I
 
 - 
 
 
 . i 
 
 V 
 
 i > v > , 
 
 ^r ^ : '_
 
 L1DKAKI 
 
 ate ( 
 
 EDUCATIONAL BOOKS. 
 
 HISTORICAL SERIES. No. I. 
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
 
 THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, 
 
 APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 
 
 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY, 
 GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS ; 
 
 NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE; 
 AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 1848.
 
 London . Prmied by W. CLOWIS ami SONS, Stamford Street
 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 
 
 From B c. 55 to A.C. 430. 
 
 ABOUT fifty-five years before the birth of our blessed 
 Saviour, Julius Caesar, who at that time commanded the 
 Roman armies in Gaul, resolved on attempting the conquest 
 of the country now called England. Its name at that time 
 was Britannia. The Romans had become masters of a 
 great part of the world then known ; and the ambition of 
 Caesar made him desirous of such glory as could be gained, 
 in the opinion of his countrymen, by adding another pro- 
 vince to their empire. It is thus that God brings to pass 
 his own gracious purposes, by the very schemes in which 
 men engage for their own selfish ends. The extent of the 
 Roman empire was very favourable to the spreading of 
 that holy faith which was then about to be preached ; in- 
 asmuch as it made distant nations acquainted with each 
 other's language, and introduced the customs of civilized 
 life where they had been before unknown. When we look 
 back, therefore, on this invasion of the Romans, we may 
 regard it as one means by which God began to break up 
 the cruel superstition which then prevailed in this island, 
 and secretly prepared the way for his great design, of 
 planting one branch of his holy Church in this favoured 
 country. 
 
 A2
 
 4 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 
 
 At the time of Caesar's invasion, England was inhabited 
 by rude and warlike tribes, who were governed in a great 
 degree by priests, called Druids. Their religious rites, re- 
 markable for the veneration of the misletoe, were chiefly 
 practised in the groves of oak that then covered the 
 country ; and were abominable for the cruelty with which 
 prisoners taken in war were burnt at their sacred places in 
 vast cases or frames of basket-work. Trained to disre- 
 gard danger and resist attack, the rude inhabitants of 
 Britain opposed the landing of Caesar with great courage ; 
 and though defeat was generally the issue of such battles 
 as they engaged in from time to time with the disciplined 
 Romans, yet the country could not properly be called a 
 Roman province before the time of Agricola, who was sent 
 here by the Emperor Vespasian, and who succeeded in 
 subduing the southern division of the island, about one 
 hundred and thirty years after the first invasion of Caesar, 
 and about eighty years after the birth of Jesus Christ. 
 
 During the latter part of that period, Caractacus and 
 Boadicea are recorded as persons who gave proof of the 
 manliness and energy of the British character. Carac- 
 tacus, king of the Silures, after a noble resistance to the 
 Romans, was taken prisoner in battle. Being sent to Rome, 
 and observing the splendour of that city, he exclaimed, 
 " How could a people possessed of such magnificence at 
 home envy me a humble cottage in Britain ?" When 
 brought in chains before Claudius, he disdained to yield to 
 the abject despair which was usual in captives; and the 
 emperor was so struck by the manly demeanour of the 
 British king, that he at once restored him to liberty. 
 
 Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, had received the deepest 
 outrage at the hands of the Roman governor. By an im- 
 passioned statement of her wrongs, she succeeded in kind- 
 ling in her people the indignation against their tyrants 
 which burnt in her own bosom ; and leading them forth 
 to battle, she defeated the Romans with great slaughter 
 in Essex. She was, however, afterwards conquered by 
 Suetonius in the reign of the Emperor Nero, and put an 
 end to her life by poison. 
 
 From the time of Agricola, who penetrated even to the 
 highlands of Scotland (then called by the Romans Cale- 
 donia), the country was governed by that people for about
 
 BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 5 
 
 three hundred and sixty years, and the Britons acquired 
 the arts and habits of civilized life. London is said to have 
 been already a city of some beauty and extent, The pro- 
 vince of Britain was visited by several Roman emperors, 
 and many of its prefects assumed the titles of Caesar and 
 Augustus. Adrian came hither to repel the Caledonians, 
 who had made inroads into the more fertile country of the 
 south ; and under his order the line of garrisons which 
 Agricola had established between the friths of Forth and 
 Clyde, was completed into a continuous wall. Septimius 
 Severus, who with his sons Caracalla and Geta was here 
 for a similar purpose, expired at York. Constantius, the 
 father of Constantine the Great, breathed his last in the 
 same city. His illustrious son, the first Christian emperor, 
 was a native of this island. It is generally believed that 
 Helena, the mother of Constantine, was a British lady. 
 
 These facts are sufficient to show the importance and 
 civilization of Britain under its Roman rulers. It is more 
 interesting to observe how early the Christian faith was 
 preached in this country, and the extent to which it pre- 
 vailed. The Gospel was certainly preached here as early 
 as the apostolic age ; and possibly (as many have believed) 
 by St. Paul himself. Among its converts were Roman 
 rulers, and native princes : and the martyrdom of St. Alban, 
 who suffered at Verulam (which has since been called after 
 him St. Alban's) in the persecution under Diocletian, shows 
 that this country was honoured even at that early period, by 
 being called to suffer for the truth. British bishops were 
 present at the council of Aries, in France (A.D. 314), and 
 probably at the celebrated council of Nicsea (also in the 
 days of Constantine), where the Nicene creed was fixed by 
 the assembled fathers. We should bless God that Chris- 
 tianity was so soon introduced, and a branch of the Catholic 
 Church so firmly planted in this island.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DEPASTURE OF THE ROMANS. ARRIVAL AND SETTLEMENT 
 OF THE SAXONS. 
 
 From A.D. 430 to A.D. 827. 
 
 IT was observed that the extent of the Roman empire was 
 favourable to the first spreading of the Christian faith. The 
 days, however, of that empire (which is generally thought 
 the fourth empire spoken of by the prophet Daniel) were 
 numbered ; and throughout the fourth and fifth centuries 
 of the Christian era, it was gradually weakened and divided 
 by the invasion of the heathen and barbarous nations of the 
 north. The depression of the Christian religion, which 
 was the first consequence of this event, issued in the more 
 signal triumph of the truth. Victorious as were the in- 
 vading tribes over the degenerate Romans in battle, they 
 were themselves successively conquered by the mild and 
 holy faith which was held by their new subjects ; and which 
 thus showed itself able to master the passions of men under 
 the various changes to which human society is liable. 
 
 The province of Britain soon felt the effects of the weak- 
 ening of the Roman empire. The Romans were forced to 
 withdraw their legions from these shores ; and as it had 
 been their policy to train the natives in peaceful arts and 
 habits, they left them in a defenceless condition to contend 
 with the Picts and Scots, who were continually harassing 
 and plundering them. The Romans finally left the island 
 in the year 430 ; and after suffering the evils as well of 
 anarchy as of foreign invasion, the Britons seem to have 
 chosen Vortigern as their king, in the hope of finding a re- 
 medy for their ills under a strong and able ruler. A people, 
 however, that has long trusted to others for protection, 
 cannot soon recover those manly habits which none should 
 suffer themselves to lose ; and Vortigern was weak enough 
 to invite the Anglo-Saxons from the coast of Jutland and 
 Holstein, to assist him in repelling those enemies whom he 
 was himself unable to drive out of his kingdom. These 
 heathen foreigners came over in great numbers under the
 
 DEPARTURE OF THE ROMANS. 7 
 
 brothers Hengist and Horsa, with whom Vortigern tried to 
 confirm his league by marrying their sister Rowena. They 
 were first settled in the Isle of Thanet, and soon succeeded 
 in driving back the Picts and Scots to their own fastnesses, 
 but by degrees became more fatal enemies to the British 
 than those whom they were summoned to repel. A pretext 
 for quarrelling with Vortigern was soon found ; or (as some 
 say) a plot was contrived for massacring him and the prin- 
 cipal British nobles. The result of his unwise invitation 
 was, that the Britons were gradually driven into Wales and 
 Cornwall, and the Saxons, in a period of about one hundred 
 and fifty years, established seven kingdoms in this island, 
 which began to be called England, after the Angles, who 
 had then settled themselves in it. This condition of 
 England is known as the Saxon Heptarchy, from two 
 Greek words which signify seven governments ; and the 
 kingdoms thus established were : 1st, Kent, comprehending 
 Kent and Middlesex; 2nd, the South Saxons, which in- 
 cluded Sussex, Surrey, and the New Forest ; 3rd, Wessex, 
 comprising Hants, Dorset, Wilts, and the Isle of Wight ; 
 4th, the East Angles, comprehending Cambridge, Norfolk, 
 and Suffolk ; 5th, Essex, which included part of Herts ; 
 6th, Mercia, embracing the Midland counties ; and 7th, 
 Northumberland, the most extensive of all, in which all the 
 northern counties were comprised. 
 
 The civil history of England at this time consists only of 
 the wars of these petty kings, of whom some one had often 
 a sort of supremacy over the others, till the year A.D. 827, 
 when Egbert, king of Wessex, after subduing the others, 
 made himself sole master of England. 
 
 We may easily believe that the expulsion of the British 
 by a heathen and barbarous people, proved in the first in- 
 stance a serious hindrance to the Christianity as well as the 
 civilization of the island. The British Church had recently 
 recovered from the effects of a heresy called Pelagianism, 
 (from its author, Pelagius or Morgan, who was a native of 
 Wales,) through the ministry of St. Germain and St. Lupus, 
 who held a council at Verulam, by which it was successfully 
 put down. Schools had been established at Bangor and else- 
 where ; and missions had been sent to spread the Gospel 
 among neighbouring nations. The Saxon invasions put an 
 end for a time to these holy undertakings. The British
 
 8 INVASION OF DANES. 
 
 bishops with their flocks found refuge chiefly in Wales, 
 where the bishoprics founded by St. Asaph and St. David, 
 at places still called after them, attest the piety which yet 
 found a home among the ancient Britons, when England 
 was again given up to the darkness of heathenism. 
 
 A state of things so unhappy could not but move the 
 zeal of the Church abroad, and the compassion of Gregory, 
 then bishop of Rome, was quickened by the sight of some 
 English children exposed for sale in that city. He sent a 
 mission into England, at the head of which was Augustine, 
 the celebrated monk, who afterwards became the first 
 archbishop of Canterbury. He landed in Kent, A.D. 596, 
 and succeeded in converting Ethelbert, the king, already 
 favourably disposed towards Christianity by Bertha his 
 queen, who was a Christian princess. 
 
 Within about one hundred years from this period, the 
 Christian faith had spread itself through all the kingdoms 
 of the Heptarchy; and God raised up many eminent men 
 for that great ministry. The names of Chad, bishop of 
 Lichfield; Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, with others, 
 are worthy of being ever honoured by Englishmen. Under 
 the Divine blessing granted to the labours of these and 
 other men of God, the rude Saxons submitted themselves 
 to the yoke of Christ. Churches were built, and tithes 
 and other endowments set apart for the maintenance of 
 religion throughout the island ; and the foundations were 
 thus laid of that system of the pastoral ministry in parishes, 
 which is to our own day the source of such unspeakable 
 comfort and benefit. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 INVASION OF DANES. REIGN OF ALFRED. 
 
 From A.D. 827 to A.D. 900. 
 
 THE period of the Heptarchy was more favourable to learn- 
 ing and religion than perhaps is commonly supposed. The 
 Venerable Bede, who died A.D. 735, and was the author of 
 a history of the English Church, with other valuable works,
 
 REIGN OF ALFRED. 9 
 
 and the learned Alcuin, who was born and educated in 
 England, though he resided chiefly at the court of the 
 Emperor Charlemagne, were probably more distinguished 
 scholars than were to be found at that time in other parts 
 of Europe. It pleased God, however, to suffer the country 
 to be afflicted for about two hundred years after Egbert 
 became king of England, by invasions of the Danes, who 
 were still heathens, and who, wherever they made their 
 inroads, not only laid waste the country, but burnt the 
 churches and monasteries, and put the clergy to death. 
 These invaders were but feebly resisted by Ethelwulf, who 
 succeeded his father Egbert on the throne, and was a prince 
 of an indolent and superstitious character. He is chiefly 
 remarkable for a visit which he paid to Rome, whither he 
 had sent his son Alfred to be confirmed by Pope Leo IV., 
 and where Ethelwulf resided a year, when his kingdom 
 could ill spare his presence. During this time, and through 
 the reigns of his three elder sons, Ethelbald, Ethelbert, and 
 Ethelred I., who reigned successively, the Danes gained 
 many victories, attended by great cruelty and rapine, and 
 began to aim at making a permanent settlement in the 
 fertile fields of England. When Alfred, the fourth son of 
 Ethelwulf, became king, A.D. 871, nothing could be more 
 wretched than the state of the country. For a time, indeed, 
 he made head against the Danes ; but they arrived in such 
 swarms that he found it necessary to withdraw from the 
 struggle, and even to conceal himself in the cottage of a 
 herdsman, whose humble labours he shared. While thus 
 awaiting better times, he is said to have been chid one day 
 by the herdsman's wife for having failed to turn a cake that 
 was being baked, which she had set him to watch. The 
 woman, who little suspected the quality of her inmate, told 
 him sharply that " he could eat a cake, though he was 
 too lazy to turn it." She was much dismayed on dis- 
 covering Alfred's rank by the arrival of some of his 
 faithful followers, who entreated him to lead them once 
 more against the Danes. In order to acquaint himself 
 with the plans of his enemies, he is said to have entered 
 their camp in the disguise of a harper. He found the camp 
 unguarded, and the Danes given wholly to riot and feasting. 
 He was thus enabled to attack them with advantage, and 
 he defeated them with great slaughter : but he made a 
 
 A3
 
 10 REIGN OF ALFRED. 
 
 mild use of his victory, and Gothrum, the Danish chief, 
 with many of his principal followers, were afterwards ad- 
 mitted to holy baptism. 
 
 From this period the reign of Alfred was one of true 
 glory and usefulness. The Danes were bravely repulsed 
 from time to time ; and when on one occasion the wife and 
 children of Hastings, their leader, were surprised and 
 brought to Alfred, he generously sent them back, observing 
 that he did not make war with women and children. This 
 great king applied himself to promote the happiness of his 
 people by framing wise laws, and encouraging sound reli- 
 gion and all the arts of peace. His endeavour was to esta- 
 blish for ever by law such ancient Saxon customs as were 
 favourable to freedom and virtue. We may mention the 
 great safeguard for justice, that every man shall be tried 
 by a jury of his peers or equals ; and the institution of 
 two councils, the one composed of nobles and bishops, the 
 other (which was called the Wittenagemot), a more general 
 council of the nation, through which the public resolutions 
 of the sovereign were to pass. It seems that the germ of 
 these institutions existed in the customs of the Saxons, but 
 they received from Alfred a more fixed and legal character. 
 In order that the process of obtaining justice might be easy 
 to all classes of people, he completed the division of the 
 kingdom into counties and parishes, and distributed the 
 powers of government among officers of various decrees, 
 from the earl, who, with the sheriff, was set over the shire 
 or county, to the tything man, who was bound for the good 
 behaviour of his more immediate neighbours. Murder was 
 now made punishable by death; and several laws were 
 passed to better the condition of the churls or villains, who 
 were slaves attached to the soil, and whose degraded state 
 was the chief blot in the ancient Saxon customs. The 
 authority of the law was so respected in the days of Alfred, 
 that when golden bracelets were hung by the public high- 
 way, by way of trial, no man touched them. 
 
 Alfred was a favourer of sound learning and religion no 
 less by his own example than by his laws. He gave eight 
 hours of every day to study and the service of religion, and 
 half his revenue to works of piety and charity. He sent 
 a mission to carry alms to the Christians in India, (whose 
 very existence was afterwards forgotten, till comparatively
 
 FROM THE REIGN OF ALFRED TO CANUTE. 1 1 
 
 modern times,) and restored the ancient school at Oxford, 
 which seems to have existed even from the days of St. 
 Germain. Here he placed the learned John Scott, called 
 Erigena, a native of Ireland, who is renowned for having 
 opposed the corrupt doctrine that was now beginning to 
 prevail in the Church of Rome on the subject of the Lord's 
 Supper. It may thus be observed, that as the ancient 
 British Church had little or no connexion with the see of 
 Rome, so neither did the Saxon Church acknowledge any 
 other supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, than a claim of 
 gratitude for the benefits which England derived from the 
 charity of Pope Gregory and the mission of Augustine. 
 
 The character of Alfred had been formed in the school 
 of adversity. His reign, which was followed by a long 
 period of suffering and darkness, has ever been regarded as 
 the foundation of the British constitution : nor can any one 
 tell how much it is owing (under God's blessing) to his 
 laws and institutions, and to the memory of his glorious 
 reign, that the love of freedom and the manly sense by 
 which the English character has ever been distinguished, 
 survived the superstition and oppression which were begin- 
 ing to darken and enslave the whole of Europe. 
 
 Alfred died in the year A.D. 900, in the 52nd year of his 
 life. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM THE REIGN OF ALFRED TO THE REIGN OF 
 
 CANUTE. 
 
 From A.D. 900 to A.D. 1016. 
 
 THE Saxon kings were for the most part wise and able 
 princes, but the successive invasions of the Danes continually 
 marred their efforts for the good of their people. Edward 
 the Elder, who succeeded his father Alfred, is reckoned the 
 founder of the University of Cambridge, as he established 
 certain schools at that place, in imitation of those which 
 had been restored and fostered by his father at Oxford. 
 In the reign of Athelstan his son, who came to the throne 
 A.D. 925, three foreign kings received instruction in Eng-
 
 12 FROM THE REIGN OP ALFRED 
 
 land ; Alan of Bretagne, Louis of France, and Haco of 
 Norway. Athelstan defeated the Welsh under Howel the 
 Good, and overthrew the Danes, who were assisted by 
 Constantine, king of Scotland, at the great battle of 
 Brunton, in Northumberland. Athelstan was the first of 
 the Saxon princes who took the title of King of all 
 Britain. He is said to have taken a cruel course with his 
 brother Edwin, by turning him adrift in a ship without 
 sails or oars, because he suspected him of conspiring 
 against his crown. The unhappy prince leapt over- 
 board in despair, an'd thus perished. This king was 
 however the author of several wise laws, by which he 
 allowed the rank of thane to any merchant who should 
 have made three voyages on his own account, and also 
 to any franklin or freeholder, who (besides certain other 
 qualifications) should have a church with a bell-tower 
 on his estate. He was succeeded by his brother Edmund I. 
 (A.D. 941), a prince of remarkable promise, though forced 
 by the Danes to agree to a partition of his kingdom with 
 Anlaf their leader. He was slain in his own hall by a 
 robber (A.D. 948), and his children being infants, the 
 crown was bestowed on Edred, his brother. In those days 
 it was so necessary that the sceptre should be in the hands 
 of a prince of mature age and vigour, that though the prin- 
 ciple of hereditary succession to the throne was owned, 
 yet, when the heir was an infant, the nobles claimed the 
 privilege of choosing some member of the family, more 
 qualified to enter at once on the duties of the royal 
 office. Edred was very victorious against the Danes, 
 whose share in the kingdom he reduced to a province ; 
 but in his government he yielded too blindly to the 
 monks, especially to Dunstan, then abbot of Glaston- 
 bury, who by reputed sanctity and false miracles ob- 
 tained an immense influence throughout the kingdom. 
 The long wars by which the country had been scourged 
 were fatal to sound learning and religion, and the minds 
 of men were thus prepared to receive many corrupt doc- 
 trines and superstitious practices. The veneration of images 
 and the enforced celibacy of the clergy, were beginning to 
 take the place of pure and undefiled religion. Instead of 
 adjudging questions by rational proof, men sought to de- 
 termine them by ordeals, (the folly of which was declared
 
 TO THE REIGN OF CANUTE. 13 
 
 even by the Church of Rome,) in which the accuser and 
 the accused were matched in single combat, or the accused 
 was required to bear the touch of boiling water or red-hot 
 iron. 
 
 Edred, who died A.D. 935, was succeeded by Edwy, the 
 son of Edmund, who did all in his power to weaken the 
 influence of the monks. A pathetic tale has been told of 
 the usage which Edwy and his queen Elgiva received at 
 the hands of Dunstan, and Odo, archbishop of Canterbury. 
 According to this account their marriage was opposed, and 
 their union severed by those monks, on the ground of a 
 relationship within the prohibited decrees. It is said that 
 Elgiva was, by Odo's orders, branded in the face and con- 
 veyed to Ireland, and on returning some time afterwards 
 to Edwy, was waylaid and miserably murdered, while Edgar, 
 another son of Edmund, was induced to revolt against his 
 brother. By another account, it is said that the kingdom 
 was divided by the nobles between Edwy and Edgar at 
 Edred's death. The whole history therefore is very doubtful. 
 It is certain, indeed, that Dunstan was more ambitious of 
 worldly power, and more unscrupulous in seeking it, than 
 became his office ; but he was the author of many useful 
 practical laws which the Church still acknowledges ; and 
 Archbishop Odo has left writings which betoken a very 
 different temper from that which has been ascribed to him. 
 The more probable account is, that Elgiva was killed in a 
 revolt of the people against Edwy ; who himself died after 
 a reign of four years, on which the authority of Edgar was 
 acknowledged throughout the kingdom. 
 
 This king has been called Edgar the Pacific, from the 
 peace which England enjoyed under his reign. His power 
 was such, that his barge was rowed on the river Dee by 
 the King of Man and several Welsh and Scottish chieftains, 
 while he himself sat at the helm. Edgar, who made Dun- 
 stan archbishop of Canterbury, has been greatly extolled 
 by this monk, to whom he lent his whole influence ; but 
 he seems to have been a prince of unscrupulous character. 
 This appears from the adventure of Elfrida, the heiress of 
 Devonshire, of whose beauty the king heard such reports 
 as led him to send Ethelwald, his friend, to ascertain their 
 truth. The faithless messenger wooed her on his own ac- 
 count. On his return, he declared that the report of her
 
 14 FROM THE REIGN OF ALFRED TO CANUTE. 
 
 beauty was false, but that he was himself desirous of marry- 
 ing so great an heiress. The king allowed this marriage, 
 and finding afterwards that he had been deceived by Ethel- 
 wald, is said to have caused his murder. However this may 
 be, Edgar undoubtedly lost no time in marrying his widow, 
 who became the mother of Ethelred II. 
 
 It was by Edgar's exertions that the wolves with which 
 England was greatly infested were completely extirpated. 
 He was succeeded (A.D. 975) by Edward, his son by a 
 former wife, who is known as Edward the Martyr. Within 
 two years from his accession, the youthful king was mur- 
 dered by order of his stepmother Elfrida, at Corfe Castle, 
 where that queen resided, and where Edward had stopped 
 while hunting, to show respect to his father's widow. 
 Elfrida was tempted to this crime by her desire to see the 
 crown on the head of her own son, who now succeeded his 
 murdered brother. 
 
 His name was Ethelred, and he was called the Unready, 
 from the feeble resistance which he made to the Danes, who 
 were now again rising against their Saxon rulers. Ethelred 
 was weak enough to purchase the departure of the hordes 
 that were continually arriving ; and finding that this ex- 
 pedient did but encourage their return, he resolved on 
 a perfidious massacre of all the Danes in England, which 
 was executed with circumstances of the most savage 
 cruelty. The crime soon brought its punishment in the 
 arrival of fresh swarms under Swein and Anlaf (kings of 
 Denmark and Norway), resolved on avenging the slaughter 
 of their countrymen by the ruin of England. Ethelred 
 fled to Richard, the duke of Normandy, whose sister Emma 
 he had married ; and Swein was proclaimed king of Eng- 
 land, A.D. 1014. 
 
 The death of Swein soon followed ; and Ethelred re- 
 turned to give fresh proof of weakness in his feeble efforts 
 against Canute, the son of Swein ; but died shortly after 
 his return. Canute then met with a more manly foe in 
 Edmund (surnamed Ironside), the son of Ethelred, who 
 struggled with great skill and courage to recover his in- 
 heritance, but was defeated with great loss at Essenden, 
 in Herts, and afterwards basely murdered. This was A.D. 
 1016, and Canute then became master of the kingdom. 
 
 Such was the issue of those weak and perfidious mea-
 
 FROM THE REIGN OF CANUTE TO THE CONQUEST. 15 
 
 sures by which Ethelred had endeavoured to maintain his 
 power. The crimes also of Edgar and Elfrida were thus 
 signally marked with the Divine displeasure ; and we learn 
 that neither nation nor family can eventually prosper, which 
 builds its house on a foundation of wrong. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM THE REIGN OF CANUTE TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 From A.D. 1016 to A.D. 1066. 
 
 CANUTE, who was king of Denmark and Norway, as well 
 as of England, acquired the affections of his Saxon subjects 
 by the wisdom and equity of his government ; but his 
 character is stained by the cruelty with which he treated 
 the two sons of Edmund Ironside, whom he sent out of the 
 kingdom with such instructions to the Dane who was in- 
 trusted with them, as were likely to ensure their death. 
 They were, however, received by Solomon, king of Hun- 
 gary, where one of them married the queen's sister, by 
 whom he became the father of Edgar Atheling, and Mar- 
 garet, afterwards queen of Scotland. 
 
 There were two other princes, from whose claims Canute 
 apprehended danger to his crown. These were Alfred and 
 Edward, the sons of Ethelred the Unready, by Emma of 
 Normandy, his second queen. They resided in Normandy, 
 at their uncle's court, and in order to guard himself from 
 any attempts from that quarter, Canute prevailed on Emma 
 to marry him, by settling the succession to the crown on 
 such issue as they might have. 
 
 After thus establishing his power, Canute had a prosper- 
 ous reign of nearly twenty years, and earned the title of 
 " the Great," no less by the wisdom and justice of his 
 government than by his victories over his enemies. His 
 laws are indeed almost the first that make mention of 
 the pope, as having any lawful authority over the English 
 clergy, but are in general marked by a spirit of mildness 
 and piety, and by respect for the freedom and ancient 
 customs of the Saxons. He is said to have shown his
 
 16 FROM THE KEIGN OF CANUTE 
 
 wisdom by the reply which he made to the flattery of his 
 courtiers, who one day, when he was walking by the sea- 
 shore, compared his power to God's. The tide was coming 
 in, and Canute ordered a chair to be brought, on which he 
 sat upon the beach, and commanded the waves to retire. 
 When his chair was quite surrounded by the waters, he 
 rebuked his followers, desiring them to observe that no 
 power can be likened to His, who alone can say to the sea, 
 Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther. 
 
 Canute died A.D. 1035, leaving three sons, Swein, king 
 of Norway ; Hardicanute (his son by Emma), already set- 
 tled on the throne of Denmark ; and Harold, surnamed 
 Harefoot, who succeeded to the English crown, notwith- 
 standing the superior claims and efforts of his half-brother, 
 Hardicanute. His reign of four years is disgraced by the 
 murder of Alfred, his mother's son by Ethelred, who came 
 to England with his brother Edward, to visit that queen, 
 now again a widow. By the help of Earl Goodwin, a 
 powerful nobleman, who gave much trouble in the follow- 
 ing reigns, Alfred was arrested in the castle of Guildford, 
 by virtue of Harold's order, and died from the cruel treat- 
 ment he received. On the death of Harold, Hardicanute 
 became king, and was chiefly remarkable for his brutal in- 
 temperance. He died after a reign of two years, and the 
 line of Saxon monarchs was restored in the person of 
 Edward, the son of Ethelred, who had escaped from the 
 treachery of Earl Goodwin, and now secured the interest 
 of that nobleman by marrying his daughter Egitha. This 
 princess was a lady of much piety and learning. Ingul- 
 phus, a Saxon historian, who was a scholar in the monas- 
 tery at Westminster, tells us that the queen used often to 
 meet him and his schoolfellows in her walks. On these 
 occasions she would try to pose the scholars with some 
 grave or playful question of grammar or logic. She would 
 then direct her maid to give the youths a piece or two of 
 silver, and send them for some refreshment to the palace 
 buttery. 
 
 Edward acquired the titles of Saint and Confessor by 
 the zeal with which he lent himself to the designs of the 
 monks. Having been educated in Normandy, he was too 
 much biassed in favour of foreign churchmen, whom he 
 placed in English sees. He also made several monasteries
 
 TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 17 
 
 (in Sussex and elsewhere) subject to abbeys in Normandy. 
 The reign of this king was chiefly disturbed by the ambi- 
 tion of Earl Goodwin, whose son, Harold, began to take 
 steps for securing the succession to the crown, as he saw 
 that Edward was childless, and Edgar Atheling, the right- 
 ful heir, a prince of feeble character. 
 
 It was in this reign that Siward, earl of Northumberland, 
 was sent to assist Malcolm Canmore, king of Scotland, 
 against Macbeth, who had murdered his father, Duncan, 
 and usurped the throne. The history of Macbeth has fur- 
 nished the plot to one of the noblest dramas of William 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 King Edward was the founder of Westminster Abbey, 
 where all the English kings have since been crowned. He 
 died (A.D. 1066) just after the consecration of that mon- 
 astery ; and Harold prevailed on the nobles to elect him 
 as their sovereign, without regarding the right of Edgar 
 Atheling, or the pretensions of William, duke of Nor- 
 mandy, whose claims were founded on a pretended will of 
 Edward the Confessor, and had been allowed by Harold him- 
 self when on a visit some years before at William's court. 
 
 Harold, on his accession, did all in his power to engage 
 the affections of his people, and induce them to support 
 him in the struggle with William, which now awaited him. 
 He was first called to repel the invasion of Harfager, king 
 of Norway, who was supported by Toston, a brother of 
 Harold ; and he gained a great victory over them at Battle- 
 bridge, in Yorkshire. In this battle both Harfager and 
 Toston fell ; and Harold hastened to the south to oppose 
 Duke William, who had already landed in Sussex. The 
 armies met near Hastings, and the battle which ensued was 
 long doubtful, till Harold was slain by an arrow, and his 
 followers, discouraged by that event, were routed with 
 great slaughter. 
 
 The death of Harold put an end to the dominion of the 
 Anglo-Saxons in England ; but the manly spirit of the 
 Saxon institutions had taken such hold of the people, that, 
 though curbed by the tyranny of Norman rule, it could 
 not in the end be put down. Much of our English great- 
 ness is owing, under God, to the fact that the Saxons, 
 however much depressed in the next reigns, formed a 
 middle class between the Norman nobles and the mere
 
 18 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 
 
 peasantry; of greater weight and of a more manly and 
 independent character than was to be found in other parts 
 of Europe. England was thus still possessed of the ma- 
 terials of national greatness, in having a people proud of 
 the glory of their forefathers, and attached to those ancient 
 laws which were well suited to train them in simple and 
 manly habits. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 
 
 From A.D. 1066 to A.D. 1087. Born at Falaise. Buried at 
 Caen. Reigned 21 years. 
 
 IN choosing Harold as their king, and overlooking the 
 rightful claims of Edgar Atheling, the English nobles had 
 broken that rule of hereditary succession, for the arbitrary 
 violation of which no personal qualities in the sovereign can 
 make up. When Harold, therefore, was slain, they had no 
 great principle of loyalty to bind them together ; and though 
 an attempt was made to proclaim Edgar, it was then too late 
 to rally men round that sacredness of ancient right, which 
 had been so blindly set aside. This may greatly account 
 for the fact that one victory gave William possession of 
 the English crown. It should also be said that he was 
 naturally much favoured by all the Norman churchmen 
 who had been brought over by Edward the Confessor, and 
 the more so, inasmuch as his enterprise had been (as men 
 then imagined) blessed and hallowed by the pope. On his 
 approach to London he was met by many nobles, including 
 Edgar himself, and Stigand, archbishop of Canterbury, 
 who at once tendered their submission, and he was soon 
 solemnly crowned at Westminster. 
 
 It seems to have been William's purpose at first to go- 
 vern the nation which he had conquered with strict justice. 
 The English, however, soon found that all real power was 
 in the hands of Normans ; and as. they were unable to 
 brook the insults and oppression with which they were 
 continually galled, the history of William's reign is chiefly
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 19 
 
 a record of repeated revolts, which he punished with the 
 most unrelenting cruelty, laying waste on one occasion the 
 entire country for a distance of sixty miles between the 
 Humber and the Tees. These revolts seem to have steeled 
 his heart against his English subjects. He seized every 
 pretence for confiscating their estates, which he bestowed 
 on his Norman followers ; he built castles on commanding 
 points at all the principal cities, and removed most of the 
 Saxon prelates. Among others he deposed Stigand, and 
 appointed Lanfranc to that see, a prelate of great learning 
 and piety. The expulsion of Wolfstan, afterwards canonized 
 as a saint, from the see of Worcester, seems to have been 
 prevented by a most affecting speech of that aged bishop, 
 when required to give up his crosier. One badge of servi- 
 tude which was felt greatly by the English, was a law 
 directing that all fires should be put out at the tolling of 
 a bell at eight o'clock. This bell, which is still rung at an- 
 cient places, is called the curfew, from two words which 
 signify that fires should be covered or put out. It was 
 William's purpose to abolish the very language of the 
 Saxons, and he therefore desired that all laws should be 
 written, and all pleadings conducted, in Norman French ; 
 and of these vain attempts to destroy our noble language, 
 some traces still exist in the ancient forms of our public 
 courts. To subdue, however, the spirit of the Saxons, the 
 Conqueror relied mainly on the complete establishment 
 in England of a system called the feudal law, at that 
 time prevailing in most parts of Europe. By this system 
 the whole kingdom was parcelled out into so many chief 
 baronies, which were held of the crown on condition of 
 military service, and these were in like manner divided 
 into knight's fees, which were held of the superior barons 
 on the same tenure of service or vassalage. The vassal 
 did homage to his lord for the lands which he held, and 
 was bound to serve him in war, and contribute to his 
 ransom if taken prisoner. This system was not fruit- 
 less of generous protection on the one side, and honourable 
 loyalty on the other ; but it was capable of being dreadfully 
 abused, from the power which the lord possessed, especi- 
 ally when his vassal was under age. He had then the 
 custody of the minor's lands and person, and had the power 
 even of disposing of his vassal in marriage.
 
