malcolm III. of Scotland slain at Alnwick . . . 1093 
 Henry I. : — Charter of Liberties granted, Aug. 5 . . 1100 
 Battle of Tinchebrai, Sept. 28 ; Normandy won . . 1106 
 
 Stephen 1135 
 
 Battle of the Standard, Aug. 22 1138 
 
 War of Stephen and Matilda .... 1139—1153 
 
 House of Anjou :— Henry II 1X54 
 
 Constitutions of Clarendon 1x64 
 
 Conquest of Inland 1169—1171 
 
 Murder of Archbishop Thomas, Dec. 29 . . . , 1170 
 
 Richard 1 1189 
 
 Richard seized by Leopold, Duke of Austria . . . 1192 
 
 John 1199 
 
 Normandy lost 1204 
 
 John becomes a vassal of Rome, May 15 . . , . 1213 
 The Great Charter granted, June 15 . . . . 1215 
 
 Henry III 1216 
 
 Charter of the Merest granted, Nov. 6 .... 1217 
 The Barons' V/ar ; battle of Lewes, May 14 . . . 1264 
 Earl Simon's Parliament meets, Jan. 20 ; battle of Evesham, 
 
 Aug. 4 .... 1265 
 
 Edward 1 1272 
 
 Conquest of Wales 1283 
 
 The Jews expelled from England 1290 
 
 Final organrzation of Parliament 1295 
 
 Conquest of Scotland 1296 
 
 The Confirmation of the Charters, Nov. $ , . . 1297 
 
 Edward II 1307 
 
 Battle of Bannockbum, June 24 1314 
 
XVI 
 
 CIIRONOI OGICAL T.^BLE. 
 
 Battle of Athenrce, Aug. lo 1318 
 
 Edward II. deposed; Edward III. bcccmcs King . . 1327 
 
 The kte King Edward II. murdered, Sept. 21 . . . 1327 
 
 Independence of Scotland acknowledged .... 1328 
 
 The Hundred Years' War begins 1338 
 
 Battle of Crdcy, Aug. 26 ; battle of Neville's Cross, Oct. 12 1346 
 
 Surrender of Calais, Aug. 3 1347 
 
 Battle of Poitiers, Sept. 19 • 1356 
 
 Peace of Brctigny, May 8 1360 
 
 The Good Parliament meets, April 28 ; the Black Prince 
 
 dies, June 8 1376 
 
 Richard II 1377 
 
 The Peasant Insurrection 1381 
 
 John WyclilTe dies, Dec. 31 1384 
 
 Richard II. deposed ; House of Lancaster: — Henry IV. 
 
 becomes King ...•..., 1399 
 
 Statute against Heretics passed ; William Sautree burned , 1401 
 
 Battle of Shrewsbury, July 21 1403 
 
 Henry V 1418 
 
 The Hundred Years* War renewed : Battle of Azincourl, 
 
 Oct. 25 1415 
 
 Surrender of Rouen, Jan. 19 1419 
 
 Treaty of Troyes, May 21 1420 
 
 Henry VI. 1422 
 
 Jack Cade's insurrection ....... 1450 
 
 End of the Hundred Years' War 1453 
 
 Wars of York and Lancaster ; first battle of St. Albans, 
 
 May 22 1455 
 
 Battle of Wakefield, Dec. 30 . . . . . . 1460 
 
 House of York -.—Edward IV. . . . . . 1461 
 
 Battle of Barnet, April 14 ; battle of Tewkesbury, May 4 . 1471 
 
 Edward V. ; Richard III 1483 
 
 Battle of Bosworth, Attg. 22 1485 
 
 The Tudors :— Henry VII 1485 
 
 Pcrkiii Warlwck hanged 1499 
 
 Marriage of Margaret Tudor tp James IV. of Scotland , . 1503 
 
 Henry VUI 1509 
 
 BatI 
 M: 
 
 ThI 
 W£ 
 
 Till 
 Irel 
 E( 
 
 Ball 
 
 m) 
 
 W5 
 K 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TAliLE. 
 
 XVII 
 
 
 A.DI. 
 
 • 
 
 . 1316 
 
 s: . 
 
 . 1327 
 
 • 
 
 . 1327 
 
 • 
 
 . 1328 
 
 • 
 
 . 1338 
 
 Oct. 
 
 «2 1346 
 
 • 
 
 . 1347 
 
 • 
 
 . 1356 
 
 4 
 
 . 1360 
 
 Prince 
 
 • 
 
 . 1376 
 
 • 
 
 . 1377 
 
 • 
 
 . 1381 
 
 • 
 
 . 1384 
 
 iry IV. 
 
 • 
 
 ' 1399 
 
 rned 
 
 . 1401 
 
 • 
 
 . 1403 
 
 • 
 
 ' 1413 
 
 icourt, 
 
 
 • 
 
 . 1415 
 
 • 1 
 
 . 1419 
 
 • 
 
 1420 
 
 • « 
 
 1422 
 
 
 1450 
 
 
 1453 
 
 bans, 
 
 
 
 1455 
 
 
 1460 
 
 
 1461 
 
 y4. 
 
 1471 
 
 
 1483 
 
 
 1485 
 
 
 1485 
 
 
 1499 
 
 • 
 
 1503 
 
 
 1509 
 
 lialtle of Fldddcn, Sept. 9 • . • • • 
 Marriage ot Henry with Katharine of Aragon declared 
 
 null and void 
 
 The Papal power in England set aside 
 
 Wales incorporated with England; dissplu!t()n of the lesser 
 
 monasteries ; Anne Boleyn beheaded 
 The greater monasteries dissolved ; Act of the Six articles 
 Ireland raised to the rank of a Kingdom . 
 Edward VI. . , .... 
 
 liattle of Pinkie, Sept. lo . , , , 
 
 Mary ^ 
 
 Wyalt's insurrection, Jan. — Feb. ; Jane (Jrey beheaded 
 
 Feb. 12; reconciliation \\ith Rome, Nov. 30 
 Ridley and Latimer burned at Oxjoid, pet. 16 . 
 
 Calais taken by the French 
 
 Elizabeth 
 
 Act of Supremacy ; Act of Ui>iformity 
 
 Mary of Scotland belieaded, T'eb. 8 . . , 
 
 The Spanish Armada defeated, July 21-30 . 
 
 Charter granted to the East India Company, Dec, 31. 
 
 House of Stuart : — James 1 . . . . 
 
 The Gunpowder Plot discovered, Nov. 5 . 
 
 Translation of the liible tinished. , . 
 
 Charles I 
 
 The Petition of Right, June 7 . . . 
 
 Hampden refuses to pay ship-money . ... . 
 
 The Long Parliament meets, Nov. 3 . 
 
 Stratford belieaded, May 12 ; the Irish Rebellion 
 
 The Civil Wars begin ; Charles sets up his standard at 
 
 Nottingham, Aug. 22. , , . 
 Battle of Naseby, June 14. . . . 
 Second Civil War ; battle of Preston, Aug. 17 
 Cluules I. beheaded, Jan. 30 , . 
 The Commonwealth .... 
 Oliver Cromwell's campaigns in Ireland 
 War with Scotland; battle of iJuiihar, Scp^. 3 
 
 1(>4^ 
 
 A.T). 
 
 1513 
 
 1533 
 1534 
 
 1536 
 1539 
 1542 
 1547 
 1547 
 1553 
 
 1554 
 1555 
 1558 
 1558 
 1559 
 1587 
 1588 
 1600 
 1603 
 1605 
 1611 
 3625 
 1628 
 1636 
 1640 
 1641 
 
 1642 
 3645 
 1648 
 1649 
 1649 
 1650 
 16j0 
 
XVlll 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 
 Battle of Worcester, Sept. 3 • t • • ^ • 
 
 War with the Dutch 1662- 
 
 Cromwell turns out the Parliament, April 20 . . . 
 The Protectorate— Olivar Cromwell, Dec. 16. 
 
 Jamaica taken 
 
 Richard Cromwell ....••• 
 
 The Long Parliament reassembles 
 
 The Convention meets, April 25; Restoration of K'og 
 
 Charles II 
 
 The Plague Year . . • 1 • • • • 
 
 The Great Fire of London • 
 
 The Dutch bum the ships at Chatham • . . « 
 
 Secret Treaty of Dover • 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act ••••••«: 
 
 James II 
 
 The Western Rebellion ; battle of Sedgemoor, July 6 
 Trial of the Seven Bishops, June 29 & 30 ; landing of the 
 rrince of Orange, Nov. 5 ; flight of James from 
 - Whitehall, Dec. 1 1 ; he leaves England, Dec. 23 
 
 The Declaration of Right : the Convention bestows 
 ♦he crown upon William and Mary, Feb. 13 . 
 
 The Toleration Act ; the Bill of Rights 
 
 Battle of the Boyne, July i , , 
 
 Surrender of Limerick, Oct. 3 . , 
 
 National Debt begins 
 
 Bank of England founded, July 27; death of Mary, 
 Dec. 28; W^illiam III. 
 
 Act of Settlement .... 
 
 Anne • 
 
 Gibraltar taken, July 24 ; battle of Blenhei 
 
 Union with Scotland, May 1 
 
 Peace of Utrecht .... 
 
 House of Hanover :— George I. 
 
 Jacobite Rebellion 1715- 
 
 Septennial Act , , , ' , 
 
 George II. , • . . 
 
 1688 
 
 1689 
 1689 
 1690 
 I69I 
 IG93 
 
 1694 
 1701 
 1702 
 1704 
 1707 
 I7I3 
 1714 
 -1716 
 1716 
 1727 
 
 1651 M 
 
 
 1654 ■ 
 
 
 1653 m 
 
 
 1653 m 
 
 B 
 
 1655 m 
 
 
 1658 ■ 
 
 C 
 
 1659 m 
 
 G 
 
 V 
 
 T 
 
 1660 m 
 
 I 
 
 1665 ■ 
 
 W 
 
 1666 m 
 
 Bi 
 
 1667 m 
 
 U 
 
 1670 1 
 
 P 
 
 1679 1 
 
 ^^ 
 
 1685 m 
 
 B 
 
 1685 i 
 
 p 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 lit 
 
 A.D. 
 
 battle of Detlibgen . & ^, • • • . 1743 
 Second Jccobite Rebellion .... 1745—1746 
 
 Battle of CuUoden, April l5 1746 
 
 Beginning of the British Dominion in India; batlle of 
 
 Plassy, June 23. 1757 
 
 Canada wop 1760 
 
 George III 1760 
 
 The North-American colonies declare their independence, 
 
 ' July4 1778 
 
 War of the - rench Revolution begins • • • • 1793 
 
 Battle of the Nile, Aug. I 1798 
 
 Union with Ireland, Jan I 1801 
 
 Peace of Amiens 1802 
 
 War with France renewed ••«.•• 1803 
 
 Battle of Trafalgar, Oct. 21 1805 
 
 Pitt dies, Jan 23 ; Berlin Decree issued, Nov. 21 . . 1806 
 
 The Peninsular War 1808—1814 
 
 The Regency ....,•.. 1811 
 
 Battle of Waterloo, June 18 . i . • . . 1815 
 
 George IV 1820 
 
 Catholic Emancipation Act, April 13 . • • • 1829 
 
 William IV 1830 
 
 Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened , . • . 1830 
 
 The Reform Bill, June 7 1832 
 
 Abolition of Slavery, Aug 28 1833 
 
 Victoria 1837 
 
 Abandonment of the protective duties upon corn . . 1846 
 
 The Crimean War ; battle of the Alma, Sept, 20 . . 1854 
 
 The Indian Mutiny 1857—1858 
 
 Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick formed into one 
 
 Dominion under the name of Canada. . . . 1867 
 
 The Reform Bill, Aug. 15 1867 
 
 The Irish Church disestablished ..... 1869 
 
 Elementary Education Act, Aug. 9 1870 
 
 Ballot Bill 1872 
 
 The Queen takes the title of Empress of India, Jan. I . 1877 
 
These 
 
GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 ' These Tables^ being intended only to illustrate historical points ntentioned 
 in the text^ are not to be taken as full qenealo^es, ) 
 
 -^jD 
 
xxU 
 
 GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 KINGS 0* fllE HOUSE OF CERDIC, FROM EGBEUT. 
 
 (Pp. 19-40. 02.) 
 
 EGBERT, 
 
 r 802-837. 
 
 iETHELWULF, 
 r. 837-868. 
 
 \ 
 
 I I I I 
 
 iETHELBALD, ^THELBERT, iETHELRED I. ALFHKT^'^ Ealhmith. 
 r. 868-860. r. 860-866. r. 860-871. r. 871-901 
 
 EDWARD 
 
 TUB BLDBK, 
 
 r. 901-925. 
 
 iETHELSTAN, EDMUND=^:/(7i/tt. EDI 
 r. 926-940. r. 940-940. I r. 946-966. 
 
 »RED, 
 
 EDWY, 1. 
 
 r. 955-959. 
 
 jEthelficed = EDGAR = 2. jElfthryth. 
 
 ' r. 959-975. 
 
 EDWARD 1. Name = ^ETHELRED II. = 2. F.mma of 
 
 TiiK MARTYR, unccHain. 
 r. 975-979. 
 
 r. 979-1016. 
 
 Normandy — 2. Cnut. 
 
 I r. 1017 10G6. 
 
 >i 
 
 EDMUND moNBiDB, 
 r. Ap. 23-Nov. 30, 
 
 1016, 
 m. Ealdgyth. 
 
 Alfred, EDWARD 
 
 d. 1036. THR 
 
 CONFBHSOR, 
 
 r. 104;i-1066. 
 
 Hnrthafnut, 
 r. 1040-1042. 
 
 Edmund, EdwarJ, 
 
 d. 1057, 
 m. Agatha^ 
 (a kinswoman of the Emperor Henry TI.) 
 
 Edgar, Margparet, Christina, 
 
 elected d. 1093, Abbess of Roinsey 
 
 Kin(? in m MaUmlm 111.^ 
 
 1066. King of Scots. 
 
 Matilda, 
 d. 1118, , ' 
 m. Henry f,, 
 King nf 
 England. 
 
 w 
 
THE DANISH KINGS. 
 
 XXlll 
 
 $71-901 I 
 
 THE DAmSH KINGS. (Pp. 82-35.) 
 
 SWEOEN FOKKBEARD, 
 
 d. 1014. 
 
 CNUT = Emmn of Nnrmnndy, tnrfotr 
 r. 1017-10i5. I of King ^fUhUnd II. 
 
 I I 
 
 S\ve;,'en. HAROLD I. 
 
 r. 1035-1040. 
 
 (Illegitimate.) 
 
 IIARTITACNUT, 
 r. 1040-1042. 
 
 Ilnrthacnut, 
 r. 1040-1042. 
 

 XXIV 
 
 GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 
 DUKES OF THE NORMANS. (Pp. 25, 32, 37-80.J 
 
 ROLF, 
 Ist Duke of the Normans. 
 r. 911-927. 
 
 WILLIAM 
 
 tONQSWOKD, 
 
 r 927-943. 
 RICHARD 
 
 THE FBARLKiiS, 
 
 r. 943-99G. 
 
 RICHARD 
 
 TUB GOOD, 
 
 y. 996-102(i. 
 
 RICHARD in. 
 r. 102tt-1028. 
 
 mi 
 
 ROIJERT II 
 
 r. 10b7-109e 
 (from 1096 to 1100 
 the Duchy was 
 
 held by his 
 brother William,) 
 and 1100-1106, 
 (when he was over- 
 thrown at Tinche- 
 
 brai by his 
 brother Henry.) 
 
 m. 
 
 »/i. 
 
 Emma, 
 
 1. jEthelred II. of 
 England. 
 
 2. Cnut o/ England 
 and Demnnik. 
 
 ROBERT 
 
 THE MAQNIFICEXT, 
 
 r. 1028-1U36. 
 WILLIAM 
 
 THE CONQUEROR, 
 
 r. 103'i-1087. 
 
 ^ I 
 
 WILLIAM 
 
 RUKU8, 
 
 r. 1090-1100. 
 
 HENKY I. 
 r. 1106-1135. 
 
 Matilda. 
 m GEOFl'UEY, 
 
 COUNT OK ANJoU 
 AND MAINE. 
 
 (who won tho 
 
 Duchy from 
 
 Stephen, 1145). 
 
 HENRY IL 
 
 invested with the 
 Duchy 1160, 
 d. 1189. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Adcla, 
 
 m. Stephen, 
 
 Count uj liloia 
 
 and Churlies. 
 
 STEPHEN 
 
 OK ULOI8, 
 
 r. 1135-1145. 
 
 RICHARD 
 
 TIIK liloN-llKAIlT, 
 r. Ilb9-ll99. 
 
 I 
 
 JOHN, 
 r. 1199-1204 
 (when Normandy was conquered 
 by France.) 
 
EDWARD 111. HENRY IV* 
 
 xxV 
 
 .CLAIM OF EDWARD III. TO THE FRENCH CROWN. (P. 105.) 
 
 PIIFLIP IV. 
 
 TIIK KAIK, 
 r. 1285- I3U. 
 
 PHILIP III. 
 
 TIIK BOLD, 
 
 r. 1270-1285. 
 
 I 
 
 Churles, Ooun 
 
 of V^;ilois, 
 
 d. 1325. 
 
 ILOUIS X, 
 I;ji-i-l3i6. 
 
 PIIFLIP V. 
 
 THK LONO, 
 
 r. 1310-1322 
 
 JOHN I. 
 |i5Nov.-19Nov. 
 131U. 
 
 I 
 CHARLES IV. 
 
 TIIK FAIR, 
 
 r. 1322-1328. 
 
 Isabel. 
 m. Edward II. 
 of Eiuflatui. 
 
 Edward HI. 
 of Enurluud. 
 
 PHI LI 
 
 VL 
 
 OK VALOI8, 
 
 r. 13-28-1350 
 
 I 
 JOHN H. 
 
 TIIK GOOD. 
 
 r. 1350-1364. 
 
 d::jcent of henry iv. (p. iis.) 
 
 HENRY in. 
 
 STEPHEN 
 
 OK BU)18, 
 
 r. 1135-1145. 
 
 EDWARD L 
 
 EDWARD II. 
 
 EDWA 
 
 ID in. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Edmund, 
 
 Earl of Laiica»tcr, 
 
 Tliomas 
 
 Eiirl of Lancaster. 
 
 beheaded 132^. 
 
 I 
 
 Henry 
 
 Earl of Lancaster. 
 
 Henry 
 Duke of Lancaster. 
 I 
 
 John of Gaunt. = Blanche 
 Duke of Lancaster. | of Lancaster. 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 / • 
 
w 
 
 )CXV1. 
 
 GKNEALOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 HOUSE OP YORK. 
 
 EDWAKO, 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Lionel, Duke 
 
 of Clarence. 
 
 I 
 
 Philippa, 
 
 m. Kdmuiid 
 
 Mortimer, 
 
 Earl uf March, 
 
 R«»(rer Mortiuier, 
 Eurl of March. 
 
 Kdiiiund 
 
 Mortimer 
 
 Eurl of Miiruh. 
 
 d. 1424. 
 
 Anno Morti 
 
 Uichanl 
 Diiku of 
 Hluiii at 
 
 EDWARD IV. 
 
 I 
 Kilniund 
 Earl ot Rutliind, 
 8l:iin ut Wake- 
 field, 1400. 
 
 EDWARD 
 V. 
 
 Richard 
 Duku of 
 York. 
 
 Elizabeth 
 
 m. IIKNUV 
 
 VIL 
 
 U 
 
 I 
 
 Kathcrlno 
 
 m. Sir 
 
 WUliain 
 
 Cvurtenay. 
 
 Henry 
 Courtenay 
 MarqiieHS 
 of Kxotor. 
 beheaded , 
 
 1&38. 
 
 Edward 
 Courtenay, 
 ISari of Dovon, 
 ' d. IIM. 
 
 I 
 
 CJoofjfO 
 
 iMlkeof 
 
 ('larence, 
 
 in. Inabel MevUle. 
 
 L 
 
 Kdward 
 Karl of 
 
 Warwick. 
 
 be heat leu 
 14U0. 
 
 Margaret 
 Counte«8 of 
 8aliHl)ury, 
 bchea<lu<l 
 lf)41, 
 m. iSitr Jiic/iard 
 J'ole. 
 
 Henry I'ole 
 
 L^ird 
 
 Monta^'U 
 
 buhemlud 
 
 168«. 
 
 .U. 
 
liousE OF Vokk. 
 
 XXV 
 
 II. 
 
 USE OF YORK. 
 
 I(l»|). 122, 13&-147, 152, 105, 170.) 
 
 III. 
 
 Anno Murti 
 
 ireiice, 
 
 bal Seville. 
 
 I 
 Kdiinnid of 
 
 Diike of York. 
 
 iicr =- HJc>iiir(l 
 
 F:arl of Ciini- 
 
 hehciuluii 1415 
 r):intu|;ciiut, 
 York. 
 Wukofiold, I-ICJO. 
 
 RICHAIU) IH. 
 irt. Aime Mcville. 
 
 Elizabeth ~ Johnde la Pole, 
 Duke of Suffvlk. 
 
 Kilwiinl, 
 ^riiico ••[ U'lilea, 
 a. 1484. 
 
 John (Ic la Pole, 
 
 I'^irl of Lincoln, 
 
 akin at btukc, 14^7. 
 
 1 
 
 Marjfarct, 
 
 w. Chnrlea, t'nkc i.J 
 
 Luryuiuiy. 
 
 EJinunil dc hi Polo, 
 Karl of SufTolk, 
 behuadvd 1013. 
 
 Kit-hard do la PoU;, 
 Blain at thu battle 
 of I'uvia, 1626. 
 
 U<;j,nnald Pole, 
 
 ArcbbiHhopof 
 
 Cantorbury. 
 
 and Cardinal, 
 
 d. 1568. 
 
tXVlll. 
 
 GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 I' 
 
 i ! I 
 
 
 3" 
 
 
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 eS _ ^ " 
 
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 " u '/; 
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 t** 2.. ^ 
 
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 § 
 
 
 
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 4) 
 
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 7^ 
 
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 CO ^'' 
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 c o 
 
 ^ -H ^ c3 .li _ 
 
 r^ e*-i - 'o ^j r'* 
 
 C 3 M Oi -fc-" rj 
 73 rt .^ -3 rt 3 
 
 WV IS ci-OX) 
 Cl3 ^ 4) «, '" 
 
 -S 
 
 H T3 « .(» ^- 
 
 2«3 
 
 3-''2 
 
 ^£373'-' 
 
 ^ o a> _r 
 c u t> X 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
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 wT 3 
 
 *^ '^ ~ I-J 
 
 ? 0,<1> It 
 
 C OS 
 
DAUGHTERS OF HENRY VII. 
 
 XXIX* 
 
 rtl iJ _C5 L. O -" 
 
 
 
 s- 
 
 «^ 
 
 -«< 
 
 '/I 
 
 M 
 it 
 
 V 
 
 H 
 
 •J* 
 
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 ID ^ 
 
 = Of*!;! 
 
 O 
 
 CO 
 
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 C5 
 
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 M 
 H 
 
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 cq' 
 
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 "Si 
 
 
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 4> 
 
 O <4>^ So 
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 ; — CO «is" 
 
 ^« 
 
 Mh4 
 
 
 ►is 
 
 S K ?S 
 
 4) i-t 
 
 
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 fcoS o 
 
 6(3 
 
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 CI 
 
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 2 
 
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 1 
 
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 IE 
 
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 f-4 
 
 >. 
 
 
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 <u 
 
 w 
 
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 's 
 
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 (-• 
 
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 s 
 
 0* 
 
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 Ct 
 
 
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 if 
 
 
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 t: 
 
 
 
 C3 
 
 
 
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 id 
 
 
 C/J 
 
 ;3 
 
 
 OS 
 
 rH 
 
 
 
 
 
 OJ 
 
 -^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ?! 
 
 
 
w 
 
 
 i' 
 
 kxx. 
 
 GENEALOGICAL TALLES. 
 
 Robert, 
 
 Duke of Normandy, 
 
 b. about 1056, 
 
 d. 1134. 
 
 I 
 William, 
 
 Count of Flanders. 
 
 b. 1101, d. 1128. 
 
 Henrv, 
 b. 1166, d. 1183. 
 
 THE SOVEREIGNS 
 
 Since the 
 
 WILLIAM r. 
 w. Matilda, 
 
 WILLIAM n. 
 
 b. about lOGO, 
 
 d. 1100. 
 
 RICHARD I. 
 b. 1157, d. 1190. 
 
 i I 
 
 1 ^ I! 
 
 .mil MiMrin'~'-- 
 
THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 niE SOVEREIGNS 
 
 Siiice the 
 
 WILLIAM f. 
 
 OF ENGuAND. 
 
 Norman Cottqucst. 
 
 1. about 1027, d. 1087. 
 >/■ F landers. 
 
 I II. 
 
 » 1 'ai 
 
 HENRY L 
 
 Adcla, 
 
 b. 1068. 
 
 d. ] 137. 
 
 
 d. 1136. 
 
 TO. Stephen, 
 
 
 m. 1. Matilda of 
 
 Count of 
 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 1 
 
 Blots and Chartres. 
 
 1 
 
 
 ; Matilda 
 
 STEPHEN, 
 
 
 d. 1167, 
 
 d. 1154. 
 
 
 wj. 2. Geoffrey 
 
 m. Matilda, 
 
 
 Count of 
 
 Countess of Jiouloyne. 
 
 
 Anion. 
 1 HENRY n. 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 1 
 Eustace William 
 
 
 f b. 1133, d. 1189. 
 
 Count of Count «)f 
 
 
 m. Eleanor, Duchess of 
 Aquitaine. 
 
 Boulo'^Mie, Boulojrne, 
 
 I. 
 
 d. 1153. d. 1100. 
 
 190. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ":i 
 
 Qeoflfrey, 
 
 .JOHN 
 
 1 
 
 b. 1158, d. 1186. 
 
 b. 1166, d. 1210. 
 
 ■:'i 
 
 m. Constance, 
 
 m. 2, Isabel of 
 
 .■;t 
 
 htiireHS of 
 
 Anavuleme. 
 
 ■' 
 
 Brittany. 
 
 1 
 HENRY in. 
 
 
 Arthur 
 
 b. 1207, d. :"272. 
 
 
 Duke of 
 
 f.i. Eleanot jf 
 
 i 
 
 Brittany. 
 
 Provenct. 
 
 
 b. 1187. 
 
 EDWARD I. 
 
 
 
 b. 1239, d. 1307. 
 
 f 
 
 : 
 
 m. 1. Eleanor 
 
 t! 
 
 
 qf Castile. 
 EDWARD £1. 
 
 
 
 • j^^ 
 
 ,. 
 
 b. 1284. 
 
 I 
 
 s , ' ■ 
 
 murdered 1327. 
 
 1 
 
 .,.r> 
 
 tn. Isabel of 
 France. 
 
 EDWARD III. 
 b. 1312, d. 1377. 
 
 I 
 
 
 •». PhiUippa of 
 UainatilL 
 
 (See next page.) 
 
m 
 
 xxxii 
 
 GENEALOGICAL TAliLfiS. 
 
 I ! 
 
 Ii 
 
 L 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 THE SOVEREIGNS ■ 
 
 III. 
 
 Edw 
 
 
 
 
 EDWAUD B 
 
 1 ■ 
 
 — — 
 
 1 
 ard 
 
 Lionel 
 
 1. Blanche, = John of daunt. = 3. A'rt^/'a/i«e |H 
 
 
 rrinue of 
 
 Dulie of 
 
 davqhV'v v/ 
 
 
 Duke of 
 
 Hwynjord. |H 
 
 
 Wales. 
 
 Clarence, IJeiirij, Ir^a^ of 
 
 
 Lancaster 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 b. l;}:iO. 
 
 b. 1338. 
 
 Lancast&r. 
 
 b 
 
 . alxmt 1310, 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 d. 1 
 
 370. 
 
 d. 1308. 
 
 
 
 d. 13UU. 
 
 1 
 
 
 RICF 
 
 [. II. 
 
 Pbili|»pa, 
 
 j 
 IIENKY IV. 
 
 1 
 
 John Beaufort, ^H 
 
 
 b. 1306. 
 
 m. Edmund 
 
 b 1306, d. 1413. 
 
 i'lui'l uf iSoiuuri>efc ^| 
 
 
 de^'/osed 
 
 Morthnerf 
 
 in. 1. Mary 
 
 
 
 
 iao9. 
 
 KaH of 
 
 March, 
 
 1 
 
 Bohun. 
 
 
 ^m 
 
 
 
 Rojyer 
 Mortimer 
 
 IIENUY V. 
 
 JiJin Dcaufort H 
 
 
 
 b. 13K\ d. 1422. 
 
 Duk oi S 
 
 
 
 liirl of 
 
 vi. Katiiarine of 
 
 Son erset. ^| 
 
 
 
 Maruh. 
 
 1 
 
 Franc 
 IIEN 
 
 e, who = 
 
 i 
 
 lY VI. 
 
 2. Owen Tudor 
 
 = Margaret % 
 
 
 1 I 
 Edmund Anno 
 
 Edmund : 
 
 
 Mortimer, Mortinicr, 
 
 b. 1421, 
 
 Tudor. Earl 
 
 Leaufort. jM 
 
 
 
 V,f\.T\ of m. J lie hard 
 
 , d. 1471, of Itichiuoud. 
 
 
 
 
 March, Jiarl of 
 
 m. Margaret o/ 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 1. 1424. Cani- 
 
 Anjou, 
 
 
 
 w- 
 
 
 hrid(ie, 
 who was 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 s: F 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 bchemied 
 
 Edward 
 
 HENUY VII. M 
 
 
 
 
 1415. 
 
 Prince of Wales, 
 b. 1453, 
 slain at 
 
 b. 1457, d. 150U. ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 Tewkesbury, 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 1471. 
 
 '■•"'^ 
 
 
 1 Katherine = 
 o/ Arayon. 
 
 IIEMRY VIII. = 2. Anne Bvleyn, - 
 b. 14U1, d. 1647. 
 
 MARY, 
 b. 1516, d. 1558 
 m. J'hilipoJ Spain. 
 
 3. Jane Scytnour. 
 
 ELIZABETH, 
 b. 1533, d. 1003. 
 
 EDWAUD VL 
 b. 1537, d. 1563. 
 
THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 XXXIU. 
 
 fi SOVEREIGNS 
 
 EDWAllD 
 
 it, = 3. Katharine 
 iiwynjord. 
 
 John Beaufort, 
 Earl of boiiiurbet 
 
 = Maryjiret 
 lieaufort. 
 
 HENllY Vir. 
 b. 1457, d. 1500. 
 
 Jane Seytnour. 
 
 OF ENGLAND— continued. 
 
 in. 
 
 Edmund of 
 
 Lanifley, 
 
 Duke of York, 
 
 b. 1341, d. 14U^. 
 
 Richard, 
 
 Earl of Cambridore, 
 
 beheaded 1415. 
 
 m. Anne 
 
 Mortimer, 
 
 Richard Plantagcnet, 
 Duke of York, 
 
 slain at 
 Wakefield, 1460. 
 
 I 
 
 EDWARD IV. 
 
 b. 1442, d. 1-183. 
 
 W4. Elizhhetk 
 
 WydevUe, 
 
 Georjfe, Duke of RICHARD TIT. 
 
 Clarence, b. 1449, d. 1478. b. 1452, d. 1485. 
 
 m. Anne Neville. 
 
 r 
 
 Elizabeth, 
 d. 15U3. 
 
 I 
 
 EDWARD 
 
 V. 
 
 b. 1470, 
 
 Richard, 
 
 Duke of 
 
 York, 
 
 b. 1472. 
 
 Eihvard, 
 Earl of 
 Warwick, 
 beheld ed 
 1499. 
 
 Marvraret, 
 
 Countes-s of 
 
 Salisbury, 
 
 beh. 1541. 
 
 in. Sir 
 
 Jiichard 
 
 Pole. 
 
 Edward, 
 
 Prince of Wales, 
 
 b. about 1476, 
 
 d. 1484. 
 
 Mare^ret, 
 
 b. 1480, d. 1541. 
 
 m. 1. James I V., 
 
 King of Scots. 
 
 James V. 
 
 King of Scots, 
 
 d. 1542. 
 
 Mary, 
 
 Queen of Scots, 
 
 beheaded 1587. 
 
 James I. 
 
 b. 15C6, d. 1626, 
 
 ni. Anne of Denmark. 
 
 [See next Page. 
 
 Mary, 
 d. 1498, d. 1533. 
 wi. S. Charles 
 Brandon, Duke if 
 Suffolk.. 
 
 Frances Brandon, 
 ?/?,. Henry fJrn/y 
 Duke of Suffolk. 
 
 Jane Grey, 
 beheaded l.Vi4. 
 m. Lord Guilford 
 Dudley. 
 
XXXIV. 
 
 GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 ! J' ' 
 
 !: 
 
 
 : 
 
 ! 
 
 
 ; 
 
 ; 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 L 
 
 xL. 
 
 THE SOVEREIGNS 
 
 JAMKPj 
 
 "-.J 
 
 
 
 CHARLES L 
 
 1 
 
 
 b. 1600, beheaded 1649. 
 
 
 
 m. Henrietta Maria of France. 
 
 
 CHARLES n. 
 
 1. Anne Hyde = 
 
 : JAMES n. = 2. Mary of 
 
 Mary, 
 
 b. 1030, d. 1085. 
 
 
 b. 1033, 
 d. 1701. 
 
 Modena. 
 nes Francis 
 
 b. 1631, U. 1660. 
 m. William, 
 Prince of Oranye 
 
 
 MARY, 
 
 ANNE, Jai 
 
 will: AM m.. 
 
 
 b. 1662, 
 
 b. 1666, Edward Stuart, 
 
 b. 1660, d. 1702. 
 
 
 d. 1694. 
 
 d. 1714. the Old 
 
 w. MAIiY OF 
 
 
 }/». 
 
 Pretender, 
 
 E^GLA2iD. 
 
 
 WILLIAM 
 
 b. 1688, d. 1766. 
 
 
 
 ill. 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 1 
 Charles Henry 
 
 
 
 
 Edward Benedict 
 Stuart, the Stuart, 
 Yuung Cardinal 
 Pretender, York, 
 
 
 
 
 b. 1720, b. 172.\ 
 
 i. 
 
 
 
 d. 1788 
 
 d. 180/. 
 
 
THE SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 E SOVEREIGNS 
 
 F ENGLAND— continued. 
 
 will: AM III. 
 
 b. 1060, (I. 1702. 
 
 rn. MARY OF 
 
 JSJVGLAJiD. 
 
 Elizabeth, 
 
 b. 1593, (1. 1662. 
 
 m. Frederick, 
 
 Elector Palatine, 
 
 I 
 
 Sophia, 
 
 fl. 1714. 
 m. F.rwHt AugwttuHf 
 l.lcctor of Uanuovr. 
 
 GEORGE I. 
 
 b. 16C<», d. 1727. 
 
 m. Sophia Dorotlica 
 
 of Zell, 
 
 OROROE IT. 
 
 I. 1C83. d. 1760, 
 
 in. Caroline of 
 
 Brande.nburg- 
 
 Ana^ack. 
 
 Frederick, 
 Prince of Wales, 
 b. 1707, d. 1761. 
 
 I 
 
 geor6e iil 
 
 b. 1738, d. 1820. 
 
 vn. Charlotte of 
 
 Mecklenburg- 
 
 Strelitz. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 iOKGE IV. 
 1762, d. 1830. 
 Caroline of 
 'tninsuHck 
 JoljenlnUtel. 
 
 I 
 Charlotte. 
 17^6, d. 1817, 
 
 WILLIAM IV. 
 b. 1786, d. 1837. 
 
 Edward, 
 Duke of Kent, 
 b. 1767, d. 18^. 
 
 VICTORIA, 
 
 b. 1819. 
 
 m. Prince A Ibert of 
 
 Oaxe-Cohurg atid 
 
 QotiM, 
 
 EmeHt AutfustiiR, 
 Kinjf of Hanover, 
 b. 1771, d. 1861. 
 
wes 
 reco 
 whi( 
 forn 
 
 b 
 
HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BRITAIN BEFORE THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 
 
 The Britons; Treland and Scotland {\) — the Roman Cjn 
 quest; invasion of Julius Ccesar ; Cassivelaunus ; de» 
 scription of the Britons (2) — Claudius; Caractacus (3) 
 — the Isle of Mona ; Boadicea (4) — Roman Britain / 
 A^ricola; the Roman Wall; Hadrian; Severus 
 is) — ^^^ British Church ; St. Aldan (6). 
 
 I. The British Isles. — Efiglandy the southern 
 part of the Isle of Britain, has its name from the 
 Angles or English^ a Teutonic people who, with other 
 kindred tribes, came over from the mainland ot 
 luirope, and won themselves a new home in Britain. 
 They found the land already occupied by a Celtic- 
 speaking people, the Britons, who still exist under 
 the name of Welsh. The Celts and the Teutons are 
 both branches of the great Aryan family of mankind, 
 to which nearly all the nations of Europe belong ^ 
 and the earliest known Aryan inhabitants of Britain 
 belonged to the Celtic branch ; but it is believed that 
 before Ihem the land was overspread by a people who 
 were nc t Aryans, and whom the Celts drove into the 
 west ol the island. There are however no written 
 records of the coming of the Celts, or of the races 
 which ] receded them ; so that our opinions are mainly 
 formed apon the evidence afforded by bones, weapons, 
 
Ill 
 
 |H| 
 
 . 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 BRITAIN. 
 
 tcHAK 
 
 and tools found in the caves which served the un- 
 known men of old for dwelling or burial-places, and 
 in the tombs called crom/ec/is, which still remain in 
 many parts of Britain. In the island of Ireland^ 
 formerly called lerne and Scotia, there was a another 
 Celtic people, the Scots or Gael, who afterwards made 
 a settlement in Caledonia or North Britain, which 
 from them came to be called Scotia 7td. Two Celtic 
 languages are still spoken in the British Isles. These 
 are the Gaelic, dialects of which survive in parts of 
 Ireland, in the Isle of Man, and in the Western 
 Highlands of Scotland; and the Cymric or Welsh 
 tongue, which is spoken in Wales. 
 
 2. The Roman Conquest. Julius Csesar. — 
 At the time when our historical knowledge of the 
 Britons begins, the Romans were the most powerful 
 nation of the world : and it was their great general, 
 Caius Julius Ccesar, who first attempted to explore 
 Britain, which was still scarcely known except to 
 those merchants who traded with the tribes on the 
 sea- coast. Caesar was then governor of Gaul, the land 
 between the Pyrenees and the Rhine, the greater part 
 of which he had himself conquered. Finding that his 
 enemies in Gaul' had often received help from Britain, 
 he determined to invade the island. He accordingly 
 came over with two legions in August, B.C. 55, landing 
 either at Walmer or Deal, after a sharp fight with the 
 natives. The next year he came again, when he was 
 opposed by a league of tribes under a chief called 
 Cassivelaunus, whose fortified town or camp the 
 Romans assaulted and took ; but neither time did 
 C?esar make any lasting conquest, or leave any troops 
 behind him. He only saw the south-eastern part of 
 the island ; the population, he tells us, was large, and 
 the buildings and cattle numerous. Corn seems to 
 have been plentiful -about his camp in Kent, the 
 Kentish people being, according to him, the most 
 civilized in Britain. The Britons employed both 
 cavalry and chariots in war, and were remarkable fui 
 
t.] 
 
 THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN. 
 
 their skill in driving, and the activity with which they 
 leaped down to fight on foot and sprang back again 
 to their cars. They were in the habit of staining 
 themselves blue with woad, to look more terrible in 
 battle. Their priests were called Druids^ and human 
 sacrifices were offered to their gods. 
 
 3. Claudius. — As Roman civilization spread in 
 Northern Gaul, and commerce increased along the 
 coast, Britain became much better known to the 
 world, and carried on a larger trade. Its exports 
 are said to have comprised corn and cattle, tin, 
 lead, iron, gold and silver, besides skins, slaves, and 
 hunting dogs. Pearls too were found, but of a poor 
 kind. It was not however till the time of the Em- 
 peror CiatiditiSy who himself came over a.d. 43, that 
 the Romans began really to conquer Britain. One 
 who struggled the hardest against the invaders was 
 CarddoCy called by the Romans CaractacuSy who at 
 the head, first of his own tribe in the east, and then 
 of the Silurians^ a people dwelling by the Severn, long 
 maintained the contest. He was at last taken and 
 sent prisoner to Rome, where the Emperor, struck by 
 his gallant speech and bearing, instead of putting him 
 to death, the usual fate of a captive, gave him and 
 his family their lives. It is told of Caradoc, that 
 when, after his release, he walked through the stately 
 streets of Rome, he asked bitterly why men thus 
 magnificently lodged should covet the poor cottages 
 of the Britons. 
 
 4. Boadicea. — In the year 61, Suetonius PauiinuSy 
 the Roman governor in Britain, attacked the Isle of 
 Mona (now Anglcsty)^ the refuge of those who stood 
 out against the Roman power. A strong force of war- 
 riors defended the shore ; the Druids stood around, 
 calling down the wrath of Heaven upon the invaders ; 
 women with streaming hair and torches in their hands 
 rushed wildly to and fro. For a moment the Romans 
 quailed with superstitious terror; but, recalling their 
 courage, they advanced ; the defenders of the isle were 
 
i 
 
 tkltAlK. 
 
 [chap 
 
 ' I 
 
 I ■ 
 
 overwheimeci, and the sacred groves, where captives 
 had been offered in sacrifice, were destroyed. Mean- 
 while the subject Britons broke out into revolt under 
 the leadership of Boadicea^ widow of a King of the 
 Iccnians, a tribe dwelling in what are now Norfolk 
 and Suffolk. This people had been cruelly oppressed 
 by the Roman officers ; Boadicea herself had been 
 scourged, and her two daughters subjected to brutal 
 outrage. Breathing vengeance, the Icenians rose in 
 arms, stirring up the neighbouring tribes to join in 
 the revolt ; while Boadicea, spear in hand^ her yellow 
 liair flowing below her waist, harangued her forces 
 with fiery eloquence. The colony of Camulodu- 
 num (Colchester) was stormed, and the colonists 
 slaughtered by the in.mrgents. In like manner were 
 massacred the inhabitants of the Roman towns of 
 Verulamiimi (near St. Albans) and Londinium (Lon- 
 don), which was already a great trading place. In 
 modern times there nave been found, below the soil 
 of London, charred remains of wooden buildings, 
 supposed to be those of the ancient Londinium, 
 which was probably burned down by the Britons. So 
 f:ir they carried all before them, but on the return 
 of Suetonius, they were routed with great slaughter. 
 Boadicea died LOon after — a natural death, as some 
 say ; according to others, she poisoned herself in 
 despair. 
 
 5. Roman Britain. — The Roman dominion in 
 Britain was gradually strengthened and increased. From 
 the year 78 to 84 the governor of \\\q province^ the terri- 
 tory subject to Rome, was Oicetis Jul ins Agricola. Ht 
 extended the Roman dominions to the Firths of Forth 
 and Clyde, securing the frontier by a chain of forts \ 
 while a second line of defence was formed by similar 
 forts from the Tyne to the Solway. The wild northern 
 tribes called Caledonians were never subdued, although 
 Agricola defeated them in a battle on the Highland 
 border. His fleet sailed along the nordiern coast and 
 took possession of the Oikneys. Agricola was a wi^c 
 
'.] 
 
 ROMAN BRITAIN. 
 
 S 
 
 and good man, who ruled the province well, checking 
 tlie extortions of the Roman officials, and encouraging 
 tlie natives to build temples, courts of justice, and 
 good dwelling-houses. Under his influence the chief- 
 tains' sons learned to sjTcak Latin, wore the toga or 
 gown which was the distinctive dress of the Romans, 
 and adopted the ways and manners of their con- 
 querors. The greater part of Britain remained subject 
 to Rome for more than three hundred years ; and its 
 history during that time belongs to that of the Roman 
 Empire generally. Great cities grew up, connected 
 by a network of excellent roads, which crossed the 
 country like our railway lines. Agriculture so throve 
 that Britain became one of the chief corn-exporting 
 countries of the Empire ; the mines were diligently 
 worked ; tin was sought in Cornwall, lead in Derby- 
 shire and Somersetshire — to use the names of later 
 times — and iron in Sussex, Northumberland, and the 
 Forest of Dean. But though the Romans gave the 
 country government and a superficial civilization, 
 they never made it thoroughly Roman. Latin pro- 
 bably was spoken by the higher classes in the towns, 
 but in the country the Celtic tongue held its ground. 
 The Romans left their mark on the land more than on 
 the people. Parts of their roads, often called streets 
 — from the Latin strata, a paved way — remain at 
 this day. Chester, cester, caster, a word which enters 
 into the names of many existing towns — as Win- 
 chester, Leicester, Doncaster — has come down from 
 jthe Latin castra, camp or fortified place. We still 
 may see remains ot thfe strong city walls and other 
 structures — for Roman builders made their work to 
 last — and of the pleasant villas, the country-houses 
 of the wealthy folk. Altars dedicated to the gods, 
 tombstones bearing the names of the dead, inscrip- 
 tions cut by the soldiers employed on public works, 
 [all tell us of the mighty people who once bore rule 
 lin this land. Most famous are the remains of the 
 kreat military works in the North, where the fortifict^- 
 
= ' 
 
 THE ENGLISH TN BRITAIN. 
 
 [chap 
 
 !li 
 
 : 
 
 t)( i 
 
 I 'i 
 
 
 hi 
 
 tions had to be constantly strengthened against the 
 restless Caledonians. In the year 120 the Emperor 
 Hadrian visited Britain, and had the forts between tht 
 Tyne and the Sol way connected by a ditch and 
 earthen rampart. A similar dyke was raised along 
 AgricoLVs northern line, about 139, in the reign of the 
 Emperor Antoninus Pins. Still the Caledonians gave 
 trouble, and about 208 the Emperor Sez'erus not only 
 drove them out of the province, but led an expedition 
 into their country, returning to die in 2 1 1 at Eboracum^ 
 now called York^ which was then the chief city of 
 Britain. Severus seems to have strengthened Hadrian's 
 wall with a second line of earthworks. Finally, the 
 great stone wall along the same line, of which frag- 
 ments still remain, was made about the end of the 
 fourth or beginning of the fifth century. 
 
 6. The British Church.— The Christian faith 
 made its way in Britain as in other parts of the 
 Roman Empire, but how or when it was introduced 
 is not known. Its first martyr is said to have been 
 St, Alban^ who was put to death for his faith, 
 about 304, near Verulamium. Ther«, in the eighth 
 century, an English King, Offa^ founded in his honour 
 an abbey, round which grew up the town bearing the 
 martyr's name. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 4 
 
 THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. 
 
 Decline of the Roman power : the Picts and Scots; the 
 Teutonic tribes ; Theodosins ; Britain left to itself; 
 the English Conquest (i) — kini^doni of Kent; legend 
 of Hengest and Horsa ; kingdom of Sussex , kingdom 
 of Wessex ; Arthur ; Essex and Middlesex ; kingdom 
 of E'lst An^lia ; of NorthumberUmd ; of the Mer- 
 cians; the Bret Ufa Ida (2) — the British kingdoms (3) 
 — religion (4) — king and people ; a^ihcling, earl, 
 churl, thane, and slave {$)—:^07>ernmenl; the Witaji; 
 towns hi f>y hundred^ a shire (6). 
 
 f 
 
n.] 
 
 THE ENGLISH CONQUEST. 
 
 I. The English Conquest.— In the fourth cen 
 tury, when the power of Rome was going down, the 
 free Celts of the north — the Pids, as the Caledonians 
 were now called, and their allies the Scots — began to 
 pour into Roman Britain, while other enemies attacked 
 the island by sea. These latter were Teutonic tribes, 
 speaking dialects of the Low- Dutch or Lo7v-Gennan 
 tongue, who came from the mouths of the Elbe and 
 the Weser in North-Germany. First among these 
 tribes we hear of the Saxons^ fierce sea-rovers, who 
 were already known and dreaded on the coast of Gaul. 
 Theodosius^ a celebrated general who in 367 wrs sent 
 by the Emperor Valeniinian to the rescue of Britain, 
 drove the Picts and Scots back beyond the northern 
 ramparts, and chased the Saxons from the coasts. 
 But these successes gave only a temporary respite, 
 and the Empire everywhere grew weaker, till at last, 
 early in the fifth century, in the reign of the Emperor 
 Honorius^ the Roman troops were withdrawn from 
 Britain, and the natives were left to resist their many 
 enemies as they best might. Gildas, a British monk 
 of the next century, tells of perpetual inroads of 
 Scots and Picts, of appeals to the Romans for aid : — 
 " The barbarians drive us to the sea, the sea drives 
 us back to the barbarians : — " so ran the supplication. 
 For a while the Britons beat off their foes ; but 
 unused to freedom, they knew not how to govern 
 themselves, and the land was given over to disorder 
 and strife. Nor were the Picts and Scots their 
 worst enemies. In the course of the fifth and sixth 
 centuries, the greater part of the country was con- 
 quered by the Teutonic invaders, the founders of 
 the English nation, among whom three tribes stand 
 out above the rest, the Angles^ Saxons^ and Jutes, 
 These grew into one people under the name of Ajiglo- 
 Saxons, or more commonly of Angles or English ; and 
 the part of Britain they dwelled in came to be called 
 ^nglaml. They were fierce heathen, who slew or 
 
/ 
 
 % 
 
 THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 m 
 
 iil :! 
 
 enslaved those whom they overcame, and drove the 
 rest into the western part qf the island. Never having 
 been under the power of Rome, nor taught to reve- 
 rence her name, they cared nothing for her arts, lan- 
 guage, or laws ; they kept their own speech and faith, 
 their own laws and institutions, and remained un- 
 touched by Roman or British influences. I'hey spoke 
 of the Britons as Welsh, that is, strangers ; while the 
 Britons called them all Saxons ; and to this day the 
 descendants of the Celts in Wales, Ireland, and the 
 Scottish Highlands, term a man of English speech 
 and race a " Saxon." 
 
 2. The English Kingdoms. — According to 
 ancient tradition, the first 1 eutonic Kingdom in this 
 island was that of Kent^ which has always kept its 
 British name Givrtheyrn or Vortigern, a native 
 prince, was 'J-advised enough to invite two Jutish 
 chiefs, the brothers He?igest and Horsa, to serve 
 against the Picts. The strangers, coming over with 
 their followers in three keels or ships, landed in 
 449 at Ebbsfxcet in Thanet, defeated the Picts, and 
 then, thinking they might as well conquer for them- 
 selves, sent over for their countrymen in North 
 Germany, telling them how good the land was and 
 how weak were its people The Britons nevertheless 
 had a long struggle with them; the first battle re- 
 corded in the ancient annals known as the English 
 Chronicle, took place at Aylesford, and cost the life 
 of Horsa ; but the Jutish adventurers at last got the 
 better, founding the Kingdoms of East and West 
 Kent. The next Teutonic Kingdom was that of the 
 South- Saxons or Sussex, founded hy /Elle, who in 477 
 landed near the city of Reg7tujn, since called, after 
 his son Cissa, Cissanceaster (now Chichester). Near 
 where Pevensey now is, there stood the walled town 
 of Anderida, one of the fortresses which guarded the 
 coast. In those days the sea flowed to the rising 
 ground on which Anderida was placed, and ships 
 
n.l 
 
 THE ENGLISH KINGDOMS. 
 
 could ride where now is a great bank of shingle. 
 This town ^lle and Cissa took in 491, and a brief 
 entry in the Chronicle tells us that they "slew all 
 that dwelled therein, nor was there a Briton left 
 there any more." In 495 there came another body 
 of Saxons, who, landing in what is now called Hamj)- 
 shiie, founded the Kingdom of the IVcsi-Saxons 
 or Wessex. Their leaders were Cerdic and his son 
 Cynric^ two Ealdormen^ that is, elders or chiefs, a 
 title which, in the form of " alderman," is still in use. 
 A British prince, Arthur by name, who has become 
 more famous through the romances and poems about 
 him than for his real exploit, about 520 defeated 
 the Saxons at Badbury in Dorsetshire, and checked 
 for a whole generation their advance westwards. But 
 later on, they pushed their way, and a victory won by 
 their King Ceawlin in 577 at Deorham in Gloucester- 
 shire, threw into their hands the Roman towns 
 of Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath. In the district 
 about Colchester and London were the East-Saxons 
 and Midd/e-SaxouSy siS the names Essex and Middlesex 
 still testify. North of the Thames the land was 
 mainly occupied by the Angles. On the east coast, 
 between the fens and the sea, was the Kingdom of 
 East-Angiiay divided into the North-folk and South- 
 folk (Norfolk and Suffolk). Between the Humber 
 and the Forth lay Bernicia and Deira^ and these, 
 when united under one ruler, formed the Kingdom 
 of Northumberland. The first King of the Ber- 
 nician Angles was Ida^ who began his reign in 547, 
 and reaped his royal fortress of Bamburgh on a rock 
 overlooking the sea. Ida's grandson ^^thelfrith^ who 
 ruled over all Northumberland, early in the seventh 
 century defeated the \^ elsh at Chester with great 
 slaughter. Before the fight began, the heathen King 
 marked a band of Welsh priests and monks, many 
 of them from the great monastery of Baiigor-Iscoed, 
 who had come to pray for the success of their country- 
 
lO 
 
 THE ENGLISH IN BRITAIN. 
 
 [CIIAP. 
 
 '" M 
 
 ,J:ii 
 
 ! 1 
 
 men^ " If they cry to their God against us," quoth 
 he, " they fight against us, albeit they bear not arms," 
 and he caused his men to fall on and slay them. For 
 nearly three hundred years from that time Chester 
 seems to have lain in ruins, though its Roman walls 
 were left standing. The latest of the English king- 
 doms was that of Mercian which grew out of a number 
 of small Anglian settlements. The original Mercians 
 — the men, that is, on the march or border — were the 
 settlers about the head-waters of the Trent, in the 
 borderland between the English and the Welsh. In 
 time Mercia extended its power and name from the 
 Humber to the Thames and the Lower Avon, thereby 
 depriving the West-Saxons of some of their conquests. 
 The seven chief kingdoms, Kent^ Sussex^ Wessex, 
 EsseXy Northumberland^ East-Anglia, and Mercia, 
 which stand out above the lesser kingdoms and 
 states, are sometimes called by modern authors the 
 Heptarchy y that is, the Government of Seven ; but the 
 name is niisleading, as the country was never parcelled 
 out into seven states with settlerl boundaries. They 
 were for ever fighting, not only with the Welsh, but 
 among each other, and sometimes one prevailed and 
 sometimes another. At times some one king gained 
 a certain authority over his fellows, in which case he 
 is termed in the Chronicle a Bretwahia^ or " Wielder 
 of Britain." 
 
 3. The British or Welsh Kingdoms. — In 
 the middle of the sixth century it seemed as if the 
 island as far as the Firths was to be divided length- 
 ways between the Welsh in the west and the English 
 in the east. But by the West-Saxon conquests the 
 Britons of West- Wales or Cornwall — that is, the present 
 Cornwall together with Devon and great part of Somer- 
 set — were cut off from their brethren of North- Wales, 
 the remnant of which is still called Wales. The con- 
 quests of ^Ahelfrith and his successors in like manner 
 cut off the Britons of Wales from those beyond Chester 
 
N. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 ist us,*' quoth 
 iar not arms," 
 ly them. For 
 time Chester 
 Roman walls 
 English king- 
 it of a number 
 inal Mercians 
 der — were the 
 Trent, in the 
 \Q Welsh. In 
 lame from the 
 A. von, thereby 
 eir conquests. 
 sseXf IVesseXf 
 and Mercia^ 
 ingdoms and 
 n authors the 
 ivon ; but tlie 
 ver parcelled 
 lanes. They 
 le Welsh, but 
 )revailed and 
 ; king gained 
 ;^hich case he 
 , or " Wielder 
 
 gdoms. — In 
 led as if the 
 vided length- 
 the English 
 conquests the 
 is, the present 
 )art of Somer- 
 North' WaleSy 
 s. The con- 
 1 like manner 
 yrond Chester 
 
 T/. Vau. Pagt to 
 
 THE BOUMOAHY OF THe 
 
 ^NGUSh POSSCSSfOMS 9H0WN THUS a^. 
 
 Stimfordj] Gco(j^'Eeti\lbh55 Qharyuj Q-^st 
 
|; 1 
 
 ij 1 
 
 II 
 
 1 1 '"" 
 
n.l 
 
 kI«:LlGiON AND GOVERNMENT. 
 
 It 
 
 Strathclyde^ the territory of the northern British, which 
 extended to the Firth of Clyde, long remained unsub- 
 diicd. Elmety the district round I^eds, was also an inde- 
 pendent Welsh kingdom till the seventh century, when 
 it was conquered by the Northumbrian King Edwin. 
 
 4. Religion. — The faith of the English was much 
 the same as that of the Teutonic tribes generally — 
 lieathenism, though not of a degraded form. Woden^ 
 called by the Danes Odin^ was their chief god, the 
 giver of valour and victory ; after him came Thimor^ 
 that is, Thunder, better known by his Danish name of 
 Thory the ruler of the sky ; and many other gods and 
 goddesses. The names of the days of the week, as 
 Wednesday y Woden's day, Thursday ^ Thoj's day, still 
 preserve the memory of some of these deities. The 
 name of the goddess Eostre (Easter), worshipped in 
 the month of April, has passed to the Christian Feast 
 of the Resurrection. Wyrd^ that is, Fate, lives on in 
 the word " weird," which in northern tales and ballads 
 signifies a doom or curse inflicted by supernatur^ 
 power. There was also a belief in spirits who haunted 
 the wilds and the waters, and in elves or fairies. 
 
 5. King and People. — The English royal houses 
 claimed descent from the god Woden ; but, though 
 the King was taken from the kingly line, he was never- 
 theless elected ; and a child, or a man thought incom- 
 petent, would be passed over in favour of a kinsman 
 better fitted for the oflice. In early times the King 
 was not looked upon as lord of the soil, but as leader 
 of the people ; and thus in after days, when a single 
 King ruled over a'l the English states, his usual title 
 was '* King of the English," not King of England. 
 His sens and brothers were called ^thelings^ a title 
 originally ^ven to nobles generally, but afterwards 
 restricted to members ot the royal house. From the 
 seventh century onwards, we find part of the land held 
 by individuals or small communities, and part — called 
 folldand or public lani — belonging to the State. 
 
f 
 
 ti 
 
 tItE ENGLISH IN DRITAIK. 
 
 (chap 
 
 f 
 
 When the conquering EngUsh settled down, they 
 were not numerous enough to occupy all the territory 
 they had won, and thus there remained unallotted 
 land at the disposal of the tribe or State. The King 
 had his private estates like other people, and as he 
 could, though at first only with the consent of his 
 council, make grants of the folkland, it came to be 
 looked on as the property of the Crown. Landowners 
 were under a threefold obligadon — to furnish men to 
 serve in the /yr^i or militia, and to keep up the fortifi- 
 cations and bridges. Freemen — for there were men 
 who were " unfree " — were divided into two great 
 classes, known as jEar/s and C/ii/r/s, terms best 
 expressed by the words ** gentle and simple ; " and 
 n later days, the man who had no land of his own 
 ,iad to take some landed man for his *' lord " or 
 master, to be his surety and protector. Nowadays 
 " my lord " is only a respectful manner of addressing 
 a nobleman or a judge ; but of old, when one man 
 jailed another " his lord," it meant that he owed him 
 service and looked to him for protection. Every 
 king or other great man had his own followers, called 
 i/iegns (now spelled thanes\ who devoted themselves 
 to his service in peace and war. As it was both 
 honourable and profitable to serve a king, who could 
 provide for his followers by grants of folkland, the 
 thanes grew into a class of gentry and nobles, which 
 supplanted the older nobility, the " earls " ; and at last 
 the name of thane was given to all who owned a 
 certain quantity of land. For the defence of the 
 country every freeman was bound to serve in \hQfyrd. 
 Slaves were most numerous along the Welsh border, 
 where many Welshmen were taken prisoners and made 
 bondsmen. But men might become slaves in other 
 ways than being captured in war." They might be 
 driven by poverty to sell themselves, or be sold when 
 children by their parents, or be enslaved by law be- 
 cause they could not pay thtir debts or the fines they 
 
".1 
 
 COVEKNMENt. 
 
 n 
 
 liad incurred by some offence ; or they might be born 
 in slavery. 
 
 6. Government. — The King was not absolute (tliat 
 is, he did not rule wholly according to his own will), 
 but was bound to observe the laws and customs of 
 his people. He was moreover guided by a council 
 or assembly, called the Witcna-gembt^ that is, tlic 
 fleeting of the Wise, its members being the Witan^ 
 the Wise Men. It is probable that all freemen 
 might take part in the Meeting, but if so, when the 
 kingdoms grew fewer in number, and larger in extent, 
 the mass of the people soon ceased to attend, because 
 they had not the time or could not travel the distance. 
 So the Meeting shrank on ordinary occasions into 
 something more like our House of Lords, attended 
 only by the great men— the Ealdorviefty who were 
 something Uke Viceroys or Lords-Lieutenant ; the 
 bving's than( s ; and, after the country became Christian, 
 by the Bishops and Abbots. Sometimes, on great 
 occasions, large bodies of people were present ; and 
 in the eleventh century we hear of the citizens of 
 London taking part in Meetings for the election of a 
 King. The powers of the Witan were large; they 
 elected the King; and they and he together made 
 laws and treaties, and appointed or removed the 
 ollicers of the State. In small matters the people 
 governed themselves. The township had its own 
 liltle meeting, still continued in part under the name 
 of " parish vestry," for making its by-laws and settling 
 its affairs. The township was sometimes independent, 
 that is to say, the freemen owned the land ; sometimes 
 it was dependent on a lord, whose tenants tile towns- 
 men were. So the hundred^ called in some parts of 
 the country the wapentake^ a union of townships, had 
 a court and meeting for trying criminals and settling 
 disputes ; and so Ico the shire^ a cluster of hundreds, 
 had its court and meeting, presided over by the 
 ICaldorman, the Slieriff (that is, shiiciccvc, magistrate 
 of lire shire), and the Bishop. 
 
 MHMaai 
 
CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH. [cnAP. 
 
 ; I i 
 
 i i; 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 CONVE..SION OF THE ENGLISH TO CHRISTIANIIY. 
 
 *! 
 
 ' • ;i 
 
 T/ie conversion of Kent {\)—the conversion of the North 
 {2)— the Scottish mission (3) — the Synod of Whitby (4) 
 — the Church of England (5). 
 
 I. Conversion of Kent. — The heathen English 
 had learned nothing from the Christian Welsh, and 
 their conversion was first undertaken by a mission 
 from Rome, which was still considered the greatest 
 city of the Western world, and whoso Bishop, com- 
 monly called Pope^ that is. Father, was held to be 
 chief of all Bishops. Gregory the Grcat^ who was 
 made Pope in 590, was said to have become interested 
 in the English from seeing some beautiful fair-skinned 
 and long-naired boys from Deira standing in the mar- 
 ket at Rome for sale as slaves. Well were they called 
 Angles^ he said, for they had the faces of angels ; and 
 sorrowing that those who were so fair of form should 
 be in heathen darkness, he at once conceived a wish 
 for the conversion of the English. So after he had 
 become Pope, he sent to Britain a band of priests 
 and monks having at their head Augustine^ afterwards 
 styled Saint, who landed in 597 at Ebbsfleet. AEthel- 
 berty King of Kent^ who was the most powerful prince 
 m Southern England, had married Bertha^ daughter 
 of Charibert, one of the Frankish kings in Northern 
 Gaul. The Franks, a Teutonic people, were Christ- 
 ians ; and -^'thelbert, though himself a heathen, had 
 agreed to allow his wife free e'xercise of her religion. 
 He now consented to listen to Augustine and his 
 companions. The mectini^ took place in the Tsle 
 
III.] 
 
 CONVERSION OF THE NORTH. 
 
 tj 
 
 of Thanet, and, by iEthelbert's wish, in the open air, 
 because spells and charms, which he feared the 
 strangers might use, were supposed to have less power 
 out of doors. After hearing what they had to say, he 
 gave them a house in the royal city of Canterbury, 
 where they worshipped in the little Roman church of 
 Saint Martin, in which Bertha was wont to pray. Ere 
 long they converted .^thelbert himself, whose ex- 
 ample was freely followed by large numbers. Augustine 
 became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and his 
 cathedral church of the Saviour, which has been many 
 times rebuilt, still remains the metropolitan or mother 
 church of England. In 604 he ordained two Bishops, 
 of whom one had his see at Rochester, and the other 
 at London, where King ^Ethelbert built for him the 
 church of St. Paul. The Church services, introduced 
 by the missionaries, were in Latin, which, though an 
 unknown tongue to the E^nglish, was still the literary 
 and official language in other parts of Western 
 Christendom. 
 
 2. Conversion of the North. — Eadwine, 
 or as we now write the name, Edtvin^ of Deira, 
 ascended the Northumbrian throne in 617, and be- 
 came the greatest King in Britain. On the northern 
 frontier of his dominions his name lives in that of 
 Edinburgh^ which he founded as a fortress. So strong 
 and good was his government that, as the popular 
 saying went, ** a woman with her babe might walk un- 
 harmed through the land from sea to sea ; " and it was 
 told how, for the benefit of the thirsty wayfarer, he 
 had brass cups hung up by the water-springs near the 
 roads, and no man durst steal them. His wife 
 'Ethelburhy daughter of ^ihelbert of Kent, was a 
 Christian ; and to the Bishop PauiinuSy whom she 
 brought with her, the conversion of her husband 
 was due. When the King was himself convinced, 
 he gathered his Witan to debate whether they also 
 should adopt Christianity. The assembled nobles 
 
 twwiB 
 
i^l 
 
 i6 
 
 CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH. [chap. 
 
 decided for the new creed, and the heathen High 
 Trust Coifi himself undertook to profane the ido» 
 temple of Godmanham. Riding up, he hurled a speai 
 into it, and bade his followers set it on fire. The 
 Minster of York, at first a simple wooden church, was 
 founded by Edwin, who was there baptized in 627. 
 But after Edwin in 633 had fallen fighting against the 
 heathen Peiida, King of the Mercians, and the Welsh 
 King Cadwalla^ Paulinus fled with the widowed Queen 
 to Kent, and Northumbrian Christianity seemed about 
 to perish, when a deliverer arose in Oswald^ since 
 styled Saint, a son of ^thelfrith. At a place called 
 Heavenfield, near Hexham, Oswald set up a woodon 
 cross — the first Christian sign reared in Bernicia — 
 and there, with his little army, knelt and prayed for 
 aid. The Welsh King fell in the ensuing fight, and 
 thenceforward Oswald reigned over Northumberland 
 till in 642 he too fell in battle with Penda. 
 
 3. The Scottish Mission. — The Scots cf 
 Ireland had been converted to Christianity in the fifth 
 century, chiefly, as tradition says, by the famous 
 missionary St. Patrick^ who was most probably born 
 near Dumbarton. Christianity quickly took root 
 and flourished in Ireland ; learning was there culti- 
 vated at a time when it had almost died out elsewhere j 
 foreigners resorted to the Irish schools, and Irish 
 missionaries went out to foreign lands. In the sixth 
 century, St. Colitmba^ an Irishman, had founded tlie 
 renowned monastery of lona^ and had converted the 
 Picts of the Highlands. King Oswald, having in his 
 youth been baptized by the Scots of Britain, applied 
 to them for a Bishop for his people. Aidan, a monk 
 of lona, was sent, and fixed his episcopal see in 
 Lindisfarn^ since called Holy Island. Through his 
 own and his countrymen's labours, the Northumbrians 
 soon became Christians ; but the fait'a of the common 
 people was often mixed with heathenism. In time 
 of pestilence they had recourse to their heathen 
 
 I 
 
[CHAP. 
 
 m High 
 the ido. 
 d a speai 
 ire. The 
 urch, was 
 1 in 627. 
 yainst the 
 he Welsh 
 sd Queen 
 led about 
 ild^ since 
 Lce called 
 a wooden 
 5ernicia — 
 rayed foi 
 fight, and 
 imberlan i 
 
 ni.] 
 
 THE CTTURCn OF ENGLAND. 
 
 "7 
 
 I 
 
 Scots cf 
 the fifth 
 I famoutJ 
 ably born 
 ook root 
 lere culti- 
 Isewhere ; 
 and Irish 
 the sixth 
 nded the 
 ^erted the 
 ing in his 
 n, applied 
 a monk 
 )al see in 
 rough his 
 lumbrians 
 ; common 
 In time 
 • heathen 
 
 charms and amulets, and many looked with no friendly 
 eye on the monks who " took away the old worship." 
 Cuthbert, a Northumbrian monk of Melrose who had 
 been a shepherd in his boyhood, devoted himself to 
 teaching and preaching throughout the villages, 
 choosing particularly those among the hills which 
 were so difficult to get at and so rude and wild thit 
 other missionaries passed them by. He was ma«le 
 Bishop of Lindisfarn in 685, and was afterwards 
 levered as the great Saint of the North. The 
 other English kingdoms were gradually converted 
 during the seventh century, partly by missionaries 
 from abroad, partly by men trained at Lindisfarn. 
 One of the early Mercian Bishops, Ceadda^ who had 
 his see at Lichfield, is still remembered under the 
 name of " St. Chad." 
 
 4. The Synod of Whitby.— The Church of the 
 Irish Scots had ways of its own, notably as to the 
 time for keeping Easter, which differed from those 
 of Rome and the other Western Churches. Hence 
 arose a controversy between the disciples of lona and 
 those of Rome and Canterbury, till in 664 a synod 
 was held in the monastery of Streoneshalh (now 
 Whitby), where Hild, commonly called St, Hilda, a 
 woman of royal race, bore rule as Abbess over both 
 monks and nuns. There the Northumbrian King 
 Os7vy, after hearing both sides, decided for the Roman 
 customs ; upon which the Scottish Bishop of Lindis- 
 farn, Colmarty with many of his monks, withdrew to 
 lona. Trifling as the points at issue seem, in its result 
 the Synod was not unimportant, as it brought all the 
 English Churches into agreement. ^ 
 
 5. The Church of England.— The work of 
 organizing and uniting the English Churches was 
 mainly carried out by Theodore of Tarsus, a man of 
 P^astern birth and training, who was sent from Rome 
 in 668 to be Archbishop of Canterbury. Each 
 kingdom as it was converted had become a diocese. 
 
 !i'i.M » min i w pwi— 
 

 \ 1 
 
 
 ! ^ 
 
 ' 
 
 jli 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 !1 
 
 ) ' 1 
 
 , 
 
 
 i8 
 
 THE KISL OF WESSEX. 
 
 [CHAP. 
 
 that is, a district under the jurisdiction of a Bishop ; 
 but Theodore broke up most of these great dioceses 
 into smaller ones, which in his time were all subject 
 to the Archbishop of Canterbury. After Theodore's 
 death an Archbishop was appointed for York ; but 
 the province^ that is, the district under his jurisdiction, 
 has always contained much fewer dioceses than the 
 provifice of Canterbury. At first there were but few 
 churches ; in many places there were only crosses, 
 under which tiie missionaries * *nt out from the 
 King's court or the monaster}-, preached, said mass, 
 and baptized ; but by degrees more churches were 
 built, and priests settled down beside them. The 
 township, or cluster of townships, to which \ single 
 priest ministered, was at a later time cailed his 
 parisk. During the early period of English history 
 the Church was the chief bond of the nation. Politi- 
 cally, £inglishmen were divided into West-Saxons, 
 Mercians, and so forth ; it was only as members of 
 one Church that they felt themselves to be fellow- 
 countrymen. Thus the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 wiiose wora was respeUea tHroughout the English 
 land, was, in his way, a greater man than any of the 
 seven or eight Kings who were struggling and fighting 
 around him. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE RISE OF WESSEX. 
 
 Decline of Northumberland ; Ine of JVessex; Offa oj 
 Mercia; Egbert^ King of the English {i)—the Danes 
 in E?i^land and Ireland (2) — ALthelwulf and his sons ; 
 the Danish war; Ragnar Lodbrogj St. Edmund {^) — 
 A If red; story of the cakes; taking of the Raven ; A If red 
 in the Danish camp; Treaty of IVedmore; Danish 
 
 \ 
 
 \^' 
 
[CHAP. 
 
 Bishop ; 
 dioceses 
 I subjeci 
 eodore'fe 
 )rk ; but 
 sdictiou, 
 than the 
 but few 
 
 crosses, 
 rem the 
 id mass, 
 les were 
 Ti. The 
 
 \ single 
 lied his 
 L history 
 Politi- 
 :-Saxons, 
 nbers of 
 ; fellow- 
 terbury, 
 
 English 
 of the 
 
 fighting 
 
 tv.l 
 
 THE RISE OF WESSEX. 
 
 i^ 
 
 \e Danes 
 his sons ; 
 md (3)— 
 ; Alfred 
 Danish 
 
 setllcmeuts (4) — Alfred's government ; his death (5) — 
 Kdward the Elder ; the Lady of the Mercians ; Lord- 
 ship of Britain (6) — Rolf the Northman; Normandy 
 (7). 
 
 I. The Rise of V/essex. — For some time 
 Northumberland took the lead among the English 
 states ; but towards the close of the seventh century 
 its power began to go down, and Wessex and Mercia 
 then disputed the supremacy of the South. Wessex, 
 v'hicii was ruled by the descciidants of Cerdic, had 
 grown by constant encroachments on the Welsh ; and 
 Ine^ who became its King in 688, almost completed 
 the conquest of Somerset. He was the fomder of 
 Taunton, a fortress for the defence of his nev frontier, 
 and tradition ascribes to him the building of a stone 
 church for the monastery of Ynysvitrin or Glaston- 
 bury, hard by an earlier wooden church of the Britons. 
 Ine's ^^ dooms ^^ that is, laws or judgments, are the 
 earliest collection of Wo'^t-Saxon laws which have 
 come down to us, thoueh there are written Kentish 
 laws older still. Among the Mercian Kmgs the most 
 famous is Offa, who reigned from 757 to 796. He 
 conquered a great part of the Welsh land of Powys, 
 including its capital town of Pen-y-wera, now Shrnvs- 
 bury. To guard his new-won land he made a great 
 dyke — " Offa's Dyke " — from the mouth of the Wye 
 to that of the Dee. Wessex rose to power under 
 the great King Ecgberht or Egbert, who ascended the 
 throne in 802, and brought all the English kingdoms, 
 together with the Welsh both of Cornwall and of what 
 we now call Wales, more or less into subjection. He 
 was King of all the Saxons and Jutes, and Lord of the 
 East- Angles, Mercians, and Northumbrians, whose 
 kings submitted to be his men, or in later phrase, h'.s 
 vassals, ov;ing him a certain obedience. Egbert, as 
 the chief, though not the only king in the land, was 
 thus able to call himself King of the English, But 
 hardly had Wessex established iu su^ircmacy when iV 
 
 ■b : 
 
 mmmmmm 
 
to 
 
 THE Rlbh. OF WLSSEX. 
 
 [CHAt». 
 
 found a new foe in tlie Scandinavian pirates, whose in- 
 creasing ravages troubled Egbert's later years. 
 
 2. The Danes or Northmen. — The Scandi- 
 navians or Northmen were a Teutonic people, who 
 in course of time formed the Kingdoms of Sweden^ 
 Denmark, and Norway, As those who entered Eng- 
 land were chiefly Danes, English writers commonly 
 speak of the Scandinavians in general by that name. 
 Among these people, as of old among their kinsmen 
 the Angles and Saxons, piracy was an honourable 
 profession, and wealth and fame were won in the 
 roving life of a leader of pirates or Vikings. This 
 last word, derived from vik, a bay or creek, means 
 " men of the bays," the natural harbours which 
 afforded shelter to their vessels. They were thorough 
 seamen, far ahead of other nations in the building and 
 handling of sea-going vessels. Their practice was to 
 sail up the rivers in their cbscs or ^j-^-wood galleys, to 
 choose some place for a fortified camp, and, obtaining 
 horses in the country, make forays over the land, plun- 
 dering, burning, and slaying. I'hey spoke a kindred 
 tongue to English, worshipped the same gods as the 
 heathen English had done, and singled out with delight 
 churches, monasteries, and priests for destruction. This 
 was probably not so much from hatred of Christianity 
 as because the religious houses, ri h and defenceless, 
 were tempting prey. For the most part the Vikings made 
 little difficulty about forsaking their own religion when- 
 ever there was anything to be gained by conversion. 
 Never to flinch in fight, or to shed a tear even for their 
 dearest kinsfolk, and to be as reckless in meeting as 
 in inflicting death, summed up their ideas of honour 
 and duty. The lesser British Isles became favourite 
 Viking haunts, and Scandinavian princes ruled in Man 
 and the Orkneys. Those who harassed Scotland 
 were chiefly Norwegians, to whom in later days the 
 name of N orthmen was restricted. No people suffered 
 more than the Irish, who, though in many respects 
 
IcHAt*. 
 
 ^hose in- 
 
 Scandi' 
 >le, who 
 Sweden^ 
 ed Eng' 
 mmonly 
 It name, 
 kinsmen 
 lourable 
 
 in the 
 This 
 
 means 
 
 which 
 loroiigh 
 ing and 
 
 was to 
 leys, to 
 btaining 
 d, plun- 
 kindred 
 s as the 
 delight 
 n. This 
 stianity 
 iceless, 
 \s made 
 I whcn- 
 ^ersion. 
 3r their 
 ting as 
 honour 
 vourite 
 n Man 
 :otland 
 lys the 
 Liffercd 
 jspecls 
 
 IV.] 
 
 THE DANISH WARS. 
 
 ix 
 
 more civilized than their neighbours, were split into 
 tribes and clans too much at variance with each 
 other to make common cause against their bettef 
 disc'plined and armed invaders. Such order and 
 civilization as Ireland had attained to died out in the 
 course of the long struggle with the Scandinavians, 
 who succeeded in fixing themselves at the mouths of 
 the navigable rivers. Dublin^ Limerick^ and Waierford 
 were their chief towns. 
 
 3. The Danish Wars, ^thelwulf and his 
 Sons. — Egbert was succeeded in 837 by his son 
 yEthchvul/f and he by his four sons, yEt/icIbaidj 
 4'Ethelbcrt, ^^ihelred /., and jElfrcd (or, as we now 
 write it, Alfred), who all reigned one after the other, 
 none of the first three living long. Under -t-Ethelred 
 began the great Danish war, as to the cause of 
 which there are many Northern legends. One 
 tale is that it was undertaken to revenge the death 
 of Ragnar Lodbrog^ a mighty Viking, who had been 
 shipwrecked on the Northumbrian coast. There 
 the King of the country, /Ella, threw him into 
 a dungeon full of poisonous snakes, under whose 
 bites he expired, chanting to the last a wild song 
 recounting his exploits, and boasting that he would 
 " die laughing." Much of this is, no doubt, fabulous, 
 but there may have been a real Ragnar, and several 
 of the chieftains who harassed the British Isles ani 
 called his sons. The known facts are that in 866 '* a 
 great heathen army " landed in East-Anglia, and in 
 the two next years subdued Northumberland and 
 Mercia. In 870 East-Anglia v/as again invaded, and 
 its King, Edmund, was defeated and slain by the 
 Danish leaders Ingvar and Ubba, sons of Ragnar. 
 Edmund, according to legend, was offered his life and 
 kingdom if he would consent to reign under Ingvar. 
 On his refusal to submit to a heathen lord, the Danes 
 bound him to a tree, scourged him, made him, in 
 savage cport, a mark for their arrows, and at last struck 
 
II 
 
 
 M' 
 
 %^ 
 
 THE RISE OF WESSEX. 
 
 [chap 
 
 off his head. He was honoured as a martyr, and the 
 Church of 5/. Edmundsbury was afterwards erected 
 over his grave. From the rapid success of the in- 
 vaders, it would look as if the people north of Thames 
 cared little whether their masters were Danes or West- 
 Saxons. But when in 871 the Danes entered VVessex, 
 they met with a stubborn resistance. 
 
 4. -Alfred or Alfred, 871 — 901 — Alfred, when a 
 child of four years old, had been sent by his father on 
 a visit to Rome, where Pope Leo IV. adopted him as 
 his godson. At nineteen he married, and it is said 
 that during his wedding feast he was seized with fearful 
 pain, which, baffling the medical skill of the time, 
 harassed him for the next twenty years ; if so, his 
 bravery and vigour are the more remarkable. At 
 tlie age of twenty-two he became King, and a hard 
 fight he had of it. Soon after his accession Wessex 
 obtained a respite, though the Danes still occupied 
 Mercia and the North. But after a time the attacks 
 upon ^Vessex were renewed, and early in 878 the army 
 under Guihrum, a Danish chief who had possessed 
 himself of East-Anglia, made a sudden march upon 
 Chippenham, and tlience overran the country. Many 
 of the people fled beyond sea ; the rest submitted, 
 while Alfred, with a few followers, disappeared among 
 the swamps and woods of Somersetshire. At one time 
 — so runs a tale which appears to have come to us from 
 a ballad — he stayed in disguise with one of his neat- 
 lierds, who kept the secret even from his own wife. One 
 day the woman having set some cakes to bake at the 
 fire by which Alfred was sitting making ready his bow 
 and arrows, returned to find her cakes burning in the 
 sight of the unhee(Hng King. Flying to save them, 
 she roundly scolded him for his neglect to turn the 
 cakes, which she said he was only too glad to eat 
 when hot. That same winter the Devonshire West- 
 Saxons slew Ubba in battle, and captured the magic 
 Raven l)anner which was said to have been woven 
 
rv.l 
 
 ALFRED. 
 
 ^3 
 
 in one noontide by the three daughters of Ragnarand 
 to be endowed with the power of foretelling victory or 
 defeat. •Things now began to mend, Alfred and his 
 little band throwing up a small fort in Athelney, and 
 thence making frequent sallies. There is a story that 
 in order to ascertain the strength of the enemy he 
 entered their camp in the disguise of a minstrel, and 
 there stayed several days, amusing them and their King 
 with his music until he had learned all he wanted to 
 know. However this may be, in the spring time he 
 mustered the forces of Somerset, Wiltshire, and 
 Hampshire, and gave the Danes such a beating 
 at Ethandim (probably Edington, near Westbury), 
 that they soon yielded to him. Guthrum submitted 
 to baptism ; and the Witan meeting at Wedmore a 
 treaty was made, by which the Danes received, as 
 vassals of the West-Saxon King, East-Ang/ia^ most 
 part of the old kingdom of EsseXy and all Mercia 
 beyond the Ouse and the ancient road caiiea Watling 
 Street. That part of Mercia which the treaty as- 
 signed to Alfred was placed by him under an Ealdor- 
 man named ^thelrcd, to whom he gave his daughter 
 /Ethelflced in marriage. A detachment of the Danisli 
 army, led by Hal/dene^ one of Ragnar's sons, had 
 already settled in the North, where they divided 
 central and eastern Deira — that is, the greater part 
 of the modern Yorkshire — among themselves. Ber- 
 nicia, although most likely subject to the Danes, 
 seems to have been still occupied by Englishmen and 
 ruled by English Lords at Bam burgh. After all 
 Alfred's labour, a large part of England remained in 
 Danish hands, and consequently the English race 
 became largely infused with Scandinavian blood. The 
 Danish settlements may be, to a great extent, traced 
 by the towns and villages whose names end in by^ 
 which answers to the English ton (town) or ham, 
 Streoneshalh and Northweorthig got from the Danes 
 their present names of Whitby and Derby, This last 
 
 1 
 
tltE RlSfe OP WESSLX. 
 
 fcHAI*. 
 
 * ;;■ 
 
 town, together with Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, 
 and Stamford, formed a sort of Danish league, known 
 as the " Five Bo roughs. ^^ 
 
 5. Alfred's Government. — Alfred worked as 
 hard in peace as in war. He made a collection of 
 dooms ; some taken from the Mosaic 'aw, others from 
 the old codes of -^thelbert of Kent, Ine, and Offa, 
 adding but few of his own, because he said he did 
 not know how those who came after him might like 
 them. To guard against future invasions, he put the 
 military forces of his dominions on a better footing, 
 and kept up a fleet, doing all he could to revive the 
 old seafaring spirit which seemed to have died out. 
 His ships were partly manned by Frisians, a people 
 inhabiting the coast from Holland to Denmark. 
 Alfred gave largely to the poor and to churches, 
 founded monasteries at Shaftesbury and Athelney, and 
 encouraged learned men, English and foreign, to 
 instruct his people. Learning; he tells us in one of 
 his writings, had so fallen off that when he came to 
 the throne there were very few among the priesthood 
 who understood the Latin services of the Church. 
 He himself learned Latin, and translated many books 
 from that language, often adding passages of his own 
 composition. He sent out seamen to the North on 
 voyages of exploration ; also embassies to the Pope, 
 to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and what is still more 
 noteworthy, to Lidia with alms for the Christian 
 Churches there which had been founded, it is said, 
 by the Apostles St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew. 
 This was the first intercourse between England and 
 the far-off Eastern land which now forms part of the 
 British Empire. Alfred had other wars with the 
 Danes, but his courage and determination carried him 
 through all, and his last years were spent in peace. 
 In 901 he died, and was buried at Winchester. 
 
 6. Eadward or Edward the Elder, 901—925. 
 — Alfred was succeeded by his elder son Edward^ 
 
v.] ilitHELStAN to titE DANtStl KlNciS 1$ 
 
 who equalled his father as a soldier, though not as a 
 scholar. He v/as well seconded by his sister i^thel- 
 fl?ed, who after the death of her husband carried on 
 the Mercian government; and with her help, he re- 
 covered from the Danish rule all Essex, East-Anglia, 
 and Mercia. He became more powerful than any 
 former King in Britain, for at his death he was King 
 of the English as far as the Humber, and Lord of all 
 Britain ; the princes of Wales, Northumberland, 
 Scotland, and Strathclyde, all owning him for their 
 lord. 
 
 7. Rolf the Northman. — In those days there 
 was a noted sea-rover, the Northman Rolf^ called in 
 Erench Ron, and in Latin Rollo^ and surnamed, it is 
 said, ** Ganger^' \\'\:i\. is, the goer or walker, because 
 he was too tall to ride ; for when mounted on one of 
 the little horses of the North his feet touched the 
 ground. Rolf spent many years in plundering, and 
 at last fixed himself and his followers in and about 
 Rouen. As he could not be dislodged, the King of 
 the West-Eranks, Charles the Simple, bribed him to 
 peace by granting him the land at the mouth of the 
 5eine with Rouen for his capital. Rolf became a 
 Christian and proved a good ruler. He was the 
 founder of a line of princes, called Counts or Dukes 
 of the Northmen or Normatis ; and their land came to 
 be called Normandy. In after days these Normans 
 played a great part in the history of England 
 
 t 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM iETHELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS. 
 
 ^Ihelstan; Brunanbiirh (i) — Edmund J. (2) — Edred ; 
 S/. DHttstan; Northumhcrlavd made an Earldom (3) 
 — EUwy ; the Monks and the Seculars ; yE(j];iJ'u (4) 
 
i i'Jii 
 
 26 ^ETIIELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS: [ciiAK 
 
 , rr- Edgar {s)— Edward the Martyr {6)—yEthclred the 
 Unready ; battle of Maldon ; invasions of Sweden; 
 martyrdom of ^Ifheah {y)—the Danish Conquest; 
 death of Sweden ; restoration of ^thelred (8) — 
 Edmund Ironside ; division of England (9). 
 
 1. ^thelstan, 925 — 940. — King /Ethdstan^ eldest 
 son of Edward, added to his kingdom Northumber 
 land, which however he was not allowed to keep 
 without a struggle. To wrest it from him, Anlaf. 
 son of a Danish King who had reigned at York, 
 and his cousin, another Anlaf, who ruled over the 
 Dublin Danes, leagued themselves with the Scots 
 under their King Constantine, and the Strathclyde 
 Welsh ; but their united hosts were in 937 overthrown 
 by-^thelstan and his brother Edmund at Briuianburh, 
 a place somewhere north of the Huml)er. There is 
 a tale that one of the Anlafs played the spy in the 
 English camp, disguised, like Alfred before him, as a 
 minstrel; and that i^thelstan and his nobles gave 
 him money, which Anlaf, too proud to keep it, buried 
 in the ground. The victory was complete for the 
 time \ but for twenty years to come the Northumbrian 
 Danes were constantly revolting and setting up Kings 
 of their own. ^Ethelstan, who is described as a slight- 
 made man with golden hair, and of courteous and 
 dignified manners, died in 940. ^thelstan and many 
 of his successors at times called themselves Emperor 
 of Britain, to show that they were lords of the island, 
 and that the Emperors of East and West had no 
 power over them. 
 
 2. Eadmund or Edmund I., surnamed the 
 Magnificent (that is, The Doer of Great 
 Deeds), 940 — 946. — Edmund^ like his father and 
 brother, had hard fighting with the Northumbrian and 
 Mercian Danes. He overran Cumberland or Strath- 
 clyde, and granted it to Malcolm /., King of Scots, on 
 or ndition of receiving assistance from him in war. 
 Ldmund came to a sad end when still a young man^ 
 
«.l 
 
 EDRED AND EDWY. 
 
 27 
 
 being stabbed by Liofa, a banished robber, who, having 
 insolently seated himself at the royal board, resisted 
 the attempts of the King and others to turn him out. 
 
 f. Eadred or Edred, 946 — 955. — Edmund's sons 
 being still children, his brother Edrcd was chosen 
 King. He took as one of his chief advisers, Dunstan^ 
 afterwards styled Saint^ who had been as a boy at 
 iEthelstan's court, whence he was driven by the 
 jealousy of his companions. He was even then noted 
 for learning, and the young courtiers taxed him with 
 a knowledge of heathen ballads and spells, which 
 was thought to savour of sorcery. Afterwards he 
 turned monk, and gave himself up to study, and to 
 arts useful for the services of the Church, such as 
 music, painting, and metal-work. When hardly two 
 and twenty years of age he was by King Edmund 
 -made Abbot of Glastonbury. In Edred's days the 
 last Scandinavian King of Northumberland, Eric^ son 
 of Harold Blue-tooth of Denmark, was driven out ; 
 and Edred placed the Northumbrians under an Earl 
 or governor, Oswiilf^ who was of the house of the 
 Lords of Bamburgh. The title of Earl among the 
 Danes answered to that of Ealdorman among the 
 English. 
 
 4. Eadwig or Edwy, 955 — 959. — Upon Edred's 
 death, Edivy^ elder son of Edmund, though still very 
 young, was chosen King. The history of his brief 
 and troublous reign is obscure, but jealousy between 
 Wessex and the country north of I'hames seems 
 t;o have had a good deal to do with his difficulties. 
 There was also a movement for the reformation of the 
 Church which- led to great disputes. The Danish 
 invaders had destroyed many monasteries ; those 
 which were left were for the most part monasteries 
 only in name, the property being held by secular 
 clerks or clergy, who lived much as they chose. 
 The secitlar clergy were not monks, but lived in the 
 world, being parsons of parishes and canons oi 
 
 i\ 
 
•i ',. 
 
 I 
 
 28 iBTHELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS, [chap. 
 
 cathedral and collegiate churches, and were often 
 married, despite the feeling which had gradually grown 
 up in the Western Church, that the clergy ought not 
 to marry. There is said to have been much ignorance 
 and vice among the seculars. The objects that those 
 who desired a religious reform set before themselves 
 were to restore the monasteries, to introduce a stricter 
 rule of mpnastic life, and, as far as possible, to get the 
 cathedral and other great churches into the hands of 
 monks, whom they liked better than secular clergy- 
 men, married or unmarried. Dunstan, who had 
 himself reformed his Abbey, and made it famous as a 
 school, sympathized with the monks' party, though he 
 was more moderate and cautious than many of its 
 supporters. Edwy's marriage was another cause of 
 strife. It appears that his wife /Elfgifu (in Latin 
 Elgiva) was related to him within one of the nu- 
 merous degrees then forbidden by the ecclesiastical 
 law of marriage, and that the monastic party 
 therefore refused to consider her as the King's wife. 
 Edwy, who was apparently in the hands of the party 
 opposed to the monks, seems from the first to have 
 behaved unwisely, quarrelling almost at the outset" of 
 his reign with Dunstan, and driving him out of the 
 country. Whether by his treatment of Dunstan, his 
 marriage, or his government in general, the King gave 
 offence, and in 957 all England north of Thames 
 revolted, choosing Edwy's brother Edgar for its King. 
 The next year Archbishop Oda prevailed on Edwy to 
 divoice iElfgifu. There is a story, which happily lests 
 on no good authority, that Oda had her branded in 
 the face and banished, and that when she ventured 
 t6 come back, she was seized at Gloucester, and put 
 to a cruel death. Nothing is really known of her 
 end; as for Edwy, he died in 959. 
 
 5. Eadgar or Edgar, surnaitied the Peace- 
 ful, 959 — 975. — Edwy's brother King Edgar^ a youth 
 of sixteen, was now chosen King over the whole 
 
 '*i 
 
^.1 
 
 EDWARD THE MARTYR. 
 
 29 
 
 often 
 
 nation — " West-Saxons, Mercians, and Northum- 
 brians." His reign proved peaceable and prosperous, 
 and by maintaining a strong fleet, he kept the 
 country from invasion. Dunstan, now Archbishop of 
 Canteibury, was his counsellor ; and, though in many 
 churches secular priests were turned out to make way 
 for monks, Dunstan was too much a statesman 
 to take a violent part in the movement Thirteen 
 years after his accession to the throne, Edgar was 
 crowned with great solemnity at Bath in 973. He 
 then sailed with his fleet to Chester, where some 
 six or eight of his vassal Kings with their fleets 
 came and swore to do him faithful service by land and 
 sea. Tradition adds that, in token of their submission, 
 they rowed Edgar, who himself acted as steersman, 
 in a boat on the Dee, from his palace at Chester to 
 the Church of St. John and back. There is another 
 tradition that Edgar exacted of Idwal, a rebellious 
 North-Welsh prince, a tribute of three hundred wolves* 
 heads yearly, and that Idwal paia tnis tor tnree years, 
 but omitted it in the fourth, declaring; that he could 
 find no more. Edgar left by different wives two sons, 
 Edward and ^thelred, one about twelve and the 
 other about six years old. 
 
 6. Eadward or Edward, surnamed the 
 Martyr, 975 — 979. — There was much disorder aftei 
 Edgar's death, for the parties of the monks and the 
 seculars at once began to quarrel again. Besides 
 this, there was a dispute as to which of Edgar's sons 
 should be King ; but finally the elder, Edward, was 
 chosen. After a reign of less than four years, the 
 young King was murdered at Corfes Gate (Corfe 
 Castle). He was called " the Martyr," a name which 
 the English then readily gave to any good man un- 
 justly slain. The story goes that young Edward, 
 returning tired and thirsty from hunting, stopped at 
 the door of his stepmother, yEi/thryth (in Latin 
 El/rida), She came out to welcome him ; but while 
 
 I \ 
 
 n 
 
It 
 
 30 ^TIIELSTAN TO THE DANISH KINGS. Iciiap 
 
 he was eagerly draining the cup presented to him, he 
 was stabbed by one of her attendants. He at once 
 put spurs to his horse and galloped off, but sinking 
 from the saddle, his foot caught in the stirrup, and he 
 was dragged along till he died. It is added that the 
 child i4^2thelred, for whose sake the murder had been 
 committed, on hearing of his brother's death burst 
 into tears, at which yElfthryth in passion beat him till 
 he was almost senseless. 
 
 7. iEthelred II., surnamed the Unready, 
 979 — 1016. — ^thelred was only ten years old when 
 raised to the throne. Dunstan seems for some 
 lime before his death, which happened in 988, to 
 have taken no part in the government, and ^Ethrelred, 
 when he grew up, let himself be guided by unworthy 
 favourites, so that c erything went to wrack and 
 ruin. Weak, treacherous, and cruel, he was always 
 leaving things undone, or doing them at the wrong 
 time ; so that he is known in history as " the Un- 
 ready," that is, the Uncounselled, probably in allusion 
 to his name yEthel-red^ which means ]Sloble-in-cou7isel. 
 Want of union left the country an easy prey to 
 the Danes and Norsemen, who had, within two 
 years of his accession, renewed their invasions. Each 
 Kaldoiman went his own way, making himself as 
 independent as he could ; and men cared little 
 for the King or the nation, though they often 
 fought valiantly for their town or their shire. Thus 
 in 991, Brihtnoth^ the aged Ealdorman of the East- 
 Saxons, fell fighting against Norwegian vikings at 
 Maldon. We read the details in the fragment of a 
 poem which has come down to us. ** The loathly 
 strangers," so it runs, had offered to withdraw on 
 [»ayment of money, to which Brihtnoth answered thai 
 he and his men would "give them spears for tribute.*' 
 But the plan of buying off the ' invaders with large 
 sums was soon afterwards adopted by the King and 
 his advisers The land-tax called Datic^cldy which 
 
 
 1 
 
v-l 
 
 THE DANISH CONOUEST. 
 
 J» 
 
 
 continued to be l^'vicd long after the Danisli invasions 
 had ceased, was originally imposed for the payment 
 of these tributes. Nothing could have suited the 
 pirates better, and again and again they came to shiy 
 and plunder, sure of being bought off in the end. In 
 994, and again in 1003, the King of the Danes, Sn*e/iil 
 or Slacken "" Forkbeard^^ who had been baptized when 
 a child, but had returned to heathenism, invaded the 
 country, and proved a terrible foe. In 10 ic the 
 Danes under one Earl Thurkill took Canterbury, 
 carrying away, tor ransom or for "lavery, a vast 
 number of captives. Among these was the Arch- 
 bishop ^Ifhcah^ who at first agreed to ransom 
 himself, but afterwards refused, being too poor to 
 pay, and unwilling to raise the money from his 
 alrea,Jy impoverished people. In a fit of drunken 
 fury the Danish warriors pelted him with stones and 
 ox-bones, in spite of the remonstrances of Thurkill, 
 who offered all the money he had, or might be able 
 to get — anything except his ship, the dearest posses- 
 sion of a Viking — to save the holy man's life. At 
 last one of the Danes, in pity of the Archbishop's 
 suffering, clove his head with a battle-axe. This is 
 said to have happened at Greenwich, where the 
 parish church of St. Alphe^e (a later form of the 
 name of -/Elfheah) still reminds us of the murdcre*! 
 Aichbishop. 
 
 8. The Danish Conquest. King Swegen. 
 — At last, in 1013, Swegen wrested the kingdom from 
 ^thelred. Sailing up the Trent, he obtained with- 
 out a blow the submission of the country beyond 
 Watling Street. Northumbrian and Mercian forces 
 swelled his army on its march southwards, and 
 \Vessex, terrur-<>ti icken by his cruelties, was soon 
 conquered. It must be noted to the credit of London 
 that it beat off the invaders four times during this 
 reign, only yielding after all the rest of the country 
 ^ad done so. Swegen bei;ig now acknowledged as 
 
 Li 
 
 l! 
 
iii 
 
 u 
 
 THE DANISH KINGS. 
 
 [CIlAf. 
 
 ii. 
 
 King, yEthelrcd followed his wife Emma^ who had 
 taken shelter with her brother, Duke Richard the Good 
 of Nonnandy. Early the next year Swegen died — 
 smitten, so men fancied, by the wrath of the Martyr- 
 King Edmund, from whose town of Bury, under 
 threats of destruction to town and townsfolk, church 
 and clergy, he had demanded tribute. Upon this 
 ^thelred was recalled, but he died soon after, while 
 the war was being kept up between his son Edmund 
 and Swegen's son Cnut. 
 
 9. Eadmund or Edmund II., surnamed 
 Ironside, April 23 — Nov. 30, 1016. — Two rival 
 Kings were now elected, Edmund, ^Ethelred's son 
 by his first marriage, being chosen in London, and 
 Cnut at Southampton. Edmund, whose strength 
 and valour gained him the name of Ironside^ fought 
 six pitched battles against his rival, but was at last 
 induced to share the kingdom with him. Edmund 
 had all south of the Thames, together with East- 
 Anglia, Essex, and London ; Cnut took the rest. On 
 Nov. 30th in the same year Edmund died, after a 
 seven months* reign. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 THE DANISH KINGS. 
 
 Cnut the Dane; his Kingdoms ; the p'eat Earldoms (i) — 
 story of Cnut and the ivaves (2) — Harold I. ; division 
 of the Kingdom between Harold ajui Harthacnut ; 
 death of Alfred; England reunited f (3) — Hartha- 
 cnut (4). 
 
