II * THE POPULAR HISTORICAL SERIES • i;%m'^ BY CHAI\LOTTE M^YONGE,. I • » » -» • *> ' LIBRARY <. UNIVERSITY OF CALIPORNIA SAN DIEGO ,i-.a-.T«,:r;r.:'iUWii.;,>;.\r:T^"^.:;vv. ■ 4' ^' ■ y From amon^ the boob oi LONDON BOOK CO. j 224 West Broadway ; Glendale, CaUf. 91204 244-0828 (yL^GUuKy\^(>^ U r^^<^C^^.,^ SIR WALTEK KALEIGH. POPULAR History of England BY CHARLOTTE M. YONGE AUTHOR OF •THK HHIR ut KHUCLYFFE," "BOOK OF GOLDEN DEEDS," ETC. BOSTON ESTES AND LAURIAT PUBLISHERS Cop5right bj- D. LOTHROP & Co., and ESTES & Lauriat 1879 CONTENTS CHAP. ^'"'^ 1. — Julius Caesar, n.v. 5") . . . . l.> 2.— The Romans in Britain, a. u. 41— 418 . . 18 3.— The Angle Children, a.d. 597 • . .25 4.— The Northmen, a.d. 858— 958 ... 3^ 5.— The Danish Conquest, a.o. 958 1035 . . 4U 6.— The Norman Conquest, a.d. 1085— 106(5 . 47 7._-VV"illiam the Concjueror. a.d. lOtlti— 1()S7 . . 53 8 — William II., Rufus. a.d. 1087—1100 . . 61 9.— Henry I., Beau-Clerc. a.d. 1100— 1135 . . 08 10.— Stephen, a.d. 1135—1154 ... 72 11.— Henry 11., Fitz-Empress. a.d. 1154— 11«9 . . 78 12.— Richard I., Lion-IIeart. a.d. 1189—1199 S7 13.— John, Lackland, a.i.. 1199—1216 ... 95 14.— Henry III., of Winchester, a.d. 1216— 1272 104 15.— Edward 1., Lungslianks. a.d. 1272—1307 . . H- 16.— Edward II., of Caernarvon, a.d. 1307—1327 . 122 5 vi; Contents. CHAP. PAGE. 17.— Edward III. a.d. 1327—1.377 . , . . 13(i 18.— Kichard IT. a.d. 1.377—1399 . . . 139 19.— Henry IV. a.d. 1399—1413 . . . .148 20.— Henry v., of Monmouth, a.d. 1413— 1423 . 157 21.— Henry VI., of Windsor, a.d. 1423— Ur.l . , 164 22.— Edward IV. a.d. 1401-1483 ... 174 23.— Edward V. a.d. 148P . . . . 18.3 24.— Richard III. a.d. 1483—1485 . . . 19(\ 25.— Henry VII. a.d. 148.5—1.509 .... 19(1 2r,.— Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsoy. a.d. 1.509-1.529 20.5 27.— Henry VIIT. and Ills Wivp.s. a.d. 1.528— 1.547 . 213 28.— Edward VT. a.d. 1.547—15.53 . . . 222 29.— Mary I. a.d. 1.5,53—1.558 .... 229 30.— Elizaheth. a.d. 155«— 1587 ... 237 31.— Elizabeth (continued). .\.d. 1.587—1002 . . 24G 32.— James 1., a.d. 1002—1025 . . . 2.53 33.— Charles I., a.d. 1025-1049 . . , » .202 34. —The Lons Parliament, a.d. 1ii49 . . 269 35._Death of Charh's 1. a.d. I(i49— 1051 . . 277 36.— Oliver Cromwell, a.d. 1049— 1060 . 288 37.— Charles II. a.d. 1600— 168") .... 297 38.— James II. a.d. 10.S5— 168S . . . 30.5 39. —William HI. and Mary II. \.u. 1089—1702 . . 314 40.— Anne. a.d. 1702—1714 .... 322 41.— George I. .\.d. 1714— 1725 . . . - 332 42.— George II. a.d. 1725—1760 ... 337 43._George Hi. a.d. 1700-1785 . . . .346 Contents. vii. CHAP. PAGE. 44._George III. (continued.) a. d. 1785— 1810 . 354 45.— George III.— The Regency, a.d. 1810—1820 . 362 46._George IV. a.d. 1820— 18;!9 . . . 369 47._William IV. a.d. 1830—1837 • .375 4S._Victoria. a.d. 1837—1855 . . - 380 49. — Victoria (continued). 1855 — 1800 50._Yictoria (continued), a.d. 1860— J872 . Question.* for Examination . . . • 398 386 393 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Frontispiece. Sir Walter Raleigh. Caesar landing in Britain ,13 r'aractacus and his Wife before Claudius . . .19 Aui^ur Interview between Edward IV. ami Louis XI. . . 177 Tower of London ISo Henry Tudor crowned on the Battle-field of Bosworth . 1!'3 Henry VII. laying the Banners on the Altar , . 190 Chapel and Tomb of Henry VII. ... .199 Henry VIII. starting for the Hunt 205 Cardinal Wolsey served by Noblemen .... 209 Marriage of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn -. . . 213 Parting of Sir Thomas More and his Daughter . . 215 Edward VI. writing his Journal ..,,-. 225 The New Service. ........ 229 Mary vows to marry Philip II. , , . . . . 231 Queen Elizabeth's Progress ...... 237 Mary Queen of Scots ,..,.-.. 241 Naval Engagement ........ 240 The Gunpowder Plot discovered ..... 257 Assassination of Buckingham 267 Lint uf lUustrutiuns. XI. PAGE. 271 279 283 289 293 297 Queen Henrietta Maria ...."• Burial uf King Charles ....••• 277 King Charles' Children .....■> Execution of Kiug Charles ..«.• = Cromwell dismissing the Long Parlianieut Portrait of Monk ...••••• The Great Fire ....."• Lord Russell's Trial . 301 King James' Escape ....'■• '^'^ Portrait of Monmouth ....•••**"' King James at the Battle of Boyne ... .317 Ji^ueen Anne Duke and Duchess of Marlborough ..... 327 Charles Edward welcomed by the Highlanders . • . 3-37 Death of Wolfe .....••■ ^41 Destruction of Tea ......•• 346 Franklin 349 Portrait of Pitt . . 355 Plymouth Harbor 365 Victoria .... o ..... 380 Windbor Cattle . . . , '^89 English Manor House , , . . . 393 YOUNd FOLKS' HISTORY OF ENGLAND. C^ H A 1' T E R I . JUXniS C^SAB. B.C. 55. I^TEARLY two tliousaiid years ago there was -*- ^ a brave captain whose name was Julius Caesar. The sohliers he led to battle were ver}^ strong, and cc)U(|uered the people wherever they 13 14 Young Folks' History of England. went. They had no guns or gunpowder then ; but they had swords and spears, and, to prevent themselves from being hurt, they had helmets or brazen caps on their heads, with long tufts of horse-hair upon them, by way of ornament, and breast-plates of brass on their breasts, and on their iirnis they carried a sort of screen, made of strong leather. One of them carried a little brass figure of an eagle on a long pole, with a scarlet flag fly- ing below, and wherever the eagle was seen, they all followed, and fought so bravely that nothing could loiio- stand auaiust them. When Julius Csesar rode at txisli" head, with iiis keen, pale hook-nosed face, and the scarlet cloak that the general always wore, they were so prO'ud of him, and so fond or him, that there was nothing they would not do for him. Julius Caesar- heard that a little way off there was a country nobody knew anytliing about, ex- cept that the people were very fierce and savage, and that a sort of pearl was found in the shells of mussels which lived in the rivers. He could not bear that there should be any place that his own people, the Romans, did not know and subdue. So he commanded the ships to be prepared, and he ftnd his soldiers embarked, watching the white Julius CcBsar. Ifl cliffs on the other side of the sea grow higher and higher as he came nearer and nearer. When he came quite up to them, he found the savages were there in earnest. They were tall men, with long red streaming hair, and such clothes as they had were woollen, c^hecked like plaid ; but many had their arms and l)reasts naked, and painted all over in blue patterns. They had spears and darts, and the chief men among them were in basket-work chariots, with a scythe in the middle of each wheel to cut down their enemies. They yelled and brandished their darts, to make Julius Caesar and his Roman soldiers keep away ; but he only went on to a place Avhere the shore Was not quite so steep, and there commanded his Boldiers to land. The savages had run along the shore too, and there was a terrible fight; but at last the man who carried the eagle jumped down into the middle of the natives, calling out to his fellows that they nuist come after him, or they would lose their eagle. They all came rushing and leaping down, and thus they managed to force back the savages, and make their way to the shore. There was not much Avorth having when they had made their way there. Though they came again 16 Young locks' History of England the next yeax, and forced their way a good deal farther into the country, they saw chiefly bare downs, or heaths, or thick woods. The few houses were little more than piles of stones, and the peo- ple were rough and wild, and could do very little. The men hunted wild hoars, and wolves and stags, and the women dug the ground, and raised a little corn, which they ground to flour between two stones to make bread ; and they spun the wool of their sheep, dyed it with bright colors, and wove it into dresses. They had some strong places in the woods, with trunks of trees, cut down to shut them in from the enemy, with all their flocks and cattle ; but Csesar did not get into any of these. He only made the natives give him some of their pearls, and call the Romans their masters, and then he went back to his ships, and none of the set of savages who were alive when he came saw him or his Romans any more. Do you knoAV who these savages were who fought with Julius Csesar ? They were called Britons. And the country he came to see ? That was our very own island, England, only it was not called so then. And the place where Julius Caesar landed is called Deal, and, if you look at the map. where England and France most nearly touch one. Julius Ccesar. 17 another, I think you will see the name Deal, and remember it was there Julius Caesar landed, and fought with the Britons. It was fifty-five years before oiu* blessed Saviour was born that the Romans came. So at the top of this cha])te-p stands li- r '^Before Christ) 55. CHAPTER II. THE ROMANS IN BRTTAIK. A,T). 41—418. TT was nearly a hundred ^ears before any more* of -^ the Romans came to Britain ; but they were people who could not hear of a place without want- ing to conquer it, and they never left off trying till they had done what tliey undertook. One of their emperors, named Claudius, sent his soldiers to conquer the island, and then came to see it himself, and called himself Britannicus in honor of the victory, just as if he had done it him- self, instead of his generals. One British chief, A^hose name was Caractacus, who had fought very aravely against the Romans, was brought to Rome, with chains on his hands and feet, and set before the emperor. As he stood there, he said that, when he looked at all the grand buildings of stone 18 The Romans in Britain. 21 and marble in the streets, he could not think wh}' the Roman!* should want to take away the poor rough-stoDc huts of the Britons. The wife of Carac- tacus, who had also been brought a prisoner to Rome, fell upon hor knees imploring pity, but the conquered chief asked for nothing and exhibited no signs of ff;ir. Chiudius was kind to Carac- tacus; but the Romans went on conquering Britahi till they had \\^n\ all the part of it that lies south of the river Tweed; und, as the people beyond that point were more fierce and savage still, a very strong wall, with a bank of earth and deep ditch was made to keep them out, and always watched by Roman soldiers. The Romans made beautiful straight roads all over the country, and they Ijuilt towns. Almost all the towns whose names end in cheater were begun by the R(jmans, and bits of their walls are to be seen still, built of very small bricks. Some- times people dig np a bit of the beautiful pavement of colored tiles, in patterns, which used to be the floors of their houses, or a piece of their money, or one of their ornaments. For the Romans held Britain for four hundred years, and tamed the M'ild people in the South, and taught them to speak and dress, and read an() 22 Young Folks* History of England. write like themselves, so that tliey could Kardly be known from Romans. Only the wild ones beyond the wall, and in the mountains, were as savage as ever, and, now and then, used to come and steal the cattle, and burn the houses of their neigh- bors who had learnt better. Another set of wild people used to come over in boats across the North Sen and German Ocean. These people had their home in the country that is called Holsiehi and Jutlaiul. They were tall men, and had blue eyes and fair liiiir, and they were very strong, and good-natured in a rongh sort of way, though they were fierce to their enennes. There was a great deal more lighting than any one lias told lis about ; but the end of it all was tliat the Roman soldiers were wanted at home, and though the great Britisli chief we call King Artlnir fought very bravely, he could not dri.'e i)a;ck tlio blue- eyed men in the ships ; but more and more came, till, at last, they got all the country, and drove the Britons, scmie up into the North, some intci tiu' mountains that rise along tlu; West of the ishuid, and some out into its west point The Britons used to call the blue-eyed men Saxons; but they (tailed themselves Angles, and the country Avas called after them Angle-land. The Romans in Britain. 23 Don't you know wliat it is called now? England itself, and the people English. They spoke much the same language as we dt), only more as untaught country people, and they had not so many words, because they had not so many things to see and talk about. As to the Britons, the English went on driving tliem back till thc.y only kept their mountains. There they have gone on living ever since, and talking their own old language. The P^ngiish called them Welsh, a name that meant strangers, and we call them Welsh still, and their country Wales. They made a great many grand stories about their last brave chief, Arthur, till, at last, they turned into a sort of fairy tale. It was said that, when King Arthur lay badly wounded after his last battle, he bade his friend fling his sword into the river, and that then three lovely ladies came in a boat, and carried him away to a secret island. The Welsh kept on saying, for years and years, that one day King Arthur would wake up again, and give them back all Britain, which used to be their own before the English got it for themselves : but the English ha^'e had England now for thirteen hundred years, and we 24 Young Folks' History of England. cannot doubt they Avill keep it as Jong as the world lasts. It was about 400 years after oiu* Lord was born that the Romans were going and the English coming. CHAPTER in. THE ANOLB CFIILDREN. A.D. 597. 