 20 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 
 
 This reign was unfavourable to the independence of the 
 English Church ; for, though William was himself little 
 inclined to part with any of his power to Pope Gregory VII. 
 (or Hildebrand), who was then putting forward the most 
 extravagant claims of supremacy ; yet having invaded Eng- 
 land under the sanction of a papal grant, and relying so 
 much as he did on the clergy for support, he doubtless in 
 the main increased the influence of Rome ; and the Norman 
 prelates whom he brought in, if more learned, were also 
 more infected with Romish errors than the Saxon clergy. 
 One work of the Conqueror, which has lasted to our own 
 times, is a proof of his wisdom and ability. This is a book 
 called Domesday Book ; in which is contained an account 
 of all the landed property throughout a great part of the 
 kingdom, given after an accurate survey. 
 
 The latter years of his life were embittered by the quar- 
 rels and undutiful behaviour of his sons, and also by the 
 death of his queen, Matilda, a lady of remarkable piety and 
 sweetness of character. His younger sons, William and 
 Henry, on one occasion, threw some dirty water over Ro- 
 bert, their eldest brother, who drew his sword, and would 
 have struck his brothers in his fury. Not obtaining the 
 satisfaction he expected for this boyish folly, which he took 
 as a studied affront, he withdrew from the court, and after- 
 wards revolted against his father, demanding to be at once 
 invested with the duchies of Normandy and Maine. The 
 Conqueror replied to this demand, that it was not his cus- 
 tom to strip till he went to bed. In one of the encounters 
 in this unnatural contest, it is said that the father and son, 
 unknown to each other, were engaged in deadly combat; 
 and Robert was on the point of dispatching his own father, 
 when William raised his vizor, and Robert was surprised 
 and shocked to see his father's face. He thanked God for 
 saving him from so great a crime ; and begging his father 
 to forgive him, he mounted him on his own horse, as the 
 king's had been killed in the fight. The king died in Nor- 
 mandy, from a hurt received from the pommel of his 
 saddle, and was buried at Caen, between the towers of the 
 noble cathedral which he had founded. His funeral was 
 disturbed by one who declared that that very spot had 
 been unrighteously taken from his father, and summoned 
 the departed king before the tribunal of God to answer for
 
 WILLIAM RUFDS. 21 
 
 that act of oppression. How many a similar appeal might 
 have been made by his English subjects ! His mere passion 
 for the chase had been indulged to such excess, that he had 
 turned out the miserable peasants from a wide tract of 
 country in Hants, still called the New Forest, in order to 
 convert it into a royal domain ; and by his laws, a man 
 who killed a stag or a hare was punished with the most 
 relentless cruelty. By his will his Norman dominions were 
 left to Robert ; and William, (called Rufus, or the Red, 
 from the colour of his hair,) his second son, ascended the 
 throne of England, A.D. 1087. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WILLIAM RUFUS. 
 
 Born in Normandy. Buried in Winchester Cathedral. Reigned 
 from A.I>. 1087 to A.D. 1100, thirteen years. 
 
 THE accession of William Rufus was unwelcome to the 
 Norman barons. They would rather have had Robert for 
 their king, who was a prince of an indolent and easy cha- 
 racter, and at the same time brave, generous, and sincere ; 
 whereas William was known to be as keen and shrewd as 
 he was violent, grasping, and unbridled by any fear of God 
 or feeling for man. He had the cunning to court his 
 Saxon subjects, in order to win their aid in quelling the re- 
 volt which was raised by the nobles in favour of his bro- 
 ther ; and when he had gained his point, he forgot his pro- 
 mises, and oppressed the English with a lawlessness more 
 unbearable than his father's rigour. After the death of 
 Lan franc, who alone held him in any check, he seized the 
 revenues of his see, and kept them for five years, together 
 with those of many other abbeys and bishoprics ; nor was 
 it till his conscience was alarmed by a dangerous illness 
 that he appointed Anselm to the primacy, who had been 
 closely connected with Lanfranc, and who accepted the 
 office most unwillingly. When William was recovered of 
 his illness, he continued to set God and man at defiance,
 
 22 WILLIAM RUFUS. 
 
 and met the remonstrances of Anselm with such fury, that 
 that prelate (who has gained the title of saint from his 
 holiness and zeal in withstanding the unrighteous claims 
 of earthly rulers) was forced to withdraw himself from 
 England. 
 
 Not satisfied with his English dominions, William en- 
 deavoured to wrest even Normandy from his elder brother. 
 He succeeded in gaining possession of it as a security for 
 a sum of money advanced to that prince, who shared the 
 zeal which was then kindled from one end of Europe to 
 the other, for the recovery of Jerusalem from the Turks. 
 That people had become masters of Judea, and treated with 
 great cruelty the Christian Pilgrims who visited the Holy 
 Sepulchre. The most intense desire was felt throughout 
 Christendom, for a period of about one hundred and fifty 
 years, to expel the infidels from that sacred land. Vast ar- 
 mies were led to Palestine by the greatest kings, and no act 
 of devotion was thought so meritorious as to enlist in these 
 expeditions, which were called Crusades, from the cross 
 adopted as a badge by all the soldier-pilgrims. It was the 
 first and most successful of these expeditions which Robert 
 was now desirous of joining ; nor did any prince make such 
 sacrifices for the sake of what was thought due to the 
 memory of our blessed Saviour. Not only did he mortgage 
 his dukedom for the sum that was wanted to enable him 
 to set forth, but, being absent in Italy at the time of Wil- 
 liam's death, he lost the season (which was seized by his 
 brother Henry) for asserting his claims to the English 
 crown. 
 
 William was shot unintentionally by Sir Walter Tyrrel 
 (A.D. 1100), while hunting in the New Forest; and when 
 men recollected the means by which that district became 
 a royal chase, they were not backward to ascribe this event 
 to the righteous judgment of God. 
 
 It may be remarked that Westminster Hall was built by 
 William Rufus.
 
 ( 23 ) 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HENRY I. 
 
 Born at Selby in Yorkshire. Buried in the Abbey at Reading. 
 Reigned 35 years. From A.D. 1100 to A.D. 1135. 
 
 WHEN William was thus slain, his brother Henry (sur- 
 named Beauclerc, on account of his scholarship) was 
 hunting with him, and rode at once to Winchester, where 
 he seized the royal treasure. He then hastened to 
 London, and was, indeed, crowned at Westminster within 
 sixty-six hours of William's death. Feeling himself in 
 need of every support to the throne which he had usurped, 
 he began by reforming abuses ; and gave charters to his 
 people, by which he engaged to abstain from the oppressive 
 acts of power, from which they had suffered in the times of 
 his brother and father. He also married Maude, daughter 
 of Malcolm, king of Scotland, by Margaret, sister to Edgar 
 Atheling ; and by these popular measures prepared himself 
 to meet his brother Robert, who, on his return, took pos- 
 session of Normandy, and soon landed at Portsmouth to 
 make good his claims on England. Through the mediation, 
 however, of St. Anselm, (who had now returned from 
 Rome,) he was induced to give up his claims to Henry, 
 retaining his Norman dukedom, and on condition that if 
 either prince should die without issue, the survivor should 
 succeed to his dominions. 
 
 The fate of Robert is the greatest stain on Henry's 
 memory. Easily finding a pretext for invading Normandy, 
 Henry gained (after sundry transactions) a great battle, in 
 which Robert was taken prisoner, with many other nobles. 
 Being brought to England, he was confined for the re- 
 mainder of his life, which lasted twenty-eight years, in 
 Cardiff Castle ; a warning that many noble qualities will 
 not make up for that indolence which was his ruin, and 
 which he carried to such excess, that he lay in bed whole 
 days for want of clothes, of which he suffered his servants 
 to plunder him. 
 
 Henry thus became master of Normandy ; but the revolts 
 in favour of William, the son of Robert, (a gallant prince,
 
 24 HENRY I. 
 
 who at length was slain before Alost, in the Netherlands,) 
 gave him unceasing trouble ; and in crossing on one occa- 
 sion from Normandy, he was overtaken by a storm, in 
 which William, his only legitimate son, was lost. The 
 crew of the ship in which Prince William had embarked 
 were drunken and riotous, and steered the vessel on a rock. 
 The prince and some others got into a little boat ; but, 
 hearing the cries of his sister, who was left in the wreck, 
 he gave orders to return, that he might take her in. So 
 many got into the boat with her, that it sunk under the 
 weight, and all on board perished. One man, who clung 
 to the mast of the ship, was saved by some fishermen the 
 next day. The captain had clung to the mast in the same 
 way ; but when he found that the prince was drowned, he 
 let go his hold, and so shared the fate of his young master. 
 This affliction must have made Henry feel some of that 
 anguish which he had caused to his brother, but we do not 
 hear that the severity with which that prince was treated 
 was at all mitigated. The king now took every means to 
 secure the succession for his daughter Maude, who had 
 been married to the Emperor Henry V., and then to Geof- 
 frey, count of Anjou, called Plantagenet from the sprig 
 of broom which he wore. As this princess was descended 
 by her mother from the Saxon kings, the prospect of her 
 succession was welcome to the English. 
 
 At this time, a contest was going on between the popes 
 and the kings of Europe, involving the right to appoint 
 bishops to their sacred offices. The mode of appointing a 
 prelate was this. After being elected by the canons of his 
 cathedral, he was invested with a ring and crosier, and did 
 homage to the king, who thus had virtually the power of 
 appointment, since he could refuse the investiture as well 
 as the homage. The power of appointing to a spiritual 
 office was declared by the pope to be such as no layman 
 ought to possess. The episcopal character (it was truly 
 said) could be derived only by succession from the apos- 
 tles themselves. This great question was settled more 
 happily in England than elsewhere, though not without the 
 exercise of great firmness on the part of St. Anselm. It 
 was agreed that the bishop should do homage for his tem- 
 poral possessions, but the king resigned his claim to invest 
 him with the ring and crosier.
 
 STEPHEN. 25 
 
 Henry passed the latter part of his life much in Nor- 
 mandy, especially after the birth of his daughter's children. 
 He died in that country of an illness occasioned by eating 
 lampreys, A.D. 1135. 
 
 During his reign the state of England was unusually 
 tranquil, and great exertions were made by Anselm for 
 the revival of learning. Churches were now built of a 
 more solid and architectural character, as is attested by 
 many existing buildings of this date ; and stained glass for 
 the decorations of their windows is said to have been now 
 introduced. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 STEPHEN. 
 
 Born at Blois. Buried at Fever sham, in Kent. Reigned 
 19 years. From A.D. 1135 to A.D. 1154. 
 
 THE sceptre which Henry had gained with so much crime 
 was wrested from his daughter by Stephen, a grandson of 
 the Conqueror by Adela, who married the Count of Blois. 
 Having prevailed on William of Corboil, archbishop of 
 Canterbury, to crown him, (contrary to the allegiance which 
 they had both sworn to Maude,) he tried to strengthen his 
 usurped authority by various concessions, of which none 
 took real effect but the dangerous permission to his nobles 
 to build castles at their will. His reign was little but a 
 continued war with the empress, whose cause was most ably 
 maintained by her natural brother the Earl of Gloucester, 
 and also by David, her uncle, the King of Scots. The in- 
 vasion of that prince, however, roused the spirit of the 
 northern nobles, especially of Thurstan, archbishop of 
 York, a prelate of great courage, as well as piety and 
 munificence ; and it was greatly through his influence that 
 an army was raised, which defeated the Scottish king in a 
 battle, called the battle of the Standard. 
 
 Maude soon landed in Sussex, and was received in 
 Arundel Castle by Adelais, the second wife of Henry I., 
 now married to William de Albeney, earl of Sussex. In 
 the various chances of this war, which desolated the king- 
 
 [H. s. 1.] B
 
 26 STEPHEN. 
 
 dom from one end to the other, Stephen was at one time 
 taken prisoner, and treated with great indignity by Maude, 
 who caused herself to be crowned, and prevailed even on 
 Stephen's brother, the Bishop of Winchester, to abandon 
 him. Her haughtiness soon disgusted that prelate, and she 
 was herself compelled to flee before the nobles, who re- 
 volted in Stephen's favour. The Earl of Gloucester, having 
 been taken in battle, was exchanged for Stephen ; and it 
 was now the empress's turn to be often in great danger. 
 On one occasion she escaped her foes by being shut up in 
 a coffin. On another, she fled by night, attended by four 
 knights, in white dresses, that they might not be distin- 
 guished from the snow which was on the ground. The 
 death of Eustace, the son of Stephen, removed one obstacle 
 in the way of any agreement ; and at length, by the media- 
 tion of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, a treaty was 
 concluded, by which Stephen was to be king during his 
 life, and the crown to devolve on Henry, the empress's son, 
 to whom the nobles did homage as heir-apparent. 
 
 The influence of Rome was now making great strides in 
 England. William of Corboil had given a fatal blow to the 
 liberty of our Church, by consenting to act as the pope's 
 legate, rather than by his own authority as the primate of 
 England ; and in this turbulent reign, men looked to the 
 power of the Church as the only shelter from the lawless- 
 ness of the barons, who reigned as petty princes in their 
 castles; of which twelve hundred are said to have been 
 built in this reign. The readiness with which men of all 
 parties forgot the sanctity of oaths, is no less a mark of 
 this dismal period than the cruelty of the nobles. The king 
 himself was not destitute of such qualities as engaged the 
 affections of his followers, but by his own perjury in usurp- 
 ing the throne he set an example which men were too apt 
 to copy. He died A.D. 1 154 ; and was succeeded by Prince 
 Henry.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HENRY II. 
 
 Born in Anjou. Buried in (he Abbey of Fontevraidt. Reigned 
 35 years. From A.D. 1154 to A.D. 1189. 
 
 WITH the name of Plantagenet, Henry brought a vast 
 accession of territory to the English crown. From his 
 father he inherited Anjou ; and Normandy had been given 
 up to him by his mother. He possessed the provinces of 
 France from the Loire to the Pyrenees, in right of Eleanor, 
 whom he married after she was divorced from Louis VII., 
 the king of France. In the course of his reign he acquired 
 Bretagne by the marriage of Geoffrey, one of his younger 
 sons, with Constance, the heiress of that duchy. It may 
 be doubted whether these foreign provinces added to the 
 real greatness of England. They were the source of end- 
 less wars with France, both in the time of Henry and in 
 the reigns of his successors for many generations. 
 
 What was dearer to the English than these foreign pos- 
 sessions was the knowledge that in Henry they had for 
 their sovereign a descendant of the Saxon kings ; and he 
 showed himself no unworthy descendant of them, not only 
 by his many conquests, but by doing much to revive the 
 Saxon customs, which were so favourable to English liberty. 
 He began by taming the pride of the nobles, whom he 
 forced to pull down or deliver up their castles, and recalled 
 the grants made by Stephen. He also disbanded the foreign 
 soldiers hired by that king, and gave charters to many 
 towns. He then set himself to lessen the power of the 
 clergy, who now claimed a complete independence of the 
 civil courts, and who would allow no causes that concerned 
 their own order to be tried in any but the ecclesiastical 
 courts ; by which such trifling punishments were awarded 
 for the most enormous crimes, that the abuse became un- 
 bearable ; and if any attempts were made to interfere with 
 these claims, the clergy appealed to Rome. They doubtless 
 believed that they were thus upholding the liberty of the 
 Church, but they little knew the true nature or due limits 
 of its independence. The power of the pope had now be- 
 
 B 2
 
 28 HENRY II. 
 
 come almost supreme ; and such submission was shown to 
 him, that when on some occasion Pope Alexander was met 
 by Henry and the King of France, those monarchs held his 
 stirrup as he mounted, and led his horse by the bridle. 
 
 On the death of Archbishop Theobald the king looked 
 out for some successor to that prelate, on whom he could 
 rely in his endeavours to curb the encroachments of the 
 clergy, and appointed Thomas a Becket, whom he had him- 
 self raised to the office of Lord Chancellor. Never did a 
 king take a step more fatal to his own views. No sooner 
 was Becket consecrated than he set himself to resist the 
 wishes of the king, and Henry found himself bitterly op- 
 posed by the very prelate on whose aid he had counted. 
 He summoned, however, a large council at Clarendon, where 
 certain articles (called the Constitutions of Clarendon) were 
 agreed to, by which the clergy were to be tried in the civil 
 courts, and no appeal allowed to Rome without the king's 
 licence. Becket subscribed these articles ; but afterwards 
 withdrew his concession ; and being assailed by Henry 
 with a succession of vexatious measures, he once (after a 
 solemn mass) took in his own hands the silver cross that 
 was usually carried before him, and thus walked into 
 Henry's presence-chamber, where, amidst the assembled 
 nobles, he singly maintained his claims with a courage 
 that would have been worthy of admiration, had his cause 
 been as sacred as it appeared in his own view. He then 
 fled into France, where he was protected by Louis, and 
 sanctioned by the pope in excommunicating his enemies, 
 and threatening to lay the whole kingdom under an inter- 
 dict ; the effect of which would have been that no divine 
 office of any kind could have been performed. The king's 
 proceedings against Becket in his absence were marked 
 by violence more than by wisdom. Finding at length that 
 his interests were much affected by that prelate's residence 
 in France, he agreed to an accommodation, and Becket 
 returned to England, to act with more arrogance and con- 
 tempt of the royal authority than ever. When his pro- 
 ceedings were reported to Henry, the king passionately 
 exclaimed, " Have I no one to rid me of the insults of this 
 priest?" These words induced four knights to follow the 
 archbishop to Canterbury, where they slew him on the 
 very steps of the altar ; a deed which caused Henry the
 
 HENRY II. 29 
 
 deepest concern, and, as he foresaw, involved him in great 
 difficulty. Becket was canonized by the pope as a saint 
 about two years after his death ; and all the actors or 
 abettors in his murder were at once excommunicated. To 
 show his sorrow for having in any degree occasioned the 
 archbishop's death, Henry some time afterwards walked in 
 solemn procession to the shrine which was built over 
 Becket's tomb, and having bared his shoulders, submitted 
 to be severely scourged by the monks. 
 
 The happiness of Henry's reign was marred by this long 
 dispute. In his many wars with Louis, he was very suc- 
 cessful ; and also in repelling William, king of Scotland, 
 who, being taken prisoner, did homage to Henry for his 
 crown. The great glory, however, of his reign was the 
 conquest of Ireland, which was then divided among several 
 petty kings ; and the aid of Henry was sought by Dermot, 
 king of Leinster, against the kings of Connaught and 
 Meath. Henry had already meditated the conquest of that 
 island, of which he had received a grant from Adrian IV., 
 the only Englishman that was ever pope. He was, there- 
 fore, glad to avail himself of the opening thus afforded, 
 and sanctioned an enterprise which was successfully con- 
 ducted by Richard Strongbow, earl of Pembroke, who 
 married Dermot's daughter, and succeeded to his crown. 
 Henry himself afterwards landed in Ireland, and the princes 
 of that country submitted to him without resistance. It has 
 ever since been annexed to England, and is now united 
 with Great Britain into one kingdom. 
 
 The troubles of Henry did not cease with the removal of 
 Becket. The latter years of his life were saddened by the 
 rebellions of his sons ; nor can this domestic unhappiness 
 excite surprise, when his treatment of Queen Eleanor is 
 remembered ; for Henry had several children by a lady, 
 whose seclusion at Woodstock, under the name of the 
 fair Rosamond, has been the groundwork of much romance, 
 probably little founded on fact. Notwithstanding this un- 
 faithfulness, the king was tenderly attached to his lawful 
 offspring. He had his eldest son Henry crowned in Eng- 
 land ; but that prince died before his father ; as also did 
 Geoffrey, whose widow bore a son named Arthur, after her 
 husband's death. Richard was intrusted with the govern- 
 ment of Guienne, and too often leagued himself with his
 
 30 RICHARD I. 
 
 father's enemies in open rebellion. This was, indeed, the 
 case at the time of Henry's death ; which was hastened 
 by the deep mortification of having been worsted in battle 
 by Philip of France, assisted by Prince Richard, and of 
 finding that John, his fourth and favourite son, was in league 
 against him. He died A.D. 1189, and was buried at 
 Fontevrault. He has ever been regarded as one of the 
 ablest and greatest of our kings, and was as remarkable for 
 courtesy and charity as for courage. It is to be lamented 
 that a character so eminent should have been stained by 
 the vice which has been alluded to. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 RICHARD I. 
 
 Born in Oxford. Buried at Fontevrault. Reigned 10 years. 
 From A.D. 1189 to A.D. 1199. 
 
 RICHARD was surnamed Coeur- de-Lion, on account of his 
 remarkable courage, and the rude magnanimity of his cha- 
 racter. He showed deep feeling at the sight of his father's 
 corpse, and dismissed the counsellors by whose evil advice 
 he had been led into undutiful conduct. 
 
 The great renown of this king is derived from his con- 
 quests in the crusades, which he undertook in concurrence 
 with Philip Augustus, king of France, whose perfidious 
 and selfish character was a striking contrast to the reckless 
 hardihood and generous self-devotion of Richard. 
 
 The transactions of kingdoms, as well as the habits of 
 social life, were much influenced at this time by the laws 
 of chivalry; a system which, with much that was visionary 
 and fantastic, called forth many noble and generous qualities 
 of mind, and softened and elevated the rude manners of the 
 time. Under this singular institution, the fiercest warriors 
 bound themselves to rescue all who were oppressed ; to 
 defend at any personal hazard the honour of the weaker 
 sex ; and to maintain the most unsullied faith and purity of 
 Christian truth. Great kings were ambitious of being ad- 
 mitted by knighthood into the orders of chivalry ; and the
 
 RICHARD I 31 
 
 fame of Richard is due to him in his character of a peerless 
 knight rather than as a great king. His prowess was such, 
 that the Saracen mothers stilled their children by the 
 terror of his name ; and the Sultan Saladin, who was often 
 defeated by him, paid the homage of a deep admiration 
 to his high spirit and undaunted bearing. His victories 
 were fruitless of any real or lasting good ; and in his re- 
 turn from Palestine, this champion of Christendom was 
 seized by an archduke of Austria, whom he had offended, 
 and cast into prison : nor did his subjects know the fate 
 of their sovereign till the place of his captivity was dis- 
 covered by a minstrel named Blondel, who had been in 
 Richard's service. It is said that Blondel wandered through 
 all Germany to find the place where his master was con- 
 fined ; and when he came to any castle, he sung a melody 
 which was known to Richard, who (he thought) would 
 make himself known by singing the same song in return, 
 if he heard it in his prison. In this way the place where 
 he was confined was found out. A vast ransom was de- 
 manded for the king, and was raised by his subjects with 
 great alacrity. His return struck his enemies with dismay, 
 and especially his brother John, who had basely taken 
 advantage of his absence to raise a party for himself. The 
 generous king was easily reconciled to his brother; and in 
 the later years of his reign he gained many victories over 
 his old enemy, Philip of France. He was shot by an arrow 
 in one of his wars, before the castle of Chaluz ; and when 
 the archer who had shot it was brought into his presence, 
 the king demanded what injury he had done him that he 
 should take away his life ? The man replied, that his father 
 and brothers had been slain by Richard's hand, and that 
 he would willingly die to rid the world of one who had 
 caused so much bloodshed. Richard was so struck with 
 this answer, that he commanded the man's life should be 
 spared. He died A.D. 1199, having made a will in favour 
 of his brother John, and to the prejudice of his nephew 
 Arthur, the rightful heir to the crown.
 
 ( 32 ) 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 JOHN. 
 
 Born at Woodstock. Buried at Worcester. Reigned 17 years. 
 From A.D. 1199 to A.D. 1216. 
 
 THE odious and despicable character of John was not 
 likely to reconcile his nobles to the irregularity of his 
 title ; but they seem to have felt that that defect gave 
 them advantage, in struggling with their sovereign for the 
 privileges of their own order. The cause of Arthur was 
 therefore left to such support as it might receive from 
 Philip Augustus, by whose aid it prospered for a time on 
 the continent. At length the youthful prince was taken 
 in battle, and is believed to have been stabbed by the hand 
 of his uncle in the castle of Rouen. Philip well knew how 
 to avail himself of the horror excited by this deed ; and 
 succeeded in compelling John to abandon Normandy, which 
 was re-united to the French crown. 
 
 A dispute now arose between John and the monks of 
 Canterbury about the election of an archbishop, which led 
 in the first instance to the deep humiliation of the king, but 
 finally to his concession of the great charter of English 
 freedom. The settlement of this dispute was taken by the 
 pope (Innocent III.) into his own hands, and he appointed 
 Stephen Langton to the vacant see. It may be mentioned 
 that this is the prelate to whom we owe the present division 
 of the Bible into chapters and verses. Had John resisted 
 this appointment by legal means, he would have been sup- 
 ported by his subjects; but the violent measures which he 
 took only gave advantage to the pope, who laid the king- 
 dom under an interdict, pronounced the deposition of John, 
 and desired Philip to take possession of England. The king 
 of France prepared an armament to execute this sentence, 
 and Cardinal Pandulf was sent over apparently to support 
 that monarch, but with secret instructions to receive the 
 submission, which John in his abject terror was ready to 
 make. To his lasting shame, in the midst of a vast con- 
 course of people at Dovor, he laid his crown at the feet of 
 Pandulf, who kept it five days, and trampled under foot the
 
 JOHN. 33 
 
 tribute-money which John paid in token of fealty to the 
 haughty legate. The French king was now ordered to give 
 up his enterprise, but he resolved to persist. His fleet, 
 however, was attacked by the English and almost wholly 
 destroyed. 
 
 By thus declaring himself a vassal of Rome, John secured 
 the protection of the pope in the contests with his barons, 
 in which his continued perfidy and rapacity involved him. 
 The cause of English freedom, on the other hand, found a 
 champion in Langton, whose support of the barons in their 
 struggle against the odious tyrant, drew on him the anger 
 of Pope Innocent, by whom he was after a time suspended, 
 nor was he restored till the following reign. 
 
 The barons, having raised a great army, and made them- 
 selves masters of London, forced the king to submit to their 
 demands. He met them on Runnamede, between Staines 
 and Windsor, and the great charter of English freedom, 
 called Magna Charta, was sealed at that spot. By this 
 charter the rights enjoyed by the prelates and barons in 
 Saxon times were confirmed. Its principal articles were, 
 that no tax should be levied without the consent of the 
 national council, except for the ransom of the king, if taken 
 prisoner, or on the knighthood of his eldest son, or the 
 marriage of his eldest daughter. No freeman was to suffer 
 but by the judgment of his peers. The abuses of the feudal 
 law in the wardship and marriage of heirs under age were 
 to be remedied, and the extortions practised by the royal 
 foresters were to be done away with. 
 
 The faithless king at once set himself to recover the in- 
 dependence which he considered himself to have lost by 
 this charter. He retired to the Isle of Wight, until he had 
 raised an army of foreign mercenaries, with which he com- 
 mitted such ravages, that the barons invited over Prince 
 Louis of France, and did homage to him at London as their 
 sovereign. The arrogance of this prince, and his partiality 
 to his own countrymen, were very favourable to the cause 
 of John ; who was beginning to recover his ground, when 
 he lost his treasure and great part of his forces by a flood, 
 as he was crossing the marshes in Lincolnshire. Sickening 
 of a fever, occasioned by grief for this loss, he died at 
 Newark, A.D. 1216, when the kingdom was in a most dis- 
 tracted state, and leaving behind him the memory of one 
 
 B3
 
 34: HENKY III. 
 
 of the weakest and most wicked princes that ever sat on a 
 throne. 
 
 It was in this reign that the Crusaders, on their way to 
 the Holy Land, took Constantinople, and established a 
 Latin dynasty of the Greek empire in the family of Cour- 
 tenay. A crusade was also sanctioned about the same 
 time against the Albigenses in the south of France, on the 
 ground of their religious opinions. It may be that those 
 opinions were not free from errors ; but they are remark- 
 able as an early protest against the corruptions of practice 
 and doctrine in the Church of Rome, which were now at 
 their height. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HENRY III. 
 
 Bom at Winchester. Buried in Westminster Abbey. Reigned 
 56 years. From A.D. 1216 to A.D. 1272. 
 
 HENRY was but nine years old at the time of his father's 
 death ; but the Earl of Pembroke, who became regent, was 
 happily a nobleman of high principle and great ability. By 
 his wise measures, he revived the loyalty of the English 
 for their lawful sovereign, and succeeded in forcing the 
 prince of France to withdraw from the kingdom. 
 
 The death of this earl was a great loss to Henry ; who 
 being as weak and fickle as he was haughty and rapacious, 
 was for the most part governed by a succession of favour- 
 ites. He swore to the observance of the Great Charter at 
 his coronation, but his whole reign was an endeavour to 
 break loose from its restraints. 
 
 He was at first attached to Hubert de Burgh, whom he 
 made high justiciary and Earl of Kent. This nobleman had 
 been most faithful to Henry's family. His influence over 
 the king became odious to the nobles, and was undermined 
 by Peter de Roches, bishop of Winchester, a far meaner 
 and more worthless favourite, who brought over swarms of 
 Gascons and Poitevins, to the great disgust of the English. 
 Hubert was twice forced to take sanctuary, and most nar-
 
 HENRY III. 35 
 
 rowly escaped with his life ; but at last he recovered some 
 degree of his former favour, while De Roches was in turn 
 disgraced and sent abroad. The king then attached him- 
 self to the relatives of Eleanor of Provence, his queen. 
 His fondness for foreigners, whom he enriched with the 
 plunder of his subjects, was one cause of continual dis- 
 agreements between him and the barons ; and their disgust 
 was heightened by seeing that he suffered the pope to take 
 a similar course, in disposing of the Church endowments 
 in favour of aliens. The livings were in the hands of 
 Italians, who drew vast sums from the kingdom : and as 
 Henry upheld the pope in his various extortions, so the 
 latter was ever ready to absolve the king from his oath to 
 observe the Great Charter, or any other statutes to which 
 he was forced by his barons to swear. The pope had of- 
 fered the crown of Sicily to Henry's second son ; and this 
 offer was made a plea for draining the kingdom of treasure, 
 which went to enrich the pope. The same offer was after- 
 wards made to Charles of Anjou, brother of the French 
 king, who led an army to Naples, which seated him on the 
 throne. 
 
 Henry was generally supported by his brother Richard, 
 earl of Cornwall, a far abler prince than himself; but on 
 Richard's being chosen king of the Romans, Henry found 
 himself left alone to contend against his barons, who were 
 now headed by Simon cle Montfort, earl of Leicester. Henry 
 had been extravagantly fond of that nobleman, and given 
 him his own sister in marriage ; but the fondness had given 
 place to the most bitter aversion, and Leicester took arms 
 against his sovereign, as well as opposed him in the parlia- 
 ments, which were held from time to time in hope of ob- 
 taining mor^ey. On one occasion, when the king entered 
 the hall of parliament, he found the nobles all clad in com- 
 plete armour, and inquired whether he were their prisoner ? 
 They were satisfied at the time with thus frightening the 
 feeble king ; but at a later period he was taken prisoner by 
 Leicester, at the battle of Lewes, and detained, together 
 with Prince Edward his son, for a considerable period, while 
 the kingdom was governed in his name by twenty-four 
 barons, at whose head was Leicester. 
 
 Nothing could be more wretched than the state of Eng- 
 land at this time. No man was secure in his life or pro-
 
 36 HENRY III. 
 
 perty ; and the country was overrun by bands of robbers, 
 who committed the greatest excesses. The Jews were 
 especial sufferers, not only indeed in England, but through- 
 out Europe, in this reign, and those both before and after it. 
 They were cruelly tortured in order to extort their wealth, 
 and this avarice and oppression were cloaked under a 
 seeming zeal for Christianity. Deeply, however, as Eng- 
 land suffered from the extortions and insurrections which 
 mark this period, it was amidst such storms as these that 
 the cradle of English liberty was rocked. An overruling 
 Providence was preparing the way for the establishment of 
 religion and justice, by the very sufferings which appeared 
 to ensure the ruin of England. Thus, on the one hand, the 
 extortions of the pope disposed men's minds to question his 
 authority ; and a manly protest was made against them by 
 Grosteste, bishop of Lincoln, a prelate of great piety, as 
 well as learning and courage. On the other hand, the 
 necessity which Leicester felt of some support in his violent 
 course, led him to assemble a parliament, in which the 
 Commons were for the first time represented. Knights 
 chosen by the shires were at first added to the nobles and 
 prelates, and in a later assembly, (A.D. 1265,) the towns 
 also were represented by burgesses. The proceedings of 
 these early parliaments were perhaps rude and tumultuous ; 
 but the principle was thus established, that the commonalty 
 have a right to a voice by representatives in the great 
 national council. 
 
 A jealousy having sprung up between Leicester and Gil- 
 bert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, the latter nobleman aided 
 Prince Edward to escape from those who had him in cus- 
 tody. The prince was suffered to ride out, surrounded by 
 guards and soldiers ; and being one day mounted on a very 
 swift horse, he proposed to his guards that they should ride 
 races with each other ; which they consented to do, for the 
 sake of sport. When Edward saw that their horses were 
 quite tired, he set spurs to his own, and soon left the 
 guards behind. He rode to a hill on which he had seen a 
 man mounted on a grey horse, who waved his bonnet ; and 
 the prince knew by this signal that his friends were at 
 hand. Having assembled an army, the prince defeated the 
 barons in the battle of Evesham, in which Leicester lost 
 his life. This nobleman had put the aged king in front of
 
 EDWARD I. 37 
 
 the battle, that he might be killed by his own friends ; and 
 Henry would have been slain, had he not cried out to the 
 soldier who was on the point of cutting him down, " I am 
 Henry of Winchester, your king." 
 
 Prince Edward was able, after this victory, to re-establish 
 his father's authority so firmly, that he was not afraid to 
 join a crusade with Louis, king of France, called St. Louis. 
 That monarch lost his life in the course of this enterprise 
 from an epidemic fever before Tunis. It is remarkable that 
 on a former crusade he had been taken prisoner by the 
 Sultan of Egypt. 
 
 Prince Edward was still absent from England when his 
 father died, A.D. 1272. The reign of Henry is the longest 
 in English history, except the reign of George III. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 EDWARD I. 
 
 Born at Westminster. Buried in Westminster Abbey. Reigned 
 35 years. From A.D. 1272 to A.D. 1307. 
 