 I. The Danish Line. Cnut or Canute, 
 1017 — 1035. — C«/^/ tlie Dane was soon acknowledged 
 as King of all England. He had for some time pro- 
 fessed Christianity, and though his earlier deeds were 
 
If 
 
 ill' 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 Sf-,i 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 ,/ 
 
 $laj\fordJ Qc*)^\ lisUtl'^i 55 Qmriiuj (foi* 
 
 PCST-S^XQN CAItLOOM SHOWH JUVS 
 
^.1 
 
 CNUT THE DANR 
 
 3J 
 
 \ 
 
 those of a savage, in the enc he proved a good ruler. 
 The late King's two infant sons he sent to his half- 
 brother Olaf, King of the Swedes, praying him to put 
 them to death. The Swede however placed them 
 unhurt under the care of the King of the Hungarians. 
 Towards the people in general Cnut showed nothing 
 of this cruel and suspicious temper, his aim being 
 to win their trust and to rule as an English King. 
 He gathered about him a standing force of from 3,000 
 to 6,000 paid soldiers, Danes, Englishmen, and recruits 
 from all parts of Northern Europe ; but we never hear 
 of his employing these Housecarls — household troops, 
 as we should now say — for purposes of oppression. 
 Besides being King of England and Denmark, he 
 also won Norway and part of Sweden ; but he spent 
 most of his time in England, which he liked better 
 than his other dominions. He divided the country 
 into four great governments or Earldoms — Wessex^ 
 Merciay East-Angliay and Northumberland. This last 
 Earldom now extended only from the Humber to the 
 Tweed, as Lothian^ that part of the old Northumbrian 
 kingdom which lay beyond the Tweed, was held by 
 the King of Scots, and so grew into part of Scotland. 
 Besides the great Earls, who wielded well-nigh royal 
 power, there were many lesser earls, subordinate 
 governors of one or more shires ; and the original 
 fourfold division was not strictly adhered to. Thus 
 Northumberland was sometimes split in two, and 
 lather later on, the southern part, which answered to 
 the ancient Deira, began to be distinguished as York- 
 shire^ while the northern part, as far as the Tweed, 
 alone retained the name of Northumberland. Of 
 Cnut's Earls, the most notable was an Englishman, 
 GodivtHy on whom the King bestowed the hand of a 
 Danishwoman of high rank — Gytha, sister of Cnut's 
 brother-in-law Ulf — and the Earldom of Wessex. 
 Cnut died at Shaftesbury in 1035. Not long after 
 l\is accession, he had married Emma of Normandy, 
 
34 
 
 THE DANISH KINGS. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 the widow of King iEthelred, and by her had one 
 son, Harthacniit. 
 
 2. Story of Cnut and the Waves.— Of tht 
 legends about Cnut, the most famous is that which 
 records how he one day, during the height of his 
 power, ordered a seat to be placed for him on the 
 sea- shore, and bade the rising tide respect him as its 
 lord, nor dare to wet him. The waves, regardless of 
 the roval command, soon dashed over his feet, and 
 the K; -/ leaped back, saying, "Let all the dwellers 
 on eari ^ kn ) 7 that the power of Kings is vain and 
 worthless, nor i. there any worthy of the name of 
 King but He whose will heaven, earth, and sea obey 
 by eternal laws." Thenceforth he never wore his 
 crown, but placed it on an image of our Lord on the 
 Cross. 
 
 3. Harold I., 1035— 1040. — Har thacnui ^Mcctt^td. 
 his father in Denmark, but in England his friends, 
 Earl Godwin and the West-Saxons, could only obtain 
 for him the rule of the country south of Thames. 
 North of that river the kingdom was given to Cnut's 
 illegitimate son Harold. During this divided reign, 
 the JEtheling Alfred, younger son of iEthelred and 
 Emma, came over from Normandy, probably hoping 
 for a chance of the kingdom. He was seized by 
 Harold's men and carried off to Ely, where, his eyes 
 being put out, he died soon after. Earl Godwin was 
 always suspected of having betrayed the iEtheling ; 
 but the accounts are so confused, that it is hard to 
 judge. In the next year, 1037, Harold was made 
 ruler over the whole country, his fellow-King having 
 never yet left Denmark. 
 
 4. Harthacnut, 1040— 1042.— On Harolds death 
 n 1040, Harthacnut was called to the throne, but his 
 government was so bad that the nation soon rued itj 
 choice. He enraged his subjects by the heavy taxes 
 he imposed for the payment of his fleet, and disgusted 
 theni by having tl^e d^ad body of his half-bi:otl;ic^ 
 
VII.] 
 
 EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 
 
 35 
 
 Harold dug up and cast into a fen. The London 
 Danes buried the corpse again in their own burytng- 
 ground, the memory of which is still preserved in the 
 name of the church of St. Clement Danes. In lo. z 
 Harthacnut died suddenly at a marriage-feast at L i >i- 
 beth. By his death England and Denmark became 
 separated. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FROM EDWARD TO THE NOkM ?I CONQUEST. 
 
 Edward the Confessor ; the favotirites ; Earl Godwin ; 
 his banishment^ return^ ajid de th; Earl Harold (i) 
 —the Northern Earldom^ (2) — death of Edward; 
 Westminster; Harold nam ' as successor (3) — Harold 
 II. ; Duke William of Normandy (4) — inimsion of 
 Harold Hardrada and Tostiff; battle of Stamford 
 Bridge (5) — the Norman invasion ; battle of Hastings ; 
 fall of Harold (6) — election of the ALtheling Edgar ; 
 coronation of William (7). 
 
 I. House of Cerdic. Eadward or Edward, 
 surnamed the Confessor or Saint, 1042 — 1066. 
 — The old Royal line was now restored, Edward, the 
 elder son of -^thelred and Emma, being elected to 
 the throne. Unluckily, the new King, brought up in 
 Normandy from boyhood, was no better than a foreigner. 
 The Normans indeed were Scandinavians by descent ; 
 but their manners, ideas, and language were French, 
 and the English commonly called them " Frenchmen." 
 Edward's chief desire was to bring over to England 
 his foreign friends, and to load them with honours, 
 offices, and estates. A Norman monk, Robert of 
 fumihges, whose influence was described as being 
 such " that if he were to say a black crow was white, 
 the King would believe him rather than his own 
 
36 EDWARD TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST, [ciiaf. 
 
 eyes," was made Archbishop of Canterbury. Earl 
 Godwin however, who at the beginning of the reign 
 was the King's chief adviser, kept the foreigners in 
 check as much as he could. A wise and eloquent 
 statesman, Godwin in the main served his country well, 
 but at the same time had a keen eye to his own in- 
 terests. His possessions, acquired by grants from suc- 
 cessive kings, were enormous ; his daugliter Edith 
 was married to the King, and his two elder sons and 
 his nephew were provided with earldoms. Naturally 
 lie was regarded with jealousy by the other great 
 Earls, and still more so by the French favourites, who 
 at last found an opportunity to overthrow him. In 
 1 05 1 Eustace^ Count of Boulogne, the husband of King 
 Edward's sister, being on his way home from a visit lo 
 the English court, had a brawl with the burghers of 
 Dover, arising out of his own insolent conduct. God- 
 win refused to inflict any punishment upon the Dovei 
 men, who belonged to his Earldom, before they had 
 been heard in their own defence; and the quarrel 
 which consequently arose between him and the King 
 ended in Godwin and all his sons being outlawed. 
 The next year he came back from Flanders at 
 the head of a fleet, and the Norman knights and 
 priests were glad to get away as fast as they could. 
 Archbishop Robert, and Ulf the Norman Bishop of 
 Dorchester, with their followers, forced their way 
 through the east gate of London, and fled over sea. 
 Earl Godwin died not long after, being seized with a 
 fit while dining with the King ; but his Earldom and 
 his power passed to his son liar old ^ who in fact ruled 
 the kingdom, and who gained great credit by his 
 victories over the Welsh. 
 
 2. The Northern Earldoms. — In 1055 died the 
 Earl of the Northumbrians, Siward " the Strong" a 
 fierce ar.d stalwart Dane, familiar to us by name as 
 figuring in Shakspere's play of Macbeth. Of his last 
 moments a tale is told, which, whatever may be \\x 
 
DEATH OF EDWARD. 
 
 37 
 
 the 
 
 » 
 
 a 
 
 as 
 last 
 it.- 
 
 i 
 
 triitli, shows what was supposed to be the spirit of 
 a Northern hero. When he felt his end drawing nigh, 
 he exclaimed against the shame, as he deemed it, of 
 dying, not in battle, but of disease — ** the death of 
 cows." So he had his armour put on, and his axe 
 placed in his hands, that he might at least die in 
 warrior's garb, lostigy a younger brother of Harold, 
 was appointed in his stead ; but the new Earl's rule 
 proved so harsh that in 1065 the Northcountrymcn 
 revolted, and setting up a Mercian noble, Morcaf\ as 
 tneir Kari, succeeded in geltmg Tostig outlawed. 
 Morcar's uoer brother Edwin was already Earl of 
 (he Mercians, and the dream of the two throughout 
 ,ife seems to have been to form their governments into 
 An independent kingdom. 
 
 3. Death of Edward. — King Edward died in 
 1066, having lived just long enough to finish the 
 building of an abbey on the spot where ScBbert^ first 
 Christian King of the East-Saxons, had founded a 
 small monasteiy to St. Peter, called the West- Minster, 
 In the thirteeniu century King Henry HI. and his 
 successor replaced Edward's work by the more mag- 
 nificent church liow standing. On his deathbed the 
 childless Edward recommended Earl Harold for his 
 successor; though, according to the Normans, he 
 had promised thai their Duke, William^ should reign 
 after him. Indeed, it is said that Harold himself, 
 being once at the Norman court, had, willingly or 
 unwillingly, sworij to support William. In that age 
 an ordinary oath of homage (that is, the oath by 
 which one man made himself the vassal of another) 
 was broken with little scruple ; and therefore, accord- 
 ing to one tale, ine wily Duke had entrapped his 
 guest into unwittuigly swearing on all the holiest relics 
 in Normandy. King Edward was soon honoured as 
 a saint ; for, though he neglected his duties a^ a 
 ruler, he was pious after his fashion, and the miseries 
 the people endmed under his foreign successors lc(i 
 
38 EDWARD TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. [ciiAr. 
 
 them to look back upon him with regret. In later 
 days the title of Confessor^ which the Church was 
 wont to bestow upon those who were noted for their 
 holy life and death, was conferred upon him. 
 
 4. House of Godwin. Harold II., Jan. 6 — 
 Oct. 14, ic66. — On the day of Edward's death, Eari 
 Harold, though not of the Royal house, was elected 
 King by the Witan ; the next morning the late King 
 was buried, and the new one crowned, in the West- 
 Minster. On hearing of this, Duke William of llox- 
 mandy was speechless with rage. He resolved to 
 appeal to the sword ; but as it did not suit him to 
 appear a wrongful aggressor, he did his best to make 
 Europe believe he was in the right. He sent to Rome 
 to crave a blessing upon his enterprise, and found 
 there an ally in the Archdeacon Hildebrand (afterwards 
 Pope Gregory VII.), who eagerly seized the opportu- 
 nity for bringing the Church of England inta more 
 complete obedience to Rome. Under Hildebrand's 
 influence the Pope, Alexander II, declared William 
 the lawful claimant, and sent a consecrated banner to 
 hallow the attack upon England. 
 
 5. Invasion of Harold Hardrada. — Mean- 
 while the North of England was invaded by Harold, 
 the King of the Norwegians, a gigantic warrior, sur- 
 named, from the harshness of his government, Hard- 
 rada, that is, Stern-in-counseL He was joined by the 
 exiled Tostig ; and Icelanders and Orkneymen, Scots 
 and Irish Danes, flocked together under the *' Land- 
 Waster," as the Norwegian standard was called. The 
 invader had already received the surrender of York, 
 when Harold of England came suddenly upon the 
 Norwegian army at Stamford Bridge, Sept. 25th. In 
 Scandinavian legend the English King is represented 
 as offering Tostig a third of the kingdom if he would 
 return to his allegiance ; Tostig ^ked what his brothei 
 would give Hardrada " for his toil in coming hither ? '' 
 "Seven feet of the ground of England, or more 
 
In later 
 rch was 
 for their 
 
 m. 6 — 
 h, Eari 
 elected 
 :e King 
 e VVest- 
 )f ItJ^or- 
 ved to 
 him to 
 make 
 Rome 
 found 
 Twards 
 )portu- 
 ^ more 
 )rand's 
 l^illiam 
 tier to 
 
 Mean- 
 
 sur- 
 Uard- 
 ►y the 
 Scots 
 
 and- 
 
 The 
 k^ork, 
 the 
 In 
 nted 
 ouid 
 )thei 
 
 r?" 
 ■nore 
 
 VII.] 
 
 BATTLE OF HASTINGS. 
 
 y> 
 
 perchance, seeing he is taller than other men." liut 
 there can have been no time for such parley. Tlie 
 English gained a complete victory, Hardrada and 
 Tostig being among the slain. 
 
 6. Battle of Hastings or Senlac. — The King 
 was holding the customary victory-feast at York, when 
 1 thane of Sussex entered with the tidings that the 
 Normans had landed at Pevensey. Duke William, 
 after waiting more than six weeks for a south wind, 
 had at last set sail, had landed unresisted on the 
 defenceless Sussex shore, Sept. 28th, and occupied 
 Hastings, With the utmost speed, Harold marched 
 to London, calling all to his standard — a summons 
 which was readily obeyed, save by the half-hearted 
 Edwin and Morcar, who delayed bringing up their 
 forces. From thence he gain set out, and pitched 
 his camp on the height called Senlac^ about seven miles 
 from Hastings. The eve of battle, so tlie Normans 
 averred, v/as spent by the English in drinking and sing- 
 ing, and by the invaders in prayer and confession. On 
 the 14th October the armies joined battle. T'^e combat 
 was long and doubtful, but the impatience jf some of 
 the shire levies, who, despite Harold's previous orders, 
 broke their ranks and rushed down the hill in pursuit 
 of some retreating enemies, gavt- the first advantage to 
 the Normans, whose archers did the rest. An arrow 
 pierced the eye of the English King, who, falling, was 
 hacked in pieces by four French knights, of whom 
 Eustace of Boulogne was one. The thanes and house- 
 carls were slaughtered almost to a man around the 
 fallen standard of their King. On the morrow the aged 
 Gytha craved the body of her son Harold, but the 
 Duke refused to permit it Christian burial. Even to 
 find the mangled corpse was no easy task, and two 
 canons of Waltham, who had followed the luiglish 
 army, made search for it without success, ui m1 they 
 brought a former favourite of Harold's, luiith ^^ 0/ the 
 Swanks Ntx/iy' to aid them. 
 
te^ THE OLD-ENGLTSIl AND NORMANS, [chap. 
 
 7. Coronation of William. —The Londoners, 
 together with such of the great men as were at hand, 
 now elected to the throne the young yEtheling Edgar^ 
 the grandson of Edmund Ironside. But though PMwin 
 and Morcar, who on the news of Harold's fall had 
 hastened their march, consented to the youth's election, 
 they >vere cold in his cause, and soon betook them- 
 selves home with their forces. Thus left unsupported, 
 those in London ere long tendered the crown to the 
 Norman Duke, then at Berkhamstead. On Christmas 
 Day, William the Norman — the Conqueror^ '^s he is 
 called in history, — was crowned King at Wf stminster. 
 
 CHAPTER VHL 
 
 THE OlD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS. 
 
 The Old English (r) — the ordeal {2) — the slave-trade (3) 
 — London (4) — language (5) — literature (6) — the JSor- 
 mans; the Bayeux Tapestry (7) — castles; church- 
 building {2^)— feudal tenures ; fealty^ homage ^ und 
 service; knights and barons; decay of feudalism j 
 villainage (9) — government (10) — the towns; the 
 gilds ('i). 
 
 I. The Old-English.— The English appear to 
 have been a well-favoured race, from the days of 
 Pope Gregory's " Angels " to the time when King 
 William, returning to Normandy after his coronation, 
 carried in his train the i^thehng Edgar and other 
 young Englishmen, on whose "girlish grace" and 
 flowing hair the French and Normans gazed with 
 admiration. Yet young Earl Walthcof one of those 
 whose beauty is thus praised, attained to giant 
 strength, and proved that he was no degenerate son of 
 his father^ F^rlSiwaul the Strong. The ancient KngUsl\ 
 
vtii.i 
 
 THE ORDEAL. 
 
 ^e (3) 
 Nor- 
 
 UTCh- 
 
 und 
 
 sin J 
 the 
 
 \x to 
 
 of 
 
 .mg 
 
 tion, 
 
 ither 
 
 land 
 
 M'th 
 
 lose 
 
 lant 
 
 of 
 
 lisU 
 
 • 
 
 weapons were the javelin and the broadsword; for 
 the latter Cnut substituted the two-handed Danish 
 axe. The full equipment of the warrior — helm, mail- 
 coat, shield, and axe — was of course beyond the 
 means of the mass of the shire levies, most of whom 
 came to the battle of Hastings without any defensive 
 armour, and some with no better weapons than forks 
 or sharpened stakes. Both English and Danes ahva)S 
 fought on foot; men of the highest, even of kingly 
 rank, using horses on the march only, and dismount- 
 ing for action. The English, among whom all ranks 
 exercised liberal hospitality, are described as spending 
 their substance in good cheer, while content with 
 poor houses — unlike the Norirans and French, who 
 lived frugally in fine mansions — and as indulging in 
 coarse gluttony and drunkenness, vices which they 
 taught to their conquerors. They had however better 
 amusements than mere revelry. They took great 
 pleasure in poetry, singing, and harp-playing ; and 
 professional " gleemen," who combined the characters 
 of juggler, tumbler, and minstrel, wandered from 
 house to house. There were also outdoor sports — 
 wrestling, leaping, racing, and hunting with net, 
 hound, or hawk. Nor were the English, at the time 
 of the Norman Conquest, an uncultivated people. 
 They had books of medicine, natural science, grammar 
 and geography, in their own language. They were 
 skilful in goldsmith's work, in embroidery, in illumina- 
 tion of manuscripts, as well as in the crafts of the 
 weaver and the armourer. 
 
 2. The Ordeal. — The ordeal was a method of 
 ascertaining the guilt or innocence of an accused 
 person by a supposed appeal to the judgment of 
 Heaven. After certain religious rites, the accused 
 plunged his hand into boiling water, or carried a hot 
 iron for three paces. If in three days the scald or 
 burn had healed, he was cleared ; if not, he was held 
 guilty. A man of ill reputation was obliged to undergo 
 
 !!;l| 
 
,l' 
 
 ii 
 
 n^ 
 
 :;i t 
 
 
 42 tut OLD-ENGLlStt AND NORMANS.- [cHAP 
 
 a llireefold ordeal — that is, the weiglit of the iron was 
 increased threefold, or he had to plunge his arm up 
 to the elbow in the water — where a single ordeal would 
 suffice for persons of credit. The Normans introduced 
 in addition the /r/V?/ liy battle^ which was an appeal to 
 Heaven by means of a duel between accuser and 
 accused. 
 
 3. The Slave-trade. — The crying sin of England, 
 even in the estimation of that age, was the slave-trade. 
 Ahhough the export of Christian slaves was forbidden 
 by law, nothing could check it. The town of Bristol 
 was the chief seat of this slave-trade, and strings of 
 young men and women were shipped off regularly 
 from that port to Ireland, where they found a ready 
 market. King William was as zealous against this 
 traffic as his predecessors, and v/ith no better success. 
 What the law failed to do, St. Wulfstan^ Bishop of 
 Worcester, effected, at least for a season. He visited 
 Bristol repeatedly, and preached every Sunday against 
 the trade until he had prevailed on the burghers to 
 abandon it. Later on, in 1102, St. Anselm^ Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, held a synod at Westminster, 
 in which a decree was put forth forbidding all traffic 
 in slaves — "that wicked trade by which men in 
 England were still wont to be sold like brute beasts.'' 
 
 4. London. — At the time of the Norman Conquest, 
 London^ so advantageously placed upon the Thames, 
 was already the chief city in England, and fast dis- 
 placing the old West-Saxon capital of Winchester. 
 l^ut the London of those days was surrounded by 
 wood and water and waste land where the deer and 
 wild boar roamed. The names of Moorjields and 
 Moorgate still mark the place where once was a dreary 
 moor or fen. Westminster Abbey was built upon 
 a thicket-grown island or peninsula, inclosed by river 
 and streams and marshes, and called Thoni-ey^ that is, 
 the ^sle of Thorns. By the Abbey was the Palace, 
 wnerc Uie Confessor in his later years chielly dwelled, 
 
VIII.] 
 
 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 
 
 41 
 
 in 
 
 i 
 
 that he might watch the building of his Minster. 
 The name of 0/d Palace Yard marks where his 
 dweUing-place was ; Ne7a Palace Yard being so called 
 from the palace built by the Conqueror's son and 
 successor Wtlliam Rufus. 
 
 5. Language. — The English language has so 
 changed in the course of centuries that i 1 its most 
 ancient form it seems like a foreign tongue to us. 
 Besides the changes that all living and growing lan- 
 guages undergo, there crept in a number of French 
 words and idioms, which have made a great difference 
 between modern English and the purely Teutonic lan- 
 guage which is known as Old-English. The dialects 
 which were spoken in different parts of the country 
 fall into three great divisions, Northern, Midland, and 
 Southern, distinctions which still linger in spoken 
 English. What we call " Scotch " is in truth one form 
 of Northumbrian English ; while the dialects of 
 Somerset and Dorset preserve the remains of the 
 Southern speech. Modern English — the language in 
 which books are written and which educated people 
 are taught to use — has grown out of the East-Midland 
 dialect, the speech of the shires bordering on the 
 Fenland. 
 
 6. Literature, — Among the most ancient specimens 
 of Old-English literature is the fine poem of the hero 
 Beowulf and his combats with the ogre Grendel and 
 with a fiery dragon. This tale was composed before 
 the English tribes had migrated from the Continent 
 to Britain, and it is easy to see that it belongs to 
 heathen times, though the text, as we have it, has 
 been re-written in Northumberland, and has received 
 some Christian touches. Our first Christian poet, 
 Cmimon^ who sang of the creation of the world, the 
 entry of Israel into Canaan, and the mysteries of the 
 Christian faith, was b- !ieved by himself and his con- 
 temporaries to have received his powers by the direct 
 gilt of Heaven. He had never learned aught ot 
 
 i 
 
r Ui 
 
 44 
 
 titte oLD-fiNGt.tsii AND r^n>r.>v.> [chap. 
 
 BU)i\ng; — when sometimes at an entcri;aintU':nt it 
 was determined that all the guests should sing in turn, 
 Caedmon, on seeing the harp approach him, would 
 leave in the middle of supper. On one occasion he 
 had thus left the feast, and had lain down to sleep in 
 the stable, the care of the beasts being committed to 
 him that night. In a dream one stood by h^m and 
 spoke: " Caedmon, sing me somed-iing." He pleaded 
 ignorance ; but the command was repeated : *' Sing 
 the beginning of created things." And forthwith he 
 began to sing verses he had never heard before. In 
 the morning he revealed his new powers, and was 
 received by the famous Abbess St. Hild into her 
 monastery at Whitby. This story is told by Bceda^ 
 called the Venej-abk, a monk of JarroWy who died in 
 735. He was one of the most learned men of his age ; 
 and from his chief work, " The Ecclesiastical History 
 of the English People" written in Latin, v/e get great 
 part of our knowledge of those times. Ealhwine or 
 Alcuifif born about the time of Boeda's death, and 
 educated in the school of York, had so high a repu- 
 tation as a scholar, that Charles the Great, King of the 
 Franks and Lombards, and afterwards Emperor of 
 the Romans, invited h'^n over to his court to lay 
 the foundations of learui'ij^ in his dominions. But the 
 literature of Northumberland, which had already begun 
 to fall off, almost wholly perished during the ravages 
 of the Danes. Under King Alfred, learning and 
 literature found a new home in Wessex. Whether he 
 actually had a hand in the composition of the English 
 or Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is not certain, but it is 
 thought that in his reign it began to be put together 
 in its present shape, after which it was regularly 
 continued. Of this Chronicle, England may well be 
 ;>'Oud, for no other European nation has so ancient 
 and trustworthy a history written in its own language. 
 A fip'^ song upon the battle of Brunanburh is inserted 
 in the Chronicle as if prose was insufficient to 
 
nt it 
 turn, 
 vould 
 Dn he 
 ep in 
 ;cd to 
 1 and 
 saded 
 'Sing 
 th he 
 . In 
 i was 
 o her 
 Bcsdiiy 
 ied in 
 sage; 
 Ustory 
 t great 
 nne or 
 
 VTTT.] 
 
 TITE NOT^MANS. 
 
 45 
 
 express the national exultation. Other snatches r-f 
 song occur here and there in the Chronicle; a»d 
 besides the poetry preserved to us, there appeiu- o 
 have been many popular ballads sung by the gleemtn. 
 from which some of the tales about our early Kings 
 were derived. 
 
 7. The Normans.-^The Normans had become 
 Christian and civilized without losing the vigour and 
 adventurous spirit of their Scandinavian forefathers. 
 In whatever they did, they were foremost ; and though 
 in the arts of peace they were not inventors, they 
 acquired, improved, and spread abroad all the 
 learning, science, and art of the age. Abo*e all, 
 their valour and military skill were renowned through- 
 out Europe. They brought new strength and life to 
 the English race, and thus the country gained by the 
 conquest in the end, and became more free and great. 
 The middle-class English — the small thanes and the 
 townsfolk — soon mixed with the foreign settler;- 
 Norman and others; and, only a few years after the 
 Conquest, French and English were already b'^ginn'n^; 
 to live together on good terms, and to inteimpny, 
 so that by the time of King Henry II , tn^ great- 
 grandson of the Conqueror, it was imposjj 'jle, ex- 
 cept in the highest and lowest ranks, to dis'iaguish 
 one race from the other. The peasantry were 
 supposed to be purely Old-English, and the great 
 men still were, or liked to be thought, of Norman 
 blood. The Norman method of warfare diff.^red 
 from the English and Danish, which it displaced. 
 The Norman and French gentlemen fought on 
 horseback armed with lance and sword, and would 
 have thought it beneath their dignity to go into 
 battle on foot. Of the common men a large number 
 were archers ; and in course of time the English 
 became more expert than any other nation in the 
 use of the long-bow. The attire and weapons both 
 of the conquering and the conquered race are well 
 
 ! ■ 
 
4« 
 
 THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS, [ciiap. 
 
 known to us from the famous tapestry preserved at 
 Baymx^ which represents in a series of pictures the 
 history of the Norman Conquest. There have been 
 many conjectures as to the origin of the tapestry, but 
 the most probable one is that it was a gift from King 
 William's half-brother Bishop Odo to his cathedral 
 church at Bayeux. 
 
 8. Castle and Church Building. — One of the 
 earliest French words introduced into our language 
 was castle^ the name and the thing being alike foreign. 
 Fortified towns and citadels were indeed familiar to 
 Englishmen ; but private fortresses, such as were 
 raised first by the Confessor's Norman favourites, 
 greatly to the wrath of the English people, were 
 something new, and these were called castles. 'Vo 
 possess one was the wish of every Norman noble ; for 
 when once his donjon^ keep, or tower was built, he 
 was king of the country round, and, until regular siege 
 was laid to it, might laugh at the law. But though a 
 strong, it was a. dark ahd dreary dwelling. A splendid 
 specimen of the donjon on its grandest scale is the 
 White Tower of London, built for King William by 
 Gundulfy Bishop of Rochester. William raised many 
 castles of his own, to overawe rather than to defend 
 the tov/ns beneath them, though he wisely did not 
 allow private ones to be built without royal licence. 
 The eleventh century was a great time for church- 
 buildmg, and the Normans in England carried on the 
 v'ork vigorously, almost all the bishops rebuilding 
 *heir cdhedral cuurches. St. Paul's having been 
 dto wefl or damaged by fire, Maurice^ Bishop of 
 J^ondi.n, ijegan a mighty pile to replace it. His suc- 
 cesSvjrG continued It, and it became the largest church 
 in England. The style of the age, Romanesque^ as it 
 ii calkd, was greatly improved by the Normans, and 
 llie new form they gave it is commonly spoken of as 
 the Norman style of architecture. Its characteristic 
 points are the round arch, massive pier, and narrow 
 
 L 
 
[CIIAP. 
 
 vc(] at 
 es the 
 e been 
 ry, but 
 1 King 
 :hedral 
 
 of the 
 ngucige 
 breign. 
 iliar to 
 s were 
 ourites, 
 :, were 
 f. 'Jo 
 
 VIIl] 
 
 FEUDAL TENURES. 
 
 47 
 
 window. Durham Cathedral, begun in the reign of 
 Rufusby Bishop Wtiiiam of St, Ca rile/ 2ir\d continued 
 by his successor Raniilf Flambard^ is a fine specimen 
 of Norman Romanesque. 
 
 9. Feudal Tenures. — There had grown up abroad 
 a system of land-tenure, law, and government, which 
 is known zs feudalis7n ; and after fhe coming in of the 
 '^oxm.^x\%, feudal ideas and practices obtained much 
 more dominion in England, which had hitherto not 
 been affected by them to any great extent. When a 
 /(7n/ granted land to his man or vassal on condition of 
 fidelity and service in war, the vassal was said to hold 
 by a feudal tejiure^ the land so held being called a 
 feudufti^ fief, or fee. (See the General Sketch of 
 European History^ The vassal, when his fief was 
 conferred, swore fealty (fidelity), and did homage. 
 In the most complete form of homage, as it was 
 performed in England, me vassal, bare-headed, with 
 belt ungirt, knelt before his lord, between whose 
 hands he placed his own, and promised thencefor- 
 ward to become " his man of life and limb and earthly 
 honour," and to be faithful and loyal to him. The 
 most marked feature of feudalism in England was the 
 tenure by k?nght-servtce. The knight, in French 
 cha>aliery answered pretty nearly to the thane of earlier 
 days ; he held an estate of a certain yearly value, and 
 his duty was, when called upon by the King or by his 
 lord, to serve in war, on horseback and fully ecjuipped, 
 for forty days in the year. Every great landowner was 
 bound, according to the amount of land that he held, 
 to bring so many of these mounted followers into the 
 field. Not laymen alone, but also bishops and clerical 
 and monastic bodies, held lands by military service, 
 and furnished their quota of warriors to the King's 
 forces ; though by the law of the Church ecclesiastics 
 might not serve in person, a restriction which they did 
 not always observe. Although landowners holding 
 by knight-service were for some purposes classed as 
 
48 
 
 THE OLD-ENGLISII AND NORMANS. [cn\p 
 
 knights, in strictness a knight, at least from the twelfth 
 century onwards, should have been "dubbed 
 knight," the ceremony which marked him as a 
 warrior. This dignity of knighthood was often be- 
 stowed on a valiant man who had no qualification 
 in land, and men even of royal blood were proud to 
 receive it. Hence " knightly " and " chivalrous " 
 became equivalent to the modern terms of *' soldier- 
 like " and " gentlemanlike." The great barons^ or 
 military tenants of the Crown, having little armies of 
 trained knights under them, were formidable person- 
 ages when they chose to be rebellious. William and 
 his successors however took all possible care that the 
 King should not, as in France, be overshadowed by 
 his own great vassals. The King was sovereign or 
 supreme lord, of whom all land was supposed to be 
 held in the first instance ; and the danger of his 
 sovereignty becoming a mere name, as was the case in 
 some countries, in consequence of its being thought 
 that the under vassals owed duty only to their im- 
 mediate lords, and not to the King also, was avoided 
 by the passing of a law in a Meeting held at Salisbury 
 in 1086, obliging all freemen to swear allegiance to 
 William. Thus no man could think himself justified 
 in following his own lord in rebellion against the King, 
 the sovereign lord of all. The barons however strove 
 hard to cripple the royal power, until the nobility of 
 the Conquest had nearly died out, and new nobles 
 were raised up, first by the Conqueror's son King 
 Henry /., and after him by Henry II. In the following 
 history we shall find the people at first siding with the 
 Crown, and afterwards with the barons. Harsh as 
 the foreign Kings were, they kept down the worse 
 tyranny of their nobles ; but when the Crown had 
 triumphed, and a new and better class of nobles had 
 arisen, it became the barons' turn to restrain the royal 
 despotism. The Kings early discovered that their 
 feudal rights could be used as means of wringing 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 L' 
 
 I 
 
[CHAP 
 
 Lwelfth 
 lubbed 
 as a 
 en be- 
 ication 
 oud to 
 ilrous " 
 soldier- 
 ojis^ or 
 iiies of 
 person- 
 im and 
 ;hat the 
 wed by 
 'eign or 
 ;d to be 
 of his 
 : case in 
 thought 
 leir im- 
 voided 
 Hsbury 
 ance to 
 ustified 
 |e King, 
 strove 
 ility of 
 nobles 
 King 
 [lowing 
 nt\\ the 
 ush as 
 worse 
 |n had 
 |es had 
 royal 
 It their 
 jinging 
 
 vni.] 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 49 
 
 \ 
 
 money from their vassals, who in their turn treated 
 their tenants as the King treated themselves ; and 
 even after feudalism as a military system had fallen 
 into decay, and the main ground for its existence had 
 thus disappeared, its grievances remained, until the 
 abolition in the seventeentli century of the tenures by 
 knight-service. To the poorer freemen or churls^ 
 feudalism was disadvantageous. Even before the 
 Norman Conquest, this class had been falling under the 
 authority of the great landowners. Though it was more 
 ilignified to be a free landowner, it was often safer 
 to be a dependant, paying rent to, or doing work 
 for, some strong and warlike lord, who would defend 
 the churl's rights, and be answerable for the military 
 service due from his land. In feudal times the churl 
 became a villain (from the Latin villajius, husband- 
 man), a serf bound to the soil he tilled, and unable to 
 change his abode — a condition above actual slavery, 
 though below freedom. The villains were in fact 
 labourers whose wages were paid, not in money, but 
 in the shape of a small holding, perhaps only a 
 cottage and patch of gTound, and for two centuries 
 after the Conquest their position was not hard, though 
 by degrees it grew worse. They were a rough and 
 ignorant class, but not badly off, according to the 
 ideas of the time, and exempt from the dangers of 
 a warlike life. In feudal times the slaves became 
 hardly distinguishable from villains, and what was a 
 fall for the free churl was a rise for the slave. Thus 
 slavery gradually died out, as in the course of ages did 
 villainage likewise. 
 
 lo. Government. — The Norman Conquest 
 brought about considerable changes in the govern- 
 ment. The Witena-gevibt became the Great Council^ 
 the King's court of feudal vassals, which perhaps was 
 sometimes an assembly of all landowners, but usually 
 only of bishops, abbots, earls, barons, and knights. 
 The chief mir.ister cf the Norman Kings, from the 
 
 ' i 
 
 ' 
 
 rr *< n» B — iii w jumj i 
 
$0 
 
 THE OLD-ENGLISH AND NORMANS, [chap. 
 
 reign of Rufus, bore the title of Justiciar, The 
 Chancellor was of somewhat earlier origin, as he 
 appears in the reign of the Confessor. He was usually 
 an ecclesiastic, the chief of the royal chaplains, and 
 with them kept the royal accounts, drew up and sealed 
 writs, and wrote the King's letters. The system of 
 government by Earls was gradually given up. At 
 first, more or less of the authority of an ancient earl 
 or ealdorman seems still to have been conferred with 
 the title ; but in course of time it became, as now, 
 merely an hereditary titular dignity. The final stroke 
 was put to a change which had been coming about for 
 some generations. The folklandy or public land, as 
 much as was left of it, became Crown land, which the 
 Sovereign could grant away at his pleasure. This 
 right was greatly abused until, many centuries later, 
 Parliament interfered to limit it. As the royal domain 
 has since been under the control of Parliament it has 
 in fact gone back to the condition of folkland. 
 
 II. The Towns. — It has been sarcastically re- 
 marked that, though we are fond of boasting that the 
 liberties of England were bought with the blood ol 
 our forefathers, it would be more generally accurate 
 to say that they were purchased with money. This is 
 peculiarly true in the case of the towns. At the time 
 of the Norman Conquest we find the inhabitants ot 
 towns living under the protection of the King or other 
 lord, to whom they paid rents and dues. The first 
 steps towards an administration and organization of 
 their own were taken in order to free themselves from 
 the exactions of the sheriff, who collected the sum 
 due to the King from the shire. As whatever he 
 could collect above that sum was his own profit, he 
 was under temptation to exact from the rich burghers 
 more than was legally due ; and they therefore made 
 it a point to have a valuation of their town fixed. 
 The next step was to take the collection of this 
 sum out of the sheriff's hands, which was done by 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
VIIT.] 
 
 THE TOWNS. 
 
 51 
 
 sum 
 (r he 
 It, he 
 ihers 
 
 lade 
 Ixed. 
 
 this 
 by 
 
 li 
 
 1 
 
 obtaining from the Crown a charter letting the town 
 to the burghers at a certain rent. By degrees 
 they gained, usually by purchase, further privileges 
 and more complete independence. They were still 
 however liable to taxes, called tallages^ at the plea- 
 sure of the King. Henry I. granted a charter to the 
 citizens of London, by which he gave them large 
 privileges. He permitted them to appoint their own 
 sheriff, to have their ancient hunting-grounds, — a 
 mighty favour from one of the N<jrnian Kings, who 
 were loth to let anyone hunt but themselves ; and he 
 freed them from the obligation to accept the trial by 
 battle. To Kingyi?//;/, the son of Henry H., London 
 owed the privilege of choosing its own Mayor ^ an 
 officer who, with his French title, first appears early 
 in the reign of John's brother and predecessor on the 
 throne, Richard I. The example set by the Kings 
 in their cities and boroughs was followed by the great 
 lords who held boroughs, to which they granted 
 similar privileges. Trade gilds in like manner bought 
 charters. These gilds or sworn brotherhoods were 
 very old institutions in England, and in their earliest 
 form were associations for religious purposes, for 
 mutual defence against injury, or for mutual relief in 
 poverty. Of the craft-gilds or associations of free 
 handicraftsmen, the most ancient were those of the 
 weavers. Henry I. chartered the weavers of Oxford, 
 and also those of London, who paid him in return 
 eighteen marks yearly. By this London charter the 
 right of exercising the craft within the City, South wark, 
 or other places belonging to London, was confined 
 to members of the gild. The craft-gilds were in fact 
 a kind of trade-unions, though composed of masters ; 
 but these masters weie but small people, for in those 
 days there were no gieat employers of labour such as 
 there are now, and therefore no large class of hired 
 workmen. The merchant-gilds or gilds of traders by 
 degrees grew into the governing bodies of their towns. 
 
 li' 
 
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 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 11.25 
 
 Jl 124 
 
 ■« lii 12.2 
 
 S lit ^" 
 £ Ui 12.0 
 
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 / 
 
 
 
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 7 
 
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 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 33 WIST MAIN STRUT 
 
 WBBSTIR, N.Y, USM 
 
 (716)l72-4503 
 

5* 
 
 WILLIAM 1. 
 
 [Chap. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 II 
 
 WILLIAM I. 
 
 William the Conqueror (i) — the confiscations (2) — com^ 
 pletion of the Norman Conquest; hairy in^^ of the 
 North; defence of the Isle of Ely ; the j^ the ling 
 Edgar; beheadins^ of XValtheof (3) — Lanfranc ; 
 WilUaft^s government ; Domesday ; the New Forest 
 (4) — imprisonment of Odo ; death of William ; Battle 
 
 ^ Abbey (^\ 
 
 1. The Norman Kings. William I., sur- 
 named the Great and the Conqueror, 1066- 
 1087. — ^The Norman King was a hard and strong- 
 willed man, who never shrank from oppression or 
 cnielty when they would serve his purpose, but who 
 scarcely ever committed a merely wanton crime. He 
 was ambitious of power, but he at any rate meant to 
 use it well, and he had been a good ruler in his own 
 land of Normandy. He was strong in body as in 
 mind J no hand but his could bend his bow, and, 
 although in later life he became excessively fat, he 
 was always majestic in bearing. His wife, Queen 
 Matilda^ for whom he had a constant affection, was 
 the daughter of Baldwin, Count of Flanders. 
 
 2. The Confiscations. — William, looking upon 
 Harold as a mere usurper, claimed to be the lawful 
 successor of the Confessor, and was careful to act in 
 strictly legal form. According to his view, all English- 
 men had been traitors, for they had either tried to 
 keep him out, or at least not helped to bring him in ; 
 and as traitors, all their estates might be confiscated^ 
 that is, taken possession of by the State. He at once 
 confiscated a great deal, out of which he made grants 
 to his followers ; and every fresh disturbance 01 
 
 
 \ 
 
 * 
 
tx.] COMPLETION O^ tttE NOUMAN CONUSET. 53 
 
 rebellion was made a ground for confiscating more. 
 'J'he result was that the country got a set of foreign 
 nobles, and that many Englishmen lost all, or nearly 
 all, that they had, or became tenants under Norman 
 lords ; but every one, French or English, held his lands 
 solely from the King's grace. 
 
 3. Completion of the Norman Conquest. — 
 
 After an absence of less than six montlis, William went 
 
 over to Normandy, to show himself in his new dignity. 
 
 Yet in truth his conquest was only begun ; and he had 
 
 the West and the North still to win. That part of 
 
 the country which was in his grasp he left under 
 
 the rule of his half brother Odo of Bayetix^ and of 
 
 his trusty friend William Ftiz-Osbern, making th"b 
 
 former Earl of Kent iir\i\ the latter Earl of Hereford. 
 
 These treated the English so oppressively that the 
 
 King on his return found matters in a troublous state. 
 
 Still he kept his hold on the iicuth- eastern shires, and 
 
 when he marched to conquer the West-country, English 
 
 levies formed part of his army. It took him about 
 
 three years and a half to get full possession of the 
 
 land \ for there was still spirit among the people. But 
 
 a revolt here and a revolt there, with no common 
 
 plan or leader, were useless against so good a soldier. 
 
 The most formidable rising was in 1069, when the 
 
 King of the Danes, Swe^^en Estrithson, sent a fleet 
 
 to tTie help of the English in the North, who were 
 
 joined by the i^theling Edgar. York, where the 
 
 Normans had built two castles to command the Ouse, 
 
 was the first point of attack. There the stalwart 5*irl 
 
 Waltheof, so the story goes, took his stand by a gate ; 
 
 and as the Normans pressed forth one by one, their 
 
 heads were swept off by his unerring axe. William 
 
 took a savage method of crushing the North-country 
 
 into obedience. At the head of his troops he marched 
 
 through the length and breadth of the land between 
 
 York and Durham, and deliberately made it a desert. 
 
 For nine years the ground remained waste, no man 
 
 1 
 
 r 
 
M 
 
 Willi AM i. 
 
 fcHAK 
 
 !i 
 
 II 
 
 thinking it worth while to till it ; and even a genera 
 tion later ruined towns and uncultivated fields still 
 bore witness to the cruelty of the Conqueror. The 
 hitherto unconquered country between the Tyne and 
 the Tees was harried in like manner, as also Cheshire 
 and the neighbouring shires, the city of Chester being 
 William's last conquest. ^Io^e than 100,000 people, 
 then no small part of the population, are said to haNe 
 died of hunger and cold that winter. William was now 
 master of the land, although a band of outlaws and 
 insurgents, chief among them one Hereward^ still held 
 together in the Isle of Ely. In those days the rising 
 ground of Ely was really almost an island, surrounded 
 by streams and deep fens. When, after a brave 
 defence, this last stronghold surrendered to William, 
 Hereward, with a small band of comrades, escaped by 
 water, and legend goes on to tell how he led an 
 outlaw's life in the woods, and was the terror of the 
 foreigners, until he made his peace with the King. 
 One story says that he was nevertheless treacherously 
 cut to pieces by a party of Normans, " Had there 
 been three more men in the land like him, the French 
 would never have entered it," is said to have been the 
 remark of. one of his slayers. Of the other English 
 leaders, Edgar, after finding shelter for some time with 
 his brother-in-law King Malcolm II L of Scotland, made 
 his peace and settled down in Normandy ; and Mor- 
 car, who had been among the defenders of Ely, dragged 
 out his life in captivity. Waltheof was taken for a lime 
 into high favour, being made Earl of Northumber- 
 land; but afterwards "getting entangled in a conspiracy 
 against William, he was sentenced to death. At early 
 morn. May 31st, 1076, he was led outside Winchester 
 to die. The headsmen grew impatient at 'the length 
 of his prayers. "Let me at least say the Lord's 
 Prayer for me and for you," pleaded the Earl ; but 
 ere he had finished, the executioner struck off his 
 head as he knelt. The bystanders fancied that the) 
 
UT.) 
 
 WILLIAM'S GOVERNMENT. 
 
 $i 
 
 J] 
 
 heard the severed head complete the prayer ; and 
 by his countrymen Waltheof was honoured as a 
 toartyr. 
 
 4. William's Government.— William placed in 
 the Archbishopric of Canterbury, Lanfranc^ a Lombard 
 by birth, who was held to be the most learned man in 
 Europe. Under the new Primate the Church of Eng- 
 land was brought into closer connexion with that of 
 Rome, and the bishoprics were gradually filled up 
 with foreigners. The Norman King tried, though with 
 small success, to learn English, and his rule was 
 in some points good ; but in later years he grew 
 avaricious and grasping, shutting his eyes to any 
 oppression by his officers if it brought him in money. 
 In 1085, after consulting with the Witan, he decreed 
 the making of Domesday— Xht great Survey of the 
 country, in which every estate, as far north as the 
 Tees, was entered, with its values at the time and in 
 that of Edward. This work, so useful to the historian, 
 was then looked on with distrust and indignation, as 
 a step towards further taxation. Not a yard of land, 
 not so much as an ox, or a cow, or a pig, was left 
 unrecorded, so the Chronicler complains. William 
 delighted in hunting, and his cruel law, which con- 
 demned the deerslayer to lose his eyes, was another 
 grievance. The Nau Forest in Hampshire was made 
 by him, and stories are told of his destroying houses 
 and churches which stood in his way. Long after 
 his time, the forests, which were constantly being 
 increased, continued to be a cause of bitterness, on 
 account of the severe laws for the protection of the 
 game. To understand how a forest could be made, 
 it must be explained that a forest was not merely a 
 7vood, but rather any uncultivated ground. 
 
 5. Death of William. — In his later years William 
 was troubled by the rebellion of his eldest son Robert^ 
 who had been aggrieved by his father's refusal to make 
 over to him the IJuchy of Normandy. Odo of Baycux 
 
 't 
 
 If! 
 
 t 
 

 56 
 
 WILLIAM L 
 
 [CllAP 
 
 also gave cause of displeasure. Having taken up a 
 notion of getting himself made Pope, he was gathering 
 a band of Normans for an expedition into Italy, when 
 the King cut short his schemes by ordering his arrest. 
 As those present had scniples about laying violent 
 liands on a Bishop, William himself arrested his 
 brother. Instructed by Lanfranc, the King was ready 
 with his justification : — " I do not seize the Bishop of 
 Bayeux, but the Earl of Kent." And accordingly the 
 Karl-Bishop was kept in ward until the King on his 
 deathbed set him free. In 1087 William was laying 
 'vvaste the borderland between France and Normandy 
 in revenge for a stupid jest which the French King 
 had made upon his unwieldy figure. While riding 
 through the burning town of Mantes, and urging his 
 men to add fresh fuel to the flames, his horse, treading 
 on the hot embers, made abound forward, and William, 
 being pitched against the pommel of the saddle, 
 received an internal injury, of which he lingered 
 many weeks. On his deathbed he ex])ressed a tardy 
 penitence for his unjust conquest of England, and 
 above all for the harrying of the North. What he 
 had won by wrong, he said, he had no right to give 
 away, so he would only declare his wish that he might 
 be succeeded in England by his second son William^ 
 who ha" ever been dutiful to him. Robert, who was 
 still at enmity with his father, was to have Normandy, 
 together with the adjoining province of Maine^ which 
 William had conquered. The King died at Rouen in 
 Normandy, Sept. 9th, and was buried at Caen. ButtU 
 Abbeyy near Hastings, was built by him upon the spot 
 where Harold's standard had stood. 
 
 A 
 
X.1 
 
 WILLIAM II. 
 
 SI 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 WILLTAM II. 
 
 Ji 
 
 Election of William; rebellion of Odo; character of 
 
 William; Ranulf Flambard; the Royal followers {\) 
 
 — Norman affairs; Scottish affairs (2) — Flambard^s 
 
 financial expedients ; Anselm made Primate (3) — the 
 
 First Crusade ; Normandy mortgaged (4) — death of 
 
 William (5) — building of Westminster Hall (6). 
 
 T. William II., surnamed Rufus, or the 
 Red King, 1087-1100. — The Conqueror's wish was 
 tulfilleii, his son William being elected and crowned 
 King, Sept. 26th. But Odo of Bayeux worked upon 
 the barons, pointing out how much better it would 
 suit them to be governed by the easy-tempered 
 Robert than by the fierce and masterful William ; and 
 almost all the great Norman nobles joined in an 
 attempt to transfer the crown to Duke Robert. 
 William thereupon made an appeal to the English, 
 promising them the best laws they ever had, liberty 
 of hunting on their own lands, and freedom from un- 
 just taxes. The English answered with hearty support, 
 and soon quelled the rebellion ; but their loyalty was 
 ill requited. " Who is there who can fulfil all that he 
 promises ? " was William's angry reply when Lanfranc 
 reminded him that he had sworn to rule with justice 
 and mercy. In 1089 Lanfranc died, and with him 
 all hope of good government. RufuSy or the Red 
 Kingy as he was called from his ruddy complexion, 
 inherited his father's valour, but no other of his virtues. 
 He gave himself up to gross vice, was irreligious and 
 blasphemous in speech, and surrounded himself with 
 wicked and foolish companions, who caused scandal 
 equally by their sins and their follies. His promise 
 
 
 •' If 
 
58 
 
 WILLIAM II. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 
 I. 
 
 to ihipose no unjust taxes was early broken ; for being 
 utterly reckless how he spent his money, he was soon 
 in need. As an instance of his tasteless extravagance 
 we are told tiiat one morning when putting on a pair 
 of new boots, he asked his chamberlain what they had 
 cost? " Three shillings." Rufus flew into a rage ; — 
 " How long has the King worn boots at so paltry a 
 price? Go and bring me a pair worth a mark of 
 silver." The chamberlain returned with a pair in 
 reality cheaper than those rejected, and told him 
 they had cost the price he had named. " Ay," said 
 Rufus, ** these are suitable to royal majesty." After 
 this the chamberlain was sharp enough to charge the 
 King what he pleased for his clothes. The King's 
 chief adviser was Eannlf^ a Norman priest, who went 
 by the nickname of ** Flat.. bar d^* or the Torch, and 
 whom he afterwards made Bishop of Durham. This 
 minister's ingenuity was employed in laying on grind- 
 ing taxes, and otherwise raising money ; the halter, it 
 was said, was loosed from the robber's neck if he could 
 promise any gain to the Sovereign. Wherever ti\e 
 King and the court went, they did as much damage 
 as an invading army ; for the royal followers lived at 
 free quarters on the country people, and often repaid 
 their hosts by wasting or selling everything they 
 could lay their hands on, and, in wanton insolence, 
 washing their horses' legs with the liquor they did 
 not drink. 
 
 2. Norman and Scottish affairs. — In 1091 
 the King attacked Robert in his Duchy, and con- 
 strained him to surrender part of his dominions. 
 Having thus come to an agreen^ient, the two joined 
 together to dispossess their third brother Henry, whom 
 they drove from his stronghold of Mount St. Michael 
 in Normandy. The King then returned to deal with 
 an invasion of the Scots ; and made a peace with their 
 King, Malcolm, who renewed to Rufus the homage he 
 had already paid to the Conqueror. Malcolm's next 
 
 }\ 
 
 \{ 
 
J\ 
 
 K.1 
 
 ARCHBISHOP ANSELM. 
 
 59 
 
 invasion in 1093 cost him his life, he being killed 
 before Alnwick. In the previous year William had 
 enlarged the English Kingdom by the addition of the 
 northern part of modern Cumberlandy with its capital, 
 Carlisle, This district, when Rufus marched into it, 
 vas a separate principality, ruled by an English noble 
 lamed Dolfiny who was probably a vassal of the Scot- 
 tish King. Having driven out Dolfin, William restored 
 Carlisle, which had never recovered its destruction by 
 the Danes in Alfred's time, built a castle there, and 
 colonized the wild surrounding country with Flemings 
 and English peasants from the South. Cumberland 
 became an English Earldom, and in the next Teign 
 Carlisle was made the seat of a bishopric. 
 
 3. Archbishop Anselm. — Flambard's great 
 device for raising money was that the King should 
 take possession of all vacant bishoprics and abbeys, 
 and fanii out their lands and revenues to the highest 
 bidder. If he at last named a new bishop or abbot, 
 it was understood that the honour was to be paid for. 
 Thus the See of Canterbury had never been filled since 
 Lanfranc's death. But in Lent, 1093, the King falling 
 erievously sick, and being pricked in conscience, in 
 nis terror promised good government, and named to 
 the Archbishopric Anselniy an Italian by birth, and 
 Abbot of Bee in Normandy. Anselm, a man of 
 great learning and holiness, who was afterwards 
 canonized as Saint, was unwilling, and with good 
 reason, to receive tie dangerous honour; for no 
 sooner had William got well than he fell back into 
 worse .vays than ever. Anselm had likened himself 
 to a feeble old sheep yoked to the plough with an 
 untamed bull ; and in truth he and the King agreed 
 as ill as he had foretold. But feeble as Anselm 
 called himself, no man was more outspoken in rebuk- 
 ing wrong, or firmer in upholding what he thought to 
 be right. At last, after many quarrels, the Archbishop 
 withdrew to Rome. 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
eo 
 
 WILLIAM IL 
 
 [cnAP. 
 
 4. Normandy mortgaged. — Meanwhile Nor- 
 mandy, which the King had again striven to win by 
 force, came quietly within his grasp. From early ages 
 it had been the practice of Christians to make pil- 
 grimages to the Holy Land, to pray at the Sepulchre 
 of Christ ; and about this time a flame of indigna- 
 tion was raised throughout Europe by tales of the 
 wrongs done by the Turks to the native Christians of 
 Palestine and to the pilgrims. At the call of the 
 Pope, an armed expedition set out in 1096 to rescue tlie 
 Holy Sepulchre from the Mohammedans ; and from all 
 parts of Europe men flocked to the Crusade^ so called 
 because those who took part in it put a cross, in Latin 
 crux^ upon their garments. Among those who were 
 stirred by the prevailing enthusiasm was Robert of 
 Normandy. To meet the expense of his undertaking, 
 he mortgaged for 10,000 marks his Duchy to his 
 brother, and set off joyously to Palestine, while 
 William entered into full possession of Normandy. 
 
 5. Death of William. — Rufus, like his father, 
 was passionately fond of the chase, and so far from 
 continuing to allow the liberty of hunting accorded at 
 the beginning of his reign, he at last made it death 
 to take a stag. On the 2nd August, iioo, he was 
 hunting in the New Forest. Some vague suspicion of 
 intended foul play was probably afloat, for evil dreams 
 liad been dreamed by himself and others, and on this 
 account he had been half persuaded not to hunt that 
 day. But wine kindled his com age; a letter from 
 the Abbot of Gloucester, recounting a warning vision, 
 was received with the scornful question, " Does he 
 think tha', I follow the fashion of the English, who 
 will put off a journey for a sneeze or an old wife's 
 dream?" and forth he went into the Forest. Soon 
 after, he was found lying pierced by the shaft of a 
 crossbow, and in the agonies of death. Suspicion fell 
 on one of the hunting-party, a French knight named 
 Walter Tyrell^ who fled for his life and got ^way to 
 
[cnAP. 
 
 ; Nor- 
 win by 
 rly ages 
 ike pil- 
 ipulchre 
 
 indigna- 
 i of the 
 stians of 
 I of the 
 escue the 
 I from all 
 so called 
 , in Latin 
 who were 
 Elobert of 
 ciertaking, 
 hy to his 
 ine, while 
 nandy. 
 lis father, 
 far from 
 :corded at 
 e it death 
 )o, he was 
 aspicion of 
 [vil dreams 
 ^nd on this 
 hunt that 
 iter from 
 ling vision, 
 * Does he 
 rlish, who 
 old wife's 
 jst. Soon 
 shaft of a 
 ipicion fell 
 rht named 
 't ^way to 
 
 HENRY 1. 
 
 et 
 
 ['"ranee. That he had accidentally shot the King 
 became the common belief, but he always denied it ; 
 and as no one ever owned to having seen Rufus 
 struck, the matter remains in doubt. Some country- 
 men carried the King's body in a cart to Winchester, 
 ivhere it was buried without any religious rite ; for it 
 was thought unseemly to bestow such upon him wlio 
 had been thus cut off in the midst of unrepented sins. 
 6. Westminster. — Westminsier Hall was first 
 built by Rufus, whose love of architecture was one ol 
 his better tastes; but it was afterwards cased ovei 
 and otherwise altered in the time of Richard II. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 HENRY 1. 
 
 Henry L; Charier of Liber tie.^ {\^~marriage with Edith- 
 Matilda j invasion of Duk bert ; Normandy won 
 by Henry (2) — dispute betwi '"nry and Ansel m (3) — 
 Wales; settlement 0/ Flemings ^4) — death of the Queen ; 
 death of William ; second marriage of Henry; fealty 
 sworn to Matilda {$)-— death of Henry; his govern- 
 ment (6). 
 
 I. Henry I., surnamedthe Clerk or Scholar, 
 1100-1135. Charter of Liberties. — ^^r/zry, youngest 
 son of the Conqueror, was one of the hunting-party 
 when Rufus fell. As soon as he heard of his brother's 
 death, he galloped for Winchester, and there made 
 himself master of the royal treasure. On the morrow 
 the barons who were at hand went through the form ol 
 electing him to be King, and two days later he waa 
 crowned at Westminster, thus forestalling his brother 
 Robert, who was loitering on his way home from the 
 Crusade. To reconcile all to his accession, he put out 
 F 
 
 511 
 
 t; 
 
 h: 
 
 II 
 
fe 
 
 ItENRy t. 
 
 tcHA^. 
 
 r 
 
 ■'J 
 1.1 
 
 a Charter of Liber lies y in which he promised to the 
 Church neither to sell nor farm benefices, nor take any 
 profit to himself from vacant sees and abbeys ; and to 
 his vassals the abolition of sundry arbitrary exactions 
 and oppressive customs under which they had 
 sufi'ered in the last reign, bidding them make the same 
 concessions to their own vassals. To the nation at 
 large he promised the restoration of " the law of King 
 Edward " — that is, the laws and customs that had 
 prevailed in the time of the Confessor — with the 
 amendments made by the Conqueror. 
 
 2. Normandy won. — The evil companions of 
 Rufus were removed from the court, and Archbishop 
 Anselm was recalled. Further to win the peoi)le's 
 hearts, Henry took to wife Ediths daughter of Mal- 
 colm of Scotland, and, on the side of her mother 
 Margaret, descended from the West-Saxon Kings. She 
 assumed the Norman name of Matilda^ and was by 
 the people surnamed " the Good." The nobles were 
 for the most part unfriendly to the King, and,, relying 
 on their support, Duke Robert invaded Englanil to 
 push his claim to the crown. The English stood by 
 Henry, and Anselm exerting all his influence over 
 the nobles, the dispute between the brothers was made 
 up without bloodshed. After this, the King set him- 
 self to break the power of his barons, bringing varioiis 
 charges against the most disaffected and lawless, and 
 punishing them with heavy fines, confiscation of their 
 lands, or banishment. One after another, the chief 
 families founded by the Norman Conquest fell, and 
 Henry raised up new men who owed their greatness 
 to himself. The King's next object was to wrest 
 Normandy from his brother; and by a victory at 
 Tinchebrai in 1106 he obtained possession both of the 
 Duchy and of Robert, whom he kept a prisoner until 
 his death in 1134. The -^theling Edgar, who, having 
 followed Robert, was among tne captives, was allowed 
 to live unmolested in England. 
 
CitAf. 
 
 o ibe 
 ce any 
 ind to 
 LCtions 
 f had 
 i same 
 tion at 
 if King 
 at had 
 ith the 
 
 Ki.] 
 
 AUctiinsnop anselm. 
 
 63 
 
 3. Archbishop Anselm. — About this time a dis- 
 pute between Henry and Anselm was brought to an 
 end. The English Kings claimed that bishops and 
 abbots should be nominated by them, should become 
 their vassals hke the lay barons, and from their hands 
 should receive the ring and staff which were the 
 emblems of their spiritual authority. This was the 
 im'estiturey the legal form by which the new prelate was 
 put in possession of the lands and revenues of his 
 benefice. This right of investiture, which was claimed 
 by princes throughout Western Christendom, led 
 in the hands of unworthy rulers like Rufus to the 
 sale of bishoprics and similar abuses, and it had for 
 some time been contested by the Popes. Anselm 
 therefore, though he had formerly felt no scruple about 
 thus receiving his Archbishopric from Rufus, now, in 
 obedience to the Church's decree, refused to do 
 homage to Henry, or to consecrate the bishops invested 
 by him. In the end both sides gave v/ay somewhat, 
 the Pope consenting that the prelates shoud do 
 homage, and Henry giving up his claim to invest them 
 with the ring and staff ; but that Henry should peace- 
 ably yield anything was in itself a victory. The 
 Church was at this time almost the only check upon 
 the will of rulers ; but men soon began to complain 
 of the power of the Pope, which Anselm had helped 
 to strengthen, as in its turn an evil. Anselm died in 
 1 109. 
 
 4. Wales. The Flemish Settlement.— The 
 Conqueror had formed the northern frontier towards 
 Wales into the Earldoms of Shrewsbury and Chester^ 
 and constant warfare went on between his Earls and 
 their restless Welsh neighbours. Roger of Montgomery^ 
 the Norman Earl of Shrewsbury, was the founder of 
 a border castle, which, together with the town at its foot, 
 bore his own surname, Montgomery, In the time of 
 Rufus, the Normans made their way into southern 
 Wales, establishing themselves in castles and towns, 
 
 I !■ 
 
 : 
 
«4 
 
 HENUY 1. 
 
 tcMAl». 
 
 /" 
 
 while the Welsh princes went on reigning in the wildei 
 parts of the land. Rufus and Henry secured the 
 marches or frontiers by building castles; and the latter 
 also tried the effect of planting a colony of foreigners. 
 He placed Flemish settlers, a people at once brave 
 and industrious, in the south of Pembrokeshire, where 
 they grew rich by tilling the ground and manufacturing 
 cloth, and held their own igainst all the efforts of the 
 Welsh princes to turn theni out. 
 
 5. Succession of Matilda. — Queen Matilda die(!i 
 in 1118, leaving two children, — the i^2thehng Williavi^ 
 and Matilda^ married to the Emperor Henry V. In 
 1 1 20 William, a youth of seventeen, was crossing from 
 Normandy to England in a vessel called the " White 
 Ship." He was attended by a train of wild young 
 nobles ; the crew had been freely supplied with wine ; 
 and the priests who came to bless the voyage were 
 dismissed with jeers and laughter. Driven by fifty 
 rowers, the vessel put to sea; but striking on a sunken 
 rock, it filled and went down, one man only being 
 saved. William, it is said, had put off from the sink- 
 ing ship in a boat, when the shrieks of his half-sister, 
 the Countess of Perche, moved him to row back to 
 the wreck, where his boat was swamped by the multi- 
 tude of people who leaped in, and all were drowned. 
 As the King's second marriage with Adeliza of Louvain 
 proved childless, he determined to settle the crown on 
 his lately-widowed daughter Matilda. The barons 
 were loth to consent, for it was not then the custom 
 for women to rule ; but they were obliged to yield, 
 and all swore to accept Matilda as ^'•Lady** ovei 
 England and Normandy. Her father then, in 1127, 
 married her, little to her liking, to Geoffrey Plantagenet^ 
 a lad about fourfeen, eldest son of the Count of Anjou^ 
 whom Henry hoped thus to turn from a dangerous 
 neighbour into a friend. Thrice over were oaths of 
 fealty sworn to Matilda, and on the last occasion, to 
 her infant son Henry ^ who was bom in 1133. 
 
 \ 
 
KII.] 
 
 STEriTEN. 
 
 65 
 
 C. Death ot Henry ; his Government. — King 
 Henry, the only one of the Conqueror's sons who was 
 born in England, ^^''ed in Nornriandy, Dec. ist, 1135, 
 in consequence, it is said, of eating lampreys. 
 The reign of Henry was a time of misery; his 
 frequent wars caused England to be ground down 
 under a burthensome taxation, while a succession of 
 bad seasons added to the sufferings of the people. 
 But they accounted Henry a good king, and stood 
 loyally by him, recognizing him as their ally against 
 the disorderly and oppressive barons ; and they saw 
 in him " the Lion of Justice" spoken of ir. the cui 
 rent prophecies attributed to the Welsh soothsayer 
 Merlin. He improved the administration of govern- 
 ment and justice, sending judges through the country 
 to assess the taxes, and try criminals ; he also granted 
 charters to the towns. By severe punishment he put 
 a stop to his followers' plundering, which had got to 
 such a pitch that the people were wont to fly with 
 their property to the woods as soon as they heard of 
 their Sovereign's approach. Indeed his great merit 
 was the rigorous justice he dealt out to thieves and 
 robbers. Unfeeling and grasping as he was, he 
 allowed no tyranny but his own j and under him there 
 was order, though not freedom. 
 
 li 
 
 CHAPTER XIi. 
 
 ! 
 
 II ! 
 
 STEPHEN. 
 
 Confusion after Henry's death (i) — election of Stephen of 
 Blois {2)— Battle of the Standard (3) — disorderly state 
 of the country ; war of Stephen and Matilda / settle^ 
 ment of the succession; death of Stephen (4). 
 
 X. Stephen of Blois, 1135-1154. Confusion 
 5ifter Henry's d^ath. — As soon as Henry's iroa 
 
 I 
 
 i* 
 
66 
 
 STEPHEN. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 hand was removed, the order which he had enforced 
 upon his subjects ceased. He had guarded the 
 forests with jealous tyranny ; now every one broke into 
 the deer-parks and hunted down the game, so that in 
 a few days there was hardly a beast of chase left in the 
 country. But with his tyranny his good government 
 came also to an end; and robbery, lawless violence, 
 and private feuds broke out unchecked. 
 
 2. Election of Stephen. — Stephen of Biots, 
 Count of Mortain and Boulogne^ and son of Henry's 
 sister Adela, came forward as a candidate for the 
 crown, regardless of his oath to his cousin the Empress^ 
 as Matilda was commonly called. His easy manners 
 and readiness to laugh and talk with the common 
 people had made him popular; the citizens of 
 London hailed him with joy, and he was elected 
 King, and crowned at Westminster. The barons, who 
 disliked Matilda, and still more her husband, easily 
 reconciled their consciences to the breach of their 
 oaths ; and Stephen, having possessed himself of 
 Henry's vast treasure, was able to buy support. He 
 made large promises of good government which he 
 did not keep, gave extravagant grants of Crown lands, 
 and surrounded himself with foreign mercenaries 
 —soldiers who hired themselves out to any prince 
 who would pay them. 
 
 3. Battle of the Standard. — David /, King of 
 Scots, Matilda's uncle, taking up her cause, made 
 inroads upon England, once getting as far as York- 
 shire. The wild Scots spread over the country, 
 burning, desecrating, enslaving, and slaughtering, 
 until, exhorted by the aged Archbishop Thurstan, the 
 Yorkshire barons and people mustered against the 
 invaders. The knights came with their men-at-arms, 
 the husbandmen with their sons and servants, the 
 parish priests brought up the fighting men of their 
 flocks. The armies met, Aug. 22nd, 1138, on Cowton 
 Moor^ near No^th;^llerton, where the English were 
 
XII.] 
 
 WAR OF STEPHEN AND MATILDA. 
 
 67' 
 
 drawn up round their strange standard, a mast set on 
 a waggon and crowned by a silver casket containing 
 a consecrated wafer. Hence the ensuing combat, 
 which ended in the utter rout of the Scots, was called 
 " Th£ Battle of the Standard." 
 
 4. War of Stephen and Matilda. — Mean- 
 while Stephen, whose power of purchasing support 
 was exhausted, could no longer control the barons. 
 The clergy he set against him by rashly arresting the 
 powerful Bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln, whom 
 by threats and hard usage he forced to surrender 
 their castles, among them that of Devizes, built by 
 Bishop Roger of Salisbury, and said to be one of the 
 finest in Europe. The country was already in utter 
 disorder. Robert of Caen, Earl of Gloucester^ the 
 greatest man in England, had declared himself on the 
 side of Matilda ; and his partisans in Bristol robbed 
 and plundered, seizing on men of wealth and carrying 
 them off, blindfolded and gagged with sharp-toothed 
 bits, to be starved and tortured for ransom. The 
 highways were infested with thieves of gentle and 
 peaceable appearance, who entered into courteous 
 conversation with every one, until they could entrap 
 some victim worth the seizing ; and at last things came 
 to such a pass that a wayfarer would fly as soon as he 
 espied another on the road. The barons had been 
 Futfered unchecked to build themselves castles ; and 
 secure in these, which they garrisoned with savage 
 ruffians, they were the worst robbers. Neither man 
 nor woman who had any property was safe from them ; 
 they made the towns pay them taxes, and when they 
 could give no more, they plundered and burned them. 
 Even churches and churchyards were no longer re- 
 spected by them. The land lay waste, for it was useless 
 to till it ; and matters kept growing worse and worse till 
 men bitterly exclaimed that " Christ and His saints 
 slept. ^' This was the condition of England south of 
 ^he Humber \ it was better in the North, especially 
 
 m; 
 
(58 
 
 STEPHEN. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 beyond the Tees, where the land had rest under 
 King David of Scotland, to whose son the Earldoms 
 6f Cumberland and Northumberland had been given 
 by Stephen. The Empress landed in England in 
 1 139, upon which civil war fairly broke out, and 
 was carried on by both sides chiefly with mercenaries, 
 while the barons fought and plundered on their own 
 account. Early in 1141 Stephen, fighting till his 
 sword and axe were broken, was taken prisoner at 
 Lincoln, and sent to Bristol Castle ; while Matilda, 
 acknowledged as Lady of the English, entered London, 
 where her imperious conduct so irritated the citizens 
 that they soon drove her out. In the autumn Stephen 
 was exchanged against the- Earl of Gloucester, and 
 the war being renewed, he besieged the Empress in 
 Oxford Castle. The garrison being straitened for food, 
 Matilda shortly before Christmas, 1142, made her 
 escape. The ground being covered with snow, she 
 one night wrapped herself in a white cloak so as not 
 to attract attention, and attended by three knights she 
 passed through the posts of the enemy, crossing the 
 river on the ice, and reached Wallingford Castle in 
 safety. Wearied out at last, in 1147 she left England, 
 and about the same time Earl Robert died. The war 
 dragged on until in 1153 the bishops brought about a 
 peace, by which Stephen, who had recently lost his 
 eldest son Eustace, was to keep the kingdom for his 
 life, and was to be succeeded by Henry, the eldest 
 son of Matilda and Geoffrey. The next year, Oct 
 25th, 1 154, Stephen died. His wife, Matilda of 
 Boulogne, who had valiantly supported him in his 
 warfare, had died two years earlier. 
 
[chap. 
 
 t under 
 arldoms 
 sn given 
 jland in 
 >ut, and 
 :enaries, 
 leir own 
 
 till his 
 joner at 
 Matilda, 
 London, 
 
 citizens 
 Stephen 
 ter, and 
 press in 
 for food, 
 ade her 
 iow, she 
 > as not 
 ghts she 
 sing the 
 'astle in 
 England, 
 rhe war 
 about a 
 lost his 
 
 1 for his 
 
 2 eldest 
 ar, Oct 
 iilda of 
 i in his 
 
•T 
 
 To ?aceJa^ 69 
 
 I I 
 
 II!! 
 
 ^tavfor44 Qtogl^^9i^,99 Ovavig Cros$, 
 
?ac«J'a£ft fi^ 
 
 o^ 
 
 ^^^,-i]vanM\ 
 
 1 
 
 ^i 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 ip 
 
 \ 
 
 o 
 
 te 
 
 
 
 A 
 
 t> 
 
 ^ 
 
 
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 ■» 
 
 OUlvt 
 
 w 
 
 rib 
 
 .V 
 
 
 -V 
 
 ^ 
 
 Id 
 
 
 
 ^^. 
 
 :l^_ 
 
 =?^ 
 
 xiir.J HOUSE OF ANJOU. 69 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HENRY II. 
 
 JTenry of Anjou (i) — Thomas of London; Cotistitutions 
 of Clai'encfon; flight, ret urn j and murde, of Thomas 
 (2) — rebellion of Henry's sons ; Henry* s penance; cap- 
 ture of William the Lion ('^)— further rebellions oj 
 Henrys sons; death of Henry ; his government; trial 
 by jury (4) — conquest of Ireland; Strofigbow and 
 his comrades; Henry acknowledged by the native chief- 
 tains; cotidition of the country (5). 
 
 I. House of Anjou. Henry II., 1154-1189. 
 
 — Even before he succeeded, at the age of twenty-one, 
 to the English Crown, Henry was a powerful prince. 
 He was a vassal of the King of France, but had got 
 so many fiefs into his hands that he was stronger than 
 his lord and all the other great vassals of the French 
 Crown put together. Anjou and Maine he had from 
 his father, Normandy from his mother, and the County 
 of Poitou and Duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony he 
 had gained by marrying their heiress Eleanor a few 
 weeks after her divorce from Louis VIL of France. 
 Energetic, hard-headed, and strong-willed, he was 
 well fitted for the task of bringing England into order ; 
 and under the firm rule of a foreigner who had no 
 national prejudices of his own, the distinction between 
 Norman and Englishman faded away. He had been 
 well educated, and took pleasure in the company of 
 learned men; but his literary refinement had not 
 taught him to curb his fierce tenij)er, and in his fits of 
 passion he behaved like a madman, striking and tear- 
 ing at whatever came within his reach. He was a 
 stout and strongly-built man, with close-cut reddish 
 hair and prominent grey eyes \ careless about dress, ^ 
 
 m 
 
 Ml 
 
 !P- 
 
 *k 
 
 i 
 
 i H 
 
 si \\\\ 
 
^ 
 
 HENRY n. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 great hunter and hawker, and so active and restless 
 that he hardly ever sat down except to meals. His 
 private life was not creditable ; his marriage, on his 
 side one of policy, was unhappy ; and the well-known 
 tale of " Fair Rosamund," though a mere legend, pre- 
 serves the name of one of his favourites. In spite 
 of his faults, the country at once felt the benefit of 
 his rule ; the foreign mercenaries were sent off; all 
 castles built since the death of Henry I. were razed ; 
 the barons were again brought under authority, and the 
 Scots gave back the northern counties of England. 
 
 2, The Constitutions of Clarendon. — In 116.-? 
 Henry procured the election of his intimate friend, 
 the Chancellor Thomas Becket^ to the Archbishopric of 
 Canterbury. Thomas was the, son of a wealthy 
 Lon don citizen of Norman descent ; and though an 
 ecclesiastic, he, like many of his class in that age, 
 busied himself wholly in secular matters. At the 
 head of a body of knights equipped and maintained 
 by himself, he served in one of his master's foreign 
 w^ars, and displayed his prowess by unhorsing a French 
 knight. At another time he went on an embassy to 
 Paris, and dazzled the French by the splendour of 
 his retinue — all at his own cost, for he had a large 
 income from various preferments and offices, and 
 spent it magnificently. As soon however as Thomas 
 became Archbishop, he gave up his former pomp, 
 resigned the Chancellorship, and led an austere life. 
 Henry was offended, and the two were already at 
 variance when they came to a downright quarrel on 
 the subject of the Church courts. The Conqueror 
 had made the Bishops* hold courts of their own for 
 the trial of cases in which clerks or ecclesiastics were 
 concerned. Not merely those in holy orders, but all 
 who had received the tonsure — that is, had had their 
 heads shorn in the manner which distinguished the 
 clergy from the laity — and discharged the smallest 
 Q0ices iu thQ Church, were s^nt before the eccl^ 
 
[chap. 
 
 restless 
 
 . His 
 
 on his 
 
 -known 
 
 id, pre- 
 
 ;n spite 
 
 ;nefit oi 
 
 off; all 
 
 2 razed ; 
 
 , and the 
 
 ;land. 
 
 -In 1163 
 
 e friend, 
 
 hopric of 
 wealthy 
 
 lOugh an 
 
 that age, 
 At the 
 
 aintained 
 
 's foreign 
 a French 
 
 nbassy to 
 indour of 
 . a large 
 ices, and 
 Thomas 
 
 ler pomp, 
 Istere life, 
 already at 
 irarrel on 
 ionqueror 
 own for 
 ,tics were 
 jrs, but all 
 had their 
 shed the 
 smallest 
 
 ;he eccl^ 
 
 xin.] 
 
 AkCUBISllOlP THOMAS. 
 
 71 
 
 siastical courts, which by the law of the Church could 
 not inflict loss of life or limb ; and thus thieves and 
 m'lrderers, if they could call themselves clergymen, 
 got oif comparatively easily, when, if they had been 
 tried as laymen, blinding or hanging would have been 
 their lot. Henry wished to bring the clergy under the 
 criminal jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, and this 
 Thomas strongly opposed ; but the King to a great 
 extent carried his point by means of " ^Ae Constitutions 
 of Clarendon^ so called because they were drawn 
 up and confirmed in a great council of prelates and 
 barons, held in January 1164 at the King's palace of 
 Clarendon in Wiltshire. Thomas at first gave his 
 assent to the Constitutions, but soon drew back, 
 saying he had sinned in accepting them. At this 
 Henry grew more angry than ever, till at last the 
 Archbishop, declaring that his life was in danger, 
 appealed to the Pope and fled to foreign parts. The 
 quarrel, kept up for six years, was embittered in 11 70 
 by a dispute about the coronation of the King's 
 eldest son, whom he designed for his viceroy in 
 England. No one but the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 so Thomas maintained, had a right to crown the King ; 
 but Henry nevertheless got Roger, Archbishop of 
 York, to perform the ceremony. Through fear of the 
 Pope's anger, and of King Louis VII. of France, who 
 took up the exiled Archbishop's cause, Henry soon 
 afterwards consented to a reconciliation, and Thomas 
 returned amid the rejoicing of the people, who looked 
 upon him as an oppressed man. Haughty and un- 
 yielding as ever, he despatched letters from the Pope, 
 Alexander HI., suspending the Archbishop of York 
 from his office, and excommunicating two other 
 Bishops. Henry flew into one of his fits of passion : 
 " What cowards have I brought up in my court I " he 
 exclaimed, " not one will deliver me from this low- 
 born priest ! '' Four knights, taking him at his word, 
 at once proceeded to Canterbury, and failing to frighten 
 
 P 
 
 'ill 
 
 I J, 
 
'-■ iF 1 i I HV^l^OVH 
 
 ♦ 2 
 
 HEKkY tl. 
 
 [CHAh 
 
 the Archbishop into submission, slew hinri on the pave- 
 ment of his own cathedral church, in which he had 
 taken refuge, Dec. 29th, 1170. Henry, horror-struck at 
 this result, cleared him ith the Pope by making 
 
 oath that he had had no complicity in the murder, 
 and by renouncing the Constitutions of Clarendon. 
 
 3. Henry's Penance.— Henry's life was clouded 
 by quarrels with his sons, among whom he intended 
 to divide his dominions at his death. Besides Hetiryy 
 ** the Younger King" who was to have England, 
 Normandy, and Anjou, there was Richard., who had 
 already received his mother's inheritance of Aquitaine 
 and Poitou ; and Geoffrey^ for whom the King had 
 obtained the succession to the Duchy of Britanny 
 by betrothing him to its heiress Constance, There 
 was 2X^0 John, to provide for whom the King wanted 
 the other sons to give up some castles out of their 
 promised shares of his dominions. Young Henry 
 refused, and the King's ill-wishers — Louis of France, 
 and his own neglected wife Eleanor — stirred up the 
 three elder youths to rebel against thei' Tather. Round 
 the revolted sons there gathered in 1173 a strong 
 league of discontented barons, English and foreign, 
 aided by the Kings of France and Scotland. Think- 
 ing that these calamities were caused by the Divine 
 wrath for the murder of St. Thomas, as the late Arch- 
 bishop was styled, Henry did penance and let himself 
 be scourged before the Saint's tomb. Soon he learned 
 that on or about the day on which, having completed 
 his penance, he had left Canterbury, the King ot 
 Scots, William the Lion, had been captured at Alnwick, 
 July, 1 1 74. By the King's own promptness and 
 energy, and the fidelity of the people and of the new 
 nobles whom he had raised up, the rebellion was 
 soon brought to an end, and no one concerned met 
 with hard usage except the King of Scots, who was 
 Constrained to enter into more complete and galling 
 Vassalage to England, even to admit English garrisons 
 
e pave- 
 he had 
 :ruck at 
 making 
 murder, 
 
 idon. 
 clouded 
 ntended 
 s Henry f 
 England, 
 who had 
 \.quitaine 
 Cing had 
 Britanny 
 f. There 
 ig wanted 
 It of their 
 ng Henry • 
 )f France, 
 ed up the 
 ;r. Round 
 a strong 
 Id foreign, 
 [. Think- 
 Ihe Divine 
 late Arch- 
 llet himseU 
 [he learned 
 completed 
 ; King ot 
 it Alnwick, 
 (tness and 
 [of the new 
 lellion was 
 ;erned met 
 s, who was 
 ,nd galling 
 ih garrisons 
 
 XIII.] 
 
 DEATH OF IIENRV II. 
 
 n 
 
 into the castles of the Lowlands. He was however 
 by Henry's successor permitted to buy back the 
 rights he had lost, England only retaining a vague 
 claim to lordship over Scotland. 
 
 4. Death of Henry ; his Government. — In 
 1 1 83 Henry's two elder sons were again at war with 
 him ; but that same year the Younger King, who was 
 a mere tool of the discontented nobles, died, im- 
 ploring his father's forgiveness. Geoffrey was pai- 
 doned, became again estranged, and died in 1186. 
 Richard, after remaining faithful for some time, in 
 1 188 sought the protection of Philip Augustus, King 
 of France, and proceeded to invade his father's 
 foreign dominions. Henry, whose health was failing, 
 submitted, after a feeble resistance, to the demands of 
 his enemies. He asked for a list of the barons who 
 had joined Richard against him, and the first name he 
 heard was that of his favourite son John. He turned 
 his face to the wall — for he was lying down to rest — 
 and groaned : — " Now," said he, " let all things go 
 what way they may ; T care no more for myself nor 
 for the world." Already stricken with fever, he sank 
 under this cruel blow, ever and anon crying, " Shame, 
 shame on a conquered King," and died at Chinon, 
 July 6th, 1 189. Historians often speak of him and 
 the Kings of his line as the PlantagenetSy the sur- 
 name borne by his father — probably because his device 
 was a sprig of planta genista Or broom — and adopted 
 in the fifteenth century by his descendants. Henry H. 
 laid the foundations of good government in England, 
 arranging the administration of justice, and taking 
 pains to appoint faithful judges, who made circuits to 
 assess the taxes, hear suits, and try criminals, as had 
 been done before under Henry I. Trusting the 
 people more than the barons, he re-organised the 
 militia, and everv freeman was bound to provide him- 
 self with arms according to his position. In foreign 
 warfare Henry usually employed soldiers hired with 
 
 1 ' 
 
 ■'■! 
 ' 'if 
 
 i 
 
-Til 
 
 74 
 
 HENRY n. 
 
 [chap, 
 
 III 
 
 !!' li 
 
 the produce of taxes, called sattages, levied on the 
 feudal tenants in lieu of personal service. To Henry 
 II. belongs the credit of having, not indeed created, 
 but improved and extended the system out of which 
 trial by fury grew. In cases of disputed possession 
 of land, the possessor was allowed his choice between 
 trial by battle, and the verdict of twelve knights of 
 the neighbourhood, who had to declare on oath which 
 of the litigants had the right to the. land. These 
 jurors were witnesses rather than judges ; they swore 
 to facts within their own knowledge ; but in later days 
 they gradually became, as now, judges of the fact, 
 giving their verdict only after hearing evidence. The 
 system was extended to criminal matters ; a jury was 
 employed to present reputed criminals to undergo the 
 ordeal — the origin of owr grand juries. After a while 
 a petty jury was allowed to disprove the truth of the 
 presentment ; and upon the abolition of ordeal in the 
 thirteenth century, that expedient came into general 
 use. 
 
 5. Conquest of Ireland. — Early in his reign 
 Henry had obtained authority to invade Ireland 
 from Pope Hadrian /K, or Nicholas Brakespercy 
 noted as the only Englishman who has ever filled 
 the Papal See. Nothing was done till 11 69, when 
 Diarmaid of Leinsler, a fugitive Irish King, .had 
 obtained Henry's permission to enlist adventurers in 
 his service. A ruined nobleman, Richard of Clare, 
 Earl of Pembroke^ surnamed " Strongbow,* and two 
 Norman gentlemen from Wales, Robert Fitz-Siephen 
 and Maurice Fitz-Gerald^ accepted Diarmaid's offers, 
 and, raising an army, at first carried everything before 
 them in Ireland. On Diarmaid's death, Strongbow, 
 who had married his daughter Eva^ assumed the 
 royal authority in Leinster; but finding that he was 
 not strong enough to make a lasting conquest, and 
 that Henry grew jealous, he thought it best to agree 
 to give up Dublin and the other fortified places of 
 
(chap. 
 
 on the 
 ) Henry 
 created, 
 )f which 
 jssession 
 between 
 nights of 
 tth which 
 . These 
 ley swore 
 later days 
 the fact, 
 ice. The 
 L jury was 
 dergo the 
 er a while 
 ith of the 
 ieal in the 
 to general 
 
 XIV.] 
 
 RICHARD I. 
 
 7$ 
 
 e 
 
 his reign 
 Ireland 
 'irakespcre, 
 ever filled 
 69, when 
 Cing, 'had 
 nturers in 
 of Clare, 
 and two 
 UZ'Stephm 
 id's offers, 
 ing before 
 trongbow, 
 lumed the 
 at he was 
 uest, and 
 to agree 
 places of 
 
 Leinster to him, and hold his Irish lands as a vassal 
 of the English Crown. Henry himself went over to 
 Ireland in 1171 ; his sovereignty was generally ac- 
 knowledged ; and four years later a treaty was made 
 by which Roderick^ King of Connaught^ the head King 
 of Ireland, became his liegeman ; but he could not 
 keep any hold upon the country. Ireland, though 
 supposed to be under English rule, remained for cen- 
 turies in utter disorder, the battle-ground of Irish chiefs 
 and Norman- English lords, who became as savage 
 and lawless as those whom they had conquered. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 RICHARD I. 
 
 Richard Coeur de Lion; the Crusade (i) — deposition of 
 
 William Longchampj treachery of fohn (2) — Richard 
 
 taken by Leopold of Austria ; transferred to the Em- 
 
 perorj ransomed (3) — death of Richard; Bertrand de 
 
 Gurdon {^—legendary reputation of Richard i^^, 
 
 I. Richard I., surnamed Coeur de Lion, or 
 Lion-Heart, 1189-1199. — Richard, though born in 
 England, had been educated to be Duke of Aquitaine, 
 and it is doubtful whether he could speak a sentence 
 in English. Having spent his youth in Southern 
 Gaul, then the school of music and poetry, he had 
 acquired its tastes, and had some skill in composing 
 verses in its language. But his passion was for 
 military glory, which his strength, valour, and talents 
 well fitted him to win. He was a tall stout man, 
 ruddy and brown-haired, and given to splendour and 
 show in dress. Fierce and passionate, he yet w?s 
 not without generous impulses ; and after the fashion 
 
 H' 
 
HIi 
 
 76 
 
 RICHARD L 
 
 [chap 
 
 of a Crusader, he was zealous for religion. For the 
 English he cared little, except as they supplied him 
 with money, and during his whole reign he was only 
 twice in the country, for a few months at a time. 
 After his coronation, Richard at once made ready for 
 a Crusade in company with his friend Philip Augustus 
 of France. About two years before his accession, 
 Jerusalem, where the first Crusaders had founded a 
 Christian kingdom, had been taken by Saiadin, Sultan 
 of Egypt and Syria, and the princes of Western 
 Christendom for a moment laid aside their quarrels 
 to go to its rescue. To raise money Richard sold 
 honours, offices. Church lands, and to the King of 
 Scots, release from all that Henry II. had imposed 
 upon him : — " I would sell London if I could find a 
 buyer," he said. At Midsummer 1190, Richard and 
 Philip set out together for the Holy Land ; but before 
 they got there, their friendship had cooled. Jealousies 
 and quarrels ruined the Crusade ; Philip soon went 
 home to lay plans for possessing himself of Richard's 
 continental dominions ; the other crusading princes 
 were disgusted with Richard^s arrogance, and he with 
 their lack of zeal. After many brilliant exploits, the 
 King, weakened by fever, and knowing that his 
 presence was needed at home, ended by making a 
 truce with Saiadin. His ill success had been great 
 grief to him. The Crusaders had not ventured to 
 attack Jerusalem, the object of their enterprise ; and 
 when — so ran a tale long repeated among the warriors 
 of the Cross — Richard had come within sight of it, 
 he had covered his eyes with his garment, praying 
 God with tears not to let him look upon the Holy 
 City, since he could not deliver it. Yet the Crusade 
 had checked the progress of the great Saiadin, and 
 thus was not an utter failure. 
 
 2. Deposition of the Chancellor Long- 
 champ. — During this reign, England was really ruled 
 by the King's Justiciars. Of these, the Chancellor 
 
xiy] 
 
 CAPTIVITY OF RICHARD. 
 
 77 
 
 Wiliiam of Longchamp^ Bishop ^JE'/y, though a faithful 
 servant to Richard, was disliked by the nobles, and 
 filled with contempt for the English, whose language 
 he would not or could not speak — for, upstart as the 
 nobles called him, he prided himself upon his Norman 
 blood. He was before long removed from the Justiciar- 
 ship by a meetingof earls, barons, and London citizens; 
 Walter of Coutances, Archbishop of Roiten^ was ap- 
 pointed in his stead, and the King's brother John, who 
 had put himself at the bead of the movement against 
 the Chancellor, was declared Regent and heir to the 
 Crown. But the new Justiciar and the Queen-mother 
 Eleanor, with good reason mistrusting John, prevented 
 him from getting any real power ; and in his vexa- 
 tion John began to give ear to the plots of Philip of 
 France against the absent Richard, who set out for 
 home in October, 1192. The next news of him was 
 that he was a prisoner in Austria, and John, declaring 
 that he was dead, laid claim to the crown. 
 
 3. Captivity of Richard. — The King, in his 
 hurry to get home, had left his fleet, and gone on as 
 a private traveller. Having been wrecked on the 
 coast of the Hadriatic Sea, he made his way, in 
 disguise, into Austria, where he was seized by Leopold, 
 Duke of that country, who had been insulted by 
 Richard during the Crusade. The Duke sold his 
 captive to the Emperor Henry VI., who, wishing to do 
 Philip of France a pleasure, kept Richard closely 
 guarded, and at one time, it is said, loaded with fetters. 
 He was brought before a meeting of princes of the 
 Empire, on various accusations, among them, that of 
 having procured the assassination of a fellow Crusader, 
 Conrad, Marquess of Montferrat ; and although he 
 cleared himself, the Emperor still insisted on so heavy 
 a ransom that to raise it every Englishman had to give 
 a fourth of his goods ; even the church plate and jewels 
 were taken to make up the sum. After more than a 
 year's captivity, Richard was freed, in February 1194. 
 
 W: P'^ 
 
 
 
^^ 
 
 78 
 
 RICHARD I. 
 
 [CHA^. 
 
 ** Take care of yourself, for the devil is let loose," so 
 Philip wrote to John, when he heard that the King 
 and the Emperor were coming to terms ; but Richard 
 inflicted on the brother who had tried to bribe the 
 Emperor to detain him in prison, no punishment be- 
 yond depriving him of his lands and castles. Even 
 this penalty he soon so far remitted as to restore some 
 of his estates, though he would not again trust him 
 with castles. 
 
 4. Death of Richard. — The rest of Richard's 
 life was chiefly spent in war against Philip Augustus. 
 In April, 1199, the King perished in a petty quarrel 
 with the Viscount of Limoges^ one of his foreign 
 barons, about a treasure which had been discovered 
 on the estate of the latter. The Viscount yielded a 
 part of the gold to his lord the King, but would not 
 give up the whole. While besieging the Viscount's 
 castle of Chalus-Chabrol, Richard was wounded in 
 the shoulder by an arrow. The castle being stormed 
 and taken, the King ordered all the garrison to be at 
 once hanged, reserving only Bertrand de Gurdon, the 
 crossbowman who had given him what proved to be 
 his death-wound. Finding his end drawing near, he had 
 Bertrand brought before him. " What harm have I 
 done to thee, that thou hast killed me ?" The young 
 archer, answering that his father and two brothers had 
 fallen by Richards hand, bade the King take what 
 revenge he would. " I forgive thee my death," said 
 Richard, and he ordered his release. Nevertheless, 
 when the King was no more, Marcadeus, the captain 
 of his mercenaries, had the crossbowman put to a 
 cruel death. Early in his reign Richard had married 
 Bo'engaria of Navarre^ but had no children. 
 
 5. Legendary reputation of Richard. — Le- 
 gends soon gathered round the striking figure of 
 Cceur de Lion, and he became a hero of romance. 
 His surname probably suggested the tale of his having 
 while in prison torn out with his hands the heart of a 
 
<yf.] 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 79 
 
 ," SO 
 
 Cing 
 hard 
 : the 
 t be- 
 Even 
 some 
 him 
 
 lard's 
 
 astus. ^ 
 
 aarrel 
 
 ►reign 
 
 vered 
 
 ded a 
 
 d not 
 
 ount's 
 
 led in 
 
 prmed 
 be at 
 
 n, the 
 to be 
 e had 
 ave I 
 young 
 [s had 
 what 
 1" said 
 ^eless, 
 iptain 
 to a 
 irried 
 
 ■Le- 
 
 ire of 
 
 ance. 
 
 laving 
 
 of a 
 
 lion sent to slay him ; another and a more touching 
 story of his captivity tells how his faithful minstrel 
 Blondel wandered seeking him, and discovered him 
 by means of a song. Little as he had done for 
 England, he came to be looked on as a national hero ; 
 while among the Mohammedans his prowess was 
 remembered in common phrases. ** Hush ye, here is 
 King Richard ! " the mother would say to her crying 
 child ; and the Arab would exclaim to his starting 
 horse, " Dost think it is King Richard ? " 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 hlection of John; Arthur of Britanny \ forfeiture of the 
 French fiefs (i) — q if arret between fohn and the Pope ; 
 sentence of deposition ; John becomes a vassal and 
 tributary of Rome (2) — " The Army of God and of Holy 
 Church " ; the Great Charier (3) — war between fohn 
 and the Barons; the crown offered to Louis of France 
 {^)—John^s death; his children (5). 
 
 T. John, surnamed Sansterre or Lackland, 
 1199-1216. — In England yj?//;/ was chosen King; but 
 in Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, the barons desired for 
 their ruler young Arthur of Britannyy son of John's 
 elder brother Geoffrey ; and Philip of France, ^or his 
 own purposes, took up the lad't cause. A victory be- 
 fore Mirebeau in Poitou threw into John's power 
 Arthur, together with many of his partisans, some of 
 whom were starved to death in prison. It was be- 
 lieved that the King ordered his nephew's eyes to be 
 put out, but that the youth's keeper, Hubert of Burgh^ 
 would not carry out the sentence. However this may 
 
■-'W 
 
 So 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 have been, Arthur disappeared after some months' 
 captivity, and rumour accused his uncle of having 
 stabbed him with his own hand. John was summoned 
 by Philip to clear himself before the French Peers, and 
 on his non-appearance he was adjudged to have for- 
 feited his fiefs. Philip speedily made himself master 
 of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, and eventually 
 of great part of Eleanor's inheritance ; but the Chan- 
 nel Islands^ fragments of the Norman Duchy, together 
 with Gascony and part of Aquitainey were left to the 
 English King. To our country these losses proved a 
 gain. Our sovereigns gradually became Englishmen, in- 
 stead of being merely French princes holding England. 
 2. The Interdict. — In 1205 John* embroiled him- 
 self with Pope Innocent III,, the dispute arising on 
 the question whether the monks of Christ Church, 
 Canterbury, had the sole right of electing the Arch- 
 bishop, or whether the bishops of the province had a 
 voice in the matter. The Pope decided for the monks, 
 who on his recommendation elected Stepheti Langton, 
 an Englishman then in Rome, and the first scholar 
 of the day. This enraged John, who had named 
 another man for the place ; and as he refused to receive 
 Stephen as Archbishop, Innocent laid the kingdom 
 under an interdict. That is, the churches were closed, 
 and the Sacraments no longer administered, except to 
 infavits and the dying ; marriages took place only in 
 the church porch : and the dead were buried silently 
 and in unconsecrated ground. At first John was de- 
 fiant. He confiscated the estates of the clergy who 
 observed the interdict, and often let outrages upon 
 them pass unpunishec^. There is a story that a man 
 who had robbed and murdered a priest was brought 
 before the King : — " He has killed my enemy," quoth 
 John, " loose him and let him go." As John, 
 though excommunicated, would not give way, Inno- 
 cent declared him deposed from his throne, com- 
 mitted the execution of the sentence to Philip of 
 
XV.] 
 
 MAGNA CARTA. 
 
 8i 
 
 France, and called on all Christian nobles and kniglits 
 to join in a holy war against the English King. Under 
 this sentence, which Philip was preparing to carry out, 
 John's courage failed him. His oppressive taxes, his 
 harsh enforcement of the Forest laws, above all, his 
 intolerable cruelty and licentiousness, had set high and 
 low against him, and he could not count upon the 
 support of his subjects. One Peter ^ a hermit of York- 
 shire, foretold that when the next Ascension-day should 
 be passed John would have ceased to reign ; and in 
 superstitious terror, the King not only admitted Stephen 
 to the Archbishopric, but also by charter grnnted to 
 the Pope the Kingdoms of England and Ireland to 
 be henceforth held by John and his heirs by a yearly 
 tribute. On the 15th May, 12 13, in the Templars' 
 Church near Dover, he placed this charter in the 
 hands of the Pope's envoy, the subdeacon Pandulf, 
 and swore fealty to Innocent. In a week the 
 Feast of the Ascension passed, and John had the 
 hermit hanged for a false prophet. But people mur- 
 mured that Peter had spoken true; John was no 
 longer a sovereign, but a vassal. 
 
 3. Magna Carta. — The Barons were now resolved 
 to put a check upon John's tyranny ; and in spite of 
 the royal friendship with Rome, Archbishop Stephen 
 and the English Church gave their aid to the cause of 
 freedom. In a private meeting of the Barons at St. 
 Paul's Church, Aug. 25th, 12 13, Langton brought forth 
 the almost forgotten Charter of Henry I., which was 
 heard with great joy by all present, who saw in it a 
 precedent for.the reforms they desired. Nothing how- 
 ever was done till the next year, in the autumn of 
 which the confederate Barons took an oath upon the 
 altar at St. Edmundsbury to withdraw their allegiance, 
 if John should refuse their demands. At Eastertide, 
 12 15, they assembled their forces. In his passion the 
 King swore that he would never grant them liberties 
 which would make him a slave \ but when the ron- 
 
 ^ 
 
 i 
 
 ilii 
 I- 
 
 ;:nii 
 
-v 
 
 82 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 tctlAt». 
 
 federates — " fhe Army of God and of Holy Church " — 
 marched under Robert Fitz-Walter upon London, and 
 were willingly admitted, he was brought to submit 
 At Runny fuede^ a meadow near Windsor, on June 15th, 
 1 2 15, the King met the Barons, and sealed the Charter 
 which embodied their demands. Thus was won Magna 
 CariUy the Great Charter, held sacred to this day as 
 tlie foundation of our liberties. Yet it was no new law, 
 but rather a correction of abuses, llie first clause 
 secured the liberties of the English Church ; others 
 were framed for removing the grievances of the Barons 
 as tenants of the Crown. No scutage or aid (assistance 
 in money from a vassal to his lord) was to be levied 
 without the consent of a national council of prelates, 
 earls, barons, and the King's tenants generally, except 
 for three specified purposes. (These were, to ransom 
 the King from captivity, to provide for the expenses 
 of making his eldest son a knight, or of giving his 
 eldest daughter in marriage.) But, to their honour, 
 the patriot nobles did not take thought for them- 
 selves alone. The Chaiter provided that the rights 
 ihey claimed should be extended by them to their 
 own vassals. The ** liberties and free customs" of 
 London and other towns were secured. Protection 
 was given against oppressions arising from process for 
 debts or services due to the Crown ; against unreason- 
 able «;;/^r^^/;/<w/j' (fines); and the abuses of the preroga- 
 tive of purveyance and pre-emption — that is, the right 
 claimed by the Crown of buying provisions at its own 
 valuation, and of impressing carriages for its service. No 
 man was to be so heavily amerced as to«take away his 
 means of living — to the landholder was to be left his 
 land, to the merchant his merchandise, to the villain his 
 team and instruments of husbandry— and the penalty 
 was to be fixed by a jury of the neighbourhood. The 
 royal officers were to pay for the provisions they 
 took, and not to make use of the horses and carts ot 
 the freeman without his consent The King should 
 
roga- 
 right 
 own 
 i. No 
 
 y his 
 ft his 
 n his 
 alty 
 The 
 they 
 Its ot 
 ould 
 
 XV.] **'AU BETWEEN JOHN ANt) THE BARONs. 83 
 
 no longer make money out of the proceedings in 
 courts of law : " To no man will we sell," so runs the 
 clause, " to no man will we deny, or delay, right 01 
 justice." Trade was encouraged by the promise that 
 merchants should safely enter, leave, and pass through 
 England without paying exorbitant customs. Above 
 all, the liberty of the subject was secured. "No 
 freeman" was to be ** taken, or imprisoned, or 
 disseized [dispossessed], or outlawed, or exiled, or in 
 any way destroyed » . . . except by lawful judg- 
 ment of his peers, or by the law of the land." Twenty- 
 five barons were nominated to see that the Great 
 Charter was duly carried out, and were authorized to 
 seize on the royal castles and lands if the King should 
 fail to do his part. 
 