'TT^HE old English who had come to Britain -■- were heathen, and believed in many false> gods ; the Sun, to whom they made Sunday sacred, as Monday was to the Moon, Wednesday to a great, terrible god, named Woden, and Thursday to a god named Thor, or Tliunder. They tlK)ught a clap of thunder was the sound of the great liam- mer he carried in his hand. They thought their gods cared for pcopU? l)eing brave, and that the souls of those who died fighting gallantly in battle were the happiest of all ; but they did not care lor kindness or gentleness. Thus they often did very cruel things, and one of the worst that they did was the stealing of men, women, and children from their homes, and selling 2& 26 Young Folks' History of England. them to strangers, who made slaves of them. All England had not one king. There were generally about seven kings, each with a different part of the island ; and as they were often at war with one an- other, they used to steal one another's subjects, and sell them to merchants who came from Italy and Greece for them. Some English children were made slaves, and carried to Rome, where they Avere set in the market- place to be sold. A good priest, named (Gregory, was walking by. He. saw their fair faces, blue eyes, and long light hair, and, stopping, lie asked who they were. "Angles," he was told, ''from the isle of Britain." "Angles?" he said, "they have angel faces, and they ought to be heirs with the angels in heaven." From that time this good nuMi tried to fnid means to send teachers to teael) the English the Christian faith. He had to wail for many years, and, in that time, he was made Pope, namely, Father-Bishop of Rome. At last he heard that one of the chief English kings, Etheliiert of Kent, had married Bertha, the daughter of the King of Paris, who was a Christian, and that she was to be allowed to bring a priest with her, and have a church to worship in. Gregory thought this wmild niiKke a. begrinning: Tlie Auijle Children. 29 so he sent a priest, whose name was Augustiiu', with a letter to King Ethelbert and Queen Bertha, and asked the King to listen to him. Ethelbert met Augustine in the open air, under a tree at Can- terbury, and heard hiui tell about the true God, and Jesus Christ, wlioni He has sent ; and, after some time, and a great deal of teaching, Ethelbert gave up worshiping Woden and Tlior, and be- lieved in the true God, and was baptized, and many of his people with him. Then Augustine was made Archbishop of Canterbury ; and, one after another, in the course of the next hundred years, all the English kingdoms learnt to know God, and broke down their idols, and became Christian. Bishops were appointed, and churches were built, and ])arishes were marked off — a great uiany of them the very same that we have now. Here and there, when men and women wanted to be very good in- deed, and to give their whole lives t(j doing nothing but serving God, without any of tlie fighting and feasting, the buying and selling of tlie outer world, they built houses, wheie thev might li\r apart, and churches, where tiiere might !)»' services seven times a day. These houses were named abbeys. Those for men were, sometimes, also called monas- 30 Young Folks' History <>f .N/ii/Jaml. teries, and the men iu them were termed monks, while the women were called nuns, and their homes convents or nunneries. They had plain dark dresses, and hoods, and the women always had veils. Tlie monks used to promise that they would work as a\^'11 as pray, so they used to build their abl)eys l)y some forest or marsh, and bring it all into ordf]-, turning tlu' A\il(l place into fields, full of wheat. Others used to copy out the Holy Scriptures and other good books upon parchment — because there was no paper in those days, nor any jjrinting — drawing beautiful painted pictures at till' beginning of the chapters, ^A'hich were called illuminations. The nuns did needlework and em- broidery, as hangings for the altar, and garments for the priests, all Ijright with beautiful colors, and stiff with gold, i'iie English nuns" Avork was the most beautiful to Ijf seen anywhere There were schools in the abbej's, where boys were taught reading, writing, singing, and Latin, to prepare them for being clergymen : but not many others tliought it needful to have anything to do with books. Even the great men thought they could farm and feast, advise tlie king, and consent to the laws, hunt or fight, quite as well without reading, and they did not care for much Tlte Angle Children. 31 besides ; for, though they were Christians, they were still rude, rough, ignorant men, who liked nothing so well as a hunt or a feast, and slept away all the evening, especially when they could get a liarper to sing to them. The English men used to wear a long dress like a carter's frock, and their legs were wound lound with strips of ciotli by way of stockings. Their liouses were; onl\ one story, and had uo chim- ne3's — only a holt; at tlie top for the snioke to go out at; and uo glass in the wiudovvs. The only glass there was at all had been brought from Italy to put into York Cathedral, and it was thought a great wonder. So the windows had shutters to keep out the ]-alii and wind, and the lire was in tiie niidiUe of the room. At dinner-time, al)out twelve o'ehtek, the hird and hidy ol" the iionse sat npoji cross-legged stools, and their children and ser- vants sat on l)enclies : and square bits of wood called trenchers, were [uil Ixd'ore thfm for plates, while the servants earricil rnnnd the meat on spits, and evervbod\ cut off a |tiece with his own knife and ate it withont a fork. Tliey drank out of cows' liorns, if they had not silver cups. But though the}' were so rough they were often good, brave people. CHAPTER IV. THE >;ORTHiMEN. A.D. 858—958. THERE were many more i)t" the light-haired, blue-eyed people on the further side nf the North Sea who worshiped Thor and Woden still. and thought that their kindred in England had fallen from the old ways. Besides, they liked to make their fortunes by getting Avhat they could 32 The Nortlimen. 33 from their neighbors. Nobody was thought brave or worthy, in Norway (jr Denmark, who liad not made some voyages in a "long keel," as a sliip was called, and fought bravely, and brought home gold cups and chains or jewels to show where he had been. Their captains were called Sea Kings, and some of them went a great way, even into the Mediterranean Sea, and robbed the beautiful shores of Italy. So dreadful was it to see the fleet of long ships coming up to the shore, with a ser- pent for the figure-head, and a raven as the flag, and crowds of fierc-e warriors with axes in their hands longing for pre\' and bloodshed, that wliere we pray in church that God would deliver us from lightning and tt-mpest, and battle and murder, our forefathers ust-d to ;uld, "From the fury of the Nortlimen, good Lord dflivtn- iis."" To England tliese Northmen came in great swarms, and cliiefly from Denmark, so that they were generally called " the Danes."' 'I^hey burnt tlie houses, drove oft" the cows and slieep, killed the men. and took away the AVomen and children to l)e slaves ; and they were always most cruel of all where they found an Abbey with any monks or nuns, because they hated the Christian faith. By this time those seven English kingdoms 34 Young Folks' History of England. I told you of had all fallen into the hands of one king. Egbert, King of the West Saxons, who reigned at Wincliesler, is counted as the first king of all England. His four grandsons had dreadful battles with the Danes all their lives, and the three eldest all died quite young. The youngest was the greatest and best king England ever had — Alfred the Truth-teller. As a child Alfred had excited the hopes and admiration of all who saw him, and wliile his brothers were busy with their sports, it was his delight to kneel at his mother's knee, and recite to her the Saxon Ijallads which his tutor had read to liiiii, iiis|)iving him, at that early age, with the a](h'iil |)atriotism and the passionate love of literature whicli rendered liis character so illustrious. He was onl\ twenty-two years old when he canK^ to tJu- throne, and the king- dom was overrun everywliere witli the Danes. In the northern ]>art some had even settled (hjwji, and made themselves at home, as the English had done four liundred years l)efore. and more and more kept coming in tJK^r ships: so that, though Alfred beat t lien 1 in battle again and again, there was no such thing as driving them awav. At last he had so very few faithful men left with him, that he thouc^ht it wise to send them awav, and hide him- The Northmen. 37 self in the Somersetshire marsh country. There is a pretty story told of him that he was hidden in the hut of a poor herdsman, whose wife, thinking- he was a poor wandering soldier as he sat by the fire mending his bow and arrows, desired him to turn the cakes she had set to bake upon the hearth. Presently she found them burning, and cried out angrily, " Lazy rogue ! you can't turn the cakes, though you can eat them fast enough." However, that same spring, the brave English gained more victories ; Alfred came out of his hiding place and gathered them, all together, and beat the Danes, so that they asked for peace. He said he would allow those who had settled in the North of England to stay there, provided they would become Christians; and lie stood godfather to their chief, and gave him the name of Ethelstane. After this, Alfred had stout English ships built to meet the Danes at sea before they could come and land in England; and thus he kept them off, so that for all the rest of his reign, and that of his son and grandsons, they could do very little mis- chief, and for a time left off coming at all, but went to rob other coiuitries that were not so well guard- ed by brave kings. But Alfred was not only a brnve warrior. He 38 Young Folks' History of England. was a most good and lioly man, who feared God above all things, and tried to do his very best for his people. He made good laws for them, and took care that every one should be justly treated, and that nobody should do his neighbor wrong without being punished. So many Abbeys had been burnt and the monks killed by the Danes, that there were hardly any books to he had, or scliolars to read them. He invited learned men from abroad, and wrote and translated books liim- self for them ; and he liad a. scliool in his house, wht'i-f lie made the y-mng nobles learn with his own sons. He built up the churches, and gave alms to the poor ; and he was always ready to hear the troubles of any poor man. Though he was always working so hard, he had a disease that used t(j cause him terrible pain almost every day. His last years were less peaceful than the ' middle ones of his reign, for the Danes tried to come again ; but he beat them off by his ships at sea, and when lie died at fifty-two years old, in the year 901, he left Ivigland at rest and cpuet, and Ave always think of him as one of the greatest and best kings who ever reigned in England, or in any other coun- try. As long as his children after him and his people went on in the good way lie had taught The Northmen. 39 them, all prospered with thern, and no enemies hurt them ; and this was all through the reigns of his son, his grandson, and great-grandsons. Their council of great men was called by a long word that is in our English, "Wise Men's Meeting," and there they settled the affairs of the kingdom. The king's wife was not called queen, but lady ; and what do }-ou think lady means? It means "loaf-giver" — giver of bread to her household and the poor. So a lady's great work is to be charitable. CHAPTER V, THJb} DANISH CONQUEST. A.I). 958—1035. I ^HE last very prosperous king was Alfred's -*- great-granclsoii, Edgar, who was owned as their over-lord by all the kings of the remains of the Britons in Wales and Scotland. Once eight of these kings came to meet liim at Chester, and rowed him in his barge along the river Dee. It was the grandest day, a king of England enjoyed for many years. Edgar was called the peaceable, because there were no attacks by the Danes at all throughout his reign. In fact, the Northmen and Danes had been fighting among themselves at home, and these fights generally ended in some one going ofP as a Sea-King, with all his friends, and trying to gain a new home in some fi"esh country. One great party of Northmen, un- 40 The Daniah Conquest. 