 EDWARD was surnamed Longshanks, from his remarkable 
 length of limb. While in Palestine he distinguished him- 
 self by his valour against the infidels, and was wounded by 
 an assassin whom they hired to kill him. He was able 
 himself to despatch his cowardly foe ; but the dagger with 
 which he had been struck was poisoned, and the wound was 
 likely to be fatal. It has been said that Edward owed his 
 life to the affection of his queen, who ventured to suck the 
 venom from his arm. He was welcomed by his subjects 
 on his return ; and by the wisdom of his laws, and his just 
 severity in enforcing them, he restored the kingdom to its 
 former prosperity. This king has been called the English 
 Justinian, from his resemblance to the celebrated Eastern 
 emperor, who arranged and digested the civil law. In 
 this reign the constitution of parliament was more fixed, 
 the principles of just taxation were more plainly admitted, 
 and the means of obtaining justice were more sure. It was 
 now that the principal landowners in the several shires
 
 38 F'nVARD I. 
 
 were made justices of the peace. A restraint was also laid 
 on the practice of making over landed property to the 
 Church, by certain laws called the statutes of mortmain, 
 from two Latin words, which signify " in dead hands ;" 
 implying that lands so disposed of were lost to the country. 
 This restraint was absolutely necessary ; for by practising 
 on the fears of men in their last moments, the monks had 
 obtained vast grants of land all over the kingdom ; and 
 since what was thus bestowed could not be alienated, and 
 was not subject to the same taxes with which other pro- 
 perty was burdened for the defence of the kingdom, great 
 injury was done to the commerce as well as the military 
 strength of the country. Creditors were, in like manner, 
 often defrauded of their rights, by the power which land- 
 owners possessed of so entailing their estates upon their 
 children as to evade the payment of just debts. This and 
 similar abuses were remedied by several laws of this king, 
 who did more to settle the administration of justice on its 
 present footing, than any other of our earlier kings. He 
 punished offenders without respect of persons ; and once 
 when his son, Prince Edward, was influenced by Gaveston, 
 his favourite, to insult the Bishop of Lichfield, the king 
 gave orders to commit him to prison, that he might learn 
 to respect the laws which he was afterwards to administer. 
 His severe inquiries into many abuses often exposed him to 
 the resentment of his nobles ; and when Earl Warenne 
 was questioned as to his right to his estate, that nobleman 
 unsheathed a rusty sword, as the title by which his ances- 
 tors gained their property, and with which he was prepared 
 to defend it to the last. 
 
 It must be owned, that in the wars which Edward carried 
 on, whether in Wales or Scotland, he did not always follow 
 those principles of justice which he did so much to establish 
 among his subjects. The conquest of Wales was one of the 
 great events of this reign. It was then governed by Prince 
 Llewellyn, who was induced to withdraw the allegiance 
 which the W'elsh princes had usually owned to the kings 
 of England, and thus gave Edward a plea for attempting 
 the conquest of that part of the island. His first invasion 
 was boldly resisted ; but Llewellyn was after a time de- 
 feated and slain, and his brother David was taken and 
 executed with great barbarity. As the Welsh were easily
 
 EDWARD I. 39 
 
 excited by their bards, who rehearsed the ancient glories of 
 their fathers, the king most ruthlessly commanded that 
 those national minstrels should be assembled and put to death; 
 and his execution of this purpose is a lasting stain on his 
 memory. He built the strong castles at Conway, Caernar- 
 von, and elsewhere, of which such noble ruins still remain ; 
 and, to reconcile the Welsh to their loss of independence, 
 he presented to them his infant son, born at Caernarvon, as 
 their prince. He had promised to give them a ruler born 
 in Wales, who could not speak a word of English. The 
 Welsh could not charge him with having broken the letter 
 of his word, though perhaps they expected a very differen 
 performance of it. From this time, the eldest son of our 
 sovereign has had the title of Prince of Wales. 
 
 Having added Wales to his kingdom, Edward next 
 sought some plea for taking part in the affairs of Scot- 
 land, and soon found one to his purpose. The heiress 
 of that country was the daughter of the King of Norway, 
 and had been betrothed to Prince Edward. She was called 
 the Maid of Norway, and died before she arrived in Scot- 
 land. The crown was then claimed by twelve competitors ; 
 and Edward took advantage of such divided interests, to 
 obtain a recognition of his claim (as lord superior) to act 
 as umpire in the question. The principal claimants were 
 Robert Bruce and John Balliol ; and the crown was awarded 
 by Edward to Balliol, because the feebleness of his cha- 
 racter was likely to favour his designs. He soon began to 
 treat Balliol as a subject ; and, on his unexpected revolt, 
 defeated him at Dunbar, and forced him to resign his 
 crown. Edward, on that occasion, brought away from 
 Scotland the famous stone on which the kings were always 
 crowned, and he destroyed the records of the kingdom. 
 The stone thus brought away was regarded by the Scotch 
 as a kind of pledge of empire. It was placed by Edward 
 in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 Indignant at Edward's usurpation, the Scotch made Sir 
 William Willace their regent ; but after most heroic efforts, 
 that great leader was defeated at the battle of Falkirk ; and 
 having been taken prisoner, was executed with the same 
 cruelty which had been exercised on David, the Welsh 
 prince. 
 
 With all his severity, Edward could not break the na-
 
 40 KDTTARD II. 
 
 tional spirit of the Scotch. A new conspiracy was formed 
 by Bruce and Cumin, who succeeded Wallace as regent. 
 Cumin betrayed the design to Edward ; and was himself 
 killed in a monastery at Dumfries by Bruce, who asserted 
 his own title to the throne, and was soon crowned at Scone. 
 This great prince was afterwards reduced to such extremity, 
 that he was hunted even by his own countrymen from one 
 hiding-place to another, while Edward reduced the Scotch 
 to the most helpless misery, and wreaked his vengeance 
 even on Bruce's sisters, and on the Countess of Buchan, 
 whom he inclosed in cages, and hung over the battlements 
 of different castles. Nothing, however, could make the 
 noble Bruce despair of delivering his country ; and his re- 
 newed efforts provoked the king to swear that he would 
 march into Scotland, and never return until he had subdued 
 it. He kept his word so far, that he never returned. He 
 was taken ill at Carlisle, and died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, 
 A.D. 1307. 
 
 Stern as Edward showed himself to his enemies, he was 
 tenderly attached to Eleanor his queen ; and several re- 
 cords of that attachment still exist in the crosses which he 
 built at the several places where her remains rested on 
 their way from Lincoln to be interred at Westminster. 
 The sentiment which he expressed when he heard of his 
 father's death is also worthy to be remembered. He re- 
 ceived at the same time news of the death of his son John ; 
 and on being asked why he mourned for his father more 
 than for his child, he answered, " that God might give him 
 many children, but he could have but one father." 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EDWARD II. 
 
 Born at Caernarvon. Buried in Gloucester Cathedral. Reigned 
 20 years. From A.. D. 1307 to A.D. 1327. 
 
 EDWARD of Caernarvon did not inherit'his father's wisdom 
 together with his throne. His reign is similar to that of 
 his grandfather, whom he resembled in character. He was
 
 EDWARD II. 41 
 
 governed by unworthy favourites, whom he chose for their 
 personal beauty and accomplishments, and whose insolence 
 became insufferable to his barons. The first of these was 
 Pierce de Gaveston. It was hoped that Edward's marriage 
 with Isabel of Valois, sister to the French king, would di- 
 vert him from his weak attachment to that favourite ; but 
 it remained as strong as before. He was forced by the 
 barons to send Gaveston out of the kingdom, but soon 
 found some excuse for recalling him ; and at length the 
 favourite was seized by Guy, Earl of Warwick, and be- 
 headed at a hill near Warwick, still called Gaverside. 
 
 While Edward was thus at variance with his barons, 
 "Robert Bruce had carried every thing before him in Scot- 
 land ; and the king now resolved to recover what his father 
 had gained in that country at such a sacrifice of human 
 happiness. He marched to the relief of Stirling at the 
 head of a vast army, which was totally defeated by Bruce 
 at the battle of Bannockburn. (A.D. 1314.) This battle is 
 one of the most glorious events in Scottish history, and se- 
 cured the independence of that country under Bruce, whose 
 name is joined with that of Wallace, as the most renowned 
 and dearest in the annals of Scotland. 
 
 The reign of Edward was afterwards disturbed by insur- 
 rections in Ireland and Wales ; but still more by the con- 
 sequences of his affection for Hugh Despencer, who (toge- 
 ther with his father) succeeded to the place which Gaveston 
 had held in the king's affections, and was equally odious to 
 the barons, from his rapacity and pride. The barons were 
 now headed by the Earl of Lancaster, the cousin of Edward, 
 and the Despencers were forced from the kingdom. Re- 
 called by Edward, they were the occasion of a new revolt, 
 in which the Earl of Lancaster was taken prisoner, and be- 
 headed at Pontefract, with many of the noblest barons in 
 England. The Despencers, however, excited the bitter en- 
 mity of Queen Isabel ; and that princess took advantage 
 of a pretext to withdraw to her brother's court, with 
 Prince Edward, her son. While at Paris, she gave herself 
 up in the most criminal manner to the influence of Roger 
 Mortimer, a nobleman who had special ground of enmity 
 against the Despencers. Having arranged a treaty of mar- 
 riage between her son and Philippa, daughter of the Count 
 of Hainault, she returned to England with an army raised
 
 42 EDWARD III. 
 
 by that prince, and landed in Suffolk, where she was joined 
 by great numbers of the nobles. The king was forced to fly 
 into Wales. The elder Despencer was taken and beheaded, 
 at the age of ninety ; the younger was afterwards hanged ; 
 while Edward, having been discovered, was kept a prisoner, 
 and forced to resign his crown to his son (then fifteen years 
 of age); during whose minority the queen and Mortimer 
 were declared regents. (A.D. 1326.) 
 
 Such was the miserable end of Edward's reign ; during 
 which, the effect of those measures which his father had 
 taken to resist the influence of the pope, was lessened by 
 Edward's continual applications to Rome for assistance 
 against his barons. 
 
 It may be remarked, that at this time the popes had re- 
 moved their court from Rome to Avignon. A violent con- 
 test had been going on between the popes and Philip the 
 Fair, king of France. On the death of Benedict XL, 
 Philip obtained the election of a French prelate, who took 
 the name of Clement V., and who removed his court to 
 this French city, where they resided about seventy years. 
 It may also be mentioned, that in this reign the order 
 of Knights Templars was dissolved. It was an order of 
 soldier-monks, originally instituted at Jerusalem by the 
 Crusaders. Having possessed itself of great wealth in all 
 the kingdoms of Europe, and being governed only by its 
 own superior, its power became dangerous to the govern- 
 ments under which it existed, and was now put down by a 
 common effort. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 EDWARD in. (OF WINDSOR). 
 
 Born at Windsor. Buried in Westminster Abbey. Reigned 
 50 years. From A.D. 1327 to A.D. 1377. 
 
 THE deposed king was at first intrusted to the Earl of 
 Lancaster, and treated with much gentleness ; but was 
 soon removed to Berkeley Castle, and committed to the 
 care of two ruffians named Gurney and Maltravers. Under 
 their charge, he was lodged in damp vaults, and even
 
 EDWARD III. 43 
 
 hurried from place to place at night in the hope that he 
 might be provoked by ill-usage to put an end to his own 
 life. It is said that when he desired to be shaved, he was 
 supplied with dirty water from a ditch. At last he was 
 secretly despatched in his prison. Shrieks were heard from 
 the castle at midnight ; and it is believed that the unhappy 
 prince was killed by means of a red-hot iron, which was 
 passed into his body in such a way as to cause no outward 
 marks of violence. 
 
 Mortimer had been made Earl of March, and surpassed 
 Gaveston and Despencer in haughtiness. He procured the 
 execution even of the Earl of Kent, brother to the late 
 king, on a charge of treason ; and perhaps thought his 
 power secure at the very moment when his downfall was 
 at hand. The young king had reached his eighteenth 
 year, and had given proofs of spirit and ability in delivering 
 the northern counties from an invasion of the Scots under 
 Bruce. He resolved to submit no longer to a yoke which 
 was disgraceful in so many ways ; and was able to surprise 
 the Earl of March in the castle of Nottingham by a secret 
 passage, still called Mortimer's Hole. It was in vain that 
 the queen cried out to him, " Fair son, have pity on the 
 gentle Mortimer." The favourite was seized, and after- 
 wards hanged near London ; while Isabel was confined to 
 one of her manors, where she lived many years, and re- 
 ceived little notice from Edward beyond an annual visit of 
 form. 
 
 The king soon led an army into Scotland in support of 
 Edward Balliol, and gained a great victory over David 
 Bruce at Halidon-hill. He would probably have conquered 
 that kingdom, had he not been eager to prosecute his claim 
 to the crown of France. This claim was derived through 
 his mother, and had no true ground. It involved him in 
 wars which bore no lasting fruit, beyond the renown for 
 chivalrous bravery and generosity, which throws such a 
 brilliancy over the memory of Edward and his son, the 
 Black Prince, so called from the colour of his armour. 
 It must also be owned that the victories of these great 
 leaders tended to form in the English that high national 
 character and noble self-reliance, without which no people 
 has ever been truly great. 
 
 A great fleet had been collected at Sluys to oppose the
 
 44 EDWARD III. 
 
 landing of Edward ; and was completely destroyed by the 
 English with small loss to themselves. To how many 
 naval engagements between France and England has a 
 similar result been granted ! 
 
 The greatest victories, however, were gained at Cressy 
 and Poictiers; and have made the names of those places 
 familiar to every Englishman. 
 
 The battle of Cressy was fought with Philip of Valois, king 
 of France, A.D. 1346. The French are said to have had an 
 army of 120,000 men, while the number of the English was 
 not more than 30,000 ; and Edward himself only watched 
 the battle from a neighbouring hill, that (in his own words) 
 his son might " win his spurs ;" the giU spurs, which were 
 the distinction of knighthood. Thirty thousand of the 
 French fell in this battle, while the loss of the English was 
 very trifling. Among others the King of Bohemia was slain, 
 and his crest of three ostrich plumes has ever since been 
 used by the Princes of Wales, with the motto, " Ich 
 Dien," I serve. It is said that cannon were first used at 
 Cressy, and contributed to Edward's success ; but this and 
 many other battles were mainly gained (under Divine 
 Providence) by the skill of the English archers, the most 
 renowned in Europe. 
 
 The queen (Philippa) had been left regent in England, 
 and within a few months of the battle of Cressy she led 
 an army to the field against David Bruce, who had taken 
 advantage of Edward's absence to make an invasion into 
 England. The Scotch were defeated at Nevil's Cross, near 
 Durham ; and David, being taken prisoner, was brought to 
 London, where he was detained many years. After this 
 great service to her husband, Philippa joined him at the 
 siege of Calais, which had then lasted nearly eleven months. 
 The city was forced to surrender for want of food ; and 
 Edward required that six of the chief burgesses should 
 attend him with halters round their necks, ready for execu- 
 tion. The dismay which this demand occasioned among 
 the citizens was quieted by the noble devotion of Eustace 
 de St. Pierre, who offered his life for his townsmen ; and 
 his example was followed by five other leading burgesses. 
 They brought the keys to Edward, and fell on their knees, 
 imploring his mercy. The king was long inexorable, but at 
 Philippa's intercession he agreed to spare their lives.
 
 EDWARD III. 45 
 
 The battle of Poictiers took place about ten years after 
 tbe victory of Cressy. The Black Prince had about 12,000 
 men under his command, and was met by John, king of 
 France, with an army of 60,000. On seeing the numbers 
 of the French the prince exclaimed, " God help us ! it only 
 remains to fight bravely." Some attempts were made to 
 prevent bloodshed, but John would agree to nothing short 
 of a surrender of the prince and a hundred of his knights. 
 Edward received this proposal by exclaiming " God defend 
 the right !" and the result of the battle which then took 
 place was, that the French army was destroyed, and John 
 himself taken prisoner. The mildness and generosity with 
 which Edward treated the captive king were equal to his 
 courage in the field. He ascribed his victory to the will of 
 God when he waited on the king at the table ; and declared 
 himself, as a subject, not entitled to the honour of sitting with 
 him. When he brought his royal prisoner into London, he 
 rode on a small pony by his side, while John was mounted 
 on a noble charger. It should be mentioned, to the lasting 
 honour of this king, that having been set free on terms 
 which his son was unable to fulfil, from the opposition 
 of the French nobles, John voluntarily gave himself up to 
 Edward, observing, that if truth were banished from the 
 rest of the earth, it should have place in the bosom of 
 kings. He died in England, but his son, Charles the Wise, 
 succeeded in wresting from the English most of their 
 foreign possessions. The Black Prince was himself forced 
 by the state of his health to return to England, where 
 he died (A.D. 1376) about a year before his father. His 
 health had suffered much in a war which he undertook in 
 Spain, in support of Pedro the Cruel, who little deserved 
 the aid of so chivalrous a prince. 
 
 The king did not long survive his son : he died A.D. 
 1377 ; and is said to have been shamefully neglected in his 
 last moments by his own servants. 
 
 The revival of literature made great progress in this 
 reign. Chaucer, the father of English poetry, passed great 
 part of his life at Edward's court. At no period were the 
 principles of church architecture better understood ; and 
 it was chiefly by this king that Windsor Castle was built. 
 He did much also for the commerce of his kingdom, by 
 inviting over Flemish artisans, whom he settled in Nor-
 
 46 RICHARD II. 
 
 folk. It should be mentioned, too, that from this reign 
 the Commons seem to have sat as a distinct House of Par- 
 liament. 
 
 It is, however, still more important to observe, that 
 the nullity of King John's surrender of his crown to the 
 pope was nobly maintained by Edward and his parliament. 
 The king was assisted in this manly course by the theolo- 
 gical attainments of Wickliffe, then Master of Balliol Col- 
 lege, who declared that the Scriptures contained all essen- 
 tial truth. This pious and learned man is reckoned the 
 first of the English reformers. 
 
 The order of the Garter was instituted in this reign. 
 The king is said to have picked up a garter, which had 
 been dropped in a ball-room by the Countess of Salisbury. 
 As he presented it to her, he used the words which be- 
 came the motto of the order instituted on this trifling 
 occasion, " Honi soit qui mal y pense" (Shamed be he 
 who thinketh evil of it). 
 
 This was in the year 1349. In this same year the whole 
 of Europe was visited by one of the most terrible plagues 
 ever known. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 RICHARD ii. (OF BORDEAUX). 
 
 Born at JBourdeaux. Buried at Langley, in Herts ; but after- 
 wards removed to Westminster. Reigned 22 years. From 
 A.D. 1377 to A.D. 1399. 
 
 EDWARD was succeeded by his grandson Richard, the 
 only son of the Black Prince. The new king was only in 
 his eleventh year, and the heir next in succession to him- 
 self was the grandchild of Lionel, duke of Clarence ; a son 
 of the late king, who died before his father. The surviving 
 sons of Edward were, John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, 
 Edmund earl of Cambridge, afterwards made duke of 
 York, and Thomas of Woodstock, afterwards duke of Glou- 
 cester. A council of regency was appointed, in which the 
 uncles of the king had seats ; but certain bishops and nobles 
 were associated with them.
 
 BICHARD II. 47 
 
 The war still lingered on in France, and to meet its 
 expenses a poll-tax was raised of three groats a head for 
 every person, rich or poor, of fifteen years and upwards. 
 At this time the lower orders in various parts of Europe 
 had been inflamed by the violent language of men, who 
 dwelt with too much reason on the bondage in which 
 they were held, and maintained the natural equality of all. 
 In England these notions had been spread abroad by 
 a priest named John Ball ; and the people lent a ready ear 
 to what agreed so well with their cherished traditions of 
 the Saxon laws and customs. The poll-tax came upon a 
 people in this state of mind, like a spark on a prepared 
 train. The first dispute was likely to cause an explosion ; 
 and it was not long before such a dispute arose. The tax 
 was demanded of a young girl at Dartford, and refused 
 on the ground that she was under the age. The brutal 
 collector offered a gross insult to the girl, and was struck 
 down at a blow by her father, who was called Wat Tyler, 
 and was supported by the people in his bold deed. He 
 was soon at the head of a vast multitude, whom he led to 
 London. Rank, property, and learning were denounced. 
 The mob struck off the heads of every gentleman or 
 foreigner whom they met. The Temple and Savoy Palace 
 were plundered ; and while the king proceeded to Mile- 
 End to meet some of the insurgents, Tyler himself broke 
 into the Tower, and murdered the archbishop with other 
 obnoxious persons. In this emergency, when a panic 
 seemed to have seized the upper classes, the king, then 
 only fifteen, behaved with remarkable judgment and pre- 
 sence of mind. He addressed the mob with mildness, and 
 promised them the redress of their grievances. In Smith- 
 field, he was met by Wat Tyler at the head of 20,000 men, 
 and a conference took place; in the course of which Tyler 
 was observed to play with his dagger, and even lay his 
 hand upon the king's bridle. Indignant at this insolence, 
 the Lord Mayor, William Walworth, struck the rebel from 
 his horse with a mace, and he was despatched by the king's 
 attendants. The people bent their bows to avenge the 
 death of their leader; but the king rode boldly up to 
 them, crying, " What mean ye, my lieges? Tyler was a 
 traitor. Come with me, and I will be your leader." They 
 followed him to Islington, where he renewed the promises
 
 48 BICHARD II. 
 
 which he had made to their companions ; and they returned 
 peaceably to their homes. 
 
 The presence of mind thus shown by Richard gave 
 promise of a glorious reign, which was increased by his 
 marriage with Anne of Bohemia, long remembered for her 
 virtues, as " good Queen Anne." This promise was far 
 from being realized. The king neglected the affairs of his 
 kingdom, and abandoned himself to pleasure and trifling 
 pursuits, in company with his favourite De Vere, whom he 
 made Duke of Ireland. John of Gaunt was now absent in 
 Castile, which he claimed in right of his wife ; and the am- 
 bitious Duke of Gloucester took advantage of his nephew's 
 unpopularity to possess himself of the reins of govern- 
 ment, by forcing him to appoint a commission to manage 
 the business of the nation. Many executions took place of 
 persons who were odious to Gloucester, and the king was 
 under his yoke till his 22nd year, when he availed himself 
 of a full council to resume the royal power. Gloucester 
 was soon afterwards arrested and sent to Calais, where 
 it is believed that he was murdered by his nephew's order. 
 Richard now ruled with an utter disregard to law ; and 
 many of the nobles who had more or less joined with 
 Gloucester, saw reason to fear for their own safety. Among 
 them were the Duke of Norfolk and Henry Bolinbroke, 
 duke of Hereford, son of John of Gaunt. It seems that 
 Norfolk sounded the other on the means of averting their 
 common danger; but was betrayed by him to the king, 
 and accused of high treason. Richard decided that the 
 question should be tried by wager of battle ; and the com- 
 batants had actually met in the lists, when the king inter- 
 fered, and banished both from England ; Norfolk for life, 
 and Hereford for ten years. During Bolinbroke's exile 
 his father died, and when Henry claimed the dukedom of 
 Lancaster it was unjustly withheld by Richard, who seemed 
 to think himself above all law. Enraged at this injustice, 
 Bolinbroke landed in Yorkshire with sixty followers, and 
 was joined by the Earl of Northumberland, together with 
 his son, surnamed Hotspur, and many others. He had 
 obtained assistance from the Duke of Bretagne, whose 
 widow he afterwards married. On leaving their court he 
 is said to have given its pleasing name to the blue flower 
 which is commonly called "forget me not," by blending it
 
 HENRY IV. 49 
 
 an his badge or device with the French motto which he 
 before had used for that purpose, and which is rendered by 
 those words. When he landed at Ravenspur, he gave out 
 that he came only to claim his own, though doubtless he 
 meant all along to possess himself of the crown. Richard, 
 after much loss of time, returned from Ireland to crush the 
 rebellion, and landed at Milford in^Wales ; but finding that 
 his subjects deserted him, he surrendered himself to Bolin- 
 broke, by whom he was brought to London, and persuaded 
 to resign the crown. Henry declared himself king, in full 
 parliament, A.D. 1399, by the title of Henry IV. He 
 claimed the crown as heir to Henry III., on a groundless 
 notion that Edmund, from whom he was descended, was 
 the eldest son of that king, and set aside on account of 
 some deformity. This false pretension was admitted at 
 the time ; but Henry's unlawful title was the occasion of 
 the wars between York and Lancaster, which afterwards 
 desolated the kingdom. 
 
 The opinions of WicklifFe gained ground in this reign, 
 and to take the most effectual means of spreading them, 
 he translated the Bible into English. His followers were 
 called Lollards, from a Dutch word which signifies to sing 
 or chant. Wickliffe himself was brought before the con- 
 vocation, but escaped through the protection afforded him 
 by the Duke of Lancaster. He died at his own rectory of 
 Lutterworth, A.D. 1384. About thirty years after his 
 <leath his remains were dug up and burnt, by a decree of 
 the council of Constance. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 HENRY iv. (OF BOLINBROKE). 
 
 Born at Bolinbroke. Buried at Canterbury, JRe/gned 14 years, 
 from A.D. 1399 to A.D. 1413. 
 
 THE dethronement of a prince has generally been fol- 
 lowed by his murder : and it is to be feared that the case 
 of Richard is no exception to this statement. -A con- 
 spiracy was formed in his favour, and its explosion was 
 rapidly followed by his death at Pontefract Castle. The 
 most probable account of this deed of darkness is, that 
 [11. s. 1.] c
 
 50 HENRY IV. 
 
 Sir Piers of Exton was sent with seven attendants to 
 murder him ; from one of whom Richard snatched a battle- 
 axe, and killed some of the others, but was overpowered 
 by numbers. His remains were interred at Langley, and 
 followed by Henry himself; who detained the young Earl 
 of March in confinement, as being the grandson of Lionel, 
 duke of Clarence, and thus the rightful heir to the crown. 
 
 The reign of Henry is little but a succession of con- 
 spiracies. He was soon called to meet Northumberland and 
 Hotspur in the field, who had been so forward in helping 
 him to mount the throne. They formed an alliance with 
 Earl Douglas, whom they had taken prisoner in a battle 
 with the Scots at Homildon-hill ; and also with Owen 
 Glendower, a Welsh chieftain, who maintained a lawless 
 independence among the mountains of Wales. The king 
 defeated these conspirators in the battle of Shrewsbury ; 
 but this rebellion was only the prelude to others, which 
 continually disturbed him in the possession of his usurped 
 authority. It has also been said that he had great anxiety 
 from the character of his eldest son, who gave indeed in- 
 dications at times of the high qualities which he afterwards 
 showed, but addicted himself to low companions and plea- 
 sures. This opinion has perhaps been the less questioned 
 from the use which our great dramatist Shakspeare has 
 made of it ; but it has been combated with many weighty 
 objections. 1 It should, however, be mentioned, that the 
 prince is said on one occasion to have drawn his sword on 
 Chief- Justice Gascoyne, when that magistrate refused to 
 release one of Henry's riotous companions. The judge 
 committed the prince to prison, who submitted meekly 
 to the sentence. It is added, that when the king heard of 
 the affair, he exclaimed, " Happy the king who has a 
 judge so resolute in executing the law, and a son so willing 
 to submit to it !" 
 
 In this reign was passed a law to authorize the burning 
 of heretics. It seems probable that Henry, who felt the 
 weakness of his title, consented to this law in the hope of 
 enlisting on his side the clergy, who lost no time in carry- 
 ing out the statute. 
 
 Henry made an ungenerous use of an accident which 
 put the young prince of Scotland (afterwards James I.) in 
 1 See Memoirs of Henry V. by Kev. J. E. Tyler, P.D.
 
 HENRY V. 51 
 
 his power. He had been sent abroad by his father, to be 
 safe from the plots of an uncle, and was taken by an Eng- 
 lish cruiser. Henry detained him as his prisoner, but saw 
 that he was well educated. 
 
 The cares inseparable from royalty were in Henry's case 
 embittered by remorse of conscience, and undermined his 
 health. He died in the forty-sixth year of his life, A.D. 
 1413, and was succeeded by his eldest son. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 IIEXRY v. (OF MOXMOUTH). 
 
 Born at Monmouth. Buried at Westminster. Reigned 9 years. 
 From A.D. 1413 to A.D. 1422. 
 
 THE acceisson of Henry V. was hailed by the whole nation 
 with feelings of hope and joy. He removed the remains 
 of Richard to Westminster, and himself attended as chief 
 mourner. He set at liberty the young Earl of March, 
 and restored the Percy family to their estates and honours. 
 Whatever he thought of his conduct in early life, it seems 
 certain that from this period he showed himself a sincere 
 Christian ; and though severe measures were taken against 
 the Lollards early in his reign, through the mistaken zeal 
 of the clergy, there is reason to think that Henry was 
 averse to put in force the law that had been passed against 
 those reformers. The principal victim of this false zeal was 
 Sir John Oldcastle, lord Cobham. He was condemned, 
 after a noble defence of his opinions before the primate 
 Arundel and other bishops ; but made his escape from the 
 Tower, and his friends seem even to have attempted to seize 
 the king at Eltham. The attempt failed, and led to many 
 executions. Cobham himself was at length taken, and with 
 great cruelty was hung as a rebel and burnt as a heretic. 
 But Henry was himself then in France. 
 
 The king was eager to reconquer the possessions of his 
 ancestors in France, which, notwithstanding the victories 
 of Edward, had gradually been wrested from the English. 
 His eagerness was shared by his subjects, and the distracted 
 state of France, under Charles VI. (who was subject to fits 
 of mental derangement), favoured his design. An army 
 
 c 2
 
 52 HENRY V. 
 
 was assembled at Southampton ; but some cbeck was occa- 
 sioned by the discovery of a conspiracy in favour of the 
 Earl of March, formed by the Earl of Cambridge (Henry's 
 cousin) and others. The conspirators were condemned and 
 executed; and Henry sailed to the mouth of the Seine, 
 where he took the town of Harfleur, and divided a vast 
 treasure among the soldiers. His army, however, being re- 
 duced by sickness to little more than 12,000 men, he deter- 
 mined to withdraw to Calais, and on his way was met by 
 the French army, amounting to 100,000 men, near the 
 castle of Agincourt. His defeat seemed inevitable, and the 
 French made so sure of it, that they passed the night in 
 revels, and even fixed the ransom of Henry and his barons. 
 The English employed the time in devotional exercises, and 
 Henry went from post to post, cheering and inspiriting his 
 men. Hearing an officer say that he wished for more men 
 from England, he declared that he wished not for one man 
 more. If God gave them the victory, the glory would be the 
 greater ; and if not, the loss to England would be the less. 
 The result of the battle was one of the most astonishing 
 victories on record. The onset was made by the English, 
 who, after using their arrows, rushed on the French with 
 swords and battle-axes, and routed them with great 
 slaughter. The Duke of Alenc,on had sworn to take or 
 slay the king, and, in personal combat with him, clove his 
 helmet; but was struck down by Henry and slain. The 
 flower of the French nobility fell in this fatal field. It is 
 computed that 8000 gentlemen were slain, while the loss 
 of the English is said to have been not more than eighty. 
 
 The following year Henry crossed again to France, and 
 recovered great part of Normandy ; but at last agreed to 
 a truce : and his hopes of conquering the kingdom would 
 perhaps have ended here, had not a general horror been 
 xcited against the dauphin, for having occasioned the 
 murder of the Duke of Burgundy. The son of that prince 
 devoted himself to the English cause ; and Henry marched 
 to Troyes, where a treaty was concluded, by which Henry 
 was declared Regent of France during the life of Charles 
 VI., whose daughter (the Princess Katharine) he was to 
 marry. He was also declared heir to the crown at the 
 death of Charles. 
 
 The young queen was brought to England, and the joy
 
 HENRY VI. 53 
 
 of the nation was at its height when she gave birth to a 
 son at Windsor. Henry was then in France, where he was 
 not long afterwards joined by his wife and child ; and the 
 magnificence of his court at Paris was far beyond what 
 appeared about the person of the reigning king, A fatal 
 disease now attacked him ; under which he died, after a 
 brilliant reign of less than ten years, commending his soul 
 to the mercy of God, and the care of his infant son to his 
 brothers, the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester. 
 
 The queen-dowager afterwards married Owen Tudor, 
 a gentleman of Wales, by whom she had Edmund, earl of 
 Richmond, and Jasper, earl of Pembroke. The descendants 
 of this marriage were destined to sit on the throne of 
 England. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 HENB.Y VI. 
 
 Born at Windsor. Buried at Chertsey, but removed to Windsor. 
 Reiyned 39 years. From A.D. 1422 to A.D. 14(51. 
 
 THE English interest in France was managed, after Henry's 
 death, by the Duke of Bedford ; in whose absence the Duke 
 of Gloucester was regarded as protector of the infant king 
 in England. Gloucester was a favourite with the people, 
 and long remembered as "good Duke Humphrey;" but 
 was bitterly opposed by Cardinal Beaufort, a son of John 
 of Gaunt by Catherine Swynford, whom John married at 
 a later period, and whose children by that prince were 
 made legitimate by Richard II. 
 
 In France, the English were for a short time successful 
 against the dauphin, who became Charles VII. by the 
 death of his father. They had laid siege to Orleans, with 
 a view to complete the conquest of the kingdom, when 
 the face of things was changed by the appearance of one 
 of the most remarkable persons recorded in history. This 
 was Joan of Arc, a maiden of humble birth, who believed 
 herself commissioned by God to expel the English. Charles 
 gladly gave ear to a claim which favoured his interest ; 
 and by the enthusiasm which her presence excited in the 
 French, and the terror which it spread among the English,
 
 34 HENRY VI. 
 
 she succeeded in fulfilling her word that the siege of 
 Orleans should be raised, and that Charles should be 
 crowned at Rheims. From this time the English interest 
 declined. Henry was indeed crowned at Paris, and Joan 
 herself, having been taken prisoner, was cruelly burnt as a 
 sorceress at Rouen ; but after the death of the Duke of 
 Bedford, a treaty was made between Charles and the Duke 
 of Burgundy ; and notwithstanding the skill and courage 
 of Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, the English were finally 
 driven out of France, about the year 1450. 
 