 4. War between John and the Barons. — 
 After the assembly had broken up, John buist into 
 a rage, and began to devise means of revenge. He 
 implored the aid of his lord the Pope, who thereupon 
 annulled the Charter, that is, declared it to be of none 
 effect ; telling the Barons that if they would submit, 
 he would see that they were not oppressed. But 
 rebuke, excommunication, the laying of London 
 under an interdict, failed to daunt the Barons, who 
 are said to have applied to the Pope the words of 
 Isaiah, "Woe unto them which justify the wicked !" 
 Langton would not publish the excommunication, and 
 was in consequence suspended by Pandulf from the 
 exercise of his functions as Archbishop. John also 
 secured the more potent aid of a host of foreign 
 mercenaries — savage freebooters trained to slaughter 
 and spoil — while the baronial party took the de- 
 sperate step of offering the crown to Louis^ eldest son 
 of Philip of France. At first the fortune of war 
 favoured John, who, in order to punish the northern 
 barons and their ally, young Alexander Il.y King of 
 ScoiSy marched northwards, ravaging as he went, as far 
 as Berwick, then a Scottish town. " Thus," he cried. 
 
 I '■ 
 
 I' 
 
Illfll 
 
 84 
 
 HENRY III. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 alluding to the colour of Alexander's hair, " will we 
 chase the red fox-cub from his earths," — and he gave, 
 it is said, the signal for the destruction of Berwick 
 by firing with his own hands the house in which 
 he had rested during the night. At last, in May, 12 16, 
 Louis came over with a French armv, and was well 
 supported. But when the Barons found the foreign 
 prince granting lands and castles to his own country- 
 men, they grew suspicious of him, and some began to 
 think of returning to their allegiance. 
 
 5. Death of John. — -While John was crossing 
 with his army the Wash of Lincolnshire, his baggage 
 and treasures were swallowed by the rising tide. 
 Vexation, coupled with a surfeit of peaches and cider 
 — or, according to a later tradition, poison administered 
 by a monk — threw him into a fever, of which he died 
 at Newark, Oct. 19th, 12 16, leaving an evil name 
 behind him. He was the first Sovereign whose title 
 appears on his Great Seal as King of England, By his 
 second wife, Isabel of AngoiilbnCy he had two sons — 
 Henry^ who succeeded him, and Richard^ Earl oj 
 Cornwall^ who, in 1257, was, by some of the German 
 princes, elected King of the Romans (the title borne by 
 the German King before his coronation as Emperor). 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 HENRY III. 
 
 Henry of Winchester ; departure of Louis ( —Hubert 
 of Burgh; marriage of Henry j the favourites; 
 character of Henry / the Londoners ^2) — the Provisions 
 of Oxford (3) — the Barons' War (4) — Earl Simon^s 
 Parliament (5^ — battle of Evesham and death of 
 Simon; the Disinherited (6) — death of Henry (7)— - 
 Magna Carta (8) — the Universities (9) — Gothic archi- 
 tecture (10). 
 
 i i 
 
XVI.] 
 
 CHARACTER OF HENRY. 
 
 Si 
 
 1. Henry III., of Winchester, 1216 1272. — 
 
 On the tenth day after John's death, the Royalists 
 crowned at Gloucester his eldest son Henrys then only 
 nine years old. A plain circlet of gold was placed 
 on the child's head, for the crown had been lost with 
 the rest of the royal treasures. William Marshal^ 
 Earl of Pembroke^ a wise and good statesman, was 
 made "Governor of the King and Kingdom." Many 
 barons now left the French standard ; and two battles 
 put an end to the hopes of Louis. The first, fought in 
 May 1 21 7, in the streets of Lincoln, between the Earl 
 of Pembroke and the French Count of Perche, was 
 jestingly termed by the victorious Royalists " the Fair 
 of Lincoln" The second was a sea-fight between the 
 Justiciar Hubert of Burgh^ and a noted pirate, Eustace 
 the Monk, who was bringing a French fleet to the 
 relief of Louis. Hubert, who held Dover Castle, 
 could get together only forty sail, to oppose to more 
 than eighty of the enemy, and his case seemed &o 
 desperate that several knights would not accompany 
 him. But his courage was rewarded, for the English, 
 fearlessly boarding the enemy's ships and cutting the 
 rigging, gained a complete victory. After this Louis 
 was glad to make peace and go home. King Alex- 
 ander of Scotland and the North-Welsh prince 
 Llywelyn, son of Jorwerth, acknowledged the young 
 Sovereign, who now reigned undisputed. 
 
 2. Character of Henry. — The history of Henry's 
 reign is for a long time that of a struggle against foreign 
 influence. The adventurers who had been in John's 
 service exercised great power, until they were got rid 
 of by Hubert of Burgh, who, after the Earl of Pem- 
 broke's death, took a leading part in the government. 
 When Hubert in 1232 lost the King's favour, the 
 Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches^ a native of 
 Poitou, came into power, and with him a new set o 
 foreigners, who were not removed until some of the 
 Barons had taken up arms against the King. Then, 
 
 . I 
 
u 
 
 imNRV in. 
 
 ten A p. 
 
 ' 
 
 at the age of twenty-nine, Henry married Eleanor^ 
 daughter of Raymond, Count of Provence. She was 
 beautiful and accomplished, but was disliked on ac- 
 count of the favours lavished on her kindred, who 
 looked upon England as a mine of wealth, out of 
 which they were to get as much as they could. 
 After these, there came the King's foreign kinsfolk, 
 the sons of his mother by her second marriage. In- 
 solent and masterful in their prosperity, the favourites 
 met every complaint of the English with the reply, 
 " We have nothing to do with the law of the land." 
 Though the King had no positive vices, he was weak, 
 vain, and ostentatiously liberal, and consequently 
 always poor and greedy for money. On the birth of 
 his first son Edward^ he sought after gifts with such 
 eagerness, that a Norman said, " Heaven gave us this 
 child, but the King sells him to us." The rich London 
 citizens complained of the heavy tallages laid ppon 
 them. "Those ill-bred Londoners," as Henry once 
 called them, were no friends of the Court, and their 
 mutual dislike often broke out. One day the young 
 men of the City were playing at the quintain^ a game 
 which exercised the man-at-arms in managing his 
 horse and lance, when some of the royal attendants 
 and pages insulted the citizens, calling them " scurvy 
 clowns and soap makers," and entered the lists to 
 oppose them. The young Londoners had the satis- 
 faction of beating their courtly antagonists " black 
 and blue," but the City paid for it in a heavy fine 
 imposed by the King. 
 
 3. The Provisions of Oxford. — The Popes 
 claimed the right to tax the clergy, upon whom they 
 made almost yearly demands, which were complained 
 of as much as the royal exactions. They were further 
 answerable for leading Henry into his most signal 
 act of folly, by offering to his second son Edmund the 
 crown of Sicily, or rather the empty title, for the actual 
 kintjdom could only be gained by war, the expenses of 
 
CVT.l 
 
 THE BARONS WAR. 
 
 :urvy 
 ts to 
 Isatis- 
 )lack 
 V fine 
 
 [opes 
 they 
 ^ned 
 rther 
 fgnal 
 the 
 :tual 
 ;sof 
 
 87 
 
 Avliich Henry pledged England to repay. Aghast at 
 finding how enormous was the sum to which they were 
 committed, the Barons in 1258 compelled Henry to 
 agree that twenty-four persons should be chosen, half 
 by him, half by themselves, to reform the government. 
 These twenty-four were appointed in a Parliament^ 
 as the national council of barons and bishops was now 
 called, held at Oxford,— the " Mad Parliament," 
 Henry's friends named it. By this committee were 
 drawn up " the Provisions of Oxford^^^ under which 
 the royal authority was in fact placed in the hands of 
 a council of fifteen. The King's foreign kinsmen 
 and favourites had to surrender the royal castles they 
 held ; upon which they left the country, carrying with 
 them only a small part of the treasure they had 
 amassed. But the new government did not long 
 work smoothly. The Barons quarrelled among them- 
 selves, and Henry took advantage of this to try to get 
 back his authority. 
 
 4. The Barons* War. — This ended in a war 
 between the King and the malcontent Barons, the 
 latter being headed by the most able man of their 
 party, Simon of Montfort, a Frenchman who had 
 obtained the Earldom of Leicester, upon which his 
 family had a claim, had married the King's sister 
 Eleanor, and had become a thorough Englishman. 
 He was a brave and devout man, somewhat hot- 
 tempered and impatient of opposition, but bearing 
 a high reputation for skill in war and statesmanship. 
 The unstable King, who had been the making of 
 him, soon fell out with him; and since 1258 
 Simon had stood forth as the leader of the party oi 
 reform. His strength lay not so much in the nobles, 
 who did not thoroughly trust him, as in the clergy, the 
 Universities, the people generally, and especially the 
 Londoners, who showed their dislike of the royal 
 family in a manner which did them no credit. On 
 the first breaking out of war, the Queen attempted to 
 
 ! 5 
 
]'^ 
 
 :.]f 
 
 8S 
 
 HENRY ITT. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 pass by water from the Tower to Windsor Castle ; but 
 as soon as her barge approached the bridge, the 
 Londoners assailed her with abuse, threw down mud 
 upon her, and by preparing to sink her boat forced her 
 to return. The battle of Lerves, May 14, 1264, put 
 an end for the time to the war. The action was 
 begun by the King's son Edward, who charged the 
 Londoners in the baronial army with such vigour as 
 to send them flying in utter rout ; but his eagerness to 
 avenge his mother led him to chase them four miles, 
 and while he was slaughtering fugitives, his own 
 friends were defeated by Simon. King Henry, who 
 had defended himself gallantly, had no choice but to 
 surrender; while his brother the King of the^Romans 
 was captured in a windmill, to the great glee ofjhis 
 adversaries, whose mocking song, how " the King ot 
 Alemai^ne " " made him a castle of a mill," has come 
 down to us. The next day a treaty, the " Mise of 
 Le2ves"^^s concluded, under which Edward was given 
 as a hostage to the conquerors. Though orders and 
 writs continued to run in the royal name, and the 
 King was treated with respect, he became no better 
 than a prisoner to Earl Simon. T.* vain the Papal 
 legate, Guy Foulquois, threatened the baronial party 
 with excommunication : as soon as the Bulls (writings 
 sealed with the Pope's bulla or seal) containing the 
 sentence arrived, the Dover men threw them into 
 tlivi sea. 
 
 5. Earl Simon's Parliament. — The most famous 
 act of Earl Simon during his rule was the summoning, 
 in Henry's name, of the first Parliament to which 
 representatives of the borough towns were called. 
 The Great Council of the realm, the assembly of the 
 King's tenants, was already known by the French or 
 Italian name of. Parliament ; but Simon was the first 
 to show how it might be made what we understand by 
 that name, an assembly representing every class of 
 freemen. Its materials he found ready to his hand. 
 
XVl.) 
 
 RATTLE OF EVESHAM. 
 
 99 
 
 The greater Barons, out of whom in later days our House 
 of Lords or Peers was formed, came, as they still do, 
 in person to the national council ; and as the smaller 
 tenants of the Crown or freeholders were too numerous 
 to do likewise, a few of their number had occasionally 
 been summoned to act for them — so many knights 
 from each county. This was the origin of oui 
 county members, who still are called Knights of tlu 
 Shire, But a House of knights alone would have 
 been a poor representation of the whole people. 
 Simon brought the towns also into the national 
 assembly, making not only each county send two 
 knights, but each city and borough send two of their 
 citizens or burgesses. It was not however till thirty 
 years later that representatives of the towns began to 
 be regularly and continuously summoned to Parlia- 
 ment, forming, together with the knights, our House 
 of Commons. Simon's Parliament, which met Jan. 
 20, 1265, was not what would be called a full and free 
 Parliament. The number of earls and barons was 
 small, Simon having summoned only those who 
 supported him ; on the other hand there was a large 
 body of clergy, as among that class he had many 
 friends. 
 
 6. Battle of Evesham. — Earl Simon **?//^ 
 Righteous" as he was called, did not keep his power 
 much longer. His sons gave offence by their 
 haughtiness and ill-conduct, and one of the foremost 
 of the Barons, Gilbert of Clare, Earl of Gloucester, 
 entered into league with the Royalist Mortimers, one 
 of the great families on the Welsh marches. Hoping to 
 bring about Edward's escape, his friends sent him a 
 fleet horse, upon which, having craftily got leave for 
 a race or trial of horses, he galloped away from his 
 escort, bidding them farewell with sarcastic courtesy. 
 Fortune now turned against the Earl of Leicester, 
 whose plans were defeated by his son Simon allowing 
 himself to be surprised by Edward and the Earl of 
 
 \- \ I 
 
 wl 
 
ill 
 
 
 4 
 
 'II N' 
 
 90 
 
 HENRY III. 
 
 [chap 
 
 Gloucester at Kenilworth. Edward and Gloucestei 
 then advanced against the elder Simon at Eveshavi^ 
 Aug. 4, 1265, and, by displaying in their van the 
 banners they had won at Kenilworth, deluded their 
 adversaries into taking the approaching force for that 
 of young Simon. When the ensigns of the RoyaHst 
 leaders at length appeared, the elder Simon saw that 
 he was outnumbered and outgeneralled. "They 
 come up in skilful fashion, but they have learned that 
 ordering from me, not of themselves," said the veteran 
 warrior ; '* now let us commend our souls to God, for 
 our bodies are theirs." King Henry, being forced to 
 appear in the baronial ranks, ran no small risk, until 
 the fall of his helmet revealed him to the too zealous 
 friends who were attacking him. Earl Simon, un- 
 horsed and hemmed in by foes, fought on valiantly, 
 till a blow from behind ended his life. His body was 
 brutally mangled by the Royalists, but some relics of 
 the corpse were buried by the friendly monks of Eves- 
 ham ; and the clergy and people in general honoured 
 him as a martyr. This victory restored Henry to 
 power, although ^'' the Disinherited'^ — that is, Simon's 
 adherents and their sons, whose estates were con- 
 fiscated — kept up a fierce plundering warfare for two 
 years longer. In the end they were allowed to redeem 
 their estates, though this advantage was not extended 
 to the Montfort family. Among the last to yield was 
 the North-Welsh prince, Llywelyn^ son of Gruffydd, 
 who had been in alliance with Earl Simon, and whose 
 submission was soothed by the title oi Prince of Wales, 
 7. Death of Henry. — The land being now at 
 peace, Edward and Edmund set off upon what proved 
 to be the last Crusade ; and during their absence King 
 Henry died, Nov. 16, 1272. He was buried in West- 
 minster Abbey, which he had begun to rebuild ; and 
 ere his sepulchre was closed, the Earl of Gloucester, 
 laying his hand on the corpse, swore fealty to the 
 absent Edward, who was at once proclaimed King. 
 
 Pi 
 
XVI.] 
 
 MAGNA CARTA. 
 
 9t 
 
 lester, 
 the 
 
 8. Magna Carta.— The Great Charter, with the 
 omission of the clauses touching taxation and the 
 national council, and with some other alterations, was 
 thrice re-issued in this reign : first, on the accession of 
 Henry; secondly, after the departure of Louis, when a 
 Charter of the Forest was added, which declared that 
 no man should lose life or lin^b for taking the King's 
 game ; thirdly, in 1225, being the condition upon which 
 Henry obtained a grant of money from the national 
 council. In this last form it was afterwards confirmed 
 more than thirty times. The proverbial phrase, 
 Noliimus leges AngUcB rniitare^ (We will not change the 
 laws of England,) dates from this reign, it having 
 been the answer of the earls and barons in council at 
 Merton in 1236, when urged by the bishops to bring 
 the law of inheritance into accordance with the eccle- 
 siastical law. 
 
 9. The Universities. — The English Universities^ 
 which began to be of importance in the time of Henry, 
 had arisen in the twelfth century, being at first gather- 
 ings of independent masters and scholars, not attached 
 to any great ecclesiastical foundation, and not as yet 
 formed into endowed societies. The first of these 
 settlements of students was at Oxford^ which was then 
 one of the chief towns of England, a strong military 
 post, and a place in which great national assemblies 
 were often held. There in 1133, ^ Breton, Robert 
 Puhviy first began to lecture on divinity, and in 
 1 149, VacariuSy a. Lombard, began to teach the 
 Roman law. By the close of the thirteenth century, 
 Oxford ranked as one of the greatest schools of the 
 Western world. Cambridge also became the seat of 
 an University, but of its early history hardly anything 
 is known. Incorporated and endowed colleges within 
 the Universities were first founded in the thirteenth 
 cenlury. 
 
 10. Gothic Architecture. — In the last years of 
 the twelfth century arose the Pointed or Gothic style 
 
 u 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Ul 
 
; 
 
 r 
 
 92 
 
 EDWARD I. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 of architecture, which flourished until the introduction 
 of the Italian style in the sixteenth century. When it 
 had gone out of fashion, and its beauties were not appre- 
 ciated, the name of Gothic^ which had the sense of 
 barbarous^ was fixed upon it in scorn. It is also called 
 pointed^ because its leading feature is the pointed arch. 
 Salisbury Cathedral is a good specimen of early Gothic ; 
 and the Eleanor Crosses, and the nave of York 
 Minster, of that which prevailed under the first three 
 Edwards. The naves of Winchester and Canterbury 
 Cathedrals represent the form intermediate between 
 York nave and the latest Gothic, of which the chapels 
 of St. George at Windsor and of Henry VII. at West- 
 minster are examples. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 EDWARD 1. 
 
 
 
 Edward L (i) — war with Prince Llywelyn; death of 
 Llywelyn and of David; creation of the Prince oj 
 Wales ; Wales annexed to England (2) — competitors 
 for the Scottish Crown ; decision of Edward ; conquest 
 of Scotland ; deposition of Balliol ; Stone of Scone (3) 
 William Wallace ; second conquest of Scotland ; 
 murder of Cotnyn ; Bf uce crowned King of Scots ; 
 death of Edward (4)- family of Edward (5) — legisla- 
 tion ; Parliament ; Confirmation of the Charters ; 
 parliamentary taxation (6) — expulsion of the few s (7). 
 
 I. Edward, First from the Norman Con- 
 quest, surnamed Longshanks, 1272-1307. — 
 Edwardy the first English prince after the Norman 
 Conquest who was an Englishman at heart, was strong 
 jind tall, towering by head and shoulders above the 
 
 I 
 \ 
 k 
 d 
 a 
 
 13 
 
KAP. 
 
 tion 
 
 ;n it 
 
 )pre- 
 
 e of 
 
 lUed 
 
 irch. 
 
 thic; 
 
 York 
 
 three 
 
 rbury 
 
 ween 
 
 apels 
 
 ^Vest- 
 
 ICon- 
 
 |o7- 
 )rman 
 
 trong 
 
 le the 
 
 V 
 
 XVII.] 
 
 CONQUEST OF WALES. 
 
 93 
 
 crowd, a good horseman, a keen hunter, and noted for 
 his skill in knightly exercises. His credit as a Crusader 
 was heightened by his having narrowly escaped with 
 his life from the poisoned dagger of a Mohammedan 
 assassin. The touching story that his wife, Eleanor oj 
 Castile^ at her own peril sucked the vencm from his 
 wound, is but a romance ; for in truth Edward's forti- 
 tude was put to the test of having the poisoned flesh 
 cut out. He could hold his own in hand-to-hand fight, 
 was a skilful general^ and never grudged taking his 
 share of the hardships of war. During a campaign 
 in Wales, when he and some of his men ran short of 
 provisions, he refused to have the small supply of 
 wine reserved for himself. " In time of need all 
 things ought to be in common," he said. " I, who am 
 the cause of your being in this strait, will fare no better 
 than you." Besides being a good soldier, he was a 
 great statesman and ruler. Loving power, he was loth 
 to give it up, but he knew when to yield ; his chief 
 fault was a disposition to strain his legal rights, and 
 keep to the letter of the law rather than to its spirit. 
 
 2. Conquest of Wales. — Upon Edward's acces- 
 sion, Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, was called upon to 
 do homage. This he persistently evaded, till he was 
 at length declared a rebel, and was soon brought by 
 force of arms to submit. For some years there was 
 peace, though both prince and people still hoped to 
 win their independence. Resistance was first made 
 by the very man from whom Edward could least have 
 expected it, Dafydd or David^ who had fought on the 
 English side against his brother Llywelyn, and had 
 been favoured and enriched by Edward. He raised 
 m 1282 a formidable insurrection ; but after Llywelyn 
 had fallen in a chance encounter with an English 
 knight, the Welsh chieftains yielded, and David, being 
 delivered up by his own countrymen, was put to death 
 as a traitor and a murderer, Sept. 20, 1283. Llywe- 
 lyn's head, encircled with a wreath of silver ivy-leaves, 
 
 li: 
 
'i 
 
 94 
 
 was set 
 
 EDWARD I. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 cry of a pi 
 
 rcr the Tower, in mocjv( 
 that the Prince of Wales should be crowned in 
 London. The King's son Edwai'd was born April 
 25, 1284, at Caernarvon, and sixteen years later was 
 created Prince of Wales^ a title which thenceforth was 
 usually conferred on the Sovereign's eldest son. The 
 legend that the King promised to give the Welsh a 
 native prince who could not speak a word of English, 
 and that he then presented to them his infant son, 
 rests on no good authority. Another story, that the 
 King, finding that the native bards or poets kept alive 
 the memories of the ancient glories of Wales, had 
 them all massacred, is a fiction only worthy of notice 
 because it has been made famous by the poet Gray. 
 Wales, though pfter Llywelyn's fail it was annexed to 
 England, was still in many respects a separate country, 
 and the marches remained as before under the sway 
 of the ''''Lords Marchers^' English nobles holding 
 feudal lordships within which they exercised almost 
 sovereign jurisdiction. 
 
 3. Conquest of Scotland. — The Scots, under 
 which name were now included all the people north 
 of Tweed and Solway, whether Gaelic-speaking 
 Celts of the Highlands or English-speaking Teutons 
 of the Lowlands, were without a King ; the last of 
 their old Celtic line of princes was dead, and there 
 was a crowd of claimants to the throne. Of these the 
 foremost were Jofm Balliol, Lord of Galloway ^ and 
 Robert Bruce^ Lord of Annandale, noblemen of Norman 
 origin, holding lands both in England and Scotland, 
 who rested their claim upon their descent from nieces 
 of William the Lion. Neither had much right 
 to be called a Scot, — indeed, most of the Scottish 
 nobles were descended from Normans who had found 
 favour with the Scottish Kings, and often had more 
 interest in England than in Scotland. The English 
 King was called in to decide, and accordingly in 1291 
 he held an assembly of Scots and Englishmen at Nor- 
 
XVII.] 
 
 COKQUESt Of SCOTLANt). 
 
 95 
 
 nder 
 
 Inorth 
 
 king 
 
 lutons 
 
 St of 
 
 there 
 
 e the 
 
 and 
 Irman 
 land, 
 Ueces 
 |right 
 )ttish 
 lound 
 
 nore 
 jglish 
 
 1291 
 \Nor- 
 
 Juim. lie began by demanding that the Scots should 
 acknowledge him as their feudal Superior or Overlord 
 — an ancient claim of the English Kings, but one 
 which the Scottish Kings had been disposed to evade 
 or deny. Now however the Scottish nobles and 
 prelates, who })robably did not care to argue the point 
 widi so powerful and warlike a prince as Edward, 
 found nothing to say against it. After due enquiry, 
 Edward gave judgment in favour of Balliol, who.e 
 fealty and homage for the realm of Scotland he then 
 received. But the new King and his barons, disliking 
 their position as vassals, took advantage in 1295 of a 
 quarrel between France and England, to ally them- 
 selves with France and go to war with England. In 
 this they were worsted ; and Balliol being compelled to 
 give up the crown in 1296, Edward took possession of 
 Scotland as a fief forfeited by the treason of its holder, 
 received the homage of the Scottish nobles and prelates, 
 and filled the highest offices in the country widi English- 
 men, Johtiy Earl of Waireiifie and Surrey^ being 
 appointed Guardian. Edward carried away the Scot- 
 tish crown jewels, and with them a relic whose loss 
 was deeply felt. At Scotie there was a fragment of 
 rock on which the Scots King was wont to be placed 
 at his coronation. It had been, so legend said, the 
 pillow of Jacob at Bethel ; and where that fated stone 
 was, there the Scots should reign. The conqueror 
 placed it, enclosed in a throne, in Westminster Abbey, 
 where the stone and chair still remain, and upon them 
 every King of England has since been crowned. 
 
 4. Wallace and Bruce. — Edward was not a 
 harsh conqueror, but Southern domination was hateful 
 to the people of the Lowlands. It was from these, 
 men of English speech and for the most pait of 
 English blood, and not from the Celtic Scots of the 
 North, to whom the change of rule made little difTcr- 
 ence, that the resistarice to the English King came. 
 The presence of Edward's garrisons, the unwonted 
 
 I ! 
 
 ; I 
 
EDWARD* I. 
 
 [CHA1». 
 
 taxes imposed to provide for the maintenance of order 
 in the half-subdued land, soon aroused opposition. 
 William Wallace, a Clydesdale man, who made him- 
 self a name as a chief of outlaws, headed the popular 
 movement. Mustering the people of the Lowlands 
 north of Tay, he defeated near Stirling an English 
 army led by Earl Warrenne ; and after having ravaged 
 Northumberland and Cumberland, he became ruler 
 of Scotland under the title of Guardian of the 
 Kingdom. His fall was as rapid as his rise. Edward 
 routed the insurgents at Falkirk, July 22, 1298, 
 after which Wallace resigned the Guardianship, and 
 eventually sank back into his outlaw's life. The 
 Scottish nobles kept up the war some years longer, 
 but were again obliged \ yield. Wallace was re- 
 quired to surrender to the King's mercy. This he 
 feared or disdained to do ; and being captured, he 
 was brought to London and hanged at Tyburn, Aug. 
 23, 1305, winning by his dea^h his place as the national 
 hero of Scotland. What he had failed to achieve was 
 brought about by Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, 
 grandson of that Bruce who had claimed the throne. 
 Early in 1306, this young Bruce had an interview in 
 the Grey Friars' Church at Dumfries with John Comyn 
 of Badenochy who, after the line of Balliol, was the 
 nearest heir to the Scottish throne. Rumour said that 
 Bruce urged Comyn to join in an attempt to restore 
 the kingdom, and that Comyn hung back. Anyhow 
 the end of it was that Bruce stabbed Comyn, leaving 
 him wounded in the church, where he was despatched 
 by one of Bruce's followers. Bruce had now no chance 
 of safety but in playing the boldest game. Summon- 
 ing the Scots to his standard, he had himself crowned 
 King at Scone. Edward's deepest anger was roused by 
 this sacrilegious murder, which he solemnly vowed to 
 avenge. Being in feeble health, nfi could only move 
 northwards by easy stages, but he sent in advance 
 his son Edward, who began so ruthlessly to waste 
 
JtVllj 
 
 LEGISLATION^ OF EDWARD. 
 
 ^ 
 
 the Scottish country that his father had to check his 
 cruelty. Bruce, with his followers, was hunted about 
 from place to place, but he gained some small success, 
 sufficient to irritate Edward, who thereupon advanced 
 from Carlisle as soon as he felt his health would 
 permit. But the mere exertion of mounting his horse 
 proved almost too much for him, and in the next 
 four days he could only move six miles, reaching 
 Burgh-on-the-Sands, where, within sight of Scotland, 
 he died, July 7, 1307. 
 
 5. Family of Edward. — Edward's first wife, 
 Eleanor, died in 1290, in Lincolnshire, and wherever 
 her corpse rested on its way to Westminster a cross 
 was raised to her memory. " We loved her tenderly 
 in her life-time ; we do not cease to love her in death," 
 said the King, when asking the Abbot of Cluny to 
 intercede for her soul. Of Eleanor's four sons, three 
 died in childhood ; the youngest, Edward^ succeeded 
 his father. The King's second wife was Margaret^ 
 sister of Philip /K, the Fair^ of France. Her sons 
 were Thomas of Brothcrton^ Earl of Norfolk^ and 
 Edmund of Woodstock^ Earl of Kent 
 
 6. Legislation. — Notwithstanding that Simon of 
 Montfort had been Edward's foe, his system of 
 parliamentary representation was in its main lines 
 adopted and established by Edward and has en- 
 dured to this day. In the earlier part of Edward's 
 reign the presence of representatives of the shires and 
 towns was still not thought necessary to a Parliament ; 
 hut the year 1295 saw the first summons of a true 
 Parliament, which served as a model for future assem- 
 blies of the nation. There were the Earls and great 
 Barons, the Archbishops, Bishops, and Abbots, sum- 
 moned severally in person by the King's special writ ; 
 and the Commons summoned by writs addressed to 
 the sheriffs, bidding them send up two elected knights 
 from each shire, two citizens from each city, and two 
 burgesses from each borough. Represenlaiives of the 
 
 1:- 
 
 , iU 
 
EDWARt) 1. 
 
 fCIIAl 
 
 clergy were also summoned, so lliat the Parliamcn*: 
 was an assembly of the Three Estates (classes or 
 orders) of the Realm — Cleiyj^ Ixn-ds^ and Commons. 
 As however the lower clergy did not care about 
 sitting in Parliament, preferring to vote their taxes in 
 their own meeimgs or convocations^ in practice tlie 
 English Parliament has for long consisted of only two 
 Instates, Lords or Peers, and Commons^ who sit apart 
 in two Houses — a division which was not made till 
 after Edward's time. The House of Lords was made 
 up of those great nobles and prelates who were 
 specially summoned to Parliament, the right to be so 
 summoned descending, in the case of the lay lords, 
 from father to son ; the elected representatives 
 formed the House of Commons. As the lesser 
 barons were not summoned to Parliament, they 
 passed into the mass of commoners. Edward and 
 his Parliaments made a number of useful laws ; but 
 the chief ref3rm of the reign was won much against 
 the King's will and almost by force. Roger Bigod^ 
 Earl of Norfolk^ and Humfrey Bohun^ Earl of 
 Hereford, in 1297 made a determined stand against 
 the King's levying money and provisions on his sole 
 a'.ithority, which he had been led to do under the 
 pressure of the French and Scottish war. The two 
 Earls obtained from him the Confirmation of the 
 Charters^ with the important addition that he should 
 not make such exactions or impose such taxes without 
 " the common assent of the realm." Thus was 
 established the principle that the nation cannot be 
 taxed except by its consent given in Parliament. The 
 words used were not so precise as to prevent all 
 evasion, and the kings soon found out ways of raising 
 money without consulting Parliament ; but it was 
 always felt that to do so was contrary to the spirit 
 of the constitution. 
 
 7. Expulsion of the Jews. — The Jetvs were 
 liateful to the people, both because they were not 
 
XVlll.) 
 
 fibWARb It. 
 
 90 
 
 C'hristians, and because tiicy were usurers. They 
 nlone could lend money on interest, for the Scriptures 
 were thought to forbid that practice to Christians, and 
 tlicreby tlicy made enormous profits. They were 
 accused of horrible crimes, and were often subjected 
 to great cruelties by the fierce and ignorant people 
 among whom they lived ; but hated as they were, they 
 yet grew rich under the protection of the Sovereign, 
 whose slaves and chattels the law accounted them. 
 As he could tax them at his pleasure, it was his 
 interest to protect them and to give every encourage- 
 ment to their trade. ]5ut at last, in 1290, Edward, being 
 unable to withstand the popular feeling against them, 
 after a vain attempt to convert them to Christianity, 
 ordered them all, on pain of death, to quit the king- 
 dom, allowing them however to carry away their 
 money and goods. Harsh as tliis order was, it is 
 fair to Edward to consider that by it he sacrificed a 
 source of revenue to the wishes of his people. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 EDWARD II. 
 
 Edward IT. ; Piers Gaveston {i) —vtarrtage and coro- 
 na/ion of Edward : general enmity against Piers ; the 
 Ordainers; death of Piers (2) — battle of Dannockburn 
 (3) — the Scots in Ireland (4) — the Despensers; behead- 
 ing of the Earl of Lancaster (5) — invasion of Isabel 
 and Mortimer ; execution of the Despensers; deposition 
 of Edward {6)— murder of Edward (7) — suppression of 
 the Knights Templars (8). 
 
 I. Edward 11. , of Caernarvon, 1307-1327. — 
 The young King already had a favourite. Piers or 
 
 "fifii 
 
100 
 
 tnWAUt) tl. 
 
 tciiAK 
 
 ; 
 
 Peter of Gaveston^ son of a Gascon p;enllcnian. 
 Kdward I. had chosen him to be his son's com- 
 I>anion in boyhood- -a choice he had cause to rue, 
 for Piers led the Prince of Wales into wild and law- 
 less courses, wliich the elder Edward tried in vain to 
 restrain. Once indeed he imprisoned his son for 
 breaking the park and destroying the deer of the 
 Treasurer, Walter of I^angton, Bishop of Chester ; and 
 some months before the old King's death Piers was 
 banished. Among the injunctions laid upon his son 
 by the dying Edward, one was that he should never 
 recall Gaveston without consent of Parliament; another 
 was that he should go on with the Scottish war. Hut 
 his commands were set at nought. The new King 
 soon gave up the Scottish expedition and hastened to 
 recall Piers, whom he loaded with riches and honours, 
 and left as Regent during his own absence in France 
 for his marriage. 
 
 2. General Enmity against Gaveston. — At 
 Boulogne, early in 1308, tlie King married Isabel^ 
 daughter of Philip the Fair of rrance. On his return 
 he was met by the Regent and the English barons. 
 The disgust of these latter was great when they saw 
 the King, without noticing anyone else, throw himself 
 into his favourite's arms and call him brother. When 
 at the coronation the place of honour was given to 
 Piers, the irritation was increased, and the barons 
 soon began to demand his banishment. Edward, 
 reluctantly yielding, appointed Piers to the govern- 
 ment of Ireland, where he seems to have shown 
 courage and ability. Want of money obliged the 
 King to summon a Parliament, from which, though 
 not till after he had given a favourable answer to its 
 petition for redress of certain grievances, he obtained 
 the needed supply. He also prevailed on the nobles 
 to consent that Piers, whom he had again recalled, 
 might remain with him, ** provided he should demean 
 himself properly." Piers however was far from demean- 
 
XVIII.] 
 
 liATTI.K OF nANNOCKHURN. 
 
 tot 
 
 own 
 the 
 
 )ugh 
 its 
 
 ined 
 
 bles 
 led, 
 ean 
 iaii- 
 
 iiig liimsclf properly in the eyes of the nobles. When 
 he was at court nothing went on but dancing, feasting, 
 and merry-making ; and their feelings were further 
 eml)iltered by the contemptuous nicknames he be- 
 stowed upon them. Discontent again showed itself, 
 and in 13 lo Edward was obliged to give up the 
 government for a year to a committee of bishops, 
 earls, and barons. *' The Ordainersy' ns they were 
 called, drew up articles of reform, lessening the King's 
 power, and again banishing Piers. Edward, after 
 complaining and entreating in vain, parted in tears 
 with his favourite. But not a year had passed before 
 Piers rejoined the King, upon which the barons took 
 up arms under llwmas^ Earl of Lancaster y cousin to 
 the King, and besieging Piers in Scarborough Castle, 
 obliged him to surrender. His enemy, Guy Beau" 
 c/iam^fy Earl of Warivkky upon whom Piers had fixed 
 the name of " TI'.2 Black Dog," carried him off to 
 his own castle ; and, his death being determined on, 
 he was beheaded in the presence of Earl Thomas, on 
 Blacklow Hill, near Warwick, June 19, 1312. 
 
 3. Battle of Bannockburn. — While P2dward 
 was wrangling with his barons, Scotland was lost, the 
 fortresses there falling one by one into the hands of 
 Bruce. At last, in 13 14, Edward, with a large army, 
 set out to save Stirling Castle, whose governor had 
 agreed to surrender if not relieved before the Feast of 
 St. John the Baptist, June 24. Almost ihe same story 
 is told of this battle as of Hastings. The English, it 
 is said, spent the vigil in revelry, shouting their old 
 drinking cries of "Wassail" and ''Drink hail;" the 
 Scots kept it fasting. The batde took place on the 
 morrow near Bannockburn, Bruce's small force, chiefly 
 made up of infantry, was disposed in squares or 
 circles of spearmen, upon which the heavy cavalry, 
 which formed the strength of the English army, dashed 
 ihemselves in vain. Ill led, and thrown into disorder, 
 the Enghsh broke up in utter rout, many of the flying 
 
t02 
 
 EDWARD n. 
 
 tCIIAP. 
 
 i^ 
 
 horsemen floundering into pitfalls which the Scots had 
 dug in the plain. Edward fled, closel}^ pursued by a 
 party of Scottish horse, and all his treasures and 
 supplies fell into the hands of the victors. Scotland 
 had now won her independence, though it was long 
 before the English would treat Bruce as Ring. 
 
 4. The Scots in Ireland. — Ireland was torn 
 asunder between the settlers in the " pale " or JCnglish 
 district, and the native srp/s or clans, who were for 
 ever making war upon each other and among them- 
 selves. OWc/// cind other chiefs of Ulster, joined by 
 the Lacys, a Norman-English family, now offered the 
 Irish crown to Edivard Brucc^ brother of Robert. 
 Edward came over with an army to Ulster in 1315 ; 
 and there gaining, together with his Iris.h allies, some 
 victories, was crowned King at Carrickforgus. But 
 the Irish hoi)es were broken by the defeat of Athcnrcc^ 
 August 10, 13 16; and two years later Edward Bruce 
 fell in battle near Dundalk. 
 
 5. The Despensers. — After a time, the King 
 fouod a new favourite. Sir If ugh le Despenser, upon 
 whom he bestowed large estates. Despenser and 
 his father, who was Edward's chief adviser, were soon 
 as much a cause of strife as Gaveston had been, and 
 sentence of forfeiture and exile was passed upon them 
 by the Peers. An affront offered to the Queen by 
 Lady Badlesmere, who refused to admit her into 
 Leeds Castle, roused Edward to take up arms, and 
 finding himself better supported than he had ex- 
 pected, he proceeded to attack the Lords Marchers, 
 who had harried the lands of the Despensers, and 
 been foremost in obtaining their banishment. Earl 
 Thomas rose in aid of his friends, but being de- 
 feated at BoroughbrUge^ was led captive to his own 
 castle of Pontefract, condemned as a rebel and traitor, 
 and beheaded. He had been in treasonable rom 
 miinication with the Scots, and altogether deserved 
 little pity ; but he had set himself up as the friend o( 
 
xv:ii.) 
 
 DF.rOSlTlON OF EDWARD TI. 
 
 I0.1 
 
 the clergy and people, and he was popularly accounted 
 a martyr. His chief ally, Humfrey Bohun^ Earl of 
 Hereford, son of the Bohun who had withstood 
 Edward I., had fallen in the fight. Another leading 
 man of Lancaster's party, Ro^er of Mortimer, Lord of 
 Wigmore, was condemned to death, but the sentence 
 was changed to imprisonment. 
 
 6. Deposition of Edward. — On divers pretexts 
 Charles IV., King of France, quarrelled with Edward, 
 who, believing that his wife would have influence 
 with her brother, sent her in 1325 to France to nego- 
 tiate for him, and allowed his eldest son, Edward^ 
 Earl of Chester, a boy of twelve, to join her. Months 
 passed without either mother or son returning, Isabel 
 professing to have fears of Hugh Despenser. At last, 
 September 24, 1^26, she landed in Suffolk ; but it was 
 at the head of foreign soldiers and a number of exiles, 
 among them Roger Mortimer, who had escaped from 
 the Tower. So unpopular were the Despensers that 
 the Queen was hailed as a deliverer ; while the King, 
 after vainly appealing to the loyalty of the Londoners, 
 fled to the West, where his favourite's estates lay. 
 The elder Despenser, now Earl of Winchester^ who 
 commanded at Bristol, being forced to surrender 
 to Isabel, was hanged forthwith. Edward was cap- 
 tured in Glamorgan, together with the younger De- 
 spenser, who, crowned with nettles, was hanged fifty 
 feet high at Hereford. The King being carried 
 prisoner to Kenilworth, a Parliament was summoned, 
 which resolved that he was unworthy to reign, and 
 that his eldest son should be King in his stead. The 
 crowd that filled Westminster Hall shouted assent ; 
 but Isabel feigned violent grief, and young Edward, 
 touched by her seeming sorrow, vowed that he would 
 never take the crown against his father's will. A 
 resignation was therefore obtained from the elder 
 Edward, who yielded with tears ; and the ceremony was 
 closed by the steward of the household, Sir Thomas 
 
 ' t 
 
 : 
 
 
IQ4 
 
 EDWARD III. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 Blount, breaking his staff of office and declaring all 
 persons in the royal service discharged, as was done 
 at a King's death. 
 
 7. Murder of Edward. — From Edward's de- 
 position to his death was but a step. He was made 
 over to the keeping of Sir John de Maltravers, who, 
 to conceal his abode, moved him from castle to castle, 
 and by insults and ill-usage strove to destroy his 
 reason or his life. Finally he was placed in Berkeley 
 Castle, where, on ^he 21st September, 1327, he was 
 cruell/ and secretly murdered, a deed which Mortimer 
 afterwards confessed to have commanded. 
 
 8. Suppression of the Templars. — It was in 
 the time of this King that Pope Clement V. suppressed 
 throughout Europe the wealthy Order of the Knights 
 Templars^ soldier- monks who had done great service 
 in the Holy Wars. The Order therefore came to an 
 end in England as elsewhere, and all its property was 
 confiscated. Its London abode in Fleet Street, the 
 Temple^ afterwa/d'; passed into the hands of two 
 societies of lawyers, the Inner and Middle Temple^ to 
 whom it still belongs. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 EDWARD III. 
 
 Edward ITT. ; Mortimer and the Queen ; peace with 
 Scotland : fall of Mortimer (i) — claim upon the French 
 Crown; the Hundred Year^ War ; battles of Sluys 
 and Cricy : taking of Calais ; battle of Nevilles Cross; 
 (2) — the Black Death (3) — battle of Poitiers (4) — Peace 
 of Breti^ny (5) — the Spanish expedition ; disaffection 
 of Aquitaine : losses of the English (6) — the Good 
 Parliament : death of the Black Prince {j)^death of 
 Edward (Z)— legislation (9) — commerce (10)— fohn 
 Wycltffe {ii). 
 
XIX.] 
 
 THE HUNDRED YEARS* WAR. 
 
 10$ 
 
 1. Edward III., of Windsor, 1327-1377. — As 
 
 the new King was only fourteen, guardians were 
 appointed to carry on the government; but the 
 Queen and Mortimer contrived to get all power into 
 their own hands. The reign began with a Scottish 
 inroad. Mounted on rough galloways, each man 
 carrying at his saddle his supply of oatmeal and a 
 flat stone to bake it on, the Scots scoured the 
 northern counties, burning villages and lifting cattle, 
 while young Edward and his fine^army toiled vainly 
 after them, never able to bring them to a battle, 
 often unable even to learn where they were. The 
 Scots went laughing home, and the next year the 
 English rulers made a peace, March 17, 1328, by 
 which they were thought to have sacrificed the young 
 King's rights, as they gave up the claim to feudal 
 superiority over Scotland. Hence arose a strong 
 feeling against the Queen and Mortimer, to whom the 
 peace was ascribed. Mortimer, though hated by the 
 nobles, believed himself to be secure, and so absurdly 
 insolent was his conduct that his own son called him 
 the " King of Folly." But he had not reckoned upon 
 an outburst of spirit on the part of Edward, who was 
 now eighteen. The governor of Nottingham Castle, 
 where Mortimer was staying, let in, through an under- 
 ground passage, a party of Edward's friends, who, 
 headed by the King, burst at midnight into the chamber 
 where the favourite was holding consultation with his 
 advisers, and, regardless of the entreaties of Isabel, 
 made him prisoner. The King, now his own master, 
 called a Parliament, and Mortimer, being condemned 
 by the Peers without a hearing, was hanged at Tyburn, 
 Nov. 29, 1330. Isabel passed the rest of her life in 
 ward at Castle Rising. 
 
 2. The Hundred Years' War.— On the death 
 in 1328 of Charles IV., Edward had put in a claim 
 to the crown of France in right of his mother ; but the 
 PVench maintained that no right could pass through 
 
:-^ 
 
 to6. 
 
 EDWARD III. 
 
 [cka?. 
 
 
 women, who by a custom supposed to be founded on 
 the ancient ** Salic Laiv " were shut out from the 
 throne. Nothing came of this claim until the 
 actual King, PJiilip of Valois, by encroaching in 
 Aquitaine, and by supporting the Scots in theii 
 hostilities, roused Edward into setting it "p again, and 
 entering upon the " Hundred Years' War" so called 
 because, though there was not constant fighting, there 
 was no lasting peace during all that time. Edward at 
 first formed forggn alliances, especially with the 
 Flemish cities, but afterwards made war alone. His 
 first great victory was a sea-fight off Siiiys^ June 24, 
 1340; and after six years more of alternate war and 
 truce, he gained the famous battle of Crecy^ Aug. 26, 
 1346. The French far outnumbered the English, but 
 they were undiscipHned and ill led, and their Genoese 
 crossbowmen, whose bowstrings had just been so 
 wetted by a shower as to be almost useless, gave 
 way before the terrible volleys of the English 
 archers. Still there was sharp fighting, and at one 
 time Edward^ Prince of Wales^ a lad of sixteen on his 
 first campaign, was so sorely pressed that a knight 
 was sent to his father to beg for reinforcements. 
 The King, on learning that his son was neither 
 slain nor wounded, refused. " Let the boy win his 
 spurs," he said (that is, prove himself worthy of knight- 
 hood) ; and gallantly they were won. "Fair son," 
 said the King at the end of the day, embracing the 
 young Prince, " God give you good perseverance 1 
 You are my son, for loyally have you acquitted your- 
 self this day ; you are worthy to hold land.*' King 
 Philip, half wild with rage and grief, escaped to 
 Amiens. It is said by foreign writers of the time that 
 Edward employed cannon or *' bombards " in this 
 action, and with good effect Edward then proceeded 
 to blockade by sea and land the town of Calais^ 
 which he starved into a surrender. The story goes 
 that he would only spare the people, wnom he haled 
 
XIX.] 
 
 THE HUKDRED YEARS' WAR. 
 
 toy 
 
 air son, 
 
 as pirates, on condition that six principal burgesses, 
 bareheaded, barefooted, and with halters about their 
 necks, should bring him the keys of the town, and 
 give themselves up at discretion. " On them," he said, 
 " I will do my will." Eustace of St. PierrCy the richest 
 of the townsmen, volunteered to sacrifice himself, and 
 his noble example was followed by five others. The 
 King seemed determined to have their heads struck 
 off ; even Walter of Mauny^ one of his bravest knights, 
 was silenced when he pleaded for them. — " Forbear, 
 Sir Walter ! " said the King, grinding his teeth, " it 
 shall not be otherwise." He only gave way when his 
 wife, Philippa of HainatUt^ fell in tears at his feet, and 
 begged their lives. The town, which Edward peopled 
 with a colony of English, remained for more than two 
 centuries in possession of our country. A truce was 
 now brought about by the Pope, Clement VL During 
 Edward's absence in France, the Scots, taking the 
 opportunity of invading England, were defeated near 
 Durham, Oct 12, 1346, and their King, David Bruce, 
 was made prisoner. Sir Ralf Neville, one of the English 
 leaders, reared a cross to mark the battle-field, which 
 thence took its name of NailUs Cross. The tale of 
 victories was completed, Aug. 29, 1350, by a sea-fight 
 in the Channel with the Spaniards, who had committed 
 piracies upon English vessels. The King and the 
 Prince took active part in the combat, grappling their 
 ships with two of the adversary's, and successfully 
 boarding them. Edward now stood at the height of 
 his glory. His foreign wars were in many respects 
 needless and cruel, but they placed the country 
 among the foremost nations of Christendom. The 
 English learned to think themselves born to con- 
 quer Frenchmen ; and the licence of plunder and 
 the profits made by putting prisoners to ransom were a 
 source of attraction to enterprising men in all ranks. ''J'he 
 spoils of France were to be found in every house, and 
 luxury and extravagance increased among all classei]. 
 
 ; 5 
 
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 £DWARt) m. 
 
 {CHAt». 
 
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 i I 
 
 3. The fiiack Death. — In 1348 and 1349 a fear- 
 ful plague called " f/ie Black Death y" which swept over 
 Kurope, killed, it is believed, more than half the inhabit- 
 ants of England. Whole districts were thrown out of 
 cultivation, whole parishes depopulated. Labourers, be- 
 coming thereby exceeding scarce, were enabled to com- 
 mand higher wages, though the King and Parliament 
 vainly tried to force ihem, by the fam us laws called 
 the Statutes of Labourers^ to work for their former hire, 
 and forbade them to move from one county to another. 
 
 4. Battle of Poitiers. — The French war was 
 renewed in 1355, the chief part being taken by yoi'ng 
 Edward, traditionally known as ^'' the Black Prinze" 
 either from the colour of the armour he wore at 
 Cr^cy, or from the terror with which the French 
 regarded him. With his English and Gascons, he 
 made a savage raid upon Languedoc, " a good land 
 and fat," which for years had not known war ; and after 
 burning, sacking, and putting to ransom, he marched 
 back to Bordeaux with horse , hardly able to move 
 under their loads of plunder. The next year he swept 
 into Touraine and Poitou, but this time his small army 
 encountered,near/*^//'/>/'j,agreat host led by the French 
 King, John the Good. The battle, which took place 
 on the 19th Sept., 1356, began by a band of French 
 horsemen charging up a narrow lane, when the Prince's 
 archers let fly from behind the hedges and down the 
 lane, and at once threw them into confusion. Although 
 this first attack failed, the comba' was long and 
 obstinate ; but in the end the French were over- 
 thrown, and their King, fighting gallantly, was taken 
 prisoner. With the courtesy of the time, the Prince 
 waited upon his royal captive at supper the same 
 evening ; and in the following spring, when he entered 
 London in triumph, similar respect was paid to 
 John's superior rank, he being mounted on a splen- 
 didly caparisoned white charger, while his conqueror 
 rode by his side on a black pony. 
 
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 To face page 109. 
 
nx.] 
 
 PEACE OF BRETIGNY. 
 
 t09 
 
 5. Peace of Bretigny. — A peace was made at 
 Bretignyy May 8, 1360, under which John was to 
 ransom himself for three million gold crowns, and 
 Edward gave up his claim to the throne of France, 
 but kept Poitou and Aquitaine, besides Calais and 
 some other small districts, no longer as a vassal, 
 but as an independent sovereign. 
 
 6. The Spanish Expedition. — In 1367, the 
 Black Prince, who ruled at Bordeaux as Prince of 
 Aquitaine^ took the part of Don Pedro or Peter the 
 Cruel^ the dethroned King of Castile^ and won nim 
 back his kingdom by the victory of Navarrete. But 
 the thankless Pedro broke his promise of repaying 
 Edward's expenses, and the Prince returned to Bor- 
 deaux with his health ruined, his temper spoiled, and 
 his treasury drained. Against the advice of some of 
 his wisest counsellors, he levied a hearth-tax ; and as 
 the English were already disliked because they ** were 
 so proud that they set nothing by any nation but by 
 their own," the Aquitanian nobles turned to the French 
 King, Charles K, and war broke out again. The 
 Prince rallied his ebbing strength, but his last exploit 
 — a general massacre of the townsfolk of Limoges^ 
 which had offended him by treacherously surrendering 
 to the French, and which he had retaken — has left a 
 stain on his name. After this cruel deed, he returned 
 ♦o England. By 1374 hardly anything was left to 
 the English in Aquitaine, excepting Bordeaux and 
 Bayonne ; and, wearied with disasters, King Edward 
 obtained a truce. 
 
 7. The Good Parliament.— The King's third 
 son, [ohn^ Duke of Lancaster^ called from his birth- 
 place yj?/^/ of Ghent or Gaunt ^ now took the lead at 
 home ; for the younger Edward was slowly dying, and 
 the elder one had become old and feeble. Good 
 Queen Philippa was dead, and one Alice Perrersmade 
 use of the King's favour to interfere with the course 
 qf justice. The government was wasteful, and tU^ 
 
 It 
 
 w 
 
 i I 
 
 'it 
 '1? 
 
no 
 
 EDWARD Til. 
 
 [CHAF 
 
 ■ i 
 
 ''•I 
 
 men whom the Duke appointed unworthy of trust 
 Amid these evils, there met, in 1376, a Parliament, 
 gratefully remembered by the title of "///<? Good' 
 which, supported by the Black Prince, boldly set 
 itself to the work of reform. The Commons, among 
 whom the knights of the shire took the chief part, 
 impeached^ or accused before the Lords, several of the 
 Duke's friends, charging them with frauds upon the 
 King and with extortion of money, and obtained 
 their imprisonment or removal from office. Alice 
 Perrers was forbidden, under pain of banishment, to 
 meddle in the law-courts. This is the first instance 
 of the Commons using this power of impeachment, 
 or trying to interfere with the ministers of the Crown. 
 On the 8th June, the Prince died ; and great was the 
 mourning of the nation for him who had won them 
 fame abroad, and striven with his last strength to save 
 them from misrule at home. He was buried in Canter- 
 bury Cathedral, where his helmet, shield, gauntlets, and 
 surcoat embroidered with the arms of England and 
 France, still hang above his tomb. After his death 
 the Parliament showed itself still more hostile to 
 John of Gaunt, who was suspected of aiming at the 
 succession to the throne; but as soon as it was 
 dissolved, the Duke had everything his own way ; the 
 former favourites were recalled ; the foreman or Speaker 
 of the knights in the late Parliament was imprisoned, 
 and a new Parliament was summoned, which undid 
 all the good work of its predecessor. 
 
 8. Death of Edward. — In his last moments at 
 Shene, Edward was forsaken by all his servants and 
 even by Alice Perrers, after she had robbed him of 
 the rings on his fingers. One priest alone came to 
 the King's bedside, and Edward, in tears, receiving a 
 cnicifix from him, kissed it and died, June 21, 1377. 
 In after ages his fame stood higher than he deserved. 
 Men read of the brilliant victories and feats of arms 
 ^hich she4 \y\^\\^ over what was in the long run % 
 
 
XIX.] 
 
 LEGISLATION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 disastrous war, and they looked back to him as a 
 national hero. In his own day, though he was 
 admired as a warrior, the people at large never had any 
 great love for him. He was unprincipled, selfish, over- 
 head in debt, and, like Richard I., he valued England 
 chiefly as a source of supplies. His sons were Edward, 
 Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, who married 
 his cousin yj7d!«, '''' the Fair Maid of Kent ;^* Lionel, 
 Duke of Clarence, whose only daughter married 
 Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March ; John, Duke of 
 Lancaster; Edmund cf Langley, Duke of York; and 
 Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, This title 
 of Duke, the highest in the peerage, was first con- 
 ferred by Edward IH. Though the names of duke, 
 earl, and other titles of later introduction marked 
 degrees of dignity, all Peers were equal in Parliament, 
 and the ancient title of earl had long ceased to denote 
 the possession of any particular authority or govern- 
 ment. In this reign. Si. Stephen^s Chapel, West- 
 minster, was finished. The King founded the Order 
 of Knights of the Garter, and rebuilt the greater part 
 of Windsor Castle. His chief architect was William 
 of Wykeham, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, and 
 Lord Chancellor. Wykeham, in the next reign, 
 founded Ne^o College, Oxford, and also the College 
 of Winchester, in which city he himself had been 
 educated. 
 
 9. Legislation. — In 1352 was passed the Statute 
 of Treasons, which clearly stated what offences 
 amounted to high treason. Treason was accounted 
 the highest crime known to the law, and the traitor 
 forfeited his dignities, lands, goods, and life. A 
 statute passed in 1363 forbade purveyance except 
 for the personal wants of the King and Queen. 
 Throughout the reigns of the three Edwards, the 
 exactions of the royal purveyors, who paid for what 
 they took at the lowest rate or not at all, had 
 been getting worse and worse. In the middle of 
 
 !i 
 
 I 
 
 I i 
 
 I : 
 
\ ' 
 
 113 
 
 EDWARD III. 
 
 
 i 1 
 
 [chap. 
 
 ploughing or harvest tlie husbandman might be forced 
 to work and to lend his horses for the service of any 
 of the royal household who could use the King's 
 name. It was impossible that the common folk 
 should have any liking for the King at the news of 
 whose coming they made haste to hide away their 
 geese and chickens ; and to the abuse of purvey- 
 ance may in great measure be attributed the hatred 
 felt for Edward II., and the failure of Edward III., 
 and even of Edward I,, to win popularity. Laws 
 were passed to restrain the power which the Popes 
 exercised over the English Church and clergy; and 
 the demand made in 1366 by Pope Urban V. for 
 thirty-three years' arrears of John's tribute, was abso- 
 lutely refused. 
 
 10. Commerce. — In 1331 Edward took advantage 
 of discontents among the Flemish weavers to invite 
 them over here, where they settled chiefly in Norfolk, 
 Suffolk, and Essex, and brought in the finer manu- 
 factures of woollen cloths. The people were so 
 jealous of these newcomers that Edward had no 
 small trouble to protect them. I'he wool of England 
 was at that time the finest in Europe, and was the 
 chief article of export and source of revenue. 
 
 11. John Wycliffe. — In this and the next reign 
 lived John Wycliffe^ born near Richmond in Yorkshire, 
 a doctor of Oxford, who put forth opinions differing 
 on many points, particularly on the Eucharist, from 
 the received doctrines, and assailed alike the Bering 
 FriarSy who, professing to subsist upon alms, had 
 become rich and worldly, and the wealthy clergy, his 
 idea being that the clergy ought to live in poverty. 
 He spread his views abroad by his writings and by 
 his " poor priests," disciples whom he sent out to 
 preach among the people. His great work was a 
 translation of the Bible, made by himself and his fol- 
 lowers. John of Gaunt and a party at court for a 
 time befriended him, more because they were jealous 
 
 M 
 
XX.] 
 
 RICHARD II 
 
 "3 
 
 of the power of the clergy tlian from any real 
 religious sympathy with Kim. Although he was at 
 last forbidden to teach at Oxford, he remained in his 
 rectory of Lutterworth, where he died peaceably in 
 1384; many years afterwards his bones were taken 
 up and burned as those of a heretic. His disciples 
 were nicknamed Lollards, 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 Richard of Bordeaux; the Peasant Insurrection (i) — 
 government of Richard J fall of the Duke of Gloucester 
 (2) — Henry of Lancaster , his banishment and return 
 in arms (3) — capture, abdication, and deposition of 
 Richard; Henry raised to the throne (4) — Statute of 
 Prccmunire (5} — language (6) — literature {7), 
 
 I. Richard II., of Bordeaux, 1377-1399. The 
 Peasant Insurrection of 1381. — Richard of 
 Bordeaux, son of the Black Prince, became King at 
 the age of eleven. His reign was troublous and un- 
 fortunate. Four years after he ascended the throne 
 an insurrection broke out among the peasants. The 
 growing ideas of liberty and equality, fostered by tlie 
 preaching of the Lollards, and the yoke of villainage 
 tended to cause discontent. Till the " Black Death " 
 indeed, villainage had not been burthensome, and 
 was growing lighter every year. The lords accepted 
 money payments in lieu of service ; they were 
 often willing to grant or sell enfranchisement; the 
 clergy encouraged the setting free of the villain as 
 a good work, and the villain who dwelt unclaimed 
 Ux a year and a day m cv free borough became free. 
 
.1:, 
 
 ^ iri 
 
 114 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 In one way or another the mass of villains and serfs 
 became practically free hirelings. But the pestilence 
 came, and after it the Statute of Labourers, fixing 
 wages which the men refused to accept. At their 
 wit's end for labour, the landlords fell back upon 
 their half-forgotten riglits over the villains, and 
 recalled to servitude many a man who had hitherto 
 been as good as free. The irritation thus produced 
 spread to the lower class of free tenants, who also 
 owed burthensome service to their lords ; and the 
 ranks of the malcontents were swelled by dissatisfied 
 artisans and discharged soldiers. It was the pressure 
 of a poll-tax of three groats upon every person above 
 fifteen years old which brought about the actual 
 outbreak. All who had grievances seemed suddenly 
 to have banded together. Here it was the Lollards 
 or the Friars that had raised a cry against the clergy ; 
 there clergymen stood forth as ringleaders. Jingling 
 rimes conveying some hidden meaning carried the 
 signal for revolt from shire to shire. Unknown men, 
 bearing names or nicknames which marked them as 
 of the same class as their followers— yj?^/^ Straw^ 
 Wat Tyler^ and the like — started up as leaders. The 
 insurrection began among the peasants of Essex, 
 where villainage was the special grievance, and 
 thence spread to Kent, where villainage was un- 
 known. The revolt there, according to a well- 
 known tradition, was partly brought about by the 
 tax-gatherer's insulting behaviour to a young girl of 
 Dariford. Her father, yb^// Tyler, %o called because 
 he was a tiler by trade, killed the offender on the spot 
 with a stroke of his lathing-staff. The Kentish in- 
 surgents are said to have numbered 100,000 men by 
 the time they reached Blackheath, where they were 
 harangued upon the equality of mankind by a priest 
 WdXix^John Bali, who took as his text the rime \--^ 
 
 *' When Adam delved, and Eve span. 
 Who was then a gentleman ? " 
 
xx.] 
 
 THE PEASANT INSURRECTION. 
 
 115 
 
 and 
 un- 
 
 well- 
 the 
 
 Irl of 
 
 This rude army entered London, and breaking open 
 the prisons, let the prisoners loose, burned John ot 
 Gaunt's palace of the Savoy, and the Temple, together 
 with its books and records, and butchered all the 
 Flemish artisans they could find ; but in their havoc, 
 they allowed of no plunder for private profit. ** We 
 will not be thieves," they said, as they flung Lancas- 
 ter's; jewels into the Thames. A large body, mostly 
 Essex and Hertfordshire men, withdrew the next 
 day, young Richard having promised to comply with 
 their demands, chief of which was the abolition of 
 villainage. But meanwhile another division had 
 entered the Tower, and there seized and beheaded 
 the Archbishop and Chancellor Simon Sudbury, and 
 six other men. This force, which mainly consisted of 
 Kentishmen, remained in arms, and on the morrow, 
 June 15, its leader, Walter or " Wat'' Tyler , had an 
 interview with the King in Smithfield. Wat is de- 
 scribed as behaving insolently, keeping his tap on, and, 
 according to one story, laying his hand on Richard's 
 rein ; at all events, the conference ended in his "being 
 stabbed by the Mayor, Sir William Walworth, and 
 others. The insurgents bent their bows, but Richard 
 boldly rode up to them, exclaiming that he himself 
 would be their leader. They followed him to the 
 fields at Islington, where a considerable force of 
 knights and citizens hastened to protect the King ; and 
 the rioters dispersed after the promised charters of 
 emancipation and pardon had been delivered. In Nor- 
 folk the insurrection was put down by Henry Spenser^ 
 " the fighting Bishop of Norwich." On the 2nd of 
 July, Richard, who indeed could not legally abolish 
 villainage without consent of the Lords and Commons, 
 annulled the charters he had granted ; and throughout 
 the country great numbers of the rioters were tried and 
 put to death. But though the rebellion was stamped 
 out, and the Parliament scouted a suggestion of a 
 general enfranchisements^ villainiigc had i^everthele^i 
 
Ii6 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 received a heavy blow. The landlords forebore to 
 recall the freed labourers to serfdom, they again 
 accepted money payments instead of labour, and let 
 their lands to leasehold tenants. 
 
 Government of Richard— Richard was 
 
 2. 
 
 noted for his beauty; his abiUties were good, and 
 he could act on occasion with quickness and daring ; 
 but he was wasteful, dissipated, frivolously fond of 
 shows and pageants, and violent in temper. Mistrust- 
 ing his uncles who had kept him in tutelage as long 
 as they could, he promoted and enriched friends 
 of his own who were hated as upstarts. In 1388 the 
 party against the king, which was headed by his 
 youngest uncle, Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, got the 
 upper hand ; when exile or death became the lot of 
 Richard's friends. The Parliament in which they 
 were condemned was known by the epithets of " the 
 VVonOerlul " and •* the Merciless." I'he next year 
 Richard, displaying sudden vigour, took the govern- 
 ment into his own hands, and for eight years he 
 ruled well, though apparently he never really forgave 
 those who had taken part in the doings of 1388. His 
 first wife, *''■ the Good Queen Anne^* of Bohemia, who 
 seems to have been inclined towards the doctrines of 
 Wycliffe, and who was beloved both by her husband 
 and by the nation, died in 1394. Two years later he 
 married a child of eight years old, Isabel, daughter of 
 Charles VI. of France. This step was unpopular, as 
 the English had no wish to be friends with France, 
 and it was strongly opposed by Gloucester; but 
 Richard, whose policy was one of peace, desired to 
 secure a long truce. The next year, 1397, he had 
 his uncle Gloucester seized and hurried off to Calais. 
 The governor of that town soon made report that the 
 Duke was dead — secretly murdered, as most thought. 
 The Earl of Arundel, Gloucester's chief aiiy, was tried 
 in Parliament, and beheaded ; his brother, Thomas 
 A^ruiulel^ Archbishojp of Canterbury, was banished. 
 
kk.l 
 
 liENRY Ot" tAKXAStr.U. 
 
 H? 
 
 Richard had now punished his enemies, and in fact 
 become an absolute King, his subservient Parliament 
 consenting to band over its whole authority to a com- 
 mittee of men supposed to be devoted to him, so that 
 there was no check upon him. 
 
 3. Henry of Lancaster. — Of the noblemen 
 who had given the King such ofifence in 1388, two 
 only remained — Thomas Moivhray^ Duke of Norfolk^ 
 and Henry of Bolingbroke^ Duke of Hereford^ son of 
 John of Gaunt. Both had gone over to the King's 
 side, and had been taken into favour. In 1398 
 Hereford accused Norfolk of having spoken slander- 
 ously of the King ; and Norfolk denying the charge, 
 the matter was to be decided at Coventry by trial of 
 battle. But just as accuser and accuse<l, armed and 
 mounted, were abbut to set upon each other, Richard 
 stopped the fight, and rid himself of them both 
 by banishing Hereford for ten years, and Norfolk foi 
 life. John of Gaunt did not survive his son's exile 
 many months, and his estates, which should have 
 passed to Hereford, were seized by the King. Here- 
 ford — Duke of Lancaster as he now was — took advan- 
 tage of Richard's absence on an expedition to Ireland, 
 to return to England. In company with Archbishop 
 Arundel, he landed, July 4, 1399, with a few men-at- 
 arms, at Ravenspurne^ then a seaport on the Humber, 
 but which has now long been swallowed by the waves. 
 He was at once joined by the Earls of Northumberland 
 and Westmoreland y the heads of the great northern 
 families of Percy and Neville; and his few followers 
 soon swelled to 60,000 men ; while the King's uncle, 
 Edmund^ Duke of York^ who acted as Regent, instead 
 of attacking him, ended by espousing his cause. 
 
 4. Deposition of Richard. — Owing to contrary 
 winds, Richard heard nothing from England till a 
 fortnight after Henry of Lancaster's landing; and 
 when the news arrived he still lingered, irresolute, in 
 Ireland. At last he landed in Wales, but his troupa 
 
tiS 
 
 RlCltARt) tl. 
 
 tCHAk 
 
 f 
 
 fell off from him; lie was deluded into leaving his 
 place of refuge, Conway, by the treachery of the Earl 
 of Northumberland, who then led him prisoner to 
 Flint Castle, where he was handed over to Henry. 
 He was brought to London, and there formally 
 resigned the crown. The next day, Sept. 30, the 
 Lords and Commons met, and voted his deposition 
 on the ground of misgovern ment. Upon this Henry 
 of Lancaster rose, and claimed the crown, as being 
 a descendant of Henry HL, and as — so he hinted 
 rather than plainly said — actual master of the realm, 
 which had been near its ruin through bad government. 
 Archbishop Arundel then led him to the throne, on 
 which he was placed amid the shouts of the people 
 who filled Westminster F'all. 
 
 5. Statute of Praemunire. — In 1393 was passed 
 what is commonly called the Statute of Framunire^ 
 which enacted that whoever should procure from 
 Rome or elsewhere, excommunications, bulls or other 
 things against the King and his realm, should be put 
 out of the King's protection, and all his lands and 
 goods forfeited. The name oi pramunire^ which was 
 the first word of the Latin writ by which a man 
 was summoned before the King to answer a charge of , 
 contempt against him, was commonly given to the 
 offence of attempting to introduce a foreign jurisdic- 
 tion. The penalties of forfeiture and outlawry had 
 in the preceding reign been denounced against those 
 who sued in foreign courts for matters cognizable 
 in the King's court; and the statute of 1393 was only 
 one of a number of laws made with the same view of 
 restraining the Pope's influence. 
 
 6. Language.— From the twelfth century to the 
 reign of Edward IH., we may reckon three written 
 languages in use in England : — Latin^ common to the 
 clergy and the learned throughout Western Christen- 
 dom ; Frenchy the tongue of the nobles and the gentry ; 
 and English^ of the Dcople. This last, the native 
 
tcuA^. 
 
 iving his 
 
 the Earl 
 isoner to 
 :o Henry. 
 
 formally 
 
 30, the 
 ieposition 
 ^is Henry 
 
 as being 
 he hinted 
 the realm, 
 >vernment. 
 hrone, on 
 the people 
 
 was passed 
 ^ratnunire^ 
 ocure from 
 ills or other 
 ►uld be put 
 lands and 
 which was 
 ch a man 
 I charge of , 
 ren to the 
 ;n jurisdic- 
 lawry had 
 inst those 
 cognizable 
 ^ was only 
 ne view of 
 
 iry to the 
 
 lee written 
 
 ion to the 
 
 Christen- 
 
 le gentry ; 
 
 the native 
 
 Jtx.) 
 
 Language ANb LitEUAtUkt:. 
 
 tto 
 
 speech, underwent great changes. The Old-Englisk 
 ceased to be written or spoken accurately, and fast broke 
 up. In John's reign, French, such as is still current in 
 the Channel Islands, began to be used instead of Latin 
 as the language of public business ; and to this day 
 the royal assent to Bills is announced in Parliament 
 in the French w^ords Le Roi or La Reine le veut ; that 
 is, the King, or the Queen, wills it. The descendants 
 of t)ie Normans, even after they had become English- 
 men in feeling, kept up their ancestors' speech in 
 addition to that of the country. As a mark of 
 gentility, everybody aspired to some acquaintance 
 with the fashionable jargon, which grew so corrupt 
 that out of England it would hardly have passed for 
 French. The fashion spread till it became laughable ; 
 and meanwhile a new form of English, largely infused 
 with French, was gaining Court favour. By the 
 middle of the reign of Edward III., the rage for the 
 foreign speech was dying out ; and in 1362 the use of 
 the English tongue was established in the courts of 
 law. John Cornwaile^ a master of grammar, is recorded 
 as the first to set the fashion of teaching schoolboys in 
 their own language instead of in French ; so that by 
 1385, says a writer of the time, " in all the grammar- 
 schools of England, children leave French and 
 construe and learn in English." The common phrase 
 of " King's EngUsh " probably originally meant the 
 standard language of proclamations, charters, and 
 the like, in contrast to the various dialects of rural 
 districts. 
 
 7. Literature. — After the Norman Conquest there 
 arose a number of historians, who, being monks or 
 clergymen, wro»e in I^tin. Among the best known 
 of this class is William^ the monk of Malmesbury, 
 patronized by that Earl of Gloucester who figures in 
 the wars of Matilda. William's chief works are a 
 History of the Kings of England down to Henry I., and 
 a later history, which carries the narrative into the 
 
 i ^ I 
 
 I \- 
 
 i I 
 
 
 li 
 
i20 
 
 klCIIARD 11. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 { 
 
 I 
 
 midst of the struggle between Stephen and Matilda. 
 To the same Earl of Gbucester was dedicated the 
 History of the Britons^ by a Welsh priest, Geoffrey oj 
 Monmouth, This was a collection of Welsh and 
 Breton legends, written in Latin, with an air of historic 
 gravity; and the author got the nickname of " Arthur " 
 from his glorifying the British Prince of that name. 
 Geoffrey furnished the groundwork for metrical 
 romances in French and English, and his hero Arthur 
 still keeps his place in poetry and fairy-tale. Among 
 thirteenth-century historians, the greatest is Matthe^o 
 Paris y a monk of St. Albans ^ wlio wrote the history of 
 his own time, and is remarkable for the boldness with 
 which he expresses the national grievances. Pre-emi- 
 nent among scholars of that age is Roger Bacon, who, 
 after having studied at the universities of Oxford and 
 Paris, became a Franciscan or Grey Friar, He was 
 our first great experimental philosopher, and long 
 afterwards, when his real merit was forgotten, " Friar 
 Bacon *' was remembered by tradition as a wizard. 
 His writings show that he was marvellously in advance 
 of his age, and knew or guessed at many things 
 which no one understood for years after him. Thus 
 he seems to have known the theory of a telescope, 
 though it does not appear that he ever made one. 
 The Old-English Chronicle — or rather Chronicles, 
 for the work of writing the national annals was carried 
 on simultaneously in various monasteries, whose 
 events were set down as they occurred — was continued 
 in the Abbey of Peterborough as far as 1 154, the year 
 of Stephen's death, where it breaks o(T. There were 
 English writings in the thirteenth century — political 
 songs, romances, metrical chronicles, devotional works 
 — which are known to students, but it is not till the next 
 century that we meet with any famous names. Among 
 these is that of Sir John Mandevilky who travelled in 
 Tartary, Persia, Palestine, and other lands, and wrote an 
 account, dedicated to Edward HI., of his journey ings. 
 
XXl.j 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 iix 
 
 He tells so many absurd marvels that he has got a 
 character for falsehood ; but it seems that what lie set 
 down of his own knowledge was true, and that his 
 wild tales were Church legends or reports made by 
 others. Laugland was the author of a long poem, 
 known as the Vision of Piers Plowman^ — a religious 
 allegory, which is valuable for its details of th'.i every- 
 day life of tlie people. But the chief poets of the age 
 were Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower^ who both 
 were influenced by the revival of learning in Italy and 
 by the poets of that nation, and both wrote the new 
 English which was in favour at Court, and which 
 became our standard language. Chaucer, who in 
 genius was far above his friend Gower, was son of a 
 vintner in London, and began life as page to the wife 
 of Lionel, Duke of Clarence. He was taken prisoner 
 and ransomed in the French war, was employed on 
 diplomatic missions in Italy and elsewhere, and in 
 1306 sat in Parliament as one of the members for Kent. 
 He died at Westminster, about a year after Henry 
 IV. came to the throne. His great poem is the un- 
 finished " Canterbury TaleSy* a series of stories sup- 
 posed to be told by a party of pilgrims of various ranks 
 and callings, on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas, 
 of Canterbury. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 Henry IV.; the Earl of March (i) — C7id of Richdrd (2) — 
 Owen Glendower (3) — rebellion of the Percies; bcittle 
 of Shrewsbury (4) — story of the Prince of Wales and 
 the Chief fustice (5) — death of Henry (6); statute 
 against hi^teticsj the Lollard martyrs (7). 
 
 I. House of Lancaster. Henry IV., of 
 Bolingbroke, 1399-14 13. — IL-nry was in fact an 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 
 \ . ■ 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 j 
 
 
 ] 
 
i I 
 
 \i2 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 [cHaP. 
 
 elected King, but, as has been seen, he put forward a 
 claim of right which he rested partly on his descent 
 from Henry III. Edmund Mortimer ^ Earl of Marchy 
 descended from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, elder 
 brother of John of Gaunt, was nearer to the throne 
 according to the rule of hereditary succession, and in 
 the last reign his father had been declared the heir. 
 But Edmund was a mere child, and Henry was 
 satisfied with keeping this possible rival in honourable 
 confinement. 
 
 2. End of Richard. — By the advice of the Lords 
 the unfortunate Richard was consigned to secret and 
 perpetual imprisonment ; and so secret was it that even 
 the place of his captivity was concealed. But a few 
 months after Henry's accession, some nobles took up 
 arms in the late King's favour ; and not long after 
 this attempt had been crushed, Richard's dead body 
 was brought from Pontefract Castle to London, where 
 it was shown publicly in St. Paul's, and then buried at 
 Langley. Some said that he had been killed in prison 
 by one Sir Piers Exton and seven other murderers ; 
 a more general belief was that he had died of starva- 
 tion, either compulsory or voluntary. But the tale 
 ^'hich gave Henry the most trouble was that the body 
 shown was that of another, and that Richard was alive 
 in Scotland. 
 
 3. Owen Glendower. — Henry had not been 
 long on the throne when the Welsh, by whom King 
 Richard had been beloved, rose in arms. They 
 found a leader in Qwain Glyndwr or Owen Glendower, 
 a gentleman of Merionethshire, who traced his descent 
 from Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, and who had been 
 esquire to King Richard. He soon made himself a 
 terror to tlie English on the marches, and, as his fame 
 spread, the Welsh scholars from the Universities, and 
 the Welsh labourers employed in England, flocked 
 to join the insurgent chief, against whom Henry led 
 his armies in vain. Withdrawing to his mountains. 
 
 a. 'T 
 
put forward a 
 Dn his descent 
 larl of Marchy 
 larence, elder 
 to the throne 
 :ession, and in 
 ared the heir, 
 d Henry was 
 in honourable 
 
 :e of the Lords 
 i to secret and 
 tvas it that even 
 ed. But a few 
 nobles took up 
 not long after 
 rd's dead body 
 I^ondon, where 
 then buried at 
 killed in prison 
 ler murderers ; 
 died of starva- 
 But the tale 
 that the body 
 hard was alive 
 
 Ihad not been 
 ly whom King 
 arms. They 
 ^en Glendower^ 
 ed his descent 
 
 Iwho had been 
 
 lade himself a 
 
 d, as his fame 
 
 iversities, and 
 
 jgland, flocked 
 
 |om Henry led 
 
 liis mountains. 
 
 XXI.] 
 
 REBELLION OF THE PERCIES. 
 
 t2j 
 
 Glendower left his foes to struggle hopelessly against 
 wind and wet, and the difficulties of a wild and rugged 
 country. 
 
 4. Rebellion of the Percies. — Henry's most 
 powerful friends were the Percies — the Earl of Nort- 
 humberland^ his brother ThomaSy Earl of Worcester^ 
 and his son Sir Henry— \hQ last being a thorough 
 *' marchman," a warrior of the Northern Borders, who 
 had spent his life in foray and battle against the Scots, 
 by whom he was nicknamed " Harry Hotspur^^ 
 because so constantly was he in the saddle, that, as 
 the saying was, his spur was never cold. He and his 
 father, on the 14th Sept., 1402, won the battle of Ho- 
 viildon Hill, near Wooler, against the invading Scots. 
 The victory was gained almost wholly by the archers, 
 whose skill may be jud-^^d from the fact that the 
 Scottish leader. Earl Douglas , though sheathed in 
 armour of unusual excellence, received five arrow- 
 wounds. But the Percies became discontented, 
 chiefly because the King would not, or rather could 
 not, repay them what they had spent in warfare and 
 in the custody of the Scottish marches. Moreover he 
 refused to permit Sir Edmund Mortimer to be ran- 
 somed from Glendower, to whom he was captive.. 
 Mortimer was Hotspurs brother-in-law, but he was. 
 also uncle to the young Earl of March, and Henry/ 
 was therefore glad to have him out of the way. Being 
 thus offended, Mortimer and the Percies, with their 
 former foe Earl Douglas, planned to join Glendower in- 
 an enterprise to win the crown for Richard, if alive, or 
 else for the Earl of March. So little did Henry seem 
 to suspect the Percies that he was professedly on his- 
 way to join them in an expedition against the Scots, 
 when he learned that Hotspur and Worcester were in 
 arms for King Richard and marching for Wales. 
 Hurrying westward, he fought an obstinate and bloody 
 battle with them on Hateley Eield, near Shrewsbury,. 
 July 21, 1403, when Hotspur fell, pierced by a shaft 
 
^24 
 
 IIKNRY IV. 
 
 tc 
 
 HAP. 
 
 : 
 
 in the brain, and his followers fled ; Worcester was 
 taken, and paid for his rebellion with his life. The 
 crafty Northumberland, who had not been present, 
 protested that his son had acted in disobedience to 
 him, and came off unpunished. He was afterwards 
 concerned in a northern revolt in 1405, for taking 
 part in which Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York^ was 
 beheac 1 while the Earl escaped, to be killed in a 
 tliird iv > 111 : . The power of Glendower, who at 
 times rec ived iM from the French, was gradually 
 broken by Henry ^ Prince of Wales; but he never made 
 any submission. 
 
 5. The Prince of Wales. — Tradition represents 
 the Prince of Wales, when not engaged in war, as 
 leading a wild life among dissolute companions. But 
 he was so constantly employed, and so highly praised 
 in Parliament, that we may suppose some early freak 
 to have been exaggerated. There is a story about him, 
 not told till more than a century after his death, but 
 yet too famous to be omitted. One of his servants, 
 it is said, was arraigned before the Chief Justice for 
 felony. Young Henry imperiously demanded the 
 man's release, and, enraged by refusal, made as if he 
 would do some violence to the judge, who thereupon 
 ordered him to the prison of the King's Bench for 
 contempt. The Prince had the good sense to lay 
 aside his weapon and submit to the punishment. His 
 father, on hearing of it, expressed his gratitude to 
 Heaven for giving him a judge who feared not to 
 minister justice, and a son who could obey it. The 
 Prince was in fact so popular, that the King, 
 wliose health had broken down, became afraid of 
 being superseded by him. Towards the end of the 
 reign the Prince seems to have taken a leading part 
 in the government ; but apparently he had enemies 
 who tried to oust him by rousing his father's jealousy, 
 and the stories of his wild doings may have been set 
 alloat by this paity. 
 
XXI,] 
 
 STATUTE AGAINST HERETICS. 
 
 125 
 
 6. Death of Henry. — King Henry's conscience, 
 we are told, was uneasy as to the manner in which he 
 had come by the crown ; and he meditated going on 
 a crusade ; but while praying at St. Edward's shrine 
 in Westminster, he was seized with a fit, such as he 
 was subject to. His attendants carried him into a 
 chamber of the Abbot's, called " /enisa/em" which 
 remains at this day, and laid him on a pallet near the 
 fire. Coming to himself, he asked where he was ; 
 and being told, he said that he knew 1" should die 
 there, for it had been prophesied to him ,.ht he would 
 depart this life in Jerusalem. He lingc ;ed Ihere a few 
 days, and died, March 20, 14: 3, at the age of forty- 
 seven. By his first wife, Mary Bohuti ^ he had four 
 sons ; Henry ^ Prince of Wales ; T^omaSy Duke of 
 Clarence ; Johii^ Duke of Bedfora ; and Hiimfrey, 
 Duke of Gloucester. His second wife was Joan of 
 J^avarre. 
 
 7. Statute against Heretics. — As Archbishop 
 
 Arundel had supported Henry, Henry in return lent 
 himself to destroy the Lollards. By a statute passed 
 in 1 40 1, persons convicted by the diocesan of here- 
 tical opinions, if they refused to abjure, or, after 
 abjuration, relapsed, were to be made over to the 
 secular authorities to be burned. The first WycHffite 
 martyr was a clergyman William Sautree^ burned 
 in Smithfield, Feb. 12, 1401. For some time the 
 Commons went along with the King ; but they were 
 jealous of the ecclesiastical power, and, so far as a 
 desire to relieve themselves from taxation by throwing 
 the burthen upon the wealth of the Chu'xh was con- 
 cerned, they were all Lollards. As their feeling 
 against the higher ckrgygrew stronger, they demanded 
 a mitigation of the statute for the punishment of 
 heretics ; to which Henry answered that it ought 
 rather to be made more severe. In the midst of 
 these disputes, a poor smith, John Badby, was picked 
 out for ihe second victim, and burned in the samq 
 
 J 
 
 .'■ 
 
 'V,} 
 

 126 
 
 HENRY V. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 place where Sautree had perished before him ; the 
 Prince of Wales, who was present, vainly endeavouring 
 to shake the Lollard's constancy by the offer of life 
 and a yearly pension. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 HENRY V. 
 
 Henry V. (i) — Lord Cobham{7) — conspiracy of Cambridge, 
 Scrope, and Grey ; renewal of the Hundred Years' 
 War; battle of Asincoiirt (3) — Treaty of Troyes (4) 
 — third invasion and death of Henry j marriage oj 
 his widow (5) — Whittington (6). 
 
 I. Henry V,, of Monmouth, 1413-1422. — What- 
 ever had been the previous life oi Henry of Monmouth, 
 and whether the tradition of his sudden conversion 
 be true or no, it is certain that as King he was a man 
 of almost austere piety. He had been early trained 
 in Welsh warfare, and as a general and a statesman, 
 he often displayed the hard and ruthless spirit charac- 
 teristic of the fifteenth century ; but he was open and 
 fearless, and therefore free from petty suspicion, and his 
 natural disposition was generous. He set free the young 
 Earl of March ; after some time he restored the son of 
 Hotspur to the lands and honours of the Percies ; and 
 he had the body of King Richard II. removed and 
 buried in- Westminster Abbey. A witer, supposed 
 to have been an ecclesiastic of the royal household, 
 has left us a description of Henry, from which we 
 learn that he had a delicate complexion and regular 
 features, with thick and smooth brown hair, that his 
 forehead was broad, and his frame well-knit and 
 vigorous — he could bear almost any amount of fatigu^j 
 whether on horseback oj: o^ fqot, 
 
XXII.] 
 
 THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 
 
 127 
 
 2. Lord Cobham. — The alarm created by the Lol- 
 lards was increasing. Among them were numbered, 
 not only those who questioned the generally received 
 religious doctrines, but the discontented and revolu- 
 tionary also ; and they uttered threatening vaunts as 
 to their number and power. Their chief leader, 
 under whose patronage unlicensed preachers spread 
 over the country, was Sir John Oldcastle^ called Lord 
 Cobham. Henry, who had an old friendship for 
 Cobham, spent his powers of religious argument, 
 backed up by threats, upon him without success. 
 Being tried in the Archbishop's court, and adjudged 
 a heretic, Cobham was sent to the Tower, from whence 
 he escaped, and became a terror to the government, 
 which dreaded a Lollard rising under such a leader — 
 for he was a tried soldier. There was some mysterious 
 midnight meeting of Lollards in the fields at St. 
 Giles, which was dispersed by the King, and in which 
 Cobham was said to be concerned. After this, he 
 lay hid for a few years ; but being then discovered, 
 he was put to death as a traitor and a heretic, being 
 hung up in an iron chain, and burned by a fire kindled 
 below, Whether he was a loyal subject hunted down 
 by the priesthood, or a traitor who aimed at being 
 president of a Lollard commonwealth, remains matter 
 of dispute. 
 
 3. Renewal of the Hundred Years* War.— . 
 Since the breaking of the Peace of Bretigny, there had 
 been sometimes truce and sometimes war with France, 
 but never a peace. Henry now resolved on an attempt 
 to recover " his inheritance," the time being favour- 
 able, as the French King, Charles VI., was insane, 
 and the country was torn asunder between rival 
 factions. The fulfilment of the Treaty of Bretigny 
 Henry could demand with some show of legal right ; 
 as for Edward's claim upon the crown, such as it was, 
 it had descended, not to the House of Lancaster, but 
 ^0 the Mortimers. This however was a point too 
 
 M 
 
 1 
 
 I- 
 
128 
 
 IIENRV V. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 subtle for the minds of the EngHsh, who seem to have 
 reasoned that since Henry was their King, he must 
 needs be King of France too. Rejecting an offer of 
 the whole of the ancient Duchy of Aquitaine, Henry 
 made ready for war, and was about to embark 
 when discovery was made of a plot to set the Earl of 
 March on the throne. The conspirators were the 
 King's cousin Richard^ Earl of Cambridge^ who had 
 married the Earl of March's sister, Lord Scrope of 
 Masham, and Sir Thomas Grey of Heton, All three 
 were put to deatli — an unpromising beginning of an 
 expedition. However Henry set sail, and landing, 
 A.ug. 14, 141 5, near flarflenr^ laid siege to the place, 
 which yielded to his artillery and mines in five weeks. 
 As his army was thinned by disease, his advisers now 
 urged him to return ; but, confident in what he be- 
 lieved to be the righteousness of his cause and relying 
 upon Heaven, he took instead the hazardous resolu- 
 tion of marching to Calais. On the plain of Azin- 
 courty in Picardy, he was confronted by the French 
 army. The English, who had suffered much from 
 bad weather and scanty fare, betook themselves at 
 night to confession and reception of the Sacrament ; 
 meanwhile the Frenchmen, if we may believe the 
 English report, played at dice for the ransoms of their 
 expected prisoners. The battle was fought the next 
 day, October 25, The French men-at-arms, in their 
 heavy plates of steel, were crowded together in a 
 space so small that they had hardly room to strike, 
 and on ground so soft from recent rain that their horses 
 could hardly flounder through the mire. On foot, 
 unarmoured, some bareheaded and barefooted, the 
 English archers came on, and discharged their deadly 
 volleys, which threw the first division of the French 
 cavalry into confusion. Throwing down their bows, 
 the archers fell upon them with sword and bill, and 
 though the French fought gallantly for two hours 
 longer, their fine army, reckoned at from six to ten 
 
XXII.] 
 
 TREATY OF TROVES. 
 
 129 
 
 eem to have 
 
 times the number of the English, was cut to pieces. 
 When the day was nearly won, an alarm was raised 
 that the French were about to renew the battle, upon 
 which Henry hastily ordered his soldiers to kill th3ir 
 prisoners, lest they should aid the enemy — orders 
 which were in most cases carried out before the 
 mistake was discovered. After the victory, Henry 
 sailed from Calais to Dover, and, with his chief 
 captives in his train, made a triumphant entry into 
 Tondon, amid gorgeous shows and pageants. He 
 himself observed a studied simplicity in dress and 
 bearing, and, it is said, refused to allow his helmet, 
 dinted with many blows, to be carried before him. 
 
 4. Treaty of Troyes. — In July 141 7, Henry again 
 invaded Normandy, and won foi tress after fortress, 
 while the French were occupied with quarrels among 
 themselves. Rouen, being starved out after a gallant 
 defence, surrendered, and there Henry built a palace 
 and held his court. It was however doubtful whether 
 he would be able to keep Normandy, when the c^aMe 
 was unexpectedly thrown into his hands. The grccitest 
 of the French vassal ])rinces, Philip the Good, Duke of 
 Burgundy, being blinded by desire to avenge his 
 father, who had just been murdered during a con- 
 ference with the French King's eldest son Charles, 
 turned to the English for aid. He and the French 
 Queen Isabel, who took the Burgundian side against 
 her son, brought the incapable King to make at 
 Troyes, May 21, 1420, a treaty with the English 
 invader, by which Henry obtained the hand of the 
 King's daughter Katharine, the regency of the king- 
 dom, and the succession after King Charles's death to 
 the crown, which was to be for ever united with thaf 
 of England. The French King's son Charles — the 
 Dauphin, to give him his proper title — wlio was thus 
 disinherited, of course had nothing to do with this 
 treaty, under which Henry undertook to carry on war 
 against him and his friends. 
 
1 ^ 
 
 
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 130 
 
 HENRY V. 
 
 [chap 
 
 5. Death of Henry. — Henry soun afterwards 
 returned to England with his new-made Queen ; but 
 ere long he was recalled to France by the defeat and 
 death of his brother the Duke of Clarence in battle 
 Sit Bauj^S in Anjou against the Dauphin's men and their 
 Scottish auxiliaries. On this campaign Henry carried 
 with him young King fames /. of Scotland, who 
 sixteen years ago had been unjustly made prisoner by 
 Henry IV., and his presence served as an excuse 
 for hanging every captured Scot as a traitor ta\cn 
 in arms against his sovereign. By the takirg of 
 MeauXy Henry became master of the greater ■ >art of 
 France north of the Loire ; but his career was now 
 run. He sickened, and died at Vincennes, Aug. 31, 
 1422, maintaining to the end his wonted composure. 
 When during his last hours the ministers of religion 
 round his bed were by his order reciting the peni- 
 tential psalms, he interrupted them at the words 
 " Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem," and said that 
 he had intended, after effecting peace in France, to 
 go to Jerusalem and free the Holy City. This was 
 no mere deathbed resolution. Henry had really 
 meditated a Crusade, and had sent out a Burgundian 
 knight, Gilbert de Lannoy, to* survey the coasts and 
 defences of Fgypt and Syria, 'i'his survey was com- 
 pleted and reported just after the King's untimely 
 death. Henry's own people, and especially his 
 soldiers, well-nigh worshipped him. His funeral pro- 
 cession, from Paris and Rouen to Calais, and from 
 Dover to London and Westminster, was more sump- 
 tuous than that of any King before him. The sacred 
 relics were removed from the eastern end of the Con- 
 fessor's chapel in Westminster Abbey to make room 
 for his tomb, which was honoured almost as that of a 
 saint. Above the tomb there still hang his saddle 
 and his helmet. Henry left one son, an infant oiily 
 a few months old, who bore his name. His widow 
 Katharine afterwards made j^n iU-assortcd match witl\ 
 
XXTII.] 
 
 HENRY VI. 
 
 »3« 
 
 one of her attendants, a Welsh gentleman called 
 Owen Tiidor^ and in course of time their descendants 
 — the Tudor line of sovereigns — came to sit on the 
 English throne. 
 
 6. Richard Whittington. — To this period be- 
 longed " the flower of merchants," Richard Whii- 
 tington^ thrice Mayor of London — first under 
 Richard II., next under Henry IV., and again under 
 Henry V. The familiar tale of " Whittington and 
 his Cat '' is an old legend, which has, been traced 
 to a Persian origin. Whittington at any rate had a 
 real existence ; he advanced large sums to Henry V. 
 for his wars, and was a benefactor to the City of 
 London. 
 
 CHAPTER XXTH. 
 
 HENRY VI. 
 
 Henry VI.; the Maid of Orleans {\) — strife amo7ts^ the 
 nobles ; Henry's tnarriage ; murder of Suffolk (2) — 
 fack Cade's rebellion (3)— Wars of the Roses; sncces- 
 sion of the Duke of York; his death; Edward of 
 York raised to the throne (4) — county elections (5) 
 attainder (6). , 
 
 1. Henry VI., of Windsor, 1422 — 1461.— By 
 the deaths of Henry V. and Charles VI. within two 
 months of each other, the infant Henry of Windsor 
 became King of England and France ; though in the 
 latter country there was a rival King, the Dauphin, 
 who reigned at Bourges as Charles VII.^ and kept up 
 the war with John^ Duke of Bedford^ who was Regent 
 of France for his nephew Henry. In 1428 the EngHsh 
 began the siege of Orleans^ and its fall, which would 
 lay the Dauphin's provinces open to them, seemed at 
 hai^d, w\icn France was delivered as by a miraclQ. 
 
 1 1 
 
132 
 
 IIENriY VI. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 li 
 
 hi I 
 
 From the village of Domremy a peasant girl of sixteen, 
 feanne Dare by name, or, as she is commonly called 
 in English, Joan of Arc, came to Charles, declaring 
 herself sent by Heaven to raise the siege of Orleans 
 and to conduct him to Rheims for his coronation. 
 Rheinis, the crowning-place of the French Kings, was 
 then in the English power. Mounted and armed like 
 a knight, Joan led a force to Orleans, and with a 
 handful of men succeeded in entering the city. P'rom 
 thence the French made assaults upon the forts with 
 which the besiegers had surrounded the place. Though 
 her hand never took a life, " the Maid " was foremost in 
 battle, and received an arrow-wound while mounting 
 a scaling-ladder to the attack of one of the forts. It 
 was not long before the English commander, William 
 de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, had to raise the siege ; and 
 thenceforth the stout English soldiers quailed before 
 the ^^ Maid of Orleans" Her mission in their eyes 
 was not from Heaven, but from Hell, and for that 
 they feared her all the more. Fresh successes in- 
 creased her reputation : the Earl of Suffolk was cap- 
 tured at the stonjiing oi Jargeau, 2lX\^ John, Lord 
 Talbot, one of the best of the English captains, en- 
 countering her, June i8, 1429, at Patay, was defeated 
 and taken prisoner. As she had promised, Charles 
 VI f. was crowned at Rheims. But in the next year, 
 while making a sally from the besieged town of 
 Compibgne, she was taken prisoner by the Burgun- 
 dians, who sold her to the English, Charles never so 
 much as offering to ransom her. The English Council 
 delivered her to be tried at Rouen on charges of 
 heresy before an ecclesiastical court presided over by 
 Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais ; and French 
 churchmen lent themselves to her destruction. Con- 
 demned as a heretic, the heroic Maid was burned 
 alive in the market-place of Rouen, May 30, 1431, 
 a victim to the ingratitude of her friends and the 
 V»ruuiliiy of her foes. But she had awakened the 
 
)ronation. 
 
 :esses in- 
 
 kxiii.l END OF THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. i^i 
 
 spirit of France, and the English began to lose ground. 
 The Duke of Burgundy in 14;, 5 made peace on 
 his own account with France ; in the same year the 
 Regent Bedford died, and gradually both the in- 
 heritance of Henry II. and the subsequent conquests 
 were lost past recovery. In 1452 indeed the people 
 of Aquitaine and Gascony, and especially those of 
 Bordeaux, which had capitulated to Charles in the 
 previous year, sought to return to the milder govern- 
 ment of the Engliph King. But the veteran Talbot, 
 now Earl of Shrcii'sbury, who was sent to their aid, 
 was overthrown the next year in a rash attack upon 
 the French army before Castillon His front ranks 
 were mowed dov/n with artillery, the remainder were 
 worsted hand to hand, and Talbot was slain as 
 he lay wounded on the field. Bordeaux, which held 
 out until every other stronghold had yielded, was 
 forced again to surrender to the French. To England 
 nothing was left but Calais, with its surrounding 
 territory, and the barren title of King of France \ and 
 thus ended the Hundred Ycars^ War, 
 
 2. Government in England. — Meanwhile in 
 England there had been nothing but jealousies and 
 struggles among the great men. First, Henry's uncle, 
 Ilumfrey^ Duke of Gloucester^ who was Protector 
 during the King's early childhood, strove for the 
 master)' with Henry Beaufort^ Bishop of Winchester^ 
 and afterwards Cardinal. Beaufort saw that it would 
 be best to make peace, while " the Good Duke Hum- 
 frey," as he was called, was for keeping up the war. 
 King Henry, gentle and of weak intellect, had little 
 more authori'.y a'^ a man tlian he had had as a child, and 
 after his marriage in 1445, his wife Margaret a.nd her 
 favourite counsellor, the Marquess (late Earl) of Suffolky 
 had the chief power. Marg.ret was the daughter ot 
 Rent^ nominal Duke of Anjou and King of Sicily, 
 and brother in law of the French King. The match 
 was neg(^tiatcd by Suffolk^ in hopes that it would 
 
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 Itad to the lasting peace desired by King Henry ; 
 and, as its price, he consented to surrender Anjou and 
 Maine. Such terms were not likely to be acceptable 
 to the nation, though its murrflurs did not be com 
 loud till after the death of Duke Humfrey in 1447, 
 Suffolk had secretly accused the Duke of treasone 
 and the popular suspicion was that he had procured 
 his murder. Maine v;as not given up till the French 
 sent an army into it ; and when loss after loss befell the 
 English arms in France, the indignation against the 
 minister who thus misconducted affairs rose to fcry. 
 At last in 1450, the Duke (as he now was) of Suffolk 
 being impeached in Parliament, the King, to satisfy 
 the people, ordered him to leave England for five 
 years ; but his enemies would not let him escape so 
 easily. He was intercepted at sea by a vessel called 
 the Nicolas of the Tower^ and his head was struck off. 
 3. Jack Cade's Rebellion. — The murder of the 
 Duke of Suffolk was followed by an insurrection of 
 the people of Kent under one John or Jack Cade^ 
 who called himself by the more dignified name of 
 fohn Mortimer^ professing to be a kinsman of the 
 Duke of York J whu^e mothe; • s a Mortimer. The 
 insurgents, to the number ot 20,000, encamped 
 on Blackheath, and Trom thence sent to the King a 
 statement of their grievances — the maladministration 
 of the government, the evil counsellors of the King, 
 the oppressive action of the Statute of Labourers, 
 the extortions of the sheriffs, the interference of the 
 great men with the freedom of county elections, and 
 sundry other matters. Sir Humfrey Stafford, pur- 
 suing the insurgents to Sevenoaks, was there defeated 
 and bl-'iij after which the King's army, which at 
 heart sympathised vdth the insurgents, broke up, and 
 the Kentish captain, whose forces were swelled by 
 bands ironi Sussex, Surrey, and Essex, entered London 
 unresisted. Gallantly arrayed like a lord or a knight, 
 he rode through the streets to London stone, which 
 
xxtn.) 
 
 waus of the roses. 
 