41 rter a very tall and might} chief named Rollo, had, some time before, thus gone to France, and forced the king to give them a great piece of his country, just opposite to England, whirl i was called after them Normandy. There they learned to talk French, and grew like Frenchmen, though they remained a great deal braver, and more spirited than any of their neighbors. There were continually fleets of Danish ships coming to England ; and the son of Edgar, whose name was Ethelred, was a helpless, cowardly sort of man, so slow and tardy, that his people called Mm Ethelred the Unready. Instead of fitting out ships to fight against the Danes, he took the mone}' the ships ought to have cost to [)ay them to go away without plundering ; and as to those who had come into the country without his leave, he called them his guard, took them into liis pay, and let them live in the houses of the English, where they were very rude, and gave themselves great airs, making the Englisli feed them on all their best meat, and bread, and beer, and always call them Lord Danes. He made friends himself with the Northmen, or Normans, who had settled in Ftance, and married Emma, the daughter of their duke ; but none of his plans prospered : things 42 Young Folks' History of England. grew worse and worse, and his mind and his peo- ple's grew so bitter against the Danes, that at last it was agreed that, all over the South ,of England every Englishman should rise up in one night and murder the Dane who lodged in his house. Among those Danes who were thus wickedly killed was the sister of the King of Denmark. Of course he was furious when he heard of it, and came over to England determined to punish the cruel, treacherous king and people, and take the whole island for his own. He did punish the peo- ple, killing, burning, and plundering wherever he went ; but he coidd never get the king into his hands, for Ethelred went off in the height of the danger to Normandy, where he had before sent his wife Emma, and her children, leaving his eldest son (child of his first wife), Edmund Ironside, to fight for the kingdom as best he mighti This King of Denmark died in the midst of his English war ; but his son Cnut went on with the conquest he had begun, and before long Ethelred, the Unready died, and Edmund Ironside was mur- dered, and Cnut became King of England, as well as of Denmark. He became a Christian, and mar- ried Emma, Ethelred's widow, though she was much older than himself. He had been a hard and The Danish Conquest. 43 cruel man, but he now laid aside his evil ways, and became a noble and wise and just king, a lover of churches and good men ; and the English seem to have been as well off under him as if he had been one of their own kings. There is no king of whom more pleasant stories are told. One is of his wanting to go to church at Ely Abbey one cold Candlemas Day. Ely was on a hill in the middle of a great marsli. The marsh was frozen over; but the king's servants told him that the ice was not strong enough to bear, and they all stood look- ing at it. Then out stepped a stout countryuian, who was so fat, that his nickname was The Pud- ding. "Are you all afraid ? " he said. " 1 will go over at onco before the king." " Will 3-ou so,"' id tlie king, " then I will come after you, for vdiatever bears 30U will bear me." Cnut was a xittle, slight man, and he got easily over, and Pud- ding got a piece of land for his reward. These servants of the king used to flatter liim. They told iiim he was lord of land and sea, and that every thing would obey him. " Let us try," said t'Uut, wlio wished to show them how foolish and profane they were ; " bring out my chair to the sea-side." He was at Southampton at the time, close to the sea, and the tide was coming in- 44 Young Folks" Historji of England. " Now sea,'" he said, as he sat down, '^ I am thy lord, dare not to come near, nor to wet my feet." Of course the waves rolled on, and splashed over iiim ; and he turned to his servants, and bade them never say words that took away from the honor due to the only Lord of heaven and earth. He never put on his crown again after this, but hung- it up in Winchester Cathedral. He was a thorough good king, and there was much grief when he died, stranger though he was. A great many Danes had made their homes in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, ever since Alfred's time, and some of their customs are still left there, and some of their words. The worst of them was that they Mere great drunkards, and the En piish learnt this bad custom of them. CA^'LrTE BY THE SEA-SHORE. CHAPTER VI. THE NORMAN CONQUEST. A.D. 10:55—106(1. /'"^NUT left three .sons; but une was content to ^*~^ be only King of Denmark, and the other two died very soon. So a great English nobleman, called Earl Godwin, set up as king, Edward, one of those sons of Ethelred the Unready who had been sent away to Normandy. He was a very kind, good, pious man, who loved to do good. He began the l»iiil(liiig of otir grand church at West- minster Abbey, and he was so holy that he was called the Confessoi-, Mliich is a word for ijood men not great enough to be caUcd saints. Pie was too good-natui'C(l, as von w ill say when you hear that one day, a\ hen he was in ])cd, he saw a thief come cautiously into liis riM)m, open the chest where his treasure was, and take out the nu)ney-bags. In- 47 48 Yvuny Folks' History of JiJnyland. stead of calling anyone, or seizing the man, the king only said, sleepily, '' Take care, you rogue, or my chancellor will catch you and give you a good whipping." You can fancy that nobody much minded such a king as this, and so there were many disturbances in his time. Some of them rose out of the king — who had been brought up in Normandy — liking the Normans better than the English. They really were much cleverer and more sensible, for they had learnt a great deal in France, while the En- glish had forgotten nnicli of Avliat Alfred and his sons had taught them, and all through the long, sad reign of Ethelred had been getting more dull, and clumsy and rude. Moreover, they had learnt of the Danes to l»e sad drunkards ; l)nt both they and the Danes thought the Norman Frencli fine gentle- men, and could not l)ear tlie sight of them. Think, then, how angry they all were when it began to be said that King Edward wanted to leave his kingdom of England to his mother's Nor- man nephew, Duke William, because all his own near relations were still little boys, not likely to be grown up by the time the old king died. Man}- of the English wished for Harold, the son of Earl Godwin, a brave, spirited man ; but Edward sent H'J The Norman Conquest. 51 him to Normandy, and there Duke William made him swear an oath not to do anytliing to hinder the kingdom from being given to Dnk(! Williiini. Old King Edward died soon after, and llarohl said at once that his pi'omise liad been fore^id and cheated from him, so tliat he; need not keep it, and he was crowned King of England. This tilled William with anger. He called all his lighting Normans together, fitted out sliips, and sailetl across the English (diannel to Dover. The figure- head of his own sliip was a likeness of his second little boy, named William. Tie hinded at Peven- sey, in Sussex, and set up his camp while Harold was away in the North, fighting with a runaway brother of his own, wlio had brought the Nor- wegians to atta(;k Yorksliire. Harold had just won a threat ])attle o^'er these (Uiennes when he heard that William and his Normans luid landed, and he had to hurry the A\hole length of England to meet them. Many of the JMiglish would not join him, be- cause they did not want him for their king. But though his army was not. large, it was very brave. When he reached Sussex, he placed all his men on the top of a low hill, near Hastings, aud caused them to make a fence all round, with a ditch before 52 Young Folks' History of England. it, and in the middle was liis own standard, with a fighting man embroidered upon it. Then the Nor- mans rode up on their wir-horses to attach liim. one brave knight going first, singing. The war- horses stumbled in the ditch, and the long spears of the English ki^'^d both men and horses. Then William ordered his archers to shoot their arrows high ill the air. They came down like hail into the faces and on the heads of the English. Harold himself was pierced by one in the eye. The Nor- mans charged the fence again, and broke through ; and, by the time night came on, Harold himself ;ind all his brave Englishmen were dead. They did not flee away ; they all staid, and were killed, fightmg to the last ; and only then was Harold's standard of the fighting man rooted up, and Wil- liam's standard — a cross, which had been blessed by the Pope — planted instead of it. So ended the battle of Hastings, in the year 1066. The land has had a great many " conquests " hitherto — the Roman conquest, the English con- quest, the Danish conquest, and now the Norman conquest. But there have been no more since ; and the kings and queens have gone on in one long line ever since, from William of Normandy down to Queen Victoria. CHAPTER VII. WILLIAM THE OONQUEROK. A. P. lono— 1(»S7. THP^ king wild liad conquered England was a Ijrave, strong man, who had hvvu used to fighting and struggling ever sinee hv was a young child. He really feared dod, and was iu nuuiy ways a good man ; l)ut it liad wnl been riglit of him to come and take, another [h'ojjIc's eountry by force; and the having done one wi'ong thing often makes people grow worse and worse. Many of the En- glish were unwilling to liave WilUam as their king, and his Norman friends win-e angry that he wt)uld not let them liave more of the English lands, nor break the EnglisVi laws. So they were often rising up against him ; and each time he had to put theui 53 54 Young Follni History <>/ England. down he grew more harsh and stern. He did not want to be cruel ; but he did many cruel things, iiecause it was the only way to keep England. When the people of Northumberland rose against him, and tried to get back the old set of kings, he had the whole countrj' wasted with fire and sword, till hardly a toAvn or village was left standing. He did this to punish the Northumbrians, and frighten the rest. But he did another thing that was worse, because it was only for his own amuse- uieiit. In Ham})shire, near liis castle of Wiu- chestei-. thei'e was a great si)ac(' of lieathy ground, and holly cojise and Ixh-cIics and oaks al)o\c i(, with deer and boai-s running wild in the glades — a'beautiful place for Ininting, only that there were so many \illages in it that the creatures ^\•ere dis- turbed and killed. William liked hunting more than anything else — his j>eo])le said Ire lo^■ed the high deer as if lie was their lather, — and to kee]) the ]jlaee clear for them, he turned out all tlie in- habitants, and ])ulle(| down their Jiouses, and niade laws against any one killing his game. The place he thus cleared is still called the New Forest, though it is a thousand years old. An old Norman law that the English grumbled about ver}' much w^as, that as soon as a bell was Willuini the Conqueror. 56 rung, at eight o'clock every evening, everyone was to put out candle and fire, and go to bed. The bell was called the curfew, and many old churches ring it still. William caused a great list to be made of all the lands in the country, and who held them. We have this list still, and it is called Domesday Book. It shews that a great deal had been taken from the English and given to the Normans. Tlie king built castles, with immensely thiik, strong Mails, and loop-hole windows, wlionce to shoot arrows ; and here he placed his Normans to keep the En- glish down. Hut the Normans were even more unruly tlian tlie English, and only liis strong liand kept them iji order. They rode about in armor — helmets on tlieir heads, a shirt of mail, made of chains of iron linked together, over tlieir bodies, gloves and boots of iron, swords by their sides, and lances in their hands — and thus they could })ear down all before them. They calU-d them- selves knights, and were always made to take an oath to befriend the weak, and poor, and helpless : but they did not often keep it towards the poor English. WilUam had four sons — Robert, who was called Court-hose or Short-legs ; William, called Kufus, 56 Young Folks' History of England. because he had red hair ; Henry, called Beau-clerc or the fine scliolar ; and Ricliai'd, wlm was still a lad when he was killed by u sla^- in the. New Forest. Robert, the eldest, was a Avild, i-iide, tlioughtless yonth ; but lie fancied himself lit to govern Nor- mandy, and asked his father to give it up to him. King William answered, " I never take my clothes off before I go to bed," meaning that Robert mnst wait for his death Rol)ert could not bear to be laughed at, and was very angry. Soon after, ^hen he was in the castle court, his two brothers, Wil- liam and Heniy, grew riotous, and poured water down from the upper windows on him and his friends. He Hew into a |)assion, dashed up-stairs with his swoifl in his hand, aud might liave kille(l his b]()th(-rs if their father liad not come in to pro- tect them. Then he threw himself on his horse and gallo])ed away, persuaded some friends to jwu liim, and actually fought a Itattle with his own father, in which the old king was thrown off his horse, and hurt in tlie hand ; but we must do the jjrincc the justice to say that when he recognized his father in the kiught wliom he liad unsealed, he was filled with grief and horror, aud eagerly be- ROBEKT'S EJS'COUMEU WITJI lli6 EATHEK. William the Conqueror. 