 In the mean time the quarrels between Gloucester and 
 Beaufort were hurtful to the king ; who, though of a mild 
 and devout character, was found, as he grew up, to have 
 but feeble powers of mind. The cardinal, in order to 
 strengthen his party, arranged a marriage between Henry 
 and Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Regnier, the titular 
 king of Sicily ; and the English saw with indignation, that 
 instead of receiving any dower with his bride, the king was 
 advised to make over to her uncle the provinces of Maine 
 and Anjou. Margaret was a woman of great beauty and 
 a masculine understanding, and acquired a complete sway 
 over Henry. Two years after this marriage Gloucester 
 was arrested, and within a few days was found dead in his 
 bed. Beaufort, who outlived his nephew only six weeks, 
 was suspected of having caused his death ; and if this sus- 
 picion be just, the deed was as impolitic as wicked ; for by 
 Gloucester's removal a way was opened to the ambition of 
 Richard, duke of York, whose claim to the throne (as heir 
 of the Earl of March on his mother's side) was better than 
 Henry's. The popular discontent, which arose from the 
 disasters in France and misgovernment at home, was 
 fomented by this prince, and broke out in an insurrection, 
 under an obscure leader, named Jack Cade, who defeated 
 the royal forces and entered London in triumph, where he 
 put to death the Lord Say and others of the nobility. His 
 men having quarrelled, he was forced to flee, and was slain 
 by a gentleman named Iden, in Kent, in whose garden he 
 was hid. 
 
 " The duke now raised an army for the avowed purpose 
 of reforming the abuses in the government. He was met 
 by the Duke of Somerset at St. Alban's, and a battle took 
 place, in which Somerset, Clifford, and other noblemen fell.
 
 HENRY VI. 55 
 
 Finding that his chance of a peaceable succession was 
 lessened by the birth of a Prince of Wales, York at length 
 openly claimed the crown ; and a war began between the 
 houses of York and Lancaster, which for a period of thirty 
 years carried enmity and sorrow to every hearthstone in 
 England, and cut off successive generations of many noble 
 families in the field or on the scaffold. It is called the 
 war of the Roses, because a white rose was the badge of 
 the house of York, and a red rose the cognizance of the 
 house of Lancaster. During these civil wars, the English 
 possessions on the continent (except Calais) were annexed 
 to the French crown ; and this loss may be reckoned a 
 real gain, among the many evils of these contests; be- 
 cause, when peace came back, the undivided care of the 
 government was given to the true prosperity of the nation. 
 
 The claims of York were supported by the powerful 
 family of the Nevilles, at the head of which was the Earl 
 of Salisbury. His son, the Earl of Warwick, who was 
 the greatest leader of the age, defeated the forces of 
 Henry at Northampton ; and it was agreed in a parlia- 
 ment afterwards holden in London, that Henry should have 
 the crown for his life, and York should be declared his 
 successor. The queen, however, raised an army in the 
 north, with which she completely routed the Yorkists at 
 Wakefield, where the duke himself fell into her hands, 
 and his second son, the Earl of Rutland, a youth of seven- 
 teen, was butchered in cold blood by Lord Clifford, in 
 revenge for his father's death at St. Alban's. It is said 
 that York was crowned by his enemies, in derision, with a 
 wreath of grass. His head was then struck off, and set 
 upon the gates of York. 
 
 He left, however, several sons, of whom Edward, the 
 eldest, succeeded to his claims. Edward was a prince of 
 great courage and ability, as well as personal beauty, but 
 of a licentious and cruel character. He was able to give 
 the queen's forces a total defeat at Mortimer's Cross, near 
 Hereford ; and though Margaret, on the other hand, worsted 
 the Earl of Warwick in a second battle at St. Alban's, and 
 recovered possession of her husband's person, she was 
 forced to retire when Edward joined his forces to those 
 of Warwick. That prince then marched to London, where 
 he was received by the citizens, and proclaimed king, A.D.
 
 56 EDWARD IV. 
 
 1461. Shortly afterwards, his brothers George and Richard 
 were created Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester. 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 EDWARD IV. 
 
 Born at Rouen, in Normandy. Buried at Windsor. Jteiyned' 
 22 years. From A.D. 14G1 to A.D. 1483. 
 
 THE triumphs of the house of York appeared to he con- 
 firmed by a victory gained a few days afterwards at Towton 
 in Yorkshire. Edward had ordered that no quarter should 
 be given, and nearly one-half of the Lancastrians perished. 
 Margaret withdrew to the continent, but, by the assistance 
 of Louis XL, was able to land in the north the following 
 winter. She was defeated at Hexham ; and in the course 
 of this campaign, was once seeking concealment in a forest 
 with her son, when she was met by a robber. Her courage- 
 and presence of mind saved her from this danger. Boldly 
 approaching the man, she said, " Friend, I commit to thy 
 care the son of good King Henry." The outlaw accepted 
 the trust, and conducted Margaret and the prince to their 
 friends. She again withdrew from England ; while Henry r 
 after being concealed for a year in Lancashire, was betrayed 
 and brought to London, where he was treated with great 
 indignity, and consigned to the Tower. 
 
 It was not long before Warwick began to be dissatisfied 
 with the prince whom he had seated on the throne. He 
 had been sent to France to negotiate a marriage between 
 Edward and the sister-in-law of Louis. During his absence 
 it happened that the king was struck with the beauty of 
 Elizabeth Woodville, lady Grey ; and finding her virtue 
 proof against his solicitations, at once made her his queen, 
 regardless of the slight which would thus be put upon 
 Warwick. The estrangement thus occasioned was in- 
 creased when the king heaped titles and offices on the 
 relatives of the queen ; and he was himself deeply offended 
 at the marriage of the Duke of Clarence with one of the 
 earl's daughters. After a time both Clarence and War- 
 wick were forced to fly the kingdom, and a reconciliation 
 took place between them and Queen Margaret, cemented
 
 EDWARD IV. 57 
 
 by the marriage of Prince Edward, her son, with "War- 
 wick's youngest daughter. Assisted by King Louis, the 
 earl on his return to England was joined by vast numbers, 
 and took his measures so ably, that Edward in his turn was 
 forced to withdraw to Flanders ; while Henry was brought 
 from the Tower, and walked in procession with the crown 
 upon his head to St. Paul's. From this time Warwick 
 obtained from the people the title of King-maker. Nothing 
 could seem more desperate than the prospects of Edward ; 
 but one of the remarkable features in these wars is the 
 suddenness with which the scene so often changed; and 
 so it was in this instance. Edward landed with a few 
 followers at Ravenspur, where Bolinbroke had landed 
 about seventy years before ; and, like him, professed that 
 he came only to claim his inheritance. York opened its 
 gates to him ; he was rejoined by Clarence ; and having 
 been received in London, he there possessed himself again 
 of Henry's person, and resumed the royal title. He then 
 advanced to meet Warwick at Barnet, where a battle took 
 place on Easter-Day (1471), in which Warwick fell, and 
 Edward was completely victorious. This was soon fol- 
 lowed by another .with the same result at Tewkesbury 
 against Margaret, who had received the news of the 
 battle of Barnet on her landing. She was taken prisoner, 
 together with her son. The prince, being asked by the 
 king what had brought him to England, replied, " I came 
 to recover my father's kingdom." Edward struck him 
 in the face with his gauntlet, and the noble youth was 
 killed by the swords of Clarence and Gloucester, the Lord 
 Hastings, and others. 
 
 The remainder of Edward's reign was little more than a 
 course of cruelty and licentiousness. Margaret was ran- 
 somed by the King of France, but Henry was put to 
 death in the Tower (as was supposed) by the Duke of 
 Gloucester, who succeeded also in awakening suspicions in 
 Edward's mind against Clarence, which led to the untimely 
 end of that prince. 
 
 He had for some time been greatly estranged from the 
 king, and his feelings were kindled into a flame by an act 
 which shows Edward's recklessness and cruelty. He was 
 hunting in the park of one Thomas Burdett, a friend of 
 the Duke of Clarence, and out of spite to his brother he 
 
 c 3
 
 58 EDWARD V. 
 
 killed a favourite white hind belonging to this gentleman. 
 Burdett, in his natural passion, exclaimed that he wished 
 the horns of the deer were in the belly of the man who 
 advised the king to^his insult. For this speech he was 
 tried for his life, and hanged at Tyburn. Clarence went 
 boldly to the council, and so provoked the king by declar- 
 ing this sentence unjust, that he was arrested and sent to 
 the Tower. It is also said, that Edward's fears had been 
 raised by a ridiculous prophecy, that the name of his suc- 
 cessor should begin with a G, which was applied to 
 George, Duke of Clarence. Being condemned to death on 
 a charge of treason, the duke was secretly put to death in 
 the Tower ; and an idea got abroad that he was drowned 
 in a butt of malmsey. 
 
 Edward allied himself with his brother-in-law, Charles 
 the Bold, duke of Burgundy, against Louis XI. ; and on 
 one occasion led an army into France. He gained, how- 
 ever, little credit by this expedition, and concluded a sepa- 
 rate peace with Louis. In the year 1476, Charles was 
 routed and slain by the Swiss at the battle of Nanci. 
 
 The dissipated habits of Edward were doubtless fatal to 
 his health, and he died (1483) in the forty -second year of 
 his age ; leaving two sons, Edward, prince of Wales, and 
 Richard, duke of York, and five daughters. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 EDWARD v. 
 
 Born in the Sanctuary at Westminster. Buried (it is believed') 
 in the Chapel of the Tower. Reigned from April 9, A.D. 
 1483, to June 26, in the same year. 
 
 THE new king, who was only in his thirteenth year when 
 his father died, was at Ludlow, under the care of his Tincle, 
 Lord Rivers. Being sent for to London, he was escorted 
 by that lord; and on his way was met by the Duke of 
 Gloucester. The duke professed much loyalty to his ne- 
 phew, but arrested Rivers, and Lord Grey, a son of Edward's 
 queen by her first husband. On hearing of this arrest, the 
 queen took sanctuary at Westminster, with the Duke of York 
 and Lord Dorset (her sons), and her five daughters. The king
 
 BICHARD III. 59 
 
 was conducted to the Tower, and Gloucester was declared 
 Protector. It was plainly his purpose to seize the crown ; 
 and finding that the attachment of Hastings to the late king 
 was in his way, he resolved to remove him. Entering the 
 council-chamher, he bared his arm, which had a natural 
 defect, and exclaimed, " See how that sorceress, my brother's 
 wife, with Shore's wife, and others, have withered my arm." 
 Shore's wife had been led astray by Edward, and was then 
 living with Hastings. " If," said Hastings, " they have 
 done this, they should be punished as traitors." " Do you 
 answer me," cried Gloucester, " with ifs and ands, as if I 
 charged them falsely ? I tell you they have done it, and 
 thou hast joined with them in the villany." He then ar- 
 rested Hastings, and desired him to make short shrift, for 
 he would not dine till his head was struck off. Hastings 
 was hurried out to the little green in front of the Tower 
 Chapel, and beheaded on a log of wood. On the same day 
 Lord Rivers and his friends were beheaded at Pontefract. 
 
 Richard then demanded that the Duke of York should 
 be given up by his mother. The unhappy queen gave him 
 a last embrace, and burst into tears as he left her. He 
 was taken to Edward in the Tower, who showed great 
 delight in having his brother restored to him. 
 
 Having thus the princes in his power, Gloucester took 
 means to persuade the people that they were not legitimate. 
 In all his plans he was assisted by Henry, duke of Buck- 
 ingham, and a scene was got up, in which Gloucester was 
 requested by the Lord Mayor to take possession of the 
 throne. After a well-feigned reluctance, he assented to the 
 proposal, and was crowned, together with his wife, just three 
 months after his brother's death. That lady was Anne of 
 Neville, the widow of Edward of Lancaster. They had 
 one son, who was now created Prince of Wales. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 RICHARD III. 
 
 Eorn at Futherinyay. Buried at Leicester. Reigned 2 years. 
 From A.D. 1483 to A.D. 1485. 
 
 RICHARD soon filled up the measure of his guilt by the 
 murder of his nephews. They were smothered in their
 
 60 RICHARD III.. 
 
 sleep, by Sir James Tyrrel and two other ruffians. The 
 king had scarcely gained the crown by these unequalled 
 crimes, when a plot was formed to deprive him of it; at 
 the head of which was the very Duke of Buckingham who 
 had helped him to seize it, and who seems to have been 
 dissatisfied with the reward of his treason. He was himself 
 a descendant of Edward III., and might have shown some 
 title to the crown on his own account. The plan, however, 
 by which he hoped to avenge himself on Richard was, to 
 unite the houses of Lancaster and York by the marriage of 
 Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, with Elizabeth, the daugh- 
 ter of Edward IV. Henry, who was residing at the court 
 of Bretagne, was descended from John of Gaunt, by his 
 mother, the Lady Margaret Beaufort, at this time the wife 
 of Lord Stanley, her third husband. He was the last 
 surviving prince of the line of Lancaster, and though the 
 title of the Beaufort family was very questionable, Henry 
 was looked upon as the representative of the Lancastrian, 
 claim. 
 
 The first result of this plot was disastrous. Henry sailed 
 from St. Malo, and was driven back by tempests. A great 
 flood in the Severn, which lasted for ten days, dispersed the 
 forces of Buckingham ; and having been betrayed by an old, 
 servant with whom he took refuge, he was seized and be- 
 headed at Salisbury. 
 
 Richmond, however, succeeded, on his next attempt, in 
 landing at Milford Haven, and having marched into the heart 
 of the kingdom, was met by Richard near Bosworth, in 
 Leicestershire. A battle took place, in which Lord Stanley 
 went over to his son-in-law ; and Richard, seeing that all 
 was lost, rushed into the thickest of the fight, and was slain. 
 His crown was carried to the Earl of Richmond, who was 
 saluted in the field by the title of Henry VII. 1 
 
 Richard possessed his ill-gotten crown little more than 
 two years, during which he lost his son, and is thought to 
 have hastened the death of his wife, with a view to unite 
 himself to his niece, Elizabeth of York. From some defect 
 in one of his shoulders, he was commonly called Crooked- 
 back. PI is mind is said to have been harassed with images 
 of terror, from consciousness of the many crimes which he 
 had crowded into a life of thirty-two years. 
 
 1 The body of Richard, having been stripped, "was thrown across a 
 horse, and buried at Leicester.
 
 HENRY VII. 61 
 
 The royal line of Plantagenet ended with this king. 
 Among the princes of this house are some of the ablest, 
 as well as some of the weakest of the English sovereigns. 
 They were mostly engaged in struggles with their barons 
 and wars in France, which were in many respects favour- 
 able to the liberties of England, from the necessity of ap- 
 pealing to the Commons for assistance. The art of printing 
 was introduced into England in the year 1471 by Caxton, 
 and the dawn of less barbarous times is henceforth discern- 
 ible. The opinions for which Lord Cobham died were 
 maintained in the reign of Henry VI. with more judgment 
 and moderation by Bishop Pecock, whose writings were 
 especially directed against the notion that the Romish 
 Church is infallible. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. ' 
 
 HENRY VII. 
 
 Born at Pembroke. Buried in Westminster Abbey. Reiyned 
 24 years. From A.D. 1485 to A.D. 1509. 
 
 HENRY would probably have met with more opposition, had 
 it not been understood that he was to marry Elizabeth of 
 York. He was himself unwilling to owe his crown to her 
 title, and the marriage did not take place till after his own 
 coronation. The submission which he received from the 
 friends of the house of York was never very hearty. His 
 manners were cold and repulsive ; and they disliked him 
 for his distant behaviour to his queen, as well as for con- 
 tinuing the imprisonment of the young Earl of Warwick, 
 the son of the unfortunate Duke of Clarence. He was 
 especially detested by the Duchess-dowager of Burgundy 
 (sister of Edward IV.), and that princess was always ready 
 to assist, if she did not contrive, the plots and impostures 
 by which Henry was harassed. 
 
 A youth named Lambert Simnel was taught by a crafty 
 priest to personate the Earl of Warwick, who was said to- 
 have escaped from the Tower. Simnel was taken to Ire- 
 land, and his claims were acknowledged by many noble-
 
 62 HEXKY VII. 
 
 men in that island. The king produced the real earl, but 
 Simnel's cause was supported by the Earl of Lincoln, the 
 son of another of Edward's sisters, who succeeded in raising 
 some troops. A battle took place at Stoke, near Newark, 
 in which Lincoln was slain, and Simnel taken prisoner. 
 He was made a scullion in the royal kitchen. 
 
 Another imposture of the same kind was contrived a few 
 years after. It was given out that Richard, duke of York,had 
 escaped from the Tower, and a young man named Perkin 
 Warbeck was persuaded to assume his character. The 
 Duchess of Burgundy saluted the impostor as " the White 
 Rose of England ;" the King of Scots received him with all 
 honour, and gave him the hand of his own relative, the 
 Lady Catherine Gordon. Warbeck afterwards landed in 
 Cornwall, but being met by the royal forces, he secretly 
 withdrew, and took sanctuary at Beaulieu, in Hants. He 
 was at length committed to the Tower, where he persuaded 
 the Earl of Warwick to join him in attempting an escape. 
 The plot was discovered, and Warbeck was hung at Tyburn, 
 and the earl soon afterwards beheaded on Tower Hill. 
 The death of this prince, whose faculties were weakened 
 by his long and early imprisonment, is a great blot on 
 Henry's memory. It has been thought that he was tempted 
 to the crime by a message from Ferdinand, king of Spain, 
 whose daughter, the Princess Catherine, he was anxious to 
 obtain as a wife for his son, Prince Arthur. Ferdinand sent 
 word to Henry, that his title would never be sure while 
 Warwick was yet alive. This marriage afterwards took 
 place, but Prince Arthur died within six months of its cele- 
 bration. The king also married his eldest daughter (Mar- 
 garet) to James IV., king of Scotland. 
 
 The remainder of Henry's reign was free from outward 
 insurrections ; but he became very unpopular, from the 
 arbitrary character of his government and his great avarice, 
 to gratify which he employed two creatures of hisown,-named 
 Empson and Dudley, in extorting money from his subjects 
 by reviving obsolete laws and dormant claims of the crown, 
 and thus he amassed an unusual amount of treasure. His 
 reign, however, was very beneficial to England, which 
 needed peace and a firm government. It was Henry's po- 
 licy to break the overgrown power of the nobles, and with 
 this view he enforced the law which forbade any nobleman
 
 HENRY VIII. 63 
 
 to give his livery to any retainers besides Ins household 
 servants. The practice thus forbidden had been abused 
 to such a degree, that the king-maker, Warwick, is said 
 to have had 30,000 retainers who wore his badge. 
 
 A characteristic anecdote is told of Henry, which shows 
 how little he was withheld by friendly feeling from en- 
 forcing a law, which both favoured his policy and filled his 
 coffers. He had been received with great splendour by the 
 Earl of Oxford, one of the most faithful friends of the 
 house of Lancaster. As the king left the castle, a large 
 number of retainers in the earl's livery were drawn up in 
 two rows to do honour to his guest. Henry artfully com- 
 plimented the earl on his hospitality and the numbers of 
 his household servants. Oxford replied that they were 
 retainers, who wore his livery on such occasions to do him 
 honour. The king started, and exclaimed, " My lord, I 
 thank you for your good cheer, but I must not endure to 
 have my laws broken in my sight. My attorney must speak 
 with you." The earl was fined 15,000 marks. 
 
 The king died in the year 1509, and was succeeded by 
 Henry, his only surviving son. In this reign the New 
 World was discovered by Columbus, a native of Genoa, in 
 the service of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 HENRY VIII. 
 
 Bom at Greenwich. Buried at Windsor. Reigned 38 years. 
 From A.D. 1509 to A.D. 1547. 
 
 THE young king was handsome in person, and popular and 
 jovial in his manners. He had been carefully educated, and 
 not only excelled in martial exercises, but had acquired 
 considerable scholarship, and was well read in the writings 
 of the school divines. His marriage with Catherine of Arra- 
 gon, his brother's widow, was celebrated with great mag- 
 nificence ; and his passion for pageantry and pleasure con- 
 trasted favourably in the opinion of his subjects with the
 
 64 HEXHY VIII. 
 
 avarice of his father, whose agents (Empson and Dudley) 
 were now tried and executed. 
 
 Henry soon led an army with little reason into France ; 
 and though the war, where he was present, resembled 
 rather the pomp of tournaments than more serious conflict, 
 yet a battle was gained near Terouenne, which was called 
 the " Battle of Spurs," as the French made more use of 
 their spurs than of their swords. The same year, how- 
 ever, the Earl of Surrey gave the Scots one of the most 
 disastrous defeats they ever sustained, in the battle of 
 Flodden Field. James IV., who had taken part with Louis 
 against his brother-in-law, was slain in this battle, with 
 many of his principal nobles. His son (now James V.) 
 was at this time an infant. On the peace which followed, 
 Henry gave his sister Mary in marriage to Louis XII., 
 who died three months after his -nuptials, and was suc- 
 ceeded by Francis I. Mary then married the Duke of 
 Suffolk, to whom she had been attached before. 
 
 The king at this time lavished his favour on Thomas 
 "VVolsey, the son, as was said, of a butcher at Ipswich, who 
 from his talents for business had been brought forward in 
 the last reign, and, though in holy orders, was no less use- 
 ful to Henry in affairs of state, than welcome as the asso- 
 ciate and minister of his pleasures. He became chancellor 
 of England as well as archbishop of York, was made a car- 
 dinal by the pope, and enjoyed an enormous revenue, with 
 which he lived in royal state. His good offices with the 
 king were sought both by Francis I. and by the Emperor 
 Charles V. (who was also King of Spain), the two most 
 powerful sovereigns in Europe. 
 
 The vanity of Henry was flattered by finding how much 
 his alliance was courted by these rival monarchs. Charles 
 was the nephew of Queen Catherine, and visited the Eng- 
 lish court at Dover, when Henry was on his way to give 
 Francis a personal interview, which that king had eagerly 
 desired. This meeting took place near Calais, and the 
 plain on which it was held was called The Field of the 
 Cloth of Gold, from the lavish costliness of this royal 
 pageant ; at which, it was said, many of the nobles wore 
 on their shoulders their mills, their forests, and their mea- 
 dows. Amidst the gaieties of this interview such mutual 
 distrust prevailed, that the guards on both sides were duly
 
 HENRY VIII. 65 
 
 counted ; and when the kings would visit their respective 
 queens, each set forth at the same moment, so that neither 
 might be the first to pass the barrier that divided their ter- 
 ritories. At length Francis, who was of an open and gene- 
 rous character, rode with three attendants to Guisnes, and 
 entering the chamber where Henry was still in bed, told 
 him that he was his prisoner. Henry rose and embraced 
 him, and Francis aided him to dress. The next day, Henry, 
 who would not be outdone in generosity, returned the com- 
 pliment. No real good, however, resulted from" the meeting. 
 
 Henry had been no unobservant witness of the progress 
 of Wickliffe's opinions, which had now gained a greater 
 hold on the minds of the people, through the writings of 
 Luther (a Saxon monk), against the abuses of the papacy. 
 The king himself wrote a book in reply to Luther, and, as 
 a reward, received from the pope the title of " Defender of 
 the Faith." The time, however, was now at hand, when, 
 from the violence of his passions rather than from any 
 change of theological opinion, he was to become the pope's 
 most bitter enemy, and even to withdraw his kingdom from 
 its thraldom to the Roman see. The part which he took 
 was most favourable to the Reformation, which was at this 
 time called for in all parts of Christendom ; though Henry 
 seems never to have received to any great degree the purer 
 creed that was now preached, nor was his life ever influ- 
 enced by practical religion. 
 
 He had long lived happily with his queen, and they had 
 one surviving child, the Princess Mary. He now professed 
 to have scruples of conscience as to the lawfulness of his 
 marriage with the widow of his brother ; and it must be 
 owned that the prohibition of such unions, contained in the- 
 Levitical law, had been adopted into the code of most 
 Christian nations. The king's scruples were doubtless 
 kept alive by an attachment he had formed to Anne Boleyn, 
 a lady of remarkable wit and beauty in Queen Catherine's- 
 court. He applied to Rome for a divorce, and the pops 
 (Clement VII.) had thus to choose between offending the 
 emperor, who was Catherine's nephew, and whose power 
 he had particular reason to fear, and on the other hand 
 provoking a prince of Henry's violent passions to place 
 himself at the head of the Protestants, the name by which 
 the German reformers were soon afterwards designated,
 
 66 HENRY VIII. 
 
 from protesting (1529) against a decree of the empire, for- 
 bidding innovation in religion. Cardinal Campeggio was 
 sent to England for the avowed purpose of forwarding the 
 divorce, but with secret instructions to delay it ; and the 
 king was so little satisfied with Wolsey's conduct in the 
 affair, that he dismissed his favourite from court, and seized 
 his palace at York Place, since named Whitehall. Wolsey 
 withdrew to his diocese, but was soon arrested on a charge 
 of treason, and his deep mortification at his downfall brought 
 on a dangerous illness. When he reached Leicester, he 
 said to the abbot, who received him for the night, " Father 
 abbot, I am come to lay my bones among you." Finding 
 that his death was at hand, he spoke gratefully of the king, 
 but added these memorable words ; " Had I served my God 
 as diligently as I have served my king, He would not have 
 given me over in my grey hairs." With all his faults, 
 Wolsey was a munificent patron of learning, and upright 
 in his administration of the law. While the pope thus 
 trifled with Henry, it happened that a clergyman, inclined 
 to the reformed religion, named Thomas Cranmer, ex- 
 pressed an opinion that the king would do well to submit 
 to the universities of Europe the plain question, " Can a 
 man marry his brother's widow ?" This opinion was re- 
 ported to Henry, who declared in his blunt way, that " the 
 man had got the right sow by the ear." Cranmer was 
 sent for, and within four years became Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, and retained to the last the confidence of Henry. 
 The king also took into his service Thomas Cromwell, who 
 was afterwards Earl of Essex. He had been one of Wol- 
 sey's servants, and when the cardinal was disgraced, dis- 
 tinguished himself most honourably by his faithfulness to 
 his fallen master. 
 
 In pursuance of Cranmer's opinions, the question was 
 submitted to the universities, and the answer was strongly 
 in favour of the divorce, which was accordingly pronounced 
 by Cranmer; and Anne, who had been secretly married 
 to Henry, was crowned June 1, 1533. The pope having 
 threatened the king with the severest censures of the 
 Church, unless he again received Catherine as his lawful 
 wife, Henry was advised by Cromwell to declare himself 
 supreme head of the English Church ; and when this title 
 was confirmed by an act of parliament (1534), it may be
 
 HENRY VIII. 67 
 
 considered that the yoke of Roman supremacy was cast off 
 by this kingdom. 
 
 The assumption of this title was greatly disliked by the 
 clergy ; and Fisher, the venerable Bishop of Winchester, 
 was beheaded in the Tower for refusing to acknowledge it. 
 His example was followed, at the same cost, by the chan- 
 cellor, Sir Thomas More, distinguished for his learning and 
 piety. His estimate of Henry's character may be seen in 
 his reply to his son-in-law, who had seen the king walking 
 in the garden with his arm round the chancellor's neck, 
 and gave his father joy on the favour he was in. " Son 
 Roper," he replied, " I have no cause to be proud thereof, 
 for if my head would win him a castle in France, it would 
 
 go." 
 
 It was now resolved to suppress the monasteries, and 
 Cromwell, with the title of vicar-general, was employed 
 in this work. They were, doubtless, the strongholds of 
 Roman error, and many shameful abuses were brought to 
 light by the inquiries which took place. Their suppression, 
 however, was a great loss to the poor, who had ever found 
 help and comfort from the religious houses, which in the 
 lawless periods of English history had been a refuge for the 
 weak, and a home for mourners ; and it is deeply to be 
 lamented that the revenues obtained by their suppression 
 were not applied to the promotion of religion and learning. 
 Five new bishoprics were indeed slenderly provided for, 
 and two colleges were founded, but the greater part of the 
 revenue was bestowed on Henry's rapacious courtiers. 
 
 The king soon became weary of Queen Anne, and his 
 affections fixed themselves on Jane Seymour, a lady in her 
 court. The gaiety of Anne's manners gave occasion for a 
 charge against her of unfaithfulness to her husband, and 
 she was beheaded in the Tower within little more than 
 two years after her marriage. On the day after her exe- 
 cution the king married Jane Seymour, who died within 
 a year, after giving birth to a son, who was afterwards 
 Edward VI. Anne Boleyn left a daughter, the Princess 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 Henry's next wife was the Princess Anne of Cleves. 
 He was so disappointed with her person that he could 
 scarcely be persuaded to marry her, and soon applied for 
 a divorce, which was granted by his obsequious clergy.
 
 68 HENRY VIII. 
 
 Nothing can more show the subserviency of those about 
 him to his caprice, unless it be an act of parliament which 
 gave to his proclamations the force of law. The marriage 
 of Anne of Cleves had been advised by Cromwell, and led 
 to his disgrace and death. The king was highly indignant 
 with his minister, and sent him to the Tower, where he 
 was beheaded, 1540. 
 
 Henry immediately married the Lady Catherine Howard, 
 who was soon discovered to be a woman of abandoned 
 character, and was executed, with several persons con- 
 cerned in her guilt. His last wife was Catherine Parr, 
 who was more than once in great danger from her attach- 
 ment to the reformed religion, but by her prudence was 
 enabled to lull the irritation of her husband, whom she 
 survived. 
 
 Though Henry had severed his kingdom from the Roman 
 Church, it was not his intention that his subjects should 
 embrace the reformed opinions farther than they were held 
 by himself. At the beginning of his opposition to Rome y 
 he had authorized the translation of the Bible, and the pub- 
 lication of a book by the bishops, called the " Institute of 
 a Christian Man." At a later period, the use of (he Scrip- 
 tures was restricted, and a book less unfavourable to Rome 
 was published, called the "Erudition of a Christian." An 
 act was also passed (1539), requiring the assent of all per- 
 sons to six articles which still embodied the principal Ro- 
 man errors. This act was called " The Bloody Statute," 
 and " The Whip with Six Strings," from the vast number 
 of executions which it occasioned. Reformers were burnt 
 for refusing assent to these articles ; while Romanists suf- 
 fered for denying the king's supremacy. 
 
 As the king advanced in years, he suffered most severely 
 from an ulcer in his thigh; and his caprice and cruelty 
 became terrible to all about him. The fatal axe in the 
 Tower was too often employed, and the fires in Smithfield 
 blazed with innocent victims. The most distinguished of 
 these was Anne Askew, who had been put to the torture 
 by the Chancellor Wriottesly with his own hands, and died 
 with remarkable faith and devotion. The last victim of 
 Henry's tyranny was the accomplished Earl of Surrey, 
 who was beheaded in the Tower, on .the most slender and 
 ill-supported charges. His father, the Duke of Norfolk,
 
 EDWARD VI. 69 
 
 escaped a similar fate only by the death of Henry on the 
 night before he had been ordered for execution. The king 
 breathed his last, Jan. 1547, and was succeeded by Prince 
 Edward, his only son. 
 
 Henry was never unpopular with his subjects. His 
 measures, indeed, occasioned at times some partial insur- 
 rections, the principal of which (called the Pilgrimage of 
 Grace) was in the year 1536, but they were put down with- 
 out difficulty. The people remembered the early magni- 
 ficence of his reign ; and, among all his vices, he possessed 
 that blunt courtesy and openness of hand, which are so 
 captivating in persons of his exalted rank. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 EDWARD VI. 
 
 Born at Hampton Court. Buried in Westminster Abbey. 
 Reigned 6 years. From A.D. 1547 to A.D. 1553. 
 
 EDWAUD was little more than nine years old when he be- 
 came king. He had been trained in the principles of the 
 reformed religion, and while his intelligence was beyond 
 his years, his early piety was a pattern to all around him. 
 When the three swords were (as was usual) carried before 
 him at his coronation, he said, "There is yet one wanting," 
 and called for a Bible. " For," said he, " that is the 
 sword of the Spirit, without which we are nothing." His 
 uncle, who became Duke of Somerset, and was declared 
 Protector, was a firm friend to the Reformation, which 
 was now zealously promoted. Englishmen cannot be 
 sufficiently thankful that this great religious movement 
 was, under the Divine Providence, guided by a prelate 
 of Cranmer's moderation and judgment. In Germany 
 and Scotland it was, to a great degree, conducted by 
 persons whom their zeal against popery made blind to the 
 apostolic origin of many established practices. Thus ex- 
 cesses were committed by the mobs in many places ; 
 churches were profaned and mutilated, and wild and ex- 
 Iravagant doctrines were preached. In England, by God's
 
 70 EDWARD VI. 
 
 blessing, a milder spirit pervaded all the changes that were 
 made ; and it was a great advantage that these changes 
 were made by the authorities in Church and State, not by 
 the zeal of individuals nor by the lawlessness of mobs. 
 The principle on which changes were made was not a mere 
 antipathy to Rome, but a desire to return to Scripture 
 and primitive usage. Thus the use of a Liturgy in public 
 worship was retained, together with the apostolic insti- 
 tution of Episcopacy, while the comparatively modern cor- 
 ruptions of Romanism were removed. The principal of 
 these were, the practice of praying in an unknown tongue ; 
 the withholding the Bible from general use ; the enforced 
 celibacy of the clergy ; the doctrine called tran substanti- 
 ation, which asserts that the substance of the bread and 
 wine is entirely changed in the Lord's Supper; the 
 denial of the cup to the laity; the undue honour paid 
 to saints and images ; the worship paid to the Virgin 
 Mary; and the doctrine of purgatory, with the notion 
 connected with it, that remission can be purchased from 
 the pope in favour of ourselves or others. In the course of 
 this reign, and chiefly under the influence of Cranmer, and 
 Ridley, bishop of London, the Liturgy was cleansed from 
 these errors, and brought into nearly its present form. 
 Articles of religion were agreed upon, which were almost 
 the same as the present Articles of our Church; and 
 homilies were drawn up to be read to the people on Sun- 
 days and holydays. These changes were not made without 
 occasioning some discontent and risings of the peasantry, 
 who suffered severely from the suppression of monasteries ; 
 but the Protector, with all his ambition, was humane and 
 gentle, and succeeded in quieting the excitement of the 
 people. 
 