 135 
 
 he struck with his sword, oaying, " Now is Mortimer 
 lord of this city." Getting Lord Suye, one of the 
 King's most obnoxious ministers, into his power, he 
 had hira beheaded in Cheapside. Saye's son-in-law, 
 William Crowmer, sheriff of Kent, who was accused 
 of extortion, underwent the same fate. For three 
 days Cade was master of the city ; but the plundering 
 of some houses turned the citizens against him, and 
 with the aid of soldiers from the Tower they defended 
 London Bridge against his re-entry, he being then on 
 the Southwark side. After fighting all night upon 
 the bridge, most of his followers dispersed 01 the 
 consent of the Council to receive their petition, which 
 had before been refused, and upon the grant of 
 pardon. Cade, who remained in arms, in the end 
 fled into Sussex, and being pursued and taken by 
 Alexander Iden, the new sheriff of Kent, received a 
 mortal wound in the scuffle. 
 
 4. The Wars of York and Lancaster, or of 
 the Roses. — There was now a contest for power 
 between the Dukes of Somerset and of York. Ei^- 
 muud Beaufort^ Duke of Somerset^ was the represer. 
 tativf* of an illegitimate branch of the House of Lan- 
 caster. Richard IL had indeed, with the assent of 
 Parliament, conferred upon the Beauft ts the rights 
 of lawful birth, but there was a doubt whether they 
 and their descendants were not still debarred from 
 succeeding to the throne. Somerset was the favourite 
 at Court, but the loss of Normandy, where he had 
 been governor, being laid to his charge, he was dis 
 liked by the people. Richard Plantagejiet, Duke oj 
 Vorkf was the son of the Earl of Cambridge who 
 had been beheaded in the last reign, and he in- 
 herited, through his mother the heires*^ of Mortimer, 
 the claim of the Hne of Clarence upon t'le crown. As 
 Regent of France and lieutenant of Leland. he had 
 shown high abilities ; his name was ever in the mouths 
 of the discontented, and his exclusion from the King's 
 
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 ilKNRV VI. 
 
 [ciUP. 
 
 councils liad for some time been a grouiul of com- 
 plaint. In 1454, the King having become imbecile, 
 the Lords in Parliament made the Duke of York 
 Protector; but within a year Henry recovered tlie 
 small faculties with which nature had endowed him, 
 and Somerset was again in the ascendant. York, 
 supported by the two Richard Ncinllcs^ Earls, the one 
 of Salisbury^ and the other of Warwick^ then took up 
 arms, and overthrew and killed his rival in the battle 
 q{ St. Aibafis, May 22, 1455. There was a hollow 
 peace for a time, but in 1459 ^^^il strife again broke 
 out. These contests are called the Wars of the 
 JRoses, because the badge of the House of Lancaster 
 was a red rose^ and that of the House of York a 
 7vhite one. At first things went ill for York, who 
 fled to Ireland, while the Earls took refuge in Calais, 
 of which town Warwick was governor. But the next 
 year the Earls came back i^ri gained a complete 
 victory at Northampton^ July 10, 1460, Henry being 
 captured, and his wife and son flying to Scotland. 
 In the autumn a Parliament met, in which the Duke 
 of York laid before the Lords his claim upon the 
 crown. The .1 atter was settled by a compromise. 
 Henry was to reign for his life, and Richard of York 
 to succeed him, Henry's only son Edward being thus 
 set aside. Eat many nobles still upheld the interests 
 of the young Prince, and a Lancastrian army gathered 
 togeth rr in ti.e North. York, with inferior forces, 
 encounter*: g tii-> Lancastrians near Wakefield^ was 
 compleieiy de*"eai\xl, himself falling in the fight. With 
 him perished his son Ednumd^ Earl of Rutland ^ a 
 youth of seventeen, who, according to some, was 
 kiilel in cole blood by liOrd Clifford, in revenge for 
 the death of Clifford's father at St. Albans. " Thy 
 fadior slew mine," cried Clifford, as he stabbed the 
 youth, " and so will I do thee and all thy kin." The 
 Earl of Salisbury was captured and put to death, and 
 York's head, encircled with a paper crown, was set on 
 
XXTTi.] EDWARD OF YORK MADE KING. 
 
 137 
 
 the walls of the city from which he took his title. 
 His death was soon avenged in the bloody fight of 
 Mortima-'s Cross, in Herefordshire, by his eldest son 
 Edward, now Duke of York, who followed up his 
 victory by beheading the King's stepfather, Sir Owen 
 Tudor, and many other prisoners. Meanwhile the 
 northern army, which had been joined by Margaret, 
 advanced upon London, defeating on the way, in a 
 second battle at St. Albans, the Earl of Warwick, and 
 rescuing the King, whom the flying Yorkists had left 
 behind them. But the Queen's army, largely com- 
 posed of Border plunderers, wasted time and roused 
 hostility by pillaging ; while Edward, joining Warwick, 
 boldly marched into London, where, in a council of 
 Lords Spiritual and Temporal, he was declared King, 
 and his claim being further acknowledged by a meet- 
 ing of the citizens and common people, he was en- 
 throned in Westminster Hall, March 4, 1461. Thus 
 ended the reign, though not the life, of the unfortu- 
 nate Henry, who is to be remembered as the founder 
 oi Eton College, d^nd oi Kin^ s College, Cambridge. His 
 wife was the first foundress of Qiieeiis College in that 
 University. 
 
 5. County Elections. — In 1429 was passed a 
 statute restricting the right of voting in the election 
 of knights of the shire. These elections, according 
 to the words of the statute, had " of late been made 
 by very great, outrageous, and excessive number of 
 people ♦ * ♦ of which the most part was of people of 
 small substance, and of no value." It was therefore 
 enacted that thenceforth the electoral right should be 
 confined to freeholders of lands or tenements to the 
 yearly value at least of forty shillings. 
 
 6. Attainder. — In these troublous times it became 
 the practice for the victorious party to get an Act of 
 Attainder passed against its defeated adversaries. In 
 legal phrase, a man under sentence of death was said 
 to be attaint; and if attaint of high treason^ he at 
 
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 EDWARD IV. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 once forfeited his lands, he could inherit nothing, and 
 transmit nothing to his heir. An Acf of Attainder was 
 an Act of Parliament attainting a man of treason or 
 felony. By this he was placed in the same position 
 as if he had been sentenced to death by the ordinary 
 process of law. Thus his lands could be at once seized, 
 and he himself be hanged or beheaded when caught. 
 The Queen's party set the example by attainting, in 
 a Parliament held at Coventry in 1459, the Duke 
 of York and his chief adherents. In this case the 
 attainted men were safe out of the way, and as soon 
 as the battle of Northampton had thrown power into 
 their hands, a friendly Parliament rei>ersed the Acts 
 of its predecessor. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 EDWARD IV. 
 
 Edwc rd IV.j battle of Towton (i) — efforts of Margaret j 
 overthrow of the Lancastrians (2) — marriage of 
 Edward; Clarence and Warwick change sides; re- 
 storation of Henry ; return of Edward; battles of 
 Barnetand Tewkesbury ; death of Henry VI.; Richa7-d, 
 Duke of Gloucester (3) — invasion of trance {<\)-~deaih 
 of Clarence; death of Edward (5). 
 
 I. House of York. Edward IV., 1461 — 1483. 
 — Marching to the North, where the Lancastrian 
 forces now lay, Edward completed his triumph by 
 the victory of Toivton^ near Tadcaster. The fighting 
 began about four in the afternoon, was continued into 
 the night, and was renewed the next morning. Palm 
 Sunday, March 29, in the midst of a snowstorm which 
 blew in the faces of the Lancastrians. These at 
 last gave way, and, quarter having been forbidden, 
 the slaughter was great. Henry and his family, who 
 bad awaited within the walls of York the issue of the 
 
XXIV.] 
 
 WARS OF THE ROSES. 
 
 "39 
 
 fight, escaped to Scotland. The conqueror soon re- 
 turned to Westminster to be crowned and to hold his 
 first Parliament, which passed Acts of forfeiture and 
 attainder, including the late King, his wife and son, 
 and all who had been active in their cause, from dukes 
 and earls down to yeomen and tradesmen. The new 
 King, who was about nineteen at his accession, passed 
 for the most accomplished, and until he grew un- 
 wieldy, the handsomest man of his time. He had 
 the art of making himself popular ; but he was blood- 
 thirsty, unforgiving, and licentious. 
 
 2. Overthrow of the Lancastrians. — For 
 three years Margaret and her friends, flitting between 
 England, Scotland, and the Continent, maintained a 
 fitful struggle in the North. A foreign chronicler of 
 the time I tells a story that during her wanderings 
 Margaret fell among thieves, and was plundered of all 
 she had. While they quarrelled over their booty, she 
 escaped with her young son Edward into the depths 
 of the forest. There she was met by another robber, 
 to whom, in desperation, she presented the boy, 
 saying, " Here, my friend, save the son of thy King." 
 The outlaw's generosity was touched, and he led them 
 to a place of safety. The Lancastrians were at last 
 crushed for a time by the defeats of Hedgeley Moor\ 
 near Wooler, and Hexham, where the Dukeof Somerset, 
 son of the rival of Richard of York, was taken 
 and beheaded. King Henry, after this last defeat, 
 lay for more than a year hidden in Lancashire and 
 Westmoreland ; but he was finally betrayed and 
 brought prisoner to the Tower. The ascendency of 
 the White Rose brought great suffering upon the 
 Lancastrians, their lands being made over to Yorkists, 
 and themselves reduced to exile and poverty. Henry 
 Holland, Duke of Exeter, concealing his name, is 
 known to have followed the Duke of Burgundy's train 
 barefoot, and begging from door to door. 
 
 3. Wars of the Roses Renewed. — In the 
 
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 140 
 
 EDWARD IV. 
 
 [chap. 
 
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 autumn of 1464, Edward avowed his marriage with 
 Elizabeth^ daughter of Richard Wydevile, Lord 
 Rivers, and widow of Sir John Grey, a Lancastrian. 
 Her beauty, according to the common tale, won his 
 heart when she was a suppHant to him for the 
 lestoration of her late husband's estates. Honours 
 and riches were showered upon her kindred — father, 
 brother, sisters, sons — with a profusion which offended 
 the old nobility, and especially the Earl of Warwick 
 and his brothers. Warwick, desiring an alliance with 
 France, had planned that Edward should marry the 
 French King's sister-in-law, while Edward's new 
 advisers preferred the friendship of the Duke of 
 Burgundy, Charles the Boldy who in 1468 married the 
 English King's sister Margaret. The Burgundian 
 alliance was well-pleasing to the London merchants 
 who traded with the Duke's subjects in the Nether- 
 lands, but not so to Warwick, who hated Duke 
 Charles. Warwick was not a man who could be 
 safely provoked. He was exceeding wealthy, his hos- 
 pitality endeared him to the people, and he could raise 
 an army at his word. In his various mansions 30,000 
 people are said to have been daily fed, and when he 
 stayed in London, whoever had any acquaintance in his 
 household might come and take as much meat as he 
 could carry off on a dagger. I'o aid him in his 
 schemes against the King, Warwick drew over Edward's 
 brother George^ Duke of Clarence^ to whom he gave his 
 daughter Isabel in marriage. An insurrection in York- 
 shire was fomented by the Earl with such success that 
 for a short time Edward was a prisoner in the hands of 
 his over-powerful subject. But the King soon escaped or 
 was let go ; and the failure of a second revolt in 1470 
 obliged Warwick and his son-in-law to fly into France. 
 Ere long they returned, and proclaimed King Henry; 
 for at the French court Warwick had become recon- 
 ciled to his old foe Queen Margaret, and had married 
 his daughter Anne to her son Edward. The people 
 
kxiv.] 
 
 WARS OF THE ROSES. 
 
 I4t 
 
 gathered to Warwick in crowds, and it was now 
 Edward's turn to fly the country ; while his wife took 
 refuge in the Sanctuary at Westminster, where she was 
 protected by the religious feeling of the age ; and 
 Henry was replaced on the throne. Edward found 
 shelter in the dominions of his brother-in-law of 
 Burgundy, who privately supplied him with money 
 and ships for his return. It was a time of sudden 
 revolutions. On the T4th March, 147 1, Edward came 
 back with a small force, landing, like Henry of Boling- 
 broke before him, at Ravenspurne, and with equal 
 success. His brother Clarence returned to his side ; 
 the citizens readily admitted him into London ; and 
 from thence he marched to encounter near Barnet the 
 Earl of Warwick and his brother the Marquess of Mont- 
 acute. The battle began about daybreak on Easter 
 Sunday, April 14, in a mist so thick that the combatants 
 could scarcely see each other ; and after six hours' con- 
 fused fighting Edward gained the victory, Warwick — 
 " the King-maker!'* as historians call him — and Mont- 
 acute being both slain. The struggle was not quite 
 over, for that same day Queen Margaret landed, and 
 on the 4th May her army encountered that of Edward 
 at Tewkesbury^ where it was utterly defeated, she 
 herself being captured soon after. Her son Edward 
 was killed : the common story is that he was brought 
 before his victorious namesake, who asked him how 
 he durst be so bold as to make war in his realm. 
 The youth made answer that he came to recover hi*: 
 inheritance, whereupon the King struck him in the 
 face with his gauntlet, and the King's brothers, or their 
 attendants, forthwith despatched him with their 
 swords. The victory was followed up by the behead- 
 ing of Edmund Beaufort ^ Duke of Somerset — the third 
 of that title who had perished in these wars — and 
 many other prisoners. King Henry, who had been 
 again imprisoned in the Tower, died shortly after — of 
 a broken heart, as the Yorkists said, or murdered, 
 
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 according to I^ancastrian rumour, by Edward's 
 youngest brother, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Queen 
 Margaret, after four years' captivity, was ransomed by 
 King Louis XT. of France, and died in her own country 
 of Anjou. Anne Neville, widow of the slain Prince 
 Edward, married the Duke of Gloucester, who is 
 known to us by the nickname of " Crookback 
 Kichard," and as one of the greatest of villains. Am- 
 bitious and unscrupulous he certainly was ; but as the 
 detailed accounts of him were written after his death, 
 and in the interest of his adversaries, we cannot 
 depend upon them, even in so small a matter as the 
 crook in his back. The truth as to his appearance 
 seems to be that he was a small, slight man, with one 
 shoulder rather higher than the olher. 
 
 4. Invasion of France. — Having nothing else 
 to do, the King determined on the renewal of the 
 claim to the French crown. Not satisfied with the 
 large sums which Parliament readily granted to him 
 for this object, but still not venturing to levy taxes on 
 his sole authority, Edward obtained from wealthy men, 
 who did not know how to refuse the King's requests, 
 additional sums under the name of ^^ benevolences^^ 
 because they were supposed *o be gifts offered out of 
 good-will. Everyone gave, as was remarked, "what 
 he was willing, or rather what he was not willing, to 
 give." The invasion however came to nothing. The 
 crafty Louis XI., who did not want to fight, per- 
 suaded his enemy to go quietly home in consideration 
 of receiving a large annual pension — a tribute, as the 
 P^nglish chose to call it — and, to the disgust of 
 Edward's soldiers, a truce for seven years was made 
 in August, 1475, ^t Picquigny, near Amiens. 
 
 5. Death of Edward.— The House of York 
 now seemed firm upon the throne, but it was a house 
 divided against itself. The Duke of Clarence was 
 again at enmity with his royal brother, to whom in 
 1478 he gave offence which led to his conimiltal 
 
xxv.j 
 
 EDWARD V. 
 
 M3 
 
 to the Tower. Edward, himself appearing as accuser, 
 impeached him of treason before the Peers, who 
 found him guilty. About ten days later it was given 
 out that the Duke had died in the Tower — how 
 was never certainly known, but a wild story flew about 
 that he had been drowned in a butt of Malmsey 
 wine. Edward himself died April 9, 1483, leaving 
 two sons, Edward^ Prince of Wales^ and Richard^ 
 Duke of York; one twelve, the other ten years 
 old. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 EDWARD V. 
 
 Edward V.; seizure of power by the Dukes of Gloucester 
 and Buckifif^ham (i) — beheading of Lord Hastings; 
 . the Duke of Gloucester raised to the throne (2). 
 
 I. Edward V., April 9 — ^June 22, 1483. Pro- 
 tectorate of Gloucester. — Edward V, reigned 
 less than three months, and was never crowned. At 
 the time of his father's death he was living at Ludlow 
 Castle, surrounded by his mother's kinsmen and 
 friends. But on his road to London, he was over- 
 taken at Stony Stratford by his uncle Richard, Duke 
 of Gloticester^ who had come up from the North, and 
 by Henry Stafford^ Duke of Buckingham, the chiefs 
 of the party opposed to the Wydeviles. These two, 
 by a sudden stroke of treachery and violence, arrested 
 four of the young King's retinue — his mother's brother. 
 Earl Rivers, his mother's son, Lord Ric/iard Grey, 
 and two gentlemen of his household — whom they 
 sent prisoners into Yorkshire ; and, ordering the 
 rest of the royal (rain to disperse, they, with their 
 own followers, brought the King to London. The 
 poor boy, seeing his friends thus taken from him, 
 
 ! 
 
 i.;'il 
 
 iHl 
 
* jl' 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1' 
 
 1 |. 
 
 ) 
 
 |, 
 
 
 t44 
 
 KbWAUt) V. 
 
 tCHAI* 
 
 i 
 
 f . 
 
 
 
 '1 
 
 I- 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 : 
 
 i- 
 
 *' wept and was nothing content, but it booted not/* 
 The Dukes accused Rivers and the Greys of a 
 design to usurp the government; and the fact that 
 large store of armour and weapons was found among 
 the baggage of the royal attendants was generally 
 thought to justify the arrests. The Queen-Mother, 
 as soon as she heard what had happened, fled with 
 her youngest son Richard, Duke of York, and her 
 five daughters, to the Sanctuary at Westminster. 
 The King was lodged in the Tower, then a palace 
 as well as a fortress and a prison ; and the Duke 
 of Gloucester was appointed Protector. 
 
 2. Deposition of Edward.— So flir, Gloucester 
 and his supporters had been united by a common 
 hatred of the Wydeviles ; but it is plain that they 
 now disagreed among themselves. Lord Hastings in 
 particular, who had been a bitter enemy of the 
 Queen's friends, seems to have repented, and to 
 liave secretly gone over to their side. On June 13, 
 by order of the Protector, Hastings was seized at 
 tlie council-board in the Tower, and put to death 
 out of hand. " By St. Paul," the Protector was re- 
 ported to have said, *' I will not to dinner till 1 see 
 thy head off;" and a log of wood which lay on the 
 Tower Green served as a block for the hurried 
 execution. The same afternoon proclamation was 
 made that Hastings and his friends had conspired to 
 murder the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham. 
 Rivers, Grey, and their two fellow-prisoners were, 
 without trial, beheaded at Pontefract. The little 
 Duke of York was removed from his mother in the 
 Sanctuary to join his brother Ik the Tower, and thus 
 Gloucester had both his nephews in his hands. On 
 Sunday, June 22, Dr. Ralf Shaw, a preacher of some 
 note, and brother to the Mayor of London, preached a 
 sermon at PauVs Cross — a cross and pulpit which then 
 stood at the northeast corner of St. Paul's Churchyard 
 —testing forth that the children were illegitimate on the 
 
d not/* 
 s of a 
 act that 
 I among 
 ;enerally 
 Mother, 
 led with 
 and her 
 train ster. 
 a palace 
 le Duke 
 
 loucester 
 
 common 
 
 ;hat they 
 
 asiPtgs in 
 
 of the 
 
 and to 
 
 June 13, 
 
 seized at 
 
 to death 
 
 utvt.] 
 
 RICHARD lit 
 
 t45 
 
 ground that whea tlieir father married Elizabeth 
 Wydevile, he was under a praontract to marry 
 another woman. According to the ecclesiastical law, 
 this would make his marriage with Elizabeth void. 
 The Lord Protector was pointed out by the preacher 
 as the rightful inheritor of the Crown. The claim 
 thus first put forward was accepted by an assembly 
 of Lords and Commons, which was practically a 
 Parliament, though owing to some informality it was 
 not afterwards allowed that name; a deputation of 
 lords and knights, joined by the Mayer, aldermen, and 
 chief citizens, desired the Protector to take upon him 
 the royal dignity ; and on June 26, the Duke of 
 Gloucester sat in Westminster Hall as King Richard 
 III. of England. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 RICHARD III. 
 
 Richard III.; disappearance of the sons of Edward 
 (i) — the Earl of Richmond; beheading of Buckingham 
 (2) — legislation (3) — death of Amu; invasion of 
 Richmond; battle of Bosworth; fall of Richard (4) 
 ^■printing (5) —literature (6) . 
 
 I. Richard III., 1483 -—1485. — Richard dJ\^ Anne 
 his wife were crowned at Westminster, July 6, 1483, 
 the preparations which had been made for the corona- 
 tion of the nephew serving for those of the uncle. 
 The new King then set out for York, where he and 
 the Queen, with crowns upon their heads, walked 
 through the streets in a grand procession. He was 
 already liked in the North, where he had lived for 
 some time ; and all this display was designed to 
 increase his popularity. But while he was thus 
 
 ! 
 
 ■ ) 
 1 I 
 
146 
 
 RICHARD lit 
 
 IciiAP. 
 
 I : h 
 
 iil 
 
 M' 
 
 spending his time, there arose much murmuring in the 
 south and west at the captivity of Edward's sons ; 
 and at last Buckingham, hitherto RichaYd's staunch 
 ally, seems to have undertaken to head a rising for 
 their release. At tliis moment it was reported that 
 the children were no longer living. In the next reign, 
 it was stated that Sir James Tyrell and John Dighton 
 had confessed that on the refusal of Sir Robert 
 Brackenbury^ Constable of the Tower, to put his 
 young prisoners to death, Richard had bidden that 
 the keys of the Tower should be delivered to Tyrrel 
 for twenty-four hours, and that Tyrrel's groom Dighton, 
 together with one Miles Forrest, had smothered the 
 sleeping children in their bed, and then buried them 
 at the stair-foot. It was further rumoured that by 
 Richard's desire a priest of Brackenbury's household 
 had removed the bodies elsewhere. Some however 
 have doubted the murder, notwithstanding the ap- 
 parent confirmation of the popular belief by a dis- 
 covery made 191 years later of the bones of two 
 boys, of about the age of the young princes, lying 
 buried in the White Tower under the staircase leading 
 to the chapel. The reigning King, Charles II., had 
 them removed to Henry the Seventh's Chapel as the 
 remains of Edward V. and Richard, Duke of York. 
 
 2. Revolt of Buckingham.— The league now 
 formed against Richard consisted of Buckingham, 
 many old Lancastrians, and the Marquess of Dorset, 
 Elizabeth Wydevile's son, with others of the Wyde- 
 vile party, acting in concert with Henry Tudor, Earl 
 of Richmond, who on his father's side was a grandson 
 of Owen Tudor and Katharine, widow of Henry V., 
 and on his mother's a descendant, through the Beaufort 
 line, of John of Gaunt, and who, in the absence of 
 any better representative of the House of Lancaster, 
 was accepted as its head. To unite the Yorkists and 
 Lancastrians, it was agreed that he should marry 
 Elizabeth^ daughter of Edward IV. Richmond was 
 
XXVI.] 
 
 OVERTHROW OF RICHARD. 
 
 t47 
 
 then a refugee in Britanny, and the present revolt did 
 not better his position ; for Buckingham, deserted by 
 his followers, was betrayed, and beheaded at Salis- 
 bury ; the other confederates dispersed ; and Rich- 
 mond, whose fleet had been scattered by a storm, did 
 not venture to land. A few of those concerned in the 
 revolt were put to death ; among these was, if we may 
 believe the common tale, one Collingbourne, who 
 had made a couplet upon Richard and his three most 
 trusty friends, Ratcliffe, Catesby, and Lord Lovel : — 
 
 •* The Rat, the Cat, and Lovel our Dog, 
 Rule all England under the Hog." 
 
 Richard's favourite badge was a wild boar, and the 
 popular belief was that the rimer lost his head for 
 thus insulting him. Henry's mother Margaret Beaufort^ 
 Countess of Richmondy who had been the moving 
 spirit of the rebellion, was leniently treated out of 
 consideration for her third husband Lord Stanley ^ of 
 whose loyalty Richard thought himself assured. 
 
 3. Legislation. — In January, 1484, a Parliament 
 was held, by which a statute was passed forbidding the 
 exaction of " benevolences." Another Act, while 
 laying restrictions upon foreign traders, expressly 
 excepts from its operation trade in books " written or 
 printed," which were allowed to be brought in and 
 sold by men of any nation. The statutes of this reign 
 were the first ever printed. 
 
 4. Overthrow and Death of Richard. — In 
 April, 1484, died the King's only child Edivard, where- 
 upon Richard declared his sister's son, John de la 
 Pole, Earl of Lincoln, his heir. In the next year. 
 Queen Anne died, broken down by sorrow for the 
 loss of her son, or, as Richard's enemies afterwards 
 cTiose to suggest, of poison given by her husband. 
 In after days, men told how Richard was haunted 
 by the memory of his murdered nephews ; he knew 
 no peace of mind, his hand was ever on his dagger, 
 
 J 
 
 1 1 
 
fi- 
 
 ' I 
 
 '! 
 
 I4S 
 
 RlCttAKD 111. 
 
 [CHAh 
 
 his rest broken by fearful dreams. Whether he waS 
 troubled by imaginary dangers or not, he had a real 
 one in Richmond, who had lately bound himself by 
 oath, if he obtained the crown, to marry Elizabeth 
 of York, and had thus taken a great step towards the 
 union of Yorkists and Lancastrians. On the 7th of 
 August, Richmond, with a body of adventurers, mostly 
 Normans, landed at Milford Haven, and, advancing 
 into the country, was met by Richard, with an army 
 double in number. A story is told \,\\^i John Howard^ 
 Duke of Norfolk^ received a warning, which however 
 he disregarded, against supporting the King. It was 
 in two lines written on the gate of the house where 
 he lodged : — 
 
 •* Jack of Norfolk, be not too bold, 
 For Dickon thy master is bou^lit and sold." 
 
 This was true enough ; for Lord Stanley, who could 
 muster many followers in Cheshire and Lancashire, 
 had, while holding office under Xichard, secretly 
 promised his support to Richmond. Stanley to the 
 last moment delayed declaring himself, because his 
 eldest son was in the hands of the King, who, his 
 suspicions being now awakened, threatened that the 
 son should die if the father played false. Henry 
 Percy ^ Earl of Northumberland^ though he brought the 
 forces of the North to the royal muster, was likewise 
 at heart disaffected to Richard. When the battle 
 began near Market Bosworthj Aug. 22, Lord Stanley 
 in the midst of the encounter joined Richmond, while 
 Northumberland looked on without stirring a foot 
 "Jack of Norfolk," true to his master, fell fighting 
 gallantly; and as a last effort, the King made a 
 desperate charge upon Richmond's body-guard. Cleav- 
 ing the skull of one knight and unhorsing another, 
 he cut his way to his rival, when Sir William 
 Stanley^ who had hitherto held aloof, brought up his 
 followers to Richmond's rescue, and Richard, crying 
 
w.l 
 
 PRINTING. 
 
 »<0 
 
 " Treason ! treason ! *' fell overpowered by numbers. 
 The crown which had been struck from his helmet 
 was picked up on the field, and set by Lord Stanley 
 on the head of Richmond, who was hailed King 
 Richard's body was thrown across a horse, and carried 
 to the Grey Friars' Church at Leicester, where it was 
 burisd with scant ceremony. 
 
 5. Printing. — Troublous as was the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, it was an age of increasing interest in literature 
 and art. Princes and nobles began to take pride in 
 forming libraries, and encouraging the labours of 
 authors, copyists, and illuminators. Some hundreds 
 of books were given by the " Good Duke Humfrey " 
 to the University of Oxford. A missal executed for 
 his brother the Duke of Bedford still remains as one 
 of the choicest productions of its age. Henry VL 
 had a valuable library, many of the manuscripts 
 belonging to which are to be seen in the British 
 Museum. But so long as books could only be multi- 
 plied in manuscript they were of necessity both scarce 
 and dear. The monks were at first copyists as well 
 as authors, but after a while copying became a trade, 
 and books grew somewhat cheaper. Under Edward 
 IV. the charge of x copyist was twopence a leaf for 
 prose and a penny for verse of about thirty lines to 
 the page. Adding the price of the paper, we may 
 reckon that a good copy of a prose work cost, at the 
 present value of money, about two shillings a leaf. 
 Paper had begun to take the place of parchment 
 about the middle of the fourteenth century. But in 
 the reign of Edward IV. a great invention was intro- 
 duced, which put an end to this laborious copying. 
 About 1476, William Caxton, a native of the Weald 
 of Kent, who had learned the new art of printing 
 abroad — at Bruges, it is supposed, where he had 
 been a merchant — came home, and set up a printing- 
 press in Westmins)Ler. He had been in the service 
 of the Duchess Margaret of Burgundy, for whom he 
 
 ' 
 
ISO 
 
 RICHARD III. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 »l 
 
 1 
 
 
 ;l 
 
 had translated a French romance ; and he now re- 
 ceived countenance from King Edward and his court. 
 The Queen's brother, the accomplished Anthony 
 Wyiievile^ Earl Rivers^ translated for Caxton's press 
 a French work, *' The Dictes and Sayings of the Phi- 
 losophers." Caxton also printed a translation from 
 Cicero, which had been made by John Tiptoft^ Earl of 
 Worcester^ the foremost of the literary nobles of the 
 day, Worcester, who was a Yorkist, had got a name for 
 cruelty, and the Lancastrians rejoiced when, during the 
 brief restoration of King Henry in 1470, he was brought 
 to the block ; but Caxton only remembered him as a 
 scholar. ** The axe," he wrote mournfully, *' then did 
 at one blow cut off more learning than was left in the 
 heads of all the surviving lords and nobility." Caxton 
 died about 149 1. 
 
 6. Literature, — Notwithstanding the growing 
 interest in literature, the fifteenth century did not give 
 us any very famous writers, yohn Lydgaie, a monk 
 of Bury St Edmund's, who flourished in the reign 
 of Henry VI., though not a man of much genius, was 
 a favourite poet in his day. Reginald Pecock, Bishop 
 of Chichester, in the same reign wrote in defence of 
 the Church against the Lollards, but, being adjudged 
 to have himself fallen into heresy, was obliged to 
 burn his books publicly at Paul's Cross, and was 
 deprived of his bishopric. Sir John FortescuCy Chief 
 J ustice of the King's Bench, wrote for the instruction 
 of King Henry's son Edward, to whom he was governor, 
 a Latin tieatise upon the laws of England. In this he 
 in' presses upon his pupil that the kingly power in 
 England is not absolute, but limited, and that the 
 country owed its prosperity to its freedom. The 
 Morte Darthur, or Death of Arthur^ a fine prose 
 romance, or rather collection of romances, about 
 Arthur and his knights, founded upon French fictions, 
 was composed by Sir Thomas Malory^ and printed 
 in 1485 by Caxton. In the preface Caxton tells 
 
XXVI.] 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 «5« 
 
 us* how he had been ofttimes urged by "many 
 noble and divers gentlemen " to print the histor> 
 of King Arthur, ** which ought most to be remem- 
 bered amongst us Englishmen tofore all other Chris- 
 tian Kings" — so completely had the British Arthur, 
 turned by romance-writers into the likeness of a 
 thirteenth or fourteenth-century King, become the 
 hero of those English against whose ancestors he had 
 fought. Julyans or Juliana Berners^ said to have 
 been prioress of Sopewell nunnery near St. Albans, 
 was the authoress of treatises upon hunting and 
 hawking. Towards the close of the century some of 
 the popular ballads began to be printed. The spirited 
 ballad of Chevy Chase, which recounts a fierce fray 
 between the Percy and Douglas of the days of Henry 
 IV., may perhaps belong to the end of the fifteenth 
 century, though probably not exactly in the form in 
 which we have it There is another and better-known 
 version of the same storv, which is more modern still. 
 Among ballad heroes, R^ Mr Hood, a legendary captain 
 of outlaws and deer-stea' , frequenting Nottingham- 
 shire and Yorkshire, stu.iK chief. Whether he had 
 any real existence is uncertain, but he was a subject 
 for popular song as far back as the days of Edward 
 III. In the Vision of Piers Plowman, one of the alle- 
 gorical characters, Sloth, owns that he does not know 
 his paternoster (the Lord's Prayer) perfectly, but he 
 does know "rimes of Robin Hood." A series of 
 ballads entitled " A Little Geste of Robin Hood," 
 which places its hero in the days of some King 
 Edward, was printed early in the reign of Henry 
 VIII., and shows strongly the growing dislike to the 
 higher clergy, whom the bold outlaw is represented as 
 making his special prey. 
 
«5« 
 
 HENRY VTI. 
 
 [chap 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 HENRY VII, 
 
 3 i' 
 
 Henry Tudor; Yorkist risings , Lambert Sitnttel (i) — 
 foreign affairs (2) — Richard Plant agenet or Per kin 
 Warbeckj execution of Stanley ; surrender of Perkin ; 
 execution of Perkin and Warwick {;^— marriages of 
 Henrys children {ji^—Henrys government; story of 
 the Earl of Oxford; Empson and Dudley ; death of 
 Henry (5) —allegiance to the King de facto (6) — The 
 Cabots li), 
 
 I. House of Tudor. Henry VII., 1485-1509. 
 
 — The coronation of Henry Tudor on the battle-field 
 was followed up by a more formal one at Westminster. 
 Without entering into questions of title, Parliament 
 settled the Crown on Henry and his heirs, and in order 
 to unite the rival Roses, pressed him to carry out the 
 intended marriage with Elizabeth of York, which he 
 was supposed to have put off in order that it might 
 not be thought that he reigned by right of his wife. 
 The marriage accordingly took place Jan. 18, i486, 
 but it is said that his dislike to the House of York led 
 him to treat her with coldness. Another representa- 
 tive of that House, youn^ Edward, Earl of Warwick, 
 son of George, Duke of Clarence, he at once removed 
 from Yorkshire, where Richard III. had placed him 
 in captivity, to the Tower ; and altogether the King 
 showed himself so unfriendly to the Yorkists that 
 within a year of his accession they made an attempt 
 at revolt, in which Lord Lovel, the " dog,'* was one of 
 the leaders. This was soon quelled; but the next 
 year the Yorkists tried a new plan. A youth appeared, 
 asserting himself to be the Earl of Warwick, escaped 
 from the Tower. Margaret, the widowed Duchess of 
 Burgundy, and sister of Edward IV., furnished the Earl 
 of Lincoln and Lord Lovel with troops to support him 
 
[CHAP 
 
 xxvii.l 
 
 PERKIN WARBECK. 
 
 ^3 
 
 Perkin 
 ^erkin; 
 lages of 
 story of 
 death of 
 b)-The 
 
 15-1509. 
 
 ttle-field 
 minster, 
 rliament 
 in order 
 out the 
 hich he 
 |it might 
 his wife. 
 |8, i486, 
 brk led 
 iresenta- 
 . ''arwicky 
 [removed 
 ed him 
 he King 
 lists that 
 attempt 
 ,s one of 
 :he next 
 ppeared, 
 escaped 
 ichess of 
 the Earl 
 lort him 
 
 and he was crowned King in Ireland, where the House 
 of York had always been beloved. But few joined 
 him when he landed in England, and his German 
 and Irish army was overthrown by Henry's troops at 
 Stoke-upon-Trent, June 16, 1487. The Earl of Lincoln 
 and most of the Yorkist leaders fell ; Loveffled, and 
 was never heard of again ; while the pretended War- 
 wick, who was one Lambert Sininel^ son of a joiner at 
 Oxford, was captured, and treated with contemptuous 
 mercy, Henry making him a scullion in his kitchen. 
 
 2. Foreign Affairs. — In character Henry was 
 cautious, crafty, fond of money, and ingenious in 
 acquiring it. Being ever in fear of a pretender to his 
 throne, he was anxious for the friendship of foreign 
 princes, in order that they might not help rebels 
 against him. More especially he sought the alliance 
 of Spain, the rival power to France ; and <hough he 
 had no love for war, he joined in 1489 with the 
 Spaniards in sending troops to help Britanny, then at 
 strife with France. The English being well disposed 
 to fight the French, the King got subsidies from Par- 
 liament, renewed the extortion of money by ** benevo- 
 lences," and under a show of war — for he did as little 
 as he could — filled his coffers. At last, in 1492, he 
 passed over to France, laid siege to Boulogne for a few 
 days, made peace, and led his murmuring army back. 
 Besides the public treaty there was a private one, by 
 which the King of France bound himself to pay a 
 hundred and forty-nine thousand pounds to the King 
 of England. 
 
 3. Perkin Warbeck. — Meanwhile a new claimant 
 to the throne had appeared, styling himself Richard 
 Fiantagenety Duke of York, According to his own 
 account, he was the second son of Edward IV., and 
 had been saved alive when his brother Edward V. was 
 put to death ; according to Henry, he was one Fierce 
 Osbecky more commonly called Ferkin Warbeck^ of 
 Tournay j and people are still in doubt whether he 
 
 L 
 
 
 
 i Hit 
 
m 
 
 
 il 
 
 154 
 
 HENRY VII. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 vas an impostor or not. He first showed himself in 
 Cork, where he was well received ; he then went to 
 the French court, and thence to Flanders, where the 
 Duchess Margaret of Burgundy received him with 
 open arms. The King discovering, by means of spies, 
 that communicat''^ns were carried on between the 
 friends of "Richard cf York" in England, and those 
 abroad, some executions took place, amongst which 
 was that of the Lord Chamberlain Sir William Stanley, 
 who had saved Henry's life on Bosworth Field. 
 Probably he really was concerned in the conspiracy ; 
 but the King's known greed of money caused a sus- 
 picion that Stanley only suffered in order that his 
 enormous wealth might be forfeited to the Crown. 
 In 1495 "Richard " passed into Scotland, where the 
 Kingy /ames /y.f gave him his kinswoman Katharine 
 Gordon ii> marriage. About two years later the adven- 
 turer^ landing in Cornwall, was there joined by many 
 of the people ; but on the approach of the royal army 
 he left his followers, and took sanctuary, surrender- 
 ing in a few days on promise that his life should be 
 spared. His beautiful wife, *'the White Rose," as 
 she was called, became an attendant on Henry's 
 Queen. For two years " Richard " lived a prisoner ; 
 once he made his escape, but being brought back, 
 was set publicly in the stocks, made to read aloud a 
 confession of imposture, and then cast into a dark cell 
 in the Tower. In 1499 he and a fellow-captive, the 
 harl of Warwick, who, for no crime but his birth, had 
 lain for fourteen years in the lower, were tried and 
 put to death on charges of high treasoii. The two 
 young men, as was alleged at the Earl's trial, had 
 jjlanned escape, after which the adventurer was to be 
 again proclaimed as King Richard IV. But the 
 report went that the Earl was sacrificed to Henry's 
 loijg-cherished scheme for wedding his son to a 
 Spanish princess, whose father, Xing Ferdinand of 
 Aragon^ crafty and careful as Henry himself, was 
 
• 
 
 imself in 
 i went to 
 ^here the 
 him with 
 of spies, 
 ween the 
 and those 
 gst which 
 n Stanley, 
 th Field. 
 )nspiracy ; 
 sed a sus- 
 r that his 
 he Crown, 
 where the 
 Katharine 
 the adven- 
 d by many 
 royal army 
 surrender- 
 should be 
 Rose,'* as 
 m Henry's 
 1 prisoner ; 
 tght back, 
 td aloud a 
 a dark cell 
 taptive, the 
 birth, had 
 tried and 
 The two 
 trial, had 
 was to be 
 But the 
 ;o Henry's 
 son to a 
 dinand of 
 iself, was 
 
 xxvii.] MARRIAGES OF FIENRY'S CHILDREN. 155 
 
 • 
 
 believed to have said plai!?ly that he did not consider 
 the alliance x safe one as long as Warwick lived. 
 
 4. Marriages of Henry's children. — In i5or, 
 at the age of fifteen, the King's eldest son, named 
 Arthur in memory of the Welsh hero from whom 
 Henry claimed descent, was married to Katharine^ 
 daughter of King Ferdinand of Aragon, whose power 
 extended over nearly the whole of the present Spain. 
 But Arthur dying within five months' time, his young 
 widow was contracted to the King's second son, 
 Henry ^ a dispensation being obtained from the Pope to 
 legalize this union with a brother's wife. With intent 
 to cement a peace between England and Scotland, the 
 King's eldest daughter Margaret was married in 1503 
 to James IV. of Scotland ; and this politic alliance 
 proved in the end the means of uniting the two king- 
 doms of Britain. 
 
 5. Henry's Government. — Under the Tudors 
 there came a change over the spirit of the government 
 The tendency now was to make the King all-powerful. 
 Mindful of the feeble rule of Henry VI. and the 
 turmoil of the civil wars, people were willing to put 
 up with stretches of power on the part of the sovereign, 
 if only he would maintain order and keep a tight 
 hand on the nobles. This task was the easier, 
 because war and the headsman's axe, attainder and 
 forfeiture had thinned and broken the old nobility ; 
 and weakened as they were, Henry watched them 
 jealously. It had long been a practice for the great 
 noblemen to give " Hveries " and ** badges " to the 
 gentlemen an 1 yeomen of their neighbourhood. There 
 was a sort of bond between the great man and those 
 who, on occasions of ceremony, donned his livery ; 
 it marked them as his ** rrtainers," entitled to his 
 protection, and ready to fight in his quarrel. The 
 law indeed forbade his giving liveries to any but 
 actual members of his household, but nobody dreamed 
 of observing it. Once, as the tale goes, Henry was 
 
 in 'i 
 
' 
 
 I ii 
 
 156 
 
 HENRY VII. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 entertained by John de Vere^ Earl of Oxford^ who 
 had fought for him at Bosworth. Two lines of liveried 
 gentlemen and yeomen were drawn up for the King 
 to pass through, The Earl smiled when asked if 
 they all belonged to his household — they were mostly 
 his retainers, he said, who had come to see the King. 
 " By my faith, my Lord," quoth Henry, " I thank 
 you for your good cheer, but I may not endure to 
 have my laws broken in my sight My attorney 
 must speak with you." And the Earl, who had thought 
 to show honour to the King, had to pay a fine of 
 ;;^i 0,000. Often the great men were so strong in 
 their own neighbourhood that they could bend the law 
 to their will : they bribed or overawed sheriffs and 
 juries, and no one durst go against them. A statute 
 was therefore enacted which gave authority to the 
 Chancellor, the Treasurer, and the Keeper of the 
 Privy Seal, with others of the King's Council, to 
 call such offenders before them for punishment. 
 In the latter part of his reign, Henry's avarice grew 
 upon him — when gold coin once went into his 
 strong-boxes, it never came out again, said the 
 Spanish Ambassador — and he made himself hateful 
 by his extortions. His chief instruments were two 
 lawyers. Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley^ 
 who raked up long-forgotten statutes and old claims 
 of feudal services in order to exact fines and forfeit- 
 ures for their transgression or omission. The whole 
 course of justice was wrested to furnish pretences 
 for extorting money, and the employment of false 
 witnesses and packed juries rendered it hardly possi- 
 ble for the most innocent to escape. Henry thus added 
 to his hoard, and kept his subjects from growing 
 dangerously rich. He '3ied April 21, 1509, at the 
 palace of Shene, which he had rebuilt with great 
 magnificence, and had called, after his earlier title, 
 Richmond, He was buried in his own beautiful 
 chapel in Westminster Abbey. 
 
kxvtn.] 
 
 ilEt^RY virt. 
 
 t$? 
 
 6. Allegiance. — The uncertainty of Henry's title 
 caused the passing of an important statute, by which 
 it was declared to be the duty of a subject to serve 
 the sovereign for the time beings and that no one, for 
 so doing, should be convict or attaint of treason. 
 This was to prevent the recurrence of the state of 
 things which had existed during the Wars of the 
 Roses, when men were punished at one time for follow- 
 ing York, and at another for following Lancaster. In 
 legal phrase, it protected those who served the King 
 de facto (King by fact, actual King) even though he 
 might not be King dejure (King by right). 
 
 7, The Cabots^. — ^There was now springing up 
 a spirit of maritime enterprise which moved men to 
 go in search of new lands beyond the ocean. The 
 best navigators of the time were the Italians and 
 Portuguese ; and the first European who is known 
 for certain to have sailed to the mainland of America 
 was of Italian origin, though born at Bristol. This 
 was Sebastian Cdbot^ who, accompanied probably by 
 his father John Gabotto or Cabot, a citizen of Venice, 
 sailed in 1497 from Bristol on a voyage of discovery, 
 and found out some part of North America, seemingly 
 Labrador and the coast north of Maryland. Some 
 think that the Cabots had already, in 1494, made a 
 voyage to America, and that the first land they saw 
 was the island of Cape Breton. 
 
 » ^" • 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 HENRY VIII, 
 
 Henry VI IT.; beheading of Empson and Dudley (i) — 
 Battle of the Spurs J battle of Flodden ; marriages of 
 Mary Tudor; Field of the Cloth of Gold {2)— Cardinal 
 Wolsey ; beheading of Buckingham ; taxation ; divorce 
 of Katharine of Aragon; marriage with Antie Roteyn; 
 fall and death of IVolscy : separation from Rome; tht 
 
 i '* 
 
I i 
 
 
 m\ 
 
 t$8 
 
 hekrv Vtll. 
 
 tcUKP, 
 
 RefofiHation^ religious and political (3) — the Kittys 
 marriages (4) — Thomas Cromwell; suppression of the 
 monasteries; the Pilgrimage of Grace; Reginald 
 Pole; the Bible; the Six Articles ; beheading 0/ 
 Cromwell; religious affairs (5) — wars with Scotland 
 and France (6) — beheading 0/ the Earl of Surrey; death 
 and will of Henry (7) — Defender of the Faith (8) — 
 Wales and Ireland (9) — the navy 10). 
 
 1, Henry VIII., 1509 — 1547. — The new King 
 was a handsome youth of eighteen, fair, auburn-haired, 
 and of unusual height and strength. He was a master 
 of the national weapon, the bow, and was perfect in 
 those knightly exercises with sword and lance, which, 
 though they were ceasing to be of much use in real 
 warfare, wc-e still thought necessary accomplish- 
 ments for a gentleman. His intellectual training 
 had likewise been high ; he was skilled in music, a 
 good scholar, and able to enter into and appreciate 
 the new learning and culture of his age. Frank in 
 manner and good-humoured, though liable to bursts of 
 passion, he seemed to have all the qualities that 
 Englishmen admired in a ruler. But though he gave 
 fair promise, Henry was of a fierce and tyrannical 
 nature. Yet he had a regard for the letter of the law, 
 even while he bent the law to his caprice ; and thus, 
 though there was little freedom under his rule, all the 
 forms of free government remained. To satisfy the 
 revenge of those whom they had injured, Empson and 
 Dudley were beheaded on a frivolous charge of high 
 treason, and thus, though bad men, they suffered 
 unjustly for crimes which they had not committed. 
 
 2. War with France. Scottish Invasion. — 
 Henry, being desirous of playing a great part in Europe, 
 soon mixed himself up in continental wars, taking the 
 side opposed to France. Joined by the Emperor-elect 
 Maximilian^ the King in 15 13 routed the French at 
 Guinegate^ in what was jestingly called ^^theBatt^'ofthe 
 Spurs" from the panic-stricken flight of the enemy's 
 
X^VIII.] 
 
 BkEACtt WITH ROMft. 
 
 t» 
 
 cavalry. The Scots took advantage of this war to 
 invade England, but were defeated by Thamas 
 Howard^ Earl of Surrey^ in a battle beneath the hill ol 
 Fioddetty Sept. 9, 15 13, where their King, James IV., 
 together with the flower of their nation, were left dead 
 on the field. The next year peace was made with 
 the French, their King, Louis XIL^ marrying Henry's 
 sister Mary^ who, being left a widow in three months' 
 time, at once gave her hand to Charles Brandon^ Duke 
 of Suffolk, In June, 1520, Henry had a series of 
 friendly meetings with the new King of France, 
 Francis /., between Guines and Ardres, in which 
 such splendour was displayed that the meeting-place 
 was called " the Field of the Cloth of Gold." But 
 nothing came of these interviews, for Henry had 
 already been won over to the interests of the Emperor 
 Charles K, who ruled over Spain, the Two Sicilies, 
 the Netherlands, and large Austrian dominions, 
 besides being, as Emperor, the head of Germany. In 
 alliance with Charles, the King, in 1522, undertook a 
 new war against France. Peace was made in 1525, 
 the French agreeing to pay Henry an annual^ pension. 
 3. Breach with Rome. — During this period the 
 King had oeen guided by Thomas Wolsey^ a royal 
 chaplain, and son of a wealthy burgess of Ipswich. 
 Able and ambitious, Wolsey had by his talents raised 
 himself to the highest pitch of favour. Honours and 
 promotion were showered upon him ; he became 
 Archbishop of York, Chancellor, a Cardinal, and the 
 Papal Legate, in which position he was supreme over 
 the English Church ; and he even hoped to be Pope. 
 The nobles could ill brook the rule of an eccle- 
 siastic of no birth; but the days of their power 
 were gone by, and the malcontents were cowed by 
 the beheading, in 152 1, of Edward Stafford^ Duke 
 of Buckingham^ a descendant of Edward III., on 
 charges of aiming at the throne. Wolsey also be- 
 came unpopular through the heavy taxation rendered 
 
i6o 
 
 TTKNRV Vllt. 
 
 frit At*. 
 
 M 
 
 necessary by war and the King's profuseness. In 1525, 
 without sanction from Parliament, commissioners were 
 sent into the counties to demand the sixth part of 
 every man's substance. " If men should give their 
 goods by a commission," the people cried, " then were 
 it worse than tlie taxes of France, and so England 
 should be bond and not free." The artisans and 
 peasants of Norfolk and Suffolk almost rose in re- 
 bellion; and Henry had to withdraw his demand. 
 At last a series of- unforeseen circumstances brought 
 about the downfall of the powerful minister. The 
 King and his wife Katharine of Ar agon, whom he had 
 married in the first year of his reign, had only one 
 child living, Mary, born in 15 16. Anxious, according 
 to his own story, for a male heir, the King began to 
 think that the death of his sons in infancy showed that 
 his marriage with his brotner's widow was displeasing 
 to Heaven. His scruples wore quickened or suggested 
 by his having pitched upon Katharine's successor, 
 Anne Boleyn, a beautiful and lively maid of honour. 
 He applied for a divorce to Pope Clement VI I., who, 
 equally unwilling to offend either Henry or Katharine*s 
 nephew the Emperor Charles, could not make up his 
 mind what to do. He so far yielded to Henry as to 
 send over a Legate, Cardinal Campeggio, who, together 
 with Wolsey, in 1529 held a court to try the cause. 
 It had been hoped that Katharine might be persuaded 
 or frightened into withdrawing to a nunnery ; but, 
 l)eing resolved to maintain her right, she appealed to 
 Rome, and the proceedings in England came to an 
 end without any sentence being given. At last, after 
 the matter had been dragging on for five years, 
 and the Universities and learned men at home and 
 abroad had been consulted in hopes of obtaining 
 opinions favourable to the divorce, Henry, regard- 
 less of the Pope's prohibition, privately married 
 Anne Boleyn. The newly-appointed Primate, Thomas 
 Cranmer^ who owed his elevation to the zeal with which 
 
XXVIII.] 
 
 iJREAClt Wtttt nOME. 
 
 t6t 
 
 he had advocated the King's cause, then, on the 23rd of 
 May, 1533, pronounced the marriage between Henry 
 and Katharine to have been null and void from the 
 beginning. The marriage with Anne Boleyn was 
 declared lawful ; and a few days afterwards she was 
 crowned with great pomp. The forsaken wife, who 
 steadily refused to forego her title of Queen, died 
 three years later. More however thn the fortunes of 
 Katharine or Anne had been concerned in this affair. 
 Henry became dissatisfied with Cardinal Wolsey, who 
 he thought had not served him well in the matter ; and 
 Wolsey's enemies, chief among whom was Anne, were 
 therefore able to ruin him. He was charged with 
 having, by the exercise of his authority as Legate, 
 transgressed the Statute of Praemunire ; the Chancellor- 
 ship was taken from him, he was constrained to make 
 over to the King the archiepiscopal palace of York- 
 Dace (now Whitehall), and his possessions were all 
 forfeited. In 1530, the year after his fall, he was ar- 
 rested on charges of high treason, and brought towards 
 London ; but, sickening on the way, he died at Leices- 
 ter Abbey, saying on his deathbed, " If I had served 
 God as diligently as I have served the King, He 
 would not have giv^n me over in my grey hairs." Nor 
 was the fall of Wolsey all. Henry, at first only in hopes 
 of frightening the Pope, went along with the general 
 desire for a reform of ecclesiastical abuses; and as 
 the breach between the King and Rome widened, 
 step by step the English Church was withdrawn from 
 the power of the Pope. A statute in "restraint of 
 appeals" enacted that from Easter, 1534, there should 
 be no appeals to the Bishop or See of Rome. All 
 payments to Rome were stopped, and the King was 
 declared to be Supreme Bead of the Church of England. 
 Denial of this title was one of the many matters which 
 were now made high treason, and men had not even 
 liberty to be silent, for suspected persons were liable 
 to be called upon to express their acknowledgment o£ 
 
 ; i 
 
 '. 
 
i62 
 
 HENRY Vin. 
 
 [CHAt*. 
 
 \i 
 
 the royal supremaqr. For refusing to do this, several 
 persons suffered death, the most notable being the 
 aged Jbkn Fisher^ Bishop of Rochester^ who in 1529 
 had given dire offence by remonstrating against the 
 divorce, and the learned and excellent Sir Thomas 
 More, who had succeeded Wolsey as Chancellor, but 
 had retired, not approving of the King's measures. 
 Both Fisher and More had been sent to the Tower for 
 refusing to swear to maintain the Act concerning the 
 Kiyig's succession, which pronounced the marriage with 
 Katharine unlawful, and that with Anne lawful and 
 valid. They would have consented indeed to acknow- 
 ledge Anne's daughter as heir to the throne, but their 
 consciences would not permit them to swear assent to 
 everything contained in the Act. Their further refusal 
 to acknowledge the royal supremacy completed their 
 ruin. Fisher walked to the block with a NewTestament 
 in his hand. Opening it at hazard, he read, " This 
 is life eternal, to know Thee ; " and he repeated these 
 words as he was led along. More died with cheerful 
 composure, even with a jest. As the axe was about 
 to fall on his neck, he moved his beard aside : — " Pity 
 that should be cut," he murmured, " that has not com- 
 mitted treason." By his dealings with the Church 
 Henry became an agent in the Reformation, as that 
 separation of part of Europe from the communion of 
 the Roman See which took place in this century is 
 called. His part in it was more political than religious ; 
 and the mass of the nation was of the same mind — 
 opposed to ihe power, but not disagreeing to any gieat 
 extent with the doctrines, of Rome. The particular 
 creed of Martin Luther, the German leader in this 
 movemi:nt, did not take root in England ; but the Swiss 
 and French Reformers, who went further than he did, 
 had much influence in the next reign. There was 
 various teaching among the Reformers, but it in general 
 differed from that of Rome on the nature and number 
 of the Sacraments and on the obligations and duties 
 
XXVlIlJ 
 
 7HE KING'S MARWAGES. 
 
 I«l 
 
 of the clergy : the reverence paid to relics and images, 
 and the use of Latin in the Church services, were 
 disapproved of; and the study of the Scriptures was 
 urged on every one. The men who held the Re- 
 formed doctrines came to be distinguished by the 
 name of Protestants^ which was first given to those 
 German princes and cities who in 1529 protested 
 against a decree of the Empire unfavourable to the 
 Lutherans From them the name was afterwards ex- 
 tended to all who left the communion of Rome. Those 
 who adhered to the Pope were called Roman Catholics^ 
 Romanists, and Papists, and, by themselves, simply 
 Catholics, because they claimed that they alone kept the 
 Catholic faith, and that those who cast off the Pope 
 were heretics. These names must at first be under- 
 stood only as roughly marking two parties within the 
 English Church, which had not yet formed themselves 
 into distinct communions. As yet, it was only a few 
 men on either side who made exertions and sacrifices 
 for their belief Ordinary people might have leanings 
 one way or the other, but they thought it belonged to 
 the King to settle religious matters, and ihey obeyed 
 the laws on these subjects just as they would any 
 other laws. 
 
 4. The King's Marriages. — Anne Boleyn did 
 not survive for many months the princess whom she 
 had ousted. In May, 1536, her marriage with the King 
 was declared null and void, and on a charge, true or 
 false, of unfaithfulness, she was beheaded, leaving one 
 daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1533. The day after 
 Anne's death, Henry married Jane Seymour, the 
 daughter of a Wiltshire knight. She died the next 
 year, shortly after the birth of her son Edward, 
 Early in 1540 Henry took a fourth wife, Anne, sister 
 of the Duke of Cleves. This match was brought about 
 by his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, who, being 
 favourable to the Reformation, wished the King to 
 ally niniself with the Protestant princes of Germany. 
 
 ■ ! i. 
 
 illil 
 
I 
 
 i 
 
 
 ','' I 
 
 ill 
 
 164 
 
 itfeKRV Via 
 
 tcMxr. 
 
 13ut unluckily Anne was not good looking, and Henry 
 found a pretext for having this marriage also declared 
 null and void. An"** was well pensioned off, and 
 spent the rest of I , .o in England ; while the King, 
 without delay, n)arried Katharine Howard^ niece of 
 Thomas Howard^ Duke of Norfolk^ who stood at the 
 head of the party hostile to Cromwell and to the 
 Reformers. She, being found to have misconducted 
 herself, was beheaded, Febiuary 12, 1542 j and the next 
 year the King married his sixth and last wife, Katharine 
 Parr^ widow of Lord Latimer, a discreet woman, who 
 kept her place as Henry's Queen until his death. 
 
 5. Administration of Cromwell. — Wolscy's 
 power passed to one who had been in his service, 
 Thomas Cromwell, created successively Baron Crom- 
 weli and Earl of Essex. The King made him his 
 vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters, and as during 
 his administration all the monastic foundations were 
 destroyed, he has been called " the Hammer of the 
 Monks P This was not done all at once. First, in 
 1536, the smaller monasteries were dissolved by Act 
 of Parliament, and their revenues given to the King. 
 The North-country people, who clung to the old ways, 
 broke out into revolt at this : the Yorkshire rebellion, 
 led by a young barrister named Robert Aske, was 
 quaintly called ** The Pilgrimage of Grace.^* After the 
 resistance had been put down and punished, the de- 
 struction of the larger religious houses soon followed, 
 the abbots and priors being made to surrender them, as 
 of freewill, to the King, and an Act being passed in 1539 
 to coniirm these and any future surrenders. Meanwhile, 
 famous relics and images and shrines were destroyed, 
 among them the rich shrine of St. Thomas of Canter- 
 bury, Henry proclaiming him to have been no saint, 
 but a rebel and traitor. Of the vast wealth thus 
 thrown into the Kmg's hands, part went to found new 
 bishoprics and part to fortify the coast; but much 
 more was spent in lavish grants to the courtiers, whiliit 
 
XXVfti.l ADMINISTRATION OF CROMWELK 165 
 
 many of the abbey churches and buildings were pulled 
 down for the sake of their lead and stone. On his side, 
 the Pope, Paul I 11.^ issued in 1538 a Bull excommu- 
 nicating and deposing Henry ; and Cardinal Reginald 
 PoUy a grandson of George, Duke of Clarence, did his 
 best to stir up foreign powers as well as English mal- 
 contents for the restoration by force of arms of the 
 old state of ecclesiastical matters. Pole himself kejH 
 out of the way abroad, but he had friends and kinsfolk 
 in England, and several persons suffered death on 
 charges of treasonable correspondence with him. Chief 
 among these were Henry Courtenay., Marquess of Exeter^ 
 son of a daughter of Edward IV., and suspected of 
 plotting an insurrection in the West ; Pole's elder 
 brother. Lord Montagu^ and, at a later time, his aged 
 mother. Margaret^ Coiiniess of Salisbury ytht last of the 
 direct line of the Plantagenets. The descent of the 
 Poles and Courtenays marked them out as leaders 
 of the old Yorkist party, which had formed hopes of 
 setting Exeter on the throne. It must not be thought 
 however that the Reformed doctrines were triumphant. 
 Under the influence indeed of Cromwell and Cranmer, 
 the King caused Articles of Religion, approaching 
 somewhat to the Lutheran views, to be set forth ; 
 translations of the Scriptures, such as had hitherto been * 
 forbidden, were, to the great joy of the Reformers, 
 not only tolerated, but published with the royal 
 licence ; an edition of the Bible in English was pre- 
 pared and printed under the avowed patronage of 
 Cromwell, and an order was issued that a copy of this 
 version should be placed in every church for all men 
 to read. But in 1539 the party opposed to the 
 Reformers, of which the leaders were the Duke of 
 Norfolk ind Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester^ 
 obtained the passing of the Act of the " Six Articles,** 
 remembered by the Protestants under the name of 
 " the whip with six strings," which restored many of 
 the old doctrines, and forbade the marriage of priests. 
 
 "i 
 
 * '■ i 
 
 1 1 
 
' 
 
 I! 
 
 I'l 
 
 
 
 166 
 
 HENRY VIII 
 
 [chap. 
 
 Cromweirs favour was already waning, and his down- 
 fall was hastened by Henry's dissatisfaction with Anne 
 of Cleves. He was beheaded July 28, 1540, an Act 
 of Parliament attainting him of treason and heresy 
 having been passed without his being heard in his 
 defence- Two days later, an example was made of 
 offenders of both parties — six clergymen were put to 
 death at Smithfield, three as traitors, for affirming that 
 the marriage with Katharine had been lawful ; three as 
 heretics, for preaching Luthe/s doctrines. After the 
 fall of Cromwell, Gardiner and his party came more 
 into power, though they were never able to over- 
 throw Archbishop Cranmer, who, as far as he durst, 
 favoured the Reformers. The new doctrines were 
 spreading fast, and " in every alehouse and tavern," 
 as Henry complained, men wrangkd over religious 
 questions. An Act was passed in 1543 forbidding 
 the reading of the Bible by " the lower sort " of people 
 — i tificers, labourers, and the like ; and many of the 
 translations and religious works of the Reformers 
 were suppressed ; although an English Litany, trans- 
 lated perhaps by the King, and other prayers in the 
 vulgar tongue, were ordered to be used. Of the 
 Protestants put to death in this reign, one of the most 
 • notable was Anm Ascue (daughter of Sir William 
 Ascue), who was burned in Smithfield, in July, 1546. 
 
 6. Wars with Scotland and France. — In 
 1542 a war broke out with Scotland, whose King, 
 fames F., being on the side of Rome, was not dis- 
 posed towards alliance with his uncle Henry of Eng- 
 land. A Scottish army crossed the Border, but whether 
 from disaffection or from sudden panic, it fled before 
 a few hundreds of Englishmen at Solway Moss, This 
 disgrace broke the heart of James, who died not long 
 afterwards, leaving as his successor an infant daughter, 
 Mary Stuart. Henry negotiated a marriage between 
 the young Queen and his son Edward; but the treaty 
 to that effect was soon broken off by the Scots, and 
 
XXVIII. ] 
 
 DEATH OF HENRY. 
 
 167 
 
 Henry's attempts to enforce its fulfilment by sending 
 his army to ravage and burn their country only set 
 them the more against the proposed match. Edin- 
 burgh itself was sacked and fired by the English under 
 Edward Seymour^ Earl of Hertford ^ brother of Queen 
 Jane Seymour. Irritated by French intrigues in Scot- 
 land, Henry, in alliance with Charles V., also entered 
 upon war with France, and passing over to that country 
 in 1544, he took Boulogne^ which it was afterwards 
 agreed should be given back at the end of eight years, 
 upon payment of a sum of money, besides the pension 
 due by the treaty of 1525. The Scots were included 
 in this peace. 
 
 7. Death of Henry. — Henry, who in his later 
 years had become unwieldy and infirm, and suffered 
 great pain, died Jan. 28, 1547. Not long before, the 
 Duke of Norfolk and his son Henry Hoivardy Earl of 
 Surrey^ who was famous for his poetical talent, had been 
 sent to the Tower under charges of treason, the sus- 
 picion being that they meant to seize on the Regency 
 afcer Henry's death. Surrey was beheaded on the 19th 
 Jan., and it is said that the day for Norfolk's execution 
 was fixed ; but as on that very morning the King died, 
 the sentence was not carried out, and the Duke re- 
 mained in prison. It is supposed that Surrey owed his 
 death to the Seymours, who had risen into high favour 
 with the King, and between whom and the Howards 
 there was bitter jealousy. The Howards belongs' to 
 the old nobility, and leaned towards the old faith ; the 
 Seymours were " new men," and well-disposed to the 
 new doctrines. The Earl of Hertford was among the 
 sixteen " executors " of King Henry's will, to whom 
 the government during the minority of his son was 
 entrusted ; for Parliament had given Henry special 
 powers with regard to the succession to his kingdom. 
 In case Edward died childless, the Crown was settled 
 by Act of Parliament on the King's daughters, first on 
 Mary and her heirs, then on Elizabeth and her heirs. 
 
 < t 
 
 ,n 
 
 fp 
 
IS) 
 
 
 I 
 
 \' 
 
 t6S 
 
 EDWARD VI. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 After them, Henry bequeathed it to the descendants 
 of his younger sister Mary. 
 
 8. Defender of the Faith. — Henry was the first 
 of our Kings who bore the title of " Defender of the 
 Faiih." This he obtained in 1521 from the Pope, 
 Leo X.f in return for his having written against Luther 
 a Latin treatise on the Sez>en Sacraments; and he and 
 his successors still kept it after they had ceased, in 
 papal eyes at least, to deserve it. 
 
 9. Wales and Ireland. — In 1536 Wales was 
 incorporated with England, and the English laws and 
 liberties were granted to its inhabitants. Ireland, where 
 England had almost lost its authority, such as it waSj 
 was brought under a somewhat stronger rule ; and in 
 1542 it was raised to the dignity of a kingdom, having 
 been hitherto styled only a lordship. 
 
 10. The Navy. — Henry VIH. followed the 
 example of his father in paying great attention to the 
 navy. He constituted the Admiralty and Navy Office, 
 and incorporated the Trinity House, a guild for the 
 promotion of commerce and navigation, which was 
 empowered to make laws for the shipping; he also 
 established dockyards at Deptford, Woolwich, and 
 Portsmouth. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 EDWARD VI. * 
 
 Edward VI; rule of the Protector Somerset (i) — behead- 
 ing of Seymour ; fall and beheading of Somerset (2) 
 — the Duke of Northumberland ; death of the King; 
 alteration of the succession (3) — the Reformation (4). 
 
 I. Edvvard VI., 1547-1553.— The directions of 
 Henry's will were at once infringed, the Earl of Hert- 
 ford prevailing on his fellow-executors to make him 
 Protector and governor of the young King his nephew, 
 
[chap. 
 
 ndants 
 
 the first 
 ' of the 
 \ Pope, 
 
 Luther 
 
 he and 
 ised, in 
 
 ales was 
 laws and 
 id, where 
 s it was^ 
 ; and in 
 /, having 
 
 )wed the 
 ion to the 
 ivy Office, 
 d for the 
 ^hich was 
 he also 
 ich, and 
 
 t) — behead- 
 Xomerset (2) 
 the King J 
 ition (4)- 
 
 [•ections of 
 
 4 of Hert' 
 
 Imake him 
 
 is nephew, 
 
 xxix.] 
 
 THE DUKE OF SOMERSET. 
 
 169 
 
 and thus to place him at the head of the State, 
 sltnough under the will they had equal powers. In 
 accordance, it was said, with the lata King's intentions, 
 he was also created Duke of Somerset, Ambitious 
 and greedy of riches, the Protector yet really sought 
 the welfare of his country, and won the love of the 
 common people, for whom he had kindly feelings. 
 He was a good soldier, and in the first year of his 
 rule he made a savage attack upon Scotland, in 
 hopes of enforcing the marriage treaty; his victory 
 at Pinkie^ near Musselburgh (September 10, 1547), 
 strengthened his influence at home, although he did 
 not bring back the young Queen, who in the course of 
 the next year was sent into France as the betrothed 
 of the Dauphin, afterwards King Francis IL In 
 religious matters Somerset gave his support to the 
 advanced Reformers, who had hitherto been kept 
 down ; and when Parliament met, the " Six Articles " 
 and the statutes against the Lollards were repealed, 
 as well as Henry's harsh enactments concerning treason. 
 All the remaining chantries (where masses were said 
 for the souls of particular persons) and colleges, saving 
 only the cathedral chapters, the colleges in the Uni- 
 versities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the colleges 
 of Winchester and Eton, were suppressed, and their 
 property made over to the Crown. The King, who 
 was only ten years old when he came to the throne, 
 being brought up by men of strong Protestant views, 
 naturally held their opinions ; and in piety and religious 
 zeal he was beyond his years. Hugh Latimer ^ the most 
 outspoken of the Reformed preachers, the most fear- 
 less rebuker of iniquity in high places, had a pulpit 
 erected for him in the King's garden, where young 
 Edward would sit and listen to sermons an hour long. 
 The boy received an excellent education, and being 
 intelligent, quick, and thoughtful, he made great pro- 
 gress. Even before he was eight years old he had 
 written Latin letters to his father. 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
' 
 
 1 
 
 1 I 
 
 170 
 
 EmVARt) VI. 
 
 tCHAt». 
 
 2, Fall of Somerset. — The first enemy Somerset 
 had to deal with was his own brother, 21io7naSy Lord 
 Seymour of Sudeley, High Admiral of England^ an 
 ambitious and unprincipled man, who had married 
 the widowed Queen Katharine Parr. Aiming at sup- 
 planting the Protector, he was himself destroyed by 
 a bill of attainder, without being heard in his own 
 defence, and was beheaded March 20, 1549. That 
 Seymour had been plotting to upset the government 
 by force is likely enough; but, ruthless as the age was, 
 there were yet many who thought it a horrible thing 
 for one brother to send another to the block. Somer- 
 set's rule did not last much longer, his government 
 proving a failure both at home and abroad. His 
 predecessors in authority had left him a difficult task. 
 To meet the expenses of the government the coinage 
 had been depreciated. Prices had in consequence 
 risen ; while, the demand for labour having fallen off, 
 wages had not risen in proportion. Large sheep-farms 
 had been found to pay better than tillage-farms ; 
 and though in the long run it was best that the land 
 should be employed to the most profit, at the time 
 the change caused great distress. Tenants and 
 labourers were turned away, villages were pulled down 
 — where once many had found homes and work, there 
 was " now but a shepherd and his dog." The new 
 owners— courtier nobles, or wealthy traders and graziers 
 — were stricter landlords than the old monks and 
 nobles; and wherever they could, they enclosed the 
 extensive waste and common lands on which the 
 poor had partly found their livelihood. Unemployed 
 labourers and dispossessed squatters turned beggars 
 or thieves, and it was in vain that law after law was 
 passed against vagrants. The peasantry had thus 
 many grievances, which in some parts they charged 
 upon the change of religion. There were soon dis- 
 turbances in many quarters. The common people of 
 the West rose in arms to demand the restoration 
 
Jckix.l 
 
 tALL OF SOMERSfet. 
 
 171 
 
 of the mass, which had given place to the English 
 Prayer-book ; the Norfolk men, headed hy Robert Ket^ 
 3L tanner by trade, but lord of three manors, broke out 
 into insurrection against the landowners who were 
 enclosing commons and turning arable land into pas- 
 ture. The Norfolk rebellion was quelled, not without 
 a sharp struggle, by /o/in Dudley, Earl of Warwick, 
 at the head of a force partly made up of German 
 mercenaries. With these Norfolk insurgents the Pro- 
 tector had at first somewhat sympathised, and it was 
 charged against him that by having appointed com- 
 missioners to remove illegal enclosures, he had en- 
 couraged the peasantry to revolt. Moreover he was 
 harsh to the young King, and haughty to the nobles. 
 " Of late," one of his friends wrote to him plainly, 
 "your Grace is grown into great choleric fashions, when- 
 soever you are contraried in that which you have con- 
 ceived in your head." His administration was waste- 
 ful ; he had made a vast fortune out of the Church 
 property, and had given offence by building for himself 
 a splendid palace (on the site of which stands the 
 present Somerset House), pulling down churches and 
 the cloister of St. Paul's to supply materials or to make 
 room. The Earl of Warwick and many other lords of 
 the Council joining together to get rid of him, he was 
 in 1549 deposed from the Protectorate, and heavily 
 fined. One of the faults alleged against him was 
 having left in a defenceless state Boulogne, which was 
 now threatened by the French ; and, the country being 
 unprepared to carry on a war for it, his successors in 
 the government were obliged to give it back, though 
 they received in compensation only a fifth of the 
 sum promised to Henry VI H., and virtually surren- 
 dered the annual pension. But ""^ the last Somer- 
 set was beloved, especially as the 'administration 
 of his successors proved worse than his had been ; 
 and when, in 1552, he was beheaded on a charge of 
 conspiring against his rival, Warwick, now Duke oj 
 
1^2 
 
 fibWARt) Vt. 
 
 tckAK 
 
 
 i 
 
 JVori /lumber iandf and two others of the Council, great 
 was tlie sorrow for him. 
 
 3. The Duke of Northumberland. — ^The Duke 
 of Northumberland, who took the management of 
 affairs after Somerset's fall, was the son of that Dudley 
 who had been the evil agent of Henry VII. He had 
 shown a vigour in putting down the Norfolk rebellion, 
 which, in the eyes of all who feared a general peasant 
 insurrection, contrasted favourably with the wavering 
 policy of Somerset. As for religion, he appears in 
 reality to have had none, but it suited him to set up 
 for a thorough-going Protestant, and he was in conse- 
 quence the idol of some of the more eager members 
 of that party, although his government was tyrannical, 
 and the people detested him. In 1553 the young 
 King, who took much interest in public affairs, and 
 whose coming of age was looked forward to with great 
 hopes, fell dangerously ill. Northumberland foresaw 
 that if Katharine of Aragon's daughter, the Lady 
 Mary^ who altogether disapproved of the doings of 
 her brother's ministers in religious matters, came to 
 the throne, his power would be at an end. He there- 
 fore persuaded the dying boy to alter the succession — 
 a thing which the King had no right to do without 
 authority from Parliament — by shutting out his sisters, 
 and settling the crown on his cousin Lady Jave Grey^ 
 daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and grand- 
 daughter of Charles Brandon and Mary, daughter of 
 Henry VII. Edward was led to this by the fear that 
 the Reformed faith would suffer if his sister Mary 
 reigned; Northumberland's motive was the hope of 
 setting on the throne his fourth son, Lord Guilford 
 Dudley^ whom he had just married to Lady Jane. 
 With all his father's wilfulness, the youthful King over- 
 bore the legal objections of the judges; and by his 
 entreaties he won the consent of Archbishop Cranmer. 
 Shortly after, Edward died at Greenwich, July 6, his 
 lasl prayer being that England might be defended frc m 
 
 Ix 
 
XXIX.] 
 
 THE REFORMATION. 
 
 173 
 
 "papistry." The common belief was that Northuipber- 
 land had hastened his end by poison, but of this there 
 is no sufficient proof. 
 
 4. The Reformation. — The Protestant Reforma- 
 tion made rapid progress in London and in the towns, 
 especially in those on the sea-coast ; but the country 
 districts were slower in accepting it, and the govern- 
 ment pushed it on both further and faster than suited 
 the mass of the nation. Somerset early issued in- 
 junctions to put away the pictures and images in the 
 churches ; and the overthrow of crucifixes, the white- 
 washing of walls once adorned with paintings, and the 
 destruction of stained glass, brought the change b >fore 
 the eyes of the simplest and most ignorant. Gurdinery 
 who gave offence by opposing Somerset's religious 
 measures, Edmund Bonner^ Bishop of London^ and other 
 bishops who would not go all lengths with the par*^y 
 in power, were sent to prison ; and Northumberland 
 filled their sees with Protestants, Nicholas Ridley^ 
 one of the ablest of the Reforming clergy, succeed- 
 ing Bonner in London. Out of the college and 
 chantry property King Edward endowed grammar- 
 schools at Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Macclesfield, and 
 other places ; but great part of the wealth gained 
 by stripping the churches of their plate, and suppress- 
 ing and diminishing the possessions of bishoprics, 
 went into the hands of the men in power rnd their 
 friends, to whom the Reformation was dear chiefly 
 for the sake of the plunder. Bishop Ridley, preach- 
 ing before Edward at Whitehall, took occasion to 
 speak of the distressed condition of the London 
 poor; upon which the young King, sending for the 
 Bishop, asked his advice as to what should be done. 
 Ridley suggested consulting the corporation of the 
 City, whose conduct in founding hospitals and schools 
 already formed an honourable contrast to that of the 
 government. The result was that the old house of 
 tlxe Grey Frisirs wa.s chartered by the King as Chrisfs 
 
 I 
 ■ t 
 
 
 ' • i 
 
!74 
 
 EDWARD VI. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 Hospital (commonly called the Bluecoat School) ; the 
 Hospitals of St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas were 
 re-founded and re-endowed ; and the King made over 
 the royal house of Brideivell for a workhouse. The 
 Prayer-book of the Church of England was com- 
 piled in this reign by Archbishop Cranmer, who took 
 the old Latin services for his groundwork. The first 
 complete Prayer-book was set forth in 1549, but many 
 changes were made in 1552 under the influence of 
 the foreign Reformers ; and Acts for the '* Uniformity 
 of Service" forbade the use of any other religious 
 rites. Cranmer also put forth forty-two Articles of 
 HeligioHy which at a later time were cut down to thirty- 
 nine, and underwent some other changes. The Lady 
 Mary firmly refused to have the new service used 
 in her house, although, after the fall of Somerset, 
 attempts were made to constrain her to conform. 
 " Rather than she will agree to use any other service 
 than was used at the death of the late King her 
 father," was the report brought back by those who 
 were sent to overcome her opposition, "she would 
 lay her head on a block and suffer death." Ridley 
 tried his powers of argument in vain, — " I cannot tell 
 what you call God's word," said Mary. "That is 
 not God's word now which was God's word in my 
 father's time." Tolerance was not in those days 
 looked upon as a virtue, even by Reformers. A 
 friend of Anne Ascue, Joan Bocher by name, who 
 held opinions condemned by both of the two great 
 religious partiesj, was in 1550 burned at the stak^^ 
 
 • ...!■» 5" 
 
 '--^. ; ■ » 
 
 r< '^5 t' 
 
 N 
 
 ' >! t 
 
 I'll 1. 
 iil!l ill 
 
XXX,} 
 
 MARY. 
 
 «7$ 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 MARY. 
 
 Mary ; Lady Jane Grey (i) — the Spanish marriage j 
 Wy ait's insurrection; beheaiiing of Lady Jane ; re^ 
 conciliation with Rome (2) — -persecution of the Pro- 
 testants (3) — loss of Calais; death of Mary (4). 
 
 I. Mary, 1553-1558. Lady Jane Grey. — It 
 
 had been intended to keep Edward's death a secret 
 until the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth had been secured ; 
 but Mary had friends who gave her warning, and she 
 p.t once made her escape into Norfolk. Her inno- 
 cent rival, Jane Grey, was but sixteen, beautiful, ac- 
 complished, learned, and firm in the Reformed faith. 
 Jane had known nothing of her father-in-law's ambitious 
 schemes, and when he and four other lords came to 
 her at Sion House, and knelt before her as their Queen, 
 she received their information with an izement and 
 dismay. On the loth July she was proclaimed ; but 
 her reign only lasted nine days. The nation was 
 unanimous in regarding Mary as the rightful heir, and 
 thousands gathered round her. No voice was raised 
 to cheer the Duke as he rode out of the city at the 
 head of his troops to advance against Mary's forces. 
 " The people press to see us," he gloomily observed, 
 **but not one sayeth God speed us." Mary was 
 proclaimed in London amid general rejoicing on the 
 19th July, after which, Northumberland, losing heart 
 on finding his men fall away, himself proclaimed 
 her in Cambridge, throwing his cap into the air as a 
 signal for applause, while tears of mortification were 
 seen running down his cheeks. Not a blow being 
 struck for Jane, Mary entered London in triumph at 
 ^he head of her friends. Her first act was to set free 
 
 i : \ 
 
: 
 
 i i 
 
 ly6 
 
 MARY. 
 
 [CIIAP 
 
 the Duke of Norfolk, Bishop Gardiner, and other 
 state prisoners. The Duke of Northumberland, whose 
 ambition had thus been baffled, was tried and 
 beheaded, and, to the dismay of the Reformers, died 
 declaring that he had returned to the ancient faith. 
 Simon Renard, the ambassador of Charles V., whom 
 Mary chiefly consulted, urged that Jane and her 
 husband should also die, but the Queen as yet was 
 pitiful, and they were only kept prisoners in the 
 Tower. 
 
 2. The Spanish Marriage. — Unfortunately for 
 her popularity, Mary was sincerely devoted to the 
 Church of Rome. The nation indeed, disgusted with 
 the Reforming statesmen of the last reign, was by no 
 means Protestant at heart, except in London and the 
 large towns. The deprived bishops were restored, 
 Gardiner was made Chancellor, the foreign preachers 
 were ordered out of the country, Cranmer and Latimer 
 were sent to the Tower, and the mass was said as 
 of old. When Parliament met, all laws concerning 
 religion passed in the last reign were repealed, and 
 it was enacted that divine service was to be per- 
 formed as in the last year of Henry VIII. But Mary 
 wanted more than this ; and whereas her people wished 
 her to marry some English nobleman, Edward 
 Courtenay^ Earl of Devon^ a great-grandson of Edw&rd 
 IV., being especially thought of, she had made up her 
 mind to take the Emperor's son, Philip of Spain^ for 
 her husband. Every one agreed in disapproving of 
 her choice. The heir of a foreign kingdom would 
 have other interests than tho*" ^ of England to look to ; 
 and men feared lest the country should become a 
 province of Spain. " The Spaniards," murmured the 
 people, " were coming into the realm with harness and 
 hand-guns. This realm should be brought to bondage 
 by them as it was never afore.** To hinder the 
 marriage. Sir Thomas Wyatt raised a formidable insur- 
 rection among the Kent^shmen, who marched upon 
 
XXX.] 
 
 THE SrANISII MARRIAGE. 
 
 177 
 
 London with the intention of seizing upon the Queen. 
 Mary rallied the wavering Londoners to her cause 
 unless her marriage, she said, was approved by Lords 
 and Commons in Parliament, she would never marry. 
 " Wherefore stand fast against these rebels, your 
 enemies and mine ; fear them not, for I assure you I 
 fear them nothing at all." The next morning more 
 than 20,000 men had enrolled themselves to protect 
 the city. Wyatt's army fell off as he advanced ; and 
 though he made his way into London, no one joined 
 him, and at Temple Bar he gave himself up. The 
 first to suffer for this rebellion were two captives who 
 had had no part in it. Mary, being persuaded that 
 her former lenity had encouraged rebellion, ordered 
 the execution of Lady Jane and her young husband 
 Guilford Dudley, who were accordingly beheaded Feb. 
 1 2, 1554. Jane, her faith unshaken by the priest whom 
 the Queen sent to convert her, died with gentle firm- 
 ness. With more justice, Wyatt, as well as t'^.e Duke of 
 Suffolk, who had been concerned in a similar attempt 
 at insurrection, were put to death, and many other rebels 
 shared their fate. The real design of the conspirators, 
 it was believed, had been to raise to the throne the 
 Lady Elizabeth with Courtenay as her husband ; both 
 therefore were sent t6 the Tower. Renard, truly 
 considering Elizabeth to be a dangerous rival, urged 
 that she should be put to death ; but as there was no 
 evidence against her, she was only placed for a time 
 in ward at Woodstock. Courtenay was afterwards 
 ordered abroad, and died in Italy. Philip of Spain 
 came over in July, and the marriage took place. 
 Nature and education had made him stiff and un- 
 gracious; but he tried hard to be conciliatory, re- 
 questing his attendants, on hi^ arrival, to conform 
 to the manners of the country, and setting the 
 example by drinking off a tankard of ale. He was 
 called King of England so long as the Queen lived ; 
 k)Ut, to the grea,t; vexation of himselC and his wKe^ 
 
 i 
 
 
 h 
 
'■rr 
 Hi 
 
 ;^H ill 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 178 
 
 MARY. 
 
 [CHAV. 
 
 i ill; 
 
 Parliament would not consent that he should be 
 crowned, or that he should succeed Mary if she died 
 childless. The next step after the marriage was to 
 bring about a reconciliation with Rome. On the 
 30th November, 1554, the Lords and Commons met 
 at Whitehall, went on their knees, and were absolved, 
 together with the whole realm, from heresy and schism, 
 by Cardinal Reginald Pole, who had come over as the 
 Pope's Legate. Yet the triumph was not so complete 
 as it seemed. The Lollard statutes indeed were 
 revived, the statutes against the supremacy of the Sec 
 of Rome were swept away ; but the Pope had to 
 consent that the holders of lands and goods taken 
 from the Church should remain in possession. Mary, 
 more zealous than her subjects, restored the Church 
 revenues which were in the hands of the Crown, and 
 re-established some of the old religious houses. 
 
 3. The Persecution. — The statutes against here- 
 tics were not revived for nothing. The fire was first 
 kindled for John Rogers, a canon of St. Paul's, who 
 had worked upon the translation of the Bible ; and, 
 by the end of the reign, two hundred persons or 
 more, men and women, had died, at the stake. In 
 justice, it must be said that most men then believed 
 it right to punish erroneous opinions — a belief which 
 the Roman Catholics had the opportunity of fully 
 carrying out The people, sickened by the whole- 
 sale slaughter, and touched by the courage of the 
 sufferers, were more won to the Protestant cause by 
 these spectacles than by any arguments. It bad 
 been thought by many that the men of the new doc- 
 trines had no sincere belief; but proving staunch on 
 trial, they called forth a burst of admiration ; while 
 Mary has come down to posterity with the epithet of 
 "bloody" fixed upon her. The same fearful word 
 cleaves to Bishop Bonner, to whose lot it fell to 
 try and condemn a large number of the victims, — 
 a t^^ls fpsf which he* seems in truth to have had nq 
 
XXX.] 
 
 LOSS OF CALAIS. 
 
 170 
 
 great liking. John Hooper^ late Bishop of Gloucester 
 and Worcester, was burned in his episcopal city of 
 Gloucester. On the same day was burned Rowland 
 Taylor^ the parish priest of Hadleigh, whose tender 
 parting with his wife and daughters drew tears from 
 the sheriff and the men who guarded him. Ridley, 
 late Bishop of London, who had preached in defence 
 of the Lady Jane's claim to the crown, and the aged 
 Latimer, bound to one stake, were burned together at 
 Oxford, Oct. 16, 1555. "Be of good comfort, Master 
 Ridley," said Latimer, as the first lighted faggot was 
 laid at his companion's feet, " and play the man. We 
 shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in 
 England, as I trust shall never be put out." Cranmer, 
 of less firm mould than the others, recanted ; but this 
 humiliation did not^ save his life. Being brought to 
 the stakCj he abjured his recantation, and, as an evi- 
 dence of repentance, thrust the hand that had written 
 it first into the flame, crying, "This hand hath 
 offended." These were leading men, but among the 
 iaity the persecution did not strike high, labourers, 
 artisans, tradesmen, private gentlemen at the most, 
 being the usual victims. 
 
 4. Loss of Calais. — The marriage of Philip and 
 Mary was unhappy. They were childless, and 
 though Mary doted on her husband, he did not care 
 for her ; she was a small, haggard, sickly woman, eleven 
 years older than himself; and he had married her 
 only to suit his father's policy. England, where he 
 was regarded with suspicion and hatred, offered him 
 no attractions ; and when he left it to become, by the 
 abdication of his father, sovereign of the Netherlands 
 and King of Spain, he had little inducement to return. 
 After this he only came over once for a few months 
 tjo urge the Queen to join him in war against France \ 
 she consented, and the result was disastroiis. The 
 government had neglected to repair the defences of 
 Ci^l^is, or to keep a sufficient garrison io it ; and in 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 Ml 
 
 \ 
 
 ! I t 
 
 I m 
 
! 
 
 
 I 
 
 180 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 January 1558 it was taken by the French. It was no 
 real loss ; but it was a terrible blow to English pride, 
 and the Queen is reported to have said, "When J 
 die, Calais will be found written on my heart." The 
 unfortunate Mary, neglected by her husband, broken 
 down in health, and having lost the love of her 
 people, died November 17, 1558. Cardinal Pole, who 
 had succeeded Cranmer in the archbishopric of Can- 
 terbury, survived the Queen only twenty-two hours. 
 From that time the power of Rome in England was 
 at an end. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 Elisabeth (i) — the Rejormed Church; Roman Catholics 
 and Puritans; Ireland {2)— /light of the Queen oj 
 Scots to England; her captivity ana execution (3) — 
 the struggle with Spain; Sir Philip Sidney ; naval 
 adventurers ; Walter Ralegh; Francis Drake; defeat 
 of the Armada {a) — the Earl of Essex; rebellion of 
 Tyrone {^)— monopolies (6) — death of Elizabeth (7) — 
 East India Company (8). 
 
 I. Elizabeth, 1558-1603. — ^iS'/ria^^M was welcomed 
 by all when, in her twenty-sixth year, she succeeded 
 to the crown. She had conformed first to the religion 
 of Edward VI., and then, though unwillingly, to that of 
 Mary, and her own opinions were vague ; but it soon 
 appeared that she intended to support a moderate 
 Reformation, although Philip of Spain, not long after 
 her accession, offered her his hand on condition that 
 she would profess and uphold his creed. After some 
 delay she refused him, as in the end she did every one 
 q( her suitorsj, although she ^ave hopes to many, and 
 
JtiCXT.] 
 
 tltE UterokMKt) CHURCH. 
 
 I8t 
 
 was earnestly pressed by Parliament to marry. She 
 loved her country, although she had inherited her 
 father's imperious and despotic nature ; her chief faults 
 as a ruler were irresolution and want of openness ; 
 her private weaknesses — personal vanity and a love of 
 flattery — might afford food for the ridicule of her 
 enemies, but they did not prevent her from being a 
 great sovereign. She had the art of choosing sagacious 
 advisers, and to the wise counsels of her chief minister, 
 IVilliam Cecily afterwards Baron Burghley and Lord 
 High Treasurer, much of the success of her reign is 
 to be attributed. Sir Francis Walsingham^ and Robert 
 Cecily second son of Lord Burghley, and afterwards 
 created Earl of Salisbury^ are also notable among 
 her advisers. She had also favourites, often clever 
 men, but owing their influence to their courtierlike 
 qualities, their accomplishments, their good mien, 
 and their professed devotion to her. Sometimes 
 these men had considerable power, but none ever 
 gained complete mastery over her. Foremost among 
 them was the handsome, polished, but worthless Lord 
 Robert Dudley^ younger son of the late Duke of 
 Northumberland, and created Earl of Leicester, He 
 was unpopular, and evil tales were told of him ; but 
 he won the Queen's liking, though he failed to obtain 
 her hand. Elizabeth loved pomp and show, and to 
 be surrounded by a gallant train of nobles and 
 gentlemen vying for her favour. It was the fashion to 
 address extravagant compliments to sovereigns and 
 to ladies ; and thus the Queen received a double 
 portion of flattery. But her fearless spirit, her royal 
 bearing, her shrewd and ready wit, won genuine 
 admiration from the great mass of her subjects. 
 
 2. Religious Affairs. — In religion Elizabeth's 
 plan was to hold a middle course, and so to shape the 
 Church that it should content moderate men of both 
 parties. But willing or unwilling, all must accept hei 
 system ; for to her, as to most statesmen, it seemed 
 
 \ • 
 
 m 
 
1^2 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 [chap 
 
 necessary that the nation should be, outwardly at 
 least, united in religion. On this plan, th' Reformed 
 Church of England was now established, and the 
 supremacy of the Crown was restored by Act of Parlia- 
 ment, though Elizabeth would not take the title of 
 Head of the Church. Almost all Mary's bishops 
 were deprived for refusing to take the oath of supre- 
 ffiacyy which declared the Queen to be supreme 
 governor "as well in all spiritual and ecclesiastical 
 things or causes as temporal ; " and Bonner was im- 
 prisoned for the rest of his days. Towards the end 
 of 1559 Matthew Parker^ a learned and prudent man, 
 was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. The 
 second Prayer-book of. Edward, with some alterations 
 intended to suit those who leaned to the old views, 
 was restored ; and a new Act of Uniformity forbade 
 the use by a minister of any other services, and im- 
 posed a fine on those who absented themselves from 
 church. This bore heavily on the Roman Catholics, 
 of whom many withdrew beyond sea, and became 
 a source of danger to Elizabeth ; while those who 
 remained at home were harassed and persecuted 
 under laws of increasing severity. Elizabeth's deter- 
 mination to make all her subjects conform to the rites 
 she established was resisted, not only by the Roman 
 Catholics, but by the extreme Protestants or " Pun- 
 tans^^ as they came to be nicknamed, from their 
 desiring a simpler and purer form of worship — that 
 is to say, one which should have less in common 
 with that of Rome. These men had to a great extent 
 learned their opinions from the followers of the French 
 reformer John Calvin^ under whose influence Geneva 
 had become a model Puritan State. Even under 
 Edward the Reformation had not gone far enough 
 for them, still less under the Queen, who retained 
 ceremonies and practices which to their minds 
 savoured of superstition. Thus, for example, they 
 objected vehemently to the white surplice which all 
 
JtJtXt.] 
 
 tHE f URITANS. 
 
 m 
 
 ministers were ordered to wear when saying public 
 prayers. After a time uniformity in the Church 
 services was strictly enforced, thirty-seven London 
 clergymen at once being suspended from their ministry 
 for refusing compliance. The non-conformist clergy 
 and their friends then took to holding religious meet- 
 ings of their own, which were put down as offences 
 against the law. The great body of the Puritans 
 however did not wish to leave the Church, although 
 they strove to mould it to their own views, and even 
 to alter its government; for many of them were 
 beginning to disapprove of episcopacy, that is, govern- 
 ment by bishops. There sprang up also in the latter 
 part of the reign a sect afterwards famous under the 
 name of Independents, which avowedly separated from 
 the established Church. The chief instrument em- 
 ployed to force the Puritans into conformity was 
 the Hig^h Commission Court, appointed by Elizabeth 
 under the powers of the Act of Supremacy, to inquire 
 into and punish by spiritual censure, deprivation, fine, 
 and imprisonment, heresies, schisms, absence from 
 church, and such like offences. Troublesome as the 
 Puritans were to Elizabeth, they were staunch in 
 their loyalty ; for it was no time for any Protestant 
 to be disloyal, when the old faith and the reformed 
 were struggling for life or death throughout Europe, 
 and Philip, the mightiest prince of the age, was on 
 the side of Rome. Elizabeth became, more by force 
 of circumstances than by her own wish, the hope of the 
 Reformed communions, and the Puritans forgave her 
 their own wrongs in consideration of the help she doled 
 out to their Protestant brethren in France, Scotland, 
 and the Netherlands. One incident shows what the 
 Puritan mettle was. In 1579 Elizabeth professed to 
 to be about to marry Francis^ the young Duke oj 
 Anjou, brother to the French King. This proposed 
 French marriage was as uni)opular as her sister's 
 Spanish marriage had been. A Puritan lawyer, John 
 
 
 
 
 \ i 
 
IS4 
 
 £Ll2ABEttt. 
 
 tc»iAt». 
 
 n. 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 Slubbs, wrote a pamphlet against it, so outspoken 
 that EHzabeth had the author and the bookseller 
 tried as stirrers-up of sedition, an i punished by having 
 their right hands struck off. When his sentence 
 was executed, Stubbs, with unalterable loyalty, waved 
 his hat with his remaining hand and cried, ** God 
 save the Queen 1 " In Ireland the Church was reformed 
 as in England, but there in its new shape it took 
 no root, even the settlers of the Pale^ the English 
 district, being little inclined towards it, and scarcely 
 any trouble being bestowed upon winning them over 
 otherwise than by force of law. 
 
 3. Mary Stuart. — The person generally looked 
 upon as Elizabeth's heir was Mary Stuart^ Queen of 
 Scots and widow of Francis II., King of France. 
 Though left out of Henry the Eighth's will (which 
 however some believed not to have been signed with 
 the King's own hand, a^d therefore to be worthless), 
 she was the nearest heir, being the granddaughter of his 
 elder sister Margaret. Some of the Roman Catholics 
 regarded her as rightful Queen of England already, 
 and she, when in France, had taken that title. The 
 Scots were mainly Protestants of Calvin's school ; 
 but Mary was hersjlf a Roman Catholic, and as 
 the hopes of the English Roman Catholics were 
 fixed upon her, she was a formidable rival to Eliza- 
 beth. She was one of the most fascinating of women, 
 and in cleverness and craft she matched Eliza- 
 beth, but was inferior to her in caution and self- 
 control. By her folly, if by nothing worse, she laid 
 herself open to accusations of great crimes, on 
 account of which the Scottish lords forced her to 
 resign her crown tr her infant son James K/., in 
 the murder of whose father, Henry Stuart ^ Lord 
 Daniley^ she was believed to have been an accomplice. 
 They placed her in captivity, from which she escaped, 
 and flying to England, threw herself on Elizabeth's 
 protection, May 16, 1568. But, contrary to hei 
 
XXXI.] 
 
 MARY STUART. 
 
 |8S 
 
 expectation, the English government detained her 
 as a state prisoner, in which position she became as 
 dangerous to EHzabeth as EHzabeth had once been 
 to her own sister. Round the beautiful captive 
 gathered a succession of conspiracies against Eliza- 
 beth, formed by Roman CathoHcs who looked to Spain 
 for help. Thomas Percy and Charles Neville^ Earls of 
 Northumberland and Westmoreland, raised a Roman 
 Catholic rebellion in the North, where men still clung 
 to the old faith. It was quickly crushed, and punished 
 with extreme severity. Plans were formed for marrying 
 Mary to the chief nobleman in England, the Duke of 
 Norfolk (son of the poet Surrey), and restoring the 
 Roman Catholic religion by the help of a Spanish 
 army. The plot being discovered, the Duke was be- 
 headed, June 2, 1572. Pope Pius V. in 1570 pubHshed 
 a bull absolving Elizabeth's subjects from their allegi- 
 ance, which in the end did more harm to the Pope's 
 friends than to the Queen. All hope of reconciliation 
 between the English government and Rome having 
 died out, the Roman Catholics generally ceased to attend 
 the Reformed services, and became distinctly marked 
 off as a separate religious body. Seminary priests 
 (that is, priests from colleges established abroad for 
 English Roman Catholics) 2in^ Jesuits poured into the 
 kingdom, not only to keep up the rites of their Churchy 
 but, as was generally believed, to stir up their disciples 
 against the Queen. The Jesuits were the members of 
 the " Company of Jesus!' a new religious order devoted 
 to the service of the Pope ; and tlieir zeal and energy 
 everywhere inspired the members of their Church with 
 fresh life. Many of these missionaries were put to 
 the death of traitors. Often before being brought to 
 trial, they were tortured for the purpose of wringing 
 information from them ; for though torture to extort 
 evidence was never recognised by law, it had never- 
 theless begim to be employed in the fifteenth century, 
 and was in frequent use under the Tudors, the IVivy 
 
 \ : 
 
 ; $1 
 
 
 Il 
 
iS6 
 
 feLIZABETIl. 
 
 tckAF. 
 