59 sought his pardon, and tenderly raised him from the ground. Then Robert wandered about, liv- ing on money that his mother, Queen Matilda, sent him, though his father was angry with her for doing so, and this made the first quarrel the husband and wife liad ever had. Not long after, William Avent to war with the King of France. He had caused a city to be burnt down, and was riding through the ruins, when his horse trod on some hot ashes, and began to plunge. The king was thi-own forward on the saddle, and, beiiu'' a verv heavy, stout man, was so much hurt, that, after a few weeks, in the year 1087, he died at a little monaster}, a short way from Rouen, the chief city of his dukedom of Normandy. He was the greatest man of his time, and lie liad much g()(it iiinltt it. He had bee:i a great (•liurch-builder, and so were his Norman bishops and barons. You may always know their work, because it has loinid pillars, and tound arches, with broad borders of /jg-zags, and all manner of patterns round them. In the end, the coming of the Normans did the 60 Young Folks' History of England. English much good, by brightening them up and making them less dull and heavy ; but they did not like having a king and court who talked French, and cared more for Normandy than for England. 1^^ CHAPTER VIIl. ^V I L L I A M II., K U FITS, A.i). insT— 1100. WILLIAM llic ( OiK I ueior was obliged to let Nonuaudy fall to Robert, liis eldest son; but he thought he eould do as he pleased about Euglaiid, which he had \\(.u for himself. He had sent off his second son, William, to England, with his ring to Westminister, giving him a message 61 62 Young Folks' Hhtorr/ of England. that he hoped the English people would have him for their king. And they did take him, though they would hardly have done so if they had known what he would be like when he was left to himself. But while he Avas kept under by his father, they only knew that he had red hair and ;i ruddy face, and had more sense than his brother Robert. He is sometimes called the Red King, but more com- monly William Rufns. Things went worse than ever with the poor English in his time ; for at least William the Contjueror liad made everybody mind the law, but now William Rufus let his cruel sol- diers do just as they pleased, and spoil what they did not want. It was of no use to complam, for the king would only laugh and make jokes. He did not care for God or man ; onl}' for being poNv- erful, for feasting, and for Itimting. Just at this time thers was a great stir in Europe. Jerusalem — that holy city, where our blessed Lord had taught, where he had been crucified, and where he had risen from the dead — was a place where everyone wished to go and worship, and tliis they called going on pilgriinagc. A beautiful church had once been built over the sepulchre where our Lord had lain, and enriched with gifts. But for a long time past Jerusalem had been in William IL, Rufuft. 68 the hanrls of an Eastern people, who think their false prophet, Mahoinmed, greater than our blessed Lord. These Mahommedans used to rob and ill- treat the pilgrims, and make them pay great sums of money for leave to come into Jerusalem. At last a pilgrim, named Peter the Hermit, came home, and got leave from the Pope to try to waken up all the Christian princes and knights to go to the Holy I.aud. and figlil to get the Holy Sepul- chre back into Chiistiaii hands again. He used to preach in the open air, and the people who heard him Avere so stirred up that they all shouted out, " It is God's will ! ft is (rod's will ! "' And each who undertook to go and hgiit in the East received a cross cut out in cloth, red or white, to wear on his shoulder. Many thousands promised to go on this crusade, as they called it, and among them was Robert, Duke of Normandy. But he had wasted his money, so that he could not fit out an army to take with him. So he offered to give up Normandy to his hmthcr William while he was gone, if William would let him have the money he wanted. The Red King was very ready to make such a bargain, and he laughed at the Crusaders, and thought that they were wasting their time and trouble. 64 Young Folks' History of England. They had a very good man to lead them, named Godfrey de Bouillon ; and, after many toils and troubles, they did gain Jerusalem, and could kneel, weeping, at the Holy Sepulchre. It v/as proposed to make Robert King of Jerusalem, but he would not accept the offer, and Godfrey was made king instead, and staid to guard the Jioly places, while Duke Robert set out on his return home. In the meantime, the Red King had gone on in as fierce and ungodly a way as ever, lau<;-liiiig good advice to scorn, and driving away iW^ good Arch- bishop of Canterbury, St. Anselm, and cvt-ryone else who tried to warn him or withstand liis wick- edness. One day, in the year 1100, he went out to hunt deer in the New Forest, a\ liich his fathei' had A\asted, laughing and jesting in his rough way. By and l)y he was found dead under an oak tree, witli an arrow through liis heart ; and a wood- cutter took up his body in liis cart, and carried it to Winchester C/athedral. wlierc it was buried. Who shot the arrow nobody knew, and nobody ever will knoA\'. Some thought it must be a knight, named Walter T\rrell, to whom the king had given three long good arrows that morning. He rode straiglit away to Sontliampton. and went off to the Hoi V Land : so it is likclx lliaL he knew Wmia7» JL, Rufns. 67 something about the king's death. But he never seems to have told any one, whether it was only an accident, or a murder, or who did it. Anyway, it was a fearful end, for a bad man to die in his *in, without a moment to repiMic and p^'^y. CHAPTER fX. HENBY 1., BEAU-ULERC. A.I). 1100— 113.5. HEXRY, the brother of William Rufiis, was= one of the hunting party ; and as soon a> the cry spread through the forest that tlie king was dead, lie rode off at full speed to Winchester, and took ])ossession of all his brother s treasure. Wil- liam Rufus had never been married, and left no cliildren, and Henry was much tlie least violent and most sensible of the breathers ; and, as he promised to govern according to tlie old laws of England, he did not find it difficult to persuade the people to let him be crowned king. He was not really a good man, and he could i)e very cruel sometuiies, as well as false and cunning ; but he kept good order, and would not allow such horrible things to be done as in his brother's time. So the English were better off than they had been, Henry /., Bemi^clerc. 69 and used to say the king would let no one break the laws but himself. They were pleased, too, that Henry married a lady who was- half English — Maude, the daughter of Malcolm Greathead, King of Scotland, and of a lady of the old English royal line. They loved her greatly, and called her good Queen Maude. Robert came back to Normandy, and tried to make himself King of England ; but Henry soon drove him back. The brothers went on quarreling for some years, and Robert managed Normandy miserably, and wasted his money, so that he some- times had no clotlies to wear, and lay in bed for want of them. Some of th(! Normans could not bear this any longer, and invited Henry to come and take the dukedom. He came with an army, many of whom were English, and fought a battle with Robert and his faithful Normans at Tenchebray, in Normandy. They gainetl a great victory, and tlie English thought it made up for Hastings. Poor Robert was made prisoner by his l)rother, who sent him off to Cardiff' Castle, in Wales, where he lived for twenty-eight years, and then died, and was buried in Gloucester Cathedral, with his figure made in bog oak o\ er his monument. 70 Toung Folks' Hhtorif of England. Henry had two children — AVilliam and Maude. The girl was married to the Emperor of Germany and the boy was to be the husband of Alice, daughter to the Count of Anjou, a great French Prince, whose lands were near Normandy. It was the custom to marry children very }'oung then, before they were old enough to leave their parents and make a home for themselves. So William was taken by his father to Anjou, and there married to the little girl, and then she Avas left behind, while he was to reriiiii to England w ith his father. Just as ho was going to emljark, a man came to the king, and begged to have the honor of taking him across in his new vessel, called the White Ship, saying that his father had steered William tlie Conqueror's ship. Henry could not. change his own plans : l)ut, as the man begged so hard, he said his son, the young Inidegroom, and liis friends might go in the White Ship. They sailed in the evening, and there a\ as a great merry- making on Ijoard, till ilic sailors grew so drunk that they did not knovv' now to guide the ship, and ran her against a rock. She filled with water and began to sink. A boat was lowered, and William safely placed in it ; but, jusc as he was rowed off he beard the cries of the lauies who were left be- Henrij 71, Bcau-olerc. 71 hind, iind caused the oarsmen to turn back for them. So many drowning wretches crowded into it, as soon as it came near, that it sank with their weight, and all were h)>t. (July tiie top-mast of the ship remained above water, and to it clung a butcher and tlie owner oi' the ship all night long. Wlien daylight came, and the owner knew that the king's son was really dead, and by his fault, lie lost heart, let go the nuist and was drowned. Oidy the butcher was taken off alive ; and for a loDo- tinn; no one durst tell tlui king what had happened. At hist a boy was st-iit to fall at his feet, and tell him his son was dead. He was a broken-hearted man, and never knew gladness again all the rest of his life. His daughter Maude had lost her German hus- band, and (-ame h(jme. He made lier marry Geoffrey of Anjou, the ])r()ther of liis son's wife, and called upon all his chief noblemen to swear that they would take her for theii- ([ueen in England and tluii- dncdiess in IS'ormandy after his own deatli. He (-lid not live much longer. His death was caused, in the year llBo, by eating too much of the fish called lamprey, and he was burie^l in Reaaing Abbey. (•IIAPTER X. STKI'HEN. A.D. 1135—1154 NEITHER English nor Normans had evei been ruled by a woman, and the Empress Maude, as she still called herself, was a proud, dis- agreeable, ill-tempered woman, wliom nobody liked So her cousin, Stephen de Blois — whose mother, 72 Stephen, 7S Adela, haxi been daughter of William the Con- queror — thought to obtain the crown of England l)j promising to give everyone what they wished. It was very wrong of him; for he, like all the other barons, liad sworn that Maude should reign. P)at the people knew he was a kindly, gracious sort of person, and greatly preferred him to her. So he was crowned ; and at once all the Norman barons, whom King Henry had kept down, began to think they could liave their own way. They built strong castles, and hired men, with wliom they made war upon each other, robbed one an- other's tenants, and, when thev saw a peaceable traveler on his way, they would dasli down upon him, drag him into the castle, take away all the jewels or money he had about liini, or, it" lie liad none, they would shut him uj) and torment hiui till he could get his friends to pay tliem a sum to let him loose. Stephen, wIkj was a kin(l-lie;ine(I man himself, tried to sto]) these crueUit's ; l)Ut then the l)arons luriKMl round on him. tohi him he was not their [)roper king, and invited Maude to come and be crowned in his stead. She came very willingly; and her unele, King David of Scotland, set out witli an aruiv to tiuiit for her- but all the English 74 Young Folks'' History of England. in the north came out to drive him back • and they beat him and liis Scots at what they call the Battle of the Standard, because the English had a holy standard, which was kept in Durham Cathe- dral. Soon after, Stephen was taken prisoner at a battle at Lincoln, and tliere was notliing to prevent Maude from being queen l)nt her own bad temper. She went to Winchester, and was there proclaimed ; but she would not speak kindly or gently to the people ; and when her friends entreated her to re- ply more kindly, she flcAv into a passion, and it is even said that she gave a box on the ear to hei' uncle — the good King of Scotland, Avho had come to help her — for reproving her foi- licr liarsh an- swers. When Stephen's wife canir to beg her td set him free, promising that lie should go avva\' beyond the seas, and never interfere with her again, she would not listen, and drove her away. But she soon found how foolish slie had been. Stephen's friends would have been willing that he should give up trjdng to be king, but they could not leave him in prison for life: ;nid so tlie\ went on fighting for him, while more and more .»f the English joined them, as they felt how bad and un- kind a queen they had in the Empress. Indeed, she was so proud and violent, that her husband fStephen. 