 Somerset was very desirous of obtaining for his nephew 
 the hand of the young Queen of Scots, and led an army 
 into Scotland to enforce his demand. This rough method 
 of wooing was not very likely to succeed ; and though he 
 overthrew the Scots with great loss at Pinkie, near Edin- 
 burgh, the young queen was sent to France to be educated, 
 and was there married to the dauphin. 
 
 The Protector's brother had been made high admiral, 
 with the title of Lord Seymour. He had also married 
 Queen Catherine Parr, but was jealous of Somerset, and
 
 EDWARD VI. 71 
 
 tried to undermine his power. When his aim became 
 too plain, he was tried and executed by his brother's order 
 on a charge of treason. The influence, however, of the 
 Protector began to decline. His concessions to the people 
 had displeased the nobles ; and his ambition led him to 
 grasp at more power than any subject had enjoyed. He 
 had also begun to build the palace in the Strand, which is 
 still called Somerset House, by means which cannot be 
 justified. His chief enemy was Dudley, who became Duke 
 of Northumberland, and by his influence he was forced to 
 give up his office, and was severely fined. Having after- 
 wards unguardedly used some violent words, he was tried 
 for high treason, and beheaded in the Tower, to the great 
 grief of the people. 
 
 The health of the young king now rapidly declined, and 
 Northumberland induced him to alter the succession to the 
 throne, with a view to the aggrandizement of his own 
 family. The Ladies Mary and Elizabeth had both been 
 named in their father's will to succeed after their brother, 
 but had previously been declared illegitimate by act of 
 parliament ; and as Mary was firmly attached to the Church 
 of Rome, the young king was easily worked upon to take 
 advantage of that act, and appoint a successor from the 
 family of his aunt, the Queen of France, by the Duke of 
 Suffolk. The person thus appointed was the Lady Jane 
 Grey, whom Northumberland had contrived to marry to 
 his son, Lord Guildford Dudley. The king required his 
 councillors to sign the devise in Lady Jane's favour ; and 
 Cranmer, among the rest, reluctantly put his hand to it. 
 Edward breathed his last July 6, 1553. Shortly before 
 his death, he had been so moved by a sermon of Bishop 
 Ridley on the duty of providing for the poor, that he sent 
 for him, and with tears desired his advice in the fulfilment 
 of that duty. The result of that advice was the foundation 
 of Christ's Hospital, for the education of poor children ; 
 St. Thomas's and St. Bartholomew's, for the relief of the 
 sick ; and Bridewell, for the correction of the vicious. 
 Almost his closing words were, " O Lord God, deliver 
 this realm from papistry, and maintain the true religion 
 that I and my people may praise thy name, for Jesus 
 Christ's sake."
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 MARY. 
 
 Born at Greenwich. Buried at Westminster. Rc'ujned 
 5 years. From A.D. 1553 to A.D. 1558. 
 
 THE attempt of Northumberland to secure the crown for 
 his daughter-in-law was utterly unsuccessful. The lady 
 Jane was indeed proclaimed, and conducted to the Tower 
 (as was usual) with a view to her coronation. The true 
 principle of succession was, however, now too well esta- 
 blished in public opinion to be thus set aside, and the right 
 of Mary was so universally acknowledged, that she entered 
 London without opposition. Northumberland was be- 
 headed, after showing himself as abject in adversity as 
 he had been insolent in prosperity. The Lady Jane and 
 her husband (of whom neither was more than seventeen) 
 \vere imprisoned, but their lives were spared for about a 
 year. Upon an insurrection, which was headed by Sir 
 Thomas Wyatt, the warrant was issued for their execution. 
 Lord Guild ford suffered first, and the Lady Jane saw 
 from a window her husband's headless trunk, as it was 
 carried back in a cart. She died with an admirable meek- 
 ness and piety, and it may be believed that a spirit, of 
 which no earthly crown was worthy, was thus summoned 
 to a far more glorious inheritance. Ascham, who was tutor 
 to Elizabeth, has related an anecdote of this young lady 
 which shows her early piety and thoughtfulness. Going 
 one day to the residence of her family, he found her 
 studying Plato on the immortality of the soul, when the 
 rest of the family were hunting in the park. When he 
 expressed surprise that she did not join the others in 
 their pleasure, she smiled and said, " I fancy all their 
 sport is a shadow to the pleasure which I find in Plato. 
 Alas ! good folks, they little know what true pleasure 
 is." When her dignity was first announced to her, she 
 burst into tears, and expressed her sense of unfitness 
 for it. She could scarcely be prevailed on to_ accept
 
 
 MARY. 73 
 
 the office which her relatives forced upon her, and at last 
 acknowledged her fault in having given way to their 
 entreaty. 
 
 This execution betokened the stern and cruel disposition 
 which will ever be assigned to Mary in English history. 
 She was, indeed, sincerely devout, and possessed many 
 high and noble qualities ; nor must we forget the reason 
 she had to view the Reformation with dislike, from all the 
 misery of which it had been made the instrument to her 
 mother Queen Catherine and herself. With every allow- 
 ance, however, her character must be viewed as an instance 
 of the dreadful effects of that bigotry and intolerance which 
 have disgraced the Roman Church far more than any other 
 in Christendom. 
 
 Her first act had been to discharge the prisoners con- 
 fined in the Tower during the late reign, among whom 
 were Gardiner and Bonner, bishops of Winchester and 
 London. These became her chief advisers and agents, 
 and by their influence she at once subjected her sister 
 Elizabeth to harsh treatment, and compelled her to conform 
 to the ritual of the Roman Church, which was now every- 
 where re-established. Cranmer and Ridley, with Latimer 
 and Hooper, the bishops of Worcester and Gloucester, 
 were committed to prison, and Cardinal Pole, a relative 
 of the queen, was appointed by the pope his legate in 
 England. 
 
 Her next care was the settlement of her marriage, and, 
 contrary to the advice even of Gardiner, her chancellor, 
 she determined to marry Philip, prince of Spain, whose 
 bigotry to the Roman see was well known. This choice 
 was very unwelcome to the nation, and the English 
 admiral is said to have fired on the Spanish fleet, though 
 Philip was on board, because its topsails were not lowered 
 to the ships of this nation, which even then began to 
 regard herself as mistress of the sea. The haughtiness 
 of Philip made him always unpopular in England, and 
 the people attributed to his influence (perhaps more than 
 was just) the cruelties that were practised to restore the 
 papal system. Mary doated on her husband, though he 
 treated her very distantly, and ere long retired to his own 
 dominions. 
 
 The fires of Smithfield were soon rekindled for those 
 [H. s. 1.] D
 
 74 MARY. 
 
 who would not acknowledge the monstrous doctrine or 
 transubstantiation. The first who suffered was Rogers, a 
 married priest. He was brutally insulted by Gardiner 
 and Bonner, and was denied an interview with his wife 
 and children, who, however, met him as he was led to 
 the stake. He suffered with great constancy, as was in- 
 variably the case with the victims in these persecutions ; 
 nor did the married clergy show less willingness to suffer 
 for conscience' sake than those who were single. Hooper 
 was burnt at Gloucester, in his own diocese. The names 
 of Saunders, Taylor, Bradford, and Philpot, are among the 
 most memorable of those who died for their religion in 
 this reign, in which it is computed that about 300 persons 
 were burnt, many of them women and children. 
 
 The most memorable, however, of the martyrs, from 
 their character and station, were Cranmer, Ridley, and 
 Latimer. They were all sent to Oxford, where they were 
 required to dispute with a commission on the subject of 
 the Eucharist. The behaviour of the aged Latimer was 
 marked by the quaint and homely simplicity for which 
 he was distinguished, while Cranmer and Ridley bore 
 themselves with great dignity and firmness. Ridley and' 
 Latimer were first burnt in the space before Balliol Col- 
 lege. 1 The latter exclaimed at the stake, ."Be of good 
 courage, Master Ridley ! we shall this day, by God's 
 grace, light in England such a candle as I trust shall never 
 be put out," 
 
 v The case of Cranmer is even more touching. He was 
 promised his life if he would recant, and it is certain that 
 he did sign some form of recantation. When, however, 
 he was brought to St. Mary's church to acknowledge 
 his error publicly, he knelt down, and with many tears 
 bewailed his sin in thus yielding through human frailness. 
 At the stake, he stedfastly held in the flames the hand 
 which had signed the paper, exclaiming, "This hand hath 
 offended; this unworthy right hand!" 
 
 The effect of all these executions (and of none more 
 than the martyrdom of Cranmer) was to alienate the people 
 from the Roman Church. In the death of Cranmer, who 
 
 1 A memorial of the three martyrs has lately been erected near 
 the spot.
 
 ELIZABETH. 75 s 
 
 had borne his elevation with great meekness, the malice 
 and falseness of the papists were especially seen. 
 
 The only other event of much note in this reign was 
 the loss of Calais, in a war in which Mary had been induced 
 to engage by her husband. She was deeply afflicted at 
 this loss, and declared that at her death the name of Calais 
 would be found engraven on her heart. Her health had 
 never been strong, and she was constitutionally melancholy. 
 Soon after her accession she had been afflicted with dropsy, 
 and died of that complaint, 1558; nor was her death much 
 regretted even by the Romanists. 
 
 CHAPTER. XXVIII. 
 
 ELIZABETH. 
 
 Bom at Greenwich. Buried at Westminster. Reigned 45 
 years. From A.D. 1558 to A.D. 1603. 
 
 ELIZABETH was at Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, at the time 
 of her sister's death. She had often been in great danger 
 during the late reign, and was once even committed to the 
 Tower. Her prudence led her to live in retirement, and 
 employ herself in cultivating a mind which was naturally 
 highly gifted. She learnt wisdom in the school of adver- 
 sity. When the news of her accession was brought her, 
 she fell on her knees, saying, " It is the Lord's doing, and 
 it is marvellous in our eyes." And on entering the Tower, 
 she again gave thanks to God for the change in her con- 
 dition, since the time when she was taken there as a 
 prisoner. 
 
 Her accession was hailed with joy by the whole nation ; 
 especially as she was known to be attached to the Re- 
 formed religion, which she took measures to re-establish. 
 Her chief advisers were the great statesmen Sir William 
 Cecil, whom she afterwards made Lord Burleigh, and 
 Matthew Parker, who was consecrated Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, and was a prelate of great piety and judgment. 
 The liturgy as contained in the second book of King 
 Edward was adopted ; and the Thirty-nine Articles of 
 religion were agreed upon. 
 
 D 2
 
 76 ELIZABETH. 
 
 During the reign of Mary, many of the English Pro- 
 testants had fled to Switzerland and Germany, and there 
 imbibed the views of the foreign reformers, who, in their 
 zeal against Romanism, objected to many rites and usages 
 which the Church of England has retained. On the re- 
 turn of these persons to England, they were clamorous for 
 more extensive changes than Cranmer and his fellow-suf- 
 ferers had made ; and it required much firmness and judg- 
 ment on the part of Elizabeth and her advisers to preserve 
 the mild and moderate character of the English Church. 
 The party which held these views began to be called 
 puritans ; and we shall see to what evils their narrow and 
 self-sufficient temper led in the following reigns. Much of 
 the division in religious opinions which still exists in Eng- 
 land is the fruit of seeds which were sown at this time. 
 
 The Romanists seem generally to have acquiesced in the 
 reforms which Elizabeth brought in ; nor did they cease to 
 attend the authorized services of the Church till the year 
 1570, when the queen was excommunicated by the pope. 
 This is a fact which it is well to bear in mind. 
 
 The person of Elizabeth was well formed, and her coun- 
 tenance was fair and noble. She was, however, far sur- 
 passed in personal appearance by Mary Queen of Scots, 
 who was at this time dauphiness, and shortly became 
 Queen of France ; and Elizabeth, in spite of her masculine 
 understanding, was weak enough to be mortified at being 
 thus outshone by her relative, who was one of the most 
 beautiful and accomplished women of the age. 
 
 The Queen of Scots was next to Elizabeth in succession 
 to the English Crown, and being warmly attached to the 
 Roman Church, was regarded by the more bigoted papists 
 as entitled to dispossess Elizabeth, who was disqualified 
 in their opinion by her birth and religious views. Unhap- 
 pily, Mary and her husband (Francis II.) assumed the 
 royal arms of England; and thus a rivalry arose between 
 the two queens, in which Elizabeth's just indignation at 
 this invasion of her right was sharpened by a less worthy 
 jealousy of Mary's personal advantages. 
 
 The love of admiration, which was shared by this great 
 queen with the weakest of her sex, appeared not only in 
 her bearing towards Mary, and her love of dress and 
 flattery, but also in the manner in which she behaved
 
 ELIZABETH. 77 
 
 towards the various suitors who aspired to her hand. 
 Among these was Philip of Spain, her sister's widower, to 
 whom she sent a civil refusal, which he seems to have 
 deeply resented. When urged by her parliament to marry, 
 Elizabeth had replied that she was espoused to her king- 
 dom, and wished for no fairer remembrance than the in- 
 scription on her tomb, " Here lies Elizabeth, who lived 
 and died a virgin queen." She was, however, greatly 
 caught by personal beauty in the other sex ; and while (as 
 in the case of Lord Burleigh, Sir Francis Walsingham, 
 and Sir Nicholas Bacon) she chose her ministers for 
 sterling wisdom, she was greatly influenced in the choice 
 of her more personal attendants by the glitter of outward 
 accomplishment. The person who enjoyed the greatest 
 share of her favour for a long course of years, was Lord 
 Robert Dudley, son of the Duke of Northumberland, who 
 was beheaded in the late reign. He was made Earl of 
 Leicester, and was the handsomest noble in the English 
 court, but by no means a person of unblemished character. 
 The favour and even caresses which Elizabeth bestowed 
 on him, excited his hope of an union, which perhaps she 
 never seriously contemplated. At a later period of her 
 reign she almost pledged herself to the Duke of Anjou, 
 many years her junior ; but was persuaded to overcome the 
 feeling which she could not at that time have indulged 
 to the happiness of herself or her kingdom. The weakness 
 with which she courted admiration is amusingly seen in her 
 conduct, when Sir James Melvill was in her court on an 
 embassy from Queen Mary. She danced in his presence, 
 and pressed him to say whether she or the Queen of Scots 
 danced best, and which of them he thought the fairest. Pie 
 replied that his queen did not dance " so high and dis- 
 posedly " as Elizabeth ; and that Elizabeth was the fairest 
 queen in England, and Mary the fairest queen in Scotland. 
 On the early death of Francis II., his widow was en- 
 treated by her subjects to return to her own kingdom. 
 Elizabeth at first refused to ensure her a safe passage, 
 unless she would renounce her title as Queen of England. 
 She was, however, saluted by the English fleet, when 
 she fell in with it on her way. In Scotland she found 
 the people so bitterly opposed to her religion, that it was 
 with difficulty she could secure the performance of its rites
 
 78 ELIZABETH. 
 
 in her own chapel ; and her measures and character were 
 regarded with much suspicion. After many discussions 
 about her marriage, in which Elizabeth did not act with 
 candour or kindness, she was united to Henry Darnley, a 
 relative of both queens, whose only other recommendation 
 was his personal beauty. They lived unhappily, and 
 Darnley's jealousy was so raised by the favour winch she 
 showed to one Rizzio, a musician, that he conducted several 
 nobles to Mary's private apartments at Holyrood, and 
 assisted them in putting him to death almost in her sight. 
 She was then likely to become a mother, and was soon 
 delivered of a son. The news of that event renewed the 
 jealousy of Elizabeth, who, on hearing of it, gave vent to 
 her feelings by saying, " The Queen of Scots has a fair boy, 
 while I am a barren stock." 
 
 A tragedy now took place in Scotland, in which Mary's 
 fair fame must be for ever implicated. She had removed 
 her husband, who was indisposed, to a lone house, which 
 was blown up a few hours after she had herself left it : 
 and the unfortunate prince was found dead in the fields 
 at a little distance. Mary shortly afterwards gave her 
 hand to the Lord Bothwell, of whose share in the murder 
 of Darnley there can be no doubt. The Scottish nobles 
 were roused to action by this dreadful event. Bothwell 
 was forced to fly the kingdom, and Mary was confined 
 in Loch-Leven Castle ; while her son was proclaimed 
 James VI., under the regency of the Earl of Murray, a 
 natural son of his grandfather. The queen escaped from 
 Loch-Leven, but was defeated at Langside, and resolved 
 to cross the borders, and place herself in Elizabeth's hands. 
 The English council determined that she should be de- 
 tained; an injustice, which this conduct of Mary, however 
 culpable, could not excuse ; and they gained her reluctant 
 consent to an examination into the charges against her, 
 which took place at York. The proofs of her guilt were 
 such, that Elizabeth refused to see her, and she was re- 
 moved to Tutbury, a seat of Lord Shrewsbury. Here she 
 had communication with the papists in the north, and a 
 rising took place under the Earls of Northumberland and 
 Westmoreland, the result of which was that Northumber- 
 land lost his head on the scaffold, and Westmoreland 
 fled to the continent. A plot was then formed for Mary's
 
 ELIZABETH. 79 
 
 marriage with the Duke of Norfolk, who was tempted by 
 this prospect to involve himself in practices, for which he 
 was at last tried and beheaded in the Tower. 
 
 There can be no doubt that a conspiracy, in which the 
 court of France was involved, had been formed by the pope 
 and the King of Spain for the destruction of Elizabeth, the 
 elevation of Mary to the throne, and the overthrow of 
 the Protestant religion in England and on the continent. 
 A most atrocious massacre of the Protestants took place 
 at Paris on the eve of St. Bartholomew, 1572; and, the 
 queen having been excommunicated, many Romanists 
 believed it would be a meritorious act to murder her. 
 Monks of the order of the Jesuits (which was established 
 in this century) arrived in England, and under their in- 
 fluence plots were laid against the queen. The most 
 serious of these was headed by Anthony Babington and six 
 other young men of gentle birth ; of whose guilty purpose 
 there can be little doubt that Mary was aware. These 
 conspiracies were detected by the sagacity of Walsingham, 
 and drew forth the affection of the people for their glorious 
 queen. When she appeared in public, they would fall on 
 their knees and invoke blessings on her head. It was at 
 length determined to put Mary on her trial for encouraging 
 these treasons, and the unhappy queen was found guilty by 
 a commission, before which she appeared at Fotheringay, in 
 Northamptonshire, 1586. In no act of her life did Elizabeth 
 show so much hesitation, and (it is to be feared) so much 
 duplicity, as in signing the warrant for Mary's execution. 
 The warrant was at length issued, and Mary was beheaded 
 in the hall of Fotheringay Castle. 
 
 The scaffold was covered with black. Mary appeared 
 in a rich dress of silk and velvet, with a long veil on her 
 head, and a crucifix in her hand. The executioners 
 kneeled down and asked her forgiveness. She said she 
 forgave them and all who were concerned in her death. 
 Her behaviour in these trying scenes was marked not only 
 by much dignity and firmness, but also by many indications 
 of sincere piety ; and though her memory must ever be 
 loaded with much that is doubtful, yet the judgment of 
 posterity on the treatment which she met with has not 
 been favourable to Elizabeth. The King of Scots made an 
 effort to save his mother, and sent an angry remonstrance
 
 80 ELIZABETH. 
 
 after her death ; but his threats were disregarded, and his 
 anger was easily allayed. Elizabeth threw the blame on 
 Davison her secretary, whom she imprisoned on a charge 
 of acting without authority, and fined so severely that he 
 was reduced to beggary. 
 
 During a great part of this reign a sanguinary struggle 
 against the King of Spain had been going on in the 
 Netherlands, which ended in the independence of the 
 Dutch. Elizabeth assisted them with her troops under 
 the Earl of Leicester, who showed very little ability for 
 his office. During these wars the young Sir Philip Sidney 
 received his mortal wound. He was the flower of the 
 English court, and in mind as well as person seemed to 
 realize the idea of chivalrous and unblemished beauty. 
 When carried from the field, he asked for water ; but 
 seeing a wounded soldier look wistfully at it, as he raised 
 it to his lips, he handed it to him, saying, " Thy necessity 
 is greater than mine." 
 
 To avenge himself on Elizabeth for thus aiding his 
 revolted subjects, and also for the execution of Mary, the 
 King of Spain prepared a fleet for the invasion of England 1 , 
 which he named the Invincible Armada. The wealth of 
 Spain and the Indies was exhausted in preparing it ; and 
 the approaching struggle was regarded with the deepest 
 interest by the whole of Christendom. The spirit of 
 Elizabeth rose with the trying occasion. Troops were 
 enlisted, and ships supplied by the sea-ports, the com- 
 mand of which was intrusted to Lord Howard of Effing- 
 ham, assisted by the distinguished seamen, Drake, Hawkins, 
 and Frobisher. A camp was formed at Tilbury, and Eliza- 
 beth rode along the lines, animating the soldiers with her 
 cheering language. She told them, that though she had 
 but the body of a feeble woman, she had the heart of an 
 English king, and would herself bear arms, rather than see 
 her realm dishonoured by any prince in Europe. 
 
 It pleased God to scatter this vain-glorious Armada by 
 a storm, in which many ships were lost ; and the rest were 
 chased by the English fleet, even to the Northern seas. 
 A small remnant only returned to Spain. The queen 
 gave thanks in St. Paul's for the deliverance of her king- 
 dom from this danger ; and the English afterwards attacked 
 the Spanish coasts. The city of Cadiz was taken and burnt
 
 ELIZABETH. 81 
 
 by an armament, in which the Earl of Essex and Sir Walter 
 Raleigh bore command. The latter had at one time been 
 much noticed by the queen, and led an expedition to South 
 America, of which he published a remarkable account. 
 
 On Leicester's death, the Earl of Essex succeeded to his 
 place in Elizabeth's affections. He was young, popular, and 
 high-spirited; and ventured to behave with greater liberty 
 towards the queen than any other had presumed to take. 
 Having oncejturned his back on her in contempt, Elizabeth 
 gave him a box on the ear ; on which he laid his hand on 
 his sword, and swore he would not have borne such usage 
 from her father. Her affection soon disposed her to for- 
 giveness, and she intrusted him with the government of 
 Ireland, where a rebellion had broken out under the Earl 
 of Tyrone. The weakness of his conduct exposed him to 
 Elizabeth's censure, and she was further displeased when 
 he returned from his government and appeared at court 
 without her permission. Mortified by his reception, he 
 was persuaded to head a foolish insurrection in the streets 
 of London, for which he was committed to the Tower and 
 condemned to death. The mind of Elizabeth long wavered 
 between her lingering affection and just indignation. It has 
 been said that she had given him a ring, to be sent to her 
 whenever he needed her protection ; and that the earl 
 intrusted this token to the Countess of Nottingham, who 
 was secretly his enemy, and never delivered it to the 
 queen. Elizabeth was indignant at his neglecting to send 
 the ring, and signed the warrant for his execution. What- 
 ever truth there be in this account, it is certain that the 
 queen fell into a deep melancholy after the death of Essex, 
 and her powers of mind and body gave way. She lay for 
 ten days on the ground supported by cushions, and died in 
 the 70th year of her age, A.D. 1603, after indicating (as 
 was said) that the King of Scots was to be her successor. 
 
 Like all the sovereigns of the Tudor family, she ruled 
 both court and kingdom with a sway little less arbitrary 
 than the rule of eastern despots. The power of the nobles 
 had been much broken in the wars of the Roses, and the 
 influence of the Commons had not yet reached itu full 
 growth. Her reign is however one of the most glorious 
 periods of English history. Commerce and agriculture 
 revived under her wise enactments, and towards the close 
 
 D 3
 
 82 JAMES I. 
 
 of her reign the law for the maintenance of the poor was 
 passed, which must ever be viewed as a great national 
 provision for the destitute and afflicted. The literature of 
 England blazed forth with unexampled brightness. Shak- 
 speare and Spenser among our poets, and Jewel and 
 Hooker among our divines, are still the pride of English 
 literature. The domestic architecture also of England 
 never flourished so much as in the reign of Elizabeth. 
 She was accustomed to make royal progresses in all parts 
 of her dominions, which served greatly to preserve her 
 popularity ; and on these journeys she visited those stately 
 mansions of her nobles, so many of which are still the 
 ornaments of our sylvan scenes. On these visits she was 
 entertained with pageants, in which the quaintness of the 
 prevailing taste was oddly blended with the chivalrous 
 feeling, which still cast a lingering lustre on the habits of 
 society. With many weaknesses, and faults of personal 
 character, the memory of Elizabeth has yet come down to 
 us as entitled to the reverence and gratitude of English- 
 men ; and she will ever be recorded in our annals as a 
 great and glorious queen. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 JAMES I. 
 
 Born at Holy rood Palace, Edinburgh. Buried at Westmin- 
 ster. Reigned 22 years. From A.D. 1603 to A.D. 1625. 
 
 BY the accession of James, the two kingdoms which had so 
 long divided the island were united under the same prince, 
 of the royal house of Stuart. The new king was possessed 
 of considerable learning, and often showed much shrewd- 
 ness and sagacity ; but these qualifications, as well as his 
 unquestionable kindness of heart, were spoilt by a childish 
 vanity and want of moral courage. Slovenly in his own 
 person, he was yet greatly captivated by splendour of ap- 
 parel and personal beauty in his courtiers, and suffered 
 himself to be led by favourites, who had no better quali- 
 fications than these. He had imbibed very lofty notions of 
 the kingly power, and was on this account inclined to the 
 English Church, which has ever favoured the principle of 
 monarchy, rather than to the presbyterian system, in which
 
 JAMES I. 83 
 
 he had been brought up, and which in the course of this 
 and the following reigns became more and more infected 
 with a levelling and republican spirit. Before he reached 
 London he had received from the Puritans a petition for 
 redress of what they considered grievances in the Esta- 
 blished Church ; and a conference was soon appointed at 
 Hampton Court between several bishops and the chief 
 puritan divines. In this discussion James himself took part 
 with singular sagacity, and its result was wholly favourable 
 to the Church. He succeeded also, in the course of his 
 reign, in establishing Episcopacy in his native kingdom. It 
 may however be doubted whether his measures were not 
 so conducted, in England as well as in Scotland, as only to 
 embitter the feelings which were now gaining ground against 
 that constitution of the Church, of which he saw the beauty 
 and the apostolic origin. At this conference it was agreed 
 that a new translation should be made of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures ; and that noble version which is still used by authority 
 in our Church was now prepared with great care by the 
 most learned divines. A plot was formed almost imme- 
 diately on James's accession, in favour of Lady Arabella 
 Stuart, who (as well as James himself) was a descendant 
 of Henry VII. She was treated with great harshness by 
 the king, and died in prison. Sir Walter Raleigh was 
 detained for thirteen years in the Tower for being impli- 
 cated in this plot. 
 
 A much more serious conspiracy was soon afterwards 
 entered into by the papists, who were disappointed in their 
 expectation of being favoured by the new king. This is 
 called the Gunpowder Plot, because the conspirators formed 
 the diabolical design of blowing up the parliament-house 
 with gunpowder, at the time when James in person should 
 open the meeting of the great national council. The chief 
 conspirators were Catesby, a gentleman of property in 
 Warwickshire, and Percy, a kinsman of the Earl of North- 
 umberland. They fixed on one Guy Fawkes as their agent ; 
 a man of good family and blameless life, but remarkable 
 for his fanatical zeal in favour of the Romish Church. 
 Francis Tresham, Sir Everard Digby, and others, were 
 made acquainted with the design during its progress, that 
 they might hold themselves ready to act with the con- 
 spirators. A house adjoining the parliament-house was
 
 84 JAMES I. 
 
 taken, and access thus obtained to the vaults under that 
 building. These were filled with barrels of powder and 
 faggots, and a train was laid which was to be fired by 
 Fawkes. By the Providence of God, the plot was dis- 
 covered a few days only before the meeting of parliament, 
 which was appointed for Nov. 5 (1604). A mysterious 
 letter was brought to the Lord Mounteagle, to warn him of 
 an impending danger. It spoke of a sudden blow, and 
 that no one should see the hand that gave it. Mounteagle 
 was a brother-in-law of Tresham, by whom (most probably) 
 the letter was written. He laid it at once before the 
 council, and the king himself suggested that the vaults 
 under the parliament-house should be searched. Fawkes 
 was taken, as he was stepping out of the cellar, and 
 having been (as is believed) put to the torture, confessed 
 the whole plot. The conspirators fled when they heard 
 that Fawkes was taken ; but the house in which they were 
 concealed was surrounded, and many of them were killed 
 on the spot after a desperate defence. Digby, with Fawkes 
 and several others, was executed opposite the parliament- 
 house. This plot must ever be classed with the massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew, and the cruelties of the Inquisition in 
 Spain, as instances of the baleful effects produced by that 
 false zeal in religion which the Church of Rome has so 
 much encouraged. 
 
 James was engaged in continual contests with his par- 
 liament, and in the early part of his reign was assisted by 
 the sagacity of Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, a son of the great 
 Lord Burleigh. This statesman died in 1612, in which 
 year the country lost also Prince Henry, a youth of great 
 promise, on whose death the king's only surviving son, 
 Charles, became Prince of Wales. On the death of Salis- 
 bury, the king brought forward a favourite whom he had 
 made Viscount Rochford, and soon created Earl of Somer- 
 set. This was Robert Kerr, a man of most abandoned 
 character, who, together with his wife, was concerned in the 
 murder of his secretary, Sir Thomas Overbury, for having 
 advised him against his marriage. James had by this time 
 transferred his affection to Villiers, who became Duke of 
 Buckingham; and Somerset was condemned and dismissed 
 from court, while the immediate but less guilty agents in 
 the murder were executed.
 
 JAMES I. 85 
 
 Soon after the death of his son, the king married his 
 only daughter Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine of the Rhine. 
 This prince was afterwards chosen King of Bohemia, on the 
 death of the Emperor Matthias, by whom the rights se- 
 cured to the Bohemian Protestants had been so grossly 
 violated, that they refused to acknowledge his successor 
 (Ferdinand of Austria) as their king. The elector was 
 however driven not only from his new kingdom, but even 
 from his hereditary dominions ; and was but feebly assisted 
 by his father-in-law, though the English were anxious to 
 support his cause, which they looked upon as the cause of 
 the Protestant religion. The king was the less inclined to 
 comply with this wish, because he was desirous of marry- 
 ing his son to a' daughter of the King of Spain, who was 
 nearly allied to the house of Austria. With a view of fur- 
 thering this marriage, the young Prince of Wales was 
 induced by Buckingham to make a secret expedition to the 
 court of Madrid ; and it may be observed, that even in 
 this romantic and hurried excursion, great care was taken 
 to provide for the celebration of Divine service according 
 to the English Prayer-Book, in the apartments of the prince. 
 The English, however, were alarmed at the risk to which 
 Charles was thus exposed of being influenced in favour 
 of popery, and were not sorry when the match was after- 
 wards broken off in a manner highly offensive to the Spanish 
 court. 
 
 The king's desire for this marriage had induced him, some 
 years before, to sacrifice Sir Walter Raleigh to the resent- 
 ment of Spain. After being in prison for thirteen years, 
 Kaleigh had obtained permission to conduct a second ex- 
 pedition to South America, with the hope of realizing the 
 golden visions in which he was prone to indulge. It proved 
 a total failure ; but was very offensive to the Spaniards, and 
 on his return James was persuaded to let the former sen- 
 tence against Raleigh (which had never been remitted) 
 take its course, and he was most unjustly executed. 
 
 When the Spanish match was broken off, the prince was 
 engaged to Henrietta Maria, daughter of the King of 
 France. Before the marriage took place, James breathed 
 his last, after a short illness (1625), meeting his end with 
 firmness and devotion. 
 
 In this reign the great Lord Chancellor Bacon, who has 
 contributed so much to the advancement of science, was
 
 86 CHARLES I. 
 
 compelled to acknowledge himself guilty of bribery and 
 corruption in his high office ; a memorable instance that the 
 most exalted genius will not preserve a man from disgrace- 
 ful crime, without that fear of God which is the beginning 
 of wisdom. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 CHARLES 1. 1625 1642 (TILL THE MEETING OF THE LONG 
 PARLIAMENT). 
 
 Born at Holyrood Palace. Buried at Windsor. Reigned 24 
 years. From A.D. 1625 to A.D. 1649. 
 
 CHARLES was in his twenty-fifth year when he became king. 
 His character was ill suited to the times in which he lived, 
 and the spirits with which he had to cope. The House of 
 Commons, which had gradually become conscious of its 
 power, had now learnt to refuse supplies, unless the crown 
 would grant a redress of grievances. Every Englishman 
 must admire the courage with which the Commons as- 
 serted the unlawfulness of taxation without consent of 
 parliament, and maintained the great principle that no one 
 shall be imprisoned without being brought to a fair and 
 open trial. The opposition, however, which began on these 
 grounds, was soon tainted with the personal ends of those 
 who conducted it, and degenerated into the most bitter en- 
 mity against both royalty and episcopacy. Released from 
 the shackles of the Romish superstition, the minds of men 
 had rushed to an opposite extreme, and had become in- 
 tolerant of those restraints on the individual will, which 
 are implied in a monarchical government and an episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 Charles, on the other hand, had been trained in lofty 
 notions of a right in kings to unlimited obedience, and 
 regarded many of the concessions that were extorted 
 from him as so many encroachments on his prerogative, 
 which he therefore was at liberty to recall, when he should 
 find himself able to do so. Exemplary in his conduct as a 
 husband and father, and devotedly attached to the English 
 Church, he yet suffered himself at times to dissemble with 
 his enemies. With chivalrous courage, and a cultivated 
 mind, he showed too often not only an unbending will,
 
 CHARLES I. 87 
 
 but a weak judgment, and was ever too much influenced 
 by his queen and other counsellors far inferior in ability to 
 himself. In the early part of his reign our sympathy will 
 often be with the parliaments, which upheld the rights of 
 the people ; but in the latter period of his history, our judg- 
 ment as well as feeling will for the most part be in favour 
 of the king. 
 