 Council claiming a right to inflict it when it was 
 thought that information of importance to the govern- 
 ment might be thereby obtained. In the seventeenth 
 century the judges declared torture to be altogether 
 illegal There were constant plots and rumours of 
 plots to kill Elizabeth ; and the Puntans, who had a 
 majority in the House of Commons, from which 
 Roman Catholics were kept cut by the oath of 
 supremacy exacted from the members, began to call 
 for the death of Mary. After she had been about 
 nineteen years a captive, a plot, with which the 
 watchful Secretary of State, Walsingham, became, 
 by means of spies and intercepted letters, early 
 acquainted, was formed by Anthony Babington and 
 many other young Roman Catholics against Eliza- 
 beth's life. A statute passed in 1585 had specially 
 provided against plots made by or on behalf of 
 any person claiming the crown, and had prescribed 
 a mode of trial before a commission of peers, privy 
 councillors, and judges. Mary was now charged with 
 being accessory to Babington's plot, and was accord- 
 ingly put on her trial before such a commission. She 
 was found guilty, and was beheaded Feb. 8, 1587, in 
 the hall of Fotheringhay Castle. In the preceding year 
 she had sent word to Philip that she had bequeathed 
 her prospective rights upon England to him, having 
 set aside her son as being a Protestant. 
 
 4. The Struggle with Spain. — In her dealings 
 with foreign powers, Elizabeth was vacillating and 
 faithless ; but capricious as her conduct often seemed, 
 she was constant in her purpose of maintaining her 
 independence and of avoiding open war. Philip had 
 at first striven to keep on good terms with her, but the 
 Queen bemg gradually drawn on by her more Protes- 
 tant ministers and subjects, Spain and England entered 
 upon a course of bickering, and underhand acts of 
 hostility : Elizabeth from time to time aiding Philip's 
 icvolted subjects, the Protestants of the Netherlands j 
 
xJcxi.] 
 
 tllE STRUGGLE WlTlt SPAIN. 
 
 187 
 
 Philip encouraging the malcontents both in England 
 and Ireland, and planning an invasion which was 
 constantly deferred. At last, in 1585, the Queen, 
 having openly allied herself with the people of the 
 Netherlands, who had formed themselves into the 
 commonwealth of the United Provinces^ sent out to 
 their aid an expedition, commanded by the Earl of 
 Leicester. This expedition did not effect anything ; 
 an engagement before Zutphen is memorable, because 
 it cost the life of Sir Philip Sidney ^ who for his talents 
 and his virtues was the darling of the nation. It is 
 told of him that having left the field with what proved 
 a mortal wound, he asked for some drink. But as he 
 lifted the bottle to his lips, he saw a dying soldier, 
 who was being carried by, glance wistfully at it. Sidney 
 gave it to him untasted, saying, " Thy necessity is yet 
 greater than mine." The strife with Spain was in 
 great measure fomented and kept up by a set of men 
 much of the stamp of the old Vikings, a passion for 
 maritime adventure having taken possession of Eng- 
 land. Martin Frobisher and John Davis have left 
 their names to the Straits which they discovered 
 while seeking for the North- West passage — that is, a 
 passage to Asia round the northern coast of America. 
 fohn HawkinSy of Plymouth, was one of the first 
 Englishmen who engaged in the negro-slave trade, in 
 fvhich so little shame was seen that the Queen granted 
 him a Moor as his crest in memory of it, and herself 
 shared in the profits. Philip however was aggrieved 
 thereby, for Hawkins sold his slaves to the Spanish- 
 American colonies, where the importation of negroes 
 was illegal. Sir Walter Pale^h, of Devonshire, one of 
 Elizabeth's favourites, attempted, though without per- 
 n\anent success, to plant on the coasts of North America 
 i colony which Elizabeth named Virginia, in honour 
 of herself, the " Virgin Queen ) " and by his colonists 
 the practice of smoking tobacco was introduced into 
 England. To Ralegh, according to the common tale, 
 
 M 
 
 i !l 
 
 ^ 
 
1 88 
 
 klltAUKftt. 
 
 [CHAl*. 
 
 »' 
 
 i:i 
 
 
 belongs the credit of having first brought into Ireland 
 the potato, a native production of America. Most 
 famous of all is Francis Drake^ also a Devonshire 
 man by birth, who started in life as an apprentice in 
 a Channel coaster. Drake was the first man who 
 sailed in one voyage round the world. In an earlier 
 expedition he had descried from the Isthmus of 
 Panama the Pacific Ocean, as yet unknown to the 
 English, and falling on his knees, had prayed foi 
 " life and leave once to sail an English ship in those 
 seas." Though he started on his great voyage with 
 five small vessels, he came home with only one, but 
 that oi:e was heavy laden with gold and jewels, the 
 plunder of Sp aish towns and ships. The Queen 
 herself, regaroicss of the just complaints of Spain, 
 partook of a banquet on board Drake's ship, and 
 there knighted the bold adventurer. Drake and most 
 of his fellows were a strange mixture of explorer, pirate, 
 and knight-errant ; Spain was the foe of their religion, 
 and the cruelties often inflicted upon English Protes- 
 tants on Spanish soil served as some excuse for the 
 lawless doings of the rovers. To spoil and burn the 
 Spanish towns in the Nev. World, to waylay and 
 capture the gold and silver laden ships that sailed 
 to Spain, were at once profitable and, in their eyes, 
 virtuous acts. Even after the Queen had sent troops 
 into the Netherlands, she still hung back from en- 
 gaging vigorously in war ; but the adventurers whose 
 exploits she sanctioned or winked at had no such 
 hesitation. Drake, in retaliation for a recent seizure 
 by the Spaniards of English ships and sailors, plun- 
 dered Vigo, and passing on to the West Indies, 
 stormed and put to ransom the towns of San 
 Domingo and Cartagena. In 1587, when Philip was 
 about to invade Ergland, Drake, with six of the 
 Queen's ships and twenty-four privateers, entered 
 the harbours of Cadiz and Coruna, and destroyed 
 the ships and great part of the stores there; in his 
 
eland 
 Most 
 nshire 
 tice in 
 ti who 
 earlier 
 lus of 
 to the 
 ^ed foi 
 n those 
 TC with 
 me, but 
 els, the 
 Queen 
 • Spain, 
 tiip, and 
 ,nd most 
 ir, pirate, 
 religion, 
 Protes- 
 for the 
 burn the 
 riay and 
 tt sailed 
 eir eyes. 
 It troops 
 from en- 
 Irs whose 
 ]no such 
 It seizure 
 |)rs, plun- 
 Indies, 
 of San 
 lilip was 
 of the 
 entered 
 .estroyed 
 in his 
 
 XXXI.] 
 
 THE SPANISH ARMADA. 
 
 l$9 
 
 own phrase, he " singed the Spanish King's beanl." 
 The threatened invasion, though delayed by Drake, 
 was actually attempted the next year. A mighty 
 naval force, known by its Spanish name of Armada 
 — that is, Fleet — was collected at Lisbon, and the 
 flower of Spain joined in the enterprise, which, 
 being undertaken at the instance of the Pope, Sixtus 
 y.f was looked on as a holy war. Philip's general, 
 Alexander Farnese^ Duke of Parma^ had another fine 
 army ready in the neighbourhood of Nieuport and 
 Dunkirk, for whose protection on its passage to 
 England the Armada, commanded by the Duke of 
 Medina Sidom'a, was to make its way through the 
 Channel to the North Foreland. Charles^ T^rd Howard 
 of Effingham^ commanded the English fleet, and with 
 him were Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and others hke 
 them. The Queen, who had believed to the last in 
 the possibility of peace, had been slow and sparing 
 in her preparations. There were only thirty-four ships 
 of the royal navy ; the rest were furnished by the 
 seaport towns, or by noblemen, gentlemen, and mer- 
 chants. London is said to have supplied double the 
 number of ships and men requested of it. The forces 
 of the country were rapidly mustered, an army of 
 16,000 men, under the command of Leicester, being 
 assembled at Tilbury to cove»- London ; and the mass 
 of the English Roman Catholics came forward as 
 zealously as anybody else, for though they might 
 ha^e invited foreign aid for Mary of Scotland's sake, 
 they were not minded deliberately to make their 
 country over to Philip. But everything depended on 
 the fleet ; for full of spirit as the land forces were, 
 they were untried men, ill-fitted to cope with the 
 veteran troops of Spain. On the 19th July, Howard, 
 who was at Plymouth, learned that the Armada- — 
 about a hundred and fifty sail — was off the Cornish 
 coast ; and coming out with about sixty or seventy 
 9ihips, he hung upon the enemy's reai^. Fresh vessels 
 
 \ if 
 
 1 1 
 
 ! i 
 
1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ] 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
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 I ■ ' 
 
 M" ■ 
 
 
 j 
 
 
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 1 
 ■ j ■ ■ 
 
 ^:i 
 
 : I 
 
 y 
 
 li 
 
 190 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 [chat. 
 
 joined him daily until he mustered a hundred and 
 forty. His plan was, not to come to close quarters 
 with the huge fleet, which advanced up the Channel 
 in the form of a half moon, but to follow and 
 harass it with his small vessels, which, sailing twice 
 as fast as the Spaniards, could advance and retreat 
 as they chose. Medina Sidonia, fighting as he sailed 
 along, anchored on the 27th in Calais roads. To 
 drive him out, at midnight on the 28th eight ships were 
 fired, and sent drifting with wind and tide among the 
 Spaniards, who, seized with a panic, cut their' cables, 
 and ran out to sea in disorder. At daybreak the 
 scattered fleet was attacked by Howard, Drake, and 
 Lord Henry Seymour, and a hot fight took place off 
 Gravelines. Though the Spaniards fought gallantly, in 
 seamanship and gun-practice they were inferior to their 
 adversaries, and their floating castles were no match for 
 the active little English vessels. Had not the Queen's 
 Ill-timed parsimony kept her fleet insufficiently supplied 
 with powder, the Armada would have been destroyed. 
 As it was, Sidonia fled away into the North Sea. 
 " There was never anything pleased me better," wrote 
 Drake to Walsingham, ** than seeing the enemy flying 
 with a southerly wind to the northwards. With the 
 grace of God, if we live, I doubt not ere it be long 
 so to handle the matter with the Duke of Sidonia 
 as he shall wish himself at St. Mary Port among 
 his orange-trees." With part of the fleet, Howard and 
 Drake clung to their enemy till their scanty provisions 
 ran short. " Notwithstanding that our powder and shot 
 was well near all spent," wrote Howard, " we set on a 
 brag countenance and gave him chase, as though we 
 had wanted nothing, until he had cleared our own coast 
 and some part of Scotland." Even then the misfor- 
 tunes of the Armada were only begun ; the gale rose 
 to a storm, scattering the ships about in the seas of 
 Scotland and Ireland, which were almost unknown 
 . VQ the Spaniards ; and only fifty-four vessels lived tq 
 
XXXI.] 
 
 THE EARL OF ESSEX. 
 
 191 
 
 creep shattered home. The English rejoiced, though 
 modestly, over their success. To them and to all 
 Protestants it seemed that Heaven had fought for 
 them. 
 
 5. The Earl of Essex.— Leicester^ dying in the 
 midst of the rejoicing, was succeeded in the Queen's 
 favour by Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex^ whose 
 father, Walter ^ Earl of EsseXy was noted for an adven- 
 turous but unsuccessful attempt to subdue and colonize 
 Ulster. Young Essex, gallant but headstrong, acquit- 
 ted himself brilliantly as the leader of an expedition 
 which took the town of Cadiz ; but he was not so 
 successful in the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland, to 
 which he was appointed that he might subdue the 
 rebel Hugh O'Neill^ Earl of Tyrone. The Queen found 
 fault with his conduct, upon which Essex, believing 
 that he was being undermined by his rivals at court, 
 and presuming on Elizabeth's fondness for him, left 
 his post unbidden, and abruptly presented himself 
 before her. But Elizabeth, rejecting his excuses, sent 
 out Lord Mountjoy to bring Ireland into order ; while 
 Essex was deprived of his offices, and ordered into 
 confinement in his own house. For a timt he lived 
 quietly, but, finding that his enemies were bent on his 
 ruin; he determined to try to get back his power by 
 force. With a view to removing the Queen's advisers, 
 he gathered his friends round him, and marched into 
 the City, trusting that the * Londoners would take up 
 arms in his behalf. But no one stirred to help him, 
 and it was with difficulty that he escaped to his house, 
 where he surrendered. He was found guilty of treason, 
 and, favourite of the Queen though he had been, was 
 beheaded in 1601, at the age of thirty-three. Tyrone, 
 notwithstanding that an armament was sent from Spain 
 to his aid, was reduced by Mountjoy to submission, 
 and received a pardon. 
 
 6. Monopolies. — One great abuse of the time 
 was the practice of the Crown granting to favoured 
 
 
 I 'III 
 
 i I; 
 
1 
 
 ft 
 
 192 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 [chap 
 
 persons monopolies^ that is, the exclusive right of deal- 
 ing in some particular article. Thus Essex had had 
 a monopoly of sweet wines, from which he drew the 
 greatet part of his income ; and he had been driven 
 nearly desperate when, during his disgrace, the Queen 
 refused to continue it to him, saying that ** a restive 
 horse must be broken into the ring by stinting him 
 of his provender." In 1601 a list of these monopolies 
 was read out in Parliament. " Is not bread among 
 the number ? " said a member, adding a prediction 
 that at any rate it would be there soon. Elizabeth, 
 though imperious, knew how to yield gracefully, ana 
 seeing what a ferment was being raised, she sent wore* 
 that she would revoke or suspend her obnoxious 
 patents. A deputation was sent from the Commons 
 to convey their thanks to the Queen, who made a 
 speech in answer. " Though," she wound up, " you 
 have had, or may have, many princes more mighty 
 and wise sitting in this seat, yet you never had, 
 ur shall have, any that will be more careful and 
 loving." 
 
 7. Death of Elizabeth. — Queen Elizabeth died 
 at Richmond, in the seventieth year of her age, March 
 24, 1603. Robert Cecil, her chief minister, affirmed 
 that she declared by signs that King James VI. of 
 Scotland should succeed her. This is not certain, but 
 at any rate James was proclaimed King of England. 
 
 8. The East India pompany. — On the 31st 
 December, 1600, a charter of privileges was granted 
 to a recently formed company of London merchants 
 trading to the East Indies. This was the famous 
 East India Company, and from this sprang the 
 British dominion in India. 
 
XXXII.] 
 
 JAMES 1. 
 
 ■93 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 \ '4 
 
 JAMES I. 
 
 fames I, (i) — Ralegh sentenced to death; imprisonment 
 and death of Arabella Stuart (2) — Puritans; Roman 
 Catholics; the Gunpowder Plot {•})— James* s favour- 
 ites ; beheading of Ralegh; strife between King and 
 Parliament; Bacon; the proposed Spanish marriage 
 (4) — death of fames; his children; Great Britain 
 is)— plantation of Ulster; baronets (6) — colonies atid 
 voyages {'j)-^translations of the Bible (8) — learning and 
 literature {<f)— poetry and the drama (10). 
 
 I. House of Stuart. James I., 1603 — 1625. 
 — According to the will of Henry VIII. the crown 
 should have gone to the descendants of Mary, Duchess 
 of Suffolk ; but James VI. of Scotland^ son of Mary 
 Stuart and her second husband Lord Darnley, was the 
 nearest heir by birth, the nation was willing to accept 
 him, and after his coronation an Act of Parliament 
 was passed declaring his right. His birth being the 
 Strongest point in his favour, it became his interest to 
 encourage the new doctrine of " divine righty* that is, 
 the belief that an hereditary prince derives his autho- 
 rity from Heaven alone, and that therefore no laws can 
 limit it, or take it from him. These dignified preten- 
 sions accorded little with the character and appearance 
 of James ; for he was ungainly in person, unkingly in 
 bearing, so timorous that he shuddered at a drawn 
 sword ; and though good-natured and well-meaning, 
 he had few qualities of a ruler. Yet he was clever 
 in his own way, and his learning — especially in 
 theology — was considerable. He had been brought 
 up in the Reformed Church of Scotland^ which ii> 
 
 1 \ 
 
194 
 
 JAMES 1. 
 
 [chap 
 
 1592 had been placed under the Presbyterian system^ 
 that is, it was governed by courts of ministers and 
 elders, who were called presbyters. James however 
 was already working for the restoration in his own 
 country of episcopacy, and he grew attached to the 
 English Church on finding that its clergy treated him 
 more respectfully than the Scots ministers had ever 
 done. " No bishop, no King," became his maxim, 
 and he soon learned to hate the English Puritans, 
 thinking that he should find them as troublesome as 
 their Scottish brethren. 
 
 2. Arabella Stuart. — In the first year of this 
 reign. Sir Walter Ralegh was condemned to death on 
 a charge of having conspired to raise to the throne, 
 by the help of Spain, Arabella Stuarty first cousin 
 of James. He was however reprieved, and spent 
 thirteen years as a prisoner in the Tower. Arabella, 
 having had no share in the plot, was unmolested until 
 eight years later, when she had privately married 
 William Seymour^ a descendant of the Duchess of 
 Suffolk. This union of two possible pretenders to 
 the throne gave alarm \ and Arabella was arbitrarily 
 shut up in the Tower, where she became insane and 
 died. 
 
 3. Puritans and Roman Catholics. The 
 Gunpowder Plot. — Early in 1604, a conferenct 
 between dignitaries of the Church and leading 
 Puritan divines was held before the King at Hampton 
 Court. Some slight alterations were made in the 
 Prayer-book, and a new translation of the Bible was 
 ordered. This was finished in 161 1, and is still our 
 " Authorized Version,^* The Puritans were not satisfied, 
 for, with a few exceptions, the practices to which they 
 objected were retained, and no deviation from the 
 established order was tolerated. Nothing short of ex- 
 cluding from the Church all doctrines but their own 
 would have fully satisfied the Puritans ; but the way in 
 ^'liicl\ they wei:e rebuked and browbeaten by the King 
 
 li 
 
XXXII.] 
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 rjS 
 
 and the bishops was not likely to soothe them. James 
 felt proud of having argued them down. " If this 
 be all they have to say," he observed triumphantly, " I 
 shall make them conform themselves, or I will harry 
 them out of the land." And in fact about three hundred 
 refractory clergymen were turned out of their livings. 
 As for the Roman Catholics, who had been led to 
 form hopes of some indulgence from James, they were 
 embittered by a proclamation banishing their priests. 
 For this a fearful vengeance was devised. Robert 
 Catesby^ a Roman Catholic gentleman, proposed to a 
 few trusty friends to blow up the Parliament House 
 with gunpowder on the day the King was to open 
 the session. King, Lords, and Commons thus dis- 
 posed of, some of the confederates were to raise 
 the Roman Catholic gentry, and proclaim one of the 
 King's younger children as the new sovereign ; for 
 the eldest. Prince Henry, would, it was expected, 
 accompany his father and perish with him. Before 
 the scheme was complete, James had the laws against 
 " Popish recusants " (that is, those who refused to 
 come to church) enforced in all their harshness ; 
 and these severities only spurred on the plotters. 
 A cellar under the House of Lords was hired, and 
 barrels of gunpowder there laid under faggots and 
 coals. The task of firing the mine was deputed to Guy 
 or Guido Faukes, an Englishman who had served on 
 the Spanish side in the Netherlands. The number of 
 the conspirators was gradually raised to thirteen ; their 
 last ally, Francis Tresham, seems to have been the 
 cause of their ruin. Everything was ready against the 
 opening of the session, which was fixed for the 5th 
 November, 1605, when Tresham's brother-in-law Lord 
 MounteaglCy also a Roman Catholic, was warned by 
 an anonymous letter to keep away from Parliament. 
 This he showed to Cecil, Earl of Salisbury ; investi- 
 gation followed, and about midnight, on* the eve of 
 the 5th NoYei;n1;)er^ Faukes was seized in the cella,Ts 
 
 111 ; I 
 
-\ ■ 
 
 it 
 
 li 
 
 i 
 
 
 196 
 
 JAMES I. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 On hearing of this, the chief conspirators fled, but 
 were soon killed or taken. Catesby was among the 
 slain ; Tresham died in prison ; and the survivors, in- 
 cluding Faukes, were put to a traitor's death. Catesby's 
 intended crime bore bitter fruit for those he had hoped 
 to serve, as the " Gunpowder Treason " deepened the 
 hatred felt by the English in general for the Church of 
 Rome, and put an end for centuries to come to any 
 chance of relief for the Roman Catholics. New and 
 more severe laws were made against " Popish recu- 
 sants," and a new oath of allegiance was imposed, 
 renouncing in the strongest terms the doctrine that 
 princes excommunicated by the Pope might be deposed 
 or murdered by their subjects or others. This oath 
 caused a division among the Roman Catholics, some 
 taking it, others, at the bidding of Pope Paul K, re- 
 fusing to do so. As James was not disposed to per- 
 secution, the laws against the Roman Catholics were, 
 murh to the dissatisfaction of the Puritans, not always 
 fuiLy executed. 
 
 4. Government of James. — After the death 
 of Salisbury in 16 12, King James gave his confidence 
 to a young Scottish favourite, Robert Carr, whom he 
 afterwards created Earl of Somerset. Somerset mixed 
 himself up in scandalous and criminal doings, which 
 not only led to his own ruin, but reflected discredit 
 upon his master. After Somerset's disgrace, the royal 
 favour passed to George Villiers^ created successively 
 Earl^ Marquess y and Duke of Buckingham^ a handsome 
 young Englishman, whom James nicknamed " Steenie," 
 and by whom he allowed himself to be treated with 
 rude familiarity. Meanwhile the King's rule did not 
 please his subjects. His foreigi?. policy was unpopular ; 
 for, instead of placing himself at the head of the 
 Protestant party throughout Europe, he sought the 
 alliance of Spain ; and this leaning to the great Roman 
 Catholic power soon began to rouse discontent. In 
 ^6i6 Ralegh was let out of prison^ and got leave tp 
 
f 
 
 [chap. 
 
 fled, but 
 mong the 
 vivors, in- 
 Catesby's 
 lad hoped 
 pened the 
 Church of 
 me to any 
 New and 
 pish recu- 
 ; imposed, 
 ctrine that 
 be deposed 
 This oath 
 olics, some 
 "^aul K, re- 
 led to per- 
 lolics were, 
 not always 
 
 the death 
 confidence 
 •, whom he 
 Tset mixed 
 ngs, which 
 d discredit 
 , the royal 
 ,uccessively 
 handsome 
 "Steenie," 
 eated with 
 le did not 
 mpopular ; 
 ad of the 
 sought the 
 at Roman 
 ntent. In 
 t leave tg 
 
 xxxti.] 
 
 GOVfeUKMENt OF JAMES. 
 
 t97 
 
 go on an expedition to Guiana, there to open a gold 
 
 mine he averred he knew of. There was risk of strife 
 
 with the Spaniards, who claimed the New World and 
 
 its treasures for their own ; but the desire of gold 
 
 overpowered the King's habitual caution. Ralegh, 
 
 though warned that if he did any hurt to a Spaniard 
 
 his head should pay for it, believed that success would 
 
 excuse disobedience. When his fleet reached the 
 
 Orinoco, he sent a party up the river without distinct 
 
 orders not to fight. They came into conflict with the 
 
 neighbouring Spanish settlers, whose town they burned ; 
 
 but they did not find the mine. The Spaniards, not 
 
 without reason, complained of Ralegh as a pirate; and 
 
 on his return, empty-handed, he was beheaded, not 
 
 avowedly for any fresh fault he had committed, but 
 
 on his old sentence. The nation was indignant, for 
 
 he was looked on as a sacrifice to the vengeance of 
 
 Spain. Neither did James manage home affairs well ; 
 
 he was ever at variance with his Parliaments, they 
 
 striving after more freedom, he aiming at absolute 
 
 power. Not that he really wanted more power than 
 
 the Tudors had exercised ; but there was this difference 
 
 between him and Elizabeth, that her policy had in the 
 
 main satisfied the wishes of the nation, while his ran 
 
 counter to them. The Parliament of 1614 has had 
 
 the epithet of ** addled " fixed upon it, because ere it 
 
 had passed a single Act the King dissolved it in anger ; 
 
 after which he supplied himself with money by a 
 
 "benevolence." In 1621 a Parliament met which 
 
 boldly attacked monopolies, corruption, and other 
 
 abuses ; the Lord Chancellor, Francis Bacon^ famous 
 
 as one of our greatest philosophers, was charged by 
 
 the Commons with taking bribes, and thereupon was 
 
 sentenced by the Lords to be for ever incapable of 
 
 holding any office. But the Commons had less success 
 
 when they touched upon foreign affairs, which at that 
 
 time were occupying everybody's thoughts. In 1619 
 
 tlie Protestants of Boheinia^ then in revolt, had set up 
 
 i 
 
 ! % 
 
 m 
 
 1 
 
I9S 
 
 JAMES 1. 
 
 [cHap. 
 
 
 i 
 
 p 
 
 as their King the Elector Palatine Fnderkk K, who was 
 the head of the Protestant princes of Germany, and 
 the son-in-law of King James. The Emperor, the 
 Roman Catholic princes, and the Spaniards joined 
 together against Frederick, who soon lost, not onlyhis 
 new kingdom, but his own German lands as well. 
 James wished to recover the inheritance of his 
 daughter's husband, but still he would not break with 
 Spain, because he wanted to marry his son Charles, 
 Prince of Wales^ to the Infanta Maria, daughter of 
 King Philip III. of Spain. When the Commons drew 
 up a petition praying him to make war upon Spain and 
 to marry his son to a Protestant, he told them they had 
 no right to meddle in such matters ; and when they 
 replied by protesting their right to treat of any busi- 
 ness they pleased, he tore with his own hand the pro- 
 testation out of their Journal Book, and dissolved the 
 Parliament. The unpopular scheme of a Spanish 
 marriage was still pursued. The Prince, accompanied 
 by the favourite Buckingham, travelled in disguise to 
 Madrid to see his intended bride; but, though a 
 marriage treaty was concluded, in the end it was, to 
 the great joy of the English, broken off. Charles and 
 his friend came home out of temper, and bent upon 
 war. • 
 
 5. Death of James. — King James died of ague, 
 March 27, 1625. He was the author of many works 
 in prose and verse, notably of a treatise against the 
 practice of smoking tobacco. His wife was Anne of 
 Denmark, and his children -^^xq Henry Frederick, Prince 
 of Wales, who died in 1 6 1 2 ; Charles, who succeeded 
 to the throne ; and Elizabeth, the so-called Queen of 
 Bohemia, wife oi Frederick V., Elector Palatine. James 
 took the title of King of Great Britain, and had a 
 national flag devised, on which the crosses of the 
 patron saints of England and Scotland, St. George and 
 St. Andrew, were blended — the first ** Union Jack" ; 
 —but England and Scotland, though they had for the 
 
XXXII. 1 
 
 COLONIES ANb VOYAGES. 
 
 199 
 
 time fallen to one and the same sovereign, remained 
 otherwise entirely separate. 
 
 6. Plantation of Ulster. — A few years after 
 James's accession, the Earl of Tyrone, together with 
 another great chieftain of , the north of Ireland, 
 Roderick 0' Donnelly Earl of Tyrconnel^ having engaged, 
 or being suspected of having engaged, in a conspiracy, 
 fled to foreign parts, and were attainted of treason. 
 On their outlawry, and the rebellion and death in i6o8 
 of a third chieftain. Sir Cahir O' Dogharty^ Lord of 
 Innishowen, the greater part of Ulster was forfeited 
 to the Crown, which thereupon granted out land in it 
 to Scotch and English settlers, and these new-comers 
 soon made it the most flourishing district in Ireland. 
 This system of " planting " was extended to Leinster ; 
 but, with apparent p;ood, much evil was done. Many 
 of the native owners were turned out, and several 
 septs^ or clans, were transplanted to other parts of the 
 island. A sense of injustice rankled in the hearts of 
 the Irish ; and they sighed for their old lords, tyrants 
 and oppressors though these had been. In order, so 
 he professed, to raise funds for the protection of the 
 Ulster settlers, James created an order of hereditary 
 knights called Baronets, and required of all who 
 received this new title a sum of money, as much as 
 would support thirty soldiers for three years. 
 
 7. Colonies and Voyages. — In 1607, some 
 adventurers sent out by a London Company of Mer- 
 chants founded in Virginia James Town, the first 
 permanent settlement of Englishmen in North 
 America. In 1620, a body of Independents, who had 
 been driven from England to Holland by the laws 
 against non-conformity, sailed for North America, 
 and settled in New England^ at a place to wliich they 
 gave the name of Plymouth. These are the most 
 ancient of those colonies which afterwards, throwing 
 off the rule of the mother-country, formed the United 
 States of America, Fresh eff"orts were made in this 
 
 ;i 
 
 II: 
 1 
 
200 
 
 JAMES I. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 
 1'^ 
 
 « 
 
 reign to find a North- West passage. Henry Hudson in 
 1 6 10 sailed through the Strait and explored the Bay 
 now called by his name. In those seas he perished, 
 for his crew, which had suffered much from want of 
 provisions, mutinied, and sent him and eight of his 
 followers adrift in an open boat. Nothing more was 
 heard of them. Further discoveries were made by 
 Thomas Button^ the first n vigatdr who reached ^he 
 eastern coast of America through Hudson's Strait, and 
 by Robert Bylot and William Baffiti^ who discovered 
 and penetrated to the most northern extremity oi 
 Baffin's Bay, 
 
 8. Translations of the Bible. — High among 
 the early English Reformers stands William Tyndale, 
 a Gloucestershire man, who, moving about from 
 town to town in Germany and the Netherlands, de- 
 voted himself to translating the Scriptures. Wycliffe'c 
 translation had been made from the Latin, and was 
 full of Latin idioms. Tyndale, being a good Hebrew 
 and Greek schola;, was able to translate from the 
 originals. He was moreover a master of English, and 
 his version of the New Testament, printed at Worms 
 in 1525, may be said to have fixed the form of our 
 language. To some of his translations he appended 
 notes and prologues, partly of his own composition, 
 partly taken from Luther. Archbishop Warham, 
 Cranmer's predecessor, endeavoured to stop the 
 circulation of Tyndale's Testament by buying up 
 abroad and destroying a^ *:he copies which could be 
 procured — a proceeding which only encouraged the 
 foreign printers to send forth fresh editions — and more 
 than once Testaments were publicly burned in London. 
 Tyndale came to his end in 1536, being put to death 
 near Brussels as a heretic. In the next year his friend 
 Rogers, the first martyr under Queen Mary, brought 
 out an edition of the Bible, in which the New Testa- 
 ment and part of the Old were Tyndale's work, the 
 rest being reprinted from a version by Miles Coverdale, 
 
1^1 
 
 [chap. 
 
 idson in 
 the Bay 
 erished, 
 want of 
 t of bis 
 ore was 
 nade by 
 hed ^he 
 rait, and 
 scovered 
 emity ot 
 
 I among 
 Tyndale^ 
 3ut from 
 ands, de- 
 Wycliffe'c 
 and was 
 1 Hebrew 
 from the 
 Tlish, and 
 it Worms 
 m of our 
 ippended 
 iposition, 
 
 top the 
 ying up 
 ;ould be 
 tged the 
 nd more 
 London. 
 Ito death 
 is friend 
 brought 
 jw Testa- 
 ork, the 
 ^overdale. 
 
 XXXil.] LEARNING AND LITERATURE. 20I 
 
 A new edition of this Bible, revised by Coverdale 
 under the patronage of Thomas Cromwell, was printed 
 in 1539, and reprinted in 1540 with a preface by 
 Cranmer. This was the Great Bibky which was set 
 up in every parish church in England. Upon this and 
 other versions of the Tudor reigns was founded the 
 Bishops' Bible, edited by Archbishop Parker ; and 
 although in the preparation of the present Authorized 
 Version, or King James's Bible, extraordinary care was 
 bestowed upon its translation from tl e originals, the 
 eminent divines employed on the tisk adhered as 
 closely as possible to the language and style of its 
 predecessors. The language is therefore rather that 
 of the time of Henry VIII. than of James I., and it 
 has had a great effect in fixing the standard of the 
 English speech and preserving it from modern cor- 
 ruptions. The Puritans used by preference the Geneva 
 Bible, an edition with side-notes, the work of Pro- 
 testant refugees at Geneva in the time of Queen 
 Mary. The spreading abroad of the Scriptures 
 affected the whole course of religion, politics, and 
 literature. Men turned eagerly to the Bible for light 
 on the religious questions of the day ; the Puritans 
 above all studied it till its phrases became house- 
 hold words in their mouths, and they learned to think 
 of themselves as the successors of the Chosen People 
 of old. 
 
 9. Learning and Literature. — in the sixteenth 
 century, the study of the ancient Greek language, till 
 tiien almost unknown, was introduced into England. 
 William Grocyn, who, having acquired a knowledge 
 of Greek in Italy, had begun to teach it at Oxford 
 about the end of the preceding century, is honoured as 
 " the patriarch of English learning^ He and a knot 
 of like-minded men in 15 10 brought over the great 
 scholar of the Netherlands, Erasmus, to teach at Cam- 
 bridge. Thomas Linacre, eminent in medicine, who 
 
 was the first president of the College 0/ Physicians, also 
 o 
 
 '-4 
 
 i > 
 
202 
 
 JAMES I. 
 
 [Chap. 
 
 !■ I 
 
 held high rank among men of learning. One of 
 Grocyn's pupils, Sir Thomas More — the same More 
 whom Henry VIII. sent to the scaffold — is the author 
 of Utopia^ a work in Latin, descriptive of an imagmary 
 commonwealth, from which the epithet of " Utopian " 
 is now applied to fanciful political schemes. Although 
 education was not general, yet in a select circle of 
 scholarly taste or exalted rank the standard was high 
 Lady Jane Grey, who spoke, as well as wrote, Greek, 
 Latin, Italian, and French, and also understood 
 Hebrew and Arabic, was especially renowned for her 
 learning. When found at home reading Plato, while 
 the rest of the household were out hunting, she 
 accounted for her love of books by saying that her 
 parents were so harsh and severe, that she was never 
 happy except when with her tutor, who was always 
 gentle and pleasant. Henry VIII., himself a good 
 scholar, had his children carefully taught. Sir John 
 Cheke, one of the tutors of Edward VI., was the first 
 professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge. He 
 was a Protestant, but in Mary's reign recanted to save 
 himself from burning, and pined to death with shame 
 at his own v^eakness. Quf^n Elizabeth could speak 
 Greek fairly, Latin fluently, and French and Italian as 
 readily as her mother-tongue ; and these acquirements 
 she kept up after she had ascended the throne, reading 
 with her tutor Roger Ascham for some hours daily. 
 Among the learned men who graced the reigns of 
 Elizabeth and James was William Camden^ author of 
 the Britannia^ an account of the British Isles written in 
 Latin. He founded in the University of Oxford an 
 historical lecture, still called after him the Camdeji 
 professorship. Francis Bacon^ successively created 
 Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans^ who has 
 already been spoken of as Lord Chancellor, stands 
 intellectually, though not morally, among the greatest 
 of mankind. The philosophical work on which his 
 fame rests is in Latin ; but to ordinary readers he is 
 
[ClIAP. 
 
 One of 
 e More 
 I author 
 laginary 
 topian " 
 Athough 
 :ircle of 
 ras high 
 , Greek, 
 :lerstoo(l 
 I for her 
 to, while 
 ing, she 
 that her 
 ^as never 
 IS always 
 f a good 
 Sir John 
 5 the first 
 idge. He 
 d to save 
 th shame 
 lid speak 
 Italian as 
 lirements 
 :, reading 
 IS daily, 
 reigns of 
 author of 
 Titten in 
 xford an 
 Camden 
 createc' 
 who has 
 If, stands 
 greatest 
 rhich his 
 lers he is 
 
 XXXII.] 
 
 POETRY AND THE DRAMA. 
 
 203 
 
 best known by his English Essays, a name which 
 he was the first to give to that species of composition. 
 The finest of the Elizabethan prose authors was 
 Richard Hooker^ Master of the Temple, who defended 
 the established form of Church government against 
 the Puritans. Two of Elizabeth's favourite courtiers 
 held literary rank — Sir Philip Sidney, author of the 
 Arcadia, a half chivalrous, half pastoral romance, which, 
 though to modern taste tedious, was long exceedingly 
 popular; and Sir Walter Ralegh, who, while a 
 prisoner in the Tower, employed himself in the 
 laborious undertaking of writing a History of the 
 World. This however he never finished. Sidney is 
 also the author oi An Apology for Poetry, in which he 
 defends poetry, plays, and fictitious writing generally 
 against the attacks of the Puritan party. Much both 
 of the poetry and prose of the time is marred by a 
 strained and fantastic style, of which the great master 
 was John Lyly, from whose story of Etiphues it has got 
 its name of Enphuism, 
 
 10. Poetry and the Drama. — Sir Thomas 
 Wyatt, father of the insurgent Wyatt of Queen Mary's 
 reign, and the ill-fated Earl of Surrey, who died on 
 the scaffold in 1547, were the leaders of a school of 
 poets who followed Italian models. Surrey, a grace- 
 ful and polished writer, though hardly a man of 
 genius, was the first to use, in his translation of the 
 iEneid, what we now call blank verse. To the Italian 
 school also belonged the great Elizabethan poet, 
 Edmund Spenser, author of the Eaery Qiieen, a 
 long though unfinished tale of chivalrous adventure, 
 veiling a religious and political allegory. Spenser's 
 poem represents the wide range of thought of the 
 Elizabethan age — in it the old knightly romances are 
 mixed up with fictions borrowed from the classical 
 poets, and with the Protestant ideas of his own time. 
 His was the form of Protestantism which adored 
 Elizabeth and hated the power of Rome, and Mary 
 
 i i! 
 
 1-1 
 
 !^i| 
 
 1 ; 
 
I 1 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 204 
 
 JAMES L 
 
 [chap. 
 
 Queen of Scots as the championess of that power, 
 but which had nothing of the Puritan austerity 
 and hostility to episcopacy. The age was fertile in 
 poets, among whom Sidney may again be mentioned 
 as a writer of graceful love poems ; and some of the 
 most spirited of the English ballads belong to the 
 reigns of Elizabeth and James. Dramatic art 
 was now making an advance. Of the earliest 
 attempts, the mysteries and miracle plays, we have 
 specimens as old as the time of Edward III. These, 
 which were acted in churchyards or streets, were 
 rude representations of Biblical stories, and in the 
 days of few books and little general education, were 
 thought useful for teaching Scripture histor}' to the 
 people. Next came the moralities, allegorical dramas, 
 which were distinguished by the introduction of a 
 character called the Vice, who played a part much like 
 that of Punch in the puppet-shows. The first regular 
 English comedy, Ralph Roister Doister, was composed 
 probably as early as the reign of Henry VIII., by 
 Nicholas Udal, master first of Eton, and afterwards of 
 Westminster School, who was wont to write plays for 
 his scholars to act. This piece gave a picture of the 
 manners of the London gallants and citizens. Under 
 Elizabeth the taste spread; the first theatres, rude 
 buildings, open, except above the stage, to the 
 weather, were erected ; and a school of playwrights 
 sprang up. Some of these early dramatists show 
 great power ; but they have all been thrown into the 
 shade by William Shakspere, the greatest name in 
 English literature. Little is known of his life beyond 
 the mere outline. Born in 1564 at Stratford-upon- 
 Avon, where his father was a well-to-do townsman, he 
 became an actor and playwright, holding a share in 
 the Blackfriars theatre, which was built in 1576. 
 He was also one of the proprietors of the Globe 
 theatre on the Bankside, which was built in 1594. 
 Retiring in his latter days to his native town, he there 
 
[chap. 
 
 power, 
 usterity 
 ;rtile in 
 intioned 
 ; of the 
 r to the 
 tic art 
 earliest 
 ve have 
 These, 
 ts, were 
 i in the 
 on, were 
 y to the 
 I dramas, 
 ion of a 
 nuch like 
 St regular 
 composed 
 nil., by 
 rwards of 
 plays for 
 re of the 
 Under 
 Ires, rude 
 to the 
 lywrights 
 Ists show 
 into the 
 I name in 
 beyond 
 )rd-upon- 
 |sman, he 
 share in 
 in 1576. 
 le Globe 
 |in 1594- 
 he there 
 
 kx)tnj 
 
 CttARLES 1. 
 
 i05 
 
 died in 1 6 16. In the deep knowledge of human 
 nature which his dramas display, no other has ever 
 approached him ; and he is further distinguished by 
 his healthy moral tone, and by the national spirit 
 which pervades his historical plays. In them is ex- 
 pressed the fearless temper of the generation which 
 drove back the Armada, and its pride in its sovereign 
 and its country, " this royal throne of kings, this 
 sceptred isle." After Shakspere, though far below 
 him, stands Benjamin, or as he is always called, Ben, 
 Jonson. Other contemporary dramatists of repute 
 were Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, w^o wrote 
 in concert, and so identified themselves with each 
 other that it is almost impossible to distinguish their 
 respective shares in their joint work. They represent 
 the tone of thought and the type of men of the court 
 of James I. Fletcher appears also to have had the 
 Iionour of being a coadjutor of Shakspere ; the greater 
 part of the play of Henry VIII., which goes under 
 Shakspere's name, is believed to have been the work of 
 Fletcher. After Beaumont's death in 16 15, Fletcher 
 was assisted by Philip Massinger, another of the great 
 dramatic poets of the Elizabethan school. Massinger, 
 who died in the reign of Charles I., is best remem- 
 bered by his character of Sir Giles Overreach. This was 
 meant for Sir Giles Mompesson, a fraudulent mono- 
 potisii who was impeached by the Commons in 162 1. 
 
 v. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 Charles L; Henrietta Maria; Petition of Right; murder 
 of Buckingham ; Sir John Eliot {,\) — Wentworth and 
 Laud; the Star Chamber (2) — ship-money (3) — the 
 
 ' long Parliament ; beheading of Strafford (4) — the 
 Irish Rebellion - the Grand Remonstrance; the Fivi 
 
 II ■• 
 
 HHi 
 
 ill 
 
 MM t Itil 
 
i 
 
 I 
 
 fill 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 [ClIAt 
 
 ili 
 
 i 
 
 !•' 
 
 Members J the Civil War; Presbyterians ami Inde- 
 pendents; Oliver Cromwell; battles of Afarston 
 Moor and Naseby ; Charles given up by the Scots (5) 
 — the Covenant; beheading of Laud (6) — the army; 
 the Second Civil War (7)— -' Prides Purge "; the High 
 Court ofJu3tice (8) — trial and beheading of the King 
 (9) — his children (10). 
 
 I. Charles I., 1625-1649. The Petition of 
 Right. — Shortly after his accession tlie young King 
 married Henrietta Maria, daughter of the great Henry 
 IV. of France — an alliance which, though less hateful 
 than one with Spain, was yet not liked, as the bride 
 was a Roman Catholic. Charles himself, dignified 
 in his bearing, well conducted, and religious, was wel- 
 comed as a great improvement on his predecessor ; but 
 events soon showed that his father's maxims of arbitrary 
 authority had sunk deep into his heart. The strife 
 between King and Parliament began at once; for 
 while the King wanted money for war with Spain, the 
 Parliament wanted redress of grievances and the re- 
 moval of Buckingham, who was more powerful than 
 ever. After dissolving two Parliaments within the 
 space of a year, Charles had recourse to arbitrary 
 methods of raising money, until a petty and mis- 
 managed war on behalf of the French Protestants so 
 increased his difficulties that he had to summon a 
 third Parliament. This, by granting him five subsidies 
 (taxes levied on every subject according to the value 
 of his lands or goods), obtained his assent to its 
 Petition of Right, by which the recent illegal practices 
 — arbitrary taxes and imprisonment, forced billetings of 
 soldiers upon the people, exercise of martial law — were 
 condemned (June 7, 1628). Emboldened by victory, 
 the Commons presented a remonstrance against the 
 excessive power of Buckingham as the chief cause of 
 the national calamities ; — words which had a terrible 
 effect, for about two months later the Duke, then at 
 Portsmoulh making ready for an expedition against 
 
XXXIII.] 
 
 WENTWORTH AND LAUD. 
 
 207 
 
 France, was stabbed to death by one John Felton, 
 who thought by this crime to do his country service. 
 Though the Duke was gone, other causes of strife re- 
 mained. Charles levied of his sole authority certain 
 duties on exports and imports, called tonnage and 
 poundage ; and this the Commons asserted to be 
 contrary to the Petition of Right. Religious grievances 
 came in to embitter the dispute. The King favoured 
 and promoted clergymen who taught doctrines diflfering 
 from those in which most Protestants of that genera- 
 tion had been brought up ; new ceremonies, or rather 
 old ones revived, were introduced in .0 the churches. 
 All this put the Commons into an angry mood, and 
 Charles tried to keep things quiet by ordering the 
 House to adjourn. But when tl"«e Speaker rose to 
 leave the chair, two members, Denzil Holies and 
 Benjamin Valentine, held him down by force; the 
 doors were locked, and amid shouts of " Aye ! Aye ! " 
 Holies read out three resolutions which had been 
 drawn up by Sir John Eliot, the leader of the Oppo- 
 sition party, — Whoever should bring in opinions dis- 
 agreeing from the true and orthodox Church, whoever 
 should advise the levying of tonnage and poundage 
 without grant of Parliament, whoever should pay 
 these duties, was to be accounted an enemy to the 
 kingdom (March 2, 1629). Upon this the King 
 again dissolved Parliament ; and Sir John Eliot, with 
 Holies and some other members who had " aided 
 and abetted " him, were sent to prison, where Eliot, 
 refusing to make any submission, was kept till his 
 death. 
 
 2. Wentworth and Laud. — Charles, now re- 
 solving to govern, at least for the time, without Parlia- 
 ments, found two ministers to serve his purpose — 
 ThomaSj Viscount Wentworth, better known by his 
 later utle of Earl of Strafford, and William Laud^ 
 Bishop of London, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 These two laboured zealously to make their mastex 
 
 1-, 
 
 '\ \ 
 

 Is: 
 
 w 
 
 tda 
 
 CltAULES 1. 
 
 tcWKP. 
 
 absolute — A scheme which they spoke of among them- 
 selves by the term of ** T/ioroug/t" VVentworth was 
 a wealthy Yorkshire landowner, who had been one 
 of the most distinguished members of the Opposition 
 in the Lower House, but having gone over to the 
 King, had been raised to the Peerage, and made 
 President of the Council of the Norths a tribunal which 
 exercised special powers north of the Humber, and 
 for which Lord Wentworth now obtained almost un- 
 limited authority. He was next removed to Ireland, 
 which he governed with ability indeed, but in the 
 roost despotic manner. Laud devoted himself to 
 forcing the Puritans into conformity to the rules and 
 ceremonies of the Church. Ready instruments were 
 found in the Court of High Commission founded 
 by Elizabeth, and in the more ancient Court of 
 Star Chamber^ so called because it sat in a room 
 known by that name. The Star Chamber was a 
 court of members of the Privy Council, together 
 with the two Chief Justices, which had by degrees 
 usurped a power of punishing anything that could be 
 called a contempt of the King's authority. Extensive 
 as the power of these courts had been before the ac- 
 cession of Charles, they now stretched it still further, 
 and became still more harsh and inquisitorial. Puritans 
 who had written books held libellous were objects of 
 special rigour, and the Star Chamber, not content with 
 fine and imprisonment, inflicted cruel and shameful 
 punishments, which only served to excite admiration 
 for the fortitude of the victims and hatred of the 
 government. 
 
 3. Ship- Money. — Meanwhile the King had to 
 resort to various devices for raising money. He 
 wanted a fleet, and his advisers bethought themselves 
 that in time of war the maritime counties had occa- 
 sionally been called upon to furnish ships. This had 
 been done in Elizabeth's reign, and indeed once in 
 his own. Accordingly he first demanded ships, or 
 
XXXni.) THE LONG rAUUAMENt. 
 
 ^ 
 
 money in lieu of them, from the towns and counties 
 on the coast ; and then, going a step further, he levied 
 " ship-money " upon every shire. John Hampden^ 
 a country gentleman of Buckinghamshire, refused, as 
 did also some others, to pay his share. The sura 
 was small, but on it turned the question whether 
 the King or the House of Commons should be 
 supreme ; for if the King could take what money 
 he pleased, he would soon be able to do what else 
 he pleased. On the case being argued, the majority 
 of the judges decided against Hampden ; but the 
 arguments in favour of the lawfulness of the tax were 
 so weak that Charles lost more than he gained by his 
 victory, while Hampden's courage raised him high in 
 the estimation of his countrymen. Ship-money con- 
 tinued to be levied, but amid growing opposition. 
 
 4. The Long Parliament. — In 1637, the year 
 in which the decision in favour of ship-money was 
 given, the Scots were driven into rebellion by the King 
 attempting to force upon them a liturgy much like 
 that of England. High and low pledged themselves 
 by a bond or " Covenant " to resist the innovations^ 
 and thus became known as Covenanters. Charles in 
 1639, marched against the insurgents, but, with an 
 empty treasury and disaffected troops being unable 
 to do anything, he was reduced to patch up a treaty. 
 In hopes of obtaining money, he called, early in 1640, 
 a Parliament, known as " the Short Parliament^* which 
 he dissolved after three and twenty days ; but by the 
 renewal of the Scottish war and the invasion of Eng- 
 land by a Scottish army, he was that same year con- 
 strained to summon another, since famed as '* the LoJiq 
 Parliament" The Commons, led by the great orator 
 fohn Pym, member for Tavistock, at once impeached 
 of treason Strafford and Laud. Strafford was brought 
 to trial ; but as it was doubtful whether the offences 
 charged against hira amounted legally to high treason, 
 the Commons, going in this against Pym's wishes, 
 
 V\A'\ 
 
 
 ' 1 
 
 ^i 
 
 ; 1 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 ! 
 1 
 
uo 
 
 CHARLES 1. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 i!' 11 
 
 t 
 
 If 
 
 dropped the impeachment, and a Bill of Attainder was 
 passed, to which Charles in tears gave his assent. 
 " Put not your trust in princes," was the Earl's ex- 
 clamation. Strafford walked to the scaffold on Towet 
 Hill bearing himself " more like a general at the 
 head of an army than like a condemned man." As 
 he passed by the window of Laud's prison-chamber, 
 he paused to receive the Archbishop's blessing. Laud 
 lifted up his hands to bestow it ; but, overcome with 
 grief, he fell back fainting. ** Farewell, my Lord," said 
 the Earl, " God protect your innocency." Strafford 
 was beheaded on the 12th May, 1641, and with him 
 fell the system of government he had endeavoured to 
 establish. The Star Chamber, the Higli Commission, 
 and the Council of the North were abolished ; and 
 the levies of ship-money were declared to have been 
 illegal. The Parliament also secured itself by an Act 
 providing that it should not be dissolved without its 
 own consent Ecclesiastical matters were still un- 
 settled, and on these disagreements arose, for there 
 were many who, though willing to curtail the powers 
 of the Bishops, did not go with the extreme party 
 which wished to do away with them altogether — to 
 ** cut them off root and branch," as the phrase* was. 
 Thus there grew up a moderate party, of which 
 the foremost members were Lucius Carey, Viscount 
 Falkland, and Edward Hyde, afterwards created 
 Earl of Clarendon. 
 
 5. The Civil War. — Although Charles had now 
 yielded so much that many began to turn towards him, 
 he was still mistrusted by Pym and his party. When, 
 in the autumn of 1641, the Irish rose in rebellion and 
 slaughtered the Ulster colonists, some suspected, 
 though unjustly, that Charles had himself stirred up 
 this outbreak, which soon became a general insurrection 
 of the Irish Roman Catholics. Pym and his friends 
 in Parliament framed a " Grand Remonstrance^* setting 
 forth all the past grievances against the King, p.ad 
 
XXXtlt.] 
 
 THE FIVE MEMBERS 
 
 Itt 
 
 urging on him the employment onlyof ministers whom 
 the Parliament could trust. The Remonstrance was 
 opposed by Hyde, Falkland, and the moderate party ; 
 and a stormy debate ensued, which lasted from noon till 
 two o'clock the next morning. A small majority carried 
 the Remonstrance, but the debate waxed yet hotter 
 when it was proposed to print it. Excited members 
 handled their sword-hilts, and a fray seemed immi- 
 nent, when Hampden's calm voice recalled them to 
 reason (Nov. 22 and 23, 164 1). The King's own vio- 
 lence was his ruin. Attended by some five hundred 
 armed men, he went, on the 4th Jan. 1642, to the 
 House of Commons, there to seize Pym, Hampden, 
 Holies, and two other leading members of the Opposi- ' 
 tion, whom he had caused to be impeached of treason. 
 Warning having been timely conveyed, the accused 
 had withdrawn ; and when Charles demanded of the 
 Speaker Lenthall whether they were there, Lenthall, 
 falling on his knees, answered,- " May it please your 
 Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to 
 speak in this place, but as the House is pleased 
 to direct me." Charles saw, as he expressed it, 
 that " his birds were flown ; " and as he moved out of 
 the House, cries of "Privilege! privilege!" followed 
 him, for it was held that the King's proceedings were 
 a breach of the privileges enjoyed by Parliament. Six 
 days later Charles withdrew from London ; and upon 
 his refusal to comply with the Parliament's demand 
 that the control of the militia should be given up to 
 it, men saw plainly that a civil war was at hand. Sir 
 John Hotham^ governor of the strong town of Hull^ 
 where there was a large magazine of arms, shut its 
 gates against the King when he demanded admittance; 
 and his conduct was approved by the Parliament, 
 which proceeded to place the militia under the com- 
 mand of Lords-Lieutenant appointed by itself. A 
 majority of the Lords and many of the Commons 
 joined the King ; both parties made ready lo draw 
 
t\i 
 
 ettAkLfiS 1. 
 
 tcttAI^; 
 
 the sword, and on the 22nd August, 1^)42, Charles 
 set up at Nottingham his standard, which bore the 
 motto, " Give Caesar his due," and called on his 
 subjects to rally round him. The two parties in 
 this struggle were distinguished as Royalists and 
 Parliamentarians y or more familiarly as Cavaliers and 
 Roundlieads, The last name is said by some to have 
 been given because the extreme Puritans cropped 
 their hair short, in opposition to the prevailing fashion 
 of wearing it long. On the whole the north-west of 
 England, then the wilder and less thickly-peopled 
 part of the country, was for the King; and the busier 
 and wealthier south- east, with the city of London, was 
 for the Parliament. Robert Devereux^ Earl of Essex^ 
 son of Elizabeth's favourite, a soldier who had seen 
 service in the Netherlands, was appointed commander- 
 in-chief of the Parliament army, and opposed the 
 King in person at Edgehill in Warwickshire, where, 
 on the 23rd October, an indecisive battle, the first 
 important action of the war, was fought. Things at 
 first looked well for the King, whose cavalry gaihed 
 many successes. Their leader. Prince Rupert^ a sun 
 of the Queen, of Bohemia, was the terror of the Parlia- 
 ment's raw levies ; but he was rash and headlong, 
 and the licence of plunder he gave to his men brought 
 discredit on his party. With artillery and ammunition 
 Charles was ill provided, though the Queen, then in 
 Holland, procured what she could with funds obtained 
 by the sale of her own and the crown jewels. In 
 February, 1643, she arrived with four ships, and landed 
 at Bridlington, where the Parliamentary admiral Batten 
 fired so hotly upon the house in which she was lodged 
 that she had to take shelter in a neighbouring ditch. 
 In June, the same year, the noble and blameless 
 Hampden, who had proved one of the best of the Par- 
 liament officers, was mortally wounded in a skirmish 
 with Rupert at Chalgrove. Another man of note, of 
 the opposite party, perished not long afterwards in 
 
XXXIII.] 
 
 THE CIVIL WAIl. 
 
 i'jt 
 
 the indecisive battle of Neivbury (Sept. 20.) Tins was 
 Lord Falkland, who, though he had acted with thw 
 popular paity against Strafford, had been led by his 
 dislike of Puritan domination to separate himself 
 from his old friends and to adhere to the King, who 
 made him one of his Secretaries of State. To Falkland, 
 whose one prayer was for peace, and who was often 
 heard to exclaim that the war was breaking his heart, 
 death came as a relief. About this time, when the King 
 was on the whole gaining ground, the Parliament 
 entered into alliance with the Scots, who in the begin- 
 ning of 1644 sent an army to its aid. Charles mean- 
 whilemadea truce with the insurgent Roman Catholics 
 in Ireland in order that he might bring over troops 
 from thence, and summoned those of the Peers and 
 Commons who adhered to his party to meet in Parlia- 
 ment at Oxford, where they accordingly assembled. 
 In the Parliament at Westminster, men of Presby- 
 terian opinions had hitherto been the prevailing party ; 
 but in the army the sect of the Independents was gain- 
 ing power. Both were opposed to episcopacy or prelacy ; 
 but beyond that, they ceased to agree. The Presby- 
 terians had a regular system of church government 
 by councils of ministers and elders, and wished to 
 enforce their doctrines throughout the land ; while the 
 Independents looked on every congregation as an 
 independent church, competent to direct itself without 
 interference from any other power. To these latter 
 belonged one of the most vigorous of the Roundhead 
 officers, Oliver Cromwell, a Huntingdonshire gentle- 
 man,- and a member of Parliament, who raised in the 
 Eastern counties a famous regiment of horse, tra- 
 ditionally known as the Ironsides. Early in the war 
 he had remarked to his cousin Hampden what a poor 
 set of men were enlisted for the Parliament horse, 
 unlikely to cope with the gallant gentlemen who com- 
 posed the King's cavalry. "You must," he added, **get 
 men of a spirit that is likely to go on as far as gentlemen 
 
n 
 
 lil' 
 
 m 
 
 4 
 
 214 
 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 will go, or else you will be beaten still." Cromwell 
 would enlist none but those whose hearts were in 
 the cause, and who would submit to strict discipline, 
 though he did not care to which of the many religious 
 sects they belonged. " They were never beaten," he 
 said afterwards. In 1643, it was in the Eastern counties 
 alone, where Cromwell was serving under the £ari 
 of Manchester^ that the Parliament cause decidedly 
 throve, and the Eastern forces, raised and trained 
 under Cromwell's influence, were soon able to push 
 further north, joining with the Yorkshire leaders, Lord 
 Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas^ and the Scots. In 
 the battle oi Marston Moor, July 2, 1644, the Royal- 
 ists, after a long and fierce contest, were routed by the 
 allied English and Scots. Cromwell wrote in triumph 
 how his men had worsted Rupert's renowned horse : — 
 " God made them as stubble to our swords." The 
 victory placed the North in the power of the Parlia- 
 ment-generals. Early the next year, the Independents 
 in Parliament managed to oust the Earls of Essex 
 and Manchester, neither of them men of genius, and 
 to obtain the entire re-modelling of the army. ^/> 
 Thotnas Fairfax, who had been the mainstay of the 
 Parliament cause in Yorkshire, and had won great 
 credit at Marston Moor, received the chief com- 
 mand, with Cromwell as his second. The ** New- 
 Model army," its ranks filled with the flower of the 
 Puritan yeomen and workmen, inflicted another defeat 
 upon the Royalists at Naseby, June 14, 1645, ^o 
 crushing as to render the King's cause thenceforth 
 hopeless. Charles kept up the struggle till the following 
 spring, when, in despair, he surrendered himself to 
 the Scots army before Newark, and by it was subse- 
 quently delivered up to the English Parliament (Jan. 
 30, 1647). 
 
 6. The Presbyterians. — In 1643 the Houses 
 bound themselves, after the Scottish fashion, in a 
 " ^lemn League and Covenant " to " endeavour the 
 
XXXIII.] 
 
 THE SECOND CIVIL WAR. 
 
 21$ 
 
 extirpation" of "popery" and " prelacy." This Coven- 
 ant — the condicion upon which they had obtained the 
 aid of the Scots, whose hearts were set upon establish- 
 ing in England their own form of church government 
 — they ordered to be subscribed by all men in office, 
 all beneficed clergy, and generally by the \vhole nation. 
 On non-compliance, hundreds of clerr,ymen were turned 
 out of their livings. All the Royalist members were 
 driven from the Universities, first from Cambridge, and 
 then from Oxford. Short work was made with what 
 the Puritans deemed *' monuments of superstition," 
 wherever such still remained ; altars, crosses, pictured 
 windows were swept away or defaced. By an ordinance 
 of Parliament, as the Acts of the two Houses were 
 called, the aged Laud, who since his impeachment 
 had lain apparently forgotten in the Tower, v^as 
 condemned for high treason, and beheaded January 
 lo, 1645 — an act of needless levenge, which did the 
 Presbyterian party no credit. The use of the Book 
 of Common Prayer, even in private families, was for- 
 bidden ; and episcopacy gave way to the Presbyterian 
 system, which however, owing to the subsequent rise 
 of the Independents, was never fully established except 
 in Middlesex and Lancashire. Large domains belong- 
 ing to the Bishops and the Crown were seized and sold, 
 and heavy fines were laid on the vanquished Cavaliers. 
 7. The Second Civil War.— The King 
 remained a prisoner, honourably treated, at Holmby 
 House, near Northampton, for more than four months. 
 Negotiations were proceeding between him and the 
 Parliament, when the army took matters into its own 
 hands, one Joyce, a cornet of Fairfax's guard, with a 
 party of horse riding off to Holmby House, and 
 bringing the King away. Charles asked Joyce by what 
 authority he acted. " There is my commission," said 
 the comet, pointing to his troopers. " It is written 
 in characters fair and legible enough," replied the 
 King, smiling; and witli little reluctance, he let himself 
 
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 s)6 
 
 CHARLES I. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 he cairied off to the army, which, consisting mainly of 
 Independents and other "sectaries," and objecting to 
 have Presbyterianism forced upon it, was now the rival, 
 not the servant, of Parliament. The soldiers had 
 fought for liberty of conscience for themselves, and not 
 simply to make Parliament supreme. Charles, filled 
 with hope by the disunion of his adversaries, negotiated 
 with all parties, Scots and English, Presbyterians and 
 Independents, trying to play off one against the other. 
 Cromwell and the chief officers wished to come to 
 terms with him, provided they could secure the 
 liberty of conscience they desired ; but it was hopeless 
 to treat with a man who was not sincere in any of his 
 negotiations. Moreover, the fiercer spirits among the 
 soldiers became so violent against the King, that at 
 last, alarmed, as he said, for his life, he made his 
 escape from Hampton Court, where he had been 
 lodged, and threw himself into the power of Colonel 
 Hammond, governor of the Isle of Wight, by whom 
 he was placed in Carisbrooke Castle, from which he 
 afterwards vainly sought to make his escape. This 
 was after he had entered into a secret treaty with the 
 Scots, by which he bound himself to maintain the 
 Presbyterian system in England for three years, and 
 they undertook to restore him to his throne. On 
 all sides, in anticipation of the commg of the Scots, 
 Royalist risings took place, first in Wales and the 
 West, then in Kent and in the North; while the 
 Scottish army, made up of Royalists and moderate 
 Presbyterians, and led by the Z>uke of Hamilton^ 
 invaded England. But all these attempts were put 
 down by the energy of Fairfax and Ciomwell, the 
 latter of whom routed the Scots at Preston and 
 Warrington in Lancashire (Aug. 17 and 19, 1648). 
 The southern insurgents, who had thrown themselves 
 into Colchester y after a desperate defence, surrendered 
 to Fairfax ; and thus ended the brief struggle known 
 as the Second Civil War. .... 
 
[CHA1». 
 
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 ticxtti. 
 
 tklAL 01^ CHARLES. 
 
 217 
 
 8. ** Pride's Purge." — Frightened at the temper 
 of the army, the Parliament re-opened negotiations 
 with the King at Newport, But the army had other 
 views. Already before going forth to the Second 
 Civil War, the army leaders, indignant at the King's 
 conduct, had met, after their wont, for prayer and 
 consultation, and had resolved that it was their duty, 
 if ever they came back in peace, "to call Charles 
 Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for that 
 blood he had shed." Charles was now removed by 
 soldiers to Hurst Castle, a lonely stronghold on the 
 shore of the Solent, and as the Parliament decided to 
 come to a reconciliation with him, it was " purged," 
 — that is, the entrance to the House was barred by 
 Colonel Pride with a regiment of foot, and more than a 
 hundred members displeasing to the army party were 
 shut out. Thus " purged," the Commons, or rather 
 the remains ot mem, voted that it was treason in the 
 King of England to lev>' war against the Parliament, 
 and followed this up with an ordinance appointing a 
 High Court of justice to try Charles on that charge. 
 The Lords refusing to concur, the Commons voted 
 that the supreme authority resided in themselves, and 
 the so-called High Court of Justice was finally consti- 
 tuted by the authority of the so-called Commons alone. 
 The most notable of its members were Cromwell, 
 his son-in-law Henry Ireton, and the president of 
 the conxi John Bradshaw, 
 
 9. Trial and Beheading of Charles. — On the 
 20th January, 1649, ^^ King was brought from St. 
 James's Palace before the High Court in Westminster 
 Hall. Of a hundred and thirty-five members of the 
 Court, less than seventy, Cromwell being among them, 
 were present. When the name of Fairfax, as one of 
 the members, was called, his wife's voice was iieard in 
 answer, "He is not here, and will never be ; you do 
 him wrong to name him." Charles, bearing himself 
 with kingly firmness and dignity, refused to acknow- 
 
 it 
 
 4 
 
 ! >(! 
 
jSi8 
 
 CHARLES 1. 
 
 tcilAt*. 
 
 '{ 
 
 lillii 
 
 ledge ihe jurisdiction of the tribunal. Marks of public 
 sympathy for him weie not wanting, and the soldiers' 
 shouts of " Justice ! " " Execution ! " were mingled 
 with counter-cries of " God save the King I " On 
 the last day, Jan. 27, of the trial, Charles requested 
 a conference with the Lords and Commons, but was 
 refused, and sentence of death was pronounced upon 
 *' Charles Stuart, King of England," as "a tyrant, 
 ra^'cor, murderer, and public enemy to the good 
 ] eop^ : of the nation." The names of fifty-nine mem- 
 L ;s of ♦^^^e Court were subscribed to the warrant of 
 execution. Charles calmly resigned himself to his 
 fate, taking a tender farewell of his two youngest 
 children, the Princess Elizabeth, aged thirteen, and 
 Henry, Duke of Gloucester, who was but eight. The 
 rest of his time was spent at his devotions, in the com- 
 pany of William Juxon, Bishop of London, by whom 
 he was attended on the scaffold in front of Whitehall, 
 where he was beheaded, January 30. A few faithful 
 adherents followed him to his grave in St. George's 
 Chapel, Windsor. About a week after his death, 
 the Commons voted that the House of Lords and the 
 ofiice of King were useless and dangerous, and ought 
 to be abolished. By taking the life of Charles his 
 enemies in reality exalted his fame. The execution 
 of a King was a thing hitherto unheard of, and 
 Royalist and Presbyterian ahke stood aghast The 
 mass of his subjects, forgetting his misgovernment 
 and faithlessness, only remembered that he had been 
 condemned by an illegal and arbitrary tribunal, and 
 that the ancient institutions of the nation had fallen 
 with him. The Episcopalians, mindful how he had 
 striven to maintain the Church in its power and dig- 
 nity, styled him Martyr, and well-nigh worshipped his 
 memory. 
 
 10. Children of Charles. — Of the children of 
 Charles, his eldest sons, Charles ^ Prince of Wales, bom 
 1630, 2Xi<\ James, Duke of York, born 1633, each in turn 
 
JtXXlV.] 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTlt. 
 
 ii^ 
 
 became King. Mary married WilliafHy Prince of 
 Oratige Nassau^ who held the office of Stadhc^'^cr or 
 «hief magistrate of Holland^ and their son was after- 
 irards King William III. of England. Elizabeth^ and 
 Henry y Duke of Gloucester ^ who were in the power of the 
 Parliament, were treated after their father's death like 
 Ihe children of a private gentleman. Elizabeth died 
 in 1650 in Carisbrooke Castle, where she had been 
 placed together with her brother Henry, who, two 
 years later, was allowed to join his family abroad. 
 He died in 1660, soon after his brother Charles had 
 been restored to the throne, .^enrietta Maria , born 
 1644, married Philips Du' '. oj Or leans ^ brother of 
 King Louis XIV. of France. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 The Commonwealth (i) — the Irish War (2) — war 
 with Scotland; battles of Dunbar and Worcester ; 
 escape of Charles (3) — the Dutch War (4) — the Long 
 Parliament turned out by Cromwell (5) — the Little 
 Parliament (6) — the Protectorate ; Oliver Cromwell; 
 offer of the Crown; ^^ Oliver's Lords ^^ ^1^— foreign 
 affairs (8) — death of Cromwell (9) — religious affairs; 
 Fifth Monarchy men; Quakers (10) — Richard 
 Cromwell (11) — General Monk: fftal dissohition oj 
 the Long Parliament (12) — Restoration of the King; 
 character of the Puritans {i}). 
 
 I. The Commonwealth, 1649 1660. — The 
 House of Commons, such as it was, for it now seldom 
 exceeded some fifty members, had become the sole 
 ruling power, and by it a Council of State, of which 
 Bradshaw was the (first president, was appointed to 
 carry on the government. The Duke of Hamilton 
 
 i: ^ I 
 
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 pi i' 
 
 I! 
 
 Is 
 I 
 
 *26 THE COMMONWEALTH. tcMAf. 
 
 and two other Royalist noblemen taken in the Second 
 Civil War were beheaded ; and England was declared 
 a Commonwealth and Free State^ to be governed with- 
 out any King or House of Lords. Some voices how- 
 ever were raised in complaint that the new government 
 was no better than the old ; and in the army these 
 malcontents — called ^^ Levellers!^ because they held, 
 or were accused of holding, that all degrees of men 
 should be levelled^ or placed on an equality as to rank 
 and property — broke out into a mutiny, which was 
 swiftly crushed by Cromwell, 
 
 2. Ireland. — Young Charles^ who was regarded as 
 King by every Royalist, was an exile abroad. His chief 
 hopes lay in Ireland, \A\^\q James Butler^ Marquess of 
 Ormonde, the Royalist Lord-Lieutenant, gathered 
 round him ever}' one, whether Roman Catholic, Episco- 
 palian, or Presbyterian, who would fight for tlie King. 
 Against these, the Council of State sent out, as their 
 Lord-Lieutenant, Cromwell, who, by dint of unsparing 
 seventy towards all who resisted, and by drawing over 
 the Protestants to the Parliament side, broke the 
 strength of the Royalist cause. After nine months he 
 was called away to Scotland, leaving Ireton to carry on 
 liis work in Ireland. Under the rule of the Common- 
 wealth, permission was given to the Roman Catholic 
 leaders and their followers to enter the service of 
 foreign states; many of the Irish weie shipped to the 
 West Indies ; large confiscations of land were made, 
 certain counties of Munster, Leinster, and Ulster being 
 l)ortioned out among English " adventurers " (men who, 
 upon the outbreak of the rebellion, had advanced 
 money for quelling it, in consideration of forfeited 
 lands to be allotted to them) and Parliamentary 
 soldiers j while the old proprietors were "transplanted " 
 to lands assigned to them in the wilds of Connaught 
 and Clare. 
 
 3. War with Scotland. — Scotland, where 
 Charles had arrived, and was accepted as King, was 
 
KXXIV.] 
 
 WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 
 
 221 
 
 next invaded by Cromwell, who, unable to bring the 
 Scots to a battle, and with his troops distressed by 
 sickness and scarcity of food, had eventually to fall 
 back upon Dunbar. Before him was the Scots army 
 under David Lesley^ strongly posted on Doon Hill, 
 behind him the sea, and on his left the enemy had 
 seized the pass towards England. But the Scots 
 beginning to descend the hill, Cromwell suddenly 
 attacked them in flank, about daybreak on the 3rd 
 September, 1650. As the sun rose over the sea, the 
 English general exclaimed " Now let God arise, and 
 His enemies shall be scattered ; " and scattered the 
 Scots were, in utter rout. In the course of the next 
 year, whilst Cromwell was still engaged in Scotland, 
 Charles and his army suddenly crossed the Border, 
 and though their hopes of a rising in their favour 
 were disappointed, they pushed as far as Worcester^ 
 where Cromwell overtook and defeated them on 
 the anniversary of Dunbar. Cromwell wrote of this 
 victory as " a crowning mercy ; " and in fact it was 
 the last battle he had to fight. The Parliament had 
 declared the adherents of Charles traitors and rebels, 
 and as such the Earl of Derby and two other prisoners 
 suffered death. A reward of a thousand pounds was 
 offered for the apprehension of Charles, who, having 
 made his escape from Worcester, went through a 
 succession of hazardous adventures, during which he 
 entrusted himself to more than forty persons, none 
 of whom failed in fidelity or caution. A Roman 
 Catholic family of the name of Penderell^ country folk 
 living at or about Boscobel in Shropshire, were among 
 the chief agents in his concealment. At one time, 
 with hair cut short, and dressed as a peasant, he lay 
 hidden in Boscobel wood; at another, shrouded in the 
 thick leaves of a great oak-tree, he caught glimpses of 
 the Parliament soldiers hunting up and down in ocarch 
 of fugitives. Having walked till he was footsore, he 
 >yas glad, wl,\cn he left Boscobel House for Moselcy, 
 
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 I 
 
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 1 111 
 
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 1m| 
 
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 ^^H 
 
 
 233 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 [CHAP, 
 
 the abode of a Roman Catholic gentleman, to ride 
 the horse of the miller, Humfrey Penderell, who, 
 to Charles's complaint of its jolting pace, replied 
 that he must remember it was carrying the weight of 
 three kingdoms. Moseley he left in the disguise of 
 servant to a gentlewoman, Jane Lane, who rode behind 
 him on a pillion, as the manner then was for women 
 to travel. Finally he and his friend Lord Wilmot 
 sailed in a collier vessel from Brighton, then a small 
 fishing village. He was recognised by the master, 
 who however said he would venture life and all for 
 him ; and thus, after so many perils, Charles landed 
 safely in Normandy. Such were the stories which in 
 after days he loved to tell, and which loyal Cavaliers 
 treasured up and repeated. The war in Scotland 
 was carried on by one of Cromwell's officers, General 
 George Monk^ who brought the country under the 
 authority of the English Parliament. 
 
 4. The Dutch War. — In 1652 a war broke out 
 with the Dutch — as the people of the Seven United 
 Provinces of the Netherlands were commonly called 
 — between whom and the English there was much ill- 
 will, arising partly out of commercial jealousy. This 
 war is memorable as a trial of strength betweec 
 Admiral Robert Blake and the great Dutch seamen 
 Martin Tromp and Michael de Rityter. Once, after 
 worsting Blake in the Downs, Tromp, it is said, sailed 
 through the Channel with a broom at his mast-head, 
 to signify that he had swept those seas of the English 
 — an insult which was afterwards avenged in three 
 stubborn contests. Blake, owing to ill-health, was not 
 in the last of these battles, fouglit in July, 1653, in 
 which Tromp fell. One of the commanders of the 
 English fleet was General Monk ; for in those days 
 the naval and military services were not kept separate. 
 In the next year peace was made with the Dutch. 
 
 5. Turning out of the Long Parliament. — 
 While this war was going on, the government was agaiu 
 
XXXIV.] 
 
 THE LITTLE PARLIAMENT. 
 
 223 
 
 changed; for the rivalry between the Parliament— or 
 " the Rump" as the remnant of the House of Commons 
 was contemptuously called — and the army had ended 
 in the triumph of the latter. The Parliament had 
 already been prevailed upon to fix a day — too distant a 
 day, as the army leaders thought — for its own dissohi- 
 lion ; but there was the further question as to how its 
 successor should be chosen. A bill for these purposes 
 was before the House ; but its provisions were not ac- 
 ceptable to the army leaders. On the 20th April, 1653, 
 the Lord Geneial Cromwell, having learned that the 
 *' Rump " was hurriedly passing the bill to which he 
 objected, entered the House, and, after some praise of 
 the Parliament's care for the public good, began to 
 tax it with " injustice, d'lays of justice, self-interest." 
 A member rose to remonstrate. ** Come, come," cried 
 Cromwell, "I will put an end to your prating." And 
 calling in some twenty or thirty musketeers, he ordered 
 the members out, upbraiding them as they went. 
 Pointing to the mace, the symbol of authority, he 
 bade a soldier " take away that bauble.' The House 
 was cleared, and the doors were locked. 
 
 6. The Little Parliament. — Cromwell had thus 
 made himself master of England, and the only check 
 upon him was the army. This army, combining 
 perfect discipline with burning religious zeal, was 
 unlike any ordinary military force. Officers and 
 soldiers prayed and preached together : the troops 
 li\ed, said a foreigner, "as if they were brother- 
 hoods of monks." Proud as these men were of their 
 general, in whom they saw the union of soldier- 
 ship and sanctity carried to perfection, they would 
 ill have borne that he should take the name, hate- 
 ful to most of them, of King. Nor, alth' igh their 
 victories seemed to them tokens that they v .re called 
 to provide for the government of the land and the 
 welfare of the godly, did they wish to rule England 
 by the power of the sword. A temporary Council 
 
 H 
 
Ill 
 
 224 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 of State was appointed, and Cromwell, acting with 
 the advice of a Council of his officers, summoned 
 about 140 persons by name to serve as members of 
 an assembly which is known as " the Little Parlia- 
 ment" or, as the Cavaliers nicknamed it, " Praise- 
 God Barebone's Parliament," after the quaint name of 
 one of its members. This assembly set to making 
 legal and ecclesiastical reforms at such a rate that 
 people got frightened ; and in about five months' time 
 the more moderate members thought it best to sur- 
 render their powers to Cromwell, who was thereupon 
 appointed by his officers Lord Proiec or of the Common- 
 wealth of England ^ Scotland^ and Ireland (December 
 16, 1653). There was to be an elected Parliament, 
 consisting of one House only ; all who had aided 
 or abetted war against Parliament were disqualified 
 temporarily from electing or being elected. 
 
 7. The Protectorate. Oliver Cromwell, 
 1 653- 1 658. — With few friends except among the 
 f.oldiers, Oliver — for, king-like he styled himself by 
 his Christian name — had for enemies, not only the 
 Royalists, but also the Republicans, who looked upon 
 him as the destroyer of the Commonwealth. In the 
 beginning of 1655, a Republican plot and a Royalist 
 insurrection were alike crushed, the Republicans being 
 leniently treated, but not so the Cavaliers, some of 
 whom were put to death, and others sold for slaves in 
 the West Indies. Many other schemes were formed 
 for the Protector's overthrow, and even for his assas- 
 sination ; but he kept himself well informed of all that 
 was going on, and his rule was too strong and vigilant 
 to be shaken off. For about a year after the revolt 
 of 1655, the country was ruled by Major-Generals, 
 wielding well-nigh absolute power; and to defray the 
 expenses of this military government a tenth of income 
 was arbitrarily wrung from the luckless Royalists. The 
 Protector's first Parliament, which met in 1654, ques- 
 tioned his authority, and was dissolved by him in 
 
XXXIV.] 
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. 
 
 225 
 
 anger. The next Parliament, which met in 1656, pro- 
 posed that he should take the title of King ; but a 
 number of the officers of the army, and of those who 
 favoured a Republic, opposed so strongly that he 
 thought it better to refuse. Almost all the old forms 
 of the constitution were however restored under new 
 names. The Protector was enthroned with all but 
 kingly pomp in Westminster Hall, and there were 
 again to he two Houses of Parliament. The " Other 
 House," as the Commons called it, was to be a House 
 of Lords, but it proved a failure. A few of the old 
 nobles were summoned, but almost all kept aloof; 
 the Protector's two sons, members of his Council, 
 military officers, lawyers, and others, mostly taken 
 from the House of Commons, made up the rest. 
 The Commons raised such difficulties about giving 
 them the title of Lords, that Cromwell dissolved the 
 Parhament, February 4, 1658. As Scotland, where 
 the English rule was maintained by Monk and his 
 army, and Ireland were now united with the English 
 Commonwealth, representatives for those countries sat 
 in the Parliaments of the Protectorate. 
 
 8. Foreign Affairs. — Whatever might be thought 
 of the Protector's home rule, the success of his foreign 
 policy dazzled even his opponents. Under him Eng- 
 land became one of the most formidable powers in 
 Europe ; and France, Spain, and the United Pro- 
 vinces alike courted his friendship. Blake enforced 
 from the Grand Duke of Tuscany reparation for damage 
 to English commerce, and burned the Moorish pirate- 
 vessels in the Bay of Tunis. An attack in 1655 
 upon the West Indian possessions of Spain proved 
 an exception to the general success of Cromwell's 
 schemes, as the expedition failed of its main object, 
 San Domingo, and though it took the island oi Jamaica, 
 tl is was at first regarded as a worthless acquisition. 
 But at sea the English held their own ; and in 1656 
 the Londoners were gladdened by the siglit of a \.u\\\\ 
 
 i 
 
i ' 
 
 jir : 
 
 r 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 226 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 of thirty-eight waggons conveying to the Tower the 
 silver taken from a Spanish fleet. In the next year 
 the daring Blake fought his last fight, attacking 
 and burning, under a tremendous fire from the 
 batteries on shore, the Spanish treasure-ships in 
 the harbour of San/a Cruz, in Teneriflfe. Blake did 
 not live to receive the praise of his countrymen ; 
 he died within sight of Plymouth, August 17, 1657. 
 Cromwell, taking Queen Elizabeth as his model, 
 aspired to be the protector of the Reformed faith 
 throughout Europe; and by means of his influence with 
 the French government he was able to check the Duke 
 of Savoy's persecution of the Vaudois, the Protestants 
 of Piedmont. In the last year of his rule he gave the 
 country a compensation for the still regretted Calais. 
 An English force was sent to join the French in 
 war against the Spaniards, and shared in the Battle oj 
 the Dunes in 1658, the result of which was the sur 
 render of the town of Dunkirk^ which England 
 retained as the price of its assistance. 
 
 9. Death of the Protector. — Oliver, who was in 
 ill-health, did not long survive the death of his favourite 
 daughter, Elizabeth Claypole. He died at the age of 
 fifty-nine, on his *' Fortunate Day," the anniversary of 
 Dunbar and Worcester, Sept. 3, 1658. He left two 
 sons, Richard and Henry, the elder of whom was 
 proclaimed Protector, his father, on his deathbed, 
 having been understood to name him for his successor. 
 The character of Oliver Cromwell is still a subject of 
 dispute. Royalists, Presbyterians, and Republicans 
 joined in denouncing him as a hypocrite who from first 
 to last had only aimed at power for himself ; yet there 
 are grounds for considering him a sincere enthusiast. 
 His genius cannjt be doubted. For the first forty 
 years of his life he never saw war, yet he proved a 
 great general ; bred in a private station, he became a 
 great y:)rince, even his enemies admitting that he bore 
 Jinasclf with dignity. His power and wisdom extorted 
 
XXXIV.] 
 
 RICHARD CROMWELL 
 
 227 
 
 an unwilling admiration, and in after days, when a 
 foreign fleet insulted our shores, men looked back with 
 something of regret to the mighty Oliver, who *^ made 
 all the neighbour princes fear him." 
 
 10. Religious Affairs. — Cromwell's general 
 policy was one of toleration in relii^ious matters. 
 Church livings were held both by Presbyterian and 
 Independent ministers, subject to the approval of a 
 Board appointed by the Protector. Freedom was 
 allowed to all the sects which had sprung out of 
 Puritanism, so long as they did not utter opinions 
 dangerous to his government ; for the fiercest Repub- 
 licans were to be found among some of the " sectaries " 
 — Anabaptists, Levellers, " Fifth-Monarchy men." 
 The last-named believed themselves called to prepare 
 the way for the reign on earth of Christ's saints. 
 Having read of the ** Four great Monarchies," 
 Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman, they reckoned 
 their expected kingdom as the " Fijth Monarchy'' 
 Not long before the Protectorate, there arose the 
 sect of the Quakers, as the world in general called 
 them, or Friends, as they called themselves, founded 
 by George Fox, son of a weaver. They were at 
 first looked on with great dislike, and were much 
 harassed, though the Protector himself treat' d 
 Fox kindly. A few Jews were allowed to settle 
 in the country, for the first time since their expul- 
 sion by Edward I. Oliver's toleration however did 
 not extend to the Roman Catholics, and hardly to 
 the Episcopalians, who were, as a matter of course, 
 Royalists. After the revolt of 1655, he forbade the 
 use of the Common Prayer-book, and the Episcopalian 
 clergv were debarred from preaching or teaching. 
 But these orders were not strictly carried out, and 
 zealous congregations of the " Silenced Church " still 
 met in private. 
 
 II. The Protectorate, Richard Cromwell, 
 1658 1659. — Great was the vexation ot the Royalists or\ 
 
228 
 
 THE COMMOI^V EALin. 
 
 [chap 
 
 
 1 
 
 'ri 
 
 fii.ding that Richard Cromwell tv;ok his place as quietly 
 as any rightful King. Gentle, docile, and of ordinary 
 abilities, the young man had made no enemies ; but 
 the army scorned the rule of one who had never 
 distinguished himself in war. After eight months, the 
 malcontent officers recalled the "Rur-ip" to power, 
 and Richard, without a struggle, gave up his office, 
 and retired into private life, whither he was followecl 
 by hi? brother Henry, who, during the Protectorate, 
 had governed Ireland with ability. 
 
 12. General Monk. — The Rump was no sooner 
 restored than its quarrel with the army began again ; 
 and in a few months the doors of the House were 
 closed by General John Lambert^ who thought him- 
 self a second Oliver Cromwell. But Monk, the 
 commander of the English army in Scotland, refus- 
 ing to acknowledge the governnricnt set up by the 
 officers in London, marched with hir forces towards 
 England, and fixed his head-quarters at Coldstreafn 
 on the Tweed. Hence his men were called " Cold- 
 streamers," a name of which the memory is still 
 preserved in that of the Coldstream Guards. Every- 
 where the <^' "^'ike of military government was 
 breaking ou> ,:)eople refused to pay taxes ; the 
 London apprentices were clamouring for a freely 
 elected Parliament ; the fleet advanced up the 
 Thames, and declared itself against the rule of the 
 army. The soldiers themselves, dissatisfied with their 
 officers, restored the Rump, the only body in the 
 country which had any show of legal authority. Fair- 
 fax, co-operating with Monk, mustered his friends 
 and occupied York j while Lambert, who had marched 
 to the North to stop Monk, was forsaken by his 
 forces Monk, the ruler of the hour, entered London, 
 Feb. 3, i66o. Cold and silent, he for some days let not 
 a word fall that could betray his real intentions, but at 
 list he declared for a free Padiament- — an announce- 
 ^\cut which was received with every mark of joy^ 
 
<.xxiv,l 
 
 Tim UESTORATiOrl. 
 
 .22^ 
 
 [O sooner 
 
 amidst the ring'->g of bells and the blaze of boriiTerf. 
 The Presbyterian members who had been " pijr;^ d " 
 out by Pride, again took their seats, and Parhar ^^n-^ 
 after issuing wri^^ for a general election, decreed its 
 own dissolution, March i6. Thus ended that famous 
 *' Long Parliament " which, twice expelled and twice 
 restored, had existed for twenty years. 
 
 13. The Restoration. — The new Parliament, or 
 rather Convention^ for, not having been summoned by 
 (he King, it was not in law a Parliament, met April 
 25, the Peers now returning to their House. Monk 
 meanwhile had been in secret communication vith the 
 exiled Charles, who issued to his " loving subjects " 
 a Declaration, dated from Breda^ wherein he promised 
 pardon for past offences to all, " excepting only such 
 persons as shall hereafter be excepted by Parliament," 
 and also "a liberty to tender consciences." On the 8th 
 May, seven days after this Declaration was received, 
 Charles II. was proclaimed King, and the fleet hav rig 
 been sent to convoy him from Holland to Dover, he 
 made his entry into London, May 29, in tuf m-dn of 
 almost universal rejoicing; the roads were t-^rc ved vith 
 flowers, the streets hung with tapestry, tl fountains 
 ran with wine. On his way he passed the Comuion- 
 wealth army, drawn up on Blackheath to d/e a 
 reluctant welcome to the Kii g whom they abhorred. 
 Thus fell the Puritans, a class who rendered great 
 political service to their country, and who are to be 
 respected for their conscientious devotion to what 
 seemed to them to be right. But they committed the 
 error of trying to make all men religious after their 
 own pattern. The Long Parliament put down public 
 amusements, forbade the keeping of Christmas and 
 other ancient festivals, and assigned punishments of 
 unprecedented severity to br'^aches of private morality. 
 Religion, or the appearance of it, was made a neces- 
 sary quaUfication for office ; and the result was tliat 
 the name of Puritan became bynonymous with that 
 
2:Jb 
 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 of hypocrite, ^hd the unnatural restraint of the Com- 
 monwealth was succeeded at the Restoration by a:n 
 outbreak of profligacy. 
 
 b I 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 Charles 11. {\)~ihe Conventioji Parliament {2) — the No n- 
 conformists (3) — Irelami (4) — the King's marriage; 
 Tan (Tier J Bombay ; sale of Dunkirk {^)—the Plague 
 Year {6)-~the Great Fire {7)— the Dutch War (8)— 
 fall of Clarendon ; the Triple Alliance j Ti'eaty of 
 Dover; the Cabal {()) — the Popish Plot (10) — the Habeas 
 Corpus Act (11) — Whig and Tory ; the D^kes of York 
 and of Monmouth ; the Whig Plots; death of Charles 
 (12). 
 
 1. House of otuart. Charles II., 1660-1685. — ■ 
 
 Charles II. began his reign with everything in his favour. 
 No measure was ever more acceptable to the nation than 
 vras the Restoration ; no conditions were made with 
 him, no new restrictions laid upon him ; the year of 
 his return was styled, not \)s\^ firsts but the tivelfth^ of his 
 reign, which was thus reckoned to have begun from 
 tlic time of his father's death. Unfortunately Charles 
 had few qualities which merited the love bestowed 
 upon him. He had talents, easy good-temper, and the 
 « lanners of an accomplished gentleman, but neither 
 heci»-t nor princi|)les. So far as he had any religion, he 
 wa;- secretly a Roman Catholic ; as a ruler, his incli- 
 nation was towards a despotic monarchy ; but he was 
 not the man to risk his crown m grasping at more 
 power — as he himself said, he was *' resolved to go 
 abroad no more \ " — and his main object in life was 
 to be amused and to avoid trouble. 
 
 2. The Conventicn Parliament. — The Con- 
 icnlioiL Pdrliamcnt - for by its first statute it declared 
 
XXXV.) 
 
 TtlE NONCONFOUMISTS. 
 
 23t 
 
 itself to be a Parliament — passed an Acl of Indcmtiity 
 by which the promised general pardon was granted ; 
 those who had been actually concerned in the death of 
 Charles I. were excepted from its benefits. Of these 
 ^^ regicides^' thirteen suffered death, and others were left 
 in prison for life. The bodies of Cromwell Ireton, 
 and Bradshaw were, on the next anniversary of the late 
 King's death, dragged out of their tombs at West- 
 mmster, and hanged on the gallows at Tyburn. The 
 Act of Indemnity was far from pleasing the distressed 
 Cavaliers, who found that it barred them from legal 
 remedy for their losses during the late troubles, and 
 their feelings were consequently very bitter. A statute 
 was passed abolishing the now useless and oppressive 
 tenures by knight-service, with all their attendant 
 grievances. By the same Act the King also gave up 
 the prerogative of purveyance and pre-emption. In 
 compensation, he received an excise upon beer and 
 other liquors, a tax- first introduced by the Long 
 Parliament. The army was disbanded as soon as 
 possible. If Parliament had had its wish, there would 
 have been no military force except the militia ; but a 
 wild rising of a handful of Fifth-Monarchy men in 
 London gave Charles an excuse for keeping up a body 
 of guards, retaining among them ^ionk's " Cold- 
 streamers" and another old regiment. He contrived 
 to spare enough from his revenue to maintain and 
 gradually to increase these forces, and thus, though 
 without the sanction of law, he became master of a 
 small standing army. 
 
 3. The Nonconformists or Dissenters. — In 
 the new Parliament, "irhich met in May, 1661, the 
 Cavalier party had completely the upper hand. The 
 Corporation Act was passed, by which every officer of 
 a corporation was required to communicate according 
 to the rites of the Church of England, and to swear to 
 his belief that taking arms against the King was in all 
 cases unlawful. The lUsbops, who had already returned 
 
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 CtlARLfeS n. 
 
 [ClIAt 
 
 
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 ■'I 
 
 
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 flT^' I! 
 
 
 to their sees, were now restored to their seals in the 
 House of Lords ; and the Liturgy was revived with 
 some alterations. Charles had held out hopes of 
 some changes in the episcopal system which would 
 satisfy the moderate Presbyterians ; but the Par- 
 liament would make no concessions. A stringent 
 Acf of Unifonnityy requiring all persons holding 
 ecclesiastical preferment to declare their assent to 
 ever>'thing contained in the Book of Common Prayer, 
 drove about two thousand ministers from their bene- 
 fices, as the Royalist incumbents had been turned out 
 before them. This was followed at intervals by harsh 
 Acts against the Nonconformists and their religious 
 meetings. It was about this time that the names of 
 Puritan and Nonconformist began to be replaced by 
 that of Dissenter, the change of name marking a 
 change of feeling. The Nonconformist under Charles 
 I. had striven to fashion the Church according to his 
 own ideas ; under Charles IL he made up his mind 
 to stand outside, only asking for liberty to " dissent " 
 from the Church. Charles, for tbe sake of the Roman 
 Catholics, was not inclined to be hard upon dissent ; 
 but his motive was suspected. In 1672 he put out a 
 Declaration of Indulgence, by which Protestant Dissen- 
 ters were to be allowed to worship in places licensed 
 for the purpose, and Roman Catholics in private 
 houses. But Parliament denying his power thus to 
 dispense with penal statutes " in matters ecclesi- 
 astical," he withdrew his Declaration. So far from 
 being able to carry out his wishes, he had to give his 
 assent to the Test Act' (i6'j^\ which, though it also 
 sliut out the Protestant Nonconformists from office, 
 was aimed especially at the Roman Catholics. Under 
 this Act all persons holding civil or military office were 
 required tot^ke the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, 
 to subscribe a declaration against transubstantiation 
 (the distinguishing doctrine of the Church of Rome 
 upon the Lucharist), and to communicate according to 
 
XXXV.] 
 
 THE PLAGUE YEAR. 
 
 233 
 
 the Anglican rites. Rather than comply with these 
 requirements, the King's brother James, Duke of York, 
 resigned his place of Lord High Admiral — a step by 
 which he practically avowed himself to be, as had long 
 been suspected, a Roman Catholic. 
 
 4. Ireland. — In the other parts of the British 
 Isles the royal authority was re-established without 
 difficulty. Scotland became again a separate kingdom ; 
 in Ireland episcopacy was restored, and a Parliament 
 proceeded to settle the claims of the dispossessed 
 Royalists and Roman Catholics on the one side, and 
 the adventurers and soldiers, Cromwell's colonists, on 
 the other. After long wrangling, the **Cromwellians," 
 as they were called, gave up a third of their gains ; 
 but numbers of Irish claimants who protested, truly 
 or untruly, that they had had no share in the rebellion 
 of 1 64 1 obtained neither restitution nor compensa- 
 tion, and raised bitter complaints. 
 
 5. Tangier, Bombay, and Dunkirk. — In 1662 
 
 Charles married the Infanta of Portugal ^ Kathai'ine of 
 
 BraganzUy receiving as part of her dowry the fortress 
 
 of Taugier in Africa and the island of Bombay in India. 
 
 Tangier was abandoned before the end of the reign as 
 
 worthless ; Bombav after a short time was made over 
 to the East India Company. In the same year, 1662, 
 
 Dunkirk was sold to Louis XIV., King of France, 
 
 a transaction which roused general indignation, the 
 
 more so, as it was believed that the motive was the 
 
 gaining funds to support a profligate court. 
 
 6. The Plague Year.— In 1665, during an 
 
 unusually hot and dry summer, the Plague broke out in 
 
 London with a fury such as had not been known for 
 
 three centuries. The Court and most of the rich fled 
 
 from the stricken city; the stout-hearted Mcnk, whose 
 
 services in the Restoration had gained him the title of 
 
 Duke of Albemarle, remained at Whitehall as the chief 
 
 rei)resentative of government, although, as he said, he 
 
 should have thought himself much safer in action 
 
 Q 
 
234 
 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 [cnAP. 
 
 , 
 
 against the Dutch. The shops were r.hiit up, the grass 
 grew in the streets ; rows of houses stood empty, or 
 marked on their doors with a red cross and the 
 words " Lord have mercy on us," — the sign that the 
 pestilence was within. By winter-time the worst was 
 over ; but in these six months it is said that more than 
 100,000 people perished. 
 
 7. The Great Fire of London. — Hardly had 
 London recovered from the scourge of plague when 
 another evil befell it. On the 2nd September, 1666 
 — the Annus MirabiliSy or " Year of Wonders J^ as the 
 poet Dryden named it — an accidental fire broke out in 
 Pudding Lane, near Fish Street. The neighbouring 
 houses, being of wood, quickly caught the flames, 
 which, driven by an east wind, soon wrapped London 
 in a blaze which made the night as light as day for ten 
 miles round. At this fearful time, Charles, usually so 
 careless and indifferent, displayed an unexpected 
 energy, superintending, together with the Duke of 
 York, the pulling down of houses, for the purpose 
 of checking the flames. At last, wide gaps having 
 been made in the streets by blowing up the build- 
 ings with gunpowder, and the wind abating, the fire 
 was stayed, though not until after it had burned 
 for three days, and laid London in ashes from the 
 Tower to the Temple and Smithfield. The column 
 known as *•'' tlu Monument'^ marks the spot near whicl 
 the fire began. Old St. Paul's being among the build- 
 ings which perished, it was replaced by the present 
 church, the work of the great architect Sir Christophet 
 Wren. 
 
 8. The Dutch War. — These calamitous years 
 were further marked by a naval war, arising mainly 
 out of commercial rivalry, with the United Provinces, 
 or, as they were usually called, from the name of the 
 leading province among them, Holland. One battle 
 in the Downs, fought in June, 1666, was contested for 
 four days ; the Dutch were commanded by De Ruyter, 
 
xxxv.l 
 
 THE DUTCH WAR. 
 
 235 
 
 the English by Albemarle and Prince Rupert. ],ouis 
 XIV. gave some help to the Dutch ; but after a 
 while he entered into secret negotiations with 
 Charles, and did no more for his allies. The English 
 had some successes; but the supplies voted for the war 
 being squandered by the Court or embezzled by the 
 officials, the vessels were laid up unrepaired, and the 
 sailors left unpaid till they mutinied. In 1667 a 
 Dutch fleet sailed up the Medway, burned the English 
 vessels at Chatham, and blockaded the river Thames. 
 ** This comes of your not paying our husbands," cried 
 the sailors' wives in the streets of Wapping ; and 
 indeed not the least part of the disgrace was that 
 English sailors were serving on board the Dutch ships, 
 and were heard calling out " We did heretofore fight for 
 tickets ; now we fight for dollars ! " John Evelyn, a 
 gentleman of the time, whose diary has come down to 
 us, has recorded how he looked upon the Dutch fleet 
 lying within the mouth of the Thames, — ** a dreadful 
 spectacle as ever Englishmen saw, and a dishonour 
 never to be wiped off ! " Peace was made soon after- 
 wards. 
 
 9. Treaty of Dover. — The anger of the nation 
 was somewhat appeased by the dismissal of the Lord 
 Chancellor, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, hitherto 
 the King's chief adviser, who was disliked, though 
 for different reasons, both by courtiers and people. 
 Clarendon was an old-fashioned statesman, who wished 
 to see the government conducted as in the days of 
 Elizabeth, and was indignant when the Coi*,mons pre- 
 sumed to inquire how the money they had voted for 
 the war had been spent ; but at the same time he 
 frowned upon the vices and follies of the King and 
 the Court. Being impeached by the Commons, 
 Clarendon fled the country, and died in exile. The 
 King's advisers now took the popular step of forming 
 the Triple Alliance between England, Holland, and 
 Sweden, in order to check Louis XIV. in his career 
 
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 CHARLES IT. 
 
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 of conquest. Uut Charles had other schemes at heart, 
 and ere long he sold himself to France by the secret 
 Treaty of Dover ^ May 22, 1670. Under this he en- 
 gaged to declare himself, as soon as might be prudent, 
 a Roman Catholic, to join in a war against Holland, 
 and otherwise to serve the French designs ; while 
 Louis engaged to pay him a large subsidy, a yearly 
 j)ension during the war, and to aid him with an army 
 if any insurrection should break out in England. The 
 then leading ministers of the Crown are known as 
 the ** Cabal " — a term used in much the same sense 
 as Cabinet^ but applied more particularly to them in 
 consequence of its comprising the initials of their 
 names or titles, Clifford^ Lord Arlington^ the Duke of 
 Buckingham^ Lord Ashley (afterwards Earl of Shaftes- 
 bury)y and the Duke o{ Lauderdale, Of these, only Clifford 
 and Arlington, whose leanings were towards the Church 
 and Arlington, whose leanings were towards the Church 
 01 Rome, were entrusted with the secret of the King's 
 engagement to declare himself a Roman Catholic. For 
 some time before this reign that which we call the 
 cabinet — consistingof a small number ofpcrsons selected 
 by the sovereign, whose existence as a body is still 
 unrecognized by hw — had begun to draw to itself the 
 functions originally belonging to the whole Council. 
 The war with Holland was declared in 1672, the 
 necessary funds being raised by " shutting the 
 Exchequer," that is, by suspending the pnyments due 
 to the goldsmiths and bankers who had advanced 
 money to the government. Peace was made in 
 two years, by which time the *' Cabal " had broken 
 up. Clifford, who had recently become a Roman 
 Catholic, had preferred resigning his office of Lord 
 Treasurer to taking the test imposed by the Act of 
 1673. Shaftesbury, having probably learned the 
 King's secret engagement as to his religion, 
 had exerted all his influence to put an end to the 
 French alliance and the Dutch war, and had in con- 
 sequence been dismissed from his office oJ Lord 
 
JtXXV.) 
 