75 would not come over to England to lielp her, but staid to govern Norm-aiidy. She was soon in great distress, and had to flee from Winchester, riding through the midst of the enemy, and losing almost all her friends by the way as they were slain or made prisoners. Her best helper of all — Earl Robert of Gloucester — was taken while guarding her ; and she could only get to his town of Gloucester by lying down in a coffin, witli holes for air, and being thus carried through all tlie country, where slie had made everyone hate her. Stephen's wife offered to set tlie Earl free, if the otlier side would release her husband ; and this exchange was brought about. Robert then went to Normandy, to fetch Maude's little son Henry, who was ten years old, leaving her, as he tliouglit, safe in Oxford Castle ; l)ut no sooner was he gone than Stephen brought bis army, and besieged the Castle — that is, he brought his men round it, tried to climb U]» th(! w;dls, or beat them down with heavy beams, and hindered any food from being brought in. Everything in the castle that could be eaten was gone ; but Maude was determined not to fall into her enemy's bands. It was the depth of winter ; the river below the walls was frozen over, und spow was on the grcjund. One night, Maud& 76 Younij Folks' Historij of En. lir>4— JISK. HENRY Filz-Eiupress is con n ted as the fii'si king of tlie Plaiitageiu-t i'aniily, also called the Honse of Anjon. He was a very clever, brisk, spirited man, who hardly ever sat down, bnt was always going from place to place, and who would let no one disohey him. He kept everybody in order, pnlled down alnKJst all the Castles that had been built in Stephen's time, and would not let the barons ill-treat the people. Indeed, everyone had been so mixed np together during the wars in iSteplien's reign, that the grandchildren of the Normans who had come over with William the Con(|ueror were now (piite English in their feel- ings. French was, however, chiefly spoken at court. The king was really a Frenchman, and he married a Frencli wife Eleanor, tbe lady of Aquitaine, a 78 MUKDEU OF THOMAS A-BECKKT Henry II., FIfz-empress. 81 great dukedom in the South of France ; and, as Henry had alread}^ Normandy and Anjou, he really was lord of nearly half France. He ruled England well ; but he was not a good man, for he cared for power and pleasure more than for what was right ; and sometimes he fell into such rages that he would roll on the floor, and bite the rushes and sticks it was strewn with. He made many laws. One was that, if a priest or monk was thought to have committt'd any crinu^, Ik' sliould be tiied by the king's judge, instead of the bishoji. 'I'lie Arch- bishop of Canterbury, Thomas a I>cckcl. did not think it right to consent tf) this l;i\v ; and, tliough he and the king had once been great^ friends, Henry was so angr)" with liim lliat he \\as loi'ced to leave England, and take shelter with the King of France. Six years passed by, and the king pre- tended to be reconciled to him, but still, when they met, would not give him the kiss of peace. The artdibishop knew that this showed that the king still hated him ; but his Hock had l)een so long witliout a shepherd that he thought it his duty to go ])ack to them. Just after his return, he laid under censure some persons who had given offence. They went and complained to the king, and Henry exclaimed in a passion, "• Will no one 82 Yomig Folks'' HiMorif of Evgland. rid ine of this turbulent priest?" Four of his knights who heard these words set forth for Can- terbur}'. The archbishop guessed why they were come ; ])ut he would not flee again, and waited for them by the altar in the cathedral, not even letting the doors be shut. There they slew him ; and thither, in great grief at the effect of his own words, the king came — three years later — to show his penitence by entering barefoot, kneeling before Thomas's tomb, and causing every priest or monk in turn to strike him with a, rod. AVc should not exactly call Tliomas a :nartvr now, l)ut he was thought so then, because he died for upholding the privileges of the Churcli, and he was held to be a very great saint. Wliile this dispute was going on, the Earl of Pembroke, called StrongboAV, one of Henry's no- bles, had gone over to Ireland, and obtained a little kingdom there, which he professed to hold of Henry ; and thus the Kings of England became Lords of Ireland, though for a long time they oidy had the Province of Leinster, and were always at war with the Irish around. Henr}'- was a most powerful king ; but his latter years were ver}^ unhappy. His wife was not a good Avoman, and her sons were 4ill disobedient and re- Henry II., Fitz-empress. 83 bellious. Once all the three eldest, Henry, Rich- ard, and Geoffrey, and their mother, ran away together from his court, and began to make war upon liini. .He was much stronger and wiser than they, so he soon forced tlieui to sulnnit ; and he sent Queen Eleanor away, and shut her up in a strong castle in England as long as he lived. Her sons were much more fond of her than of their father, and they thought this usage so hard, that they were all the more ready to break out against him. The eldest son, Henry, was leading an army against his father, when he was taken ill, and felt himself dying. He sent an entreaty that his father would forgive him, and come to see him ; but the young man had so (dtcn been false and treacherous, that Henry feared it was only a trick to get him as a prisoner, and only sent his ring and a message of pardon } and young Henry died, pressing the ring to his lips, and longing to hear his father's voice. (jreoffrey, the third son, was killed by a fall from his horse, and there were only two left alive, Ricli- ard and Jolni. Just at this time, news came that the Mahommedans in the Holy Land had won Je- rusalem back again ; and the pope called on all (-hristian i)rinces to leave off (quarreling, and go on a crusade to recover the Holy Sepulclu'e. 84 Young Folks' History of England. The kings of England and France, young Rich- ard, and many more, were roused to take the cross ; but while arrangements for going were being made, a fresh dispute about them arose, and Richard went away in a rage, got his friends together, and, with King Philip of France to help him, began to make war. His father was feeble, and worn out, and could not resist as in former times. He fell ill, and gave up the struggle, saying he would grant all they asked. The list of Richard's friends whom he was to pardon was brought to him, and the first name he saw in it was that of John, his youngest son, and his darling, the one who had never before rebelled. That quite broke his heart, his illness grew worse, and he talked about an old eagle being torn to pieces by his eaglets. And so, in the year 1189, Henry II. died the saddest death, perhaps, that an old man can die, for his sons had brought down his gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. HENRY II.'S TOMB AT FONTEVRAND CHAPTER XII. EICHABD I., LION-HEAKT. A.D. 11S9— 1109. RICHARD was greatly grieved at his father's (lealli, and when he came and looked at the dead body, in Foiitevraud Abbey Church, he cried out, ^' Alas ! it was I who killed him ! " But it was too late now : he could not make up for what he had done, and he had to think about the Cru- sade he had promised to make. Richard was so brave and strong that he was called Lion-heart ; he was very noble and good in some ways, but his fierce, passionate temper did liini a great deal of harm. He, and King I'hilip of France, and several other great princes, all met in the island of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, and thence sailed for the Holy Land. The lady whom Richard was to marry came to meet him in Sicily. Her name was Beren- garia ; but, as it was Lent, he did not marry her 87 • 88 Young Folks Hhtory of England. then. She went on to the Holy Land in a ship with his sister Joan, and tried to land in the island of Cypress ; but the people were inhospitable, and would not let them come. So Richard, in his great anger, conquered the isle, and was married to Berengaria there. The Mahommedans who held Palestine at that time were called Saracens, and had a very brave prince at their head named Saladin, which means Splendor (tf Religion. He was very good, just, upright, and truth-telling, and his Saracens fought so well, that the Crusaders Avould hardly have won a bit of ground if tlu' I^ion-heart had not been so brave. At last, the\' did take one city on the coast named Acre ; and one of the princes, Leo- pold, Duke of Austria, set uj) liis banner on the walls. Richard did not thiid\ it ought to be there: he pull(Hl it up and threw it down into the ditch, asking the duke liow lie durst take the honors of a king. Leopold was sullen, and brooded over the insult, and King Philip thought Richard so over- bearing, that he couhl not bear to be in the army with him any hinger. In truth, though Philip had pretended to be his friend, and had taken his part against his father, that was really only to hiirt King Henry ; he hated Richard quite as much or R7.CHARD REMOVING THK ARCHDUKE^S BANNER Richard Z, Lion-heart. 91 more, and only wanted to get home first iu order to do him as niucli harm as he could while he was away. So Philip said it was too hot for him in the Holy Land, and made him ill. He sailed hack to France, wiiile Richard remained, though the climate really did hurt his health, and he often had fevers there. When he was ill, Saladiu used to send liim grapes, and do all he eould to show how liighly he thought of so brave a man. Once Sal- adiu sent him a beautiful horse ; Richard told the Earl of Salisbury to trv it, and no sooner was the earl mountetle liehind liim at Ascalon, and set all his men lo work to build it up. When they grumbled, he worked with them, and asked the duke to do tiie same ; but Leo])old said gruffly that he was not a carpenter or a mason. Richard was so provok(!d that he struck him a blow, and thtj duke went home in a I'age. 92 Young Folks' History of England. So many men had gone home, that Richard found his army was not strong enough to try to take Jerusalem. He was greatly grieved, for he knew it was his own fault for not having shewn the temper of a Crusader ; and when he came to tlie top of a hill whence tlie Hol)^ City could be seen, he would not look at it, but turned away, saying, " They who are not worthy to win it are not worthy to behold it." It was ot" no use for him to stay with so few men ; besides, tidings came from home that King Philip and liis own brother, John, were doing all the mischief they could. So he made a peace for three years between the Sara- cens and Christians, hoping to come back again after that to rescue Jerusalem. But on his way home there were terrible storms ; his ships were scattered, and his own ship was driven up into the Adriatic Sea, where he was robbed by pirates, or sea robbers, and then was shipwrecked. There was no way for him to get home but through the lands of Leopold of Austria; so he pretended to be a merclumt, and set out attended only by a bo}'. He fell ill at a little inn, and wliile he was in bed the boy went into the kitchen with the king's glove in his belt. It was an embroidered glove, such as merchants never used, and people asked Richard J., Lion-heart. ot questions, and guessed that the boy's master must be some great man. The Duke of Austria heard of it, sent soldiers to take him, and shut him up as a prisoner in one of his castles. Afterwards, the duke oave him up for a large sum of money to the Emperor of Germany. All this time Richard's wife and mother had been in great sorrow and fear, trying to find out what had become of him. It is said tliat he was fouiul at last by his friend, the minstrel Blondel. A minstrel was a person who made verses and sang them. Many of the nobles and knights in Queen Eleanor's Duchy of Aquitaine were minstrels — and Kichurd was a very good one himself, and amused himself in his captivity by making verses. This is certaiidy true — though I cannot answer for it thai the pretty story is true, which sa^s that Blondel sung at all the castle courts in Germany, till he heard his master's voice take up and reply to his song. The Queens, Eleanor and Berengaria, raised a ransom — that is, a sum of money to buy his free- dom — though his brother John tried to prevent them, and the King of France did his best to hin- der the emperor from releasing him; but tlie Pope insisted that the brave crusader should be set >xt liberty : and Richard came home, after a year and 94 Young Folks' History of England. a-lialf of captivity. He freely forgave John for all the miscliief he had done or tried to do. though he thought so ill of him as to say, " J wish I ]nay forget John's injuries to nie as soon as he will forget my pardon of him." Richard only lived two years yfter he came back. He was besieging a castle in Aquitaine, where there was some treasure that he thought was unlawfully kept from him, when he was struck in the shoulder by a bolt from a cross-bow, and the surgeons treated it so unskilfully that in a few days he died. The man who had shot the bolt was made prisoner, but the Lion-heart's last act was to command that no harm should be done to him. The soldiers, however, in tlieir grief and rage for the king, did put him to death in a cruel manner. Richard desired to be burned at the feet of his father, in Fontevraud Abbey, where he once bewailed his undutiful conduct, and now wished his body forever to lie in penitence. The figures in stone, of the fether, mother, and son, who quarreled so much in life, all lie on one monument now, and with them Richard's youngest sister Joaii, who died nearly at the same time as he died, partly of grief for him. CHAPTER XITI. JOHN, LACKLAND. A.D. I 199 I 216. AS a kind of joke, Joliii, King Henry's youngs est son, had been called Lackland, V>ecause he had nothing when his brothers each liad some great dnkedoni. The name suited him only too well before the end of his life. The English made him king at once. They always did take a grown- up man for their king, if the last king's son was but a child. Richard had never had any children, but his brother Geoffrey, who was older than John, had left a son named Artliur, who was about twelve years old, and who was rightly the Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou. King Philip, who was always glad to vex whoever was king of England, took Arthur under his protection, and promised to get Normandy out of John's hands, However, John had a meeting with him and per 95 96 Young Folks' History of England. suaded him to desert Arthur, and marry his son Louis to John's own niece, Bhmche, who had a chance of being qneen of part of Spain. Still Ar- thur lived at the French King's court, and when he was sixteen years old, Philip helped him to raise an army and go to try his fortune against his uncle. He laid siege to Mirabeau, a town where his grandmother, Queen Eleanor, was living. John, who was then in Normandy, hurried to her rescue, beat Arthur's army, made him prisoner and carried him off, first to Rouen, and then to tlie strong castle of Falaise. Nobody quite knows what was done to him there. The governor, Hubert de Burgh, once found him fighting hard, though with no weapon but a stool, to defend him- self from some ruffians who had been sent to put out his eyes. Hubert saved him frwm these men, but shortly after this good man was sent elsewhere by the king, and John came himself to Falaise. Arthur was never seen alive again, and it is be- lieved that John took him out in a boat in the river at night, stabbed him with his own hand, and threw his body into the river. There was, any way, no doubt that John was guilty of his nephew's death, and he was fully known to be one of the most oelfish and cruel men who ever lived ; and so John, Lackland. 