 He was at first much influenced by the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham, who was both disliked and suspected by the people : 
 and though a popular war with Spain and Austria was 
 impending, the first parliament that met would grant little 
 more than 100,000^. ; a sum very inadequate to the occa- 
 sion. The feeling against Buckingham was increased by a 
 discovery that it was intended to employ against the Pro- 
 testants at Rochelle some ships that were collected for the 
 Spanish war ; and also by the failure of an expedition 
 against Cadiz. On the meeting of the second parliament, 
 Buckingham was impeached as the cause of all the evils 
 under which the kingdom suffered. To screen his favourite, 
 the king dissolved the parliament, and proceeded to raise 
 money on his own authority. He had been induced by 
 Buckingham to engage in a war with France, and an ex- 
 pedition was led to Rochelle, which failed, through the 
 duke's misconduct. Charles summoned a third parliament, 
 which at once embodied the grievances of the nation in 
 what is known as the Petition of Right ; declaring illegal 
 all taxation by the king alone, and asserting the right of 
 all subjects to the writ of habeas corpus. This is a writ by 
 which persons who are imprisoned can demand an open 
 hearing, according to the law of the land. A bill was 
 founded on this petition, and passed with the king's reluc- 
 tant consent : and though this law was afterwards dis- 
 regarded, it yet remained as a monument of the rights of 
 Englishmen, to which they could ever appeal, and which 
 they were able at last to establish. 
 
 A fleet and army were at this time assembled at Ports- 
 mouth, which Buckingham was again to command ; but 
 on leaving his chamber one morning, he was stabbed by an 
 unknown hand, and died immediately of the wound. The 
 assassin proved to be one Felton, a man of a fanatical 
 spirit, who had learnt to regard the duke as the great 
 grievance of the kingdom. He was executed as a mur- 
 derer.
 
 88 CHARLES I. 
 
 On the death of Buckingham, Charles took to his coun- 
 sels Sir Thomas Wentworth, whom he afterwards made 
 Earl of Strafford, and Laud, bishop of London, who on 
 the death of Abbot became archbishop of Canterbury. The 
 third parliament was soon dissolved, after a scene of great 
 violence, in which the speaker was forcibly held in his chair, 
 when he would have left the house in compliance with the 
 king's desire, who even threatened to force the doors and 
 take away the mace. 
 
 For nearly twelve years from this period Charles sum- 
 moned no parliament. He made peace with Spain and 
 France, and raised by his own authority such taxes as he 
 wanted, especially certain duties on the import of wine and 
 other merchandise, called tonnage and poundage. With 
 these he maintained a brilliant court, and encouraged the 
 fine arts, for which he had a very correct taste. The king- 
 dom at this time enjoyed much prosperity. 
 
 Under the influence of Laud, the king took measures for 
 the more decent celebration of Divine worship according to 
 the English ritual, and punished with severity such persons 
 as opposed his restorations ; especially Prynne, a barrister, 
 and Bast wick, a physician, who wrote against episcopacy. 
 The arbitrary manner in which he governed excited a 
 growing discontent, and at length the payment of a tax 
 called ship-money, which the king revived, was resisted by 
 John Hampden, a gentleman of Bucks. The cause was 
 tried, and decided in Charles's favour ; but the example of 
 resistance which was thus set, was not forgotten. Having- 
 lost his cause, and despairing of the liberty of England, 
 Hampden was preparing to leave the kingdom with Oliver 
 Cromwell and others of the same opinion, when they were 
 . stopped by a proclamation, forbidding all ship-masters to 
 take out passengers to New England without a licence. 
 How little did Charles foresee the part which those persons 
 were to play, when he thus stopped their departure from 
 his kingdom ! 
 
 The king had appointed Strafford his deputy in Ireland, 
 and his measures were very successful in quieting and im- 
 proving ihai country. In Scotland, however, the attempts 
 of Charles and Archbishop Laud to strengthen the cause 
 of episcopacy produced a violent reaction. A solemn 
 league and covenant were generally entered into in favour 
 of the presbyterian system ; and in order to provide funds
 
 PERIOD OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 89 
 
 for the war that broke forth on these grounds, a parliament 
 was summoned, which met April 13, 1640; but was dis- 
 solved in about three weeks, in consequence of the resist- 
 ance which it threatened to the measures of the king. 
 Finding, however, that the war in Scotland became serious, 
 lie was forced to summon another parliament, which met 
 Nov. 3 in the same year, and is known in history as the 
 Long Parliament. From its meeting we may date the rise 
 of a tyranny far more insupportable than the despotic rule 
 of Charles, and a rebellion that overthrew both the altar 
 and the throne. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 1642 1649. PERIOD OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 THE House of Commons, having chosen for its speaker a 
 lawyer named Lenthall, proceeded to impeach both Straf- 
 ford and Laud on charges of high treason. The trial of 
 StrafFord was managed by Pym and other members of the 
 house ; and the earl defended himself with so much power 
 and clearness, that the tide seemed likely to turn in his 
 favour. It was then resolved to proceed against him by 
 bill of attainder, which was carried through both houses, 
 together with another, that the parliament should not be 
 prorogued nor adjourned till all grievances should be re- 
 dressed. This bill was an entire change of the English 
 constitution ; and far better would it have been for Charles 
 had he submitted to any alternative rather than consent to 
 these bills, by which he sacrificed an innocent minister, and 
 also the ancient government of his kingdom. It is plain 
 that Pym thirsted for the blood of Strafford. Many years 
 before, when Strafford ceased to act with the popular party, 
 Pym said to him, " You are going to leave us, but I will 
 never leave you while your head is on your shoulders." 
 He now alarmed the king by telling the house that Charles 
 was about to bring up the army to overawe the Commons. 
 After much hesitation, in the course of which Strafford 
 wrote to desire that his royal master would consider only 
 his own interest, Charles signed a commission to pass both 
 the bills. The earl was executed the following day on 
 Tower-hill. When led to execution, he stopped before the 
 windows of the chamber in which Laud was imprisoned,
 
 DO PERIOD OF THE GREAT REBELLIOX. 
 
 while the aged prelate raised his hands in token of that 
 blessing which he was unable to pronounce. The earl 
 met his end with great firmness and piety. 
 
 Charles now gave way to the demands of the parliament, 
 but was suspected of watching an opportunity to regain his 
 power; and his enemies charged him with encouraging a 
 rebellion that broke forth in Ireland, and led to the most 
 shocking massacre of the English. The feeling against 
 the king was confirmed by many imprudent acts on his 
 part, and especially by his going down to the house to 
 seize Pym and Hampden, with three other members. His 
 attempt was ineffectual ; and it now became plain that the 
 dispute could be settled only by an appeal to the sword. 
 The Commons demanded the expulsion of the bishops 
 from the House of Lords ; and this the king was induced 
 to agree to. They claimed also the command of the 
 militia throughout the kingdom ; and when Charles was 
 pressed to yield this point for a time, he exclaimed, with 
 much heat, " Not for an hour." The concession would 
 have left him but the shadow of his royal power. 
 
 Troops were now raised on both sides, and the royal 
 standard was set up at Nottingham, Aug. 25, 1642. The 
 balance of power seemed much in favour of the parliament ; 
 but the progress of the war was at first favourable to the 
 royal cause. The first battle in which Englishmen had 
 opposed each other since the wars of the Roses, took place 
 at Edge-hill, on the borders of Warwickshire and Oxford- 
 shire. The parliamentary forces were commanded by the 
 Earl of Essex, while the king's nephews, Prince Rupert 
 and Prince Maurice, were intrusted with high commands 
 in the royal army, which gained the advantage in this 
 battle. The king marched to Oxford, which had ever 
 been loyal to him, and where he chiefly resided (when not 
 engaged in the field) during this lamentable contest. 
 
 The war, which lasted about three years, was on the 
 whole conducted with less violence and cruelty than are 
 usual in civil strife ; and instances of the greatest heroism 
 and loyalty were shown by many noble ladies, as well as 
 by the gentry who rallied round their king. The two 
 parties were distinguished by the names of the Cavaliers 
 and Roundheads. To the former belonged, for the most 
 part, the gentry of the land ; to the latter, the middle 
 classes ; among whom the leaven of puritanical and re-
 
 PERIOD OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 91 
 
 publican principles had most widely spread. Negotiations 
 for peace were from time to time attempted, but came to 
 nothing, from the encroaching spirit of the parliament, 
 which could be satisfied only by the surrender of the 
 English Church as well as of the royal power. At one 
 time the king summoned a parliament at Oxford ; but its 
 proceedings had little effect. 
 
 In the first year of the war Hampden received his death- 
 wound in an engagement near Wycomb ; but his loss was 
 balanced by that of Lord Falkland at Newbury, who seems, 
 of all who took part in these troubles, to have had the 
 purest patriotism. The commanders of most note on the 
 royal side (besides Prince Rupert) were the Marquesses of 
 Worcester, Hertford, and Newcastle, and the Lord Goring. 
 On the other side, Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Generals 
 Waller, Massey, and Skippon, were chiefly distinguished, 
 until the energy of Oliver Cromwell enabled him to obtain 
 ascendancy over all the others. His military skill appeared 
 conspicuously at the battle of Marston Moor (July 2, 
 1644), where he overthrew the royal forces under Prince 
 Rupert. From this time the cause of Charles declined. 
 An army from Scotland under the Earl of Leven had been 
 summoned by the parliament to their aid ; and, though 
 Charles was cheered by the brilliant success of the Mar- 
 quess of Montrose in the Highlands of Scotland, he received 
 so complete an overthrow from Fairfax at Naseby, near 
 Daventry (June 13, 1645), that he resolved to deliver him- 
 self up to the Scottish army. He was treated by the Scots 
 with outward respect : but they at length basely delivered 
 their sovereign to the parliamentary forces, on the pay- 
 ment of the arrears which were due to them. 
 
 Before this time the trial of Laud had been brought to 
 a close by a most iniquitous bill, in which only six peers 
 could be brought to concur. He suffered with the con- 
 stancy of a martyr ; and with him fell for a season the 
 Church for which he died. The presbyterian system was 
 established by the parliament ; the use of the Liturgy for- 
 bidden ; and the harshest measures were adopted towards 
 the clergy of the Church. 
 
 The rise of Cromwell was the more important, because 
 he was at the head of a sect called the Independents, who 
 were distinguished for their stern and fanatical temper, 
 and as much opposed to the presbyterians as these had
 
 92 PERIOD OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 
 
 been to the Church of England. The principles of this 
 sect spread widely in the army, and that portion which 
 embraced these views succeeded in obtaining possession of 
 the king's person from the guards which the parliament 
 had placed about him. He was now brought to Hampton 
 Court, and treated with outward respect. There was even 
 some hope that Cromwell might embrace his cause ; but 
 the distrust of Charles, which was so general, seems to 
 have stood in the way of any such arrangement ; though it 
 is not unlikely that Cromwell connived at, the king's escape, 
 who withdrew himself from Hampton Court, and fled to 
 Titchfield House in Hants. His friends then opened a 
 correspondence with Colonel Hammond, the governor of 
 Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight ; the result of which 
 was that Charles passed over to the island, but soon found 
 himself a prisoner in that castle. Efforts in his favour 
 were made by the royalists, but with ill success ; and 
 treaties were opened with him by the Scots, as well as by 
 the parliament, which came to nothing. The Scots, how- 
 ever, sent an army into England, which was defeated by 
 Cromwell, who then sent Colonel Pride to purge the par- 
 liament of all the more moderate members. This measure, 
 which was effected by violence, is known as " Pride's 
 purge," and the miserable remnant of the house was called 
 " The Rump." The king made some vain attempts to 
 escape from Carisbrook, and was brought to Windsor. 
 From thence he was removed to London, as the house 
 (under the influence of the army) had resolved to bring 
 him to trial. A court, of which one Bradshaw was pre- 
 sident, was constituted in Westminster-hall ; and, though 
 the peers refused to concur in this proceeding, Charles was 
 arraigned on a charge of high treason, for having levied 
 war against his parliament. 
 
 His behaviour in these last scenes of his life was kingly 
 and Christian. He had steadily refused to sacrifice what- 
 ever is essential to the episcopal government of the Church, 
 and he now met the violent death which he saw before 
 him with mildness and constancy. Throughout the trial 
 (which 'lasted more than a week) he denied the right of 
 subjects to sit in judgment on their sovereign ; and was 
 not suffered to speak when judgment was passed upon him. 
 The soldiers grossly insulted him as he passed up the hall, 
 and one of them even spat on him. " Poor souls !" he
 
 PERIOD OF THE GREAT REBELLION. 93 
 
 said, " they would do the same to their own generals for 
 sixpence." One soldier was struck down by his officer for 
 imploring a blessing upon him : " Surely," said the king, 
 " the punishment exceeds the offence." The warrant for 
 his death was signed by fifty-nine commissioners. The 
 brutal levity which was joined to the fanaticism of the 
 regicides may be seen in the fact, that as Cromwell 
 approached the table with the pen in his hand to sign the 
 warrant, he drew it across the face of a member of the 
 court named Marten, who did the same to Cromwell. 
 
 Happily the eldest sons of Charles were at the Hague. 
 He was allowed to see the Duke of Gloucester and the 
 Princess Elizabeth ; and the meeting which took place 
 was as tender as might be expected, from the depth and 
 purity of his affections. He told his daughter that he died 
 a martyr for his people ; an expression which he repeated on 
 the scaffold ; and desired her also to tell the queen that he 
 had never even in thought swerved from his fidelity to her. 
 The Duke of Gloucester was only three years of age. The 
 king took him in his arms, and said, " My child, they will 
 cut off thy father's head, and will perhaps make thee a 
 king ; but remember, thou must not be a king as long as 
 thy brothers Charles and James are alive. They will cut 
 off their heads when they can take them ; and they will 
 cut off thy head at last, and therefore I charge thee do not 
 be made a king by them." The child burst into tears, and 
 said, " I will be torn in pieces first." The king was 
 allowed the attendance of Bishop Juxon, who administered 
 to him the Holy Communion. During the night that 
 preceded his execution, he slept soundly ; and, on rising, 
 desired to be dressed with great care, as for the day of 
 his second marriage. Juxon prayed with him, and read the 
 lesson for the day (Jan. 30), which is the 27th chapter of 
 St. Matthew. Thus did the Church, to which he was so 
 truly attached, direct his mind at that moment to the only 
 foundation for a Christian's hope. 
 
 The scaffold was erected opposite his chamber in the 
 royal banqueting-house at Whitehall, and guarded by 
 regiments of foot and horse. The streets within sight of 
 the scaffold were thronged with people. Charles walked 
 at his usual quick pace through the park, calling out to the 
 guard, " March on apace." He showed anxiety that the 
 axe should be sharp and keen : for he disliked pain, though
 
 94 THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 he did not fear death. After speaking with calmness and 
 dignity to those about him, he was reminded by Juxon 
 that he had only one stage more to take, which, though 
 turbulent and troublesome, would carry him from earth to 
 heaven. " I go," said the king, " from a corruptible crown 
 to an incorruptible, where no disturbance can be." He 
 gave his cloak and George to the bishop, saying, " Re- 
 member." His head was struck off at one blow; and a 
 groan arose from the multitude, when the fatal deed was 
 done, as if to the last moment they expected some other 
 end to this tragedy. Many ran to dip their handkerchiefs 
 in his blood; and the saintly meekness with which he bore 
 adversity, as well as the firmness with which he struggled 
 and suffered for the English Church, will ever justify the 
 title which has now been given him by many generations 
 King Charles the Martyr. 
 
 Charles II. reigned 36 years, from A.D. 1649 to A.D. 1685. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Usurpation of Cromwell, from A.D. 1649 to A.D. 1660. 
 
 THE murderous execution of Charles was followed by acts 
 to abolish the House of Peers and the office of a king. An 
 engagement to be true to the Commonwealth of England 
 was substituted for the oaths of allegiance and supremacy ; 
 and all acts were to run in the name of " the keepers of the 
 liberties of England." A council of state was appointed, of 
 which Bradshaw was president ; and it found full employ- 
 ment in quelling the mutinous temper of the army, as well 
 as in the affairs of Ireland and Scotland. 
 
 In Ireland the royal cause was supported by the Mar- 
 quesses of Ormonde and Clanricarde; and in Scotland 
 Prince Charles was received as king. The Scots had 
 assisted the parliament in their rebellion, but were not pre- 
 pared to abolish the royal office. Charles was however 
 forced to take the covenant in favour of the presbyterian 
 system, and was treated with great rudeness by the Scotch 
 preachers and their supporters.
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH. 95 
 
 The energy of Cromwell brought the parliament through 
 their difficulties. Being sent to Ireland as lord-lieutenant, 
 he conquered great part of that island, and was then in- 
 trusted with the command of the English forces in Scot- 
 land. He routed the Scotch at Dunbar (Sept. 3, 1650)^ 
 and great part of the country submitted to him. Charles 
 was, however, crowned at Scone, and resolved on the bold 
 measure of a march into England. He was followed by 
 Cromwell, and a battle took place at Worcester (Sept. 
 3, 1651), in which the Scots, after a brave resistance, 
 were completely defeated. Vast numbers of them were 
 sent as slaves to the West Indies, or to work in the mines 
 of Africa. Charles himself escaped and wandered about 
 in various disguises for six weeks with a price set on his 
 head. He once concealed himself in the foliage of an 
 oak at the very time when his pursuers were passing under 
 the tree. In the course of his wanderings his secret became 
 known to upwards of forty persons, but none betrayed the 
 trust. At length he embarked in a collier vessel at Shore- 
 ham, and was put ashore at Fechamp in Normandy. Scot- 
 land was annexed to England as a conquered province; and 
 a settlement of Ireland was effected by the severe measure 
 of confiscating the estates of such persons as had been con- 
 cerned in the late troubles, and transporting them in vast 
 numbers to other parts of the island. 
 
 Cromwell now thought that the time was come, when 
 he might take the reins of government into his own hands ; 
 and with this view he resolved to rid himself of the remnant 
 of the Long Parliament. He went down to the House with 
 a party of soldiers whom he left in the lobby, and having 
 taken his seat, proceeded to reproach the members with 
 their faults. At length he stamped with his foot, and ex- 
 claimed, " You are no parliament. I say you are no par- 
 liament. Bring them in." The soldiers then entered, 
 and when Sir Harry Vane (a republican) remonstrated 
 against this violence, Cromwell cried out, " Sir Harry 
 Vane ! O Sir Harry Vane ! The Lord deliver me from 
 Sir Harry Vane !" Then charging other members with 
 their vicious lives, he desired the soldiers to clear the 
 house, and (pointing to the mace) told them to take awav 
 " that fool's bauble." 
 
 His next measure was to summon a kind of parliament 
 of his own, which was called Barebones' Parliament';
 
 96 THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 from one Praise-God Barebones, who was a member of it. 
 This assembly (as Cromwell probably foresaw) soon made 
 itself ridiculous by its proceedings, and was dismissed. 
 His friends had thus some pretence for alleging that it 
 had become necessary to confer upon Cromwell supreme 
 power, with the title of Lord Protector. He was installed 
 into his office with much solemnity, and governed England 
 with a far more despotic sway than the Stuarts had ever 
 attempted to exercise. He called, indeed, some parliaments, 
 and attempted to organize an upper house, being exceed- 
 ingly desirous of obtaining from them the name as well as 
 the power of a king : but those only were admitted to these 
 assemblies who obtained a warrant from his council, and 
 he dismissed them when they became refractory. The 
 title of king was offered him ; but he found it necessary 
 to decline it, for fear of estranging some of his chief sup- 
 porters. England was parcelled out into eleven military 
 districts, under as many major-generals, to levy the taxes, 
 which were laid with great severity on all who were at- 
 tached to the royal cause. 
 
 ^ His government at home was disturbed by continual con- 
 spiracies ; for his person was not more hateful to the 
 royalists than to the republicans and fanatics, whom he 
 had used as a ladder to his exalted office. Abroad, however, 
 his government was eminently successful. A war had been 
 going on with the Dutch, who at this time had dismissed 
 the Orange family from the chief magistracy, and were 
 under the pensionary De Witt. They had been defeated in 
 a great naval battle at La Hogue, by Admiral Blake ; but 
 not till they had obtained some signal triumphs under their 
 own renowned admirals, Van Tromp and De Ruyter. 
 Cromwell made peace with them after another naval vic- 
 tory, in which General Monk distinguished himself, together 
 with Blake; and he entered into commercial treaties with 
 Denmark, Sweden, and Portugal. Foreign nations saw 
 how little the Protector was afraid of them by the vigorous 
 justice which he executed on a brother of the Portuguese 
 ambassador (notwithstanding the remonstrance of the other 
 ambassadors) for a murder which he had committed. Spain 
 and France were rivals for the Protector's favour. From 
 Spain, however, he demanded that the trade in the Atlantic 
 should be free to the English ; and while he sent one fleet 
 to the Mediterranean to exact satisfaction from the Deys of
 
 THE COMMONWEALTH. 97 
 
 Algiers and Tripoli, he sent another under Admiral Penn 
 to the West Indies ; and the conquest of Jamaica was the 
 fruit of this expedition. 
 
 In the midst of these successes, the life of Cromwell was 
 a burden to him. He read a book called ' Killing no 
 Murder ;' which was written on the fatal principle, that to 
 kill an usurper is an act of virtue ; and from that time was 
 never seen to smile. He wore armour under his clothes, 
 and never slept more than two or three nights in the same 
 chamber. Harassed by this continual suspicion and alarm, 
 he was also afflicted with the loss of his favourite daughter J 
 who is said to have reproached him with his crimes on her 
 death-bed. With all his faults, he was ever tenderly 
 attached to his family. His health gave way, and he died 
 in the 59th year of his age, Sept. 3, 1658, a miserable 
 instance of the bitter fruits of successful rebellion and gra- 
 tified ambiti'on. He began, perhaps, by being a sincere 
 enthusiast, but became a regicide and usurper ; and we 
 cannot doubt that he ended by being a hypocrite and self- 
 deceiver. On his death-bed he is said to have asked his 
 chaplain whether it was possible to fall from grace; and 
 received the awful and delusive assurance that such a fall is 
 not possible. "Then," said he, "I am safe; for I am sure 
 1 was once in a state of grace." 
 
 Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Protector on his 
 father's death ; but it was plain that he had not energy to 
 grasp the power which was put within his reach. He was 
 of a weak, though amiable character ; and in the end retired 
 into private life. The remains of the Long Parliament were 
 now once more assembled, and it seemed likely that the 
 supreme power would be seized by some popular general. 
 The commander in Scotland at this time was General Monk, 
 and his influence overshadowed the interest of the other 
 companions of Cromwell. His behaviour was for a time 
 very mysterious ; but he probably saw that the people were 
 weary of the late military rule, and sighed for the restora- 
 tion of their ancient government. He determined to throw 
 his weight into the royal cause ; and having marched to 
 London, he called together the members of the Long 
 Parliament who had been expelled by Colonel Pride, in 
 1648. The house thus constituted, dissolved itself, after 
 having summoned a new parliament, in which the king's 
 
 [H. s. 1.] E
 
 98 CHARLES II. 
 
 restoration was agreed on with wonderful unanimity. Com- 
 missioners were sent to Breda to invite his return. 
 
 Charles lost no time in availing himself of the tide that 
 had turned in his favour. He was received by Monk at 
 Dover, and entered London, on his own birthday, May 
 29, 1660. All ranks poured forth to see and welcome him. 
 He was greeted by the army with joyful acclamations as he 
 passed. The houses were hung with tapestry ; and such 
 was the general joy, that Charles in his lively manner 
 observed, " It must have been my own fault that I did 
 not come back before, for every one tells me that he always 
 wished for my restoration." 
 
 It may surely be hoped that the kingdom learnt a lesson- 
 which will never be forgotten, from the iron rule of the 
 usurper, as well as from the anarchy and fanaticism which 
 it superseded. England was thus taught the value of an 
 hereditary monarchy, and the blessedness and moderation of 
 that Church on which it had so madly trampled. The Great 
 Rebellion, which caused such misery to our forefathers, will 
 not have been fruitless of good, if it makes us cling more 
 fondly to that ancient constitution in Church and State 
 which was now s*o happily restored. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 CHARLES rewarded General Monk by making him Duke of 
 Albemarle. Hyde, who had attended the king in his exile, 
 and afterwards became Earl of Clarendon, was appointed 
 chancellor ; and Lord Southampton treasurer. The royal- 
 ists, in general, complained of the king's ingratitude, and 
 many who had lost their all in his service were left in 
 neglect. On the other hand, Charles was averse to seve- 
 rity ; and though some persons who had signed the warrant 
 for his father's execution were brought to the scaffold, or 
 confined for life, the royalists (on the whole) did not dis- 
 grace their triumph by showing a vindictive temper. In 
 arranging the royal revenue, many abuses which had arisen 
 from the feudal system were done away with ; and a per- 
 manent income was settled on the crown, instead of the
 
 CHARLES II. 99 
 
 profits which had been derived from wardships and the other 
 incidents of military tenure. A conference was also held 
 at the Savoy Palace 1 to settle the affairs of religion ; the 
 result of which was unfavourable to the wishes of the 
 presbyterians. The revision of the Prayer-book at that 
 conference is the last which our excellent liturgy has 
 undergone. 
 
 The character of Charles was some alloy to the blessings 
 which the country enjoyed in the restoration of their ancient 
 government in Church and State. Though affable and witty, 
 the king was unprincipled and selfish. A Romanist at heart, 
 he had not the courage to follow the example of his brother 
 James (Duke of York) in avowing his religion. During his 
 exile he had contracted the most dissolute habits ; and on 
 his return, he copied the disregard for the decencies of life 
 for which the court of Louis XIV., then king of France, 
 was infamous. He married an infanta of Portugal, but did 
 not the less connect himself with other women ; on whom, 
 as well as on his illegitimate children, he bestowed the 
 highest titles. He had no issue by his queen. 
 
 Charles was always secretly aiming to bring in popery, 
 and to make himself an absolute king ; not that, like his 
 father, he thought unlimited power his rightful heritage, 
 but that he wished to be under no restraint in the indul- 
 gence of his pleasures ; nor was the Duke of York exempt 
 from the same licentious habits, while he was far more 
 zealous than the king in promoting the interest of the 
 Church of Rome. This prince married a daughter of the 
 Earl of Clarendon ; by whom he became the father of the 
 Princesses Mary and Anne. He afterwards married a sister 
 of the Duke of Modena. Being made lord high admiral, he 
 seems to have induced his brother to declare war very need- 
 lessly with the United States of Holland. Many naval 
 battles were fought without any decided advantage to 
 either side; though on one occasion, the Dutch fleet under 
 De Ruyter sailed up the Thames, and threatened London 
 itself. 
 
 The country was at this time visited with two great 
 Calamities in succeeding years. The first (A.D. 1665) was 
 
 1 So called from Peter of Savoy, uncle of the queen of Henry III,, 
 by whom it was built. 
 
 E 2
 
 100 CHARLES II. 
 
 a plague, which spread through many parts of the kingdom, 
 and carried off, in London alone, upwards of one hundred 
 thousand people. The inhabitants were summoned by a 
 bell to bring out their dead ; which were thrown, without 
 any religious rite, into a pit prepared in the nearest church- 
 yard. The other calamity (A.D. 1666) was the most exten- 
 sive fire with which London was ever visited. Two-thirds 
 of the city were consumed ; but though the immediate dis- 
 tress was severe, London rose from its ashes in greater 
 beauty than before, and the streets were rebuilt with more 
 attention to health and regularity. The column, called The 
 Monument, was raised to commemorate this awful fire ; in 
 checking which the king exerted himself with energy and 
 humanity. 
 
 At this time Louis XIV. was pushing his conquests in 
 Flanders, and aiming at an universal rule in Europe. The 
 Dutch were alarmed at his progress, and sued for peace. A 
 treaty, called " The Triple Alliance," was formed by the 
 agency of Sir William Temple between England, Sweden, 
 and Holland, against the French king ; and well would it 
 have been for Charles's honour, had he been true to the en- 
 gagements which he thus contracted. Anxious, however, 
 to dispense with parliaments, and to raise by other means 
 the money required for his pleasures, he stooped (through a 
 great part of his reign) to become the pensioner of Louis ; 
 who thus bought from a king of England the promise that 
 he would declare himself a member of the Roman Church, 
 and make war with the United States of Holland. 
 
 Charles had some little time before formed a ministry 
 which was called the "Cabal" because the first letters of 
 the names of its members were ingeniously arranged into 
 that word. These were Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, 
 Ashley, Lauderdale. Buckingham was the son of the late 
 Icing's favourite. Ashley was afterwards made Earl of 
 Shaftesbury. A more profligate ministry was never at the 
 head of affairs; but their corruption was exceeded by the 
 venality of Charles himself; of which a second war with 
 Holland was the fruit. In this war, the young Prince of 
 Orange greatly distinguished himself against the armies of 
 Charles's ally, the King of France. A marriage was, how- 
 ever, arranged between this prince and the Princess Mary, 
 the daughter of the Duke of York ; whose second daughter
 
 CHARLES II. 101 
 
 (the Princess Anne) was afterwards married to Prince 
 George of Denmark. 
 
 Peace was at length concluded with the United States of 
 Holland on favourable terms to England, but only that 
 Charles might return to his dishonourable engagements 
 with Louis, who himself made peace with Holland by the 
 treaty of Nimeguen (1618). 
 
 The country, which had hailed the king's return, had now 
 learnt to distrust his principles, and was alarmed at the 
 prospect of a Popish successor in the person of his brother. 
 Charles about this time dissolved the parliament, which 
 had sat for seventeen years ; and, in the next, severe mea- 
 sures were passed against the Romanists. The peers of 
 that persuasion had already been excluded from the House 
 of Lords ; and a Bill was now brought in, by Lord Russell 
 and others, to exclude the duke himself from the succes- 
 sion : but was defeated. A bill was at the same time 
 passed to render the operation of the habeas corpus act 
 more easy and effectual. 
 
 This zeal for the Protestant religion burst forth into a 
 flame at the alleged discovery of a Popish Plot on a very 
 extended scale. The informer was one Titus Gates, who 
 by a tissue of the grossest perjuries succeeded in inflaming 
 the public mind to such a degree, that a vast number of 
 innocent persons was brought to the scaffold. New per- 
 plexity was created by information of another plot, called the 
 Meal-tub Plot, from the alleged discovery of some treason- 
 able papers in a meal-tub. Under the panic occasioned by 
 these real or pretended conspiracies, the bill of exclusion 
 was again brought forward by Lord Shaftesbury (who had 
 now turned against the court) and Lord Russell. The latter 
 nobleman was himself soon afterwards implicated in a con- 
 spiracy which was formed by some of the republican faction,, 
 who began to despair of the liberties of England. This party 
 contained persons of various ranks and opinions; and some 
 of the more desperate had planned to shoot the king, from a 
 building called the Rye-house; and the plot is therefore 
 known as the Rye-house Plot. It does not appear that Lord 
 Russell was privy to this part of the scheme ; and the evi- 
 dence against him was very questionable. His wife, a lady 
 of distinguished excellence, acted as his secretary on the- 
 trial ; the result of which was that he was beheaded in Lin-
 
 102 JAMES II. 
 
 coln's-Inn-Fields. He was a man of sincerity and virtuous 
 private life, and met his end with Christian resignation 
 and cheerfulness. Algernon Sydney, a decided republican, 
 who was implicated in the same conspiracy, was executed 
 on Tower-hill, a few months after the death of Lord 
 Russell (1683). 
 
 Soon after the king's return, episcopacy had heen restored 
 in Scotland ; and throughout the greater part of this reign 
 it was upheld by a persecution of the presbyterians, which 
 was carried on with the most revolting cruelty. An insur- 
 rection took place, but was crushed with great severity by 
 Graham of Claverhouse, who became Lord Dundee. It was 
 at length put down by the Duke of Monmouth, a natural 
 son of the king ; who would have dealt more gently with 
 the insurgents, had he not been controlled by the influence 
 of Graham and the Duke of Lauderdale. On the other 
 hand, Archbishop Sharp was murdered in cold blood by a 
 party of fanatics ; and the whole history of these troubles 
 exhibits a picture of the worst parts of human nature; 
 relieved only by the faith and courage with which many of 
 the persecuted presbyterians submitted to torture and death. 
 
 The king had probably injured his constitution by early 
 excesses, and had a fit of apoplexy in the 55th year of his 
 age. He died, Feb. 6, 1685, and was succeeded by his 
 brother James. 
 
 In this reign the clergy first ceased to tax themselves in 
 their own convocation ; which from that period gradually 
 lost its civil importance as a part of the constitution. 
 
 It may be mentioned also, that the appellations of Whig 
 and Tory began to distinguish the two great political par- 
 ties in the country in this reign. The former is said to 
 have been a nickname of the wild fanatics in the west of 
 Scotland, and the latter to have been a familiar designation 
 of the brigands in Ireland. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 JAMES II. 
 
 Reigned 4 years. From A.D. 1685 to A.D. 1689. 
 AT the council which assembled on the death of Charles, 
 the new king declared his purpose of maintaining the
 
 JAMES II. 103 
 
 Church and constitution of the country as established by 
 law. His conduct soon made his people mistrust the sin- 
 cerity of this declaration. He went publicly to mass, re- 
 laxed the enforcement of laws against Romanists, and sent 
 the Earl of Castlemain as his ambassador to Rome. His 
 measures for the reconciliation of his kingdom to that see 
 appeared so imprudent to the pope, that the earl was coldly 
 received ; and though a nuncio was sent to England, he did 
 not openly assume that character at first. Monks in the 
 habit of their order now appeared at court, as well as in all 
 parts of London ; and the alarm which was excited by 
 these signs of the king's intention, was greatly increased 
 when he claimed the power of dispensing by his own act 
 with the execution of all laws. 
 
 The opponents of James in the late reign had on several 
 occasions put forward the Duke of Monmouth as his rival, 
 though Charles invariably declared that he was never mar- 
 ried to that nobleman's mother. The discontent, however, 
 which was felt at James's evident design to introduce 
 popery into his kingdom, encouraged Monmouth to raise 
 his standard against his uncle. He was assisted in his en- 
 terprise by the Earl of Argyle, who had long been in exile ; 
 but the scheme was ill prepared, and Argyle, who landed in 
 Scotland, was taken and executed in Edinburgh. Monmouth 
 collected some troops, but they dispersed at the approach 
 of the royal army ; and the duke was himself taken in the 
 fields, with nothing but some peas in his pockets, the only 
 sustenance which he had had for some days. He was be- 
 headed on Tower-hill, to the great regret of the people, 
 with whom he was generally a favourite. 
 