 THE Porisn PLOT. 
 
 237 
 
 Chancellor. He now became the leader cf the 
 ** Country Party^^ as those opposed to the Court were 
 called. 
 
 10. The Popish Plot. — In 1678, the nation, 
 already suspicious of the real plot of Charles and Louis 
 against its religion and liberty, was driven wild by the 
 alleged discovery of a " Popish Plot " for the assassi- 
 nation of the King and the massacre of all Protestants. 
 Titus Oates, a man of infamous character, was the chief 
 witness to it ; and by him and by others who made a 
 profit of perjury the lives of many innocent Roman 
 Catholics were sworn away. Under the influence of 
 the popular feeling, an Act was passed which shut 
 out Roman Catholics (the Duke of York excepted) 
 from either House of Parliament and from the royal 
 presence. From the House of Commons indeed they 
 had long been excluded by the oath of supremacy 
 exacted from the members ; but it was not until the 
 passing of the Act of 1678 that the Roman Catholic 
 peers ceased to take their seats. Both Lords and 
 Commons were now required, not only to take the 
 oaths of supremacy and allegiance, but also to sub- 
 scribe a declaration against transubstantiation and the 
 worship of the Church of Rome. 
 
 1 1. Habeas Corpus Act. — The Parliament, which 
 had been in existence ever since 1661, was at last 
 dissolved in 1679; and to its shortlived successor, 
 which met and was dissolved within the year, belongs 
 the honour of having passed the famous Habais 
 Corpus Act. The Great Charter had established the 
 immunity of every freeman from arbitrary imprison- 
 ment; but in practice various ways were found of 
 violating this right. The object of this new Act was 
 effectually to provide that no man should be long 
 detained in prison on a criminal charge without either 
 the legality of his imprisonment being proved in open 
 court, or his being brought to trial. The name comes 
 from that of the writ of liakas Corpus^ to whicU 
 
41 I 1 
 
 I 
 
 jl). 
 
 !:■ 
 
 M 
 
 ^38 
 
 CHARLES 11. 
 
 tcilAt». 
 
 recourse could always be had on behalf of persons 
 illegally imprisoned. The writ was addressed to the 
 person by whom any one was detained, commanding 
 him to produce his prisoner in court and show the 
 cause of the imprisonment. The judges often found 
 pretexts for refusing to award the writ, and the gaolers 
 for delaying to obey it. In times of public danger, 
 the operation of this statute is sometimes suspended 
 by Acts giving the government power for a limited 
 period to imprison suspected persons without bringing 
 them to trial. 
 
 12. Whig and Tory. — About this time the party 
 names of W/ii^ and 7bry came into use. IVAi^' was a 
 nickname given to the insurgent Covenanters of Scot- 
 land, and from them it was transferred to those of the 
 Country Party who were bent or* shutting out the 
 Duke of York from the throne on account of liis 
 religion. Those who were against this scheme were 
 called Tories^ a name originally given to the Roman 
 Catholic outlaws who haunted the bogs of Ireland. The 
 King had no legitimate children ; but the eldest of his 
 illegitimate sons, /ames, Duke of Monmouth^ was put 
 forward by Shaftesbury and other Whigs as a claimant. 
 Monmouth, " the Protestant Duke," was the darling 
 of the common people, who believed him to be of 
 lawful birth, and who were fascinated by his grace and 
 winning manners. In three Parliaments the Whigs 
 pursued their scheme of an " Exclusion BilV^ against 
 the Duke of York. The last of these met in 1681 at 
 the loyal and Tory city of Oxford, for Charles feared 
 that the House of Commons, if assembled in its 
 wonted place, might, in imitation of the Long Parlia- 
 ment, declare itself permanent, and call on the 
 Lcndoners to support it As it was, the Whig members 
 came escorted by mounted tenants and serving-men, 
 as well armed as the royal Guards. The Commons 
 still insisting on the Exclusion Bill, the King dissolved 
 the Parliament after seven days; and irritated by 
 
XXXV.] 
 
 THE WHIG PLOTS. 
 
 230 
 
 these persistent attempts to exclude his brother from 
 the succession, for the remaining four years of his reign 
 he ruled without a Parliament Money sufficient for 
 carrying on the government was obtained from Louis of 
 France. As the borough corporations, which then 
 returned a majority of the representatives of the 
 Commons, were the strongholds of the VVliigs, steps 
 were taken to destroy their independence. On slight 
 pretext, the Court of King's Bench pronounced that 
 the City of London had forfeited its charter, and new 
 regulations were made which placed it entirely under 
 the power of the Crown — no mayor, sheriff, or recorder 
 was to be admitted without the King's approval. 
 Similar measures were taken with other Whig towns, 
 many of which thought it best to surrender their 
 liberties quietly- charters went down, it was said, 
 " like the walls of Jericho." Many of the Whigs began 
 to plan insurrections, or at least to take counsel how to 
 overthrow the Tories ; while a few of the most desperate 
 formed the ^^ Rye-House Plot " for waylaying and assas- 
 sinating the King and his brother. The Rye-House 
 was a farm belonging to one of the conspirators, 
 situated on the road by which the King would return 
 from Newmarket. These projects being betrayed, 
 several persons suffered death ; amongst them, 
 tlie upright and patriotic William^ Lord Russell^ and 
 Algernon Sydney^ a man of known Republican opinions, 
 who had fought for the Parliament at Marston Moor. 
 Both Russell and Sydney are deemed to have been 
 wrongfully convicted, Russell, though saying that 
 " he thought he had met with hard measure," accepted 
 his fate with calmness. "The bitterness of death 
 is past," he said, after he had bidden a last farewell 
 to his dearly loved wife. Sydney would not address 
 the people from the scaffold, saying that " he had made 
 his peace with Heaven, and had nothing to say to 
 men." He left however a paper which, while it set 
 forth the injustice of his condemnation, expressed his 
 
 i 
 
 'i 
 
 J 
 
Ifl 
 
 ^40 
 
 JAMKS tl. 
 
 [cm Ah 
 
 tliankfulncss that he was to die " for that old cause 
 in wliich I was from my youth engaged." Monmouth, 
 wlio had been concerned in the Whig plots, went 
 abroad ; and his rival the Duke of York after a while 
 resumed his office of Lord High Admiral and his 
 seat at the Council, the King dispensing, in his 
 favour, with the provisions of the' Test Act. While 
 wavering as to his future policy, Charles was seized 
 with a fit, and after lingering a few days, died on 
 the 6th February, 1685. On his deathbed, after the 
 Bishops had vainly pressed him to take the Sacra- 
 ment, his brother secretly brought to him a monk, from 
 whose hands he received the last rites of the Church 
 of Rome. The people mourned him with genuine 
 sorrow, for with all his faults he had never lost his 
 personal popularity ; while his brother's accession to 
 power was dreaded. 
 
 i 
 
 
 V I 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 JAMES II. 
 
 James It. (i) — the Western Rebellion; beheading of 
 Monmouth ; the lUoody Assises (2) — misgovernmsnt 
 of James; Declaration of Indulgence {'^)— trial of the 
 Seven Bishops (4) — birth of the Pretender (5) — invita- 
 tion to the Prince of Orange (6) — landing of the Prince; 
 flight of the Queen and King (7) — return and second 
 flight of James ; the Declaration of Right; the Crown 
 accepted by the Prince and Princess of Orange (8) — tht 
 Huguenots (9) — literature (10) — science (11) — architec- 
 ture (12). 
 
 I. JamesII., 1685-1 688. —James, Duke of Yorky 
 came to the throne under the disadvantage of holding 
 a faith abhorred by the majority of his subjects ; but as 
 he was thought to be a man of his word, people relied 
 on the assurance which he gave to the Privy Council 
 
XXXVI.1 TltE WESTfeRN REBfeLLlOK. 
 
 14t 
 
 ession to 
 
 that he would support the Church of England and 
 respect the laws. Yet he soon tried the Protestant 
 loyalty by going in royal state to mass in Whitehall 
 — a step which raised the hopes of the Roman Catholics 
 as much as it troubled their opponents. Unwilling to 
 be wholly dependent upon Parliament, James, though 
 not without reluctance, accepted money from Louis of 
 France. It was nevertheless necessary to summon a 
 Parliament ; but every art was employed to influence 
 and control the elections, and with such success 
 that James said there were only some forty members 
 that were not such as he wished for. 
 
 2. The Western Rebellion. — Four months 
 after the accession of James, the Duke of Monmouth, 
 instigated and accompanied by a knot of Whigs who, 
 having been implicated in the Plot of 1683, had found 
 shelter in the Low Countries, landed with about 
 eighty followers at Lyme in Dorsetshire, and called the 
 people to arms. At Taunton, a thriving clothier- 
 town of Puritan opinions, he caused himself to be 
 proclaimed King, June 20, 1685. The Western 
 peasantry and townsfolk flocked to his standard; 
 but the gentry held aloof, and, contrary to his hopes, 
 none of the Whig nobles joined him. On the 6th 
 July, he was defeated in an attempt to surprise the 
 royal army on Sedgemoor, His cavalry, untrained 
 men on half-broken horses, gave way under fire, but 
 his infantry, composed of peasants and artisans, many 
 armed only with scythes, made a gallant stand. The 
 Mendip miners in particular fought desperately, though 
 deserted by Monmouth, who, seeing that the day was 
 lost, fled away. Two days later, worn out with hunger 
 and fatigue, he was captured whilst hiding in a ditch. 
 Shortly after his landing, he had been attainted of 
 treason by Act of Parliament ; and it was in vain that 
 he fell at the King's feet and begged for life. He 
 was beheaded on the 15th July, and his followers were 
 treated with featful severity. Several were summarily 
 
 ^1 
 
242 
 
 JAMES II. 
 
 [ClIAf. 
 
 !l -. 
 
 ': 
 
 hanged by the royal general Louis Duras, a I'Vcnchman 
 who had been made Earl of Feversham, and by 
 Colonel Percy Kirke, whom Fevershsim left in cor:> 
 mand at Bridge water. Kirke, a hard-hearted and law- 
 less man, had been commandant at Tangier, where 
 he had ruled as a petty tyrant ; and his soldiers were 
 worthy of their leader. On their flag they bore the 
 emblem of the Paschal Lamb, whence, with an ironical 
 allusion to their ferocity, the name of " Kirke's 
 Lambs " was fixed upon them. The C/iief Justice 
 Jeffreys^ notorious for his brutal demeanour on the 
 judgment-seat, and for the delight he seemed to take 
 in passing sentence, came down to hold the " Bloody 
 Assizes" as they were named. The first victim was 
 the widow of one of Cromwell's lords, Aiice Lisle, who 
 had given shelter to two fugitive rebels. She was be- 
 headed at Winchester, intercession for her life having 
 in vain been made with the King. The result of the 
 Bloody Assizes was that three hundred and twenty 
 persons suffered death, and more than double that 
 number were sold for a term of slavery in the West 
 Indies ; many others were scourged or fined. The 
 services of Jeffreys, who boasted that he had hanged 
 more traitors than all his predecessors since the Con- 
 quest, and who at the same time made a fortune by ' 
 the sale of pardons, were rewarded with the Chan- 
 cellorship. Favoured courtiers received batches of the 
 rebels for sale, or were allowed to wring heavy sums 
 from rich delinquents. Thus the Maids of Honour 
 obtained a large sum as the price of the pardon of a 
 band of schoolgirls who had presented a royal flag 
 to Monmouth at Taunton. 
 
 3. Government of James. — The King, now at 
 the height of power, set his heart upon obtaining 
 a repeal of the Habeas Corpus Act, upon keeping 
 up a large army, and above all, upon abolishing or 
 dispensing with the laws which shut out Roman 
 Catholics from oflicc and Parliament. Finding that 
 
xxxvi.] MISGOVERNMENT op JAMES. 
 
 243 
 
 his Parliament, though strongly Tory, would not 
 sanction his keeping officers of his own religion in the 
 army, he prorogued it ; and disregarding the advice of 
 the wiser among the Roman Catholics and of the 
 Pope, Innocent AY., who would have had him govern 
 according to law, he gave himself up to the secret 
 councils of a knot of violent men, headed by a Jesuit 
 named Edward Petre, Those of his ministers and 
 judges who stood in the way of his schemes were 
 dismissed, favour being shown to none except those 
 who would lend themselves to his purposes ; and from 
 that, even loyal Tories shrank. Four judges had to be 
 replaced by more subservient men before the King could 
 obtain a decision that he might lawfully dispense with 
 penal statutes in particular cases. After this, he could 
 employ a Roman Catholic who had not taken the test 
 imposed by law; and he at once used his power to make 
 Roman Catholics privy councillors, and even to allow 
 clergymen who had gone over to the Church of Rome 
 to keep the benefices which had been bestowed on 
 them when they were Protestants. Ireland was placed 
 under the rule of a Roman Catholic descendant of 
 an old Norman-Irish family, Richard Talbot^ Earl of 
 Tyrconnelf who detested the Protestant settlers, and 
 filled all offices with men of his own creed. Although 
 two Acts of Parliament had abolished the High Com- 
 mission Court of Elizabeth, and forbidden the erection 
 of any similar tribunal, a new Ecclesiastical Commis- 
 sion, vith Jeffreys at its head, was set up for the purpose 
 of coercing the clergy. Its first act was to summon 
 the Bishop of London, Henry Compton^ who had given 
 displeasure to the King, and to suspend him from 
 his spiritual functions. A series of attacks were made 
 upon the Church and the Universities, whose hitherto 
 unshaken loyalty merited better treatment. One in 
 particular which excited great indignation, was the 
 ejection by the Ecclesiastical Commission of the 
 Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford, for having 
 
 
 ■ i 
 
^44 
 
 jAMi-s n. 
 
 tcltAt». 
 
 f 
 
 niaintainejJ a President legally elected by themselves 
 against two unqualified persons recommended one 
 after the other by the King. A Roman Catholic 
 had already been made Dean of Christchurch, one of 
 the highest offices in the University ; and now Mag- 
 dalen College was turned into a Roman Catholic 
 seminary. Finding that the Tory gentry and the 
 clergy, hitherto such staunch friends to the Crown, 
 were all against him, James began to court the 
 Protestant Dissenters; and in hopes of conciliating 
 them, as well as of serving his own religion, he pub- 
 lished, April 4th, 1687, a Declaration of Indulgence, 
 suspending all penal laws against nonconformity, and 
 dispensing with all religious tests. In judging of the 
 King's conduct, it should be remembered that, whe- 
 ther the statutes he thus set aside were good or bad, 
 it was the duty of an English King to govern accord- 
 ing to the constitution, and that in issuing the 
 Declaration of Indulgence James committed an 
 unconstitutional act. From ancient times indeed the 
 Crown had exercised some power of dispensing, in 
 favour of particular persons, with penal statutes ; and as 
 long as this was only used in trifling matters, it excited 
 no complaint. But it was a different matter when it was 
 stretched to set aside at one stroke statutes which were 
 held to be necessary safeguards of the English liberties. 
 Moreover a Declaration of Indulgence by Charles II. 
 had been formally pronounced illegal, so that there was 
 now no doubt on the subject as far as laws relating to 
 ecclesiastical matters were concerned. Three months 
 later James dissolved the Parliament, which had never 
 met since its prorogation in 1685, and set himself, by 
 again re-modelling the borough corporations, by dis- 
 missing refractory Lords-Lieutenant, Deputy Lieu- 
 tenants, and Justices, and by every other means in his 
 power, to ensure the election of a more subservient 
 one ; but everywhere he found a resolute spirit of 
 resistance. 
 
jrxxvi.] 
 
 THE SEVEN niSTIOPS. 
 
 245 
 
 4. The Seven Bishops. — In 1688 the King 
 issued a second Declaration of Indulgence, which 
 he ordered to be read at the time of divine service 
 by the officiating ministers of all churches and 
 chapels. A petition against this order was signed 
 and presented by William Saticrofty Archbishop oj 
 Canterbury^ and six Bishops of his Province. This the 
 King received with great anger, telling the Bishops 
 that their petition was " a standard of rebellion ; " and 
 being further incensed by the most part of the clergy 
 disobeying his order to read the Declaration, he 
 resolved to bring the petitioners before the Court of 
 King's Bench on a charge of seditious libel. " The 
 Seven Bishops " were committed to the Tower, amid 
 mark*' of public sympathy and respect from all 
 quarters. As the barge which conveyed them 
 from Whitehall to prison passed down the Thames, 
 one cry of " God bless your Lordships " rose from all 
 the boats on t^e river. The very sentinels at the 
 " Traitors* Gate ." *he water entrance of the Tower, 
 asked their ble ^. All Protestants, of whatever 
 religious body, le^ ^ded them as the champions of 
 Protestantism against Rome. The main point at issue 
 in the Bishops* trial was, whether their petition was, as 
 the Crown lawyers argued, " a false, malicious, and 
 seditious libel;** and this involved inquiry into the 
 King's right to dispense with statutes, and the sub- 
 ject's right to petition for redress of grievances. 
 The trial, at which not one of the judges ventured 
 to say that the Declaration of Indulgence was legal, 
 ended with a verdict of ^^ Not Guilty ;^^ and at this 
 result the national delight knew no bounds. West- 
 minster Hall rang with cheers, which were echoed 
 and re-echoed through the streets of London. James 
 received the news at Hounslow, where his army was 
 encamped. As he was setting out for London, hearing 
 a great shout, he asked what it meant. " Nothing,'* 
 was the answer, "the soldiers are glad that the 
 
 I 
 
246 
 
 JAMES II. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 Bishops arc acquitted." "Do you call that nothing ?" 
 said James, who felt bitterly how complete his defeat 
 had been. 
 
 5. Birth of James Francis Stuart. — During 
 this exciting time James Francis Edward^ son ot 
 King James and his second wife, Mary of Modena^ 
 was born, June 10 — an event which, much as it elated 
 the King's partisans, in reality hastened their down- 
 fall. By his first wife, Anne Hyde^ daughter of Lord 
 Clarendon, the King had two children, Mary and 
 Anne^ both Protestants, and married to Protestants, 
 Mary to her cousin William Hetiry^ Prince of Orange 
 Nassau and Stadholder of Holland, Anne to George^ 
 Prince of Denmark. The nation had therefore hitherto 
 endured James's misgovernment in the belief that 
 the next reign would set things right Bat the birth 
 of this son changed the whole prospect ; and in theii 
 vexation the people raised a cry that the infant Prince 
 was no child of the King and Queen. 
 
 6. Invitation to William. — The leading mal- 
 contents now took a decisive step. On the day of the 
 Bishops' acquittal, June 30, a secret invitation to the 
 Prince of Orange to come over at the head of a suffi- 
 cient force, with the assurance that the greatest part of 
 the nation would support him, was despatched. This 
 paper, signed in cipher by the seven chiefs of the 
 conspiracy — the Earls of Shrewsbury ^ Dawnshire^ and 
 Danby,Lord Lumley, Henry Compton, Bishop of London^ 
 Edtvard Russell, and Hettry Sydney — was carried to 
 Holland by Admiral Herbert, disguised as a common 
 sailor. The seven who thus undertook to speak for 
 their countrymen were men whose birth and position 
 gave William some guaranty that he would be sup- 
 ported by the nobles and gentry. Devonshire was the 
 head of the Whig nobles ; Danby was an old Tory 
 and a former minister of Charles II. ; Shrewsbury, a 
 convert from the Church of Rome, had recently been 
 dismissed from the Lord-Lieutenancy of Staffordshire 
 
XXXVI.] 
 
 LANDING OF WILLIAM. 
 
 247 
 
 for refusing to serve the King's ends. Bishop Compton, 
 who likewise lay under the royal displeasure, belonged 
 to a noble family which was noted for its loyalty 
 in the Civil Wears; Lumley, another convert from 
 Rome, had done good service in putting down Mon- 
 mouth's insurrection. Russell, a naval officer, was 
 cousin to the Lord Russell who had been beheaded 
 in the last reign; Sydney was brother to Algernon 
 Sydney. Unwitting of the perils thickening around 
 him, James went on in his course. To ascertain 
 the temper of the army, the regiment now called 
 the 1 2th of the Line was drawn up in his pre- 
 sence, and told that all who would not subscribe an 
 engagement to assist in carrying into effect his 
 Majesty's intentions concerning the test must quit the 
 service. To the King's amazement, the soldiers, with 
 but few exceptions, at once laid down their pikes 
 and muskets. So much had the English army caught 
 the spirit of resistance, that he sent over for Irish 
 troops of his own creed, raised and trained by Tyr- 
 connel. In vain did Louis of France warn James 
 of his danger ; not till the Prince of Orange and his 
 armament weie ready to sail did the King open his 
 eyes. Then he attempted to conciliate his subjects 
 by abolishing the Ecclesiastical Commission, restoring 
 the charter of the City of London and the forfeited 
 franchises of the municipal corporations, redressing 
 the wrongs of Magdalen College, and replacing the 
 magistrates and Deputy Lieutenants who had been 
 dismissed for refusing to support his policy; but it 
 was too late. 
 
 7. Landing of William. — William put forth a 
 Declaration stating that he was coming to protect the 
 liberties of England, and to secure the calling of a 
 free Parliament, which should redress grievances and 
 inquire into the birth of the Prince of Wales. On the 
 5th of November, 1688, being well served by the 
 wind, which prevented the King's fleet from pursuing 
 
 11 
 
(■ r 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 • 
 
 i^ 
 
 ^M 
 
 24^ 
 
 JAMKS 11. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 hlin, he landed with his army at Torbay^ where he was 
 received with good will by the common people, though 
 it was some days before any men of note joined him. 
 Gradually adherents of rank came in ; the North was 
 raised in his cause by Lord Delamer and the Earls 
 of Devonshire and Danby. Delamer put himself at 
 ti.c: heac' of his tenants in Cheshire ; while Danby, 
 with a hundred horsemen, seized upon York, gain- 
 ing over the militia there to the Prince's side ; and 
 the Earl of Devonshire, mustering his friends and 
 dependents, marched to Nottingham, where many 
 other peers joined him. Officers of the royal army, 
 chief among them Lord Churchill, afterwards the 
 great Duke of Marlborough, went over to the l*rince ; 
 while JanTiCS, unable to trust his own soldiers, 
 retreated before the invader. The King's distress 
 was aggravated by finding that his daughter Anne 
 had, together with her favourite. Lady Churchill, 
 fled to the northern insurgents. " God help me ! " 
 he exclaimed, " my own children have forsaken 
 me." Rather than undo all that he had done for the 
 Roman Catholics, and break with France, he planned 
 the escape of his family and himself. On a stormy 
 night the Queen, escorted by a Frenchman, the Count 
 of Lauzun, stole out of Whitehall with her infant child, 
 and fled to France. At three o'clock in the morning 
 of the nth December the King set out to follow her. 
 Whilst crossing the Thames in a wherry, he flung the 
 Great Seal into the stream, whence it was accidentally 
 fished up after many months. Without afliixing the 
 Great Seal, no writ for summoning a Parliament 
 could be issued, no commissions for holding the 
 assizes completed ; so that by carrying it uif, James 
 meant to put a stop to the regular course of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 8. The Interregnum. — As there was now no 
 government, such Peers as were at hand, with Arch- 
 bishop Sancroft at their head, took upon themselves a 
 
 ^ 
 
I'l 
 
 xxxvt.] 
 
 THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 24^ 
 
 temporary authority, and sent to the Prince of Orange, 
 requesting his presence in London. The City was in 
 a state of utter disorder, but the riotous mob showed 
 no disposition towards bloodshed, except in one case. 
 The Lord Chancellor Jeffreys, disguised as a collier 
 Bailor, being discovered in an alehouse at Wapping, 
 was in peril of his life. At his own entreaty, the 
 Lords sent him to the Tower, where he died in 1689, 
 his end being hastened by drinking. Meanwhile the 
 King had not succeeded in leaving the country, and 
 having been stopped near Sheerness by some rough 
 fishermen, who took him for a fugitive Jesuit, he returned 
 to London. The Tories, who had considered them- 
 selves freed from their allegiance by his desertion, 
 felt that the case was altered when he was still in his 
 kingdom. To frighten him to a second escape was 
 therefore the policy of William, who, sending his troops 
 to take possession of Whitehall, signified his desire 
 that James should withdraw. The fallen King thereupon 
 retired, escorted by Dutch soldiers, to Rochester, and 
 being there guarded with intentional negligence, he 
 soon carried out his enemies' wishes by taking flight, 
 December 23, to France, where he was received with 
 generous kindness by Louis XIV. At the invitation 
 of an assembly of Peers and commoners, the Prince 
 of Orange took on himself the government, and sum- 
 moned a Convention of the Estates of the Realm, 
 which met Jan. 22, 1689. After long discussion, this 
 Convention resolved, " that it hath been found by ex- 
 perience to be inconsistent with the safety and welfare 
 of this Protestant Kingdom to be governed by a Popish 
 Prince," and that King James II., " having endea- 
 voured to subvert the constitution," " having violated 
 the fundamental laws," and "having withdrawn himself 
 out of this Kingdom," had "abdicated the government," 
 and that the throne was "thereby become vacant." 
 That there might never again be any room for dispute 
 between the sovereign and the nation, a Declaration 
 
 'i 
 
950 
 
 JAMES II. 
 
 [CHAP. 
 
 ii> 
 
 of Right was drawn up, which asserted the ancient 
 rights and liberties of England ; and, in " entire con- 
 fidence" that these would be preserved by William, the 
 Lords and Commons offered the Crown to him and his 
 wife. The offer, formally made on the 13th February, 
 was accepted ; and thus was completed the English 
 Revolution. The sovereignty of Ireland wtni with that 
 of England ; and a few months later the Crown of 
 Scotland was bestowed upon William and Mary by the 
 Estates of that country. William had plainly declared 
 that he would accept no lower position than that of 
 King ; and though Mary, as being the heiress by birth- 
 right, was made in form joint sovereign with her 
 husband, the administration of government was placed 
 in his hands alone. 
 
 9. The Huguenots. — In 1685 Louis XIV. re- 
 voked the Edict of Nantes^ under which the Huguenots^ 
 as the French Protestants were called, had hitherto 
 enjoyed a certain amount of religious liberty. In 
 consequence of this revocation and the accompanying 
 persecutions, thousarids of brave, intelligent, and in- 
 dustrious men fled from his dominions, carrying their 
 valour and their skill to other lands. Many of these 
 refugees settled in Spitalfields, London, and there 
 introduced the manufacture of silk. Others, taking 
 military service with the Prince of Orange, turned 
 their swords against their former King. Many 
 families in England trace their descent to these 
 "Huguenot refugees. The revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes made a great impression in England, and in 
 fact went a long way towards stirring up the Parlia- 
 ment to withstand James. What Louis had done, 
 men thought James would do, if he was once 
 allowed to get the chance. 
 
 10. Literature. — Among the divines of the Stuart 
 period, y<fr(f/«y Taylor^ who died in 1667, is celebrated 
 for his devotional works and for his sermons, the 
 finest that had yet been heard in the English Church 
 
XXXVI. 1 
 
 UTERATURE. 
 
 251 
 
 Richard Baxter^ notable as the author of the Saints^ 
 Everlasting Rest^ was one of the ministers driven out 
 by the Act of Uniformity of 1662, and bore his 
 share of the harsh treatment to which Nonconformists 
 were exposed. Lord Clarendon^ noted as the minister 
 of Charles II., is also famous as the historian of the 
 stirring times through which he had lived. His History 
 of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England^ despite 
 its inaccuracies and Royalist prejudices, remains one 
 of the great works of our literature. Jzaak Walton^ 
 " the Father of Angling," as he is called, published in 
 1653 ^'^ Complete Angler^ which is more than a 
 mere treatise upon fishing. Its quaint grace, and its 
 feeling for rural scenes, render it interesting even to 
 those who care nothing for its subject. Under 
 Charles I., there grew up a school of Royalist writers 
 of love and war songs, some of which may still 
 be found in most collections of poetry. Among 
 poets of higher pretensions was Abraham Coivley, 
 who in his own day was accounted unrivalled, though 
 he is now little read. Another noted poet was 
 Edmund Waller y who employed his talents to praise 
 Cromwell during the Protectorate, and Charles II. 
 at the Restoration. Samuel Butler was the author 
 of HudibraSy a burlesque poem against the Puritans, 
 the hero, from whom it has its name, being a half- 
 crazy Presbyterian justice, who undertakes the reform 
 of abuses. The Commonwealth party, though not 
 in general favoured by the wits and versifiers, could 
 claim for its own one of the greatest poets of Eng- 
 land, John Milton^ who wrote in defence of the 
 execution of Charles I., and held the post of Latin 
 Secretary to the Commonwealth's Council of State. 
 His chief work. Paradise Lost^ was published in 1667. 
 Of his beautiful minor poems many were written 
 before the Civil Wars began. The most notable of 
 his prose writings is the Areopagitica^ an eloquent plea 
 "for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing." This was 
 
 I 
 
 t \\\ 
 
 1 
 
 ' 1 
 
»5a 
 
 JAMES IT. 
 
 [chap; 
 
 ! i 
 
 , 
 
 called foith by an order of the Long Parliament 
 in 1643 that no book, pamphlet, or paper, should 
 be printed unless it was approved and licensed by 
 some person appointed by either of the two Houses. 
 In this they only followed the example set them by 
 the Star Chamber, and Milton's arguments produced 
 no alteration of the system. Milton died in 1674, 
 having been blind for more than twenty years. John 
 BunyaUy the greatest of allegorical writers, born in 
 1628 near Bedford, was brought up to the trade of a 
 tinker, and served for a short time as a soldier during 
 the Civil War. Joining himself to the Baptists, he 
 became noted as a preacher ; and it was after the 
 Restoration, while lying in Bedford gaol for the offence 
 of upholding •'* unlawful meetings and conventicles," 
 that he composed the first part of the Pilgrim's 
 Progress. This religious allegory became the delight 
 of pious people among the poor, although it was more 
 than a century before the genius of its author was 
 acknowledged by literary critics. Many of its scenes 
 and characters give a good idea of the age to which 
 it belongs. Bunyan's devout warriors show us what 
 the pick of the Puritan soldiery were like ; and 
 his trial of Faithful before Lord Hategood is a picture, 
 by no means over-coloured, of the sort of trial which ' 
 a Nonconformist or a political offender often received. 
 The reaction against the Puritan over-strictness showed 
 itself strongly in the polite literature of the time of 
 Charles IL, above all in the comic dramas, which 
 were a disgrace to the age — not that they 'lacked wit, 
 humour, or dramatic skill, but because they were 
 morally bad to a degree which testifies to the debased 
 state of the society which delighted in them. Writing 
 for the stage being then the most profitable employ- 
 ment for an author, y<7^« Dryden^ Q)[(\^i of the poets 
 of the Restoration school, spent his best years upon 
 dramatic composition, for which his talents were 
 unsuited. As a lyric poet, and especially as a satirist, 
 
Itxxvi.l LlTtRATUHl?: AKt) SCIENCE. 
 
 ^53 
 
 he stands high, one of his most famous works being 
 the satiric poem of Absalom and Achitophel^ under 
 which names the Duke of Monmouth and his ally 
 the Earl of Shaftesbury are aimed at. The Whigs 
 of the Revolution were fortunate in being able to 
 show on their side some of the chief names of the 
 age. To them belonged the philosopher Isaac 
 Newton^ and the great jurist and politician, Lord 
 SomerSy who was one of the counsel for the Seven 
 Bishops, and chairman of the committee by which the 
 Declaration of Right was drawn up. Of them also 
 was John Locke^ a friend and confidant of Lord 
 Shaftesbury. Falling, on the discovery of the Whig 
 plots in 1683, under suspicion, Locke withdrew to 
 Holland, and was punished by a royal order arbitrarily 
 removing him from his studentship at Christ Church, 
 Oxford. A staunch supporter of civil and religious 
 liberty, he wrote in defence of toleration; while his 
 fame as a philosopher was established by the publication 
 in 1690 of his Essay concerning Human Understanding, 
 In his two Treatises of Governmenty he put forward the 
 Whig theory that when a ruler broke the law, he forfeited 
 his claim to obedience. A less noted Whig writer 
 wa . Gilbert Burnet (made after the Revolution Bishop 
 of Salisbury), a clergyman of Scottish birth, author of 
 the History of the Reformation in England, tne first 
 volume of which gained him the honour of a vote 
 of thanks from Parliament, which was then excited 
 by the Popish Plot. He left a History of his Own 
 TimCy which was published after his death in 17 15. 
 
 II. Science. — Among the famous men who lived 
 under the first Stuart Kings was the physician William 
 Harvey, who made the discovery of the circulation 
 of the blood. The Restoration period, however 
 politically discreditable, was a time of great advances 
 in science. The Royal Society, which numbered 
 among its first members men illustrious in chemistry, 
 in astronomy, in mathematics, in botany, and in 
 
•54 
 
 }AM£S It. 
 
 tcilAP. 
 
 
 zoology, was established shortly after the Restoration. 
 fohn Flamsteedy from whose time dates the beginning 
 of modern astronomy, wa? the first Astronomer- 
 Royal, the Observatory at Greenwich being founded 
 by Charles II. for the benefit of navigation. The 
 greatest name in science is that of Isaac Nenvtouy 
 famed for his wonderful discoveries in mathematics 
 and natural philosophy. He was born in Lincoln- 
 shire in 1642, and died in 1727, in his eighty-fifth 
 year. His chief work, the Principia, was published 
 in 1687. 
 
 12. Architecture. — Under the Tudors Gothic 
 architecture had begun to go down. Italian details 
 became more and more mixed with it, and the style 
 called Elizabethan was the result. The pure Italian 
 style, in imitation of ancient Roman architecture, was 
 brought into England early in the seventeenth century 
 by Inigo Jona^ and superseded Gothic, which was 
 now little rega"ded or understood. Sir Christopher 
 Wreti^ admirable in the style of his age, failed when 
 he imitated Gothic, as the towers he added to West- 
 minster Abbey still serve to show. His finest work 
 is the cathedral church of St. Paul, which was com- 
 pleted in 1 7 1 o. He died in 1 7 23, at the age of ninety, 
 and was buried in the crypt of his own great church, 
 with this epitaph : — " Si monumentum requiris^ circum- 
 spicey ("If thou seekest his monument, look 
 around.'" 
 
tcilAP, 
 
 X3tXVlI.j 
 
 WILLIAM AND MARV. 
 
 «55 
 
 sstoration. 
 beginning 
 itronomer- 
 I founded 
 ion. The 
 c Neivtouy 
 !thematics 
 I Lincoln- 
 ;ighty-fifth 
 published 
 
 rs Gothic 
 an details 
 
 the style 
 xe Italian 
 ;cture, was 
 th century 
 vhich was 
 ^hristopher 
 iled when 
 i to West- 
 nest work 
 was com- 
 
 of ninety, 
 It church, 
 />, circum* 
 ent, look 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIL 
 
 WILLIAM AND MARY. WILLIAM IIL 
 
 i^Viliiam and Mary ; the Non-jurors {\) — war in Ireland; 
 siege of Londonderry ; battle of the Boyne (2) — battle 
 of La Hogue ; Peace of Ryswick ; the National Debt ; 
 the re-coinage; Assassinat ' n Plot; the Bank of Eng- 
 land {'^-'death of Queen Mary (4) — opposition to 
 William; the Spanish Succession (5) — legislation; 
 Bill of Rights ; Act of Settlement and other statutes (6). 
 
 1. William and Mary, 1689-1694. William 
 III., — 1702. — From youth upwards one idea had 
 possessed the soul of William of Orange — that of 
 breaking the power of Louis XIV. — and he valued 
 his English kingdom chiefly as a means towards this 
 end. Though weak in body, the energy of his spirit 
 was unconquerable, and no danger ever daunted him. 
 His manners however were cold, his temper sour, and 
 he roused the English jealousy by placing men of his 
 own nation about him. His wife was an amiable 
 woman ; but the facobiteSy that is, the extreme Tories 
 wlio adhered to James, never ceased to taunt her for 
 having ousted her father. Many Tories thought the 
 deposition of the King wrong, and on this scruple, 
 about four hundred clergymen and members of the 
 Universities, with Bancroft and six other bishops at 
 their head, resigned their preferments rather than 
 swear allegiance to the new sovereigns. These 
 men, among whom were five of the famous " Seven 
 Bishops," were known as the Non-Jurors. 
 
 2. Ireland. — As yet William was King of Ireland 
 in little more than name. That country was divided 
 between the Roman Catholic " Irishry," — the original 
 Irish and the descendants of the Norman-English 
 settlers, probably about a million in number, — and 
 
 
 ill 
 
 i ! 
 
 ID 
 
456 
 
 WILLIAM AND MARY. 
 
 fcMAK 
 
 the Protestant ** Englishry," consisting of about 
 200,000 English and Scottish colonists, who owned 
 more than four-fifths of the property of Ireland, and 
 whose inferiority in number was compensated by their 
 superiority in wealth and civilization. The Lord- 
 Deputy of Ireland, Tyrconnel, invited James over 
 from his refuge in France, and raising his standard 
 with the motto, " Now or never ! Now and for ever ! " 
 called his countrymen to arms. The whole Irish 
 race rose in answer — not that they cared for James, 
 but because they desired independence, — and Tyr- 
 connel soon mustered a mighty though half-savage 
 host Louis of France furnished arms, money, and 
 officers, and James, thus equipped, landed in Ireland 
 in March 1689, and held in Dublin a Parliament of 
 his adherents, in which he gave his consent to the 
 great Act of Attainder ^ whereby between two and three 
 thousand Protestants were attainted of treason. The 
 Englishry meanwhile stood gallantly at bay in Ennis- 
 ^ kilien and Londonderry. The latter city, under the 
 government of Major Henry Baker and an aged 
 clergyman, George Walker^ was besieged by James's 
 forces ; and though reduced to extremity of hunger, 
 its defenders hardly able to keep their feet for very 
 weakness, it held out for a hundred and five days, 
 until relieved from England. At the same time the 
 Enniskilleners routed the Jacobites at the village of 
 Ncivton Butler, In the summer of the next year, 
 William himself went over to Ireland. England, 
 dreading the power of Louis XIV., and provoked by 
 his interferences had joined the general league — the 
 " Grand Alliance" as it was called — of the chief 
 powers of Europe against France. William's departure 
 therefore was made the occasion of an attempt upon 
 England by the French in concert with tlie Jacobites ; 
 and Admiral Herbert, who had been created Earl of 
 Torrington^ was ignominiously worsted in an engage- 
 ment with the French fleet off Bcachy Head, Rut. 
 
xxxvii.l 
 
 VVAU m IRELAND. 
 
 4St 
 
 comfort came in the news of a decisive victory won 
 by William on the ist of July, 1690, over the Irish 
 and French, who, led by James, Tyrconnel, and 
 Lauzun, made a stand beliind the river Boyne, 
 William's army forced the passage after a sharp 
 struggle, William himself leading his cavalry through 
 the river, and, with his sword in the left band 
 — for his other arm was crippled by a wound — 
 showing himself wherever the fight was hottest His 
 best general. Marshal Schomber^, a German Pro- 
 t- stant who had once been in th6 French service, 
 was killed while rallying the Huguenots in William's 
 army. " Come on, gentlemen, there are your per- 
 secutors," he cried, urging them on against the enemy. 
 Walker, who had lately been made Bishop of Lon- 
 donderry, and had accompanied his townsmen to the 
 battle, fell at the same spot. " What took him 
 there ? " said William, wlio thought his presence un- 
 called-for. James, wlien he saw the day going against 
 him, galloped off, and reproaching his Irish troops 
 with cowardice; made his way to the coast, whence he 
 sailed for France. Meanwhile the French admiral, 
 the Count of Tourvi/ie^ finding that, contrary to the 
 prediction of the exiled Jacobites, the country did not 
 rise to join him, departed, after having sacked tho 
 defenceless town of Teignmouth. The reduction of 
 Ireland to England was effected the next year by 
 the Dutch general Ginkell^ afterwards created Earl 
 of Athlone^ who gained, July 12, 1691, the battle 
 of Aghrim over the Irish and their new French 
 general, St Ruth^ who fell in the fight Limericky 
 their last stronghold, surrendered to Ginkell in 
 October, its gallant defender, Patrick Sarsficld^ and as 
 many as would follow him, being permitted to pass 
 to the French service. The domination of the 
 colonists was now assured, and rigorous laws were 
 made to hold down the Roman Catholics, the bravest 
 ^id best of whom« being denied all chance of rising 
 
t58 
 
 WILLIAM AND MARY. 
 
 tciiAP. 
 
 
 in their own land, entered the service of foreign 
 states. 
 
 3. The War with France. — In 1692, during 
 William's absence on the Continent, another French 
 invasion . rojected ; but the allied English and 
 Dutch fletti, commanded in chief by Admiral Russeil, 
 attacked and defeated Admiral Tourville in the 
 Channel, chased the enemy to the Bay of Lq Hogttey 
 and there burned the French ships in the sight of 
 James. I'here was great rejoicing at this victory, not 
 merely because people were proud of tlie exploit, but 
 because it saved the island from invasion. It was 
 a grievous blow to James, who had been led to 
 believe that the English fleet was more likely to 
 join than to oppose him. Russell himself, one of tlie 
 seven who had signed the invitation to William, had 
 lately been in treasonable correspondence with the 
 exiled King ; but on the day of battle he did his duty. 
 Many indeed of William's English servants were not 
 thoroughly to be trusted — like Russell, they secured 
 themselves against the chances of a counter-revolution, 
 or gratified feelings of irritation against the existing 
 government, by playing fast and loose between the 
 rival Kings. On land the struggle was chiefly carried 
 on in the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium and Luxem- 
 burg), where William led his army in person. He 
 was more than once defeated, but his patience and 
 tenacity, and the skill with which he repaired a loss, 
 made him a match for his more brilliant adversaries. 
 At last Louis, worn out by the long war, con- 
 sented to acknowledge the Prince of Orange as 
 King of Great Britain ; and this led to the general 
 peace which was made at Ryswick in 1697. Although 
 the English had not to fight on their own soil, 
 this war put a great strain upon their resources. 
 In 1692, the year of La Hogue, the land-tax was 
 first imposed, and this being found insufficient, the 
 government next raised money by a loan. Thus 
 
•^ 
 
 «xxvit.3 
 
 DEATH OF MARY. 
 
 «59 
 
 began the National Debt, Among the difficulties of 
 the country must be reckoned the bad state of its 
 silver coin, arising from the fraudulent practice of 
 " clipping." The coinage of additional money, with 
 its edges so milled that it could not be clipped without 
 detection, seemed only to aggravate the evil; for 
 every man tried to pay in light, and to be paid in 
 heavy coin. At last, in 1696, an Act was passed for 
 a new coinage, and while this was going on, much 
 inconvenience and even hardship was caused by the 
 scarcity of silver, although the Mint, with the great 
 philosopher Isaac Newton at its head, coined faster 
 than it had ever done before. Fortunately at this 
 moment, when the patience of the nation was thus 
 severely tried, the King happened to be in special 
 favour, owing to the general indignation at a recently 
 detected Jacobite conspiracy for his assassination on 
 his way back from hunting. In the excitement caused 
 by this discovery, more than four hundred of the 
 Commons solemnly pledged themselves to stand by 
 William in life or to avenge him in death, and their 
 example was generally followed throughout the nation. 
 The management of the re-coinage reflected great 
 credit upon the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 Charles Montague^ a young Whig, noted for bring- 
 ing about the foundation, in 1694, of the Bank of 
 England^ on a plan devised by a Scotsman, William 
 Paterson, 
 
 4. Death of Mary. — In 1694, on the 28th 
 December, Queen Mary died of small-pox. Not 
 long afterwards, by her husband's orders, the un- 
 finished palace of Greenwich was turned into an 
 hospital for seamen of the Royal Navy ; and thus, in 
 honour of her memory, was carried out the wish she 
 had formed at the time when difficulty was found in 
 providing for the many wounded at La Hogue. The 
 Ac'Jitions to the palace were made by Sir Christopher 
 Wren. 
 
 ^iO- 
 
i 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 WtLUAM Itt. 
 
 fcttAP. 
 
 5. The Spanish Succession.— After the Peace 
 of Ryswick came a time of sore mortification to 
 William. Not only did the new House of Commons, 
 which met in 1698, insist on having the greater part 
 of the army disbanded, but they further forced liini 
 to send away all his foreign troops. He stooped to 
 ask as a personal favour that his Dutch Guards might 
 stay, but in vain. To the mass of Englishmen, whether 
 Tories or Whigs, the very name of standing army was 
 hateful The Tory remembered that by a standing army 
 Cromwell had made himself master of England ; the 
 Whig remembered that by a standing army Charles and 
 James had hoped to carry out their designs against 
 the English liberties and religion. Eresh ill-feeling 
 arose between the King and the Commons on the 
 subject of the disposal of forfeited land in Ireland, 
 much of which he had bestowed on his personal 
 friends. The Commons constrained him to give his 
 assent to an Act for annulling all his Irish grants, and 
 applying the forfeitures to the public service. Abroad 
 too the prospect was gloomy. In 1700 Charles, 
 King of Spain, died childless, bequeathing his vast 
 dominions — Spain, the Indies, the Netherlands, 
 Naples, Sicily, and Milan — to his kinsman Philip, 
 Duke of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. The 
 danger of a general war arising out of the rival claims 
 of the Houses of Austria and of France to the 
 Spanish succession had long been foreseen ; and in 
 hopes of averting strife and especially of preventing 
 Spain from falling to a French prince, two successive 
 *' Partition Treaties,^ providing for the division of the 
 Spanish dominions, had already been made between' 
 England and the United Provinces on the one side 
 and France on the other. By the last of these treaties 
 the Archduke Charles of Austria, son of the Emperor 
 Leopold I., was to have the Indies, the Netherlands, 
 and Spain itself, with the exception of the province 
 of Guipuzcoa, which, with the kingdom of Naples 
 
jcxxvii.] THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 
 
 90? 
 
 and Sicily, was to pass to the Dauphin^ son of Louis 
 XIV. When, regardless of this engagement, Louis 
 accepted for his gtandson the bequest of the entire 
 Spanish monarchy, William desired at once to take 
 steps to prevent such an overwhelming increase of the 
 French power. Having parted with his Whig'advisers, 
 he called Tories to his councils, and summoned a 
 new Parliament, which met early in 1701. But the 
 House of Commons, in which the Tories were strong, 
 showed no disposition to support him against France. 
 Its chief object was to hunt down the late Whig 
 Ministers, against whom it prepared articles of im- 
 peachment, one of the charges against them being 
 their share in the Partition Treaties, which were 
 thought to have been framed more for the benefit of the 
 Dutch than the English. Altogether the Commons 
 displayed such bitterness and party spirit that the 
 people gradually turned against their own representa- 
 tives. A petition, signed by a number of gentlemen 
 and freeholders of Kent, was sent up, protesting 
 against any distrust of the King, and begging the 
 House to turn its loyal addresses into Bills of Supply 
 and to enable his Majesty to assist his allies. This so 
 angered the House that it sent to prison the five 
 Kentish gentlemen who had brought up the petition. 
 But the incident showed the turn of feeling towards 
 the Whig side ; and William's cause was served by 
 the imprudence of the French King. In September 
 1 701, James II. died, and in the face of the Treaty 
 of Ryswick, his son, whom the Jacobites called 
 lames Ill.y and the Whigs called "///^ Pretender y* 
 was recognized by Louis as King of England, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland. This roused general indigna- 
 tion. William seized the opportunity to dissolve the 
 Parliament and to call another, which, meeting Dec. 
 30, 1 701, requested William to make no peace with 
 France until reparation for this affront was obtained. 
 The King's health was breaking down*, but. nerved 
 
 IImR 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
263 
 
 WILLIAM in. 
 
 [CHAl^. 
 
 ?i| I 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 It'! . 
 ) 
 
 )% 
 
 by thoughts of the work before him, he still bore 
 up. In February 1702, when he was riding at 
 Hampton Court, his horse fell over a mole-hill, the 
 King was thrown, and broke his collar-bone; sink- 
 ing under the shock, he died on the 8th March, in 
 his fifty-second year. As Queen Mary had had no 
 children, the Crown, according to the settlement 
 made by the Declaration and Bill of Rights, passed 
 to the Princess Anne of Denmark. 
 
 6. Legislation. — Chief among the statutes of 
 this reign stands the Bill of Rights^ which, after re- 
 citing the Declaration of the Convention, declared it, 
 with some additions, to be law. The levying of 
 money for the use of the Crown, without grant of 
 Parliament, the* keeping of a standing army in time 
 of peace, unless by consent of Parliament, were 
 herein declared illegal. The right of subjects to 
 petition, of electors freely to choose their representa- 
 tives, the right of the legislature to freedom of debate, 
 the necessity of frequent parliaments, were affirmed. 
 The methods by which in late years the administration 
 of justice had been tampered with, the imposition of 
 " excessive fines," the infliction of " cruel and unusual 
 punishments," were condemned. The power, which 
 James II. had illegally exercised, of dispensing 
 with laws by regal authority was abolished ; and a 
 Roman Catholic, or any one marrying a Roman 
 Catholic, was made incapable of wearing the Crown. 
 The Toleration Act, though not affording complete 
 religious liberty, gave enough to satisfy the mass of 
 the Protestant Dissenters; Roman Catholics and 
 deniers of the Trinity were excluded from its benefits. 
 The oaths of allegiance and supremacy were replaced 
 by new and simpler forms, tnat of supremacy consist- 
 ing mainly of a renunciation of the Pope's authority. 
 The first Mutiny Act gave the sovereign a temporary 
 power of punishing mutiny or desertion by the special 
 jurisdiction known as martial law. Similar Acts, 
 
XXX VII.] 
 
 LEGISLATION. 
 
 263 
 
 limited to a year's duration, are still the only means 
 by which the Crown can legally keep an army. These 
 statutes were all passed in the first year of William 
 and Mary. In 1695 the press became free ; hitherio 
 nothing could be printed without the licence of an 
 officer appointed by the government, but now this 
 censorship was given up, and newspapers at once 
 made their appearance. In the next year was passed 
 the Act for regulating of trials in cases of treason. 
 Hitherto the la^v had placed those accused of high 
 treason at great disadvantage, and before the Revolu- 
 tion such trials had often been little better than 
 judicial murders ; by this statute, among other 
 provisions for securing the accused person a fair trial, 
 it was enacted that he should have a copy of the 
 indictment delivered to him five days before trial, 
 and should be allowed to make his defence by counsel. 
 The Act of Settlement, passed in 1701, settled the 
 Crown, in default of heirs of Anne or of William, 
 upon the granddaughter of James I. and daughter of 
 Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the Princess Sophia, 
 Electress of Hanover, and her heirs, being Protestants. 
 There were other families nearer in the order of inheri- 
 tance than the House of Hanover, but they were passed 
 over as being Roman Catholic Some articles were 
 inserted in the Act of Settlement, to take effect only 
 after the succession under the new limitation to the 
 House of Hanover. Of these, two of the most im- 
 portant were, that whosoever should hereafter come 
 to the possession of the Crown, should join in com- 
 munion with the established Church of England ; and 
 that the judges should hold their offices during good 
 behaviour, not, as formerly, at the royal pleasure. In 
 the following year a statute was passed which imposed 
 on members of parliament, civil and military officers, 
 ecclesiastics, lawyers and others, ^xvoath of dhfuration, 
 by which they abjured the title of "the pretended 
 Prince of Wales," who had been proclaimed in 
 
164 ANNE. 1 • [CHAP. 
 
 France as King James III. of England, and bound 
 themselves to maintain the settlement made of the 
 Crown. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 ANNE, 
 
 Anne ; Prince George of Denmark ; the Duke and Duchess 
 of Marlborough {\)—War of the Spanish Succession ; 
 battles of Blenheim and Ramillies; taking of Gibral- 
 tar; the Earl of Peterborough ; battle of Almanza ; 
 Sir Cloudesley Shovell ; battles of Oudenarde and 
 Malplaquet (2) — the Union of England and Scot- 
 land (3) — rise of the Tories; Peace of Utrecht (4) — 
 death of Anne (5) — Queen Anne*s Bounty (6) — the 
 Dissenters (7). 
 
 I. Anne, 1702-17 14. — Queen Anne was a kind- 
 hearted and well-meaning woman, rather slow of 
 understanding and obstinate, though usually allowing 
 herself to be led by those whom she liked. Her 
 husband. Prince George of Dettmarky of whom Charles 
 II. said that he himself " had tried him drunk and 
 sober, but there was nothing in him," was too insigni- 
 ficant in character to have any influence. From girl- 
 hood Anne had been ruled by the handsome and 
 domineering Sarah Jennings^ wife of Churchill ; and 
 so close was their friendship that they corresponded 
 with each other under the names of Mrs. Morley and 
 Mrs. Freeman^ the latter being adopted by the 
 favourite to denote her frankness. John Churchill^ 
 ci-eated Earl^ and afterwards Duke of Marlborough ^ 
 who within a week of Anne's accession was made 
 Captain-General of the forces, was the ablest man of 
 his time as a general and statesman, though he owed 
 his favor with Anne chiefly to his wife's influence. 
 Over him too Lady Marlborough's power was great. 
 She had been a court beauty of slender fortune, with 
 
' [CHAP. 
 
 id bound 
 ie of the 
 
 nd Duchess 
 Succession ; 
 
 of Gibral- 
 Almanza ; 
 marde and 
 
 and Scot- 
 \recht (4)— 
 xty {fi)—the 
 
 KXXviii.] WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 26% 
 
 whom Churchill had made a love-match — in this 
 overcoming the greed of money of which he was always 
 accused — and his devotion to her proved lifelong. 
 Brave, gentle, and of imperturbable serenity of temper, 
 noted for the care and humanity, then unusual, which 
 he showed towards prisoners of war, he was yet not 
 free from the political faithlessness of the age. After 
 having at the Revolution deserted James for William, 
 he had been disgraced for treasonable intrigues 
 with James ; nevertheless William, foreseeing that he 
 would be the moving spirit in the next reign, had after- 
 wards given him high command, and employed him in 
 negotiating foreign alliances. Though his wife now 
 sided with the Whigs, who supported the late King's 
 war policy, Marlborough himself passed for a Tory, 
 and thereby gained increased influence with the 
 Queen, who loved the Church and the Tories, whom 
 she preferred to call ** the Church party." In truth 
 he belonged to no party, his main objects being 
 that war should be declared, and that he should com- 
 mand the English forces. His policy therefore ran 
 counter to that of the Tories, who thought that 
 England ought as much as possible to confine her- 
 self to naval warfare, and not to undertake great 
 military operations on the Continent. A dislike of 
 armed interference in Continental politics, inherited 
 from the time of William, continued to be a mark 
 of a Tory until the French Revolution of 1789, 
 when the course of European politics was changed, 
 and the Tories in their turn became the warlike 
 party. 
 
 2. War of the Spanish Succession. — King 
 William's last work, a new alliance of England, 
 Holland, and the Emperor against Eouis XIV. and 
 his grandson, survived him. This ** Grand Alliance " 
 was joined by many of the European powers, and war 
 with France was soon afterwards declared, the Allies 
 supporting the claim of the Archduke Charlcsof Austria 
 
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 ANNE. 
 
 [citAK 
 
 to the Spanish crown. Marlborough, in command oi 
 the allied English and Dutch forces, now entered upon 
 that course of splendid achievements which gained 
 him the high place he holds among generals. In his 
 first campaigns in the Netherlands he was hampered by 
 the interference of the Dutch authorities ; but in 1704, 
 leading his army into Bavaria, he joined his forces 
 with those of the Emperor's general, Prince Eugene of 
 Savoy^ in whom he found an able and zealous ally. 
 On the 2nd August, 1704, he won, in concert with 
 Eugene, the great battle of Blenheim over the allied 
 French and Bavarians under Marshal Tallard, who 
 was there taken prisoner. After the main body of 
 Tallard's army was routed, about 11,000 French- 
 men were surrounded in the village of Blenheim, 
 and constrained to lay down their arms. The wreck 
 of the French and Bavarian army retreated across 
 the Rhine, and the fortunes of the French in 
 Germany were ruined. The greatness of the success 
 was not to be measured by its military results 
 alone. For years men had looked upon Louis 
 XIV. as well-nigh invincible; William himself had 
 done little more than keep him in check. It was 
 Marlborough who first turned the tide of French 
 success, and broke the spell of victory. Marlborough, 
 in reward of his services, received the crown land of 
 Woodstock, upon which was afterwards built the 
 Palace of Blenheim. His next two campaigns were 
 mainly carried on in the Netherlands, where, on the 
 12th May, 1706, he won another great battle, that of 
 llamillies. But meanwhile the Allied arms had been 
 less successful in the Spanish Peninsula, though the 
 rock and fortress of Gibraltar^ valuable as the key of 
 the Mediterranean, were taken by Admiral Sir George 
 Rookc and the Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, and have 
 ever since remained in the keeping of England. 
 Charles Mordaunt^ Earl of Peterborough^ a clever, 
 eccentric man, who flew about the world, seeing, it was 
 
^■f 
 
 XXxvin.]\VAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 267 
 
 said, more kings nnd more postilions than any other 
 man in Europe, for a while carried all before him in 
 Spain; but, as the Archduke Charles would not take 
 his advice, he left in disgust and eventually he wa? 
 recalled. Brilliant as his genius was, it had been 
 wasted for lack of patience and forbearance ; unlike 
 the placid Marlborough, he could not get on with 
 the dull men about him, and Charles, whom he 
 had served so well, was only thankful to be rid of 
 him. After he had gone, affairs were mismanaged, 
 and in 1707 the allied English, Dutch, and Portu- 
 guese were utterly defeated by the French on the 
 plain of Almanza. In this action the French were 
 led by an Englishman, King James's illegitimate son 
 the Duke of Berwick^ while the Engl* '. were led by a 
 Huguenot, the Marquess of Ruvigny^ created Earl of 
 G'alway ; so that after all, as the Spaniards said in 
 jest, " the English general had routed the French." 
 Other disasters followed. Sir Cloudesley Shovdl^ who 
 from a cabin-boy had risen to be one of the best of 
 the English admirals, was lost with three of his vessels 
 on the rocks of Scilly. It is said that he was cast 
 ashore, and reached, worn out with fatigue, the 
 hut of a woman, by whom he was murdered for the 
 sake of a ring and other valuable property he had 
 upon him. The next year was more fortunate, 
 Marlborough and Eugene gaining the battle of 
 Oudenarde in the Netherlands, and the island of 
 Minorca being taken from the Spaniards. Other 
 successes brought Louis to seek terms of j)eace ; but 
 the allies required more than he would yield, specially 
 pressing the humiliating condition that he should aid 
 in driving his grandson from the Spanish throne. 
 " If I must wage war,'' he said, ** I would rather wage 
 it against my enemies than against my children;" 
 and, though his navy was swe[)t from the seas 
 and his people were starving. France yet nerved 
 herself for another campaign, ui \vhich ^lailburoiij^h 
 
 ; |i % 
 
 ilfi^l 
 
 11 
 

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 iii' 
 
 m < 
 
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 168 
 
 ANn£. 
 
 tcttAf 
 
 and Eugene gained the bloody and fruitless victory 
 of Malplaquet 
 
 3. The Union of England and Scotland. — 
 The Union of England ajid Scot!a?id mio ov\Q Kingdom 
 by the name of Great Britain was brought about in 
 1707. Thenceforth there was only one Parliament 
 lor the two countries, and English^ Welsh^ and Scot^ 
 were all included under the common name of British, 
 The Crown of the United Kingdom was settled, as 
 that of England had already been, in default of heirs 
 of Anne, upon Sophia of Hanover. Scotland re- 
 tained its Presbyterian form of Church-government, 
 and its own laws. A national flag — the same as that 
 which had been ordered by James L, but which had 
 never come into use— was appointed for the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 4. Ascendancy of the Tories. — In 1709 it 
 chanced that one Dr, Sacheverell preached two 
 sermons, one before the Judges of Assize at Derby, 
 the other before the Lord Mayor at St. Paul's, in 
 which the Doctor spoke against the toleration granted 
 to Dissenters, and put forward the then favourite 
 Tory doctrine of non-resistance — that is, that nothing 
 could justify a subject in taking up arms against his 
 rightful sovereign. The Whigs, who felt this as a slur 
 upon the Revolution, brought about his impeachment, 
 and he was condemned by the Lords ; but his sentence 
 was so light that the result was looked upon as a 
 victory by his Tory friends ; and the common people, 
 who were at this time all against the Whigs and the 
 Dissenters, made great rejoicings. "God bless your 
 Majesty and the Church I We hope your Majesty is for 
 Dr. Sacheverell," had been the cry of the crowd who 
 pressed round Anne's sedan-chair when she went to 
 hear the trial. The stir about this business and the 
 popular zeal for Sacheverell mark the feeling in favour 
 of the Tories, and of the Church which was supposed to 
 be in danger from the Whigs. Anne's prime minister, 
 
•i 
 
 victory 
 
 md. — 
 ngdom 
 )Out in 
 iament 
 i Scoti 
 British. 
 led, as 
 )i heirs 
 ind re- 
 nment, 
 as that 
 ich had 
 United 
 
 709 it 
 ;d two 
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 .ul's, in 
 granted 
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 lothing 
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 )eople, 
 [nd the 
 is your 
 ^y is for 
 rd who 
 rent to 
 id the 
 favour 
 )sed to 
 linister, 
 
 XXXVIII.] ASCENDANCY OF THE TORIES. 
 
 269 
 
 as we should now call him, the Earl of Godolphin^ 
 was indeed a Tory, but he was Marlborough's firra 
 friend, and, like him, had found it necessary more and 
 more to ally himself with the Whigs. By degrees Anne 
 became estranged from Marlborough, or rather froni 
 his wife who was insufferably overbearing ; the people, 
 once loud in applause of the great Duke, grew sick 
 of the war, which the Tories asserted was only 
 continued in order to fill Marlborough's pockets. The 
 Duke's love of money, and the substantial rewards the 
 war brought him in the way of pay and places gave 
 some colour to the accusation. There is a story that 
 Peterborough was once mistaken by a mob for 
 Marlborough, and was about to be roughly handled. 
 " Gentlemen," exclaimed the ready-witted Earl, " I 
 can convince you by two reasons that I am not the 
 Duke. In the first place, I have only five guineas in 
 my pocket ; and in the second, they are heartily at 
 your service." And he clinched the argument by 
 throwing his purse among the mob. " I must every 
 summer," Marlborough wrote bitterly to Godolphin, 
 " venture my life in a battle, and be found fault with 
 in the winter for not bringing home peace, though I 
 wish for it with all my heart anc soul." In 17 10, not 
 long after the trial of Sacheverell, the Queen dismissed 
 Godolphin, and a Tory ministry came into office, 
 having on their side the Queen's reigning favourite, 
 Abigail Mas ham ^ a bedchamber wom.an who had 
 gradually supplanted the haughty Duchess of Marl- 
 borough. The new ministers, Robert Hariey^ who 
 was created Earl of Oxford, and Henry St. John^ 
 afterwards Viscount Bolingbroke, set themselves to put 
 an end to the war ; and this they brought about in an 
 underhand manner, keeping Marlborough and the 
 Allies in the dark. At last Marlborough was charged 
 by the House of Commons with peculation, and was 
 dismissed by the Queen from all his employments. 
 ^ Tory, the Duke of Ormonde^ was sent out in his place^ 
 
«7o 
 
 AXNF.. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 and was given secret orders not to engage in a siege 
 or a battle. The Allies, deserted by the British 
 Government, finally agreed to the Peace of Utrecht 
 in 1 7 13. The Archduke Charles, whom the Allies 
 had wanted to make King of Spain, had lately 
 become Emperor, and master of the Austrian do- 
 minions, and people in general no more wished to 
 join Spain to Austria than to France ; so Philip was 
 allowed to keep his kingdom upon promise that the 
 crowns of France and Spain should never be united. 
 By the Treaty of Utrecht Great Britain gained the 
 French colony of Acadia or Noi^a Scotia^ established 
 her right to Hudson's Bay and Newfoundland, and 
 retained Gibraltar and the islands of Minorca and St, 
 Christopher) while the French King a^-knowledged 
 Anne as Queen of Great Britain, guaranteed the 
 succession of the House of Hanover, and engaged 
 to make the Pretender withdraw from the French 
 dominions. Yet the Jacobites placed great hopes 
 in the Secretary of State, Lord Bolingbroke, who 
 was believed to design bringing about the suc- 
 cession of the Chevalier de St. George (as the 
 Pretender was more courteously called), whom he 
 and his friends urged, but in vain, to turn Protes- 
 tant. This quesdon of succession was brought more 
 strongly before men's eyes by the death of the aged 
 Princess Sophia, whereby her son George Louis, Elector 
 of Brunswick-Liineburg, became heir to the throne, 
 all Anne's children having died young. Germany 
 was at this time split into many small states ruled by 
 Princes who within their own territories were absolute, 
 though they in name acknowledged the Emperor as 
 their head. Of these \ ;s the Elector of Brunswick- 
 Liineburg, the seat of whose court and government 
 was Hanover, and who, as his title shows, was one 
 of the nine German piinces who had the right of 
 electing the Emperor. 
 5. Death of Anne,— The Queen's death was 
 
XXXVIII.] 
 
 DEATH OF ANNE. 
 
 271 
 
 hastened by her agitation at a violent dispute in hei 
 presence between Oxford and Bolingbroke, who from 
 friends had become open rivals. Bolingbroke so far 
 prevailed that Oxford was dismissed from his office of 
 Lord High Treasurer. AVithin a week the Queen was 
 struck by apoplexy, and died August i, 17 14. Before 
 her death she defeated the hopes of the Jacobites by 
 delivering the Treasurer's staff to the Duke of Shrews- 
 bury — the same Shrewsbury who had signed the in- 
 vitation to the Prince of Orange — bidding him " use 
 it for the good of her people." The Whig Privy 
 Councillors flocked to the council-chamber, troops 
 were ordered to London and Portsmouth, and every 
 precaution was taken to secure the succession of the 
 Protestant heir. Whether Bolingbroke really intended 
 to bring in the Pretender is doubtful, but if he did, 
 the vigorous measures of the Whigs put it out of 
 his power. 
 
 6. Queen Anne's Bounty is a still existing 
 benefit which was conferred by Anne upon the 
 Church by restoring to it, for the inirease of the poorer 
 livings, the first-fruits and tenths of benefices which 
 were paid formerly to the Pope and afterwards to 
 Henry VHI. and his successors. 
 
 7. The Dissenters. — During the last four years 
 of this reign, the Protestant Dissenters had some cause 
 to fear for the safety of the religious liberty they had 
 won at the Revolution. In 17 11 an Act was passed 
 to prevent what was called " occasional conformity." 
 Many Dissenters, it was found, would qualify them- 
 selves for holding office or entering corporations, 
 by receiving the Sacrament according to the rites 
 of the Church of England, as required by the 
 Test and Corporation Acts. With intent to keep out 
 of office all who were not really members of the es- 
 tablished Church, the Act of 1 7 1 1 forbade any officer, 
 civil or military, or any magistrate of a corporation, to 
 be present at a conventicle, under pain of fine and 
 
272 GEORGE I. [CHAP 
 
 loss of office. In 17 14 Bolingbroke, to the joy of the 
 extreme Tories and the disgust of the Whigs, obtained 
 the passing of the Schism Atiy which was intended 
 to prevent Dissenters from keeping schools or teach- 
 ing anything beyond the rudiments of education. 
 It so happened that the very day fixed for this Act 
 to come into effect was that on which the Queen died, 
 and its operation was suspended by the new govern- 
 ment. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 ■H 
 
 
 v 
 
 iti "i 
 
 pi i 1 
 
 J: t 
 
 \'* 
 
 GEORGE I. 
 
 George I.; impeachment of Bolingbroke^ Oxford atid 
 Ormonde; the Riot Act {\)—ihe Pretender {2)— the 
 South Sea Scheme (3) — death of George (4) — legisla- 
 tion j the Septennial Act; the Dissenters (5). 
 
 I. House of Hanover or of Brunswick- 
 Liineburg. George I., 1714-1727. — George, Elec- 
 tor of Brunswick- Luneburg (otherwise of Hanover), 
 was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland 
 without a single Jacobite stirring a step. But he made 
 no great haste to take possession of his kingdom ; 
 and, whether through indifference, fear, or natural 
 slowness, let six weeks pass before he, in company 
 with his only son, landed at Greenwich. The new 
 ruler, though well received, was not a man to excite 
 much loyalty. He was fifty-four years of age, small 
 of stature, and awkward ; he could speak no English, 
 so that he had to be taught by rote a few words wherein 
 to address his first Parliament ; he had left his wife 
 shut up in a German castle, and his private life was 
 not such as to command any respect. As a King, he 
 was honest and well-intentioned ; but his excessive 
 attachment to his native dominions proved a source 
 of embarrassment to his ministers and of discontent 
 
XXXIX.] 
 
 THE PRETENDER. 
 
 273 
 
 to the nation ; and, except as a symbol of Protestantism 
 and constitutional government, he had never any 
 attraction for his British subjects. He kept the Pre- 
 tender out, and reigned according to law ; and that was 
 all his most zealous supporters expected of him. His 
 first ministry was composed almost wholly of Whigs ; 
 and the new Parliament proceeded to impeach Boling- 
 broke, Oxford, and Ormonde on charges of misconduct 
 in the transactions relating to the Peace of Utrecht, 
 and of intriguing with the Pretender. Bolingbroke 
 had taken alarm early, and fled to France, whither 
 Ormonde soon followed him. Acts of attainder were 
 passed against both the fugitives ; Oxford, standing 
 his ground, was sent to the Tower, but, within two 
 years, was acquitted and released. These proceedings 
 increased the Tory discontent, which had already 
 broken out in riots. ** High Church and Ormonde 
 for ever ! " was the cry of the populace in Staffordshire, 
 a county long noted for its Toryism. The disturb- 
 ances became so serious as to lead to the passing of 
 the Riot Act, under which an unlawful assembly which 
 does not disperse on command of a magistrate becomes 
 guilty of felony. 
 
 2. The Pretender. — On the 6th Sept. 17 15, 
 John Erskine, Earl of Mar, a Scottish nobleman 
 whose frequent changes of politics had wor> him 
 the nickname of " Bobbing John," raised in the 
 Highlands the standard of the Pretender, for whom 
 the Jacobite gentlemen in the south of Scotland and in 
 Northumberland and Cumberland also took up arms. 
 A similar rising was expected in the West of England ; 
 but this the government crushed by arresting the in- 
 fluential members of the party. The English rebels, 
 together with those of the Scots who had joined them, 
 being defeated at Preston, surrendered on the 13th 
 Nov., and the same day Mar's army was engaged by 
 fohn Campbelly Duke of Argyll, at Sheriffmuir in a 
 drawn battle. 
 
 f ! ! 
 
274 
 
 GEOP.CF. I. 
 
 •* There's some say that we wan, 
 Some say that they wan, 
 Some say that nane wan at a', man," 
 
 [chap. 
 
 runs the Scottish ballad ; but practically the King's 
 troops had the victory. Later in the year the Pre- 
 tender himself appeared in Scotland ; but he found 
 his affairs going so badly that he soon slipped away 
 with Mar to France, and the insurgents broke \\\). 
 Seven noblemen were sentenced to death for this at- 
 tempt ; of these, three were respited, and two escaped, 
 one of them, the £!ari of Nithsdale^ by the help of his 
 wife, getting out of the Tower in woman's clothes the 
 day before that which had been fixed for his execution. 
 Thomas Forster of Bamburgh, the leader of the 
 English rebels, made his escape from Newgate by 
 means of false keys. James RadcUffe^ Earl of Der- 
 wefiiwater, an English Roman Catholic, and William 
 Gordon, Viscount Kenmurey a Scottish Protestant, 
 together with twenty-six other persons, all taken in 
 arms, suffered death. This was not the only attempt 
 in favour of the Pretender made during this reign. 
 George had bought from Denmark and added to 
 Hanover the duchies of Bremen and Verden, which 
 had been taken from Charles XII., King of Sweden, 
 Charles, eager to revenge himself upon George, 
 planned, iij connexion with the Jacobites, an invasion ' 
 of Scotland ; but the conspiracy was discovered and 
 crushed early in 1 7 1 7. A fresh chance was afforded 
 the Pretender by a war the next year between Great 
 Britain and Spain, arising out of the attempts of the 
 Spanish King to possess himself of Sicily, which by 
 the Treaty of Utrecht had been taken from him. 
 Among the first events of this war was the destruction 
 pf the Spanish fleet off Cape Passaro by Admiral Sir 
 George Byng (afterwards Viscount Torrington). One 
 of Byng's officers, Captain Walton, who was sent in 
 pursuit of some of the enemy's men-of-war, reported 
 his success in this businesslike despatch :— " Sir, we 
 
XXXIX.] 
 
 THE SOUTH SEA SCIIKME. 
 
 275 
 
 have taken and destroyed all the Spanish ships and 
 vessels which were upon the coast, the number as per 
 margin." The margin showed a list of eight men-of- 
 war, besides lour smaller vessels. In 17 19 a Spanish 
 force, under the command of the Duke of Ormonde 
 and other Jacobite refugees, was sent from Cadiz to 
 invade Scotland ; but the greater part of the fleet which 
 carried them, being shattered by a storm off Cape 
 Finisterre, was constrained to return. About three 
 hundred Spaniards succeeded in landing in the Western 
 Highlands, where some of the people joined them ; 
 but being defeated at Glensniel by the King^s troops, 
 they surrendered at discretion. Throughout the eight- 
 eenth century Great Britain was constantly mixed up 
 with Continental negotiations and wars. This came 
 partly of having foreign Kings, and partly of the 
 policy of the age, which was to secure the peace of 
 Europe by the leading states enforcing a sort of 
 equality of strength — ^a " Balance of Power " — among 
 themselves. Territory was taken from one and given 
 to another, people were handed from one master to 
 another without a thought of their wishes — men, it 
 was said, "would cut and paie states and kingdoms 
 as though they were so many Dutch cheeses " — treaties 
 were made, and wars undertaken to enforce them. 
 In short, though peace was to be secured by the 
 Balance of Power, it took a great deal of wrangling 
 and not a little fighting to preserve the balance. At 
 this time France had ceased to stand by the Pretender. 
 Louis XIV. being dead, the new French government 
 in 17 17 entered into alliance with Great Britain. 
 
 3. The South Sea Scheme. — In 1720 England 
 went mad over the famous South Sea scheme. The 
 South Sea Company had a monopoly of trade to the 
 Spanish coasts of America, and, for the purpose 
 of reducing the National Debt, engaged with the 
 government to buy up certain annuities which had 
 been granted in the lasit two reigns- The annuitants 
 
276 
 
 GEORGE I. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 vere invited to exchange their stock for that of the 
 South Sea Company. A rage for speculation set in ; 
 the 100/. shares of the Company went up to 1,000/. ; 
 then they fell, a panic followed, and thousands of 
 families were ruined. The people became furious 
 against the directors ; and, though the estates of 
 the latter were confiscated by Parliament for the 
 benefit of the sufferers, the punishment was exclaimed 
 against as too mild. Robert WalpoUy whose financial 
 skill was well known, became first minister of the 
 Crown ; and by his management the government 
 was helped through its difficulties. The state of 
 confusion into which the countr}' was thrown, as well 
 as the birth of the Pretender's son, Charles Edward 
 Stuart^ stirred up the Jacobites again to plot an in- 
 vasion. Francis Atterbury^ Bishop of Rochester, a lead- 
 ing " High Churchman" — that is, one of those who 
 wished to see the Church more powerful, and who 
 leaned towards the exiled Royal house — being found 
 to be concerned in this conspiracy, was, by an Act of 
 Pains and Penalties, deprived of his bishopric and 
 banished. An Act of Pains and Penalties only diff'ers 
 from an Act of Attainder in inflicting some punishment 
 less than death. 
 
 4. Death of George. — In the summer of 1727- 
 the King left England for Hanover, and, being 
 struck by apoplexy on his road to Osnabriick, died in 
 his carriage in the night of the loth June, By his 
 wife, Sophia Dorothea, Prificess of Zell, he left one son, 
 George Augustus, Prince of Wales, with whom he had 
 at one time been notoriously on bad terms. 
 
 5. Legislation. — By a statute, known as the 
 Triennial Act, passed under William and Mary, no 
 Parliament could last longer than three years. But 
 after the rebellion of 17 15, when the government 
 was loth to face a general election, this statute was 
 repealed by another which lengthened to seven years 
 ^l\e term for which ^ Parliament might last. Thi^ 
 
•■: il 
 
 XL.l 
 
 GfiOkGli: It. 
 
 177 
 
 Septennial Act is still law. In 17 19 was passed an 
 Act for Strengthening the Protestant Interest ^ which, by 
 repealing the provisions in the Act of 1 7 1 1 against 
 "occasional conformity," and the Schism Act, re- 
 dressed the recent grievances of the Dissenters. 
 In the next reign Acts were from time to time 
 passed for indemnifying those who had not duly 
 qualified themselves for the offices they held ; and 
 at last it became the practice to pass such Acts every 
 year ; so that, though the Test and Corporation Acts 
 were still unrepealed, all offices were practically 
 thrown open to Protestant Dissenters. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 GEORGE II. 
 
 George 11. ; administration of Walpole {\)—war with 
 Spain; AnsoiUs voyage (2) — war of the Austrian 
 Succession J battles ofDettingen and Fontenoy (3) — the 
 Young Pretender ; battle of Culloden ; end of the Stuart 
 line (^—war with France; shooting of Byng; Pitfs 
 administration; death of Wolfe; acquisition 0/ Canada; 
 battles of Quiberon and Minden (5) — India; Clivc ; 
 " the Black Hole " ; battles of P lossy and Wande- 
 wash (6) — death of George (7) — reform of the Kalendar 
 (S)—the Eddy stone Lighthouse (9) — rise of Methodism 
 ( I o) — literature (11). 
 
 I. George II., 1727-1760. — George II., like his 
 father the late King, was German by birth, German in 
 feeling and politics, attached to his native dominions, 
 and for their sake ever interfering in Continental 
 affairs. Like his father also, he was at variance with 
 his son, Frederick, Prince of Wales, a weak young man 
 who was popular chiefly because the King was un- 
 popular. George II. had however this advantage 
 over his predecessor, that he could speak English 
 
 i. I 
 
1 J . > 
 
 m 
 
 27S 
 
 GtOnCE It 
 
 [cltAl*. 
 
 fluently. In character he was methodical, parsi- 
 monious, stubborn, and passionate, of an intrepid 
 spirit, and fond of war. His private life was not 
 creditable, yet he was, after his fashion, sincerely 
 attached to his clever wife, Caroline of Brandenburg- 
 Anspach^ who had the art of ruling without seeming to 
 rule. For the first ten years of his reign he was 
 managed by the Queen, and through her by Sir Robert 
 Walpole, whose constant policy was to keep England 
 at peace and himself in power. One of Walpole's 
 financial plans however was very near displacing him. 
 This was a scheme for extending the Excise duties, 
 which were already most unpopular. The Tories and 
 the Opposition Whigs — " Patriots,' as the latter called 
 themselves — combining against it, contrived to lash the 
 country into such a fur)' that it was well-nigh ready to 
 rebel. Walpole therefore, though confident of the 
 advantages of the measure, gave it up, saying that he 
 would never be the minister to enforce taxes at the 
 expense of blood. 
 
 2. War with Spain. — A similar clamour drove 
 Walpole into a war with Spain in 1739. The 
 public mind was embittered against the Spaniards by 
 the meai.s they took to check contraband trade 
 with their American colonies, and by their alleged ' 
 cruelties towards English seamen. A merchant captain 
 named Robert Jenkins told at the bar of the House 
 of Commons how the Spaniards had tortured him and 
 torn off his ear ; and the tale, true or false, roused 
 the English to fury. When war was declared, the 
 populace of London set the church bells ringing. 
 *' They may ring the bells now," said Walpole, " before 
 long they will be wringing their hands." Except in the 
 taking of Porto Belio by Adviiral Vernon with six 
 ships, the war was not very successful. Commodore 
 Anson, who was sent out to harass the coasts of Chili 
 and Peru, then Spanish colonies, made a voyage round 
 \hc world, in which he suffered terrible hardsliips, 
 
kL.l WAR OF tttE AUStkiAN SUCCESSION. 479 
 
 losing numbers of his crews from scurvy, and bringing 
 home only his own ship, the Centurion, This expedi- 
 tion, though not politically profitable, raised the fame 
 of British seamanship. Meanwhile -Walpole, whose 
 reluctance to enter upon this war had made him 
 thoroughly unpopular, resigned all his offices in 1742, 
 and thereupon was called to the House of Peers as 
 Earl of Orford. His steady friend Queen Caroline 
 had died in 1737. 
 
 3. War of the Austrian Succession. — On the 
 death of the Emperor Charles VI. in 1 740, a general war 
 arose about the succession to his hereditary dominion s^ 
 Great Britain giving aid to his daughter J/tzr/Vz Theresa^. 
 while France supported her opponent the Elector oj 
 Bavaria. The nation had constantly reason to suspect 
 that the interests of King George's German dominions 
 were preferred to those of Great Britain, and when 
 Hanoverian troops were taken into British pay, the in- 
 dignation was great. " It is now too apparent," said 
 William Pitt^ the boldest speaker among the "Patriots," 
 " that this great, this powerful, this formidable King- 
 dom is considered only as a province to a despicable 
 Electorate, and that these troops are hired only to 
 drain this unhappy nation of its money." In the 
 summer of 1743 the King joined his army in Germany, 
 and took part in a not very brilliant campaign, the 
 only achievement being a victory over the French at 
 Dettingen^ where George fought on foot at the head 
 of his right wing. As yet, England and France, 
 though they sent auxiliaries to opp site sides, were 
 nominally at peace : — " We have the name of war 
 with Spain without the thing," wrote Horace Walpole, 
 son of Sir Robert, " and war with France without the 
 name." War however was formally declared by the 
 French in 1744. The battle oi Fontenoy^ in Hainault, 
 1745, in which the allied British, Dutch, and Austrians 
 were beaten by the French under their great general 
 A/ars/ialSaxe,y^aSj as far as the British and Hanoverian 
 
2^ 
 
 (JfiOkGE 11. 
 
 ICHAP. 
 
 forces were concerned, a splendid display of fighting 
 qualities, though not of generalship. The French 
 were strongly posted behind fortified villages and 
 other defences, with only a narrow gap near the hamlet 
 of Fontenoy. Into this opening a column of British 
 and Hanoverian infantry, led by the King's favourite 
 son William^ Duke of Ciimberlandy penetrated under a 
 heavy cannonade from batteries on either side ; and 
 though charged again and again by the French cavalry, 
 it broke through the enemy's lines. The day seemed 
 about to be won by sheer valour, when the French 
 guns were brought up so as to fire down the length 
 of the column, and thus forced it to retreat. A general 
 peace was made at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748. 
 4. The Young Pretender. — Early in this war 
 the French government had secretly invited to France 
 Charles Edward Stuart (who was called the Young 
 Pretender and the You7tg Chevalier, to distinguish him 
 from his father James, the Old Pretender), and had 
 planned an invasion of England in his favour. With 
 this intent, an expedition put to sea in 1744, but it was 
 scattered by a storm. The next year, 1745, Charles, 
 tired of waiting for French help, landed with seven 
 attendants in the Highlands, and there mustered a 
 small force of adherents, which gathered strength as it 
 moved on. The royal general. Sir John Cope, let him 
 descend unopposed upon Edinburgh, where Charles 
 caused his father to be proclaimed as James VIII, 
 of Scotland. At Preston-Pans, between Edinburgh 
 and the sea, he encountered Cope, and by the furious 
 onset of the Highlanders broke and routed the royal 
 army. After receiving some small supplies of money 
 and arms from France, Charles crossed the Border, 
 and, with four or five thousand men, pushed on for 
 London. Giving the slip to an army led by the Duke 
 of Cumberland, he advanced, to the great dismay of 
 the capital, as far as Derby, But here the hearts 
 of the rebel officers failed them ; marvellous as theii 
 
xt.1 
 
 THE VOUNG pretender. 
 
 28t 
 
 success had been, there was no such rising in thcii 
 favour as Charles had reckoned upon. Jacobitisni 
 existed in England merely as a traditional faith, or as 
 a method of expressing discontent, not as a belief for 
 which men would peril their lives and properties. 
 Manchester, the only town that had shown any 
 enthusiasm for the Chevalier, gave him less than two 
 hundred recmits. Charles, unwillingly yielding to thg 
 wishes of his officers, retreated to Scotland, where, 
 having found reinforcements, he laid siege to Stirling 
 Castle, and routed General Hmvley in the battle of 
 Falkirk. But after the victory numbers of the High- 
 landers, according to their wont, went home with their 
 plunder; and Charles, with diminished strength, fell 
 back northwards before the Duke of Cumberland, by 
 whom the Chevalier's disheartened and half starved 
 forces were overthrown on Culloden Moor^ April i6, 
 1746. The English victory was tarnished by the cold- 
 blooded slaughter of wounded men on the battle-field, 
 and by the atrocities afterwards committed in the dis- 
 affected country — cruelties which gained for the Duke 
 of Cumberland the nickname of " The Butcher.^* 
 For their share in this insurrection, known in popular 
 Scottish phrase, from the year in which it took place, 
 as ** the Forty-five!^ three Scottish peers, the Earl of 
 Kilmar7iock^ and lords B aimer ino and Lovat, together 
 with Charles Radcliffe (brother to the late Earl of 
 Derwentwater), and a number of other men, nearly 
 eighty in all, were put to death. An Act of Grace 
 in the next reign restored their forfeited estates to 
 their descendants. As for Charles, he wandered 
 about the Highlands for five months, hunted from 
 place to place by the soldiers, till, after many perils, 
 he escaped in a French vessel. His future life was a 
 sad one. Driven, in accordance with a stipulation of 
 the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelie, from France, he moved 
 about the Continent, forming vain schemes for another 
 invasion, and falling at last into degrading habits o£ 
 
 T 
 
 y% 
 
 
 I 
 
 \\ 
 
II 
 
 I 
 
 II 
 
 if; 
 
 rn 
 
 282 
 
 GEOkGE il. 
 
 fciiAp. 
 
 drunkenness. After the death of his father in 1766, 
 he made Italy his abode, and died at Rome, Jan. 30, 
 1788, leaving no legitimate children. His younger 
 brother Henry Benedict, who had been created a 
 Cardinal, and was thenceforward known as Cardinal 
 York, took priest's orders in the Church of Rome, 
 and died in 1807. With him ended the ill-starred 
 line of Stuart. 
 
 5. War with France. — Disputes about the 
 boundaries of the EngHsh and French settlements in 
 North America soon plunged the nation again into 
 strife. The French encroached upon the English 
 colonists ; these resisted; and thus the mother countries 
 were ere long engaged in hostilities. The war began 
 disa'* rously, the most humiliating blow being the 
 takii.g of the island of Minorca in 1756 by the 
 French. Admiral John Byng (son of Lord Torrington) 
 was sent out to relieve the English garrison of Minorca, 
 but after a partial and indecisive engagement with the 
 French squadron, he sailed back to Gibraltar without 
 having effected his purpose. This slackness cost the 
 unfortunate admiral his life; he was tried the next 
 year by court-martial, and shot for not having done his 
 utmost. In wordo which have become proverbial, the 
 contemporary French writer Voltaire sarcastically 
 represented Englishmen as holding that it was well 
 " from time to time to put an admiral to death in 
 order to encourage the others." The King had pro- 
 vided as far as possible for the safety of Hanover by 
 entering into an alliance with Frederick the Great, King 
 of Prussia \ and thus Great Britain was drawn into the 
 Seven Years* War between that prince and a confed- 
 eracy of Continental powers, the chief of whom were 
 France, Austria, and Russia. The English were at this 
 time in the depths of despondency, regarding them- 
 selves as utterly degenerate, and ready to be enslaved. 
 On an alarm of a French invasion, Hanoverian and 
 Hessian troops were hastily brought over ; and some 
 
• II 
 
 XL.] 
 
 William PiTt. 
 
 283 
 
 began to miirinur that it had fared ill with the Britons 
 of old when they called Hengist and Horsa to their 
 aid. Even the coolest and shrewdest men in the 
 country shared in the general despair. " It is time," 
 wrote Horace Walpole, "for England to slip her 
 cables and float away into some unknown ocean." 
 " We are no longer a nation," was the expression of 
 the calm and polished Lord Chesterfield. Since 
 Walpole, there had been no great minister in power. 
 Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl of Granville^ who 
 guided the nation's foreign policy in 1743 and 1744, 
 was indeed a man of genius, but he became un- 
 popular through supporting the Hanoverian policy of 
 the King ; Henry Pelham^ a disciple of Walpole, was 
 just able to keep things quiet ; and on his death in 
 1754, the control of affairs passed into the hands of 
 his brother the Duke of Newcastle^ a man greedy of 
 place and power, but singularly incompetent. The 
 popular favourite was Pitt, grandson of a former 
 governor of Madras. Pitt started in life as a cornet of 
 horse, and in 1735 entered Parliament as member for 
 Old Sarum. He at once joined the " Patriots," and 
 his first speech cost him his commission in the army, 
 for in those days men who took the King's pay were 
 expected not to oppose the government. No more 
 eloquent speaker had yet appeared in Parliament, 
 and the effect of his ontory was heightened by his 
 tall and commanding figure, his noble features, and 
 his fiery glance. In 1756 he was made Secretary of 
 State ; but he was too much disliked by the King, 
 who had not forgiven his speeches against Hanoverian 
 measures, to be allowed to keep his office long. Pitt 
 knew his own powers : — " I am sure," he said, ** that 
 I can save this country, and that nobody else can." 
 In June, 1757, the King found that he must again 
 accept him as his minister. The Duke of Newcastle 
 was re-appointed First Lord of the Treasury, but Pitt, 
 as Secretary of State, took the conduct of forcigr> 
 
 in 
 
i't! 
 
 
 |tV^ 
 
 2S4 
 
 GEORGE It. 
 
 [CHAf. 
 
 aflairs. Under his administration the war was carried 
 on with new vigour, till at last successes by sea and 
 land began to come as fast as misfortunes had before. 
 In September, 1759, James WolfCy a young general 
 of Pitt's choosing, scaled with his forces the almost 
 inaccessible heights on which Quebec s\.2in^s^ completely 
 defeated the French army, and fell in the moment of 
 victory. As he lay dying, he heard an officer exclaim, 
 " They run ! " " Who run ? " asked Wolfe, raising 
 himself. " The enemy." " Then God be praised ! 1 
 shall die happy." The French general, the Marquess 
 of Montcalm, was likewise mortally wounded. " So 
 much the better," said he, " I shall not then live to 
 see the surrender of Quebec." Five days after the 
 battle Quebec capitulated, and within a year the 
 whole of the French colony of Canada was in the 
 hands of the British. At sea, Admiral Sir Edward 
 Hawke gained off the point of Quiberon, on the coast 
 of Britanny, a signal victory over the French (Nov. 20, 
 1759.) The English were superior in force ; but as a 
 storm was blowing, and the French lay close in shore, 
 among rocks and sandbanks, the perils of the attack 
 were great. Hawke singled out the French admiral's 
 ship, the Soleil Royal, his pilot in vain warning him of 
 the risk of running on a shoal. " You have don^ 
 your duty in pointing out the danger," said Hawke, 
 *' you now are to obey my command, and lay me 
 alongside the Soleil Royal." To keep ifp the war 
 on the Continent, large subsidies were bestowed 
 upon Frederick of Prussia ; and a British and Han- 
 overian force, under the command of one of his 
 generals. Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, defeated 
 the French in the battle of Minden, Aug. i, 1759. 
 " Indeed," wrote Horace Walpole, " one is forced to 
 ask every morning what victory there is, for fear of 
 missing one." 
 
 6. India. — In India an empire was being won. 
 The chief European powers there were the French and 
 
tcHA^ 
 
 was carried 
 by sea and 
 had before, 
 mg general 
 the almost 
 completely 
 moment of 
 :er exclaim, 
 Ife, raising 
 praised I \ 
 i Marquess 
 ided. " So 
 hen live to 
 s after the 
 I year the 
 was in the 
 7> Edivard 
 n the coast 
 1 (Nov. 20, 
 5 ; but as a 
 ;e in shore, 
 the attack 
 
 admiral's 
 ing him of 
 lave don^ 
 d Hawke, 
 id lay me 
 ) the war 
 
 bestowed 
 and Han- 
 le of his 
 
 defeated 
 
 I, 1759- 
 forced to 
 
 br fear of 
 
 nng won. 
 rench and 
 
 XI,.] 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 285 
 
 the English East India Companies. Successive Char- 
 ters and Acts had raised the English Company almost 
 into a sovereign power ; it kept a small army, held law- 
 courts, and had authority to make peace and war with 
 non-Christian princes and people. Still the object it 
 pursued was simply the Indian trade, of which con- 
 stantly renewed Acts of Parliament gave it a monopoly, 
 and it did not at first aspire to empire. The foun- 
 dations of its dominion were laid by ^(?^^r/ (afterwards 
 Lord) Clive^ a young officer of the Company, who, 
 though without any military training, proved himself a 
 great general and statesman. Clive had been an 
 idle and unruly lad, whose family had accepted for 
 him a writership in the Company's service because 
 they despaired of making anything of him at home ;• 
 and it is said that when his father heard of his son's 
 great deeds, he exclaimed, " After all, the booby has 
 sense ! " The war between France and England in 
 1744, which extended to India, was the first occasion 
 of Clive's exchanging civil for military service; and 
 though the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle caused a lull in 
 European strife, the rival trading Companies in the 
 East were soon at war again as auxiliaries of contend- 
 ing native princes. Dupleix^ the able and ambitious 
 governor of the French fort of x-ovdicherryy had made 
 himself the greatest man in India, and the pre-eminence 
 there of the French was almost secured, when the 
 genius of Clive broke their power. The first exploit 
 of the young Englishman was the successful defence 
 in 1 75 1 ot Arcoty the capital of the Carnaiic, against a 
 native army with French auxiliaries. When the pro- 
 visions of Clive's little garrison ran low, his Sepoys or 
 native soldiers came to him with a proposal that all 
 the rice should be given to their European comrades, 
 who needed more food than Asiatics — the thin gruel, 
 they said, which was strained away from the grain, 
 would suffice for themselves. In 1756, Suraj-ad* 
 iqxvla^ the Nabob or Prince of Bengal^ attacked an 4 
 
>r.A 
 
 GF.OkGF. II. 
 
 [CII.NP 
 
 
 took tlie Engliah Company's settlement at Calcutta, — 
 an event memorable for the horrible fate of the Eng- 
 lish there captured, who, a hundred and forty-six in 
 number, were, in the hottest season, crowded into a 
 cell not twenty feet square, known as the ''^ Black 
 Hole.'* Only twenty-three of the captives survived 
 the night. Clive was sent to avenge them, and the 
 great victoiy which he won over Suraj -ad-do wla at 
 Plassyy June 23, 1757, made the Company the real 
 lords of Bengal. The mastery of the Camatic was 
 gained by Colonel Eyre Coutes victory over the 
 French at Wandewashy Jan. 22, 1760. The next 
 year Pondicherry surrendered to the English, and 
 though it was afterwards given back, the Frencli 
 never recovered their power, and their East India 
 Company soon came to an end. 
 
 7. Death of George. — In the midst of these 
 conquests, George died suddenly at Kensington of 
 heart-disease, Oct 25, 1760. His eldest son Frederick 
 having died in 1751, the King was succeeded by his 
 grandson, George William Frederick^ Prince of iVales. 
 Between the accession of George II. and the with- 
 drawal of the country from the Seven Years' War in 
 1763, the National Debt was more than doubled. 
 
 8. Reform of the Kalendar, — In 1751 was 
 passed the statute for the reform of the kalendar. 
 The Julian Kalendar (so called because it owed its 
 origin to Julius Caesar) made the year too long at the 
 rate of nearly three days in four hundred years. In 
 the 1 6th century the error had been corrected under a 
 regulation of Pope Gregory XIII. ^ and the alteration, 
 or New Style, had been in course of time accepted by 
 most Christian countries. But in the British dominions 
 people still went on with the Old Style, until at length 
 the day they called the 7?/.?/ of the month was in other 
 lands the twelfth — in short, they were eleven days 
 wrong in their reckoning. By the statute of 1751, 
 these nominal days were dropped out of the month o( 
 
XL.] 
 
 THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE. 
 
 287 
 
 September, 1752, and the New Style was adopted. The 
 memory of the ignorant opposition made to this reform 
 is preserved in a picture by the contemporary painter 
 Hogarth, where a Whig candidate for Parliament is 
 represented as flattering the prejudices of the mob by 
 having a banner inscribed, " Give us our eleven days.'* 
 By the same statute the legal year, instead of beginning, 
 as formerly, on the 25th March, is reckoned from the 
 I St January. In the present work, the days of the 
 month, down to 1751, have been given according to 
 the Old Style, but the years have been reckoned as 
 beginning on the ist January. 
 
 9. The Eddystone Lig^hthouse. — Three light- 
 houses have been built one after another on the 
 Eddystone Rock. The first, a wooden building, was 
 swept away in the "Great Storm" of 1703, a hurricane 
 such as had never been known before in England, 
 which choked London Bridge with wrecks, blew down 
 more than a hundred elm-trees in St. James' Park, 
 caused the loss of several men-of war, and otherwise 
 wrought great destruction of property and life. With 
 the lighthouse perished its architect Winstanley and 
 the workmen who were busied in repairing it. A 
 second lighthouse, also built mainly of timber, was 
 destroyed by fire in 1755. To John S?tieaion^ a great 
 engineer, was entrusted the task of replacing it, which 
 he did by a fine tower of stone, completed in 1759. 
 Unfortunately the rock upon which this last stands has 
 lately (1878) been found to be so undermined by the 
 action of the sea that it has become necessary to make 
 arrangements for rebuilding the lighthouse on a neigh- 
 bouring part of the reef 
 
 10. Rise of Methodism. — In this reign began 
 the religious movement known as Methodism, of which 
 the promoters were two clergymen of the Church of 
 England, George Whitefield and John Wesley. The 
 name of Methodists first sprang up at Oxford, where 
 it, was given in scorn to a small association of young 
 
2SS 
 
 GEORGE II. 
 
 [CHA e. 
 
 U'V. 
 
 ^^i 
 
 members of the University, who adopted a devout and 
 rigid method of life, kept fast days, meditated and 
 prayed, and visited the prisoners and the sick. Of 
 this band were John Wesley, his brother Charles, 
 afterwards noted as a writer of hymns, and Whitefield, 
 who, after he had taken orders, began to preach witli 
 wonderful effect His earnestness, his eloquence, his 
 vehement action, and fine voice, which, it is said, 
 could be heard a mile off, gave the first impulse to 
 Methodism, which was then simply an awakening of a 
 spirit of enthusiastic devotion, and that too among 
 classes who had hitherto been neglected. When the 
 churches were closed against the new teacher, White- 
 field preached in the open air. This he first did to 
 the colliers near Bristol, moving them to tears by his 
 fervid oratory ; and his example was followed by his 
 associate Wesley. Methodism was frowned upon by 
 the clergy, and held up to ridicule on the stage ; its 
 preachers were pelted and maltreated by the mob ; but 
 nevertheless it grew and prospered. The two great 
 preachers however ere long diverged from each other 
 in opinion ; Whitefield, who died early, was the leader 
 of the Calvinist section of the Methodists; Wesley, 
 who died in 1791 at the age of eighty-seven, was the 
 founder of the sect called after him, VVesieyan. He 
 gave his followers a complete and elaborate organiza- 
 tion, although it was not his intention to found a 
 separate sect, but rather an order or society within the 
 Church of England. The Methodists, however, being 
 harassed and almost constrained to declare themselves 
 Dissenters, gradually formed themselves into a distinct 
 body. 
 
 II. Literature under Anne and the Two 
 Georges. — The age of Anne was long looked 
 upon as the most brilliant period in English literature. 
 Among its chief ornaments was the Whig Joseph 
 Addison, who wrote both poetry and prose, but was 
 fiir superior in the latter, in his own day his most 
 
XL.l 
 
 LITER ATI) RK. 
 