99 laz}, that he lei Pliilip take Normandy from him, without stirring a finger to save the grand old dukedom of his forefathers : so that nothing is left of it to us now but the four little islands, Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark. Matters became much worse in England, when he (juarreled Avith the Pope, whose name was hnio- cent, about who sliould be archbislntp of ("antcr- bury. Tlie Pope wanted a nuin named Stephen T^angton to l»e archl)isho]), but the king swore he should never eomt; into ilic kingdom. Tlicn tiic Pope punished tiic kingdom, liy t'oi'l)i(l(ling all church services in all |iarish cIimitIics. This was termed putting the kingdom under an interdict. John was not mucli distressed by this, though his people were ; but when he found that Innocent was stirring u]) Ihe King of France to come to at- tack liim, he thought it time to make his peace with the Pope. So he not only consented to re- ceive Stephen Langton, but he even knelt down before the Poj)e's legate, or messenger, and took off his crown, giving it up to tlie legate, in token that he only held the kingdom from the Pope. It was two or three days before it was given back to him ; and the Pope held himself to be lord of England, too Toung Folks' History of England. and made the king and people pay him money whenever he demanded it. Ail this time John's cruelty and savageness were making the whole kingdom miserable ; and at last the great barojis coidd bear it no longer. They met together and agreed that they would make John swear to goveiMi \)\ theg(j»»d old English laws that liad prevailed l)efore the Nornians eaine. The diffi- culty was to be sure of what these laws were, for most of the copies of them had been lost. However, Arclil)ishop Langton and some of tlie wisest of the barons put together a set of laws — some copied, some recollected, some old, some new — but all such as to give the barons some control of the king, and hinder liim from getting savage soldiers to- gether to frighten people intf) doing whatever he chose to make them. These laws they called Magna Carta, or the great charter ; and they all came in armor, and took John by sui-prise at Wind- sor. He came to meet them in a meadow named Runnymede, on the bank of the Thames, and there they forced liim to sign the charter, for which all Englishmen ure grateful to them. But he did not mean to keep it ! No, not he ! He had one of his father's fits of rage when he got back to Windsor Castle — lie gnawed the sticks LjL^ JOHN'S ANGKK AFTER S1(J.\IN<- MAGNA CilAU'iA Julin^ Lackland. 103 for rage, and swore he was no king, 'i'iien he sent for more of the fierce soldiers, who went about in bands, ready to be hired, and prepared to take ven- geance on the barons. They found themselves not strong enough to make head against him ; so they invited Louis, the son of Philip of France and hus- band of John's niece, to come and be their king. He came, and was received in London, while John and his bands of soldiers were roaming about the eastern counties, wasting and burning everywhere till they came to the Wash — that curious bay be- tween Lincolnshire and Norfolk, where so many rivers run into the sea. There is a safe way across the sands in this bay when the tide is low, but when it is coming in and meets the rivers, the waters rise suddcnh' into ;i Hood. So it happened to King John ; h(^ did get out himself, but all the carts with his goods aud treasures were lost, and many of his men. lb; was full of i-age and grief, but he went on to the abl)ey where he meant to sleep. He suj)|ied on jx-aclies and new ale, and soon after l)eeame vei-y ill. \\v died in a few days, a miseral)le, disgraced man, with half his people fighting against him and London in the hands of his worst enemy. ^ (^HAPTKR XTV IIENKV UL, Oi^' WINCHESTER. A.l>. l-^i<) — 1^7^. KING Julm left two little sons, Henry aiitl Richard, nine and seven years old, and all the English barons felt that they would rather have Henry as their king than the French Loviis, whom they had only called in because John was such a wretch. So when little Henry had been crowned 104 Henry III., of \Vi nrhester. 106 at Gloucester, with liis mother's bracelet, swearing to rule according to Magna Carta, and good Hubert (le Burgh undertook to govern for him, one baron after another came back to him. Louis was beaten in a battle at Lincoln ; and when his wife sent him more troops, Hubert de Burgh got ships together and sunk many vessels, and drove the others back in the Straits of Dover ; so that Louis was forced to go home and leave England in peace. Henry must have been too young to understand aoout Magna Carta when he swore to it, but it was the trouble of all his lung reign to get him io observe it. It was not that he was wicked like his father — for he was very religious and kind-hearted — but he was too good-natured, and never could say No to anybody. Bad advisers got about him when ht^ grew up, and persuaded liim to let tliem take good Hubert dt; liiirgh and imprison liim. He liad taken refuge in a cluircli, but they dragged him out and took him to a l)laeksmith to have chains put on his feet ; the smith however said he would never forge chains for the man \\\\o had saved his coun- try from the Frencli. De Burgh was afterwards set free, and died in peace and honor. Henry was a buildei- of beautiful churches. Westminster Abbey, as it is now, was one. And 106 Young Folks History of England. he was so charitable to the poor that, when he had his children weighed, he gave their weight in gold and silver in alms. But he gave to everyone who asked, and so always wanted money ; and some- times his men could get nothing for the king and queen to eat, but by going and taking sheep and poultry from the poor farmers around ; so that things were nearly as bad as under William Rufus — because the king was so foolishly good-natured. The Pope was always sending for money, too ; and the king tried to raise it in ways that, according to Magna Carta, lie liad sworn not to do. His foreign friends told him that if he minded Magna Carta he would be a poor creature — not like a king who might do all he pleased ; and whenever lie listened to them lie broke the laws of Magna Carta. Then, when his ])ar(»ns complained and frightened liini, lie swore again to keep them : so that nobody could trust him, and Jiis weakness Avas almost as bad for the kingdom as John's wickedness. When they could bear it no longer, the barons all met him at the council which was called the Parliament, from a French word meaning talk. This time they came in armor, liringing all their fighting men, and declared that he had broken his word so often that they should appoint some of their own number to fUUij, JiivNiLi >N« ifijj BAfiOM& Henry III., of Winchester. 109 watch him, and hinder his dciincr anything against the laws he had sworn to observe, or from getting money from the people without their consent. He was very angry; hut he was in their power, and liad to submit to sAvear thiit so it sliould be ; and Siinoii de j\I(uitfort, Earl of Leicester, who had married liis sister, was appointed among the lords wlio w^ere to keep watch over him. Henry could not bear tliis; he felt himself to be less than ever a king, and tried to l)real\ loose. He had never cared for his ])J|•()^lis(■^; : Init his l)ra\c son Edward, who was now grown up, eared a great deal : and they put the question to Louis, King of France, w^hether the king was Ijound by the oath he had made to bo under Montfort and liis council. This Louis was son to tlic one a\1)o had been driven back by Hubert de Burgh. He was one of the best men and kings that ever lived, and he tried to judge rightly ; ])nt he scarcely thought how much provocation Henry had given, when he said that subjects had no right to frighten their king, and so that Henry and Edward were not obliged to keep the oath. Thereupon they got an army together, and so did Simon de Montfort and the barons ; and they met at a place callecl T>ewes, in Sussex. Edward 110 Young Folks' History of England. got the advantage at first, aiirl gallnjied away, driving his enemies before \mn ; Ijut \\hen he turned round and came back, lie found that Simon de Montfort liad beaten the rest of the army, and made his father and uncle Richard prisoners. In- deed the barons threatened to cut off Richard's head if Edward went on figliting a\ itli tlicui ; and to save his uncle's life, lie too, gave himself up to them. Simon dc ^bjiitfort now govrrncil all the king- dom. He still called Heniy king, but did not let liiin do anything, and Asatchcd liim cldscly that he might not get away : and Edward AAas kept a prisoner — first in one castle, then in another. Simon was a good and high-minded man himself, who only wanted to do what was best for every- one ; but he had a family of proud and overbearing sons, Avho treated all who came in their way so ill, that most of the barons quarreled with them. One of these barons sent Edward a beautiful horse; and one day when he was riding out from Here- ford Castle with his keepers, he proposed to them to ride races, while he was to look on and decide which w^as the SAviftest. Thus they all tired out their horses, and as soon as he saw that they could hardly get them along, EdAvard spurred his own fresh Henry III.^ of Winchester. Ill horse, and galloped off to meet the friends who were waiting for liini. All who were discontented with the Montforts joined him, and he soon had a large army. He marched against Montfort, and met liim at Evesham. The poor old king was in Montfort's army, and in the battle was thrown down, and would have l)een killed if he had not called out — '• Save me, save me, I am Henry of Winchester." llis son heard the call, and, rushing to his side, carried \\\m lo a place of safety. His iirmy was miirii tlic strongest, and Montfort had known from llic lirsl that there was ]io hope for him. '• (t0(J liavf incrcy on oni- sonls, for our bodies are Sir Edward's,** he had said : and he died lu'ave- ly on the field of Ijattle. Edward brought his father liaek to reign in all honor, but he took the whole management of the kingdom, and soon set things in order again — taking care that Magna Carta should be properly observed. When everything was i:)eacefid at home, he set out upon a Crusade with the good King of France, and while he was gone his fatlier died, after a reign of fifty-six years. There were only three English Kings who reigned more than fifty years, and these are easy to remember, as each was the third of his name — Henry IH., Edward III., 112 Young Folks' Ristory of England. and George III. In the reigii of Henry III. the custom of having Parliaments was estahlished, and the king was prevented from getting money from the people unless the Parliament granted it. The Parliament has, ever since, been made up of great lords, Avho are born to it : and, besides them, of men chosen by the people in the counties and towns, to speak and decide for them. The clergy have a meeting of their own called Convocatioii ; and these three — Clergy, Lords, and Commons — are called the Three Estates of the Realm. CHAPTER XV. EDWARD 1., L<>N(;SHANKS. A.T). iL'Ti— IM07. THE son (»f Henry 111. rctiiiiicd t'ldiii tlic Holy Land to be one of our noblest, best, and wisest kings. Edward 1. — called Longslianks in a kind of joke, because lie was the tallest man in ^the Court — was very grand-looking and hand- some ; and could leap, run, ride, and fight in his lieavy armor liettei- than anyone else. He was brave, just, and affectionate; and his sweet wife, Eleanor of Castille, was w^annly loved by him and all the nation. He built as many