 The king was relentless, not only in the case of his 
 nephew, but also in wreaking his vengeance on all who had 
 assisted his rebellion. Judge Jeffreys (who was soon after- 
 wards made lord chancellor) was sent into the west, and 
 behaved with the most savage insolence and cruelty in the 
 trials over which he presided. In his circuit, which James 
 always spoke of as "Jeffreys' campaign," more than 250 
 prisoners were executed with dreadful severity, and vast 
 numbers sent as slaves to the plantations. 
 
 Elated by his success in putting down Monmouth's rebel- 
 lion, the king was less careful to conceal the purpose which 
 he had in view. The army was filled with papists, and
 
 104 JAMES ir. 
 
 persons of the same persuasion were promoted to the high- 
 est offices in the state. The Church was next attacked in 
 the universities, and on the death of the president of Mag- 
 dalene College (Oxford), the fellows were commanded to 
 elect one Anthony Farmer, who had become a proselyte to 
 the Church of Rome. The college disregarded this man- 
 date, and elected Mr. Hough as their president. For this 
 disobedience, twenty-five of the fellows, with Hough him- 
 self, who afterwards became Bishop of Worcester, were 
 expelled from the university. The king issued an order in 
 council, that a declaration which he had put forth in favour 
 of liberty of conscience, should be read in all churches. 
 Seven of the bishops refused to obey this proclamation. 
 The king sent them to the Tower, and caused them to be 
 prosecuted for sedition. As they were conducted down 
 the river, the banks were lined with people, who fell on their 
 knees, and implored the blessing of their spiritual fathers, 
 who thus suffered for the truth. Notwithstanding the 
 efforts of the court, the bishops were acquitted on their 
 trial ; and the acclamations of the people at their escape 
 reached even to the camp at Hounslow, where the king was 
 dining in the tent of Lord Feversham. Inquiring the cause 
 of the shouts which he heard, he was told that they were 
 nothing but the acclamations of the people at the acquittal 
 of the bishops. " Call you that nothing !"' said the king ; 
 " but so much the worse for them." 
 
 The birth of a Prince of Wales (June 10, 1688) seems 
 to have convinced the principal people in the country, that 
 it was now necessary to act with energy, if the Church and 
 liberties of England were to be preserved. An invitation 
 was sent to William, Prince of Orange, (the Stadtholder, 
 and chief officer of the government of the Dutch provinces,) 
 who was the son-in-law of James, as well as the grandson 
 of Charles I., to request his aid in preserving the religion 
 and laws of the land from the danger which threatened them. 
 Everything was prepared for the arrival of the prince, be- 
 fore James was aware of the estrangement of his people. 
 On learning it, he endeavoured to regain their affections by 
 concessions which came too late. William landed in Tor- 
 bay, Nov. 5, and was soon joined by the principal persons 
 in the kingdom ; among others by the Princess Anne. 
 When James was told of her flight, he exclaimed, " God
 
 WILLIAM III. AND MARY II. 105 
 
 help me ! my own children are forsaking me." Finding 
 himself unable to offer any effectual resistance, he tried to 
 escape from the kingdom ; but was recognised at Feversham, 
 and brought back to London ; where the people, who had 
 so lately regarded him with mistrust, received him with ac- 
 clamations. William ordered him to reside at Rochester, 
 from which place he was able again to embark for France ; 
 and was cordially received by Louis XIV., who assigned 
 him the palace of St. Germain's as a residence. 
 
 On the king's flight a convention was assembled, by 
 which it was declared that James had abdicated the govern- 
 ment; and the crown was offered to William, and Mary his 
 wife, the daughter of James, jointly. They were proclaimed 
 king and queen ; but the royal power was declared to belong 
 exclusively to William. In the event of their leaving no 
 issue, the succession was settled on the Princess Anne and 
 her children. 
 
 Such is the event which is known in history as the Eng- 
 lish Revolution. It resulted from the deep attachment of 
 the English to their national Church and civil liberties; and 
 it is impossible to look back on it without admiring the 
 calmness and moderation with which the great men who 
 brought about this change in the government accomplished 
 their purpose. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 WILLIAM III. AND MARY II. 
 
 Reiyned 5 years. From A.D. 1689 to A.D. 1694. William. 
 III. (alone) reigned 8 years. From A.D. 1694 to A.D. 
 1702. 
 
 THE prince who thus mounted the throne of England was 
 one of the greatest men of the age. He had steadily op- 
 posed the ambitious designs of the king of France ; and was 
 an able though not often a successful general. He had a 
 strong sense of religious duty, and was upright, and gene- 
 rally correct in his conduct; though not devoid of faults from 
 which his high principles ought to have induced him to ab- 
 stain. He was, however, tenderly attached to his queen, 
 who conducted herself with much piety and wisdom in the 
 
 E 3
 
 106 WILLIAM III. AND MARY II. 
 
 difficult duties which she had to discharge. William shared 
 the cold and phlegmatic character which is usually ascribed 
 to his countrymen ; and his dry and unpleasant manners 
 contrasted unfavourably with that winning affability, to 
 which the English had been accustomed in Charles, and 
 which had engaged their affections to that monarch notwith- 
 standing his many faults. 
 
 The limits of the royal prerogative were now defined and 
 settled by the Sill of Rights, to which William gave his as- 
 sent; embodying most of the points for which, even from 
 the days of the Plantagenets, the country had been contend- 
 ing. The administration was in the hands of the Whigs, 
 of whom the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Danby, and John 
 Somers were the chief. Danby, who had been minister to 
 Charles II., and was impeached in that reign, became Duke 
 of Leeds ; and Somers was afterwards made Earl Somers 
 and lord chancellor. 
 
 The oath of allegiance to William, which was now im- 
 posed, was declined by Archbishop Sancroft and several of 
 the bishops, who had gone to the Tower rather than give 
 way to James. These prelates, with others who followed 
 their example, resigned their sees; and many of the clergy 
 for the same reason were deprived of their benefices. This 
 party among the clergy were called non-jurors. However 
 we may lament this division in the ecclesiastical body at 
 such a time, it is impossible not to respect the conscientious 
 and disinterested conduct of these prelates, who were con- 
 tent to suffer imprisonment for their resistance to James's 
 illegal measures, and yet resigned their sees rather than 
 violate the oath of allegiance to that prince by which they 
 still thought themselves bound. Dr. Tillotson was made 
 archbishop of Canterbury, and the see of Salisbury was 
 conferred upon Dr. Burnett. 
 
 The crown of Scotland was settled on William and 
 Mary by a Scottish convention. An insurrection in the 
 Highlands, in favour of James, was headed by Lord 
 Dundee, who gained a victory at the pass of Killie- 
 crankie ; but was killed in the battle, and his troops 
 dispersed. Episcopacy was now abolished in Scotland, 
 and the presbyterian system was established. It may 
 here be mentioned, that the suppression of disaffection in 
 the Highlands was attended some little time afterwards by
 
 WILLIAM III. AND MARY II. 107 
 
 an act of cruelty which has left a stain on William's 
 memory. This was a massacre of the clan or family of 
 M'Donald in the vale of Glenco. The king too hastily 
 signed a paper to authorize the extermination of " that set 
 of thieves," as he denominated the inhabitants of that val- 
 ley, in his ignorance of the Highland character and system 
 of clanship. The execution of this order was intrusted to 
 M'Donald's hereditary enemy, and was effected with great 
 treachery and cruelty. The party came in the guise of 
 friendship, and was hospitably entertained by M'Donald 
 for fifteen days, at the close of which a complete massacre 
 of his family took place. Children were butchered as they 
 clung to the knees of the soldiers, and M'Donald was shot 
 in the arms of his wife, who herself died in a state of dis- 
 traction. 
 
 In Ireland the government of William was opposed with 
 much determination. The people of that island were then, 
 as now, generally members of the Church of Rome, and 
 they received James, who landed at Kinsale (March 12, 
 1689), as their lawful king. In Ulster only could the Pro- 
 testants make head against him ; and the city of London- 
 derry was distinguished by its heroic defence, and refusal 
 to surrender, notwithstanding the sufferings of the people for 
 want of food. The city was at length relieved by a supply 
 of provisions from England, and James was compelled to 
 raise the siege. 
 
 William crossed into Ireland with an army composed in 
 great measure of Dutch troops, and at the battle of the 
 Boyne (which James witnessed from a neighbouring emi- 
 nence) completely overthrew that prince, who again with- 
 drew to France. The war in Ireland was terminated by 
 the reduction of Limerick, in 1691, when about 12,000 
 Irish passed over to France, and were taken into the pay 
 of Louis. 
 
 The king throughout his reign employed his great 
 increase of power in opposing the designs of the French 
 monarch, and was continually engaged in wars in Flanders. 
 A powerful fleet which James had collected by the aid of 
 Louis, was defeated in a great battle at La Hogue, in 1792; 
 and in 1695 the king succeeded in taking the city of Namur 
 in the face of a French army of 100,000 men ; an action by 
 which he greatly enhanced his reputation. A peace, called 
 the Peace of Ryswick, was concluded in 1697 ; and it was
 
 108 WILLIAM III. AND MAEY II. 
 
 to discharge the expenses incurred in the war thus termi- 
 nated that money was first systematically borrowed by 
 parliament ; and the National Debt, which has been increas- 
 ing ever since that time, first rose into importance. As the 
 queen had died in 1694, and William had no children, the 
 Princess Anne was heir by law to the crown. She had had 
 several children, of whom the Duke of Gloucester only 
 survived; and on the death of this young prince it became 
 necessary to provide again for the succession by some legis- 
 lative measure. The next heir of the ancient royal blood, 
 not disabled by belonging to the Church of Rome, was 
 Sophia, Electress of Hanover, the daughter of the Queen of 
 Bohemia, and therefore a grandchild of James I. An act 
 called The Act of Settlement was passed, by which the 
 crown was settled on this princess and her descendants, 
 being of the Protestant religion. 
 
 Though peace had been concluded with France, the 
 affairs of Spain were likely to lead to a renewal of the war. 
 Charles II. of Spain had died without issue ; and the chief 
 competitors for the crown were Charles, archduke of 
 Austria, and Philip, a grandson of the French king. These 
 princes were both descended from daughters of the royal 
 house of Spain; and the states of Europe were generally 
 favourable to the succession of Charles, from their mistrust 
 of Louis XIV., and their fear of seeing the crowns of Spain 
 and France on the same head. Louis, however, succeeded 
 in obtaining from William a reluctant recognition of 
 Philip as king of Spain ; but when, on the death of James 
 (which occurred in 1701), the court of France acknow- 
 ledged the son of that prince as king of England, so strong 
 a feeling of indignation was excited throughout the coun- 
 try, that large sums were placed at William's disposal for 
 a renewal of the war. A bill was passed, requiring all per- 
 sons to abjure the Pretender, (as the son of James was 
 called,) and to swear allegiance to William, and his heirs, 
 according to the Act of Settlement. 
 
 In the midst of this loyalty an accident occurred which 
 deprived the nation of its king, at the time when, perhaps, 
 he was more popular than at any former period. His 
 horse fell with him as he was riding at Hampton Court, 
 where he generally resided. His collar-bone was broken, 
 and he died (March 8, 1702) of the fever which ensued 
 on that injury. Some plots had been formed for the
 
 ANNE. 109 
 
 assassination of William during the latter years of his 
 reign, and Sir John Fenwick was beheaded for his concern 
 in the principal of these conspiracies. The management of 
 affairs had latterly been intrusted to the Tories, and Lord 
 Godolphin was treasurer at the time of William's death. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 ANNE. 
 
 Reigned 12 years. From A.D. 1702 to A.D. 1714. 
 
 THE constitution of England had now in great measure 
 assumed the form and character which it still presents. 
 Parliaments were regularly convoked, and the maxim was 
 gradually admitted, that as the ministers of the crown are 
 responsible for the advice which they give to the sovereign, 
 so the sovereign is bound to defer to their advice while 
 they continue in office. In the choice of ministers the 
 will of the sovereign was now greatly influenced by the 
 preponderance in the House of Commons of either of the 
 two parties which are still known as the Whigs and the 
 Tories. The Tories are generally favourable to the mon- 
 archical principle in the constitution, and to the full recog- 
 nition of the Church as the guardian and dispenser of the 
 national religion. The Whigs are more disposed to distrust 
 the executive government, and to contend for a greater 
 regard to the will and voice of the people on the part of 
 the rulers both in Church and State. 
 
 Queen Anne was strongly inclined to favour the Tory 
 party ; but Lady Marlborough, by whom she was greatly 
 influenced, was attached to the principles of the Whigs; 
 and though the ministry was at first chosen chiefly from 
 the Tories, it was not long before the Whigs obtained 
 many of the principal offices. The Earls of Godolphin 
 and Marlborough, who acted at first with the Tories, appear 
 to have endeavoured to hold the balance between the two 
 parties ; but in the course of the war which was declared 
 soon after the queen's accession, they became more iden- 
 tified with the Whigs. 
 
 This was the war for which the late king had made pre- 
 parations at the time of his death. It is called the war of
 
 110 ANNE. 
 
 the Spanish succession ; but was carried on in Flanders and 
 Germany, as well as in Spain. England acted in alliance 
 with the other European States, in support of the Arch- 
 duke Charles ; while the king of France upheld the cause 
 of his grandson Philip. The allied armies were commanded 
 by the Earl, who was soon created Duke of Marlborough ; 
 and Prince Eugene, of the house of Savoy, was at the 
 head of a chief division of the forces. In this war, which 
 lasted from 1102 to 1712, the duke completely humbled 
 the pride of France, and acquired for himself and his 
 country a degree of military glory which has never been 
 surpassed ; unless by that success with which Divine 
 Providence has in our own age been pleased to crown the 
 efforts of a still greater man, the Duke of Wellington. 
 The first battle, in which Marlborough showed himself so 
 consummate a warrior, was at Blenheim in Germany, in 
 1704; and in memory of the great victory which he gained, 
 the manor of Woodstock was settled on him and his heirs ; 
 and a magnificent mansion, called Blenheim Castle, was 
 built for him at the expense of the nation. The next great 
 victory was at Ramillies, in 1706, against Marshal Villeroy; 
 and its result was the submission of Brabant to the arch- 
 duke. In 1708 the battle of Oudenarde gave the allies 
 possession of French Flanders ; and the following year 
 was remarkable for the bloody battle of Malplaquet, and 
 the surrender of the town of Mons. In 1711, Marlborough's 
 last campaign opened a passage into the heart of France; 
 and had the war been carried on, the allies would probably 
 have become masters of Paris. Early in the war a naval 
 armament, under Sir George Rooke, was sent to the coasts 
 of Spain, and the strong fortress of Gibraltar, which has 
 ever since remained in the hands of the English, was taken. 
 English troops distinguished themselves in Spain, under 
 the Earl of Peterborough, a nobleman of romantic cha- 
 racter and chivalrous courage. At the siege of Barcelona 
 he greatly signalized himself, and all Catalonia and Valen- 
 cia rose in favour of Charles ; but a battle was gained 
 over the allies at Almanza (1707) by the Duke of Berwick, 
 which restored the cause of Philip. Charles again got 
 the advantage of his rival at Zaragoza, in 1710, where the 
 English troops were commanded by General Stanhope; but 
 it had become plain that the feeling of the Spanish nation
 
 ANNE. Ill 
 
 was favourable to Philip, and the succession of Charles to 
 the imperial crown of Germany changed the views of all 
 who were engaged in the contest. 
 
 England derived little advantage from the victories of 
 Marlborough, beyond the renown which they conferred 
 upon the country; and the people had become generally 
 desirous of peace. The influence of the Duchess of Marl- 
 borough over the queen had been weakened, not only by 
 the haughtiness of her own temper, but by the intrigues of 
 Mrs. Masham, a lady whom she had herself introduced to 
 Anne, and who was attached to the Tory party, at the head 
 of which were Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford, and St. 
 John, afterwards Lord Bolingbroke. The feeling of the 
 people against the Whigs was exasperated by their im- 
 prudent prosecution of one Dr. Sacheverell, for preaching 
 in favour of unlimited obedience to the sovereign ; and 
 Anne determined to place Harley and St. John at the 
 head of the government. A peace was concluded at Utrecht 
 (1712) by these ministers, which was reckoned highly dis- 
 honourable to this country, as most of the objects were 
 abandoned for which so much blood and treasure had been 
 expended. Marlborough himself was unjustly accused of 
 peculation, and withdrew for a time to the continent. 
 
 The most important domestic measure of this reign was 
 the union of the legislatures of England and Scotland. Great 
 inconvenience had resulted from the government of two 
 kingdoms so closely connected, by legislative bodies which 
 were independent of each other ; and by an act which re- 
 ceived the royal assent, May 1, 1707, the two kingdoms were 
 incorporated into one, to be called GREAT BRITAIN. 
 The union was greatly opposed at the time by the Scottish 
 nation, which is now convinced of the important advantages 
 which it has derived from this measure. Scotland retained 
 her own laws, and her own presbyterian form of religion. 
 
 Queen Anne was always popular with her subjects ; and 
 her name is still familiarly spoken of as " good Queen 
 Anne." She was not, indeed, possessed of shining talents, 
 and was too much governed by female favourites in her 
 household. But she was exemplary as a wife and mother, 
 and she was a great benefactress to the Church, to which 
 she was sincerely attached. Her reign was one of the 
 most brilliant periods of English literature. Milton and
 
 112 GEORGE I. 
 
 Dryden, indeed, belong to the latter half of the preceding 
 century ; but Pope, and Addison, and Swift, with many other 
 writers of much note, gave lustre to the reign of Anne. 
 Her last years were much embittered by the quarrels of 
 TIarley and St. John, the ministers for whom she had 
 sacrificed the Duke of Marlborough. She died, Aug. 1, 
 1714, in the forty-ninth year of her life, and the Elector 
 of Hanover was proclaimed king as George I. Anne was 
 the last sovereign of the house of Stuart. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 GEORGE I. 
 Reigned 13 years. From A.D. 1714 to A.D. 1727. 
 
 THE new king, who was the son of the Electress Sophia, 
 landed at Greenwich, Sept. 18, 1714. He was a stranger 
 to the language and manners of England, and put himself 
 into the hands of the Whig party ; which seems to have 
 enjoyed its triumph with too vindictive a temper against 
 its political rivals. The Earl of Oxford was impeached 
 for his share in the treaty of Utrecht, and kept in prison for 
 about two years. He was then set at liberty, as his prose- 
 cutors found that there was not sufficient ground for the 
 charges against him. The Lords Ormond and Bolingbroke 
 withdrew to the continent, and were attainted. They re- 
 paired to the court of the Pretender, who was preparing an 
 effort for the overthrow of the new government. 
 
 The standard of this prince was raised in the Highlands 
 by the Earl of Mar, in 1715; and he was proclaimed as 
 James III., in the north of England, by the Earl of Der- 
 wentwater and Mr. Forster ; who were joined by the Scot- 
 tish Lords Wintoun, Nithisdale, Carnwath, and Kenmuir. 
 Being reinforced by a body of Highlanders, they advanced 
 to Preston in Lancashire, where they were attacked by the 
 royal forces, and obliged to surrender at discretion. The 
 very same day a battle was fought between Mar and the 
 Duke of Argyle, near Dumblane, in which the latter had the 
 advantage ; and the Pretender, who had landed in Scotland, 
 found it necessary to retrace his course, and reached France
 
 GEORGE I. 113 
 
 in safety, with the Lords Mar, Melford, and others. Of 
 the noblemen who surrendered at Preston, Derwentwater, 
 Kenmuir, and TV'intoun were beheaded ; Nithisdale escaped 
 in women's clothes, brought by his wife the night before 
 the day appointed for his execution : the lives of the rest 
 were spared. 
 
 The legal duration of parliaments had been fixed by law 
 to the term of three years ; and as the ministers thought 
 it unsafe to hazard a general election in the unsettled 
 state of the country, a bill was brought in to extend the 
 duration of parliaments to seven years ; which has since 
 remained the legal period between one general election 
 and another, though in practice the term has seldom ex- 
 ceeded six years. This bill, which is called the Septennial 
 Bill, received the high approbation of Lord Somers, the 
 great constitutional lawyer; and has in various ways con- 
 duced greatly to the real welfare of the people. 
 
 The death of Louis XIV., in 1715, occasioned a long 
 regency in France, under the Duke of Orleans, which was 
 favourable to the continuance of peace ; and the reign of 
 George I. is unmarked by any foreign transactions of much 
 importance. The king entered into alliance with the 
 Regent of France, in order to oppose the ambitious designs 
 of Cardinal Alberoni, at that time chief minister in Spain : 
 and an English fleet, under Sir G. Byng, was sent (1718) 
 to the Mediterranean, where it totally destroyed the Spanish 
 fleet of twenty-seven sail of the line. An expedition under 
 Admiral Hosier (1725) to the coast of Spanish America 
 was less successful ; but the Spaniards, on their part, failed 
 in an attempt to recover the fortress of Gibraltar. 
 
 In England an amazing amount of distress was occa- 
 sioned in the year 1720, by the failure of a scheme, which 
 is usually known as the South Sea Bubble. 
 
 It was noticed in the reign of William III. that parlia- 
 ment determined to raise money on the public account by 
 means of loans. This money had been borrowed of various 
 mercantile companies ; and a proposal was made to go- 
 vernment by the South Sea Company to pay off all their 
 various debts, and thus become the sole national creditor. 
 The government was to pay a lower rate of interest than 
 before ; and the South Sea Company was to raise the money 
 for thus buying up the national debts, by opening a sub-
 
 114 GEORGE II. 
 
 scription to a scheme for carrying on a trade in the South 
 Sea, of the profits of which a most extravagant notion was 
 indulged. People came in crowds to subscribe, and many 
 ventured all they had. The desire to obtain shares was 
 such, that the original purchasers sold them for ten times 
 as much as they had given. In a few months it was found 
 that the whole scheme was a delusion. Thousands of fami- 
 lies were reduced to beggary, and the trade of the country 
 received a shock from which it did not quickly recover. 
 
 Notwithstanding the ease with which the Earl of Mar's 
 rebellion had been put down, the Jacobites (or adherents 
 of the Pretender) continued their machinations in his fa- 
 vour; which led to the impeachment of Atterbury, bishop 
 of Rochester, a prelate of much genius and learning, as 
 well as of sincere zeal for his religion. He was deprived 
 of his see, and banished. 
 
 George had married the Princess Sophia of Zell ; but 
 his consort had long been confined at Alden, on a charge 
 generally believed to be false. By this lady he was the 
 father of the prince who succeeded him, and also of a 
 daughter, married to the King of Prussia. His own court 
 was disgraced by his connexion with a person whom he 
 created Duchess of Kendal ; nor was this the only instance 
 of his laxity of principle in so important a part of his 
 moral and religious duty. In 1727 the king set out on 
 his usual visit to Hanover; but was taken ill, and died in 
 his carriage, near Osnaburg, on the llth of June. He 
 was, on the whole, less unpopular with his English subjects 
 than might have been expected from his foreign origin 
 and his predilection for Hanover. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 GEORGE II. 
 
 Reigned 33 years. From A.D. 1727 to A.D. 1760. 
 THE Prince of Wales, who succeeded his father as George 
 II., was married to the Princess Caroline of Anspach, a lady 
 of remarkable ability and virtue, as well as of much personal 
 beauty. To the time of her death (which occurred in 1740) 
 she had considerable share in the government, especially
 
 GEORGE II. 115 
 
 during the king's frequent excursions to Hanover. It should 
 also be mentioned that the Church is indebted, under God, 
 to the discernment of Queen Caroline, for the advancement 
 of Archbishop Seeker, and Bishop Butler, who was the 
 author of the immortal work on the analogy between natural 
 and revealed religion. At the time of the king's accession 
 his eldest son, Frederick, who then became Prince of Wales, 
 was twenty years of age. 
 
 For a period of fifteen years, at the beginning of this 
 reign, Sir Robert Walpole was the chief minister of the 
 crown. He had been brought forward in the government 
 in the late reign, and was a dexterous and successful 
 minister. The kingdom enjoyed much tranquillity under 
 his management of affairs, and such excitement as existed 
 in the country found vent chiefly in parliamentary discus- 
 sions on the national debt, and on the number of troops 
 maintained as a standing army in time of peace. In these 
 trials of party strength, Walpole was opposed by Pulteney, 
 his chief political rival, who long afterwards became 
 minister himself, and Earl of Bath. 
 
 A dispute which arose on commercial grounds led to a 
 declaration of war with Spain, in 1739, and eventually to 
 the resignation of Walpole, who was created Earl of Orford 
 on his retirement from the ministry. This war was carried 
 on in the West Indies with little success. In the course 
 of it, Commodore Anson made his celebrated voyage round 
 the globe ; being the first Englishman who had achieved 
 that voyage since the time of Drake. 
 
 In 1742 the country was again engaged in a continental 
 war ; in which England espoused the cause of Maria The- 
 resa, queen of Hungary, who had been deprived of part of 
 her dominions by the unprincipled aggression of Frederick, 
 king of Prussia. Frederick was supported by France, and 
 the King of England was bound to succour the Queen of 
 Hungary by the terms of a treaty called the Pragmatic 
 Sanction, which guaranteed to the heirs general of the 
 Emperor Charles the succession to all his dominions. The 
 king himself took the command of the troops which were 
 sent to co-operate with the Austrians in Flanders, and 
 gained the advantage over the French in the battle of 
 Dettingen, 1743. In this battle the king displayed great 
 spirit and courage. His son, the Duke of Cumberland, was
 
 116 GEORGE IT. 
 
 defeated by the French about two years afterwards in the 
 battle of Fontenoy. No king of England has commanded 
 an army in person since the battle of Dettingen. 
 
 The year 1745 was remarkable also for the chief effort 
 of the friends of the exiled family to recover the crown 
 of England for the descendants of the Stuarts. Charles 
 Edward, the Pretender's eldest son, a young man of pre- 
 possessing manners and person, was sent to the Highlands 
 of Scotland ; having obtained a sum of money and the 
 promise of assistance from the King of France. He was 
 joined by several of the Highland clans, and through the 
 misconduct of the royalist general, was able to march to 
 Edinburgh. The city opened her gates to him, and his 
 father was proclaimed king. He took up his residence 
 in Holyrood-house, the ancient palace of his ancestors ; 
 and at the battle of Preston-pans, near Edinburgh, com- 
 pletely routed the troops sent against him under Sir John 
 Cope. It was then resolved to march into England ; and 
 the young Chevalier de St. George (as the prince was gene- 
 rally called) advanced as far as Derby. Great consternation 
 was felt in London : but division had already arisen among 
 the Pretender's few adherents. He was joined by none of 
 the English Jacobites ; and found it necessary to give orders 
 for a retreat to Scotland. He reached Carlisle without 
 loss, and from thence proceeded to Glasgow. At Falkirk 
 a gleam of success again shone upon his cause; but at the 
 battle of Culloden, near Inverness, April 16, 1746, his 
 army was hopelessly and completely routed. It is deeply 
 to be lamented that this success of the lawful authority was 
 afterwards disgraced by the most shocking cruelty. The 
 young Chevalier had been joined by the Lords Strathallan, 
 Lovat, Balmerino, Nairn, and others; of whom the greater 
 number suffered on the scaffold. This severity was probably 
 no more than was necessary ; but the cruelties which were 
 perpetrated in cold blood in the Highland valleys by the 
 Duke of Cumberland's soldiers were disgraceful to him and 
 to his cause. 
 
 The adventures of Charles Edward after the battle of 
 Culloden remarkably resembled the perils which Charles II. 
 encountered in his escape after the battle of Worcester, and 
 were in the highest degree romantic and affecting. A 
 reward of 30,000/. was set on the adventurer's head, and
 
 GEORGE II. 117 
 
 he was forced to assume every species of disguise. His 
 secret was necessarily made known to many persons, but 
 was kept with the most admirable fidelity, and he at 
 length reached France in safety. Measures were adopted 
 for preventing any similar revolt in the Highlands, by 
 abolishing the power which the chieftains had possessed, of 
 exercising a species of patriarchal sovereignty over their 
 several clans. From this period we may consider that the 
 hopes of the house of Stuart were completely crushed. 
 
 A general peace was concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle in 
 1748, and continued for some years. In 1756, however, 
 a war broke out, which is known as the Seven Years' war, 
 from the period of its duration. It arose from the ambitious 
 designs of France in America. 
 
 The importance of the colonial possessions of France 
 and England in the vast continent of North America had 
 long been silently increasing ; and the French, who were 
 then masters of Canada to the north of the British colo- 
 nies, as well as of Louisiana to the south, attempted to en- 
 croach on the intermediate states, which were then the 
 territory of the British crown. Various acts of hostility had 
 occurred in America before the war broke out in Europe, 
 where England acted with Prussia in alliance against 
 France, which was supported by Austria, as well as by 
 Russia and Sweden. 
 
 An expedition, under Admiral Byng, was sent to the 
 Mediterranean, where the island of Minorca (which had 
 belonged to England since the reign of Anne) was attacked 
 by a French fleet. Byng acted with less spirit than might 
 have been expected from a British admiral, and Minorca 
 was wrested from the English. The admiral was brought 
 to a court-martial, which was so much influenced by the 
 public indignation against this unfortunate officer, that he 
 was condemned, and shot on the quarter-deck of the St. 
 George at Portsmouth ; a victim to the want of moral 
 courage on the part of the king's advisers, who seem to 
 have sacrificed him to the vindictive temper which had 
 seized the public mind. 
 
 At this time Mr. Pitt (afterwards Earl of Chatham) was 
 the most influential person in the ministry, in whose cha- 
 racter the want of moral courage was certainly not an 
 habitual defect. The Duke of Newcastle and his brother
 
 118 GEORGE III. 
 
 Henry Pelham had been ministers since the year 1744; 
 but on the death of the latter (an upright and useful 
 servant of the crown) the affairs of the country had been 
 conducted with little energy or spirit till Mr. Pitt ac- 
 quired the chief control in the government. The Duke of 
 Newcastle and Mr. Fox (the secretary) had opposed the 
 appointment of Pitt, but continued to hold office with him ; 
 and under his able direction the year 1759 was remarkable 
 for the success which was granted by Divine Providence to 
 the British arms by land and sea. 
 
 In Germany, where the French had overrun the Hano- 
 verian dominions, their army was routed by the English at 
 the battle of Minden. In the Mediterranean, advantage 
 was gained over the French fleet by Admiral Boscawen : 
 and their naval forces in the Channel were defeated by 
 Sir Edward Hawke. In India also the British arms were 
 at this time successful. 
 
 It was in America, however, that the greatest triumph 
 was gained. Quebec, the capital of Canada, was taken from 
 the French under Montcalm, by General Wolfe, who fell in 
 the very moment of victory. As he lay expiring, he heard 
 the cry, " They fly ! " and asked " Who fly ?" On being 
 told, "The French," he said, " Then I die content." In 
 the following year Montreal surrendered to General Am- 
 herst, and Canada has ever since been annexed to the 
 British dominions. 
 
 On the 25th of October, 1760, the king died suddenly in 
 his palace at Kensington, of an apoplectic attack. He had 
 survived his eldest son, and was succeeded by his grand- 
 son, who now became George III., in the twenty-third year 
 of his age. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 Reigned 60 years. From A.D. 1760 to A.D. 1820. 
 
 PERIOD OF THE AMERICAN WAR. 1760 1789. 
 
 FEW princes have ever succeeded to a crown under more 
 favourable circumstances than those which marked the
 
 QEORGE III. 119 
 
 accession of George III. Born and educated in England, he 
 had not to contend with that dislike of foreigners for which 
 the English have generally been remarkable. He was a 
 man of sound moral and religious principles, and his ster- 
 ling worth was appreciated by the great body of the intel- 
 ligent people which he was called to govern. The hopes of 
 the exiled family were now extinct. The influence of British 
 character and power had at no time been more successfully 
 exerted in all parts of the world. The history of England,, 
 instead of being (as formerly) the narrative of petty strug- 
 gles between the feudal sovereign and his powerful vassals, 
 now embraced the transactions of mighty empires in the 
 East and West, with which the interests of British com- 
 merce and British ascendancy were closely interwoven. 
 
 The king was also happy in uniting himself to a princess 
 of his own high character and principles. His marriage 
 with the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz took 
 place in 1761 ; and during his long reign (the longest in 
 our annals) the nation had the unspeakable blessing of the 
 example of a pure and virtuous court. The king had been 
 educated in high notions of his royal prerogative, and was 
 somewhat unbending in his opinions. He was kind of heart 
 and courteous in manner ; and as his personal character 
 contributed in no small degree to preserve his kingdom 
 from the revolutionary principles which overthrew all that 
 was sacred in France, so his memory will ever be cherished 
 by Englishmen with affection and veneration. 
 
 The war continued for three years after his accession ; 
 and as a treaty, called the " Family Compact," had been 
 secretly arranged between the French and Spanish courts, 
 it became necessary to widen the war by proceeding to hos- 
 tile measures against Spain. This resolution not having 
 been taken so soon as Mr. Pitt advised it, he resigned his 
 situation as minister. He was again in office for a short 
 time, when he was created Earl of Chatham. He was now 
 succeeded by Lord Bute, a personal friend of the king. 
 
 The British arms were eminently successful in the West 
 Indies, and an honourable peace (called the peace of Fon- 
 tainebleau) was signed at Paris in 1763 ; by which England 
 was to retain Canada, with many of the West Indian islands 
 that had belonged to France and Spain. The Floridas also
 
 120 GEORGE III. 
 
 were ceded to Great Britain by Spain ; and divers advan- 
 tages were also secured to her in the East Indies. 
 
 As the growth of British power in the East was at this 
 time rapidly advancing, it may be well in this place to 
 describe its first origin. In the latter part of Elizabeth's 
 reign a charter was granted to a company of merchants for 
 the trade to India, which was then chiefly engrossed by the 
 Portuguese. They established a settlement at Surat on the 
 western coast of India, in 1612; and some years after, 
 another at Madras, on the Corornandel coast ; and one also 
 at Calcutta, on the river Hooghly, in Bengal. Charles II. 
 gave them the island of Bombay, which he received in 
 dower with his queen, and the isle of St. Helena in the 
 Atlantic. The Portuguese by degrees lost much of the 
 power which they had possessed in India, but the French 
 and the Dutch established factories very similar to the 
 English settlements. The vast continent of India was then 
 governed by various native princes, who were often only 
 nominally dependent on the emperor at Delhi, the successor 
 to the Great Mogul. 
 