 289» 
 
 admired work was the tragedy of CaiOj now little* 
 esteemed ; with modern readers his fame rests on the : 
 Tatler and Spectator ^ two periodical papers set on foot . 
 by his friend Richard Steele^ to which Addison was the 
 chief and the best contributor. His peculiar charm : 
 lay in his refined and delicate humour, and he did l 
 good service to morality by purifying literature from i 
 the taint of the Restoration, and showing that wit was • 
 not necessarily allied with vice, nor virtue with dulness. . 
 Daniel De Foe^ a Dissenter, who early in Anne's reign i 
 had been set in the pillory for writing an ironical 
 pamphlet professing to express the views of a bigoted 
 churchman, was the author of one of the most re- 
 nowned and popular of English fictions, the Life and 
 Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. His skill lay in giving 
 such an air of reality to his tales, of which he wrote 
 many, that the reader can hardly believe them to be 
 merely works of imagination. Similar power was 
 possessed by the great satirist Jonathan Swifts who 
 went over from the Whig to the Tory party, and 
 became Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin. The best 
 known of his works is Gulliver's Travels^ the hero of 
 which describes nations of pygmies, of giants, of 
 speaking and reasoning horses, with a simplicity and 
 minuteness which make his wildest marvels seem like 
 truth. Under this form Swift conveyed a stinging 
 satire on the court of George I., the politics of 
 Europe, the follies of speculative philosophers, 
 and the vices of mankind. Another Tory vfii^John 
 Arbuthnot, was the author of the History of John Bully 
 a burlesque account of the negotiations and war of 
 the Spanish Succession. From this satire arose 
 the now familiar national name of ''^John Bull" first 
 given to the clothier who represented England in 
 Arbuthnot's burlesque. The Dutch nation was figured 
 as Nic. Frog the linendraper ; King Charles of Spain 
 was Lord Strutt, his French successor was Philip 
 paboon, and the great King Louis himself appeared aa 
 
290 
 
 GEORGE II. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 i 
 
 r- 
 
 
 Lewis Baboon. To the reign of George II. belong the 
 famous novels, Pamela^ and the Histories of Clarissa 
 Harloive and Sir Charles Grandison^ by Samuel 
 Richardson^ whose name stands high among English 
 authors, though his tales are too long to be popular 
 at the present day. Three other noted writers of 
 fiction, Henry Fielding^ Tobias Smollett^ and Laurence 
 Sterne^ are best remembered by their respective novels 
 of Tom J ones ^ Roderick Random^ and Tristram Shandy. 
 Smollett also wrote a History of England, part of 
 which is generally appended as a continuation to the 
 History of E?igland by the Scottish philosopher David 
 Hume, who only carried his work down to the Revolu- 
 tion. This work of Hume's became the generally 
 received version of English history — a position which 
 it hardly deserved, as, though good in style, it is one- 
 sided and inaccurate. Mattheiv Prior, noted as a 
 writer of light and sparkling verse, flourished in the 
 reigns of William and Anne. Alexander Pope, who 
 was born in 1688 and died in 1744, is one of the 
 great poets of England His Rape of the Lock, a 
 mock-heroic tale of a fashionable beauty whose long 
 ringlet was secretly cut off" by one of her admirers, 
 and his moral and satirical poems, among them the 
 JHunciad, in which he fell savagely upon the inferior 
 authors of his day, are his chief works. His trans- 
 lation of the Iliad of Homer is a fine poem in itself, 
 though he caught little or nothing of the spirit and tone 
 of his original. Terseness, point, harmony, and 
 satire often becoming ferocious and coarse, are Pope's 
 characteristics ; his versification was the admiration 
 of his age, for before him no one had written 
 heroic couplets with such smoothness. In creed he 
 was a Roman Catholic, in character violent and spite- 
 ful, and in person small and deformed, fohn Gay 
 was the author of the Beggars^ Opera, of the Fables, 
 and of the popular ballad of Black-Eyed Susan. 
 Nicholas ^owe^ who cjied in 17 18, was a play writer of 
 
XL.) 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 391 
 
 note, although one of his best tragedies, the Fair 
 Penitent^ was stolen from Massinger, whose works had 
 fallen into neglect. Addison, as has been already said, 
 wrote poetry, and some of his hymns are to be found 
 in most hymn-books. The hymns also oi Isaac WattSy 
 a dissenting minister, are still among the most popular 
 compositions of their kind. Watts lived on into the 
 reign of George II., though many of his hymns were 
 composed before Anne had come to the throne. 
 Equally well known are the beautiful Morning and 
 Evming Hymns ^ first published in 1700, of Thomas 
 Ken, the good Bishop of Bath and Wells, who bore 
 his part among the Seven Bishops, and who yet re- 
 fused, from conscientious scruples, to withdraw his 
 allegiance from James. The poems called the Seasons, 
 which have always been popular, though they are 
 marred by frequent pompousness and affectation, are 
 the work of James Thomson, a Scot by birth, who 
 died in 1748. Thomson, in conjunction with Z)flz//V/ 
 Mallet, wrote the masque oi Alfred, which contains 
 the fine national ode of Rule, BritaJinia. This song, 
 though commonly attributed to Thomson, is thought 
 by some to have been written by Mallet ; the music 
 to it was composed by Dr. Arne. Edward Young, 
 who flourished under Anne and the first two Georges, 
 wrote the Night Thoughts, a series of poems in proof 
 of the immortality of the soul and against unbelief in 
 Christianity. William Collins, yfho died in 1756, was 
 in his own time little appreciated, although he was 
 one of the best lyric poets of his century. He is 
 however surpassed by Thomas Gray, whose famous 
 Elegy in a Country Churchyard Vf^LS published in 1749. 
 A scholar and student, devoting himself chiefly to 
 reading, Gray wrote little, but with great care. 
 Among his best pieces is the noble ode of the Bard, 
 which, being founded upon the tale of the massacre of 
 the Welsh bards, unluckily branded Edward I. wiih 
 ^ lie undeseived name of tyrant. 
 
892 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 u 
 
 l\ \ 
 
 'I 
 
 urn y 
 
 k 
 
 It 
 
 I' 
 1( 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 George III. (i) — Treaty of Paris {2)— John Wiikes (3) — 
 publication of the debates (4) — revolt of the North 
 American Colonies ; foundation of the United States; 
 war with France ; death of Chatham ; war with Spain 
 and Holland; the ''^ armed neutrality ^^ ; invasion of 
 Jersey ; Rodney's victory of the 1 2th ApHl; siege of 
 Gibraltar (5) — the Lord George Gordon Riots (6)— 
 Pitt and Fox; the Prince of Wales; insanity of the 
 King ; joy at his recovery ; the Regency (7) — War of 
 the French Revolution ; Burke and Fox; Lord Howe* s 
 victory of the \st June ; suspension of cash payments 
 by the Bank of England; battle of St. Vincent; Nel- 
 son; mutiny of the Channel Fleet; mutiny at the 
 Nore; battle of Camperdown; death of Burke (8) — 
 Napoleon Buonaparte; his expedition to Egypt; 
 battle of tJie Nile; defence of Acre; death of, Tippoo 
 Sahib; cofifederacy of Russia^ Denmark ^ and Sweden ; 
 battle of Copenhagen ; battle of Alexandria ; Peace of 
 Amiens {())—warw:th Buonaparte ; detention of Eng- 
 lish travellers ; Buohaparte seizes Hanover; threatens 
 to invade Great Britain; overthrows the Austrians; 
 battle of Trafalgar; death of Nelson; death of 
 Pitt; Berlin Decree; bombardment of Copenhagen 
 (10) — Arthur We lies ley ; battle of Assye; Penin- 
 sular War; battle of Vimeiro ; death of Sir John 
 Moore; battles of Talavera^ Salamanca^ Vitoria, 
 and Toulouse; fall of Buonaparte (11) — return of 
 Buonaparte to France; battle of Waterloo ; surrender 
 of Buonaparte (12) — war with the United States ; 
 bombardment of A Igiers ( 1 3) — National Debt ; general 
 distress ; the Luddites ; death of George IH. ; Prin- 
 cess Charlotte (14) — Royal Marriage Act (15) — inde- 
 pendence of the Irish Parliament ; Irish Rebellion of 
 1798 ; Union of Great Britain and Ireland (16) — 
 Indian affairs ; Ceylon ; discoveries and improvements 
 (17) — Howard; abolition of the slave-trade ; Romilly 
 ( 1 8) — literature at the end of 1 8M century ( 1 9) —early 
 iQ//i century literature {20)— painting^ (^i). 
 
ku.) 
 
 tREATV O^ I^ARiS. 
 
 m 
 
 1. George III., 1760-1820. — George III., eldest 
 son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess 
 Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, though not highly educated, 
 was pleasing in manners and appearance, well con- 
 ducted, and well-intentioned. The nation, hitherto 
 always grumbling at its foreign kings who were 
 never so happy as when out of their kingdom, hailed 
 with delight the accession of a born Englishman ; and 
 the Tories, who, ever since the coming in of the House 
 of Hanover, had been in the position, unnatural to 
 them, of the party opposed to the court, transferred 
 to their new ruler the loyalty formerly bestowed on 
 the House of Stuart. About a year after his accession 
 the King married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg^-^ 
 Strelitz, 
 
 2. Treaty of Paris. — The man who had most 
 influence with the young King vi^i^John Stuart, Ean 
 of Bute, who early in the reign was made one of the 
 Secretaries of State,* and who became perhaps the 
 most unpopular minister of modern times. He was 
 not only a court favourite, but also a Tory and a 
 Scot : and at that time, when the rebellion of 1745 was 
 still remembered, there was much ill-feeling between 
 the Scots and English. The King and Bute meant to 
 put an end to the war ; and in this they had with them 
 many of the ministers, who were beginning to count 
 the cost of Pitt's glories. In 1761 France and Spain 
 entered into a secret alliance, with intent to make war 
 together upon Great Britain. This treaty becoming 
 known to Pitt, he urged his colleagues at once to 
 declare war against Spain ; and on their opposition, 
 the ** Great Commoner,^* as he was called, resigned 
 office. The war with Spain nevertheless broke out \ 
 but peace was made as soon as possible with both 
 countries by the Treaty of Paris, 1763, under which 
 Great Britain kept Canada and all the French pos- 
 sessions (except New Orleans) east of the Mississipi, 
 and some West Indian islands which had been taken 
 
^4 
 
 GfiOUGE tit. 
 
 [ctiAt^ 
 
 
 from France, regained Minorca, and obtained Florida 
 from Spain. 
 
 3. John Wilkes.— With the peace began a time 
 of fierce factions and unpopular ministers. King 
 George, who at his accession was two and twenty 
 years of age, had schemes for managing everything 
 himself, and had made up his mind that he would not, 
 as the two Georges before him had done, put himself 
 into the power of the Whig party. But his plans did 
 not work well, and in the early part of his reign nothing 
 went on smoothly. Lord Bute became so unpopular 
 that he durst not appear in the streets without a hired 
 gang of prize-fighters to protect him, and not long 
 after the peace he gave up ofhce. His successor, 
 George Grenville^ made his administration odious by 
 the illegal arrest in 1763 oi John Wilkes for libelling 
 it in a paper called the North Briton. Wilkes, then 
 member for Aylesbury, was a man of bad character, 
 but witty and agreeable ; and his persecution by the 
 ministry made him a popular hero. Some years later, 
 when the Di^ke of Grafton was prime minister, Wilkes 
 became still more famous as the subject of a struggle 
 between the House of Commons and the freeholders 
 of Middlesex, who maintained their right to return 
 him for their representative, although, having been 
 expelled the House for another political libel, he 
 was — so the Commons, by a stretch of power, had 
 resolved — incapable of being elected into that Par- 
 liament. 
 
 4. Publication of the Debates. — In these 
 struggles it was not, as of old, the House of Com- 
 mons and the people against the Kihg's ministers, but 
 the House of Commons itself against the people. 
 In 1 77 1 the Commons got into another difficulty by 
 attempting to enforce their ri^ht of preventing the 
 publication of their debates, — a privilege which bad 
 been a necessary safeguard in bygone times when 
 kin<^s and ministers were in the habit of sending the 
 
 It 
 
%U] AMfektCAl^ WAR Ot" INbfePENbEKCfe. 19$ 
 
 leaders of Opposition to the Tower. An attempt to 
 arrest, by authority of the House, a citizen of London 
 who had printed a report of the debates, brought on 
 a dispute with the Lord Mayor Brass Crosby^ who 
 maintained that to lay hands on a citizen in the city, 
 without the concurrence of one of its magistrates, was 
 a violation of the charter of London. The Lord Mayor 
 and one of the aldermen were sent to the Tower ; 
 but in the end the Commons were wise enough to 
 let t^e matter drop, and the printers of the debates 
 were no longer molested. By the publication of the 
 debates, the people gained a better understanding of 
 politics, while the Parliamrnt and the government 
 learned to pay more respect to public opinion. 
 
 5. The American War of Independence. — 
 The severance of thirteen North-American colonies 
 from the mother- country took place in this reign. 
 The Engi'sh government had attempted to tax these 
 colonies to defray in part the expenses of protecting 
 them; the colonists denied the right of the British Par- 
 liament, in which they were unrepresented, to tax them, 
 and claimed the right of taxing themselves in their 
 own Assemblies. The first measure of this kind was 
 the Stamp Act^ requiring all legal documents in the 
 colonies to bear stamps — a scheme devised by Gren- 
 ville, who was then at the head of the government. 
 This act was repealed within a year, as the colonists 
 were oa the verge of rebellion ; but on the proposal 
 of Lord Norihy who became prime minister in 1770, 
 a duty of threepence a pv/und laid on lea was retained 
 simply as an assertion of the right of taxation. 
 Upon this there was much disturbance, especially 
 at Boston in Massachusetts, where at last a party of 
 the townsmen threw overboard the cargoes of tea 
 brought into their harbour. Severe measures being 
 taken by way of punishment, the breach widened 
 till in 1775 actual war began ; and on the 4th July 
 in the next year the revolted colonies, under the 
 
 : d 
 
 f 
 
iSfi 
 
 
 196 ■- tiEORGE lit tcHAP. 
 
 naint^ k)t the Unitei States of America^ declared them- 
 selves independent of Great Britain. The war was 
 conducted on the British side with no great vigour or 
 skill ; and after the surrender in 1777 of the English 
 . General Burgoyne and his army, which had got sur- 
 rounded at Saratoga by the American forces, France 
 formed an alliance with the new States. Thence- 
 forth Great Britain was at war with France as well as 
 with the colonies. Pitt, now Earl of Chatham^ had, 
 with others of the ablest men in Parliament, protested 
 against the taxation of the colonies, but he could not 
 bear the idea of seeing the British Empire dismem- 
 bered by France. Thor.gh very ill, he insisted on 
 going down to the House of Lords to speak against 
 yielding, as many of the Opposition had advised, at 
 this crisis. Leaning on crutches, pale, worn, to all 
 appearance a dying man, he faltered out his broken 
 : sentences — ** shreds of unconnected eloquence " : 
 — "Shall a people," he exclaimed, " that seventeen 
 years ago was the terror of the world, now stoop so 
 low as to tell its ancient inveterate enemy : * Take 
 
 all we have ; only give us peace ' ? My 
 
 Lords, any state is better than despair. Let us at 
 
 least make one effort, and if we must fall, let us fall 
 
 like men I " On -"gain rising to address the Peers, 
 
 . he sank down in a fit ; and, after lingering a few 
 
 weeks, he died. May 11, 1778. Spain joined France 
 
 in 1779; and within two years Great Britain found 
 
 , another foe in Holland. Moreover the Northern 
 
 powers, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, entered into 
 
 . a confederacy, known as the Armed Neutrality, to 
 
 resist the system of maritime law upheld by Great 
 
 Britain. Amongst other maritime rights, the English 
 
 exercised that of seizing an enemy's property even 
 
 ^hen carried in neutral vessels ; and their claim to 
 
 . visit and search merchant ships for such property or 
 
 for contraband of war was the cause of much irritation 
 
 on the part of neutrals. The Northern powers now 
 
XLI.J 
 
 THE PROTESTANT RIOTS. 
 
 297 
 
 : war was 
 
 rers now 
 
 contended that free ships make free goods, that is, 
 that an enemy*s goods cannot be seized in a neutral 
 ship. The crowning disaster was the surrender in 
 1 781 of Earl Connvallis and his army, which had 
 been besieged and surrounded at Yorktown (in the 
 Chesapeake Bay) by the French and American 
 forces ; and at last the King unwillingly consented to 
 recognise the United States. Among the memorable 
 events of this war are the French invasion in 1781 of 
 Jersey, which was repelled by a gallant young officer, 
 Major Pierson, who fell in the fight; Admiral Sir 
 George Rodneys victory, April 12, 1782, in the West 
 Indies over the French fleet, whose admiral, the Count 
 de Grasse, was compelled to surrender his ship ; 
 and the famous defence of Gibraltar by General 
 Elioti against the forces of France and Spain for three 
 years and seven months. Peace was made in 1783, 
 and Minorca and Florida were given back to Spain. 
 In North America, Canada^ Nova Scotia^ New BrunS' 
 wick, Newfoundland, and the Hudson's Bay country 
 still remained part of the British Empire. Not long 
 before the war broke out, the government had concili- 
 ated the French Canadians by granting full religious 
 freedom to Roman Catholics in Canada, and the 
 right of holding property under their own laws — a 
 policy which was rewarded by their steadfast loyalty. 
 6. The Lord George Gordon Riots. — In 
 June, 1780, there were great riots in London; the 
 populace being stirred up by the half-crazed Lord 
 George Gordon, in defence, as they said, of the Protes- 
 tant cause, which was thought to be endangered by 
 the repeal of some enactments against Roman Catho- 
 lics. The uproar thus had its origin in religious 
 mtolerance, though a large number of the rioters 
 were merely lawless men who were moved by love of 
 mischief or greed of plunder to don the blue cockade 
 of the " Protestants." For nearly a week the capital 
 was in the power of a mob, who burned Newgate, 
 u 
 
 I .1 
 
If i 
 
 II. 
 
 298 
 
 GEORC^b 111. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 letting the prisoners loose, and sacked the houses of 
 those against whom they had a grudge, notably that 
 of the Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, whose fine 
 library they destroyed. A brewer's man, mounted on 
 a horse adorned with the chains of Newgate, led the 
 rioters to attack the Bank of England, but without 
 success. At one time London was iDlazing in thirteen 
 places, but the stillness of the weather saved it from 
 another Great Fire. In London, as in other large 
 towns, there was then no efficient police. The police 
 officers were " thief-takers," whose business was merely 
 to catch criminals. For the purpose of keeping order, 
 there were, besides the parish constables, only the 
 "watchmen," who, carrying lanterns and poles, 
 patrolled the streets at night, calling out the hour, 
 and who were often old men not strong enough to 
 protect themselves. Thus there was no efficient pro- 
 vision for checking the beginnings of disturbance ; 
 and in the riots of 1780 those in authority were 
 loth to call in military force. At last however the 
 troops were employed, and order was restored, though 
 not before more than two hundred of the rioters had 
 been shot down in the streets. Twenty- one were after- 
 wards hanged ; Lord George himself, who, however 
 blameable for exciting the people, had had no part 
 in the riots, was tried for high treason and acquitted. 
 
 7. Pitt and Fox. — After the American War, 
 the leading statesmen of the day were Charles 
 James Fox, and William Pitt, second son of Lord 
 Chatham. Fox, who had taken a strong part in 
 favour of the Americans, was a man of ability and 
 eloquence, generous and a lover of freedom, but a 
 gambler, and disliked by the King as the companion 
 and supposed misleader of the Prince of Wales, 
 George Augustus Frederick, who both in public and 
 private life was everything that his father disapproved. 
 Pitt, the rival of Fox, and his equal in talents and 
 eloquence, became prime minister in 17 S3, when only 
 
XLT.] 
 
 PllT AND FOX. 
 
 290 
 
 in his twenty-fifth year, and his power surpassed even 
 that of his father. His political opponents scoffed 
 at the prime minister's youth : — 
 
 "A sight to make surrounding nations stare, — 
 A kingdom trusted to a schoolboy's care." 
 
 Even in appearance and manners Pitt and Fox formed 
 a striking contrast, for Fox was stout, gay, and sociable, 
 while Pitt was long and lank, and in public somewhat 
 cold and haughty, usually walking up the House ot 
 Commons without giving so much as a nod or a look 
 to any man. In 1788 the King was afflicted with 
 insanity, in consequence of which there arose a great 
 dispute between Pitt and Fox abcrt the authority 
 to be given to the Prince of Wales as Regent, 
 Fox asserting the Prince's right to full royal power, 
 while Pitt successfully maintained that it was for the 
 Parliament to appoint the Regent, and that they might 
 restrict his power as they thought fit. But before 
 the Bill conferring the Regency upon the Prince 
 was passed the King recovered, to the great joy of 
 the nation ; for though his obstinacy of disposition 
 had at one time made him unpopular, of late his 
 kindly manners and simple life had endeared him to 
 his subjects, while the Prince was thought so ill of 
 that his rule was dreaded. The King however had 
 fresh attacks, and at last, about 181 1, he permanently 
 lost his reason, from which time his reign may be 
 accounted as at an end in all but name, the Prince of 
 Wales ruling in his stead as Regent. 
 
 8, War of the French Revolution. — In 1789 
 there began in France the political troubles which led 
 to the Great Revolution^ in the course of which the 
 King, Louis XVL, was put to death, and a Republic 
 was set up. Embittered by long-standing misrule 
 and suffering, excited by dreams of regenerating the 
 world and by the sudden acquisition of power, the 
 revolutionary party swept away the old institutions of 
 
300 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 [ri!/^r. 
 
 I 
 
 
 i 
 
 their country, and while ruthlessly shedding the blood 
 of those who did not side with them, they proclaimed 
 the rise of a new order of things in which all men 
 should be brethren, free and equal. In England 
 there was at first sympathy with a nation struggling 
 for liberty ; but with the majority of Englishmen this 
 feeling soon gave place to that of horror. Fox was 
 throughout enthusiastic for the French, while his 
 hitherto staunch friend Edtnund Burke took the other 
 side. Burke's famous essay entitled Reflections on the 
 Revolution in France^ which was published in 1790, 
 did much to awaken fear and hatred of the new politi- 
 cal principles. Long as he and Fox had been friends, 
 their difference of opinion on the French Revolution 
 made an irreparable breach between them. " Our 
 friendship is at an end," Burke exclaimed in the 
 House of Commons, and the warm-hearted Fox could 
 scarcely reply for tears. Pitt wished to leave France 
 to arrange its own affairs; but as the Republl "^ns 
 plainly showed their intention of spreading their doc- 
 trines and form of government by force of arms, and 
 their violence and crimes increased the strength of 
 the feeling against therh among the upper and middle 
 classes, it became dijfficult to maintain peace. The 
 French armies defeated the Austrians in the Nether- 
 lands, annexed Savoy, and Nice, and threatened 
 Holland. Early in 1793 the beheading of King 
 Louis, which excited great horror in England, widened 
 the breach ; and not long afterwards, the French 
 government took the final step by declaring war 
 against England, Holland, and Spain. Admiral 
 Earl Howe on the ist June, 1794, gained a hard-won 
 victory over the French fleet in the Channel ; and the 
 English felt justly proud of the humanity their men had 
 shown in saving the lives of drowning enemies, whose 
 government hatl only five days before forbidden the 
 giving of quarter to any Englisnman or Hanoverian — 
 an order which it is only fair to say was not carried 
 
Xi.i.] WAk Of THE FREKCti REVOLUTION. 30! 
 
 out But the land operations were for the most 
 part signal fai hires ; an English expeditionary force 
 was driven by the P'rench out of Holland, Spain 
 went over to France, and Prussia and other allies fell 
 off; upon which Great Britain sought, but ineffectually, 
 for peace. There was much discontent at home ; 
 food being dear, cries were raised for " Bread " and 
 *' Peace," while the government, frightened lest the 
 revolutionary spirit should spread, became harsh and 
 even arbitrary. The cost of the war was heavy, and 
 the Bank of England was, in February, 1797, so 
 drained that it stopped cash payments. Ireland was 
 ready to revolt ; Spain and Holland were both in 
 alliance with France, and if their fleets could join 
 in the Channel, they would together form a force 
 stronger than any which England had at hand to 
 oppose it. Two great victories however averted 
 this last danger. On the 14th February, Sir John 
 Jei'viSy with only fifteen sail of the line against the 
 enemy's twenty-five, defeated the Spanish fleet off 
 Cape St Vincent, In this action two ships were 
 boarded and taken by Commodore Horatio Nelson^ 
 the greatest of the many great sailors of Britain. He 
 was the son of a clergyman in Norfolk, and though 
 a delicate boy — too weak, his sailor uncle thought, **to 
 rough it out at sea " — had early given tokens of the 
 daring spirit which he displayed throughout his career, 
 and which he inspired in those who served under 
 him. " My seamen," he once said of his crew, " are 
 now what British seamen ought to be — ^almost in- 
 vincible. They really mind shot no more than peas." 
 He was a master of the art of naval warfare, which 
 was waged under conditions far different from those 
 of our own day; for the heaviest guns of Nelson's 
 time were but feeble compared to those of recent 
 invention, and steamships and ironclads v.ere un- 
 known. " Heart of oak are our ships, heart of oak 
 arc our men," ran the popular song, and the navy 
 
 HI''! i 
 
 l;i.(!« 
 
 13 
 
 in 
 
304 
 
 GEORGE 111. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 was proudly spoken of as " the wooden walls of Old 
 England." But the trust of the nation in its navy 
 received an alarming shock from the sudden mutiny 
 of the Channel Fleet when ordered to sea. The 
 sailors were not without grievances to excuse them. 
 The Crown had a right to impress seamen, and the 
 press-gangs, hated and feared in every port, carried 
 men off by force to the King's ships, where the pay 
 was small and the food bad. The sailors demanded 
 an increase of wages to be secured to them by statute, 
 and a pardon ; and, after some delay. Lord Howe 
 was sent to meet the mutineer leaders with the re- 
 quired Act and the King's pardon in his hand. On 
 the 17th May the fleet put to sea. A second and 
 more violent mutiny broke out in the ships at the 
 Nore — "the Floating Republic," they styled them- 
 selves — but, as this did not extend to the other fleets, 
 obedience was re-established in a few weeks, and the 
 ringleaders wt/e tried and hanged. The sailors 
 made atonement by fighting valiantly in the battle 
 won October 11 by Admiral Adam Duncan^ off 
 Camperdowiiy over Admiral Van Winter and the fleet 
 of the Dutch, who at that time formed a Republic 
 dependent on France, and whose vessels were in- 
 tended to aid in an invasion of Ireland. The Dutch 
 maintained the contest with a courage worthy of their 
 old renown. Van Winter only striking his flag after 
 losing all his masts and half his crew. Eight ships of 
 the line and two of fifty-six guns were brought as 
 prizes to England. This eventful year is also marked 
 by the death of Burke, who to the last protested 
 against the peace which Pitt had again vainly striven 
 to bring about. 
 
 9. Napoleon Buonaparte. — For the next eight- 
 een years the history of Europe is the history of 
 Napoleon Buonaparte^ who by his surpassing military 
 genius raised himself to be despotic ruler of France, 
 and annexed or brought into vassalage all the western 
 
tCHAP. 
 
 ills of Old 
 n its navy 
 en mutiny- 
 sea. The 
 :use them, 
 fi, and the 
 rt, carried 
 e the pay 
 demanded 
 t>y statute, 
 )rd Howe 
 h the re- 
 md. On 
 ond and 
 )s at the 
 ;d them- 
 ler fleets, 
 I and the 
 e sailors 
 le battle 
 icaUf off 
 the fleet 
 Republic 
 i^ere in- 
 e Dutch 
 of their 
 ag after 
 ships of 
 ught as 
 marked 
 otested 
 striven 
 
 t eight- 
 tory of 
 nilitary 
 ""ranee, 
 i^estcra 
 
 JtU.] 
 
 NAPOLEON BUONAPAntfe. 
 
 303 
 
 part of the Continent of Europe. This great soldier 
 was of Italian race, and a native of the island of 
 Corsica. Having entered the French artillery, he had 
 risen rapidly under the warlike rule of the Republic, 
 and made himself a name by his conquests in Italy. 
 In 1798 he undertook an expedition to Egypt, his 
 head full of magnificent schemes of founding an 
 Eastern Empire. On his passage he evaded Nelson 
 and the English fleet, who were looking out for him. 
 Nelson however found the Erench fleet lying in the 
 Bay of Aboukir, and there defeated it in the great 
 Battle 0/ the Nile, August i. Being wounded in the 
 head, the English admiral was carried below, when 
 the surgeon quitted a patient who was then under his 
 hands to attend to him. *' No ! " said Nelson, *' I will 
 take my turn with my brave fellows." BrueySy the 
 French admiral, died on the deck of his own ship, 
 the L Orient^ which, after his fall, having taken fire, 
 blew up. There was a brief lull in the fight — the 
 firing was discontinued on both sides, and the first 
 sound that broke the silence was the splash of the 
 L'Orient's masts and yards, falling from the vast height 
 to which they had been hurled. The battle went on 
 till daybreak, only four French vessels escaping. For 
 this victory Nelson was created a peer by the title 
 of Baron Nelson of the Nile, From Egypt Buonaparte 
 pushed into Syria, where Acre was gallantly held 
 against him by the Turkish garrison, aided by an 
 English officer. Sir Sidney Smithy who was then in 
 the Gulf of Acre with a few vessels. About the same 
 time Tippoo Sahib^ Sultan of Mysore in India, an old 
 foe of England, to whom the French gave hopes 
 of aid, was vanquibhed and slain at the storming of 
 Seringapatam by General David Baird. Foiled in 
 the East, Buonaparte went home to make himself, 
 under the title of ^* First Consul^* the master of 
 France. In December, i8oo, Russia, Denmark, and 
 Sweden again formed a confederacy to resist the 
 
304 
 
 GSORGE lit. 
 
 tCltAl*. 
 
 a- 
 
 English system of maritime law. The death of the 
 Czar or Emperor of Russia soon put an end to the 
 war which arose out of these disputes, and during 
 which Nelson took or destroyed the Danish fleet in 
 the battle of Copenhagen or of the Baltic, April 2, 
 
 1 80 1. The Danish fleet and batteries made such a 
 stout resistance that Sir Hyde Parker, Nelson's 
 superior officer, gave the signal for retreat. Nelson, 
 venturing to disobey, put his glass to his blind eye, 
 — for he had lost an eye in action— and saying that 
 he "really did not see the signal," bade that 
 his own signal for close action should be "nailed 
 to the mast." In Egypt the battle of Alexandria, 
 March 21, 1801, was gained by Sir Ralph Abercromby 
 over the army which Buonaparte had left there, and 
 before the end of the year the French evacuated 
 that country. Wearied of war. Great Britain, which 
 had once haughtily declined negotiation with Buona- 
 parte, was now glad to conclude a peace at Amiens, 
 
 1802. although nearly all her conquests were thereby 
 surrendered. 
 
 10. War with Buonaparte. — The peace was 
 short-lived, a dispute about Malta, which had come 
 into the possession of the English, and which they 
 would not give up, leading to the renewal of war in 
 
 1803. Though Malta was the immediate subject of 
 dispute, there were deeper causes of strife. Great 
 Britain was alarmed and angered by the way in which 
 Buonaparte went on enlarging his dominions and 
 planning fresh conquests; and Buonaparte was en- 
 raged at any attempts to thwart him. The freedom 
 too with which the English press, and more especially 
 a French journal published in London, criticized his 
 proceedings was a cause of irritation to his despotic 
 mind. In retaliation for the seizure of two French 
 vessels without, as he complained, a formal declaration 
 of war — although war had been practically announced 
 by the withdrawal of the ambassadors on both «idcs 
 
 IV 
 
 > 
 
Xt!.] 
 
 WAR WlTk SOONAt^ARtfe. 
 
 30$ 
 
 — Buonaparte arrested all the English in France, 10,000 
 peaceful travellers, and detained them for the next 
 eleven years. He seized Hanover, and collected troops 
 and transports at Boulogne for the invasion of Great 
 Britain. So confident was he, that he prepared a medal 
 which was to commemorate the conquest he had 
 not yet made. It bore the words, ** Descent upon 
 England," and "Struck at London in 1804." Great 
 Britain made ready for the expected struggle, nearly 
 400,000 volunteers being quickly enrolled ; and month 
 after month it waited for the long-deferred invasion. 
 At last, in August 1805, Buonaparte, who had now 
 taken the title of Efuperor of the French^ was ready 
 to cross the Channel. ** If we are masters of the 
 passage for twelve hours," he wrote, " England has 
 lived." His scheme was that his fleet, on which he 
 counted for the protection of his transports, should 
 sail to the West Indies, so as to lure the British 
 admirals away in pursuit, and then, having joined 
 with that of Spain, should suddenly return and enter 
 the Channel. But some of his ships were blockaded 
 in the port of Brest by Admiral Cornwallis; and though 
 a combined French and Spanish fleet, closely chased 
 by Nelson, did sail to the West Indies, on its return it 
 was encountered and defeated off Cape Finisterre 
 by Sir Robert Calder. After this action it made 
 for Spain, and was now lying in Cadiz, not daring 
 to attempt to force the entrance of the Channel. 
 Buonaparte's xheme had broken down, but he took 
 care that people should have no time to scoff" at its 
 failure. Pitt, who had resigned office in 1801, but 
 had since returned to power, had just formed a league 
 or " coalition" with Austria and Russia. Against the 
 Austrians accordingly Napoleon turned his arms, 
 and swooping upon them before the Russians could 
 join, he forced one of their armies to surrender (Oct. 
 20, 1805). Lord Nelson meanwhile, as soon as the 
 French and Spanish fleets came out of Cadiz attacked 
 
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 [cttAP. 
 
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 i 
 
 
 >4 
 
 OS 
 
 
 5 
 
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 them off CVz/^ Trafalgar,, Oct. 21, 1805, hoisting, 
 before the action began, the famous signal, ^^England 
 expects that every man will do his duty^ Proudly 
 careless of his life, he stood on the deck of his 
 ship, the Victory^ with the stars of the different 
 orders with which he had been invested glittering 
 on his breast, thus making himself a mark for the 
 enemy's riflemen. In the heat of the action he 
 received his death-wound from a musket-ball, and 
 though the victory was so complete as to put an end 
 to all plans of invasion, the joy of Britain was clouded 
 by sorrow for the loss of her hero. Another great man 
 died early the next year — Pitt, whose heart had been 
 broken by Buonaparte's victory over the Austrians and 
 Russians near Ausierlitz (Dec. 2, 1805), and the con- 
 sequent ruin of all the hopes built upon the Coalition. 
 It is old how Pitt, noticing, soon after these dis- 
 asters, a map of Europe hanging upon the wall, said 
 bitterly, " Roll up that map ; it will not be wanted 
 these ten years." The French conqueror now set him- 
 self to ruin British trade by a gigantic stretch of the 
 law of blockade. A belligerent power has the right 
 to blockade its enemy's ports, that is, to hinder all entry 
 or exit, even neutral vessels being liable to seizure 
 if they try to break through. But it is required that 
 there shall be stationed at the place a sufficient force 
 to make the blockade a realitv. Great Britain had some 
 time previously declared the coast from Brest to the 
 Elbe in a state of blockade. In revenge, Buonaparte 
 on the 2ist Nov., 1806, issued the Berlin Decree (so 
 named because it was sent forth from the conquered 
 city of Berlin), which declared a blockade of the British 
 Isles, forbade all correspondence or trade with them, 
 and subjected all British goods to confiscation. This 
 Decree he enforced, not only upon his own dominions, 
 but upon all the Continental states that his power 
 could reach. He did not really blockade a single 
 harbour in the British Isles, for he had no force at 
 
 If 
 
xtl.J 
 
 THE PENINSULAR WAR. 
 
 $07 
 
 sea ; what he attempted was in fact to blockade the 
 Continent against British merchandize. Retaliatory 
 orders were issued by the English government, and 
 further orders by Buonaparte, till between tb ^m the 
 whole foreign trade of neutrals was interdicted. 
 Strengthened by a close alliance with the Emperor 
 Alexander of Russia, Buonaparte hoped to constrain 
 the whole Continent to make common cause against 
 Great Britain. The British ministers having good 
 reason to believe that the Danish fleet was about to be 
 placed at Buonaparte's disposal for an invasion of 
 England, despatched an ex;>edition to demand from th e 
 Danes the surrender of their fleet ; and on refusal, 
 Copenhagen was bombarded till the vessels were given 
 up (Sept. 1807). But though successful in balking 
 Buonaparte's maritime plans, Great Britain was power- 
 less to check him on land, where he added to his 
 dominions and carved out subject kingdoms for his 
 brothers and kinsmen at his pleasure. 
 
 1 1. The Peninsular War. — At last Britain found 
 a soldier who could match Napoleon — Sir Arthur 
 Wellcsley^ who had distinguished himself in India, 
 where he had carried on a successful war with the 
 Mahratta chiefs, over whom he gained the hard-fought 
 battle oi Assye^ September 23, 1803. In 1808, Buona- 
 parte having seized the kingdoms of Portugal and 
 Spain^ the Spanish patriots called upon England for 
 help, which was promptly given ; and thus began the 
 Peninsular War^ an obstinate struggle of six years, in 
 which Wellesley, though not as yet opposed to Buona- 
 parte himself, triumphed over many of his generals. 
 Landing in Portugal^ Wellesley on the 21st August 
 defeated the French general Junot at Vimeiro^ but his 
 superior officer — for Wellesley had not the chief com- 
 mand — would not follow up the victory, and the enemy 
 was allowed to evacuate Portugal under an arrange- 
 ment known as the Convention of Cintra, This roused 
 much wrath at home, where it was thought that Junot 
 
 ) ' I 
 
'I 
 I 
 
 'i 
 
 % 
 
 '^m^ 
 
 IH 
 
 'i 11 
 
 30S 
 
 GfeOnCE ITl. 
 
 tci!At». 
 
 had been let off too easily. Sir John Moore was then 
 placed in command, and late in October he began his 
 march into Spain. But the Spanish insurgents being 
 defeated, and the French armies gathering round the 
 English force, Moore had to retreat, in the depth of win- 
 ter, through mountain passes, to the coast. Exhausted 
 as it was, his army, having reached Coruiia, repulsed the 
 pursuing French, and was thus enabled to embark 
 in safety, though with the loss of its leader, who, 
 mortally wounded, yet lived long enough to know 
 that his enemy was worsted (January t6, 1809). The 
 sound of the distant cannon was still heard as, in the 
 darkness of night, Moore was laid in a hastily dug 
 grave on the ramparts of Coruna. In spite of this 
 disaster, the government kept up the contest. The 
 small force remaining in Portugal was strengthened, 
 and Wellesley was now given the chief command. 
 Driving the French from Portugal, he entered Spain, 
 and on the 28th July defeated Marshal Victor in the 
 battle of Talavera^ an achievement for which he was 
 raised to the peerage as Viscount Wellijigton. But the 
 campaign as a whole failed, chiefly through the mis- 
 management of the Spanish generals ; and Wellington 
 had to fall back to the Portuguese frontier. He had 
 many difficulties in carrying on the war ; for, while the 
 French generals took by force everything they needed, 
 the British generals, allies of Spain, had no such 
 resource, and were hard put to it for provisions. His 
 perseverance however triumphed over every obstacle. 
 To protect the peninsula of Lisbon, he constructed 
 over the mountainous country between Torres Vedrai 
 and the Tagus strong lines of defence, which effec- 
 tually stayed the progress of the French Marshal Mas* 
 sena. Portugal was successfully defended, and after 
 a time, Wellington was again able to carry on offen- 
 sive war in Spain. Among the celebrated actions 
 of the war are the storming of Cindad Rodrigo and 
 Dadajoz in 1812, and of San Sebastian in 18 13; ihc 
 
XM.] 
 
 RETURN OF BUONAPARTE. 
 
 309 
 
 victory oi Salamanca y July 22, 181 2^ and that of Vitoria^ 
 June 21, 1 8 13. Step by step the French, under the 
 commarJ of Marshal Soult^ were driven across the 
 Pyrenees into their own country, where Soult still 
 maintained the struggle. The last battle was fought 
 near Toulouse, April 10, 18 14, when Buonaparte had 
 ceased to be the master of France. His efforts to put 
 a stop to trade with Great Britain having embroiled 
 him with Russia, he had in 1812 invaded that country 
 with a mighty host, and, being vanquished more by 
 the winter's cold than by the sword, had brought 
 but a miserable remnant back. Germany, long 
 crushed under his feet, had then begun to rise up. 
 "A year ago," said Buonaparte in 18 13, "all Europe 
 was marching with us ; now all Europe is marching 
 against us." Soon after the British, Spanish, and Portu- 
 guese had made their way into France through the 
 Pyrenees, the allied Russians, Prussians, and Aus- 
 trians invaded it frori the east; and, ten days 
 before the battle of Toulouse, the Emperor of Russia 
 and the King of Prussia had entered Paris. Buonaparte 
 abdicated, and was allowed to hold the sovereignty of 
 the litde isle of Elba ; while the brother of the executed 
 King Louis was raised to the French throne as Louis 
 XVIII. 
 
 12. Battle of Waterloo. — Not a year had passed 
 when Buonaparte returned to France, where he was 
 again received as ruler. His old soldiers rallied round 
 him ; while the Allied Powers, whose representatives 
 were then sitting at Vienna to settle the affairs of 
 Europe, declared him an outlaw, and made ready for 
 war. Great Britain granting large subsidies to her allies, 
 whose finances were so exhausted that without such 
 assistance they would have been unable to move. 
 The English commander-in-chief, now Duke of 
 Wellington, and the Prussian general Blikher gathered 
 their forces together in the Netherlands. Buona- 
 parte, designing to interpose between the British 
 
3«o 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 [CHAP. 
 
 I 
 
 li 
 
 and Prussian armies, and to overthrow them sepa- 
 rately, crossed the frontier to attack them on their 
 own ground. After severe engagements between the 
 English and French at Quatre Bras, and the French 
 and Prussians at Ligny, June 16,^ 181 5, Welling- 
 ton and Buonaparte joined battle near Waterloo, 
 June 18. The day was stubbornly contested, the 
 British standing with the utmost firmness for more 
 than five hours, until the Prussians, as they nad 
 promised, came up to their support. The Imperial 
 Guard, the flower of Buonaparte's army, then advancing 
 to the charge against the British, was driven back ; 
 upon this, Buonaparte, seeing that all was lost, fled, 
 and the victory was complete. The British and 
 Prussians entered Paris ; while Buonaparte, finding 
 it impossible to carry out his design of escaping to the 
 United States, surrendered himself on board the 
 British man-of-war Belle: ophon, and was sent by the 
 Allied Sovereigns captive to the island of St. Helena, a 
 British possession, where he ended his days, May 5, 
 182 1. By the Treaty of Paris, Nov. 20, 1815, made 
 between the Allies and the government of Louis 
 XVIII., the territory of France was reduced nearly to 
 its limits in 1790, all Buonaparte's conquests and 
 most of those of the Revolutionary government being 
 taken away. The conquests which were kept by Great 
 Britain at the end of these wars were the Cape of Good 
 Hope, which had been taken from the Dutch, the 
 Dutch possessions in Ceylon^ as well as Berbice and 
 other Dutch settlements in Guiana ; the islands of 
 Mauritius (also called the Isle of France), and of the 
 Seychelles, and some other islands in the Indian Ocean 
 taken from the French; some West Indian islands, 
 taken from the French or the Spaniards ; and in 
 Europe, the islands of Malta and Heligoland, Malta, 
 which had belonged to the military brotherhood 
 of the Knights of St. John, had in 1798 been 
 acquired by France, but had been taken by the 
 
 ' f'' «i 
 
KLi.] WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 3«» 
 
 British forces in 1800 ; Heligoland had been a Danish 
 possession. 
 
 13. War with the United States. Bombard- 
 ment of Algiers. — In 181 2 the United States of 
 America, being irritated at the damage to their trade 
 arising out of the Orders issiied in retaliation for the 
 Berlin Decree, and disputing the claim to impress 
 British subjects found on board American vessels, 
 declared war against Great Britain. This contest, in 
 which the United States attempted, though without 
 success, to conquer Canada, was brought to an end 
 early in 181 5. At sea the English at first were 
 worsted in a succession of combats between single 
 vessels. Waging war in every quarter of the globe 
 at once, they could not man their vessels with picked 
 crews like those of the Americans, who had only one 
 contest on their hands ; moreover the American 
 frigates, ^a a class, were larger and carried heavier guns 
 than the frigates of the British navy, and in gunnery 
 their men were more carefully trained. The English 
 felt defeat on their favourite element as a sore disgrace, 
 and the relief was great when Captain Broke of the 
 British frigate Shannon challenged the United States 
 frigate Chesapeake to an encounter off Boston, and, 
 the vessels being of equal strength, came off conqueror 
 (June I, 181 3). The last mihtary operation of this 
 reign was the English and Dutch bombardment in 
 18 16 of Algiers, whose Dey or prince was thereby 
 compelled to set free nearly two thousand Christian 
 slaves. 
 
 14. Home Affairs. — The National Debt had been 
 more than trebled by the war ; and as years of strife 
 had impoverished all Europe, there was now scarcely 
 any foreign market for British manufactures, and little 
 demand for labour at home. With the idea of encou- 
 raging and protecting home agriculture, a corn law was 
 passed in 1815, practically prohibiting the importation 
 of foreign wheat until British wheat should have risen 
 
3i« 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 ati. 
 
 to Sos. the quarter. The restricting the supply of 
 foreign corn was no new thing; but this Act carried 
 it further than it had ever gone of late years. Dis- 
 turbances and riots, and the formation of political 
 societies which advocated sweeping reforms and some- 
 times plotted revolution, led to the adoption of 
 stringent provisions for repressing sedition. In 1816 
 came a season of scarcity, and with wheat rising to 
 famine prices, and a surplus of labour, the distress 
 and discontent of the people were great. The " Lut/- 
 ditcs^^ who were bands of workmen leagued to break 
 'he stocking and lace frames which interfered with 
 iheif employment, had first arisen in 1812, and having 
 never been thoroughly put down, now revived with 
 new violence. In 181 9 a large open-air meeting in 
 St. Peter's Field, Manchester, held with a view to 
 obtaining a reform of Parliament, was put down by 
 military force with bloodshed. This affray has since 
 been commonly known as the " Manchester MassacreP 
 The blind and aged George III. died, January 29, 
 1820, at Windsor Castle, leaving six sons and five 
 daughters. His eldest son, the Prince Regent, who 
 had ruled for the last nine years, had only one child, 
 Princess Charlotte Augusta^ who in 1816 married 
 Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg^ and died the next 
 year. 
 
 15. The Royal Marriage Act. — In 1772 was 
 passed the Royal Marriage Act^ by which the descen- 
 dants of George II. (other than the issue of princesses 
 married into foreign families) are incapaci ated from 
 marrying under the age of twenty-five without the con- 
 sent of the sovereign. After that age, marriage may 
 be contracted upon due notice, unless both Houses of 
 Parliament signify their disapprobation. The King's 
 anger against his brothers, William Henry^ Duke of 
 Gloucester^ and Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, 
 who had both made marriages which displeased him, 
 led to this measure. 
 
XLI.) 
 
 IRISH AFFAIRS. 
 
 313 
 
 16. Irish Affairs. — In 1782 //r/^;/// obtained the 
 independence of its Parliament, which had formerly 
 been subordinate to that of England, a^-l though still 
 subject to the Kmg, thus ceased to be dependent upon 
 Great Britain. Henry Graitan, a barrisar and a mem- 
 ber of the Irish House of Commons, made himself 
 famous by the eloquence which he displayed in 
 advocating the legislative independence of his native 
 country. During the War of the French Revolution, 
 the United Irishmen^ an association which had origin- 
 ally been formed with a view to obtaining a reform of 
 the Irish legislature, entered into treasonable corre- 
 spondence with Fra) ce, from which more than one 
 expedition was sent to \\\i\i aid. Of these the most 
 formidable, under General Hoche^ was scattered by a 
 tempest in 1796 ; anriier 'in 1798 made its way into 
 Longford, where i*^ was constrained to surrender, while 
 the United Irishm-i, who rose in rebellion, and were 
 routed at Vinegar Hill in Wexford, were put down with 
 cruel severities. Of the chiefs of the conspiracy. 
 Lord Edward Fitzgerald was seized before the out- 
 break, and died of wounds received while defending 
 himself from arrest ; Wolfe Tone, who was captured 
 on board of one of the vessels of a French squadron, 
 being condemned to the gallows, killed himself in 
 prison. After the insurrection had been quelled, 
 Ireland was, on the ist January, 1801, united to Great 
 Britain, and thenceforth sent her representatives to the 
 British Parliament. The cross of the patron saint of 
 Ireland, St. Patrick, was at the same time added to 
 those of St. George and St. Andrew on the national flag. 
 It was in this year, 1801, that the title of '* King of 
 France" in the style of the Crown was at last dropped. 
 
 17. Indian Affairs. Discoveries and Im- 
 provements. — During the long reign of George III. 
 there were many wars in India ; Hyder Ali^ Rajah of 
 Mysore, his son a, id successor Tippoo, and the Mahratta 
 cliiefs Scindia and Holkar, being among our most 
 
 V 
 
 
■ ■( '' ' '^''' 
 
 $H 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 [chap. 
 
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 91 
 
 .•1 
 
 ml 
 
 
 
 t:il 
 
 formidable enemies. Warren Hastings, who in 1774 
 became the first Governor-General of India, ranks as 
 one of the greatest of English statesmen who have borne 
 rule in the East ; and to his abilities it was owing that 
 at the close of the American War of Independence, 
 Great Britain, whilst losing elsewhere, had increased 
 her power in India, Hastings was in 1787 impeached 
 by the Commons on charges of injustice, oppression, 
 and extortion ; but after a trial by the House of Lords, 
 which dragged on for seven years, he was acquitted. 
 Lord Cornwallis, who became Governor-General in 
 1786, waged a successful war with Tippoo Sahib ; and 
 tlie British dominion was still further strengthened and 
 extended under the governorship of the Marquess 
 Wellesley, brother of the Duke of Wellington, and 
 that of the Marquess of Hastings, The whole of 
 Ceylon was also in 181 5 brought under British rule. 
 New openings for colonization were found by Captain 
 James Cooky a Yorkshireman, who, beginning his sea 
 life as apprentice in a collier, at the breaking out of 
 war between France and England in 1755 entered 
 the King's service. In 1 768, being placed in command 
 of the Endeavour, which was fitted out for the South 
 Seas for the purpose of making astronomical observa- 
 tions, he started on the first of his famous voyages of 
 discovery. In the course of these he explored the 
 Society Islands, so named by him in honour of the 
 Royal Society, at whose instance he had been sent 
 out ; he sailed round New Zealand, which had been 
 un visited by Europeans since its discovery by the 
 Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1642; and he surveyed 
 the eastern coast of New Holland or Australia, 
 naming that part New South Wales, from its like- 
 ness to the coast of South Wales at home. The 
 name of Endeavour Bay in New South Wales 
 preserves the memory of Cook's vessel. Cook also 
 discovered and named New Caledonia, an island 
 of which the French government was allowed to 
 
XLi.] DISCOVERIES ANt) IMPROVEMEKtS. 315 
 
 take possession in 1853 for the purposes of a penal 
 settlement. On his third voyage, in 1779, when the 
 great navigator was at the Sandwich Islands^ a group 
 which he had discovered and named after the Earl of 
 Sandwich who was then at the head of the Admiralty, 
 he was slain in a sudden fray with the natives. 
 Among his other merits, Cook was distinguished by 
 the justice and fairness of his dealings with the tribes 
 he visited, and by his care and success in preserving 
 his crews from that scourge of seamen, the scurvy. 
 Some years after his death, New South Wales was 
 colonized as a place of transportation for criminals. 
 Another penal settlement was made about 1804 in 
 Van Diemen^s Landy which had been discovered and 
 named by Tasman. In later days, when Van Diemen's 
 Land had become the seat of a thriving free settle- 
 ment, its name, which was disliked on account of its 
 association with convicts, was changed to that of 
 Tasmania, New Zealand also began to be colonized 
 by English settlers from New South Wales in the early 
 part of the nineteenth century. Not less important 
 were the triumphs of science and enterprise at home. 
 Dr. Edward Jenner^ whose name is ever to be remem- 
 bered with gratitude, was the inventor of vaccination 
 as a preventive of small-pox, his first experiment 
 being made in 1796. Great advances were made in 
 astronomy and chemistry, and vast improvements were 
 effected in the arts of industry, which have raised 
 Britain to her present position as a manufacturing 
 country. Navigable canals had begun to be con- 
 structed. Early in the reign of George III. James 
 Brindley made the famous canal from Worsley to 
 Manchester, a work of which the engineering diffi- 
 culties were thought so great that Brindley and his 
 employer Francis Egerton^ Duke of Bridgeivater^ were 
 looked on as madmen for engaging in it. The 
 Duke was the owner of rich coal-mines at Worsley, 
 about seven miles from Manchester, but the coal had 
 
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 hitherto lain useless from the difficulty and expense of 
 land carriage. Brindley, being entrusted with the task 
 of cutting a canal from Worsley, determined to 
 do without locks, and to make it of uniform level 
 throughout. At one point he proposed to carry it 
 over the Irwell by an aqueduct of thirty-nine feet 
 above the surface of the stream. This was so 
 bold a design that another engineer was called in to 
 give his opinion. The new-comer shook his head : 
 *' he had often," he said, "heard of castles in the air, 
 but never before was shown where any of them were 
 to be erected." But the Duke stood by his own 
 engineer, and the aqueduct was successfully con- 
 structed. Smeaton, already famous as the builder of 
 the Eddystone lighthouse, laid out in 1767 the line of 
 the great canal connecting the Forth and Clyde. 
 The manufacture oi pottery was raised to a flourishing 
 condition by Josiah Wedgwood^ a Staffordshire man ; 
 and that of iroriy by Dr. Roebuck^ s process of smelting 
 with pit-coal instead of charcoal. Machinery was 
 applied to spin and weave cotton, the spinning frame 
 being first made in 1768 by Richard Arkwright^ origi- 
 nally a barber of Bolton. Arkwright, who was after- 
 wards knighted, made a large fortune by his works. 
 But the crowning achievement of the age was that of 
 the Scotsman James Watt, who, though not actually 
 the inventor of the steam-engine, so improved it as to 
 place a new power in the hands of mankind. Steam- 
 boats came into use about 181 2. The first steam- 
 boat in actual working use in Great Britain was the 
 " Comety^ which was built after the design of Henry 
 Bell of Glasgow, and plied between that town and 
 Helensburgh at the rate of about five miles an hour. 
 Iron began to be used instead of wood as the 
 material of ships, the first iron steam- vessel that went 
 to sea being built about 1820. Gas was turned to 
 account as a means of giving light, Pall Mall being 
 iirst lighted with it in 1807. 
 
X1.1 ] 
 
 REFORMS. 
 
 317 
 
 18. Reforms. — Among the notable men of this 
 reign must be named some who spent their lives in 
 endeavouring to remedy the evils and abuses around 
 them. John Howard is famous for his labours in the 
 reform of prisons. Becoming in 1773 High Sheriff of 
 Bedfordshire, he was shocked by the condition in 
 which he found the gaols, and he thereupon devoted 
 himself to the task of examining into their state 
 throughout the country, and of calling the attention of 
 Parliament to them. Such inquiries were undertaken 
 at no small hazard ; for the prisons of the time, 
 without order or discipline, with their inmates left at 
 the mercy of hard and extortionate gaolers were dens 
 so foul and infected that to enter them was risk of 
 life. Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce are 
 honoured as the leaders of the party which did away 
 with the slave-trade. Although it had been decided in 
 1772 by the Court of King's Bench at Westminster 
 that slavery could not legally exist in England, her 
 colonies, like those of other nations, continued to 
 employ the labour of negro-slaves, who were imported 
 in vast numbers from Africa. Carkson was the first 
 who effectually stirred up public feeling against this 
 cruel traffic, which the society of Quakers had already 
 denounced. He and his associates were seconded in 
 Parliament by Wilberforce, the son of a Hull 
 merchant, and, at last, after agitating the matter for 
 nearly twenty years, they succeeded in 1807 in ob- 
 taining the passing of an Act abolishing the slave- 
 trade. Fox, although he did not live to see the 
 measure carried through Parliament, did much towards 
 bringing it about. Sir Saviuel Romilly is distinguished 
 for his efforts to mitigate the severity of the criminal 
 law; and by his exertions, he succeeded in doing away 
 with the punishment of death in o.e case of many 
 small offences against property. 
 
 1 9. Literature. — End of Eighteenth Century, 
 ^^n the early years of George HI., Dr. Samiic^ 
 
V8 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 
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 11 
 
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 /oJi/isofty the compiler of the well-known English 
 Dictionary, bo: 2 sway as a kind of literary sovereign, 
 although as an author he belongs equally to the 
 preceding reign. It was in 1737 that he first came to 
 London with his pupil Garrick, afterwards famous as 
 an actor, to seek his fortune by writing, which was 
 then but an ill-paid rade. After many years of hard- 
 ship, his fame became established. George III., soon 
 after his accession, granted him a pension, and 
 Johnson, reverenced by the new generation, who 
 relied implicitly on his judg'nent and admired his 
 sonorous, balanced, and I ^tinized style, spent the 
 rest of his life in comfort. He died in 1784. His 
 biography, written by his devoted worshipper James 
 Boswell^ who noted his every word and action, 
 has done almost as much to perpetuate his fame as 
 any of his own works in verse or prose. Horace 
 Walpole^ youngest son of Sir Robert, and author of the 
 wild romance of the Castle of Otranto^ showed his 
 l)o\ver chiefly in his letters, which extend over the 
 period from 1735 ^^ i797> ^^^ hy their liveliness and 
 ease, their fund of gossip and anecdote, have won him 
 the praise of being "the best letter-writer in the English 
 language." Oliver Goldsmith^ an idle, good-natured, 
 and improvident man, ever in difficulties, was the 
 author of a novel, The Vicar of Wakefield^ a poem. The 
 Deserted Village^ and a comedy. She Stoops to Conquer, 
 which have all obtained lasting fame. In 1769, during 
 the struggle between the House of Commons and 
 Wilkes, began to appear the famous Letters of Junius, 
 published in the Public Advertiser, a London news- 
 paper. These were a series of powerful and savage 
 attacks, directed against most men in high place, but 
 more especially against the then prime minister, the 
 Duke of Grafton, and his friends. " Junius " — for so 
 the letters were signed — concealed himself so well that 
 it has never been known for certain who he was. 
 Adam Smithy a Scotsman, born at Kirkcaldy in 1723, 
 
XI.I ] 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 VO 
 
 and for many years Professor of Moral Philosophy in 
 ihe University of Glasgow, published in 1776 his 
 great work on political economy, entitled An Inquiry 
 into the Nature and Causes 01 the We Ith of Nations. 
 He was the founder of the modern school of political 
 economy. Another Scotsman, William Robertson^ was 
 the author of a History of Scotland^ comprising the 
 reigns of Mary and of James VI. till his accession to 
 the crown of England, which was published in 1759. 
 Some years afterwards followed his History of the 
 Reign of the Emperor Charles K, which is con- 
 sidered his best work. Edward Gibbon, the historian 
 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire^ is 
 distinguished by the wide range of his learning, 
 by his coldly majestic style, and by his power of 
 grave and quiet sarcasm, which, being himself an 
 unbeliever in Christianity, he particularly delighted 
 in directing against the early professors of the 
 faith. The Decline and Fall is probably the greatest 
 historical work in the English language. The drama 
 was enlivened by the brilliant comedies of the Rivals 
 and the School for Scandal, which were written by 
 Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Having made a name 
 as a dramatist and a wit, Sheridan turned his mind 
 to politics, and, attaching himself to Fox, Burke, and 
 the other Opposition leaders, he became one of the 
 most noted speakers in the House of Commons. 
 Frances Burney, the daughter of an eminent musical 
 composer, rose to fame at the age of twenty-five by the 
 publication in 1778 of the History of Evelina, whicJi 
 was read and piaised even by men who did not often 
 condescend to turn over a novel. Queen Charlotte 
 testified her admiration of the novelist by making her 
 one of the keepers of her robes ; but, though the 
 most loyal of subjects, Miss Burney found the life of 
 a waiting-woman not at all to her taste. She poured 
 out the story of her woes in the Diary which she 
 \S-\^ during her five years' service in the dull, formal 
 
320 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 [chap 
 
 !\U 
 
 14 
 
 i 
 
 If. 
 
 court of George III. A/in Radcliffe wrote the Mysteries 
 of Udolpho^ which long thrilled novel-readers with its 
 romantic horrors, and which may be accounted the 
 best specimen of a style of fiction which was in its 
 time much admired. Thomas £>ay, a benevolent and 
 eccentric man, is best remembered by his History of 
 Sandford atid Merton^ one of the most popular of 
 children's books. In this may be traced the influence 
 of the French school of philosophers who paved the 
 way for the Revolution — their revolt against the 
 artificial manners of fashionable society, their doctrine 
 of the equality of mankind, and their tendency to 
 ascribe all the follies and sins of men to bad edu- 
 cation. In poetry there is for some time little to 
 note except the verse of Goldsmith ; but in the latter 
 part of the century there arose a poet who had 
 the vigour to discard the monotonous and mannered 
 style which had been in vogue ever since the days 
 of Pope. This was William Coivper, whose poems 
 are marked by deep religious feeling, by a genuine 
 love of nature, and by a sarcastic power hardly to be 
 looked for in one who was morbidly sensitive, and 
 at times afflicted with melancholy madness. He 
 died in 1800. Robert Bums, an Ayrshire farmer, who 
 wrote in his native dialect of English, is especially 
 the poet of the Scottish people; and his war-song, 
 "Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled," an imaginary 
 address of Robert Bruce to his army before the battle 
 of Bannockburn, has become the national poem of 
 his country. 
 
 20. Early Nineteenth Century Literature. 
 • — The works of Covvper and Burns were the first 
 symptoms of that awakening of the spirit of poetry 
 which took place about the end of the eighteentli 
 century, 'x'he times were such as make poets ; for 
 the great upheaving of the French Revolution, which 
 brought forth as it vvere a new world, and the long 
 Ltruggle with Napoleon inspired new ideas of liberty 
 
XI.I.] 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 3*1 
 
 and fresh ardour of patriotism. The opinions of 
 the /cuolnnSj as the extreme revolutionists in France 
 were called, took strong hold of two young poets, 
 Robert Southey and his great companion Samuel Taylor 
 Coleridge, who however both sobered down 'n after- 
 life. Southey, whose fierce republicanism had once 
 afforded subjects for the witt}' parodies of Hookham 
 Frere and George Canning in the Anti-Jacobin^ turned 
 into a somewhat bigoted Tory. Of his many poems, 
 perhaps the best is tlic metrical romance of Thalab'i 
 the Destroyer, published in 1802. In prose he was 
 the author of a lAfe of Nelson, which has been said to 
 be " beyond all doubt, the most perfect and the most 
 delightful of his works." Coleridge excelled in throw- 
 ing a weird and mysteiious air over his poems, of which 
 the most characteristic are the Ancient Mariner and 
 the fragment called ChristabeL Both Southey and 
 Coleridge belonged to what was called the Lake School 
 of poetry, of which William Wordsworth was the head. 
 The circumstance of these three friends living in 
 the neighbourhood of the lakes of Cumberland and 
 Westmoreland gave rise to the name, which was 
 peculiarly applicable to Wordsworth from the minute- 
 ness and truth with which he described the scenery and 
 people of his native North. As his theory and style 
 of poetry altogether differed from those of any writer 
 before him, and were not of a kind to be popular, 
 Wordsworth had to encounter much derision before 
 his position as a man of genius was established. 
 Ihomas Campbell, whose works breathe a spirit of 
 patriotism and freedom, is chiefly remembered by his 
 shorter poems, such as trie spirited songs of Ye 
 Mariners of England, written in expectation of war 
 with Denmark, and the Battle of the Baltic, com- 
 memorating Nelson's attack on Copenhagen in 180 1. 
 Sir Walter Scott was long the most popular poet of 
 his da), and when he lost that position, he became 
 the most popular novelist. In 1805 he surjprised the 
 
 I a 
 
 f I I 
 

 'y*/, 
 
 
 
 I . rC ; il 
 
 322 
 
 rxEORGE HI. 
 
 t.CHAP. 
 
 world by the wild wailikc vigour of the Lay of the 
 Last Minstrel^ a talc of waifarecn the Scottish Border 
 in the sixteenth ctnLury. This was followed up by 
 other metrical romances of Scottish and English 
 chivalry. More perhaps was done by Scott tha 1 by 
 any one else to call forth that appreciation of the 
 literature, art, feelings, and mar.ners of the Te;itonic 
 and Celtic races which was giadually displacing the 
 exclusive admiration of Greek and Roman antiquity. 
 He turned to prose when he saw that his poetical 
 renown was waning before that of a younger rival. 
 This was George Gordon^ Lord Byron., whose first 
 cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage^ published in 
 181 2, had such immediate success that, as he himself 
 said, he woke one morning and found himself famous. 
 Byron led a wild and unhappy life, and, splendid 
 as his poems are, they are marred by moral faults 
 which increased with his years. In 1824, when 
 only thirty-six years of age, he died at Mesolongi, 
 whither he had gone to fight for the Greek patriots 
 against the Turks. Two years earlier, his friend 
 Percy Bysske Shelley, whose religious and social 
 opinions had made him so unpopular that he left 
 England, had been drowned in the Mediterranean. 
 Shelley .-li^ been called " the Foet of Poets," because 
 his writi. 50, though not suited to ordinary minds, can 
 be appreciated by those who are themselves poets. 
 In prose the most notable works of the time were 
 Scott's Waverley Novels^ by which he won a still higher 
 place than that to which he had attained as a poet. 
 The first of the set, Waverley^ a tale of the adventures 
 of an English gentleman who joins the Young Cheva- 
 lier's army, was published anonymously in 18 14, and 
 was quickly followed by a host of other novels and 
 romances. Scott's aim was, as he has told us, to 
 do for his own country what Maria Edgeworth had 
 already done for Ireland — " something which might 
 intro^uc^ h^r natives to thpsq of th^ sister kingdona 
 
J.CHAP. 
 
 ay of the 
 jh Border 
 id up by 
 English 
 ;t thai by 
 ^ of the 
 Teutonic 
 acing the 
 antiquity, 
 poetical 
 ger rival, 
 lose first 
 lished in 
 e himself 
 f famous, 
 splendid 
 ral faults 
 14, when 
 esolongi, 
 patriots 
 is friend 
 d social 
 he left 
 jrranean. 
 because 
 ids, can 
 |s poets, 
 le were 
 11 higher 
 a poet, 
 entures 
 Cheva- 
 4, and 
 :1s and 
 us, to 
 \th had 
 might 
 Ingdom 
 
 Xf.l ] 
 
 IJTER\TURE AND i^AIM'MMG, 
 
 321 
 
 ih a more favorable light than they had boen placed 
 hither^ ," Maria Edgeworth, whose Iri?' dn meters 
 thus roused the emulation of Scott, war novelist of 
 repute, but to the present generatioi. sho is best 
 known by her books for children. Anotner novelist, 
 of whom, diflerent as her line was from his own, 
 Scott spoke with generous admiration, was Jane 
 Austen^ a Hampshire clergyman's daughter, who 
 represented the quiet uneventful life of the English 
 lesser gentry with exquisite truth and humour. 
 
 21 Painting. — Nothing has hitherto been said 
 about painting, because England was behindhand in 
 the art, and it was not until the tim of the Georges 
 that a native school was formed. The most famous 
 names in the early history of painting in England are 
 those of foreigners. Ha?is Holbeiti, whose flattering 
 portrait of Anne of Cleves had a share in leading 
 Henry VHI. to send for her as his bride, was a 
 German. Sir Anthony Vandyck, the gre.H artist who 
 has preserved for us the features of Charles I. and his 
 nobles, was a native of Antwerp. The Vandcir/dcs, 
 fatlier and son, both noted sea-pai;.tf rs, Delonged to 
 Holland, from which country iht elder one was in- 
 vited by Charles H. Sir Piter 1; iy and Sir God/rev 
 Kneller^ the first of whom portrayed the beauties of 
 the court of Charles II., the other, the «=e of the court 
 of William III., were Germans. There were indeed 
 some good native painters, such as William Dobso/iy 
 who has been called the English Vandyck ; Robert 
 Walker, who painted Cromwell and most of his 
 officers ; and Samuel Cooper, a fine miniature-painter 
 of the days of the Commonwealth and Charles 
 II. But after these, portraiture, and indeed all 
 branches of painting, went down, until the rise of 
 IVilliam Hogarth, who flourished under George W. 
 He was the son-:n-law of Sir J^ames IhornhiU, 
 a painter much in request during the reigns of 
 Anne raid George 1. fur the deeoration of palace^ 
 
 l\ 
 
324 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 
 - V*^3| 
 
 and pui)lic buildings, whose best works adorn the 
 dome of St. Paul's and the hall of Greenwich 
 Hospital. Hogarth struck out a style of his own, 
 painting satirical scenes, sometimes humorous, some- 
 times gloomy and tragic j and his pictures, drawn 
 from the life of all classes, are records o*f the costume 
 and the manners of his age. In 176S, four years after 
 Hogarth's death, was founded the Royal Academy^ of 
 which Sir Joshua ReynoldSy the great portrait-painter 
 of England, was the first president. Reynolds is 
 accounted the founder of the English School of paint- 
 ing. Other noted artists of the time are Richard 
 Wilson^ a painter of landscape, and Thomas Gains- 
 borough^ of landscape and portraits. Among the many 
 pictures of Benjamin West, who was b rn in Pennsyl- 
 vania, then a British colony, and who became the 
 favourite artist of George HI., one of the most 'cele- 
 brated is the Death of General Wolfe, In this, instead 
 of representing the figures in ancient Greek or Roman 
 costurrif*, as was then the fashion with painters, West 
 had the good sense to depict them in dresses such as 
 they actually wore. The successor, though not the 
 equal, of Reynolds in portraiture was Sir Thomas Law- 
 rence^ who from the early part of the nineteenth century 
 until his death in 1830, possessed the public favour. 
 Sir David Wilkie^ a Scotsman, drew admirable scenes 
 of village and farmhouse life ; and the great landscape 
 painter Joseph Mallord William Turner was in the 
 middle of his career at the end of the reign of 
 George III. Turner, though he afterwards gave his 
 attention chiefly to oil painting, began as a water- 
 colour painter ; indeed the English School of water- 
 colour painting owes its origin to him and his friend 
 and fellow-student Thomas Girtin^ who formed for 
 themselves a new method and style in this art. Among 
 wuter-colourists, Samuel Prout^ who died in 1852, 
 excelled in delineating mediaeval architecture and the 
 ^ireei$ aixct market-places of foreign towns, whil^ 
 
[chap. 
 
 adorn the 
 
 Greenwich 
 of his own, 
 rous, some* 
 J res, drawn 
 he costume 
 r years after 
 icademy^ of 
 trait-painter 
 t.eynolds is 
 ol of paint- 
 re Richard 
 mas Gains- 
 g the many 
 in PennsyU 
 >ecame the 
 most cele- 
 lis, instead 
 
 or Roman 
 Iters, West 
 es such as 
 not the 
 ')mas Law- 
 ith century 
 lie favour, 
 ble scenes 
 
 landscape 
 
 '^as in the 
 
 reign of 
 
 gave his 
 
 a water- 
 
 of water- 
 
 his friend 
 )rmed for 
 t. Among 
 
 in 1852, 
 i and the 
 ns. whilq 
 
 xui.] 
 
 GEOUGE IV. 
 
 32s 
 
 David Cox is especially famed for stormy landscape 
 scenes. TJwmas Bewick^ a Northumbran, is famous 
 as the reviver of wood engraving, and his beautiful 
 ])rints of beasts, birds, and rural secnes were designed 
 as well as executed by himself. JoJm Flaxvian^ who 
 died in 1826, is considered the greatest of English 
 sculptors. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 GEORGE IV. 
 
 Geoixe IV.; Cato Street Conspiracy (i) — Queen Caroline 
 {2)— foreign affairs; battle of Navarino {2,)— Free 
 trade (4) — " Catholic Emancipation " (5) — d^t/t of 
 George IV. ; Metropolitan Police Force : Burmese 
 War {6). 
 
 1. George IV., 1820-1830. — Within a month after 
 the accession of the Prince Regent as George /K, dis- 
 covery was made of a plot for assassinating the King's 
 ministers at a Cabinet dinner. The meeting-place of 
 the conspirators was a loft in Cato Street in London, 
 and their ringleader was one Arthur Thistlewood, 
 whose object, so he averred, was to revenge the 
 " Manchester Massacre." Being convicted of treason, 
 Thistlewood and four accomplices were hanged. 
 
 2. Queen Caroline. — In 1795, George, under 
 pressure from his father, and tempted by the prospect 
 of payment of his debts, had married his cousin, 
 Caroline^ Princess of Brunswick- Wolf enbiittely an in- 
 discreet and coarse-mannered woman, from whom he 
 soon separated. Not long after his accession, a Bill 
 of Pains and Penalties was brought into Parliament 
 by the ministry to degrade and divorce the Queen 
 on charges of misconduct. After an examination of 
 witnesses before the House of Lords, the bill was 
 finally dropped, to the delight of the populace, who 
 were ail on the Queen's side, believing her to have 
 
326 
 
 GEORGE IV. 
 
 tCHAl». 
 
 
 > : 'IS 
 
 ! ■ 
 
 been wronged and persecuted. But the King was 
 still determined tc resist her claim to be crowned as 
 his consort, and in this he was supported by the Privy 
 Council. The Queen, attempting at least to be 
 present at her husband's coronation, appeared early 
 on the morning of the ceremony before the doors of 
 Westminster Abbey, but was everywhere refused 
 admission. Not long after this humiliation she fell 
 sick, and died August 7, 182 1. 
 
 3. Foreign Affairs. — Although in France the old 
 line of Kings had been restored, the work of the 
 French Revolution was far from being undone. The 
 French doctrines of " liberty, equality, and fraternity " 
 had taught oppressed or dissatisfied men of all countries 
 to draw together as one party ; and therefore princes 
 and all in authority became disposed to make common 
 cause against the malcontent. So long as the war 
 lasted, Great Britain was of necessity the close friend 
 of the old governments of the Continent ; but after the 
 peace her foreign policy began to diverge from that 
 of her allies, the Emperors of Austria and Russia and 
 the King of Pmssia. These, having joined together 
 in the " Ifo/y AUiancey^ made themselves the oppo- 
 nents of revolution, and of reform won by revolution, 
 throughout Europe; while England would not under- 
 take to interfere in the internal affairs of other states. 
 The " Holy Alliance *' was so named because the three 
 sovereigns had put forth a declaration that they would 
 be guided solely by the precepts of the Christian 
 religion ; but among ^* Liberals ^^ — as those who sympath- 
 ized with insurrection abroad, or wished for changes 
 at home, had begun to call themselves — it became a 
 byword for a league of tyrants. The alteration in the 
 foreign policy of Great Britain was mainly brought about 
 by George Caiiningy who in 1822 became Secretary of 
 State for Foreign Affairs. When the Spanish colonies 
 in South America had separated themselves from Spain, 
 Canninjs prevailed ou the British Goyernment to 
 
XI tl.] 
 
 FREE TRADE. 
 
 3^7 
 
 recognise them as independent States — a measure 
 which was looked upon as a great step in the direction 
 of Liberalism. Later on, Canning became prime 
 minister, in which position his last act was to settle a 
 treaty between Great Britain, France, and Russia, 
 with the view of putting a stop to the cruel warfare 
 carried on by the Turks in Greece, which had risen 
 against their yoke. The hope that the object of the 
 treaty would be attained without fighting was not 
 realized, for the Allied fleets and those of the Turks 
 and Egyptians came unexpectedly to a battle in the 
 port of Navarino (October 20, 1827), where the 
 Turkish fleet was in great part destroyed. 
 
 4. Free Trade. — A marked change was also 
 coming over commercial policy. The general belief 
 had hitherto been that trade ought to be controlled 
 and directed by law, so as to force it into those 
 channels which were thought most advantageous to 
 the nation or to particular classes who were strong 
 enough to secure their own interests. Thus the im- 
 portation of foreign wrought silks was forbidden, and 
 heavy duties were laid on raw and thrown silk, with 
 the idea of promoting the silk manufacture at home. 
 In the wool-trade there was a constant struggle between 
 the sheep-owners, who wished to keep out foreign 
 wool and to export their own, and the manufacturers, 
 who wanted free import, and prohibition of exports, so 
 as to keep the woollen manufacture in their own 
 hands. Then there were Navigation Ads^ intended 
 to promote the employment of British merchant-ships, 
 and as much as possible to keep out foreign ships. 
 There was however a growing behef in the advantage 
 of Free trade — that is, of leaving trade to take its 
 natural course unchecked, — and much was done 
 towards establishing such a system by William 
 Jiuskissofiy who in 1823 became President of the 
 Board of Trade. In that year he obtained the 
 passing of an Act for enabling the King in Council 
 
3>i 
 
 GEORGE IV. 
 
 [cHAt. 
 
 m- 
 
 to place the shipping of foreign states on tlie same 
 footing with British shipping, provided that similar 
 privileges were given to British ships in the ports 
 of such states. He next succeeded in doing away 
 with the prohibitions on the importation of silk manu- 
 factures, and in reducing the duties on silk. The 
 prohibitions on the exportation of wool were also 
 discontinued, and the duties on its importation were 
 reduced. In 1828, when Huskisson was Secretary of 
 State for the Colonies, a com law was passed, which 
 allowed free importation of grain, upon payment of 
 duties decreasing as the price rose, and increasing as 
 it fell. 
 
 5. *' Catholic Emancipation." — In 1828 an Act 
 was passed repealing so much of the Corporation and 
 Test Acts as required persons taking office to com- 
 municate according to the rites of the Church of 
 England. This was a concession to the Protestant 
 Dissenters, and it was soon followed up by the chief 
 measure of this reign— the " Catholic Emancipation 
 Act.'^ Till the reign of George III., Roman Catholics 
 remained subject to penal laws of such severity thatthe 
 great lawyer Blackstone could find no better defence 
 for them than that they were seldom put in force. By 
 later statutes many of these restrictions and penal- 
 ties were removed from those Roman Catholics who 
 would take a certain prescribed oath, and at last, in 
 181 7, all grades in the army and navy were practically 
 opened to them. From both Houses of Parliament, 
 and from certain offices, franchises, and civil rights, 
 they were still shut out by the oath of supremacy, and 
 by the declarations required against transubstantiation, 
 the invocation of saints, and the sacrifice of the mass. 
 On the Union with Ireland, Pitt virtually pledged 
 himself to remove these disabilities ; but as George 
 III. made it a point of conscience to refuse to en- 
 tertain such a measure, nothing was done during that 
 King's reign. Canning likewise was known to be in 
 
[CHAK 
 
 be same 
 similar 
 he ports 
 ng away 
 Ik manu- 
 Ik. The 
 ere also 
 ion were 
 retary of 
 d, which 
 ^ment of 
 rasing as 
 
 8 an Act 
 
 tion and 
 
 to com- 
 
 lurch of 
 
 rotestant 
 
 the chief 
 
 ncipation 
 
 Catholics 
 
 that the 
 
 defence 
 
 ce. By 
 
 penal- 
 
 ics who 
 
 last, in 
 
 ctically 
 
 iament, 
 
 rights, 
 
 cy, and 
 
 tiation, 
 
 mass. 
 
 ledged 
 
 eorge 
 
 to en- 
 
 g that 
 
 be in 
 
 XLIt.] 
 
 CATHOLIC EMANClfATION. 
 
 3«9 
 
 favour of the " emancipation " of the Roman Catho- 
 Hcs ; but their hopes were cast down by his death in 
 1827, and early in the following year the Duke ot 
 Wellington and Mr. (afterwards Sir Robert) Peel^ wlio 
 were both opposed to the Rorr^an Catholic claims, 
 became the chief advisers of the Crown. In Ireland 
 a " Catholic Association " had been formed, which 
 busied itself in stirring up public opinion on this subject. 
 Its leader was Daniel O Connelly a Roman Catholic 
 barrister of great eloquence and influence with his 
 countrymen. The power of the Association was shown 
 in 1828 by the election of O'Connell to a seat in 
 Parliament. The ministry now felt it necessary to 
 bring in a bill for admitting Roman Catholics to 
 Parliament, to all civil and military offices and places 
 of trust or profit under the Crown (except those of 
 Regent, Lord Chancellor in Great Britain and Ireland, 
 and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and a few others), 
 and to corporate offices, upon their taking an oath to 
 support the existing institutions of the State, and not 
 to injure those of the Church. The Duke of Welling- 
 ton avowed in the House of Lords that he had brought 
 forward this measure in order to avert civil war. 
 He knew, he said, what civil war was, and he would 
 sacrifice anything to avoid even one month of such 
 strife in his own country. Bitter were the reproaches 
 that the extreme Tories cast upon the Duke and 
 his colleague Peel for thus yielding. The Earl of 
 Winchilsea in particular published a letter in which 
 he used expressions reflecting so unfavourably upon 
 Wellington's honour as a statesman that, according 
 to the custom of the time, a duel took place between 
 the two. The Duke fired and missed, and the Earl 
 discharged his pistol in the air. The Bill was passed 
 through Parliament, and on the 13th April, 1829, 
 received the royal assent. 
 
 6. Death of George IV. — King George IV., who 
 passed the latter years of his life in seclusion, died at 
 

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330 
 
 WILLIAM IV. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 Windsor Castle, June 26, 1830. During his reign the 
 laws relating to the trial and punishment of offences 
 were consolidate! and amended, the penalties being 
 generally made less severe. The Metropolitan Police 
 Force, which greatly increased the security of London, 
 was established in 1829 by Peel, who was at that time 
 Secretary of State for Home Affairs. For about two 
 years, from 1824 to 1826, the English in India, were 
 at war with their neighbours the Burmese, each side 
 having gradually extended their possessions till they 
 met. The war ended successfully for the British, 
 who gained some territory thereby. George IV. was 
 succeeded by his brother William Henry, Duke oj 
 Clarence, 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 WILLIAM IV. 
 
 William IV, / the Reform Bill ; new part^ names (i) — 
 Abolition of Slavery (2) — death oj Ktng William ; 
 Hanover separated from Great Britain (3) — amendment 
 of the Poor Law ; reform of Municipal Corporations; 
 East India Company (4) — burning of the Houses of 
 Parliament (5) — railways ; Stephenson (6), 
 
 I. William IV., 1830-1837. The Reform 
 Bill. — William, Duke of Clarence, who had passed 
 his early life in the navy, came to the throne in 
 troublous times. Soon after his accession, revolutions 
 in France and the Netherlands disquieted Europe ; 
 while at home rick-burning and machine-breaking 
 spread alarm through the southern agricultural coun- 
 ties, and the great question of Parliamentary Reform 
 was pressing for immediate consideration. The system 
 of parliamentary representation had long stood in 
 Deed of reform. New towns had sprung up, but they 
 
[chap. 
 
 reign the 
 
 offences 
 
 2S being 
 
 m Police 
 
 London, 
 
 :hat time 
 
 bout two 
 
 dia'Were 
 
 ach side 
 
 till they 
 
 British, 
 
 IV. was 
 
 Duke of 
 
 XUII.] 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. 
 
 331 
 
 mes (i) — 
 Villiam ; 
 nendment 
 orations; 
 houses 0/ 
 
 Reform 
 1 passed 
 irone in 
 solutions 
 Europe ; 
 breaking 
 al coun- 
 Reform 
 e system 
 tood in 
 but they 
 
 were unrepresented; ancient but decayed boroughs, 
 containing perhaps seven, six, or even one elector, still 
 returned members. Such was the borough of Gatton, 
 where there were but seven householders to exercise 
 the right of voting; and that of Old Sarum, where a 
 single elector, the keeper of an alehouse, went through 
 the form of choosing two members to represent himself 
 in Parliament. The property in such boroughs was, 
 in the majority of instances, in the hands of some one 
 large owner, by whom the elections were controlled, 
 and whose influence and nomination were notoriously 
 bought and sold ; electoral rights were various, and 
 in many towns a small corporation, open to con- 
 trol and corruption, exclusively possessed them. 
 Thus at Bath, where the inhabitants were numerous, 
 only the mayor, aldermen, and common-councilmen 
 had votes ; at Buckingham, only the bailiff and 
 twelve burgesses. These and such as these were 
 the close boroughs, or as they were more popularly 
 termed, the rotten boroughs. One great peer had 
 eleven members in the House of Commons — that is 
 to say, there were eleven boroughs which sent up as 
 their representatives whomsoever he chose to name. 
 "What right," asked Sydney Smith, the wit of the 
 Liberal party, " has this lord or that marquess to buy 
 ten seats in Parliament in the shape of boroughs, and 
 then to make laws to govern me ? " As early as the 
 Civil Wars, the defects of the representative system had 
 been perceived by far-sighted men ; and Oliver Crom- 
 well's Parliaments had been elected on a reformed 
 system, many petty boroughs being disfranchised, and 
 representatives being given to Manchester, Leeds, 
 and Halifax, which were then growing into importance. 
 But after Cromwell's death the old system was silently 
 tcstored. Among the politicians who saw the necessity 
 of improving upon this state of things were the two 
 Pitts, the younger of whom had three times brought 
 forward plans of reform. Bui it was not until 1816 that, 
 
 ,' 
 
 I 
 
w 
 
 WILLIAM IV. 
 
 ICHAF. 
 
 mainly owing to the cheap publications of Wiliiatn 
 Cobbdty Parliamentary Reform became a populat 
 cry. Cobbett, whose Twopmny Register was read in 
 every cottage in the manufacturing districts, was a 
 self-taught man, and had been at one time a soldier. 
 He was a powerful and violent political writer, and, 
 even by the admission of an enemy, " one of the. 
 greatest masters of the English language." " Hamp- 
 den Clubs" sprang up, in which universal suffrage 
 and annual parliaments were advocated. These and 
 more violent projects were discussed among the people, 
 especially among artisans ; and distress and political 
 agitation led to riot and attempts at insurrection ; 
 while the " Manchester Massacre " roused wrath even 
 among those who were ordinarily disposed to sup- 
 port the authorities. On its side the government 
 party, scared at the temper of the people, adopted 
 harsh and despotic measures for repressing sedition. 
 Nevertheless, during the Regency and the reign of 
 George IV., the question of Reform had been 
 raised at intervals in Parliament, and the public desire 
 for it continued to increase. This feeling had been 
 strongly displayed at the elections for the new 
 Parliament ; and great was the indignation at finding 
 from the King's speech and the language held by the 
 l)rime minister, the Duke of Wellington, that no 
 Reform was to be looked for from the government. 
 Earl Grey had spoken in the House of Lords of the 
 necessity for Reform, to which the Duke answered 
 that the legislature and the system of representation 
 possessed the full confidence of the country, and 
 that not only would he not bring forward any 
 measure of reform, but "as long as lie held any 
 station in the government of the country, he should 
 always feel it his duty to resist such measures when 
 proposed by others." Such was the ferment 
 this caused, that the King was advised against 
 going in state to dine at the Guildhall, as usual at 
 
ICHAF. 
 
 Wiliiam 
 
 populat 
 read in 
 t, was a 
 soldier, 
 tor, and, 
 t of the. 
 ' Hamp- 
 suffrage 
 lese and 
 » people, 
 political 
 rection ; 
 ith even 
 to sup- 
 ernment 
 adopted 
 sedition, 
 eign of 
 d been 
 c desire 
 d been 
 lie new 
 finding 
 by the 
 lat no , 
 nnient. 
 of the 
 swered 
 ntation 
 J and 
 d any 
 Id any 
 should 
 when 
 jrment 
 gainst 
 iiial at 
 
 XLtn.i 
 
 THfi REFORM BILL. 
 
 333 
 
 the beginning of a reign, and Wellington and Peel 
 resigned ofllce in a little more than a week after- 
 wards, when they were succeeded by a Ministry 
 under the leadership of Earl Grey, who announced 
 that his objects would be Peace, Retrenchment, and 
 Reform. On the ist March, 1831, Lord John Russell^ 
 (now Earl Russell) on the part of the new govern- 
 ment, brought in a Reform Bill, which was so much 
 more sweeping than had been expected that it was 
 received by the Opposition with mingled amaze- 
 ment and scorn. As a majority of the Commons 
 voted for striking out that part of the Reform scheme 
 which diminished the number of members of 
 Parliament, the ministry prevailed on the King to 
 dissolve. So great was the agitation within the walls 
 of .the House when the King was known to be at 
 hand, that the scene reminded men of the tumultuary 
 dissolutions in the times of the Stuarts." "The most 
 exciting moment of my public life," afterwards wrote 
 l^rd Campbell, then member for Stafford, " was 
 when we cheered the guns which announced his 
 Majesty's approach." A new House of Commons, 
 elected to the cry of " The Bill, the wliole Bill, atid 
 nothing but the Bill,** sent the desired measure up to 
 the House of Lords, where it was rejected by a 
 majority of forty-one. Incendiary fires, and riots at 
 Derby, Nottingham, and Bristol, marked the autumn 
 of 183 1, whilst public excitement became general and 
 intense. A third Reform Bill was brought in by the 
 ministry, and passed by the Commons ; but to carry it 
 through the Lords would, it was thought, be a hopeless 
 undertakint; unless some forty new Peers who would 
 support the Bill were created. As the King was un- 
 willing to do this, the ministers resigned ; but in less 
 than a fortnight, during which threats of refusing pay- 
 ment of taxes were made and the House of Commons 
 was petitioned to grant no supi)lies till the Bill was 
 passed, Lord Grey and his frKads returned to office. 
 
 "i 
 
334 
 
 WILLIAM IV. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 New Peers however were not created, as the King, 
 using his influence over the hostile noblemen, induced 
 them to drop their further opposition ; and the Bill 
 became law, June 7, 1832. Reform Bills were also 
 passed for Scotland and Ireland. By the English 
 Act, fifty-six boroughs were disfranchised, and forty- 
 three new ones, together with thirty county constitu- 
 encies, were created ; a 10/. householder qualification 
 was established in boroughs, and the county franchise 
 was extended from forty-shilling freeholders to copy- 
 holders, leaseholders, and tenant occupiers of premises 
 of certain values. The Duke of Wellington, expressing 
 the feelings of the Tories, said, " We can only hope 
 for the best ; we cannot foresee what will iiappen ; but 
 few people will be sanguine enough to imagine that we 
 shall ever again be as prosperous as we have been." 
 The Reformed Parliament, the object of great hopes 
 and greater fears, met January 29, 1833. Setting 
 vigorously to work, it passed several important Acts ; 
 without however realizing the forebodings of the anti- 
 reform party, who had thpught a revolution was at hand. 
 It was about the beginning of this reign that the 
 Tories took the name of Consen^ativeSy as denoting 
 that they sought to ])reserve the ancient institutions 
 of * country. Their political opponents were 
 already known by the name of Liberals, That of' 
 Radical \i2A come up about 181 8, being then applied 
 to those who desired a radical reform of Parliament 
 
 2. Abolition of Slavery. — Although the slave- 
 trade had been put down wherever British power 
 reached, negro-slavery still existed in our Colonies. 
 In August, 1833, was passed a measure of which 
 Great Britain is justly proud — the Act for the Abolition 
 of Slavery^ at the cost of twenty millions sterling in 
 compensation to the slave-owners. 
 
 3. Death of King William.— The King died 
 at Windsor Castle, June 20, 1837. By his wife 
 Frinuss AdelaiiU of Saxe-Mdningen^ he had two 
 
[CHAf, 
 
 be King, 
 , induced 
 
 the Bill 
 vere also 
 
 English 
 nd forty- 
 constitu- 
 ilification 
 franchise 
 
 to copy- 
 premises 
 ^pressing 
 »nly hope 
 pen; but 
 e that we 
 e been." 
 at hopes 
 
 Setting 
 It Acts ; 
 the anti- 
 
 at hand, 
 that the 
 lenoting 
 titutions 
 ts were 
 That of- 
 
 applied 
 
 ment 
 slave- 
 power 
 blonies. 
 which 
 
 bolition 
 rling in 
 
 ig died 
 is wife 
 d two 
 
 XLtlt.] 
 
 LteGiSLATlO^. 
 
 33S 
 
 daughters, who both died in infancy. He was suc- 
 ceeded on the throne of Great Britain and Ireland 
 by her present Majesty, Alexandrina Victoria^ the 
 only child of his brother Edward, Duke of Kent. The 
 succession to the throne of Hanover, which in 1815 
 had been raised to the rank of a Kingdom, had been 
 limited to the male line, and that country therefore 
 ])assed to Ernest Augustus^ Duke of Cumberland^ fifth 
 son of George HI. 
 
 4. Legislation. — Among the important Acts of 
 this reign are those for the amendment of the poor- 
 laws and for the regulation of municipal corporations. 
 The system of laws for the relief of the poor, founded 
 upon an Act passed in Queen Elizabeth's reign, had 
 been so injudiciously worked, and so many abuses 
 had crept in, that it did more harm than good. 
 A system, in appearance harsher, but in reality more 
 beneficial, was now established by the Poor Law 
 Amendment Act^ passed in 1834. In the next year 
 was passed the Municipal Corporation Act for the 
 reform of boroughs in England and Wales. In many 
 towns the right to the freedom, citizenship, or burgess- 
 ship, had come to be restricted to a very small class, 
 while the majority of the householders and ratepayers 
 had no part whatever in the government of their town. 
 The governing body was in many cases self-elected 
 and for life ; and there was great mismanagement 
 and waste of the corporate property. By the new 
 Act a better system was established for a hundred 
 and seventy-eight of the principal boroughs, not 
 including London ; all inhabitant householders who 
 had lived a certain time in the place, and paid poor 
 and borough rates, were to be burgesses; and the 
 governing council was to consist of a mayor, aldermen 
 and councillors, these last being elected by the 
 burgesses, while the mayor and aldermen were to be 
 elected by the council itself. By an Act passed in 
 1833 alterations were made in the constitution of 
 
 \ 
 
336 
 
 William iv. 
 
 [CHAK 
 
 the East India Company. The government of the 
 British territories in India remained in its hands, 
 but it ceased to be a trading body. 
 
 5. The Houses of Parliament. — On the i6th 
 October, 1834, the Houses of Parliament were acci- 
 dently burned down. Westminster Hall, which they 
 adjoined, was happily saved from destruction. In 
 the next reign the Parliament Houses were replaced by 
 the present building, the work of Sir Charles Barry, 
 
 6. Railways. George Stephenson. — The 
 autumn of 1830 is memorable for the opening of the 
 Liverpool and Manchester Railway ^ on which passenger 
 carriages were drawn by locomotive steam-engines. 
 Neither the road nor the engines were wholly new 
 things ; for as early as the seventeenth century 
 wooden tramways had bee*^ used in collieries for the 
 conveyance of coal to the place of shipment, and in 
 the course of the following century iron rails were 
 laid down ; while some of the improvers of the steam- 
 engine had succeeded in turning it to locomotive 
 purposes. But before George Stephenson^ no ore 
 had made locomotives at once economical an<^ 
 efficient. He was a self-taught Northumbrian, who 
 from an engine-fireman had risen to be engineer of a 
 colliery near Killingworth, and who amongst his other 
 inventions devised a safety-lamp for the use of miners, 
 upon the same principle as that constructed about the 
 same time by the great chemist Sir Humphry Davy. 
 In 1822 Stephenson was employed to make the 
 Stockton and Darlington line, upon which one of his 
 engines drew a load of ninety tons at the rate of 
 upwards of eight miles an hour. Still, with all that 
 he had done, the advantages of locomotives were 
 doubted, so that many would have preferred to use 
 horses on the new Liverpool and Manchester line. 
 But steam-power carried the day, and Stephenson 
 and his son Robert constructed the famous engine 
 **^ Rocktt^^ the first high-speed locomotive of the 
 
XUV.1 
 
 VlCtOklA. 
 
 337 
 
 modem type. From that time dates the general 
 use of railways and railway engines, whose promoters 
 had once been jeered at for thinking that a speed of 
 twenty miles an hour might possibly be attained with 
 safety, and that stage-coaches and post-chaises would 
 be superseded. 
 
 1 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 VICTORIA. 
 
 Queen Victoria; the Prince Consort {\) — abandonment oj 
 the protective duties on corn j free-trade principles (2) 
 — ttu Chartists (^)- -wars in Asia and Africa; wreck 
 of the Birkenhead (4) — the Crimean War; the Volun- 
 teers (5) — the Indian Mutiny ; Empress of India (6) — 
 Canada; Australasia; South Africa; dependent 
 colonies (7) — legislation^ penny postaf^e ; newspapers ; 
 fews admitted to the House of Commons; parlia- 
 mentary reform; municipal elections; legislation for 
 Ireland; education (S)— Arctic voyages; the Franklin 
 expedition ; Alert and Discovery expedition j inven- 
 tions (9) — literature (10). 
 
 1. Victoria, 1837. — Although called to the throne 
 in a time of political restlessness and discontent, 
 Queen Victoria^ then only eighteen years of age, was 
 received by her subjects with warm loyalty; and 
 throughout her reign she has ever been regarded with 
 affection and respect in every part of her Empire. 
 On the 10th February, 1840, her Majesty married her 
 cousin. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The 
 Prince Consort, whose public and private conduct 
 gained him the respect of the whole nation, died 
 December 14, 186 1. 
 
 2. The Kepeal of the Corn Laws. — The 
 chief question of the time was the repeal of the laws 
 laying heavy duties on the importation of foreign 
 corn. Many people uph^'id these restrictions, on the 
 
 |1 
 
 n 
 
 i^' 1 1 
 
 Ml 
 
338 
 
 VICTORIA. 
 
 [C1IA» 
 
 ground that home agriculture ought to be encouraged, 
 or protected, by keeping up the price of corn, and that 
 a country ought, as far as miglit be, to depend upon 
 itself for its supply of food. On the other side, those 
 who held Free-trade doctrines argued that the effect of 
 the Corn Laws, so far as they were operative, was to 
 set, for the benefit of the landowners, an artificial limit 
 to the wealth and population of the kingdom in general. 
 A number of zealous free-traders in 1839 formed 
 an association, the Anti-Com-Law League, which em- 
 ployed itself in enlightening, by speech and writing, 
 the public mind as to the evil effect of protective laws. 
 The League gradually made way in public opinion ; 
 but it was some years before its cause triumphed. In 
 1842 the leader of the Conservatives, Sir Robert Peel, 
 then prime minister, proposed and carried a new com 
 law repealing that of 1828. A "sliding scale" of 
 duties on the importation of foreign com was main- 
 tained, but the duties were lowered. The next 
 year Canadian com was let in at a reduced fixed 
 duty. At last, in 1846, when the failure of the 
 potato-crop was threatening a fearful famine in Ireland, 
 the League attained its end. Sir Robert Peel bring- 
 ing in and carrying, to the dismay of many of his 
 party, bills for abolishing, or reducing to a merely 
 nominal amount, the duties on foreign corn, cattle, 
 and other productions. This repeal of the corn 
 duties, though carried in 1846, did not come into 
 complete operation till 1849. The honour of the 
 measure was attributed by Peel to Richard Cobden, 
 the foremost of the free-trade politicians, whose doct- 
 rines — that every man and every nation should be 
 free to buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest 
 market, without the laws interfering to favour some 
 particular class of producers- — ^are now recognised and 
 acted upon in Great Britain. 
 
 3. The Chartists.— Side by side with the Corn- 
 Law struggle went the Chartist agitation. The 
 
TciIAfr 
 
 icouraged, 
 , and that 
 •end upon 
 ide, those 
 e effect of 
 e, was to 
 Bcial limit 
 n general. 
 ? formed 
 hich em- 
 1 writing, 
 Mve laws, 
 opinion ; 
 hed. In 
 )ert Peel, 
 new com 
 cale" of 
 IS main- 
 he next 
 ed fixed 
 
 of the 
 Ireland, 
 j1 bring- 
 ' of his 
 
 merely 
 , cattle, , 
 le corn 
 ne into 
 
 of the 
 Cobden^ 
 56 doct- 
 uld be 
 dearest 
 • some 
 ed and 
 
 Corn- 
 Thc 
 
 XLtY.] 
 