churches and was as charitable as his father, but he was much more careful to make only good men bishops, and he al- lowed no wasting or idling. He faithfully obeyed Magna Carta, and made everyone else obey the 113 114 Young Folkt,' History of England. law — indeed many good laws and cnstoms have begun from his time. Order was the great thing he cared for, and under him the English grew prosperous and happy, when nobody was allowed to rob them. The Welsh were, however, terrible robbers. You remember that they are the reinains ol' the old Britons, wln) used to have all Britain. They had never left off tliinking that they had a right to it, and coming down f)ut of their mountains to burn the houses and steal the cattle of the Saxons, as they still called the Englisli. Edward tried to make friends with their princes — Llewellyn and David — and to make them keep their people in order. He gave David lands in England, and let Llewel- lyn marry his cousin, Eleanor de Mont Inrt. But they broke their promises shamefully, and did such savage things to the English on their borders that he was forced to put a stop to it, and went to war. David was made prisoner, and put to death as a traitor ; and Llewellyn was met by some soldiers near the bridge of Builth and killed, without their knowing who he was. Edward had, in the mean- time, conquered most of the country ; and he told the Welsh chiefs that, if they would come and meet him at Caernarvon Castle, he would give Edward /., Long shanks. Il7 them a prince who had been born in their country — had never spoken a word of any language but theirs. They all came, and the king came down to them with liis own little baby son in his arms, who had lately l^een born in Caernarvon Castle, and, of course, had never spoken any language at all. The Welsh were obliged to accept him ; and he had a Welsh nurse, that the first words he spoke might l)e Welsh. They thought he would have been altogether theirs, as he then had an elder brother ; ))ut in a year or two the oldest l)oy (lied ; and, ever since that time, the eldest son of the King of England has always l>een Prince of Wales. There was a, plan for the little Prince Kdward of Caernarvon being married to a little girl, who was grand-daughter to tho King of Scotland, and would be Queen of Scotland herself — and this would have led to the whole island being nndcr one king — but, unfortunately, the liltU- uuiitlcn died. It was so liard to decide who (jught to reign, out of all her cousins, that I hey asix'ed king Edward to choose among them — since everyone knew that a great piece of Scotland belonged to him as over-lord, just as his own tlukedom of Aquitaiiie belonged to the King of France over 118 Young Folks' Histoi'y of England. him; and the Kings of Scotland always used to pay homage to those of England for it. Edward chose John Balliol, the one who had the best right ; but he made him understand that, as over- lord, he meant to see that as good order was kept in Scotland as in England. Now, the English kings had never meddled with Scottish affairs be- fore, and the Scots were furious at finding that he did so. They said it was insulting them and their king ; and poor Balliol did not know what to do among them, but let them defy Edward in his name. This brought Edward and his army U) Scotland. The strong places were taken and filled with English soldiers, and Balliol was made pris- oner, adjudged to have reljelled against his lord and forfeitetl his kingdom, and was sent away to France. Edward thought ii wniild he mucii lietter foi- the whole country tu join Scotland to England, and rule it himself. And so, no doubt, it would have been ; but many of the Scots were not will- ing, — and in spite of all the care he could take, the soldiers who guarded his castles often behaved shamefully to the people round them. One gen- tleman, named William Wallace, whose home had been broken up by some soldiers, fled to the Edward /., Longshanks. 119 woods and hills, and drew so many Scots round him that he had quite an army. There was a great fight at the Bridge of Stirling ; the English governors were beaten, and Wallace led his men over the Border into Northumberland, where the}^ plundered and l)uriit wherever they went, in re- venge for what had been done in Scotland. Edward gathered his forces and came to Scot- land. The army that Wallace had drawn together could not stand before him, but was defeated at Falkirk, and Wallace had to take to the woods. Edward promised pardon to all who would submit. — and almost all did; but Wallace still lurked i\. the hills, till one of his own countrymen betrayed him to the English, when he was sent to London, and put to deatli. All seemed (|iiieted, and English garrisons — that is, guarding soldiers — were in all the Scottish towns and castles, wlien, suddenly, Robert Bruce, one of the half English, half Scottish nobles be- tween whom Edward had judged, ran away from the English court, with liis horse's shoes put on backwards. The next thing tliat was heard of him was, that he had quarreled with one of his cousins in the chui'ch at Dumfries, and stabbed him to the 120 Yonng Folks History of England. heart, and then liad gone to Seonc and had lieen crowned King of Scotland. Edward was l)itterly angry now. lie sent on an army to deal unsparingly with the rising, and set out to follow with his son, now i^rown to man's estate. Crueller things than he had ever allowed before were done to the places where Koho-t Bruce had been acknowledged as king, and his friends were hung as traitors Avhere\er they a\ ere found ; but Bruce himself could not be caught. He was living a wild life among the lakes and hills ; and Edward, Avho was an old man now. ]ia heard that the father had come back, raised an army, and was even found to have asked Robert Bruce to help him against his own king. This made the other barons so angry that they joiued the king against him, and he was made prisoner and ])nt to death for making war on the king, and making friends with the enemies of the country. Pxlward had his Le Despencers back again, and very discontented the sight made the whole coun- try — and especially the queen, whom he had al- ways neglected, though she now had four (Uiildren. He had never tried to gain her love, and she hated him more and more. There was some danger of a quarrel with her brother, the King of l^'rance, and she offered to go with her son Edward, now about fourteen, and settle it. But this was only an excuse. She went about to the princes abroad, telling them how ill she was used by her husband, and asking for help. A good many knights be- lieved and pitied her, and came A^th her to Eng 126 Young Folks' HUtory of England. land to help. All the English who hated the Le Despencers joined her, and she led the young prince against his father. Edward and his friends were hunted across into Wales ; hut they were tracked out one hy one, and the Despencers were ])ut to a cruel death, though Edward gave himself iiji ill ho])ps oi' saving them. The queeu and her friends made him own that he did not deserve to reign, and would give up the crown to his son. Then they kept him in prison, taking him from (me castle tn anotlier, in great misery. Tlie rude soldiers of his guard mocked him and crowned him with liay. and gave liim dirty ditch water to shave with ; and when they found he was too strong and healthy to die only of had food and damp lodging, they murdered him one nioht in Berkelev Castle. He lies huried in Gloucester Cathedral, not far from that other fo(jl- ish and unfortunate prince, Robert of Normandy. He had reigned twenty years, and was dethroned in 1827. The queen then wanted to get rid of Edmund, Earl of Kent, the poor king's youngest brother. So a report was spread that Edward was ahve, and Edmund was allowed to peep into a dark prison room, where he saw a man who he thought was his A ' ^-» 1. I \V '''''-^- EDWARD II. AND HIS .lAILEKS. Edivard II„ of Caernarvon. 129 hrother. He tried to stir up friends to set the king free ; but this was called rebelling, and he was taken and beheaded at Winchester by a criminal c'ondemned to die, for it was such a wicked sentence that nobody else could be found to carry it out. CHAPTER XVII. EDWAKD lU. A.D. 1327—1377. FOR al)()nt three years, the cruel Queen Isabel and her friends managed all the country ; but as soon as lier son — Edward III., who had been crowned instead of his father — understood how wicked she had been, and was strong enough to (leal with her party, he made them prisoners, put 130 Edward HI. 131 the worst of them to death, and kept the queen shut up in a castle as long as she lived. He had a very good queen of his own, named Philippa, who brought cloth-workers over from her own country, Hainault (now part of Belgium), to teach the En- glish their trade, and thus began to render England the chief country in the world for wool and cloth. Queen Isabel, Edward's mother, had, you remem- ber, been daughter of the King of France. All her three brothers died without leaving a son, and their cousin, whose name was Philip, began to reign in their stead. Edward, JiowcNcr, fancied that the crown of France ijroperly bel<»nge. 187"— 1399. THESE were not very good times in England. The new king, Richard, was only eleven years old, and his three uncles did not care much for his good or tht? good of the nation. There was not much fighting going on in France, but for the little there was a great deal of money was wanting, and the great lords were apt to be very hard upon the poor people on their estates. They would not let them be taught to read; and if a poor man who belonged to an estate went away to a town, his lord (tould have him brought back to liis old home. Any tax, too, fell more heavily on the poor than the rich. One tax, especially, called the poll tax, which was made when Richard was sixteen, vexed 139 140 Young Folks' History of England. them greatly. Everyone above fifteen years old had to pay fourpence, and the collectors were often very rude and insolent. A man named Wat Tyler, in Kent, was so angr}^ with a rude collector as to strike him dead. All the villagers came together with sticks, and scythes, and flails; and Wat Tyler told them they would all go to London, and tell the king how his poor commons were treated. More people and more joined them on the way, and an immense multitude of wild looking men came pouring into London, where the Lord INIayor and Aldermen were taken by surprise, and could do nothing to stop them. They did nf)t do much liarm then ; the}^ lay on the grass all night romid the Tower, and said they wanted to speak to the king. In the morning he came down to his barge, and meant to have spoken to them ; but his people, seeing such a host of wild men, took fright, and carried him back again. He went out again the \iext day on horseback ; but while he was speaking to some of them, the worst of them broke into the Tower, where they seized Archbishop Simon of Canterbury, and fancying he was one of the king's bad advisers, they cut off his head. Richard had to sleep in the house called the Royal Wardrobe that night, but he went ont again on horseback among the um'O, and began trying to understand Richard 77. 143 what they wanted. Wat Tyler, while talking, grew violent, forgot to whom he was speaking, and laid his hand on the king's hridle, as if to threaten or take him prisoner. ll})0n this, the Lord Mayor, with his mace — th(^ hirge crowned staff that is carried before him — dealt tlie man such a blow that he fell from his horse, iind an attendant thrust him through with a sword. The people wavered, and seemed not to kiutw what to do : and the young king, with great readiness, rode forward and said — "Good fellows, have you lost your leader? This fellow was but a traitor, I am your king, and will be your caj)tain and guide." Then he rode at their head out into the fields, and the gentlemen, who had mustered their men by this time, were able to get between them and the city. The people of each county were desired to state their grievances ; the king engaged to do what he could for them, and they went home. Richard seems to have really wished to take away some of the laws that were so hard upon them, but his lords would not let him, and he had as yet very little power — being only a boy — and by the time he grew up his liead was full of vanity and folly. He was very handsome, and he cared more for fine clothes and amusements than for business ; 144 Young Folks' History of England. and liis youngest uncle, tlie Duke of Gloucester, did all he could to keep him back, and hinder him from talcing his affairs into his own hands. Not till he was twentj^-four did Richard begin to govern for liimself ; and then the Duke of Gloucester was always grumbling and setting the people to grum- ble, because the king choose to hnv(^ peace with France. Duke Thomas used to lament over the glories of the battles of Edward III., and tell the people they had taxes to pay to keep the king in ermine robes, and rings, and jewels, and to let him give feasts and tilting matches — when the knights, in beautiful, gorgeous armor, rode against one another in sham fight, and the king and ladies looked on and gave the prize./ Now, Richard knew very 'well that all this did not cost half so much as his grandfather's wars, and he said it did not signify to the jieople