 These distant possessions of the several European states 
 began, in process of time, to be involved in the wars which 
 took place in Europe ; and as the native princes were un- 
 avoidably engaged in these contests as allies of one party 
 or the other, opportunities were gradually offered to the 
 Europeans for territorial conquest and encroachment. The 
 French were among the first to avail themselves of these 
 opportunities, and the English found it necessary to follow 
 the same course, in order to maintain their own footing. 
 The person who did more than any other to counteract the 
 influence of the French, and to establish an Anglo-Indian 
 empire, was Robert Clive, who afterwards became Lord 
 Clive. The district in which Madras is situated was the 
 scene of his first successes ; but the capture of Calcutta by 
 a native prince (1756) was the occasion of his being called 
 to Bengal, which soon became the chief seat of British em- 
 pire. At this capture of Calcutta the most horrible cruel- 
 ties were practised on the English ; of whom one hundred 
 and forty -six persons were confined in a small room, twenty 
 feet square, called the Black-hole ; and after a night of 
 unexampled horrors twenty-three only were found alive in
 
 GEORGE III. 121 
 
 the morning. On Olive's arrival the face of affairs was 
 changed ; and after sundry transactions, an engagement 
 took place atPlassey (1757) between the army of the nabob 
 (which is a frequent title of the native princes) and the 
 British troops, in which the latter were completely success- 
 ful. This battle decided the fate of the British in India ; 
 and at the close of the seven years' war, it was plain that 
 the British interests in the East were becoming too gigantic 
 to be managed by a private company, without the control 
 of the king's government. Some years, however, elapsed 
 before any measure was taken to meet this emergency ; 
 and in the interval the Anglo-Indian empire had extended 
 itself with rapid strides under Lord Olive and Warren 
 Hastings, who became the first governor-general. Hastings 
 was impeached by the House of Commons in 1788, on a 
 charge of cruelty and oppression in his government of 
 India. The trial was prolonged till 1795, when judgment 
 was given in his favour. 
 
 Soon after the peace of Fontainebleau, Lord Bute re- 
 signed his office. For five or six years no ministry could 
 be formed that enjoyed to any great degree the confidence 
 of king or people, and the king's person and government 
 were assailed by many scurrilous writers, especially by a 
 demagogue named Wilkes, and by a person who wrote 
 with much power under the name of Junius. Mr. Gren- 
 ville, Lord Rockingham, and the Duke of Grafton, were 
 successively prime ministers. At length Lord North was 
 placed (1770) at the head of the government; and his 
 administration lasted during twelve of the most eventful 
 years in the English history. 
 
 With a view to relieve the people of Great Britain from 
 part of the burden of the taxes, it had been resolved by 
 the ministry to tax the North American colonies ; and in 
 1761 an act was passed to impose stamp-duties upon them. 
 This act was received in America with the greatest indig- 
 nation. The colonists contended that as they were not 
 represented in the imperial parliament, it was beyond the 
 power of that assembly to impose taxes upon them. The 
 act was repealed, but its principle was not abandoned ; and 
 in 1767 a tax was laid on tea and other articles imported 
 into the North American colonies. Lord North deter- 
 mined to levy only the tax on tea : not considering that it 
 
 [H. s 1.] F
 
 122 GEORGE HI. 
 
 was not the amount of the duties which had occasioned all 
 the ferment, but the principle of taxation adopted by the 
 English government. The people of Boston in New Eng- 
 land resisted the attempt to levy this obnoxious tax. In 
 order to punish them, an act was passed to impose restric- 
 tions on their commerce, and troops were sent to carry it 
 into execution. The debates in parliament occasioned by 
 this question were remarkable for the eloquence of Edmund 
 Burke, Charles James Fox, and several other distinguished 
 orators. 
 
 A congress of deputies from the several States now met 
 at Philadelphia, and published a declaration of their resolu- 
 tion to defend their rights. The first engagement in this 
 unhappy contest between the mother-country and her 
 American provinces occurred (1775) at Lexington near 
 Boston. The colonists came off with success, but were 
 worsted at the battle of Bunker's- hill, near the same place, 
 shortly afterwards. 
 
 Thirteen of the States, meantime, had formed themselves 
 into a union, to be governed by delegates sent to the con- 
 gress. Canada and Nova Scotia remained faithful to the 
 mother-country. General Washington was appointed com- 
 mander-in-chief of the colonial forces, while Lord Cornwallis 
 and General Howe were sent from England to bring them 
 to submission. On July 4, 1776, a declaration of Inde- 
 pendence was put forth ; but, notwithstanding the ability 
 shown by Washington, and the courage of the undisciplined 
 colonists, the result of the war was favourable in general 
 to England. It seems likely that its issue would have been 
 different, but for the assistance which the colonists received 
 from France. In the year 1777 nearly six thousand British 
 soldiers under General Burgoyne were forced to lay down 
 their arms at Saratoga; and in 1778 the court of France 
 acknowledged the independence of the United States, and 
 sent troops for their support. The example of France was 
 soon followed by Spain ; and the Dutch were perfidious 
 enough to join the league against England. 
 
 An attempt was made in parliament to terminate the war 
 by withdrawing the troops from America. The great Lord 
 Chatham was brought from a sick-bed to raise his voice 
 against this proposal. He had opposed the measures which 
 led to the war, but now protested against yielding to the
 
 GEORGE III. 123 
 
 dread of France. While engaged in the debate he sank 
 down in a fit, and was carried from the house, apparently 
 lifeless. He expired within a few days of this remarkable 
 scene. 
 
 No very striking event occurred for a year or two ; but 
 in 1781 Lord Cornwallis, with seven thousand men, was 
 forced to surrender to General Washington ; and it became 
 evident that the independence of the colonies must be ac- 
 knowledged. Lord North retired from the government, 
 and a ministry was formed under Lord Rockingham ; but 
 on the death of that nobleman a coalition took place be- 
 tween Lord North and Mr. Fox under the Duke of Port- 
 land, which was no less offensive to the whole nation than 
 to the king, as these statesmen had been bitterly opposed 
 to each other. Treaties of peace were now signed with 
 America as well as with France and Spain (1783). It 
 was some consolation to this country that the naval superi- 
 ority of England had been maintained by Admiral Rodney 
 in many brilliant engagements, and that the siege of Gib- 
 raltar by the united armaments of France and Spain had 
 been baffled by the skill and bravery of General Elliot, 
 who was made Lord Heathfield. 
 
 The appointment of Fox to office under these circum- 
 stances was scarcely endured by the king or country and 
 the fate of this ministry was sealed by the defeat of a 
 bill for the regulation of Indian affairs. The effect of this 
 bill would have been to perpetuate the power of the minis- 
 ter by the immense amount of patronage which it would 
 have placed at his disposal. 
 
 The King then intrusted the government to William Pitt, 
 a son of the great Lord Chatham ; who, though only 
 twenty-three years of age, had already held an important 
 office. This extraordinary man succeeded (after sustaining 
 many defeats in the House of Commons) in gaining the con- 
 fidence of the country, and was at the head of affaire, with 
 only one interruption, for the remainder of his life. He 
 introduced an Indian bill of a more moderate character than 
 that of Mr. Fox ; by which the interests of that vast empire 
 are intrusted to a board of control in connexion with the 
 directors of the East India Company. His financial mea- 
 sures were highly beneficial to the country, which enjoyed 
 several years of repose. 
 
 F 2
 
 124 GEORGE III. 
 
 In the year 1188 the king was seized with a disorder of 
 mind, which rendered the appointment of a regent neces- 
 sary. This necessity gave rise to much discussion ; but 
 to the great joy of the nation his majesty recovered, after 
 having been incapable for some months of attending to 
 public affairs. 
 
 In reflecting on the separation of the American colonies 
 from the mother-country, we may observe that, although 
 the means by which their independence was effected are 
 much to be regretted, the event itself has proved hitherto 
 beneficial to both countries. The commerce of England has 
 been much greater with that country since it became inde- 
 pendent, than in its colonial state ; and the United States 
 have rapidly increased in prosperity. It may, however, be- 
 doubted whether the republican institutions, under which, 
 they exist, will eventually perpetuate their greatness as a 
 nation, 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 GEORGE III. 17891802. 
 PERIOD OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 THE social system in France had long rested on a hollow 
 foundation. The lower classes groaned under a galling 
 yoke ; while the luxury of the court, and the exorbitant 
 privileges of a degenerate nobility, afforded too ready a 
 handle to writers who, under the guise of a false philoso- 
 phy, undermined the very foundations of civil and religious 
 duty. A revolution at length broke forth, in which the 
 most unexampled horrors were perpetrated under the 
 standard of liberty and equality ; and the throne and the 
 altar were alike subverted. The.innocent king was brought 
 to the scaffold (1193), and the public exercise of the 
 Christian religion was for a time forbidden by law. ^ 
 
 It has been the general policy of England to abstain from 
 interfering in the civil commotions of other countries ; 
 but the fierce and ignorant fanatics who directed the 
 government of France proclaimed to the world their pur- 
 pose of assisting all parties who in any foreign country 
 would follow their example. As a measure of self-pro-
 
 GEORGE III. 125 
 
 tection, it became necessary to prepare for war with revo- 
 lutionary France; and the danger of the principles adopted 
 by that country was so strongly felt, that Mr. Burke, toge- 
 ther with the sounder part of the Whigs, seceded from the 
 party of which Mr. Fox was the leader, and supported the 
 government of Mr. Pitt. 
 
 The war, which was declared against Great Britain in 
 1793, was marked by a series of the most brilliant naval 
 victories, which rendered England the mistress of the seas, 
 and went far to counterbalance the disasters that for several 
 years attended the military measures of the minister. An 
 expedition under the Duke of York to Holland (then invaded 
 by the French armies) was an utter failure. In the south 
 of France the city of Toulon had declared for Louis 
 XVII. ; but no adequate assistance was sent from England; 
 and Lord Hood, the British admiral, who had been received 
 into the city, was forced to abandon it to the revolutionary 
 army. A young officer distinguished himself in this siege, 
 who soon rose to the command of the armies of France, and 
 led them to the most astonishing victories. This was Na- 
 poleon Buonaparte, who afterwards overthrew the govern- 
 ment of the Directory, under which he was then serving ; 
 became first consul in 1799, and was crowned Emperor of 
 France in 1804. The successes of this remarkable man on 
 land were as wonderful as the victories of England on the 
 sea. 
 
 The first of these great naval triumphs was gained by 
 Lord Howe with the Channel fleet, June, 1, 1794 ; and Lord 
 Bridport in the following year obtained an advantage of 
 less account. In 1797 Sir John Jervis, with fifteen sail, 
 defeated the Spanish fleet of twenty-seven sail of the line, 
 off Cape St. Vincent, for which he received the title of 
 Earl St. Vincent. And in the same year Admiral Duncan 
 destroyed the fleet of Holland, (which by this time had 
 become a province of France,) for which he was created 
 Lord Duncan of Camperdown. 
 
 In the midst of these naval successes a crisis had oc- 
 curred in the history of England, which occasioned the 
 deepest anxiety. A mutiny broke out at the Nore in the 
 fleets, on which the very existence of England seemed to 
 depend, and at one time assumed a most threatening 
 character. In the following year (1798) a rebellion in
 
 126 GEOKGE III. 
 
 Ireland, which had been fomented by French agents, struck 
 dismay to the hearts of all who saw in the British empire 
 the great bulwark (under Divine Providence) of ancient 
 laws and pure religion. The mutiny in the fleet was 
 quelled with less difficulty than had been apprehended ; and 
 Parker, the principal ringleader, was hanged. The Irish 
 rebellion, which was supported by a French expedition, 
 was not suppressed until the most dreadful crimes had 
 teen committed by the misguided people ; nor without a 
 great sacrifice of valuable lives, as well as of treasure, 
 which could ill be spared from the great struggle with 
 France. One good fruit was produced by this rebellion. It 
 convinced men of the necessity of a union between the 
 parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland, similar to that 
 which had been arranged between England and Scotland 
 in the reign of Queen Anne. The measure was not effected 
 without difficulty, but was at length ratified, July 2, 1800. 
 The kingdom thus consolidated was to be thenceforth 
 called the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. May 
 the union continue through all generations ! 
 
 The year (1798) which was marked by this disastrous 
 rebellion in Ireland, had been distinguished also by one of 
 those unequalled triumphs, which will for ever render the 
 name of Nelson familiar to Englishmen. This was the 
 battle of the Nile (Aug. 1). Buonaparte had crossed with 
 a large army to the coast of Egypt, with a view rather 
 to strike at the British empire in India, than to conquer 
 Egypt for its own sake. Sir Horatio Nelson was sent in 
 pursuit of the French fleet, which he discovered in Aboukir- 
 bay, near Alexandria. His victory was most complete, 
 after a severe engagement, which lasted through the day 
 and night, and during which the L'Orient, the French 
 admiral's flag-ship, blew up, and all on board perished. 
 Nelson was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron 
 Nelson of the Nile. 
 
 In the following year another fruitless expedition was 
 sent under the Duke of York to Holland ; while Buonaparte 
 made a rapid conquest of Egypt. He was advancing into 
 Syria, when the progress of his arms was checked at Acre 
 by Sir Sidney Smith. Having returned to Egypt, he soon 
 afterwards crossed to France, with a view to take advantage 
 of the crisis which he foresaw in the revolutionary govern-
 
 GEORGE III. 127 
 
 ment. The army which he left in Egypt was defeated in 
 1801 by a British force under Sir Ralph Abercromby. 
 This general died of the wounds which he received in the 
 battle ; but the result of his victory was the abandonment 
 of Egypt by the French. About the same time (ISOl)an 
 expedition under Sir Hyde Parker, with Nelson second in 
 command, was sent to Copenhagen, to counteract the de- 
 signs of the Northern powers, who had entered into an 
 armed neutrality to resist the maritime rights claimed by 
 England. A tremendous battle took place, and the victory 
 achieved by England was due to the indomitable spirit of 
 Lord Nelson. A favourable change to England took place 
 in the counsels of Russia on the murder of the Emperor 
 Paul, and peace was concluded with Alexander, who suc- 
 ceeded to his throne. 
 
 Having by this time routed the Austrians in Germany 
 and Italy, Buonaparte was now making vast preparations 
 for the invasion of England, which called forth the na- 
 tional spirit in a remarkable degree. The whole kingdom 
 was filled with volunteers, who were not daunted by the 
 renown lately gained by the French in the victories of Ma- 
 rengo and Hohenlinden. Buonaparte wished, however, for 
 a breathing time ; and after much negotiation, a peace was 
 signed at Amiens, between France and England (March 25, 
 1802). At this time Mr. Pitt had retired for a short time 
 from office ; and Mr. Addington, who afterwards became 
 Lord Sidmouth, was prime-minister. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 GEORGE III. 18021820. 
 PERIOD OF THE PENINSULAR AVAR. 
 
 THE peace of Amiens proved to be nothing but a truce. 
 It became evident that Buonaparte (who was crowned by 
 the pope as Napoleon I., Dec. 2, 1804) had no intention 
 of fulfilling its terms ; and when war was again declared, 
 Mr. Pitt returned to office. 
 
 Napoleon continued his preparations for the invasion of 
 England ; but his purpose was completely baffled by the
 
 128 GEORGE III. 
 
 destruction of the French navy (Oct. 21, 1805) by Lord 
 Nelson, off Cape Trafalgar, near Cadiz. The battle, which 
 has its name from that cape, was the greatest of naval 
 conflicts ; but, important as was this victory to England, it 
 was thought to be dearly purchased by the death of Nel- 
 son, who was shot at the close of the battle from the 
 mizen-mast of the Redoubtable. His last signal was, 
 " England expects every man to do his duty." 
 
 Mr. Pitt himself died in the following year, and a Whig 
 ministry was formed, including Mr. Fox ; who, however, 
 soon followed his great political rival to the grave, and 
 the remains of these statesmen repose side by side in West- 
 minster Abbey. Mr. Pitt was not successful as a war- 
 minister ; but his high principle and steadfast opposition 
 to the revolutionary mania were a great means, under God, 
 of preserving this country from its contagion. The minis- 
 try which succeeded him was nicknamed " all the talents," 
 from the pretension which it made of combining men of 
 ability from all parties. About this time Mr. Canning be- 
 came a distinguished member of the Tory party. Another 
 government was soon formed under the Duke of Portland 
 (1807), by which a second expedition was sent to Copenha- 
 gen, to seize the Danish fleet, in order to prevent its passing 
 into the power of Napoleon. That emperor had now hum- 
 bled Austria at Austerlitz, and broken the power of Prussia 
 at Jena; and having reduced Russia to sue for peace by the 
 battles of Eylau and Friedland, was aiming at an universal 
 empire. He had concluded a peace with those powers at 
 Tilsit, which left him at leisure for other designs ; the next 
 of which was, to add Spain to his dominions. 
 
 This purpose he effected by the most consummate treach- 
 ery. In 1807 his troops under General Junot occupied 
 Portugal, while the royal family fled to the Brazils. Hav- 
 ing induced the King of Spain, and his son Prince Ferdi- 
 nand, to meet him at Bayonne, Napoleon forced them to 
 resign the crown of Spain, which he bestowed upon his 
 brother Joseph. The Spanish princes were sent as prisoners 
 into France, and large armies were poured into Spain to 
 secure the prize which had been thus perfidiously seized. 
 
 Napoleon sowed the seed of his own downfall by this 
 detestable act. The spirit of the Spanish nation rose against 
 the French, and it was determined by the British ministry
 
 GEORGE III. 129 
 
 (1808) to send an army under Sir Arthur Wellesley into 
 the Peninsula. His name was already known for his 
 triumphs in the East, where his brother (the Marquess 
 Wellesley) had governed India with great success ; but it 
 was soon to attain a renown beyond the fame of the 
 greatest generals. 
 
 He soon defeated General Junot at Vimiera ; but the 
 fruits of this victory were, in some degree, lost by a conven- 
 tion entered into at Cintra with the French. Another army 
 arrived in November under Sir John Moore, who however 
 seems to have been crippled in his movements by instructions 
 from the ministry at home, and deceived by the information 
 furnished him in Spain ; and he found it necessary to re- 
 treat to the north. He was pursued by Marshal Soult to 
 Corunna, which he reached after dreadful calamities ; and 
 the French general endeavoured to prevent him from em- 
 barking his army. A severe engagement took place, in 
 which the British gloriously repulsed their assailants ; but 
 Moore himself was among the slain, and his army was 
 forced to leave the remains of its gallant leader in a 
 foreign land. 
 
 In the spring of 1809, Sir A. Wellesley again landed with 
 an army in Portugal, and, having marched into Spain, 
 gained a great victory over the French at Talavera. He 
 was, however, forced to retire into Portugal, as Napo- 
 leon was now able to direct his whole force against the 
 Peninsula, having again crushed the Austrians in the 
 battle of Wagram. With the most consummate skill, Sir 
 Arthur (now Lord Wellington) formed three lines of 
 defence across the Peninsula (1810) at Torres Vedras ; 
 and Massena, who commanded the French army, in vain 
 endeavoured to draw him from his impregnable position. 
 In the spring this general commenced his retreat, pursued 
 by Lord Wellington, who, after several successes, again en- 
 tered Spain ; and Marshal Soult was defeated in the bloody 
 battle of Albuera. The progress of Lord Wellington was 
 obstinately contested at Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, and 
 Salamanca ; but his advance was a series of victories, and 
 he entered Madrid in triumph ; though events in the latter 
 part of the campaign obliged him to relinquish again, fora 
 time, the possession of this capital. 
 
 The dominion of Napoleon was now drawing to a close.
 
 130 GEORGE III. 
 
 He had rashly resolved (1812) on an invasion of Russia, 
 which proved most disastrous to him. He became master 
 indeed of Moscow, but the Russians themselves set fire to 
 it, that it might not afford him shelter ; and his retreat from 
 that city was calamitous beyond any recorded in history. 
 The kingdoms on which he had trampled now united 
 against him. In Spain, Lord Wellington gained a decisive 
 victory at Vittoria (1813), and while the allies were cross- 
 ing the Rhine, and entering France on one side (1814), the 
 British general was passing its frontier on the other. His 
 last victory was at Toulouse, on the very day (April 10, 
 1814) on which Napoleon was signing his abdication at 
 Fontainebleau. By an extraordinary oversight it was agreed 
 by the allies that Napoleon should have the isle of Elba 
 in the Mediterranean with the title of emperor. The 
 Bourbons were restored to their legitimate rights, and 
 Louis XVIII., who had chiefly resided in England during 
 the war, ascended the throne of his ancestors. 
 
 Who can help wishing that our venerable king, whose 
 spirit had roused his people to maintain this struggle 
 against French ambition and revolutionary principles, had 
 been permitted to witness its triumphant close? In 1810 
 the malady with which he had been more than once af- 
 flicted, rendered him again incapable of business, and was 
 never removed. His eldest son was made Prince Regent, 
 and retained his father's ministry. In 1812 Lord Liver- 
 pool became first lord of the treasury on the death of Mr. 
 Perceval, who was shot in the lobby of the House of Com- 
 mons by a desperate person named Bellingham, to whom 
 he had given no offence. Mr. Canning and Lord Castle- 
 reagh were Lord Liverpool's colleagues. The latter became 
 Marquess of Londonderry on his father's death. 
 
 It is little to the credit of the Americans, that while 
 England was struggling so nobly in the defence of all that 
 is sacred and valuable, they engaged her in a new war 
 in 1812; nor was peace concluded till 1815, in which year 
 the whole of Europe was electrified by the return of 
 Napoleon to France. 
 
 It .was never likely that that restless spirit would be 
 satisfied with the petty territory which was assigned him, 
 while its proximity to France was a continual temptation 
 to him to return. Having landed at Frejus, he was wel-
 
 GEORGE IV. 131 
 
 corned with enthusiastic affection, and his march to Paris 
 was one continued proof of the magical power which his 
 name possessed over the army and citizens of France. 
 Louis was forced to withdraw to Ghent, and the allies 
 once more roused themselves to the contest, which was 
 thus renewed. A large army was formed in the Nether- 
 lands under the Duke of Wellington, who encountered and 
 totally defeated the French in a great battle at Waterloo, 
 near Brussels, in which the power of Napoleon was finally 
 broken. He had exhausted his resources in the prepa- 
 ration for this final struggle, and resolved to surrender 
 himself to the English. By these he was sent to end 
 his days in the isle of St. Helena, where his personal 
 comfort was attended to by the British government, and 
 as much liberty allowed him as was consistent with his 
 safe custody. Paris was a second time taken possession of, 
 and a general peace once more concluded. 
 
 No event in our history is more glorious to England than 
 this termination of a war carried on so perse ver in gly, to 
 preserve the national independence, and to support the 
 great principles of order and religion. 
 
 George III. died in the year 1820. The prince, who- 
 now became George IV., had long exercised the functions 
 of royalty ; and the change occasioned by his father's death 
 was only nominal. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 GEORGE IV. WILLIAM IV. VICTORIA. 
 
 George IV. reigned 10 years, from A. TO. 1820 to A.D. 1830. 
 William IV. reigned 7 years, from A.D. 1830 to A.D. 1837. 
 Victoria I. became Queen A.D. 1837, whom God preserve ! 
 
 THE reign of George IV. lasted ten years. He had long 
 been separated from Caroline of Brunswick, his consort, 
 who resided chiefly on the continent. The only child of 
 their unhappy marriage was the Princess Charlotte, who 
 in the year 1 81 6 was married to Prince Leopold of Saxe 
 Coburg, and died in 1817, after being delivered of a dead 
 child, to the great grief of the nation. Her widower has 
 since been elected King of the Belgians. 
 
 As the king had no other child, and had survived the
 
 132 WILLIAM IV. 
 
 Duke of York, he was succeeded by William, duke of 
 Clarence, who became William IV., by the death of his 
 brother, in 1830. 
 
 William IV. died after a short reign, in 1837, and was 
 survived by Queen Adelaide, his consort, a princess of 
 Saxe-Meiningen. He was succeeded in his English domi- 
 nions by Victoria, the only daughter of his deceased brother 
 the Duke of Kent. As no female can inherit the crown of 
 Hanover, it devolved on the Duke of Cumberland, the fifth 
 son of George III. 
 
 On the 10th of February, 1840, her Majesty espoused 
 her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. An heir-apparent 
 was born Nov 9, 1841, and shortly afterwards received 
 the name of Albert. Born Duke of Cornwall, he was within 
 a few months created Prince of Wales. Her Majesty has 
 also at this time (May, 1848) four infant daughters, and 
 a second son. 
 
 The European peace, which was concluded in 1815, has 
 now lasted without any material interruption since that 
 period. Great revolutions have indeed taken place in part 
 of the Turkish empire in Europe, as well as in Spain and 
 Portugal, the Netherlands, and France. It has been 
 necessary for England from time to time to send forth 
 armaments from her shores ; an expedition under Lord 
 Exmouth was sent in 1816 to humble the Dey of Algiers; 
 and the English fleet co-operated with those of France 
 and Russia, in the battle of Navarino (1827), which con- 
 tributed to the deliverance of Greece from the Turkish 
 yoke. In the East, also, partial wars have several times 
 occurred, attended with much calamity, though crowned 
 with evential success to the British crown. By the bless- 
 ing of God, a general war in Europe has been avoided ; 
 and though there has been much local distress in many 
 parts of England, yet the attention of the government 
 has, it is hoped, been successfully directed to questions of 
 domestic policy and improvement. 
 
 Among the important measures which have received 
 the royal assent, may be mentioned, the bill to restore to 
 the members of the Romish Church the political privileges 
 which had been withheld from them since the reign of 
 Charles II. This act was passed under the ministry of the 
 Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel in the year 1829.
 
 VICTORIA. 133 
 
 A bill of great importance was passed in 1832, under 
 the government of Earl Grey, to reform the constitution of 
 the House of Commons, by giving a more equal represen- 
 tation to the various boroughs and counties in the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 In this brief review it would be wrong to omit a bill for 
 the abolition of slavery in the British possessions ; a bill 
 for the more effectual administration of the poor law ; and 
 a bill for regulating the government of corporations. 
 
 These measures, and others also of great importance, 
 occasioned much difference of opinion at the periods when 
 they were adopted ; and their wisdom can only be tested 
 by time. 
 
 It is important to observe, that during these reigns the 
 empire of England in the East has been greatly increased, 
 and the vast islands of New Holland, New Zealand, and 
 Van Diemen's Land, have to a far greater extent than before 
 been colonized by English subjects. Early in the reign of 
 George III., expeditions of science and discovery were sent 
 forth under the command of Captain Cook, the celebrated 
 navigator ; and the success of his efforts has led to many 
 similar measures on the part of the British government. 
 Expeditions to the interior of Africa, and also to the Arctic 
 regions, have been rewarded by many important discove- 
 ries. Such efforts lead not only to national greatness and 
 the advancement of science, but are likely to confer still 
 more important blessings on mankind at large. The English 
 language is now spoken, and the English laws are esta- 
 blished, over a great portion of the globe ; and we cannot 
 but believe that the design of Divine Providence in giving 
 to England its vast colonial empire has been, to afford this 
 country the opportunity of extending the religion of our 
 Lord and Saviour all over the world. In some degree this 
 paramount duty has been acknowledged, and as many as 
 twenty-one bishoprics at this moment (1848) are established 
 in the colonies and dependencies of the British Empire. 
 May their number rapidly increase ! 
 
 In reflecting on the history of our beloved country, we 
 cannot but gratefully acknowledge the goodness of God in 
 crowning it with such unequalled blessings. While every 
 other country has been overrun by invading armies, Eng- 
 land has long been kept in peace and prosperity.
 
 134 VICTORIA. 
 
 The events of our history and the conflicting passions and 
 interests of men have heen so overruled, as to issue in 
 the establishment of the happiest government which the 
 world has ever seen. No country possesses in an equal 
 degree the blessing of a rational and manly freedom ; nor 
 has any been more favoured with an intelligent and indus- 
 trious population, and a succession of distinguished men in 
 every branch of mental and practical excellence. Above all, 
 God has wonderfully preserved, through all these genera- 
 tions, and all the trials to which it has been exposed, 
 that branch of Christ's Holy Catholic Church, which we 
 believe to be the purest that can be found in Christendom. 
 
 May we show our thankfulness for these blessings by 
 using them rightly ! May we value them duly in our own 
 generation, and earnestly endeavour to hand them down 
 unimpaired to those that shall come after us ; and ever 
 preserve a lively recollection of the duty incumbent on 
 us, to labour diligently in the great work of making known 
 God's way to all the earth, His saving health unto all 
 nations ! 
 
 THE END. 
 
 London: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and SONS, Stamford Street.
 
 EDUCATIONAL BOOKS, &c. 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE 
 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 
 
 SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY, 
 GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS J 
 
 NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE ; 
 AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 READING SERIES. 
 
 No. S. d. 
 
 1. Lesson Book, No. 1 per dozen 2 8 
 
 2. l)o. 2. Part I per dozen 1 G 
 
 Reading Book for Beginners, Part I per dozen 1 3 
 
 II per dozen 2 4 
 
 Easy Lesson Book, No. 1 per dozen 8 
 
 2 per dozen 1 4 
 
 CATECHETICAL SERIES. 
 
 1. Preface and First Steps to the Catechism .... per 100 5 8 
 
 2. The Catechism of the Church of England . . . per 100 4 8 
 
 3. The Church Catechism broken into Questions . . per 100 9 4 
 
 4. Scripture Proofs and Illustrations of the Church Catechism 
 
 per 100 11 8 
 
 5. The Church Catechism, with Scriptural References, cloth 
 
 per 100 24 
 
 6. The Catechism set forth in the Book of Common Prayer, 
 
 cloth, per 100 28 
 
 7. Questions illustrating the Catechism of the Church of 
 
 England ; by the Yen. John Sinclair, cloth . . per 100 28 
 
 8. The Church Catechism Explained ; by the Right Rev. AV. 
 
 Beveridge, D.D. Bound each 1 
 
 Is os. 1 to 8, bound together, cloth boards, 2s. 
 
 HISTORICAL SERIES. 
 
 1. History of England. Sound each 1 
 
 2. The Roman Empire each 1 4 
 
 3. History of Greece each 1 4 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL SERIES. 
 
 1. Elements of Geography. Cloth each 4 
 
 or per 100 32 
 
 English School Grammar, with Explanatory Questions . each 2 
 
 Wilson's Outlines of English Grammar each 1 
 
 of Etymology each 1 
 
 PENNY SERIES OF BIOGRAPHICAL READING LESSONS FOR 
 SCHOOLS. 
 
 1. Herbert per dozen 1 
 
 '2. Hooker per dozen 1 
 
 3. Sanderson per dozen 1 o
 
 t- i u rvn rv I 
 
 ^3<^y 
 
 Educational Books, Sfc. printed for the Society. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Scripture Texts (1 to 66). Large type per dozen 1 
 
 The Ten Commandments. Large type .... per dozen 1 1 
 
 The Lord's Prayer. Large type per dozen 1 
 
 The Apostles' Creed. Large type per dozen 1 
 
 Sunday School Lessons. On 6 slieets per set 1 
 
 Progressive Lessons (1 to 12). Large type .... per set 1 
 
 (1 to 24). Second Series . . . per set 2 
 
 Arithmetical Tables. On 7 sJieets per set 7 
 
 Reading Lessons (1 to 12). Large type, with cuts . . per net 1 
 
 Ditto, coloured per set 2 4 
 
 Confirmation Cards . .......... per 100 4 
 
 Alphabets. Large type per dozen 1 
 
 Ditto, Script cltaracter per dozen 1 
 
 District Visitor's Book, Alphabetical List of Persons Visited. 
 
 Cloth boards each 2 10 
 
 , Small for Visitors .... each 3 
 
 Depositors' Book for Savings' Banks per 100 13 6 
 
 Library Registers. 66 leaves . each 2 
 
 34 leaves each 1 6 
 
 MAPS FOR SCHOOLS. 
 Map of the World, on canvas and roller, 6 ft. 6 in. by 3 ft. 4 in. 12 O 
 
 -, outline, mounted on canvas and roller ..68 
 
 The Eastern and Western Hemispheres, on a sheet, for School 
 
 Exercises each 3d. or per 100 16 8 
 
 The Eastern and Western Hemispheres, with the outlines of the 
 
 World eachSd. or per 100 20 
 
 Or, either Hemisphere separate per 100 14 O 
 
 Map of England and Wales, 6 ft. 3 in. by 5 ft. 3 in. on a roller 16 O 
 Map of Europe, 5 ft. 3 in. by 4 ft. 4 in. on canvas and roller . 12 
 Map of Asia, 5 ft. 3 in. by 4 ft. 4 in. on canvas and roller . .120 
 Map of Africa, 5 ft. 3 in. by 4 ft. 4 in. on canvas and roller . 12 
 
 Map of North America 8O 
 
 Map of South America 80 
 
 Map of Palestine, illustrating both its Ancient and Modern 
 
 Geography, 3 ft. 7 in. by 2 ft. 5 in 1 
 
 Map of the Holy Land, before the Conquest, No. 1 06 
 
 Ditto, ditto, on canvas and roller 28 
 
 Ditto, ditto, outline 03 
 
 Ditto, divided among the Tribes, No.- 2. 06 
 
 Ditto, ditto, on canvas and roller 2 &' 
 
 Ditto, for the New Testament, No. 3 06 
 
 Ditto, on canvas and roller, varnished 28 
 
 Map of the British Islands, coloured 06 
 
 , on canvas and roller, varnished . 2 8 
 
 , outline 03 
 
 Map of the Countries mentioned in the Old Testament, on can- 
 vas and roller, varnished 80 
 
 Ditto, New Testament, ditto 80 
 
 Map of the Journeys of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan . 8 
 
 Ditto, on canvas and roller I 
 
 Map of St. Paul's Travels, on canvas and roller 54 
 
 Map of Jerusalem and the adjacent Country 10 
 
 Map of England and Wales, on canvas and roller .... 6 8 
 
 Map of Scotland, on canvas and roller 68 
 
 Map of Ireland, on canvas and roller 68
 
 *v 
 
 =5* 
 
 
 '* 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 ' 
 
 M 
 
 >
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL U 
 
 iBRARY FiSH