 THE CHARTISTS. 
 
 m 
 
 Chartists were for the most part working men, who 
 suffered from the distress then generally prevailing, 
 and who looked to further reforms in the system of 
 parliamentary representation for the means of mending 
 their condition. Their name came from their ** Peo- 
 plc's Charter^* the document in which they set forth 
 their demands — universal suffrage (excluding however 
 women), equal electoral districts, vote by ballot, annual 
 parliaments, no property qualification for members, 
 and their payment for their legislative services. After 
 some rioting in 1839, the Chartists remained tolerably 
 quiet until 1848, when, excited by the revolutions 
 which took place that year in France and other 
 parts of the Continent, they determined to make 
 show of their strength. Mustering on the loth of 
 April on Kenningtc^ Common, they designed to 
 march through London to the House of Commons, 
 carrying a petition embodying their demands, which 
 they boasted, though mistakenly, to bear more than 
 five million signatures. This w s to be presented by 
 Feargtis G Connor^ one of the members for Notting- 
 ham. Both the government a' Jie great body of 
 the people met the threatening a ement with firm- 
 ness. The Londoners, to the number of a quarter 
 of a million, enrolled themselves as special constables ; 
 the Chartists were not allowed to recross the bridges 
 in procession, and the whole affair passed off quietly, 
 wiihout the troops which the Duke of Wellington had 
 posted out of sight, but at hand, having any need to 
 show themselves. From that time the Chartists ceased 
 to be of any importance as an organized body ; but 
 three of the reforms for which they contended 
 have since been carried out by the Acts abolishing 
 the property qualification, and granting well-nigh 
 universal suffrage for men and vote by ballot. 
 
 4. Wars in Asia and Africa. — The wars of 
 this reign hitherto have been waged in distant parts 
 of the world. In 1840 England, together with other 
 
 *\ 
 
 4 i 
 
340 
 
 VICTORIA. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 powers took ihe part of the Sultan of Turkey against 
 his vassal Mohammed Ali^ Pasha of Egypt ^ and Acre 
 was bombarded and taken by the fleet under Admiral 
 Sir Robert Stopford and Commodore Napier. In 
 this action war-steamers were employed for the first 
 timd. In the same year a war witi China arose out 
 of the attempts of the Chinese Imperial Government 
 to put down the contraband trade in opium carried 
 on between India and that country. One of the 
 results was the cession of the island of Hong-Koti'^ to 
 Great Britain. There were fresh quarrels with China 
 in 1856, and again in i860, when the allied English 
 and French entered Pekin. A war which began in 
 1838 in AJ'^hinistan is memorable for the disasters 
 which befell the British troops in occupation of 
 CabuL The British-Indian government had taken up 
 the cause of the dispossessed sovereign of Cabul, 
 the actual ruler being believed to be intriguing with 
 Russia against England. At first the war was success- 
 ful. The gate of the strongliold of Ghuznee was 
 blown open with gunpowder, and the fortress stormed 
 and taken ; the city of Cabul was entered in triumph ; 
 and British troops were left in occupation of the 
 country ; but being forced, by a rising of the natives, 
 to retreat from Cabul in 1842, they were cut off, almost 
 to a man, in the mountain passes. One officer alone, 
 wounded and exhausted, reached Jellalabad, which 
 was in possession of the English. After these mis- 
 fortunes had been retrieved, a war with the Ameers or 
 princes of Sind broke out in 1843, of which the 
 result was the conquest of their country by »S/> Charles 
 Napier^ a soldier trained in the Peninsular War, who 
 further distinguished himself by the success with which 
 as Governor, he ruled the territory he had won. At 
 the end of 1845, and again in 1848, there were wars 
 with the Sikhs of the Punjaub^ ended by the victory 
 of Goojeraty won by Lord Gough^ February 21st, 1849, 
 and the annexation of the Punjaub to the British 
 
tcMAP. 
 
 y against 
 md Acre 
 Admiral 
 »ier. In 
 the first 
 rose out 
 ernment 
 carried 
 of the 
 
 KOH!^ to 
 
 1 China 
 English 
 ?gan in 
 isasters 
 tion of 
 I ken up 
 Cabul, 
 ig with 
 iccess- 
 ee was 
 ormed 
 imph ; 
 3f the 
 atives, 
 ilmost 
 alone, 
 which 
 ) mis- 
 7ers or 
 
 the 
 harles 
 who 
 vhich 
 
 At 
 
 wars 
 
 ctory 
 
 ^49. 
 rilish 
 
 XLIV. ] 
 
 WARS IN ASIA AND AFRICA. 
 
 341 
 
 dominions. To these was added, in 1852, the pro- 
 vince of Pegu^ taken from the Burman Empire. \ri 
 South Africa there were wars with the Kaffir tribes 
 on the frontiers of the Cape Colony^ resulting in the 
 annexation by the Colony of the district called British 
 Kaffraria. The most noteworthy incident connected 
 with the Kaffir War of 1850 was the wreck of the 
 Birkenhead steamship, which, while conveying detach- 
 ments from the 12th, 74th, and 91st regiments, struck 
 at dead of night, February 25, 1852, on a reef of 
 sunken rocks on the South African coast, and in less 
 than half an hour went down. The men on board 
 gave a noble example of discipline and self-sacrificing 
 courage. '* Every one," wrote one of the survivors, 
 " did as he was directed, and there was not a murmur 
 nor a cry among them till the vessel made her final 
 plunge.'' The boats were filled with the women 
 and children and pushed off; while the soldiers, in 
 obedience to their officers, stood calmly on the 
 sinking ship, awaiting almost certain death rather 
 than endanger the safety of the boats by attempting to 
 get into them. Out of more than six hundred 
 soldiers and seamen, less than two hundred were 
 saved. Among AO-ican wars are also to be noted 
 the successful Abyssinian Expedition^ sent out from 
 India in 1867, under the command of Sir Robert 
 Napier (created Baron Napier of Magdala\ to rescue 
 certain British subjects and other Europeans held 
 captive by Theodore^ King of Abyssinia; and the 
 equally successful Ashaniee Expedition of 1873, sent 
 out, under the leadership of Sir Garnet Woiseley 
 to chastise the AshanteeSy a warlike people near the 
 Gold Coasty who had harassed tribes under our protec- 
 tion, and attacked the British castle of Elmina. 
 5. The Crimean War. The Volunteers. — 
 
 In 1854 Great Britain and France, joined later on 
 by Victor Emmanuel ^ King of Sardinia^ engaged, 
 on behalf of the Turks, in a war with Russia, which 
 
34» 
 
 VICTORIA. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 
 >M' 
 
 was mainly carried on in the Crimea, The chief actions 
 were the victories of the Alma^ September 20, and 
 of Jnkerman, November 5, and the engagement at 
 Balaclava^ October 25. During the winter the British 
 army investing the fortress of Sebastopol^ being ill 
 supplied with food or shelter, in the bitterest weather, 
 underwent grievous suffering and loss. The siege 
 lasted 349 days, at i'le enc of which time the place 
 was evacuated by the Russians in September, 1855 ; 
 and in the course of the next year peace was made. 
 Although Great Britain was at this time on friendly 
 terms with France, which waji then ruled by Louis 
 Napoleon^ a nephew of tlie first Buonaparte, some 
 years later there was fear of a French invasion, and 
 under the influence of this feeling the Volunteer Force 
 was formed in 1859 for the defence of the country. 
 
 6. The Indian Mutiny. — Early in 1857 the 
 mutiny of the Sepoys^ or native soldiers of the East 
 India Company's army, excited by a mistaken idea 
 that some interference with their religion was intended, 
 came like a thunder-clap upon the English. The 
 regiments at Meerut^ after killing a number of English 
 men and women, marched into Delhi, where like 
 slaughter was made among the English residents. 
 The mutineers proclaimed the nominal King of Delhi 
 as Emperor of Hindustan, he being the representative , 
 of the line of Mogul Emperors who had borne rule 
 in India when first the Company established itself 
 m India when first the Company established itself 
 there. At Cawnpore the European Garrison were 
 treacherously slain, after having surrendered on terms 
 to the rebel Nana Sahib^ who, upoa the approach of 
 General Henry Haveloclis troops, proceeded to murder 
 all the English women and children then in his hands. 
 After occupying Cawnpore, Havelock, who had 
 inflicted many defeats upon the mutineers, succeeded, 
 in company with Sir James Ouiram^ in relieving the 
 beleaguered garrison of Lucknow. There the two 
 generals remained until Sir Colin Campbell^ afterwards 
 
xiiv.] 
 
 TTIE COLONIES. 
 
 343 
 
 Lord Cly^ty came to their aid, and forcing his way in, 
 brought off the garrison, together witr» the sick, the 
 women, and children. The mutiny, which had 
 threatened the overthrr . of the British dominion, 
 was put down in the course of the next year, and by 
 Act of Parliament, August 2, 1858, the government 
 of India was transferred from the Company to the 
 Crown. Nearly twenty years later the Queen took 
 the title of Empress of India^ by which her Majesty 
 was proclaimed at Delhi, January i, 1877. 
 
 7. The Colonies. — In 1791, under Pitt's adminis- 
 tration, Canada had been divided into two provinces, 
 the old French colony east of the Ottawa being called 
 Loiver Canada^ while the English colony to the west 
 of that river formed the province of Upper Canada, 
 Lower Canada having long been in a state of discon- 
 tent, arising partly out of the disagreements between 
 the P'rench colonists and the more recent English 
 settlers, soon after the Queen's accession the French 
 Canadians broke into open revolt. The insurrection 
 spread to Upper Canada, where also there was strife 
 between the old settlers, mostly descendants of loyal- 
 ists who had emigrated from the United States, and 
 the new-comers. Peace however was before long 
 restored, and in 1840 a new system of government 
 was established, under which the two Canadas were 
 united as one Province of Canada, At a later period, 
 in 1867, the provinces of Canada^ Nova Scotia, and 
 Neui Brunswick were by statute federally united into 
 one Dominion under the name of Canada. The old 
 provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were restored 
 under the names of Ontario and Quebec. A consti- 
 tution was given them similar in principle to that 
 of Great Britain and Ireland, the government being 
 carried on in the Queen's name by a Governor-General 
 and two Houses of Parliament. An outlying district 
 in the region of the prairies was in 1870 formed 
 into a new province under the name of Manitoba^ and 
 
 ! It 
 
344 
 
 VICTORIA. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 I 
 
 Hj 
 
 added to the Dominion of Canada, which has been 
 further enlarged by the incorporation in 187 1 of 
 British Columbia^ and in 1873 of Prince Edward 
 Island, The Australian Colonies have during the 
 present reign formed for themselves constitutions 
 framed on the British model. Victoria^ a settle- 
 ment founded about 1836, was made into a sepa- 
 rate colony in 1850, and named after the Queen. 
 Another colony, Queensland^ was established in 1859. 
 Nnv Zealand also received a representative constitu- 
 tion in 1852, and the Fiji Islands were brought under 
 British rule in 1874. In South Africa, Natal — so 
 named in the fifteenth century by the Portuguese 
 navigators who discovered it on the natal day of Christ 
 —was declared a British colony in 1843. The Cape 
 Colony has received an independent constitution, and 
 has been gradually enlarged by the annexation of 
 adjoining districts, the latest being the Transvaal. 
 These three groups of colonies — Canadian, Austral- 
 asian, and South African — though they owe allegiance 
 to the sovereign of Great Britain, are practically 
 almost independent nations. Besides these, there are 
 a number of colonies and settlements in West Africa, 
 the West Indies, and Asia, which remain under the 
 control of the mother-country. Among the acquis- 
 itions of this reign may be mentioned the island of 
 Labuan^ ceded to us in 1846 by the Sultan of Borneo, 
 and Aden^ an Arabian port of which the East India 
 Company had taken possession in 1838, and whicli, 
 since the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, has 
 become an important commercial station. 
 
 8. Legislation. — In 1840 the scheme proposed 
 by Mr,^ afterwards Sir Rowland Hilly for the carriage 
 of letters throughout the United Kingdom at uni- 
 form rates, now well known as the ^^ penny postage^* 
 was put in practice. The immediate consequence was 
 that the number of letters sent through the post 
 was more than doubled. In 1855 the stamp-duty 
 
T 
 
 [chap, 
 
 has been 
 187 1 of 
 Edward 
 ring the 
 ititutions 
 a settle- 
 a sepa* 
 
 Queen, 
 in 1859. 
 constitu- 
 ht under 
 ^atal — so 
 >rtuguese 
 of Christ 
 rhe Cape 
 tion, and 
 ation of 
 mnsvaal. 
 I Austral- 
 llegiance 
 actically 
 here are 
 t Africa, 
 ider the 
 
 acquis- 
 sland of« 
 Borneo, 
 St India 
 \ whicli, 
 $69, has 
 
 •oposed 
 carriage 
 at uni- 
 ostage^'* 
 mce was 
 e post 
 np-duty 
 
 xuv.] 
 
 LEGISLATION. 
 
 M 
 
 on newspapers ceased to be compulsory; the cfTect 
 of which was to reduce the price of newspapers, 
 and thereby to increase the general understanding 
 of and interest in pohtical matters. In 1S58 
 an Act was passed empowering either House of 
 Parliament to modify, in the case of Jews^ the oath 
 then required to be taken by members. The House 
 of Commons immediately availed itself of the Act, 
 and thereby enabled a Jew, who had already been 
 elected, to take his seat. In accordance with a pre- 
 valent desire for further parliamentary reforms, a new 
 Reform Bill was in 1867 brought in and carried by 
 the Conservative ministry then in power, of which 
 the chiefs were the late Earlof Dei'^y and Mr. Disraeli 
 (since created Earl of Beaconsfidd), By this, which 
 became law August 15, 1867, a vote in parliamentary 
 elections was given in boroughs to all men occupying 
 houses within the borough and paying rates, and 
 also to men occupying lodgings of the yearly value of 
 10/., and the county franchise was greatly extended. 
 By an Act passed in 1872, votes in parliamentary 
 elections are to be given by ballot^ instead of by open 
 voting, as theretofore. An Act passed in 1869 
 shortened the term of residence required as a qualifi- 
 cation for the municipal franchise, and extended to 
 women the right to vote in municipal elections. In 
 1869 and 1870 great changes were made in Ireland hy 
 measures carried by the Liberal ministry under the 
 leadership of Mr, Gladstone. By one Act the Irish 
 Church was disestablished ; and by another^ outgoing 
 tenants became entitled to compensation in respect 
 of improvements made by them on their holdings. 
 Great efforts have been made to spread education 
 among the people. The Elementary Education Act, 
 1870, orders that "there shall be provided for every 
 school district a sufficient amount of accommodation 
 in public elementary schools available for all tlic 
 children resident in such district for whose elementary 
 
 
346 
 
 VICTORIA. 
 
 [chap. 
 
 education efficient and suitable provision is not other- 
 wise made." The school fees for children whose 
 parents are unable from poverty to pay the same 
 may be remitted. In districts where the public school 
 accommodation is insufficient, "school boards " are to 
 be elected, whose duty it is to supply the deficiency. 
 These boards are invested with great powers, among 
 others that of making it compulsory upon parents 
 to cause their children between the ages of five and 
 thirteen to attend school. 
 
 9. Discoveries and Inventions. — From 1818 
 fresh efforts had been made to find a North- West 
 passage, and Sir Edward Parry and Sir John 
 Franklin explored far into the Arctic regions. Frank- 
 lin's last expedition was made in 1845, and from this 
 neither he nor his companions ever returned. After 
 several expeditions under various leaders in searcli of 
 him, in the course of which ?t least three Nortli-West 
 passages have been discovered, Captain (now Sir 
 Leopold) M^Clintocky who went out in 1857, found at 
 Point Victory a paper which had been left there in 
 1848 by the then survivors of the Franklin party, 
 recording the death of Sir John in 1847, and the 
 subsequent abandonment of their ice-bound vessels. 
 In 1875 two vessels, the Alert and the Discovery, 
 were sent out by the government on an expedition of 
 Arctic exploration, the object being, if possible, to 
 reach the North Pole, In this they were not success- 
 ful, though the explorers planted the British flag in 
 the highest latitude yet reached by man. The various 
 branches of science have been cultivated with ardour 
 and success during the present period. Early in the 
 reign photography and electric telegrapJis were brought 
 into use ; the latter have since been greatly developed, 
 and more than one submarine cable has been laid 
 down from Ireland to America. The power of artillery 
 aiid fire-arms has been vastly increased, and, as a 
 necessary consequence, the ** wooden walls of England" 
 
XMV.f 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 347 
 
 have been replaced by armoured or ironclad war- 
 steamers. 
 
 lo. Literature. — Among authors (living writers 
 not being taken into account), William Makepeace 
 Thackerayy Charles Dickens^ and Lord Lytton are 
 to be noted as novelists. Thackeray excelled in 
 satire upon the social meannesses and worldliness 
 of well-to-do people. Dickens, who portrayed with 
 great humour, sometimes degenerating into carica- 
 ture, the ways and manners of a lower grade of 
 society, more especially of the Londoners, is per- 
 haps the most popular novelist of our day. Lord 
 Lytton wrote both tales of contemporary fashionable 
 life and romances of bygone ages ; and his story of 
 Harold is at once true in its main lines to fact, and 
 a fine imaginary picture of the King who died on 
 Senlac. Charlotte Bronte^ a Yorkshire clergyman's 
 daughter, who wrote under the name of " Currer Bell^* 
 was the authoress of some powerful novels. Poverty 
 and home-sorrows made her life a hard one, and 
 her tone is sad and gloomy. Charles Kingsley^ poet, 
 preacher, and novelist, first won notice by his tale of 
 Alton LockCy written at the time of the Chartist troubles. 
 In it he set forth the sufferings and hopes of working 
 men, and pointed out that the Chartists, albeit mis- 
 guided, were still honest men entitled to pity and 
 sympathy. Elzabeth Gaskelly in her novel of Mary 
 Barton, described the struggles and hardships of the 
 working cotton-spinners of Manchester. Harriet 
 Martbieau, in the reign of William IV., when ques- 
 tions of political economy and social reform were in 
 everybody's mind, brought out a series of tales — 
 Illustrations of Political Economy — in which she made 
 her fictions the means of expounding the truths of 
 that science. The literature of our day is especially 
 rich in tales and novels, the novel now holding the 
 place once occupied by the drama, serving as the 
 mirro'* of life and manners, and as the method in 
 
348 
 
 VICTORIA. 
 
 [ClIAr. XLIV 
 
 which authors convey their thoughts on political and 
 social questions. Our age has also its own style of 
 poetry, in which the most notable names are thoae 
 of men yet living. Historical literature has during 
 the present century made great strides, owing to the 
 growth of a spirit of research and criticism. Docu- 
 ments and manuscripts hitherto unknown or un- 
 heeded have been laid open to us, and the evidence 
 on which history rests has been sought out and 
 weighed with a care such as historians in the last 
 century rarely bestowed. In this branch of study, 
 lliomas Arnold and George Grote are distinguished 
 for their histories of Rotne and Greece^ and Henry 
 Hari Milman, Dean of St, PauVs^ for his HUtory of 
 Latin Christianity, Henry Haiianiy author of the 
 Constitutional History of England, is characterized by 
 his judicial impartiality ; Lord Macaulayy who tells, 
 from the point of view of a Liberal politician, the 
 story of the Revolution of 1688, coraLines the bril- 
 liancy of romance with many of the best qualities 
 of an historian. The labour and research oi John 
 Mitchell Kemble, who devoted himself to the study of 
 the Old-English language, history, and antiquities, of 
 Sir Francis Palgrave^ the historian of the Normans, 
 and of John Lingard, a Roman Catholic priest, whose 
 chief work is carried down as far as the accession of 
 William and Mary, have all tended to give us moie 
 accurate and vivid ideas of the earlier History of 
 Kngland. 
 
XLnr, 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ab}iiration, oath of, 263. 
 
 AI)olition of slavery. Act for the, 334. 
 
 Abyssinian expedition, 3JT. 
 '. _ _ ; b 
 of. 3 \o 
 
 Acre, defence of, 303 ; bontbardinent 
 
 Addison, Joseph, a88, 291. 
 
 A len, 344. 
 
 i^'^lfffifu or Rljyiv.i, 28. 
 
 /Elfheah (r>t. Alphege), Archbishop of 
 
 Canterbury, 31. 
 ilClfthryth or lilfrida, 20, 30. 
 A''.\\e, King nf the South-Saxons, 8, a. 
 /^:thelbald. King, ai. 
 vElhelbert, King of Kent, conversion 
 
 of, 14, 15 ; laws of, 24. 
 /Kthelbert. King, ai. 
 ^Ithelflsd, Lady of the Merci'-ns, 23, 
 
 ^thelfrith, King of the Northum- 
 brians, 9, 10. 
 
 i^tbeling, title of, 11. 
 
 /Kthelred I., King, az. 
 
 /'Kthelred II., King, 29 — 3a. 
 
 ^thclred, Ealdorman 0^ the Mer- 
 cians, 23. 
 
 ylithelstan, King, 26. 
 
 /'Ethelwulf, King, at. 
 
 Aghrim. battle of, 357. 
 
 Aorricola, Cnaeus Julius, 4. 
 
 Aid, b^i. 
 
 Aidun, St., Bishop of Lindisfarn, 16. 
 
 Aix-Ia-Chapelle, Peace of, 280, 281. 
 
 Alban, St., 6. 
 
 Albert, Prince Consort, 337. 
 
 y4/eri and Disc07>fry expedition, 346. 
 Alexander II., Pope, 38. 
 
 Alexander III., Pope, 71. 
 
 Alexander 11., King of Scots, 83—85. 
 .Mcxander I., Emperor of Russia^ 307. 
 Alexandria, battle of, 3104. 
 
 Alfred or ^Elfred, King, a?: rciur^ 
 2a — 24 ; death, i\ ; literature under 
 
 Alfred, /'Ethcling. 34. 
 
 Algiers, bombardment of, 311. 
 
 Allegiance, sworn to the Conqueror, 
 48 ; due to the King de facto ^ 157 ; 
 oath of, 196, a37, 26X 
 
 Amercements, 8a. 
 
 America, Cabot's voyages to, 157; 
 colonies in, 187, 199 ; voyages of dis* 
 covery to, 187, 200: British pusses* 
 sions m, 270, 284, 293, 297, 343. 344 ; 
 Spanish America, 187, 275, 278, 326. 
 
 America, United States of, 199, 296, 
 
 297f 3". 343- 
 American War of Independence, 295— 
 
 297. 
 Amiens, Peace of, 304. 
 Anderida, taking of, 8, 9. 
 Angles, I. 7, 9, 14. 
 Anglo-Saxon'«, 7 ; Anglo-Saxon Chro> 
 
 nicle, see Chronicles. 
 Anjoji, &), 7a, 79, 80, I34» 
 Anjou, Francis, Duke of. 183. 
 Anjou, Philip, Duke of (Philip V. of 
 
 Spain), a6o, 870, 374, 289. 
 Anne, Queen (Princess of Denmark), 
 
 246, 248, 362: reign, 264—272; 
 
 death, 271 ; Queen Amie's Bounty, 
 
 ib. 
 Anne of Bohemia, Queen, 116. 
 Anne Boleyn, Queen, 160—163. 
 Anne of Cleves, Queen, 163, 164, 323. 
 Anne Neville. Queen (daughter of the 
 
 Earl of Warwick,), 140, 142, 145, 
 
 147. 
 Anselm, St., Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 42, 59, 6-!, 63. 
 Anson, Commodore, voyage of, 278. 
 Antoninus Pius, Emperor, 6. 
 Appeal.>^, statute in restraint of, 161. 
 
350 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aquitaioe, 69, ^3, fto, ta6, sog, laS, 
 
 133' 
 
 Arbuthnot, John, 989. 
 
 Architecture, Romanesque, a6, 47; 
 Gothic, ox, ga, 954; Eii/abethan, 
 954 ; Italian, 92,, 25^. 
 
 Argyll, John Campbell, Duke of, 973. 
 
 Arkwright, Richard, 3x6. 
 
 Armada, the Spanish, 189 — 191. 
 
 Armed Neutrality, the, 996. 
 
 Arnold, 111 imas, 348. 
 
 Arthur, British prince, 9, iso, 150, 151. 
 
 Arthur oF Britanny, 79, 80. 
 
 Arthur, Prince of Wales, 155. 
 
 Articles of Religion. 165, 174. 
 
 Arundel, Karl or, beheaded, 116. 
 
 Arundel, Thomas, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, 116 — 118, 125. 
 
 Ascham, Roger, 202. 
 
 Ascue, Anne, burned. 166. 
 
 Ashantee expedition, 341. 
 
 Assye, buttle of, ;'>7. 
 
 Athenree, battle of, 109. 
 
 Attainder, Act of, 137, 138 ; the great 
 Act of, 256. 
 
 Atterbury, Francis, Bishop of Roch- 
 ester, 276. 
 
 Augustine, St., Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 14, 15. 
 
 Austen, Jane, 323, 
 
 Australia, 314, 344. 
 
 Austria, Leopold, Duke of, 77. 
 
 Austrian Succession, War of the, 279, 
 r8o. 
 
 Aylesford, baltle of, 8. 
 
 Azincourt, battle of, 138. 
 
 B. 
 
 Babington, Anthony, 186. 
 
 Bacon, Francis, 197, 202. 
 
 Bacon, Roger, 120. 
 
 Badbury, battle of, 9. 
 
 BadBy, John, burned, 123, 196. 
 
 Bxda, the Venerable, 44. 
 
 Baffin's Bay discovered, 200. 
 
 Balliol, John, King of Scuts, 94, 95. 
 
 Ballot, vote by, 339, 345. 
 
 Bamburgh, 9; Lords of, 23, 27. 
 
 Bank of England founded, 959 ; stopS 
 
 cash payments, 301. 
 Bnnno"kl)urn, battle of, loi, 102, 320. 
 Barnct, battle of, 141. 
 Baronets, first creation of, 199. 
 Barons, 48, 49, 82, 89, 97, 98. 
 Barons' Wars, with lohn. 81 — 84 ; with 
 
 ricnry 111., 87 — 90. 
 Battle, trial by, 42, 51, 7> 
 Bayeux, 'I npestry of, 46. 
 buxlcr, Richard, 251. 
 
 Beachy Head, battle of, 256. 
 
 Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Wincheik 
 ter, and Cardmal, 133. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, 905. 
 
 Becket, Thomas, Archbishop of Can* 
 terbury, 70 — 72, 121, 164. 
 
 Bedford, Joim, Duke of, 125, X31, 133, 
 149. 
 
 Benevolences, 142, 147, X53, X97. 
 
 Berengaria of Navarre, Queen, 78 
 
 Berlin Decree, 306, 311. 
 
 Berners, Julyans or Juliana, 151. 
 
 Beruicia, 9, 23. 
 
 l^ertha, wife of ^^thelbert, 14, 15. 
 
 Berw'ick, Duke of, 267. 
 
 Bewick, Thomas, 325. 
 
 Bible, X65, 166, 178, 9or; Wycliffe'i 
 translation of, 112, 200; Tyndale's, 
 200; Rogers's, 178, 200; Coverdale's, 
 200; Cromwell's or the Great Bibit, 
 165, 201 ; Cranmer's or the second 
 Great Bible, 201 : Bishops' Bible, 
 i6.; Geneva Bible, id.; Authorized 
 Versijn, 194, 201. 
 
 Birketihead, wreck of the, 341. 
 
 Black Death, the, jo8, 113. 
 
 Black Prince, the, 108. See Edward, 
 Prince of Wales. 
 
 Bluke, Robert, Admiral, 222, 925, 226. 
 
 Blenheim, battle of, 266. 
 
 Blockade, 306. 
 
 Boadicea, revolt of, 4. 
 
 Bocher, Joan, burned, J74. 
 
 Bohngbruke, Henry of, see Henry 
 
 Boliiigbr>;ke, Henry St John, Vi»« 
 count, 269 — 273. 
 
 Bombay, 233. 
 
 Bonner, Edmi<nd, Bishop of London, 
 173, X78, 182. 
 
 Boroughs, the Five, 24; parliamentary, 
 89. 97. 331. 334: borough corpora- 
 tions, 239, 244, •247.331, 335; parlia. 
 incntary -franchise in boroughs, 331, 
 345 ; reform of, 335- 
 
 Bosworth, battle of, 148, 154. 
 
 Boulogne, 153, 167, 171. 
 
 Boyne, battle of the, 257. 
 
 Bradshaw, John, 217, 219, 231. 
 
 Breda, Declaration from, 229. 
 
 Bretiguy, Peace of, 109, 127. 
 
 Breiwalda, 10. 
 
 Bridgewater, Francis Egerton, Duke 
 
 <if,3'5- 
 
 Brihtiioth, EaUlorman of the East- 
 Saxons, 30. 
 
 Briiidley, James, 315. 
 
 Britain, i — 3 ; under the Romans, 
 3—7; Church of, 6; British kuij; 
 doms, 10, n ; '^ord of, 25 ; Empe 
 ror of; 26. See a^so. Great Biiloiu. 
 
Ml 
 
 lNt)feiC. 
 
 isk 
 
 firiiish Columbia, 344. 
 
 Britons, i — 5, 7 — 11. 
 
 Bronte, Charlotte, ^47. 
 
 Bruce, Edward, io ir^.land, 102. 
 
 Bruce, Pobert, Lord of Annandale, m. 
 
 Bruce, Robert, Earl of Camck 
 
 (Robert I. of Scotland), 96, loi, ko3, 
 
 320. 
 Brunanburh, battle of, 26; song of, 
 
 44-, 
 Buckingham, Edward Staflford, Duke 
 
 of, 159. 
 Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke 
 
 of, 196, 198, 206. 
 Buckingham, Ge(<rge Villiers, Duke 
 
 <»f (son of the above), 736. 
 Buckingham, Henry Si vTord, Duka 
 
 of, 143, 144, 146, 147. 
 Bunyan, John, 252. 
 Bisonaparte, Louis Napoleon, 343. 
 Buonaparte, Napoleon, 302 — 307, 309, 
 
 310, 320. 
 Burghley, William Cecil, Baron of, 
 
 181. 
 Burgundy, Charles the Bold, Duke of, 
 
 140, 141. 
 Burgundy, Margaret, Duchess of, 
 
 140, 149, 152, 154. 
 Burgundy, Philip the Good, Duke of, 
 
 129, 133.139- 
 Burke, Edmund, 300, 302. 
 Burnet, Gilbert, Bishi/p of Salisbury, 
 
 Burney, Frances, 319. 
 
 Burns, Robert, 320. 
 
 Bute, John Stuart, Earl of, 293, 294. 
 
 Butler, Samuel, 251. 
 
 Byng, Admiral J<.hn, shot, 28a. 
 
 Byng, Admiral Sir George, 274. 
 
 Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 33a. 
 
 Cabal, the, 336. 
 
 Cabinet, the, 236. 
 
 Cabot, John and Sebastian, 157. 
 
 Cabul, retreat from, 343. 
 
 Cade, Jack, 134, 135. 
 
 Cadwalla, Welsh kmg, 16. 
 
 Caidmon, 43, 44. 
 
 Cxsar, Caius Julius, a, 286. 
 
 Calais, io6, 107, 109, 133, 13*6, 179, 180. 
 
 Calcutta, Black Hole of, 286. 
 
 Caledonia, a; Caledonians, 4, 6, 7. 
 
 Cambridge, Richard, Earl of, 128, 135. 
 
 Cambridge, University of, 91, 137, 169, 
 
 30t, 303, 31^. 
 
 Camden. William, 309. 
 
 Ouupbeil, Sir Colui (l^'.^rd Clyde), 343. 
 
 Campl>eU, Thomas, ui. 
 Campeggio, Cardinal, 160. 
 Camperdown, battle of, 303. 
 Canada, 284, 397, 311, 343, 344. 
 Canning, George, 331, 336, 327. 338. 
 Canterbury, city or, 15 ; taken by th» 
 
 Danes, 31 ; Archbishop of, 15, 18 
 
 71, 80: cathedral church, 15, 9a. 
 Cape Colony, 341, 344. 
 Cape St. Vincent, battle of, 301. 
 Caractacus or Caradoc, 3. 
 Caroline of Brandenburg-Anspach, 
 
 Queen, 378, 379. 
 Caroline or Crunswick-Wolfenbuttel, 
 
 Queen, 335, 336. 
 Cassivelaunus, 3. 
 Catesby, Robert^ 195, 196. 
 Catholic Emancipation, 338, 339. 
 Cato-Slreet conspiracy, 325. 
 Caxton, William, 149— 151. 
 Ceadda (St. Chad), Bishop of Lich- 
 
 field, 17. 
 Ceawlin, King of the West-Saxons, 9. 
 Cecil, Robert (Earl of Salisbury), 181, 
 
 192, 19s, 196. 
 Cerdic and Cynric, 9. 
 Ceylon, 310, 314. 
 Chancellor, 50. 
 Channel Islands, 80, 1T9. 
 Charles I., King (Prince of Wales), 
 
 travels to Spain, 198 ; reign, 306— 
 
 219; beheaded, 318; painted by 
 
 Vandyck, 333. 
 Charles IL, King, 146, 318, 330; de* 
 
 feated at Worcester, 231 ; escape 
 
 321, 233 ; declaratic n from Breda. 
 
 339; restoration, 1^.; reign, 330— 
 
 340 ; death, 340. 
 Charles the Great, Emperor, 44. 
 Charles V., Emperor, 159, 160, 176. 
 Charles, Archduke of Austria, after* 
 
 wards the Emperor Charles VL, 2(0^ 
 
 265, 367, 370, 279. 
 Charles IV., King of France, 103, 105. 
 Charles V. , King of France, 109. 
 Charles VI., King of France, 127, 139 
 
 »3i' 
 Charles VII., King of France, 139 
 
 I3I-I33- . 
 Charles 11., King of Spain, 260, 289. 
 Charles XII., King of Sweden, 274. 
 Charles Edward Stuart (the Young 
 
 Pretender), 276, 280—282. 
 Charlotte of IVIecklenburg>Strelit2, 
 
 Queen, 393, 319. 
 Charlotte Augusta, Princess, 313. 
 Charters, 51, 65 ; Charter of Liberties 
 
 granted by Henry I .,63, 81: th« 
 
 Great Charter, 82, 83, 91, 337; 
 
 Charter of the Forest, 91 ; Connr> 
 
 aiaiioa of the Chariers, 98 ; chartici 
 
352 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 and privUeses of Loodon, 5>i'*99i "47* 
 S9S. 
 
 Chartists, the, 339. 
 
 Chatham, WiUiam Pitt, Earl of, 979, 
 aSs, 984, 193, 096. 
 
 Chaucer, Oeoffrey, lai. 
 
 Cheke, Sir John, 303. 
 
 Chester, battle of, 9. 
 
 China, wars with, •340. 
 
 Chronicl**!, the English, 8, 9, 44, 45, 
 120. 
 
 Church, the British, 6. 
 
 Church of Encland, founded, 14—18; 
 synod of Whitby, 17 ; maiia^t.c 
 movement, 37 — 29; relations with 
 Home, 38, s§, nay synod of West- 
 minster, 42; investiture controversy, 
 63 ; clerical privileges, 70 ; sides with 
 the Barons, 81 : its liberties secured, 
 83; Lollard movement, X13, 125 — 
 127; separation from Rome, 161. — 
 163; Reformed doctrines, 163, 165, 
 166 ; dissolution of t!ie monasteries, 
 164; progress of Protestantism, 169, 
 >73> 174 ! reaction against Protestan- 
 tism, 176 : reconciliation with Rome, 
 178 ; Reformed Church established, 
 181— 184; non-conformists, 182,183, 
 195, 332 ; James favours episcopacy, 
 J94; revived ceremonies, 207: Laud's 
 government, 208 ; *' root and branch" 
 party, 310; strife of Presbyterians 
 and Independents, 213, si6; Pies- 
 byterianisin established, 215; Crom- 
 well's ecclesiastical policy, 227 ; 
 episcopccy restored, 232; James's 
 ecclesiastical policy, 242 — 245; the 
 sovereign to belong to the estaijlished 
 Church, 263 ; popularity of, 268 ; 
 (^ueen Anne's liounty, 271 ; occa- 
 sional conformity, 371, 277; Metho- 
 dist movement, 287, 28S 
 
 Church of the Irish Scots, 16, 17. 
 
 Church of Ireland, reformed, 184 ; 
 disestablished, 345. 
 
 Cliurch of Scotland, 193, 268. 
 
 Churchill, see Marlborough. 
 
 Churls, 12, 49. 
 
 Cintra, Convention of, 307. 
 
 Clarence, George, Duke of, 140 — 143. 
 
 Clarence, Lionel, Duke of , 111, 122. 
 
 Clarence, Thomas, Duke (f, 125, 130. 
 
 Clarendon, Constitutions of, 71, 72. 
 
 Clarendon, Edward J'yde, Earl of, 
 
 210, 311, 835, 25I. 
 
 Clarkson, Thomas, 317. 
 Claudius, Emperor, 3. 
 Clement VI. , Pope, 107. 
 Clement VI L, Pope, 160. 
 Cltflbrd, Jjord, 136. 
 Clifford, Sir Thomas, 936, 
 
 Olive, Robert, Lord, 385, 386. 
 
 Cnut or Canute, King, 39—34, 41* 
 
 Cobbett, Willum, 333. 
 
 Cobden, Richard, 338. 
 
 Cobham, Sir John Oldcastle, Lord 
 137. 
 
 «« r- '-''♦reamers," 328, 331. 
 
 ,e, Samuel Taylor, 331. 
 
 wo 1^, William, 291. 
 
 Colmaii, Bishop of Lindlsfarn, 17. 
 
 Columba, St., 16. 
 
 Commission, the High, 183, 308, 310 ; 
 the Ecclesiastical. 3^3, 247. 
 
 Commons, House or, nrst formed. 89, 
 97,. 98 ; its power of impeachment, 
 no; Roman Catholics excluded 
 from, x86, 237, 328 ; protests its 
 right to treat of state aflairs, 198 ; 
 attempts to prevent publication of 
 debates, 204, 295 : influence of peers 
 iQt 331 i Jews admitted to, 345. 
 
 Commonwealth, the, 219 — 230. 
 
 Compton, Henry, Bishop or London, 
 243, 246, 247. 
 
 Conservatives, 334. 
 
 Constantine. King of Scots, 36. 
 
 Cook, Captain, 314, 315. 
 
 Copenhagen, battle of, 304, 331 * bom- 
 bardment of, 307. 
 
 Corn Laws, 31 1, 338, 337, 338. 
 
 Cornwaile, Johii, 119. 
 
 Cornwallis, Admiral, 305. 
 
 Cornwalljs, Earl, 297, 314. 
 
 Corporation Act, 331, 377, 3^8. 
 
 Council, the (ireat, 49, 82 ; called 
 Parliament, 87, 88 • Council of 
 Mcrton, 91 ; Council of the North, 
 
 308, 3 10. 
 
 Country Party, 237. 
 
 County franchise restricted, 137 ; ex- 
 tended, 334, 345. 
 
 Courteiiay, Edward (Earl of Devt/n), 
 176, 177. 
 
 Covenant of Scotland, 209; Covenant 
 taken in England, 214. 
 
 Cowley, Abraham, 251. 
 
 Cowpcr, William, 320. 
 
 Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, 160, 161, 165, 166, 172, 
 174, 176, 179, 201. 
 
 Crecy, battle of, 106. 
 
 Crimean War, 341, 342. 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, in the first Civil 
 War, 21^, 314 ; in the second Civil 
 War, 3i6; one of the King's 
 judges, 317 ; puts down mutiny, 
 930 ; his campaigns in. Ireland, 
 il>.; wins the battles of Dunbar 
 and Worcesteri 9a z ; tum9 out the 
 Parliament, sai : rules as Protector. 
 9«4'— 937 : death, aa6 : ecclesiastical 
 
iNDtek. 
 
 S$3 
 
 'pcVicy, Mj; insult to his corpse, 
 
 Cromwell, Richard, 236, 338. 
 Cromwell, Thomas (Earl of Essex), 
 
 163 — 166, 201. 
 Crosby, Brass, Lord Mayer of London, 
 
 295. 
 Culloden, battle oF, 281. 
 Cumberland, 26 : earldom of, 59, 68. 
 Cuml>erland, Krnest Au^ustu-i, Duke 
 
 of (King of Hanover), 335. 
 Cumberland, Henry Frederick, Duke 
 
 of, 312. 
 Cumberland, William, Duke of, 280, 
 
 281. 
 Cuthbcrr, St., Bishop of Lindibfarn, 
 
 «7- 
 
 D. 
 
 Danby, Earl of, 246, 348. 
 Danegeld, 30. 
 
 Danes 20—27, 30— ^3i 35. 4i. 44. 59- 
 
 David L, King of Scots, 66, 68. 
 
 David II. (Bruce), King of Scots, 
 IC7. 
 
 David of Wales, 93. 
 
 Davis, John, 187. 
 
 Davy, Sir Humphry, 336. 
 
 Day, Thomas. 3-'o. 
 
 Iv'efender of the Faith, i63. 
 
 Do Foe, Daniel, 289. 
 
 Deira, 9, 14, 33. 
 
 Delamer, Ix>rd, 348. 
 
 Deorham, battle of, 9. 
 
 Derby, Karl tf, beheaded, 221. 
 
 Derwcntwater, James RadcliflTe, Earl 
 of, 274. 
 
 Despenser, Sir Hugh le, 102, 103. 
 
 Dettingen, battle of, 279. 
 
 Devonshire, Earl of, 246, 248. 
 
 Diarmaid, King of Lcinster, 74. 
 
 Dickens, Charles, 347. 
 
 Disinherited, the, 90. 
 
 Dis.'^enters, 232, 244, 262,268, 271, 273, 
 877, 288, 328. See also Noncon- 
 formists. 
 
 Domesday, 55. 
 
 Dover, Treaty of, 236. 
 
 Drake, Francis, 188—190. 
 
 Druids, 3. 
 
 Dryden, John, 234, 452. 
 
 Dudley, Edmund, 156, 158. 
 
 Duke, title of, iii. 
 
 Dunbar, battle of, 221. 
 
 Dunk-rk, 336, 333. 
 
 Dunstan, St., Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 37—30. 
 
 Dutch Wars, ssa, 334—336, vf>^ 301, 
 )08 ; Dutch possessions, 3*0. 
 
 Ealdormen, 9, 13, 37. 
 
 Ealhwine or Akuin, 44. 
 
 Earls, Old-English, 13 ; Danish 37 
 
 in nth century, 33, 50. 
 East-Anglia, ^, 10, 31—33, ^S, 33- 
 East India Company, 193, 233, 285, 
 
 a86, 336, 343, 343. 
 Eddystone lighthouse, 387, 316. 
 Edgar or Eadgar, King, 28, 29. 
 Edgar, ilitheling, 40, 53, 54, 63. 
 Edgehill, battle of, 212. 
 Edgeworth, Maria, 322, 323. 
 Edmund or Eadmund, St., King of 
 
 the East- Angles, 21, 32. 
 Edmund the Magnificent, King, 26, 27. 
 Edmund Ironside, King, 32 ; his chil- 
 
 dren, 33. 
 Edmund, son of Henry III., 86, 90. 
 Edrcd or Eadred, King, 37. 
 Edward or Eladward the Elder, King, 
 
 »4. 25' 
 Edward the Martyr, 39. 
 Edward the Confessor, King, 35—38, 
 I 43 ; his law, 63. 
 Edward I. , King, birth of, 86 ; in thf 
 
 Barons' War, 88—90 ; goes on th* 
 
 Crusade, 90; reign, 92 — 99; death. 
 
 97 ; difficulties with his son, 100 
 
 story of his massacre of the bards, 
 
 94, 291 ; not popular, 112. 
 Edward II., King, created Prince o 
 
 Wales, 94 ; in Scotland, 96 ; reign 
 
 99—103; deposition, 103; murder 
 
 104; unpopular, 112. 
 Edward III., King (Earl of Chester) 
 
 103; reign, 105 — 113; death, no. 
 Edward IV., King (Duke of York) 
 
 137; reign, 138—143; death, 143. 
 Edward V., King, 143; reign, 143— 
 
 145 ; murder, 146, 153. 
 Edward VI., King, birth of, 163; sue 
 
 cession, 167; reign, 168 — 174; death, 
 
 172; schools and hospitals, 173, 174. 
 Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black 
 
 Prince), 106 — 111. 
 Edward, Prince of Wales (son of 
 
 Henry VI.), 136, 139, 140, 141, 150. 
 Edward, Prince of VVales (son of 
 
 Richard III-)i i47' 
 Edwin or Eadwine, King cf the Nott« 
 
 humbrians, 11, 15, 16. 
 Edwin, Earl of the Mercians, 37, 39, 
 
 40. 
 Kdwy or Eadwig, King, 27, 28. 
 Egbert or Ecgberht, King; 19 — 21. 
 Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen, 69, 7a 
 
 77> 
 Eleanor cf Castile, Queen, 93, 97 j 
 cro6:>es to her mcm.ry, qs, 07, 
 
3S4 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Eleanor of Provence, Queen, 86 — 88. 
 
 Eiementary Education Act, 345, 346. 
 
 Eliot, Sir Jtjhn, 207. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen (daughter of Henry 
 VIII.), i6a, 163, 167, 175, 177, 197 ; 
 reign, 180 — 192 ; death, 193 ; literary 
 acquirements, 203. 
 
 Elizaocth Wydevile, Queen, 140, 141, 
 144, 145. 
 
 Elizabeth of York, Queen, 146, 148, 
 152. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, 198, 
 263. 
 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Charles I., 218, 
 219. 
 
 Elmet, II. 
 
 Emma of Normandy, 32, 33. 
 
 Emperor of Britain, 26. 
 
 Empress of India, 313. 
 
 Enipson, Sir Richard, 156, 158. 
 
 England, name of, i, 7 ; King of, 84 ; 
 Church of, see Church. 
 
 English, the, origin of, i, 7 ; conquer 
 Britain, 1,7 — la; religion, n; king 
 and people, 11, 12 ; early government 
 of, 13; converted to Christianity, 
 14 — 17 ; Old-English manners and 
 customs, 40 — 42; under the Nor- 
 mans, 45, 46 ; English Chronicle, see 
 Chronicles; language, 43, 118, 119. 
 
 Essex, kingdom of, 9, 10, 23, 25. 
 
 Essex, Robert Deverc x. Earl of, 191, 
 192. 
 
 Essex, Robert Devcreux. Earl of (son 
 of the above), 212, 214. 
 
 Estates, the Three, 98. 
 
 Eton College, 137, i6c>. 
 
 Eugene of Savoy, Pnncc, 266 — 268. 
 
 Evesham, battle c>f, 90. 
 
 Exchequer, shutting of the, 236. 
 
 Excise, 231, 278. 
 
 Exclusion Bill, 238. 
 
 Exeter, Henry Courtenay, Marquess 
 of, 165. 
 
 Exeter, Henry Holland, Duke of, 139. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fairfax, Ferdinando, Lord, 214. 
 Fairfax, Sir Thomas (afterwards Lord 
 
 Fairfax), 214, 216, 217, 228. 
 Falkirk, battle of [1298], 96; battle 
 
 of [1746], 381. 
 Falkland, Lucius Carey, Viscount, 
 
 210, 211, 313. 
 Faukes, Guy or Gutdo, 195, 196. 
 Fealry, 47. 
 
 Ferdinand, King of Aragon, 154, 155. 
 Feudalism, 47 — 49. 
 Fieldius, Henry, sgo. 
 
 Fifth -Monarchy men, 937, ikjt. 
 
 F'iji Islands, 344. 
 
 Fisher, John, Bishop of Rochester, 
 
 162. 
 Fitz-Gerald, Maurice, 74. 
 Fitz-Osbern, William (Earl of Here. 
 
 ford), 53. 
 Fitz-Stephen, Robert, 74. 
 Fitz-Walier, Robert, 8a. 
 Five Boroughs, the, 34. 
 Five Members, attempt to arrest the, 
 
 2X1. 
 
 Flamsteed, John, 254. 
 
 P'lodden, battle of, 159. 
 
 Folkiand, 11, 50. 
 
 Font«'noy, battle of, 279, 280. 
 
 Forests, 55, 6f, 81; Charter of the 
 
 Forest, 91. 
 Forster, Thimas, of Bamburgh, 274. 
 Fortescue, Sir John, 150. 
 Fox, Charles James, 398 — 300, 317, 
 
 Fox, George, aaj. 
 
 France, title of King of, retained by 
 the English Kings, 133 ; given up, 
 
 Francis L, King of France, 159. 
 Frankl.n, Sir John, 346. 
 Frederick, Prmce of Wales, 277, 286. 
 Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, 
 
 282. 
 Frederick V., Elector Palatine, 198. 
 Free trade, progress of, 327, 328, 338. 
 French Revolution, the Great, 265 
 
 299, 300, 320, 326 ; War of the, 299 
 
 — 314 : revolution of 1830, 330 ; of 
 
 1848. 339. 
 Frobisher, Martin, 187, 189. 
 Fyrd, 13. 
 
 G. 
 
 Gael, the, a. ' 
 
 Galway, Earl of (Marquess of Ru- 
 vigny), 267. 
 
 Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Win- 
 chester, 165, 173, 176. 
 
 Gascony, Duchy of, 69, 80, 133. 
 
 Gaskell, Elizabeth, 347. 
 
 Gaunt, John of, see Lancaster, Duke of. 
 
 Gaveston, Piers, 99 — 101. 
 
 Gay, John, 290. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, 120. 
 
 Geoffrey Plantage'net of Anjou, 64. 
 
 Geoffrey, son of Henry II., 72, 73. 
 
 George I., King (Elector of Bnins- 
 wick-Luneburg), 270 ; reign, 272^ 
 277 ; death, 276. 
 
 George II., King, 376; reign, 377— 
 388 ; death, a86. 
 
 George III., King. 28fi. 3^4: reisrn, 393 
 — 317 ; deulU. jia \ court of, 330 ; 
 
 cl 
 Geo| 
 ac 
 d<| 
 Gee 
 GibI 
 GibJ 
 GiU 
 GiU 
 Ginl 
 GteJ 
 GleJ 
 
INDEX. 
 
 3$S 
 
 arl of Here. 
 
 bbpoked to the Roman Catholic 
 
 claiins, 328. 
 George IV., King (Prince Regent), 
 
 298, 299, 31a; reign, 335 — 330; 
 
 death, 32^. 
 George, Prince of Denmark, 246, 264. 
 Gibbon, Edward, 319. 
 Gibraltar, 266, 270, 297. 
 Gildas, 7. 
 
 Gilds, 5X. y 
 
 Ginkelf, General (Barl of Athlone), 257. 
 Glendower, Owen, 122—124. 
 Glcn.shiel, surrender of Spaniards at, 
 
 275. 
 Gloucester, Gilbert of Clare, Earl of, 
 
 89, 90. 
 Gloucester, Henry, Duke of, 218, 219. 
 Gloucester, Humfrey, Duke of, 125, 
 
 I33> i34> 149- 
 Gloucester, Richard, Duke of, set 
 
 Richard III. 
 Gloucester, Robert of Caen, Earl of, 
 
 67, 68, 119, 120. 
 Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock, 
 
 Duke of. III. 
 Gloucester, William Henry, Duke of, 
 
 312. 
 Godolphin, Earl of, 269. 
 Gods, the Old-Eiigl.sh, 11. 
 Godwin, Earl of tlie West-Saxons, 33, 
 
 34. 36- 
 Goldsmith. Oliver, 318, 320. 
 Goujerat, battle of, 340. 
 Gordon, Lord George, 297, 298. 
 Gower, John, 121. 
 Grafton, Duke of, 294, 318. 
 Grand Alliance, the, 256, 265. 
 Granville, Earl of (Lord Carteret), 283. 
 Grattan, Henry, 313. 
 Gray, Thomas, 94, 291. 
 Great Britain, King of, 198 ; United 
 
 Kingdom of, 268. 
 Gregory the Great, Pope, 14, 40. 
 Gregory XHI., Pope, 286. 
 Grenville, George, 294, 295. 
 Grey, Earl, 332, 333. 
 Grey, Lady Jane, 172, 175 — 177, 202. 
 Grocyn, William, 201. 
 Grote, George, 348. 
 Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, 46. 
 Gunpowder Plot, the, 195, 196. 
 Guthrum, Danish King of East-Anglia, 
 
 2c, 23. 
 Gytha, wife of Godwin, 33, 39. 
 
 R 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act, 237, 238, 342. 
 Hadrian, Emperor, 6. 
 Hadrian IV., Pope (Nicholas Brake- 
 spere), 74. 
 
 Half dene, Danish King, \\, 
 Hallam, Henry, 348. 
 HamiltiMi, Duke of, 216, 219. 
 Hampden, John, 309, ait — 213. 
 Hanover, House of, 263 ; Elector of, 
 
 370 : Hanover seized by Buonaparte, 
 
 305 ; separated from Great Bntaio, 
 
 335 ; Hanoverian troops, 279, 282. 
 Harold 1.. King, 34, 35. 
 Harold 11., King (Earl of the West< 
 
 Saxons), 36-39, 52, 56, 347. 
 Harold Hardrada, King of the Noi» 
 
 wegians, 38, 39. 
 Harthacnut, King, 3(, 3$* 
 Harvey, William, 253. 
 Hastings or Senlac, battle of, 39, 41. 
 Hastings, Lord, beheaded, 144. 
 Hastiii>;s, Marquess of, 314. 
 Hastings, Warren, 114. 
 Havclock, General Henry, 34a. 
 Hawkins, Jiihn, 187, 189. 
 Head of the Church, 161, 182. 
 Heavcnheld, battle of, 16. 
 Heligoland, 310. 311. 
 Hengest and Horsa, legend of, 8, 
 
 283. 
 Henrietta Maria, Queen, 206, 212. 
 Henrietta Maria, Duchess of Orleans, 
 
 219. 
 Henry I., King (son of William I.), 
 
 48 ; grants charters, 51-, 62, 65 ; 
 
 attacked by his brothers, 58 ; reigii, 
 
 61 — 65; death, 65; confusion airier 
 
 iiis death, 66. 
 Henry II., King, 41;, 48. 76'; birth, 64; 
 
 succession, 68 ; reign, 69—75 > death, 
 
 73- 
 Henry IH., King, 84; reign, 85—91; 
 
 death, 90 ; begins to rebuild West- 
 minster, 37, 90. 
 
 Henry IV., King (Duke of Hereford 
 and Duke of Lancaster), banishment 
 and return of, 117; made King, 118; 
 reign, 121 — 126 ; death, 125. 
 
 Henry V., King (Prince of Wales), 
 story of his imprisonment for cun- 
 tempt, 124 ; present at the burn>ng 
 of Badby, 126; reign, 126—131; 
 death, 130. 
 
 Henry VJ., King, 130; reign, 131— 
 137; dep;;sition, 137; flight and 
 capture, 139; restoration, 141 ; death, 
 ib. ; his library, 149. 
 
 I^lenry VII., King (Earl of RichmondX 
 146 — 149; reign, 152 — 157, death, 
 156; his chapel, 93, 146, 156. 
 
 Henry VIII., King, 155, 323; reign, 
 158 — 168; death, 167; his will, 167, 
 168, 184, 193; attends to naval 
 matters, 168. 
 
 Henry, the Younger King, 71—73. , 
 
3S8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, 
 
 19s, X08. 
 Henry VI., Emperor, 77, 78. 
 Herbert. Admiral (Earl oc Torrington), 
 
 246, 256. 
 Hereford, Henry of Bolingbroke, 
 
 Duke of, see Henry IV. 
 Hereford, Humfrey Bohun, Earl of, 
 
 98. 
 Hereford, Humfrey Bohun, Earl of 
 
 (sun of the above), 103 
 Hereward, 54. 
 
 Hild or Hilda, St., Abbess, 17, 44. 
 Hildebrand (Pope Gregory Vll.), 38. 
 Hogarth, William, 287, 323, 324. 
 Holies, Denzil, 207, 211. 
 Holy Alliance, 326. 
 Homage, 37, 47. 
 Honiildon Hill, battle of, 123. 
 Honorius, Emperor, 7. 
 Hooker, Richard, 203. 
 Hooper, John, Bibhop of Gloucester, 
 
 179. 
 Hotspur (Sir Henry Percy), 123. 
 Housecarls, 33, 39. 
 Howard, Charles, Lord, of Eflfingham, 
 
 189, 190. 
 Howard, John, 317. 
 Howe, Admiral Earl, 300, 30a. 
 Hubert of Burgh, 79, 85. 
 Hudson. Henry, aoo. 
 Hudson's Bay, 200, 270. 
 Huguenots, 250, 257. 
 Hume, David, 290. 
 Hundred Years* War, the, beginning 
 
 of, 106; renewed by Henry V., 
 
 127; end of, 133. 
 Huskisson, William, 327, 328. 
 Hyder AH, Rajah of Mysore, 313. 
 
 I. 
 
 Ida, King of Bcmicia, 9. 
 Impcachiueat, power of , no. 
 Indemnity, Charles II. 's Act of, 231. . 
 Independents, 183, 213 — 216, 227. 
 India, 24, 192, 284—386, 307, 313, 314, 
 
 330, 336, 342. 343« 
 Indulgence, Declarations of, 232, 244. 
 
 245- . 
 
 Ine, King of the West-Saxons, 19,24. 
 
 Innocent III., Pope, 80, 81, 83. 
 
 Innocent XI., Pope, 243. 
 
 Investiture, 63. 
 
 Ireland, 2, 8, 16; Danes in, 21 ; 
 slave-trade with, 42; English om- 
 quest of, 74, 75 ; Biuce in, 102 ; 
 Simnel in, 153 : rnis'.'d to the rank of 
 a kingdom, 168 ; Church of, 184, 
 )45 ; Tyrone':* rebclUoU, 191 : plan* 
 
 tation of Ulster, 199; rebellion ot 
 1641, 210; Cromwell in, 220; united 
 with the English Commonwealth. 
 225 ; settlement of, 233 ; l-yrconnel 
 in, 243 ; William assumes the sove* 
 reignty of, 250 ; Irishry and Eng- 
 lishry, 255, 256; war in, 256, 257, 
 Roman Catholics in, 257 ; Irish 
 forfeitures, 260; ready to revolt, 
 
 ^ 301 ; obtains an independent parlia- 
 ment, 3x3 ; United Irishmen, t'b.; 
 Union with Great Britain, tl>.'. 
 Catholic Association, 329 ; Reform 
 Bill passed for, 334 ; famine in, 338; 
 recent legislation for, 345. 
 
 Ireton, Henry, 217, 220, 231. 
 
 Isabel of France, Queen, 100, 102, 103^ 
 105. 
 
 Isabel, Queen, wife of Charles VI. of 
 France, 129. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jacobins, 321. 
 
 Jacobites, 255, 257, 261, 270—272, 274, 
 276 ; consp.racy fur the assassiiiation 
 of William III., 259; insurrection 
 of 1715, 273, 274; of 1745,280, a8i, 
 
 Jamaica taken, 225. 
 
 James I. , King of Scots, 130. 
 
 James IV., King of Scots, 154, 155, 
 
 James V., King of Scots, 166. 
 
 James I. of England and VI. of Scot- 
 land, King, 184, 186, 192 ; reign, 
 193 — 200; death, 198. 
 
 James II., King (Duke of York), 218, 
 23?, 234, 237 — 240 ; reign, 240—249; 
 abdication, 249; lands in Ireland, 
 256 : at the Boyne, 257: expects 
 English support, 258 ; death, 261. 
 
 James Francis Edward Sluart(the Old 
 Pretender), 246 — 248, 261, 263, 270, 
 271, 273 — 276, 280 ; death, 282. 
 
 Jane Seymour, Queen, 163. 
 
 Jeffreys, Lord Chancellor, 242, 243, 
 249. 
 
 Tenner, Dr. Edward, 315. 
 
 Jersey, French attack upon, 297. 
 
 Jerusalem, Patriarch of, 24 * city of, 
 taken by Saladin, 76. 
 
 Jesuits, 185. 
 
 Jews, 98, 99, 227, 345. / 
 
 Jo.in uf Arc, 132. 
 
 John, King (son of Henry II.), 51,72, 
 73. 77. 78 ; reign, 79—84 : death 
 84; tribute to Rome, 81, 112. 
 
 John the Oood, King of France, loft. 
 109. 
 
 Jolinson, Dr. Samuel, 317, 318. 
 
t99; rebellion ot 
 'ell in, 220 ; united 
 I Commonwealth, 
 ^» 233; Tyrconnei 
 assumes the sove. 
 Irishry and Eng- 
 war in, 256, 257, 
 ' iHf 257; Irish 
 
 ready to revolt, 
 idependent parlia- 
 :d Irishmen, ib.\ 
 at Britain, ib.\ 
 on, 329 ; Reform 
 I ; famine in, 338; 
 
 aff 345- 
 !2o, 231. 
 
 een, icx>, 102, 103^ 
 Jf Charles VI. of 
 
 IKDEX. 
 
 357 
 
 5t, 270—272, 274, 
 
 the assassiiiation 
 
 259; insurrection 
 
 of 1745. 280, 281, 
 
 3tS, 130. 
 
 Scots, 154, ,55, 
 
 :nts, 166. 
 
 and VI. of Scot- 
 
 186, 192; reign, 
 
 j8. 
 
 e of York), 218, 
 
 reign, 240—249; 
 
 nds in Ireland, 
 
 r 257: expects 
 
 ; death, 261. 
 
 Smart (the Old 
 ,261, 263, 270, 
 death, 282. 
 
 163. 
 sllor, 242, 243, 
 
 ipon, 297, 
 
 f . 24 • citi- of. 
 
 »T II.), 51.72, 
 79—84: death 
 81, 112. 
 
 F France, 108. 
 i7> 3<8. 
 
 (MiM, Inif^. «54* 
 
 unson, ben, 205. 
 
 unius, Letters of, 318. 
 
 ury , trial by, 
 
 usticiar, 50. 
 _ utes, 7, 8, ip. 
 
 ' uxon, William, Bishop of London, 
 318. 
 
 Kaffir wars, 341. 
 
 Kalendar, reform of the, 286, 287. 
 
 Katharine of Aragon, Queen, 155. 160, 
 
 161. 
 Katharine of Braganza, Queen, 233. 
 Katharine of France, Queen, 129, 130. 
 Katharine Howard, Queen, 164. 
 Katharine Parr, Queen, 164, 170. 
 Kemble, John Mitchell, 348. 
 Ken, Thomas, liishop of Bath and 
 
 Wells, 291. 
 Kent, people of, a; kingdom of, 8, 
 
 lO. 
 
 Kentish Petition, the, a6i. 
 
 Ket, Robert, 171. 
 
 Kingsley, Charles, 347. 
 
 Kirke, Colonel Percy, 242. 
 
 Knights, 47, 48: of the shire, 89, 97, 
 no, 137 ; Templars, 104; of the Gar» 
 ter, in; of St. John, 310. 
 
 Knight-service, tenures by, 47 ; abol- 
 ished, 49, 231. 
 
 Labourers, Statutes of, 108, xx4, 134. 
 
 Labuan, 344. 
 
 La Hogue, battle of, 258, 359. 
 
 Lambert, John, 328. 
 
 Lancaster, Henry of Bolingbroke, 
 
 Duke of, see Henry IV. 
 Lancaster, John of Gaunt, Duke of, 
 
 109—1x2, X15, 117. 
 Lancaster, Thomas, Earl of, loi, 103. 
 Laod-tax first imposed, 358. 
 Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 
 55—57- 
 Lan gland, author of Piers Plowman^ 
 
 X2I. 
 
 Langton, Stephen, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, 80, 8x, 83. 
 
 Language, Celtic, 3, 5 : English, 43, 
 118, XX9; French, 118, 1x9 ; Greek, 
 aox, 303; Latin, 5, 15, 34, xi8, 
 XI 9, 300, 303 ; Low-Dutch, 7. 
 
 Latimer, Hugh, X69, 176, X79. 
 
 Laud, William, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 307—210, 8x5. 
 
 Leicester, Robert Dudley, Garl o(^ 
 181, 187, 169, 191. 
 
 Leicester, Simon of Montfort, Earl 
 of, 87—00, 97. 
 
 Lenthall, Speaker, 3it. 
 
 Leo IV., Pope, 22. 
 
 Leo X., Pope, 168. 
 
 Levellers, 220, 227. 
 
 Lewes, battle and Mise of, 88. 
 
 Liberals, 326, 334. 
 
 Limerick, surrender of, 257. 
 
 Limoges, Viscount of, 78; massacre 
 of, 109. 
 
 Lincoln, battles of, 68, 85. 
 
 Lincoln, John de la Pole, Earl of, 
 X47, 152, 153. 
 
 Lingard, John, 348. 
 
 Lisle, Alice, beheaded, 243. 
 
 Literature, Old-English, 41, 43 — 45; 
 from the Norman Conquest to Chau- 
 cer, 1x9— 121; 1 5th century, 1 50, 151 ; 
 16th and early 17th century, 200 — 
 305 ; Stuart and Revolution periods, 
 350 — 253 : under Anne and the two 
 Georges, 289—291 ; end of i8th cen- 
 tury, 317 — 320 ; early 19th century, 
 320 — 323 ; under Queen Victoria, 
 
 ^ 347—348. 
 
 Llyweiyn, son of Jorwerth, 85. 
 
 Llywelyn, Prince of Wales, 90, 93. 
 
 Locke, John. 353. 
 
 Lollards, 113, 1x4, 135, 137, 150; sta* 
 tutes against, 125, X69, 178. 
 
 London (Londinium), probably burn* 
 ed in Uoadicea's revolt, 4 ; citizens 
 of, X3 ; its first bishop, 15 ; beats 
 off the Danes, 31 ; escape of Arch- 
 bishop Robert from, 36 ; after the 
 battle of Hastings, 40 ; descrip- 
 tion of, 43 ; charter and privileges 
 off 51. 239, 247, 395; Mayor of, 51, 
 339 ; receives Stephen, 66 ; Matilda 
 in, 68; admits the Barons, 83; its 
 liberties secured,' ib.\ under inter- 
 ,dict, 83; its quarrel with the court, 
 86 ; Londoners in the Barons' War, 
 87, 88; insurgent peasants in, X15 ; 
 entry of Henry V. , 139 ; Cade in, 1 34, 
 X35; acknowledges Edward IV., 
 137 ; supports the Keformation, 173 ; 
 corporation founds hospitals and 
 schools, ib.\ entry of Mary, 175; 
 Wyatt in, 177 ; in the Armada year, 
 189 ; sides with the Parliament, 213; 
 entry of Monk, 228 ; entry of 
 Charles II., 229; the Plague in, 233, 
 834 ; the Great Fire of, 234 ; forfeits 
 its charter, 239 ; charter restored, 
 347 : after the flight of James, 249 ; 
 disjjute with the House of Corn* 
 moas, 395 Protestant riots in, 397, 
 
35S 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 298 ; Metropolitan Police Force, 
 330; not included iu the Muaici|>al 
 Corporation Act, 335 , Chartists in, 
 
 339- 
 Londonderry, sie^fe of, 256. 
 Longchanip, William, Biohop o£ Ely, 
 
 77- 
 
 Lords, House of, how formed, 89, 98 ; 
 refuses to concur in the tr.al of 
 Charles, 217 ; Commons vole the 
 abolition of, 318 ; Cromwell's Lords, 
 225 ; House of Lords restored, 229 ; 
 Bishops restored totheir seats in, 232 ; 
 Roman Catholics excluded from, 237; 
 throws out the Reform Bill, 333. 
 
 Lothian, 33. 
 
 Louis VII., King o£ France, 69; 71, 
 
 Louis, son of Philip Augustus (after- 
 wards Louis VIII. of France), 83 — 
 
 85.. 
 Louis XI., King of France, 142. 
 Louis XII., King of France, 159. 
 Louis XIV., King of France, 233, 
 
 23S1236, 239, 241, 247, 249. 250, 255, 
 
 256, 258, 261, 265—267, 275, 289. 
 Louis XVI. , King of France, 299, 300. 
 Louis XVIII., King of France, 309, 
 
 310. 
 Lovel, Lord, 147, 152, 153. 
 Lucknow, relief of, 342, 343. 
 Luddites, 312. 
 Lumley, Lord, 246. 347. 
 Lydgate, John, 150. 
 Lyly, John, 203. 
 Lytton, Lord, 347. , 
 
 M. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 348. 
 
 Magdalen College, ejection of the 
 
 Fellows of, 243, 244, 247. 
 Magna Carta or the Great Charter, 
 
 82, 83, 91, 237. 
 Muhratta wars, 307, 313. 
 Maine, 56, 69. 79, 80, 134. * 
 
 Malcolm I., King of Scots, 26. 
 Malcolm III. King of Scots, 54, 58. 
 Maldon, battle of, 30. 
 Malplaquet, battle of, 368. 
 Malta, 304, 310. 
 •• Manchester Massacre," the, 312, 325, 
 
 333' 
 Mandeville, Sir John, 120, 121. 
 
 Manitoba, 343. 
 
 Mar, John Krsskine, Earl of, 273, 274. 
 
 March, Edn^und Mortimer, Earl of, 
 
 III. 
 March, Edmund Mortimer, Earl of 
 
 (grandson o£ the above), 122, 123, 
 
 X26, 128. 
 
 Marchers, Lord<;. 94, xo». 
 
 Margaret of Anjou, Queen, 133, 136 
 
 »37. »39— 142. 
 Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots, 
 
 155- 
 Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke 
 
 of, 248, 264 — 267, 269. 
 Marlborough, Sarah, Duchess of 
 
 (Lady Churchill), 248, 264, 269. 
 Marston Moor, battle of, 314. 
 Martineau, Harriet, 347. 
 Mary I. , Queen (daughter of Henry 
 
 VIII.), 160, 167, 172, 174 ; reign, 
 
 175 — 180 ; death, 180. 
 Mary II., Queen, 246, 250, 263; 
 
 reign, 255—259 ; death, 259. 
 Mary of Modena, Queen, 246, 248. 
 Mary Tudor, Queen of France and 
 
 Duchess of Suffolk, 150, 168, 173, 
 
 193, 194. 
 Massinger, Philip, 205, 291. 
 Matilda, the Empress, 64, 66—68. 
 Matilda of Boulogne, Queen, 68. 
 Matilda (Edith). Queen, 62, 64. 
 Matilda of Flanders, Queen, 52. 
 Matthew Paris, 120. 
 Maurice, Bishop of London, 46. 
 Medina bidonia, Duke of, 189, 190. 
 Mercia, 10, 19, 21, 22, 33, 25, 33. 
 Merton, Council of, 91. 
 Methodists, 387, 288. 
 Middle-Saxons, 9. 
 Militia, X3, 73, 211, 331. 
 Milman, Henry Hart, Dean of Sl 
 
 Paul's, 348. 
 Milton, John, 251, 253. 
 Minden, battle of, 384. 
 Minorca. 367, 270, 282, 294, 297. 
 Monk, George (Duke of Albemarle), 
 
 333, 235, 228, 229, 233, 235. 
 
 Monmouth, James, Duke of, 238, 240, 
 
 241, 253. 
 Monopolies, 191, 192, 197. 
 Montacutc, Marquess of, 141. 
 Montagu, Lord, 165. 
 Montague, Charles, 259. 
 Montcalm, Marquess of, 284. 
 Montgomery, 63. 
 Moore, Sir John, 508. 
 Morcar, Earl of the Northumbrians, 
 
 37. 39. 40. 54- 
 More, Sir Thomas, 163, bo3. 
 Mortimer, Sir Edmund, 123. 
 Mortimer, Roger of, 103—105. 
 Mortimer's Cross, battle of, 137. 
 Municipal Corporation Act, 335. 
 Municipal Franchise, Act to shorten 
 
 the term of residence required as 4 
 
 qualification for, 345. 
 Mutiny Act, 262. 
 Mutiny, the Indian, 342, 343. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 359 
 
 hurchill, Duke 
 
 N. 
 
 Napier, Sir Charles, 340. 
 
 Napier, Commodore, 340. 
 
 Naseby, battle of, 214. 
 
 National Debt, 259, 275, 286, 3x1. 
 
 Navarino, battle of, 327. 
 
 Navarrete, battle of, 109. 
 
 Navigation Acts, 327. 
 
 Nelson, Horatio, Lord, 301, 303 — 306. 
 
 Netherlands, United Provinces of the, 
 
 187, 222, 234. 
 Neville's Cross, battle or, 107. 
 New Brunswick, 297, 343. 
 Newbury, battle of, 213. 
 New Caledonia, 314. 
 Newcastle, Duke of, 283. 
 New Forest, the, 55, 60. 
 Newspapers, 263, 345. 
 Newton Butler, battle of, 256. 
 Newton, Isaac, 253, 254, 259. 
 New Zealand, 314, 315, 344. 
 Nile, battle of the, 303. 
 Nithsdale, Earl of, 274. 
 Nonconformists, 183, 23a, 251, 25a. 
 
 See also Dissenters. 
 Nonjurors, 255. 
 
 Norfolk, John Howard, Duke of, 148. 
 Norfolk, Roger Bigod, Earl of, 98. 
 Norfolk, Thomas Howard, Duke of, 
 
 164, 165, 167, 176. 
 Noriolk, Thomas Howard, Duke of 
 
 (grandson of the above), 18 
 
 IBS- 
 
 Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, Duke of, 
 
 X17. 
 Normandy, Duchy of, 25, 55, 56, 58, 
 
 60, 62, 64, 69, 72, 80, 129. 
 Normans, 25, 35—37. 39—4*. 45. 46. 
 North, Lord, 205. 
 Northampton, battle of, 136, 138. 
 Northmen, 20. 
 Northumberland, kingdom of, 9, to, 
 
 19, 21 ; conversion of, 15 — 17: owns 
 
 Edward as Lord, 25 ; under i^theU 
 
 stan, 26 ; earldom of, 27, 33, 68 ; 
 
 revolt of, 37 ; dialect of, 43 ; litcra« 
 
 lure of, 43, 44. 
 Northumberland, Henry Percy, Earl 
 
 of, 117, 118, 123, 1S4. 
 Northumberland, Henry Percy, Earl 
 
 of, 148. 
 Northumberland, John Dudley, Duke 
 
 of (Earl of Warwick), 171— 173, 175, 
 
 176. 
 Northumberland, Thomus Percy, Earl 
 
 of, 185. 
 North-Wales, 10. 
 North- West Passage, search for the, 
 
 187, 200, 346. 
 Nova Scotia, 270, 297, 343. 
 
 O. 
 
 Oatcs, Titus, 237. 
 
 Occasional conformity, 971, 277. 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, 329. 
 
 Oda, Archbishop of Canterbury, 28. 
 
 Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, 46, 53, 55—57' 
 
 Offa, King of the Mercians, 6, 19, 24. 
 
 Ormonde, James Butler, Marquess of, 
 220. 
 
 Ormonde, James Butler, Duke o( 
 269, 273, 275. 
 
 Oswald," St., King of the Northum- 
 brians, 16. 
 
 Oudenarde, battle of, 267. 
 
 Outram, Sir James, 342. 
 
 Oxford, Provisions of, 87. 
 
 Oxford, University of, 91, 169, aoa, 
 215, 244, 287. 
 
 Oxford, Johnde Vere, Earl of, 156. 
 
 Oxford, Robert Harley, Earl of, 269, 
 271, 273. 
 
 P. 
 
 Pains and Penalties, Act of, 276. 
 
 Painting, 323— 325* . 
 
 Palgrave, Sir Francis, 348. 
 
 Pandulf, 81, 83. 
 
 Papists, see Roman Catholics. 
 
 Paris, Treaty of [1763], 293; Paris, 
 Treaty of [1815], 310. 
 
 Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of Can< 
 terbury, 183, aoi. 
 
 Parliament, 50; Great Council so 
 called, 87, 88 ; representatives of the 
 towns first summoned, 88, 89 ; organ- 
 ized by Edward L, 97, 98 ; taxes not 
 to be levied without grant of, 98, 
 262 ; peers in, in ; Roman Catholics 
 shut out from, 186, 237, 328 ; stand« 
 ing army not to be kept unless by its 
 consent, 262 ; freedom of debate, ib. ; 
 necessity of frequent parliaments, 
 ib. ; oath of abjuration imposed on 
 members, 263 ; one parliament for 
 England and Scotland, 268 ; and 
 Ireland, 313 ; duration of parlia- 
 ments, 376; Roman Catholics ad- 
 mitted to, 329 ; parliamentary re- 
 form, 31a, 330—334. 339. 345; Jews 
 admitted to House or Commons, 
 345 ; the Mad Parliament, 87 , Earl 
 Simon's Parliament, 88, 89 ; Parlia- 
 ment of 1295, 97 ; Parliament of 
 1309, 100 ; Parliament deposes Ed« 
 ward II. , 103 ; the Good Parliament, 
 110 ; the Wonderful Parliament, 116; 
 Parliament deposes Richard II., 
 X18 i Parliameat of Coventry, 138 ; 
 
yso 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Parliament of 1460, 136 ; first Parlia- 
 ment of iildward IV., 139; Parliament 
 cf 1484, X47 ; Parliament settles the 
 crown on HenryVII.,152; Parliament 
 of 1554 reconciled with Rome, 178 ; 
 Parliament of x6oi, 192 ; the Addled 
 Parliament, 197; Parliament of 1621, 
 197, 198 ; Parliament of 1628—29, 
 ao6, 207 ; the Short Parliament, 
 aoQ ; the Long Parliament, 200 — 223, 
 228, 229, 252 ; Royalist Parliament 
 at Oxford, 213; the Little Parlia- 
 ment, 224 ; Parliaments of tlie Pro- 
 tectorate, 224, 225, 331 ; Conven- 
 tion Parliament of 1660, 229 — 231 ; 
 Parliament of 1661, 231, 232. 237 ; 
 Parliament of 1679, 237 ; Parl.ameiit 
 at Oxford, 238 ; Parliament of 
 1685, 241, 243, 244 ; Convc.uion 
 Parliament of 16^9, 249, 250, 262 ; 
 Parliaments of William III., 260, 
 961 : first Parliament of George I., 
 «72, 273 ; Parliaments of 1830 and 
 1831, 332, 333 ; first Reformed Parlia- 
 ment, 334. 
 
 Parliament of Ireland, 233, 313 ; Jaco- 
 bite Parliament of 1689, 256. 
 
 Parliament-Houses burned down, 336. 
 
 Parry, Sir Edward, 346. 
 
 Partition Treaties, 260. 
 
 Paterson, William, 259. 
 
 Patrick, St, 16. 
 
 Paul IIL, Pope, 165. 
 
 Paul v., Pope, 196. 
 
 Paulinus, Bishop, 15, 16. 
 
 Pecock, Reginald, Bishop of Chiches- 
 ter, 150. 
 
 Pedro, King of Castile, T09. 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 329, 330, 333, 338. 
 
 Pelham, Henry, 283. 
 
 Pembroke, Richard Clare, Earl of 
 (Strongbow), 74. 
 
 Pembroke, William Marshal, Earl of 
 8.: 
 
 Penda, King of the Mercians, 16. 
 
 Peninsular War, 307 — 309. 
 
 Percy, Sir Henry (Hotspur), 123. 
 
 Perrers, Alice, 109, no. 
 
 Peterborough, Charles Mordaunt, Earl 
 of, 266, 267, 269. 
 
 Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winches- 
 ter, 85. 
 
 Petre, Edward, 243.^ 
 
 Philip Augustus, King of France, 73, 
 76—81. 
 
 Philip of Valois, King of France, 106. 
 
 Philip, King of Spain, 176 — 180, 183, 
 
 186—189. 
 Philip, Duke of Anjou (afterwards 
 
 Philip v., King of Spain), 260, 570, 
 
 274, 289. 
 
 PhilippA of Hainault, Queea,io7, 109 
 
 Picts, 7,8,16. 
 
 Pilgrimage of Grace, 164. 
 
 Pinkie, battle of, 169. 
 
 Pitt, William (Earl of Chatham), 279, 
 
 283, 284, 293, 296. 
 Pitt, Wdliam, 998—300, 305, 306, 32S, 
 
 ^.331. 343- 
 
 Pius v., Pope, 185. 
 
 Plassy, battle of, 286. 
 
 Poitiers, battle of, 108. 
 
 Pole, Reginald, Cardinal and Arcb* 
 bishop, 165, 178, ifco. 
 
 Poor Law Amendment Act, 335. 
 
 Pope, Alexander, 290. 
 
 Popish Plot, 237, 253. 
 
 Prajmunire, Statute of, »i8, t6i. 
 
 Presbyterians, 194, 213, 215, 216, 226 
 227. 
 
 Preston, Cromwell's victory at, ai6; 
 Jacobites defeated at, 273. 
 
 Pretender, the Old (James Francis 
 Edward Stuart), 246 — 248, 261, 263, 
 270, 271, 273 — 276, 280; de.'ith, 282. 
 
 Pretender, the Young (Charles Edward 
 Stuart), 276, 280 — 282. 
 
 Prince Edward island, 344. 
 
 Printing, first introduced, 147, 149; 
 Milton's Plea for the Liberty of, 251, 
 252 ; censorship of the press given 
 up, 263 : printing of parliamentary 
 debates, 294, 295. 
 
 Prior, Matthew, 290. 
 
 Protestants, 163, 165, 173, 188, 207, 
 237, 245; persecution of, 178, 179; 
 extreme Protestants called Furiti^ns, 
 182 ; foreign Protestants succoured 
 by Elizabeth, 183, 186 ; and by 
 Cromwell, 226; Protestants in Ire- 
 land, 220, 2-6 ; French Protestants, 
 250 ; Protestant succession settled, 
 263 ; Protestant interest, A«!t for 
 strengthening the, 277; Protestaal 
 riots, 297, 29S. 
 
 Pulan, Robert, 91. 
 
 Punjaub annexed, 340. 
 
 Puritans, 1S2 183. 186, 194, .^f aui 
 208, 214, 215, 229, 251, 252. 
 
 Purveyance and pre-einptiou, pre- 
 rogative of, 82, III, 112 231. 
 
 Pym, John, 209 — 2x1. j 
 
 Quakers or Friends, 227, 317, 
 Quatre Bras, battle of, 310. 
 Quebec, taking of, 284. 
 (^utensland. 344. 
 (Jmbcron, Lalile of, 284. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 3«« 
 
 ieen.107. 109 
 
 hatham). 379, 
 305. 306' 32^< 
 
 lal and Arcb* 
 ^t, 335* 
 
 J18, t6i. 
 ai5, 216, 226 
 
 ctory at, ai6 ; 
 
 ' 273- „ 
 ames Francis 
 
 -248, 261, 263, 
 
 o; der.th, 282. 
 
 Iharles Edward 
 
 344- 
 
 ced, I47r 149 1 
 
 Liberty of, 251, 
 
 ;he press given 
 
 parliamentary 
 
 173, x88, 207, 
 of, 178, 179; 
 ailed Puritiins, 
 ants succoured 
 x86 ; and by 
 stants in Ire- 
 h Protcsiaiits, 
 ession settled, 
 erest, A«U for 
 77 : Protestaul 
 
 194, ^, aoi 
 
 252. 
 iinptiou, pre- 
 
 [12 23I> 
 
 r, 3i7» 
 310. 
 
 Radcliflfe, Anne, 320. 
 
 Radicals, 334. 
 
 Kagnar Lodbroz, legend of, 21. 
 
 Ralegh, Sir Walter, 187, 194, 196, 197, 
 
 203. . 
 Ramillies, battle of* 266. 
 Ranulf Fiainbard, Bishop of Durham, 
 
 47. 58, 59- 
 Reform Bill of 1832, 333, 334 ; of 1867, 
 
 345- 
 
 Remonstrance, the Grand, 210, 211, 
 
 Renard, Simon, 176, 177. 
 
 Revolution of 1688, 249, 250, 348. 
 
 Richard I., King (son of Henry II.), 
 5t, 72. 73; reign, 75 79; death, 
 78 ; legendary Irame, 78, 79. 
 
 Richard II., King, reign, 113-118; 
 deposition, 118 ; death, 122; burial, 
 122, 126. 
 
 Richard III., King(Duke of Glouces- 
 ter), 142—145; reign, 145 — i49;slain 
 at Bos worth, 149. 
 
 Richard, King of the Romans (Earl 
 of Cornwall), 84, 88. 
 
 Richard the Good, Duke of the Nor- 
 mans, 32. 
 
 Richardson, Samuel, 290. 
 
 Richmond, Henry Tudor, Earl of, see 
 Henry VII. 
 
 Richmond, Margaret Beaufort, Coun- 
 tess ot, 147. 
 
 Ridley, Nicholas, Bishop of London, 
 
 173. 179- . 
 Right, Declaration of, 249, 250, 2<;3, 
 
 262. 
 Right, Petition of, 206. 
 Rights, Bill of 262. 
 Riot Act, 273. 
 Rivers, Anthony Wydevile, Earl, 143, 
 
 144, 150. 
 Robert, Duke of Normandy, 55 — 58, 
 
 60 — 62. 
 Robert of Jumi^ges, Archbishop of 
 
 Canterbury, 35, 36. 
 Robertson, William, 319. 
 Roderick, King of Connaught, 75. 
 Rodney, Admiral Sir George, 297. 
 Roger, Archbishop of York, 71. 
 Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, 67. 
 Rogers, John, 178, 200 
 Rolf, Duke of the Normans, 25. 
 Roman Catholics, 163, 178, 182,184 — 
 
 186, 189, 195, 196, 2£o, 213, 220, r27, 
 
 232, 237, 241—244, 248, 357, i!62, 
 
 297. 3^2. 329- 
 Romans, 2 — 8. 
 Ruinilly, Sir Samuel, 317. 
 Roses, Wars of the, 136—141, 146— 
 
 149 
 
 Rouen, surrender of, tig. 
 Roundheads, 212. 
 Rowe, NicJ Jas, 290W 
 Royal A«»demy, 324. 
 Royal Marriage Act, 31a. 
 Royal Society, 253, 314. 
 Rupert, Prince, 21a, 214, 235. 
 Jinsseil, EdwarJ, 246, 247, 258. 
 Russell, Lord John (afterwards Earl 
 
 Russell), 333. 
 Russell, William, Lord, 239. ^847. 
 Rye-House Plot, 239 
 Ryswick, Peace of, 258, 261. 
 
 S. 
 
 Sacheverell, Dr. 268. 
 
 Saint Albans, battles of, 136, 137. 
 
 Saint Paul, cathedral church of, 
 founded, 15; rebuilding begun, 46; 
 meeting of the Barons at, 8i ; 
 cloiKt«r pulled down, 171 ; burned 
 and again rebuilt, 23^, 254 ; Thorn- 
 hill's paintings in, 324; Paul's Cross, 
 
 Salad in, 76. 
 
 Salic Law, 106. 
 
 Salisbury, Meeting at, 48 ; cathedral 
 church of, 92. 
 
 Salisbury, Margaret, Countess of, 165. 
 
 Salisbury, Richard Neville, Earl of, 
 136. 
 
 Sancroft, William, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, 245, 248, 255. 
 
 Sandwich Islands, 315. 
 
 Saratoga, surrender of, 296. 
 
 Sarstield, Patrick, 257. 
 
 Sautree, William, burned, 125. 
 
 Save, Lord, 135. 
 
 Schism Act, 272, 277. 
 
 Scotland, name of, 2. 
 
 Scots, 3, 7. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 321 — 323. 
 
 Scutage, 74, 82. 
 
 Sebastopol, taking of, 342. 
 
 Sedgemoor, battle of, 241. 
 
 Septennial Act, 276. 
 
 Seringapatam, storming of, 303. 
 
 Settlement, Act of, 263. 
 
 Seven Bishops, the 245, 253, 255, 291, 
 
 Seven Years* War, the, 282, 286. 
 
 Severus, Emperor, 6. 
 
 Seymour, Thomas, Lord, of Sudeley, 
 170. 
 
 Shaftesbury, Earl of (Lord Ashley), 
 236, 238, 253. 
 
 Shakspere, William. 36, 204, 205. 
 
 SAattHOM and Che^apeak, combat of 
 the, 311. 
 
 Shel'ey, Percy Bysshe, 32a. 
 
 Sheridan, Richard Brins, 319. 
 
3^2 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Shnrifr, 13 ; exactions of the sheriffb, 
 50, 134; shuritf uf London, 51, 339. 
 Sheritfmuir, battle of, 273, 274. 
 Ship-money, 208 — 210. 
 Shire; 13; knights of the, 89, 97, zio, 
 
 137- 
 Shovell, Sir Goudesley, 267. 
 Shrewsbury, battle of, 123. • 
 
 Shrewsbury, Karl (afterwards Duke) 
 
 of, 246, 271. 
 Sidney, Sir Philip, 187, 203, 204. 
 Sikh war^ 340. 
 Siinnel, Lambert, 152, 153. 
 Simon of Monlfort, Earl of Leicester^ 
 
 87,— ()o, 97, 
 Sind, Conquest of, 340. 
 Siward. Earl of the Northumbrians, 
 
 .36, 37» 40- 
 Six Articles, Act of the, 165, 169. 
 Sixtus, v.. Pope 189. 
 Slavery,^ 12: dies out, 49; cannot 
 
 exist_ in England, 317; Act for 
 
 Abolition of, 334. 
 Slave-trade, 42 ; negro-slave trade, 
 
 187 ; abolished, 317, 334. 
 Sluys, battle of, 106. 
 Smeaton, John, 287, 316. 
 Smith, Adam, 318. 
 Smith, Sir Sidney, 303. 
 Smith, Sydney, 331. 
 Smollett, Tobias, 290. 
 Society Islands, 314. 
 Somers, Lord, 253. 
 Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of, 
 
 i35f 136- 
 Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of, 
 
 (son of the above), 141. 
 Somerset, Edward Seymour, Duke of, 
 
 (Earl of Hertford), 167 — 171. 
 Somerset, Henry Beaufort, Duke of, 
 
 beheaded, 139. 
 Somerset, Robert Carr, Earl of, 196. 
 Sophia, Princess, Electress of Han* 
 
 over, 263, 270. 
 Southey, Robert, 321. 
 South Sea scheme, 275, 276. 
 Spanish Succession, 260, 261 ; War of 
 
 the, 265 — 270, 289. 
 Spensf ., Ednmnd, 203. 
 Spenser, Henry, Bishop of Norwich, 
 
 "5- 
 Spurs, Battle of the, 158. 
 Stamford Bridge, battle of, 38. 
 Stamp Act, 292. 
 Stamp duty on newspapers, 344. 
 Standard, battle of the, 66, 67. 
 Stanley, Lord, 147— 149. 
 Stanley, Sir William, 148, 154. 
 Star Chaml)er, 208, 210, 252. 
 Steele, Richard, 289. 
 Stephen, King, 65- 68. 
 
 Stephenson, George and Robert, 336. 
 
 Sterne, J^urence, 290. 
 
 Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of 
 
 (Viscount Wentworth), 207 — 210. 
 Strathclyde, 11, 25, 26- 
 Strongbow, (Earl ol Pembroke) 74. 
 Stuart Arabella, 194. 
 Stubbs, John, loses his hand, 184. 
 Succession, Act concerning the King's, 
 
 162. 
 Suetonius Paulinus, 3, a. 
 Suffolk, Charles Brandon, Duke of, 
 
 159, 172. 
 Suffolk, Henry Grey, Duke of, 17a, 
 
 177. 
 Sufiolk, William de la Pole, Earl, 
 
 Marquess, and Duke of, 132 — 134. 
 Supremacy, Act of, 182, 183; oath of, 
 
 182, i86, 232, 237, 262, 328. 
 Suraj-ad-dowla, Nabob of Bengal, 
 
 285, 286. 
 Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of, 167, 
 
 203. 
 Surrey, John, Earl of Warrennc and, 
 
 95' 
 Surrey, Thomas Howard, Earl of, 
 
 159- 
 Sussex, kingdom of, 8, 10. 
 Swegcn Forkbeard, King, 31, 32. 
 Swegen Estrithson, King of the Danes, 
 
 53' 
 Swift, Jonathan, 289. 
 Sydney, Algernon, 239, 247. 
 Sydney, Henry, 246, 247. 
 
 T. 
 
 Talavera, battle of, 308. 
 
 Talbot, John, Lord (Earl of Shrews- 
 bury), 132, 133. 
 
 Tallages, 51, 68. 
 
 Tangier, 233, 242. 
 
 Tasmania or Van Diemen's Land, 315. 
 
 Taylor, Jeremy, 250. 
 
 Taylor, Rowland, burned, 179. 
 
 Tcmplcrs, Kniglits, Order ol the, sup- 
 pressed, X04. 
 
 Test Act, 232, 236, 277, 328. 
 
 Tewkesbury, battle of, 141. 
 
 Thackeray, William Makepeace, 347. 
 
 Thanes or Thegns, 12, 47. 
 
 Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury. 17, 18. 
 
 Theodosius, 7. 
 
 Thomas, St., Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 70 — 72, 121, 164. 
 
 Thomson, James, 291. 
 
 Thiirstan, Archbishop of York, 66. 
 
 Tiiichebrai, battle of, 62. 
 
 Tippoo, Sahib, 303, 313, 314, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 363 
 
 Jubert, 336. 
 
 orth. Earl uf 
 207 — 210. 
 
 )roke) 74. 
 
 nd, 184. 
 J the King's, 
 
 1, Duke of, 
 
 ike of, 17:^, 
 
 Pole, Earl, 
 , 132—134. 
 83 ; oath of, 
 
 J28. 
 
 of Bengal, 
 Carl of, 167, 
 irrcnne and, 
 1, Earl of. 
 
 31. 32- 
 f the Danes, 
 
 7' 
 
 of Shrcws- 
 
 iLand, 315. 
 
 179. 
 
 oi the, siip- 
 
 8. 
 
 ;peacc, 347. 
 
 chbibhop uf 
 
 of Canter- 
 fork, 66. 
 '4. 
 
 I'oleration Act, 26a. 
 
 Tonnage . <d poundage, 307. 
 
 Torres Vedras, the lines of, 508. 
 
 Torture, 185, 186, 
 
 Tory, origin of the term, 238. 
 
 Tostig, Earl, 37—39' 
 
 Toulouse, battle ui, 309. 
 
 Towns, 50, 51. 
 
 Towton, battle of, 138. 
 
 I'rafalgar, battle of, 306. 
 
 Treasons. Statute of, iii; Act for 
 regulating of trials in cabcs of trea- 
 son, 963. 
 
 Triennial Act, 976. 
 
 Trinity House, t68. 
 
 Triple Alliance, 235. 
 
 Troinp, Martin, 322. 
 
 Troyes, Treaty of, 129. 
 
 Tyler, tohn,of Dartford, 114. 
 
 Tyler, Wat, 114, 1,15. 
 
 Tynd.ile, William, 200. 
 
 Tyrcoiinel, Richard Talbot, Earl o€. 
 243, 247. 256, 257. 
 
 Tyrconnel, Roderick O'Donncll, Karl 
 of, 199. 
 
 Tyrone, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of. 191, 
 lyy. 
 
 u. 
 
 Udal, Nichokts, 204. 
 Ulster, plaataii <n uF, i/>. 
 Uniformity, Acts of, 174, i8a, 232, 
 
 Union with Scotland, 268 ; with Ire- 
 land, 313; Uniun Jack, 198, 268, 
 
 3.13- 
 United Irishmen, 31 v 
 United States of America, 199, 296, 
 
 297. 3"t 343- 
 Universities, 87, 91, 215, 243 ; colleges 
 
 in, 91, III, 137, 169. See also U«> 
 
 ford and Cambridge. 
 Urban v., Pope, 112. 
 Utrecht, Peace of, 270, 273, 274. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vacarius, gr. 
 Valentinian, Emperor, 7. 
 Victoria, Queen, 335, 337 
 Victoria, colony of, 344. 
 Vikings, 20. 
 
 Villainage, 49, 113— .116, 
 Vimeiro, battle or, 307. 
 Virginia, 187, 199. 
 Vuiuuiecrs, ^o^, 34a. 
 
 -348. 
 
 w. 
 
 W.-»kefitld, Tattle of, 136. 
 
 Wales, «, 8, 10, 19. 35, 63 ; Flemish 
 ■eillentent in, 64; conquered and 
 annexed by Edward 1., 93, c^ ; Glen* 
 dower's revolt, 127 — 124; incorpor- 
 ated with Engiaud, 168; Royalist 
 risings in, 316. 
 
 Wales, Prince of, 90, 94. 
 
 Walker, George, liishup of London* 
 derry, 256, 257. 
 
 Wallace, William, 96. 
 
 Waller, Edmund, 251. > • 
 
 Walls, the Roman, 4—6. 
 
 WalpHile, Horace, 279, 283, 284. 318. 
 
 Walpole, Robert (Eari of Ur^ord), 
 276, 278, 379. 
 
 Walsingham, Sir Francis, i8i, 186. 
 190. 
 
 Walter of Coutances, Archbishop of 
 Rouen, 77. 
 
 Waltheof, Earl, 40, 53—55. 
 
 Walton, Izaak, 251. 
 
 Wandewash, battle of, 2S6. 
 
 Warbeck, Perkm,. 153, 1541 
 
 Warwick, Edward, Earl of, 152, 154. 
 
 Warwick, Richard Neville, Earl of, 
 
 ^i^f ^37. 140, 141' 
 
 Waterloo, battle of, 310. 
 
 Watt, James, 316. 
 
 Watts, Isaac, 291. 
 
 Wedgwood, Jusiah, 316. 
 
 Wedinore, Peace of, 23. 
 
 Wellesley, Marquess, 314. 
 
 Wellington,, Arthur Wellesley, Duke 
 of. 307—310, 329, 332—334. 339- 
 
 Welsh, I, 8; defeated by /Ethelfrith, 
 9 : submit to t^gbert, ic ; to Ed- 
 ward the Elder, 25; ' /clsh (of 
 Strathclyde) at Brunanburh, 26 , 
 struggle against the Normans and 
 Flemings, 63, 64 ; Welsh marches, 
 %, 89, 94, 122 ; Welsh conquered 
 (if Kdward I., 93, 94 ; revolt undei 
 Glendower, 122 — 124. 
 
 Wesley, John and Charles, 287, 288. 
 
 Wessex, kingdom of, 9, 10, 19, 22, 27. 
 31, 44; earldom of, 33. 
 
 Westminster, 37, 38, 40, 42, 90, 95 
 135, 130, 141, 144, 331. 254. 326. 
 
 Westminster Hall, 61, 103, 118, 225, 
 245. 336. 
 
 Westmoreland, Charles Neville, EaH 
 <.f, 185. 
 
 Whig, origin of the name, 2j8. 
 
 Wliitby, .Synod of, 17 ; mon.istery oQ 
 17, 44; named by tlie Danes, 23. 
 
 Whileiield, George, 287, 288. 
 
 Whittington, KicharJ, 131. 
 
 WUberforce, William, J17, 
 
9S« 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wilkes, John, 394, 31b. 
 
 William 1., King (Duke of Ncrmandy), 
 
 37— 40» 4a. 46, 48, 62, 63, 70; reign, 
 
 5a— 56 ; death, 56. 
 William II. (Rufus). King, 43, 56, 
 
 <ia;-64 ; reign, 57—01 ; death, 6a 
 William III., King (Prince of Orange 
 
 Nassau), 246 — 350, 365 ; reign, 355 — 
 
 9^y, death, 363. 
 William IV., King, 330; reign, 33t^— 
 
 337 ; death, 334. 
 William the Lion, King of Scots, 73, 
 
 76. 
 William, ifltheling, drowned, 64. 
 William of Malmesbunr, 119. 
 William of St. Carilei^ Bishop of 
 
 Durham, 47. 
 Witan, 13, 33, 38, 55. 
 Witena-gemot, 13, 49. 
 Wolfe, General, 384. 
 Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal, 159—161. 
 Worcester, battle of, 'asi. 
 Worcester, John Tiptdft, Earl of, 150. 
 Worcester, Thomas Percy, Earl of, 
 
 133. 124. 
 Wordsworth, William, 331, 
 
 Wren, Sir Christopher, 314, 354, 359. 
 Wulfstai, Sl. Bishop of Worcester, 40 
 Wyatt^ Stf Tbomas (tlie elderX aoi. 
 
 Wyatt, Sir Thomas (the ycungerX S7^ 
 
 177. 
 WyclifTe, John, lis, 133. 300. 
 Wvkeham, William of, Bishop of 
 
 Winchester, iii. 
 
 Y. 
 
 York (Eboracum), 6, a6, 3S, 39, 44^ 
 137, 138, 145. 338, 348; minister of, 
 16, 93 ; Archbishopric of. 18 ; battle 
 with the Normans at, 53. 
 
 York, Edmund of Langley, Duke of, 
 
 III, 117. 
 
 York, Edward Plantagenet, Duke of, 
 
 s^* Edward IV. 
 York, James, Duke of, Sfe James 11. 
 York, Richard Plantagenet, Duke uf. 
 
 i35» iSjS* 
 ork. Rich 
 ward IV.), 1/3, 144, 146, 151 
 
 [35. _ 
 York, Richard, Duke of (son of £d- 
 
 ward IV.;, x^^, 144, 140, 153. 
 York, Henry Benedict Sturat, Cardinal, 
 
 282. 
 Yorktown, capitulation of, 097. 
 Young, Edwsuxl, 391. 
 
 Zutphen, faaulc o^ >8^« 
 
 THE KNIH 
 
 \ 
 
roung«rX I76» 
 
 300. 
 
 Bishop of 
 
 > 3?.. 39. 44, 
 ; miiDstur of, 
 
 of. iS; battle 
 
 3- 
 
 ey, Duk« of, 
 
 et, Duke of, 
 
 r James IT. 
 et, Duke uf, 
 
 (son of Ed- 
 
 . «53- 
 
 rat, Cardinal, 
 
 • »97«