what he wore, or how he amused himself, as long as he did not tax them and take their lambs and sheaves to pay for it. But the people would not believe him, and Gloucester was always stirring them up against him, and interfering with liim in council. At last, Richard went as if on a visit to his uncle at Pleshy Castle, and there, in his own presence, caused him to be seized and sent off to Calais. In a few davs" Richard II. 146 time Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, was dead; and to this day nobody knows whether his grief and rage brought on a fit, or if he was put to death. It is certain, at least, that Richard's other two uncles do not seem to have treated the king as if he had been to blame. The elder of these uncles, the Duke of T>,ancaster, was called John of Gaunt — because he had been born at Ghent, a town in Flanders. He was becoming an old man, and only tried to help tlie king and keep things quiet ; but Henry, his eldest son, was a fine high-spirited young man — a favorite with everybody, and was always putting himself forward — and the king was" very much afraid of him. One day, when Parliament met, the king stood up, and connnanded Henry of Lancaster to tell all those present what the Duke of Norfolk had said when they were riding together. Henry gave in a written paper, saying that the duke had told him that they should all be ruined, like the Duke of Gloucester, and that the king would find some way to destroy them. Norfolk angrily sprang up, and declared he had said no such thing. In those days, when no one could tell which spoke truth, the two parties often would offer to fight, and it 146 Young Folks' History of England. was believed that God wo aid show the right, by giving the victoiy to the sincere one. So Henry and Norfolk were to fight; but just as they were mounted on their horses, with their lances in their liands, the king threw down his staff before them, stopped the combat, and sentenced Norfolk to be banished from England for life, and Henry for ten years. Not long after Henry had gone, his old father — John of Gaunt — died, and the king kept all his gieat dukedom of Lancaster. Henry would not bear this, and knew that many people at home thought it very unfair ; so he came to England, and as soon as he landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, people flocked to him so eagerly, that he began to tliink he could do more than make himself duke of Lancaster. King Richard was in Ireland, where his cousin, the governor — Roger Mortimer — had been killed by the wild Irish. He came home in haste on hearing of Henry's arrival, but everybody turned against him : and the Earl of Northumber- land, whom he had chiefly trusted, made him prisoner and carried him to Henry. He was taken to London, and there set before Parliament, to confess that he had ruled so ill that he was Richard II, 147 unworthy to reign, and gave up the crown to his dear cousin Henry of Lancaster, in the year 1399. Then he was sent away to Pontefract Castle, and what happened to him there nobody know.s, but he never came out of it alive. CHAPTER XIX. HEKRY IV. A.i). i:S99— 14i:i THE English people had often chosen their king out of the royal family in old times, l)nt fronr John to Riehaid IT., he had always been the son and heir of the last king. Now, though poor Richard liad no child, Henry of T.ancaster was not the next of kin to him, for Lionel, Duke of Clarence, had come between the Black I'riuce and John of Gaunt ; and his great grandson, Edmund Mortimer, was thought by many to have a better right to be king than Henry. Besides, people did not know whether Richard w^as alive, and they thought him hardly used, and wanted to set him free. So Henry had a very uneasy time. Every- one had been fond of him when he was a bright, 14S Eenry IK 149 friendly, free-spoken noble, and he had thought that he would be a good king and much loved ; but he had gained the crown in an evil Wdy, and it never gave him any peace or joy. The Welsh, who always had hjved Richard, took up arms for liiiii, and the Earl of Northumberland, who had be- trayed Richard, expected a great deal too much from Henry. The earl had a brave son — Henry Percy — who was so fiery and eager that he was connnonly called Hotspur. He was sent to fight with the Welsh : and with the king's son, Henry, Prhice of Wales — a brave boy of fifteen or sixteen — under his charge, to teach him the art of war; and they used to climb the mountains and sleep in tents together as good friends. But the Scots made an attack un Faigland. Henry Percy went north to fight witli them, and beat them in a great battle, making many prisoners. The King sent to ask to have the prisoners sent to London, and this made the proud Percy so angry that he gave up the cause of King Henry, and went off to Wales, taking his prisoners with him; and there — being by this time nearly sure that poor Richard must be dead — he joined the Welsh in choosing, as the only right king of England, young Edmund Mortimer. Henry IV. and hi« l')0 Young Folkis' History of England. sons gathered an army easily — for the Welsh were so savage and cruel, that the English were sure to fight against them if they broke into England. The battle was fought near Shrewsbury. It was a very fierce one, and in it Hotspur was killed, the Welsh put to flight, and the Prince of Wales fought so well that everyone saw he was likely to be a brave, warlike king, like Edward I. or Edward HI. The troubles were not over, however, for the Earl of Northumberland himself, and Archbishop Scrope of York, took up arms against the king ; but they were put down without a battle. Tlie Earl fled and hid himself, but the archbishop was taken and beheaded — the first bishop whom a king of England had ever put to death. The Welsh went on plundering and doing harm, and Prince Henry had to be constantly (Mi the watch against them ; and, in fact, there never was a reign so full of plots and conspiracies. The king never knew whom tu trust : one friend after another turned against him, and he became soured and wretched : he was worn out with disappointment and guarding against everyone, and at last he grew even suspicious of his brave son Henry, because he was so bright and bold, and was so much loved. Henry TV. 151 The prince was ordered home from Wales, and ( obliged to live at Windsor, with nothing to do, while liis youngest brothers were put before him and trusted by their father — one of them even sent to command the army in France. But hap- pily the four l^rothers — Henry, Thomas, John and Humfrey — all loved eacli other so well that nothing could make them jealous or at enmity with one another. At Windsor, too, the king kept young Edmund Mortimer — whom the Welsh had tried to make king, — and also tlie yoiiug Prince of Scotlaud, whom an English sliip h;i(l caught as he was sailiug for France to be educated. It was very dishonorable of the king to have taken him : l)ut he was brought up with the young English princes, and they all led ;i happy life together. There are st(jries lohl of Henry — Prince Hal, as he was called — leading a wild, merry life, as a sort of madcap ; playing at being a robber, and break- ing into the wagons tliat were bringing treasure for his father, and tiien giving the money back again. Also, there is a story that, when one of his friends was taken before the Lord Chief Justice, he went and (jrdered him to be released, and that when the justice refused he drew his sword, upon which the justice sent him to prison ; and he went 152 Youny Folks' History of Enyland. t^uietly, knowing it was right. The king is said tu have declared himself happy to have a judge who maintained the law so well, and a son who would submit to it ; but there does not seem to be good reason for believing the story ; and it seems clear that young Henry, if he was full of fun and frolic, took care never to do anything really wrong. The king was an old man before his time. He was always ill, and often had fits, and one of these came on when he was in Westminster Abbey. He was taken to the room called the Jerusalem cham- ber, and Henry watched him there. Another of the stories is that the king lay as if he were dead, and the prince took the crown that was by his side and carried it away. When the king revived, Heniy brought it back, with many excuses. " Ah, fair son," said the king, '•' what right have you to the crown? you know your father had none." " Sir," said Henry, " with your sword you took it, aiid with my sword I will keep it." "May God have mercy on my soul," said the king. Another story tells how the prince, feeling that his father doubted his loyalty, presented himself one day in disordered attire before the king, and kneeling, offered him a dagger, and begged his PKINCE HfJJNKY OFFERS HIS LIFE TO HIS FATEEB. Henry IV. 156 father to take his life, if he could no longer trust and. love him. We cannot be quite certain about the truth of these conversations, for many people will write down stories they have heard, without making sure of them. One thing we are certain of which Henry told his son, which seems less like repentance. It was that, unless he made war in France, his lords would never let him be quiet on his throne in England ; and this young Henry was quite ready to believe. There had never been a real peace be- tween France and England since Edward III. had begun the war — only truces, which are short rests in the middle of a great war — and the English were eager to begin again ; for people seldom thought then of the misery that comes of a great war, but only of the lujuor and glory that were tf) be gained, of making prisoners and getting ransoms from them. So Henry IV. died, after having made his own life very miserable by taking the crown unjustly, and, as you will see, leaving a great deal of harm still to come to the whole country, as well as to France. He died in the year 1399. His family is called the House of Lancaster, because his father had 166 Young Folks' Bistort/ of England. been Duke of Lancaster. You will be amused to hear that Richard Whittington really lived in his time. I cannot answer for his cat, but he was really Lord Mayor of London, and supplied the wardrobe of King Henry's daughter, when she married the King of Denmark. CHAPTER XX. HENKY v., OF MONMOUTH. .i>. 1413—1423. THE young King Henry was full of liigli, good thoughts. He was most devout in going to church, tried to make good Bishops, gave freely to the pu(jr, and was so kindly, and hearty, and merry in all his words and ways, that everyone loved him. Still, he thought it was liis duty to go and make war in France. He had been taught to believe the kingdom Ijelonged to him, and it was in so wretched a state that he thought he could do it good. Th(^ [)()()r king, Charles VI., was mad, and had a wicked wife besides ; and his sons, and uncles, and cousins were always fighting, till the streets of Paris were often red with blood, and the whole country was miserable. Henry hoped to set all in (irdcr toi them, and gathering an army 151 158 Young Folks' History of England. together, crossea to Normandy. He called on the people to own him as their true king, and never let any harm be done to them, for he hung any soldier who was caught stealing, or misusing anyone. He took the town of Harfleur, on the coast of Normandy, but not till after a long siege, when his camp was in so wet a place that there was much illness amojig his men. The store of food was nearly used up, and he was obliged to march his troops across to Calais, which you know belonged to England, to get some more. But on the way the FrejQch army came up to meet him — a very grand, splendid-looking army, commanded by the king's eldest son the dauphin. Just as the English kings' eldest son was always Prince of Wales, the French kings' eldest son was always called Dau- phin of Vienne, because Vienne, the country that belonged to him, had a dolphin on its shield. The French army was very large — (j^uite twice the number of the English — but, though Kerry's men were weary and half-starved, and many of them sick, they were not afraid, but believed their king when he told them that there were enough French- men to kill, enough to run away, and enough to make prisoners. At night, however, the English had solemn prayers, and made themselves ready, and Henry V. of Monmouth. 161 the king walked from tent to tent to see that each man was in his place ; while, on the other hand, the French were feasting and revelling, and settling what they would do to the English when they had made tliem prisoners. They were close to a little village which the English called Agin court, and, though that is not quite its right name, it is what we have called the battle ever since. The French, owing to tlie quarrelsome state of the country, had no order or ol)edience among them. Nobody would obey any otlier ; and when their own archers were in the way, the horsemen began cutting them down as if they were the enemy. Some fought bravely, but it was of little use ; and by night all the French were routed, and King Henry's banner waving in victory over the field. He went back to England in great glory, and all the aldermen of London came out to meet him in red gowns and gold chains, and among them was Sir Richard Whit tington, the great silk mercer. Henry was so modest that he would not alk