^*A «^ ^SSSSSg^i-T^-JS^ ^^^^^^ V, jM^^^M^^. ■•-i ^^ & ^ ^g^388S^ Jjonipnana^ (Jfven ^ Co., yew Fork. 1 Lonjituac West Lonkritiidc Eoat 1 Lon4Jvpins. Qreen ^ Co., yew fork. LoQgitude East 4 Bradley ^ Poatea,Enyr'a, A. i'. / ' ENGLISH HISTORY FOR AMERICANS ENGLISH HISTORY FOR AMERICANS BY THOMAS WENTVVORTH HIGGINSON AUTHOR OF "YOUNG FOLKS' HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES," ETC. AND EDWARD CHANNING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY NEW YORK LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. LONDON AND BOMBAY 1896 Copyriirht, 1893, By Longmans, Green, and Co. Unitcrsitu il3rrss: John Wilson and Son, CAMr.RU)(;E, U. S. A. PREFACE. 'THHE name "English History for Americans," which suggests the key-note of this book, is based on the simple fact that it is not the practice of American readers, old or young, to give to English history more than a very limited portion of their hours of study. However much we may regret this fact, it is undeniable. This being the case, it seems clear that such readers will use their time to the best advantage if they devote it mainly to those events in English annals which have had the most direct influence on the history and institu- tions of our own land. For instance, an English reader might regard the acquisition of the Indian Empire as an event rivalling in importance the rise and growth of Puritanism in the English Church ; but there can be no comparison in the relative importance of these two events to an American. Every American sees in the rise of Puritanism an essential factor in the creation of the thirteen colonies, while the Indian Empire is simply a matter of curiosity or wonder. The authors of this book have therefore boldly ventured to modify in their vi PREFACE. narrative the accustomed scale of proportion ; while it has been their wish, in the treatment of every detail, to accept the best result of modern English investigation, and especially to avoid all unfair or one-sided judgments. The career of England is too important in the history of the human race to be handled in any petty or partisan spirit. THE AUTHORS. A LIST OF SOME USEFUL BOOKS FOR CONSULTATION. Books suitable for young students are marked with an asterisk. BIBLIOGRAPHIES. This list is in no sense a complete list of authorities. For such information, reference should be made to the following : — Allen, Wm. F. The Reader's Guide to English History. Gardiner and Mullinger. English History for Students. — Contains an historical sketch by Gardiner, and a comprehensive bibliography by Mullinger. Lists may also be found prefixed to the first three volumes of Bright's English History., and in Gardiner's Student's History, pp. ICO, 172, 288, 359, 480, 577, 648, 744, 818, 890, 972. GENERAL WORKS. Acland and Ransome. Handbook in Outline of the Political History of England. — Arranged in three parallel columns, with topical summaries at the end. The most useful book of its kind for teachers and readers. Longmans' Summary of English History. Gardiner, S. R. A Student's History of England. 1023 ])ages. — The best single-volume history of England, profusely illus- trated, but without maps. The latter are provided in the follow- ing volume : — Gardiner, S. R. Atlas of English History. — Contains 88 maps or plans. Brewer, J. S., Editor. The Student's Hutne. viii A LIST OF SOME USEFUL BOOKS Green, J. R. A SJiort History of the English People, i vol. — Also printed in parts, and in a profusely illustrated edition in three volumes. Macaulay, Lord. History of E/igland. — The introductory mat- ter in vol. i. is especially valuable. Mahax, a. T. The Influence of Sea Power on History. Green, John Richard, Editor. Readings front English History. Wheeler, A. M., Editor. Sketches from English History. Among the longer works may be mentioned, — Bright, G. F. A History of England. 4 vols. I., 449-14S5 (PP- 354); II., 14S5-1688 (pp. 449); III., 1689-1837 (pp. 666); IV., 1837-1880 (pp. 577). — Well supplied with maps and tables. Green, J. R. A History of the English People. 4 vols. Knight, Ch.a.rles. Popular History of England. — Profusely illustrated. Lingard, John. The History of England. — A Catholic View. Powell, F. York, and Tout, T. F. History of England, for the Use of Schools. In Three Parts. With Maps and Plans. Part I. From the Earliest Times to the Death of Henry VI /. By Powell. Part III. William and Mary to the Present Time. By Tout. Powell, F. \'ork. Editor. English History from Contemporary Writers J especially Ashley, W. J. Edward HI. HuTTON, W. H. Misrule of Henry in. HuTTON, W. H. Simon of Montfort. HuTTON, W. H. S. Thomas of Canterbicry. Henderson, E. F. Select Historical Documoits from the Middle Ages. — The first 165 pp. contain documents illustrating English history before 1349. Prothero, G. W. Statutes and Constitutional Documents, 1 5 59- 1 625. Gar diner, S. R. Documents illustrating the PuritaJi Rebellion. Among the books designed for children the following may be mentioned, — * Creighton, Louise. A First History of England. Illustrated. * GARI3INER, S. R. English History for Young Folks. *YoNGE, Charlotte M. Young Folks' History of England. FOR CONSULTATION. ix * Fisher, Mrs. Arabella B. [Buckley]. Hisio/y of England for Beginners. *Creighton, Mandell, Editor. Epochs of English History. I vol. Also printed separately in eight small cloth-covered volumes with the following titles: — Powell, F. York. Early England to the iXor/naji Conquest. Creightox, Mrs. Mandell. England a Continental Power, from the Conquest to the Great Charter. Rowley, James. The Rise of the People, and the Growth of Parliament. Creightox, Mandell. The Tudors and the Reformation. Gardiner, Mrs. S. R. The Struggle against Absolute Monarchy. Rowley, James. Tlie Settlement of the Constitution. Tancock, Rev. O. W. England during the American and European Wars. Browning, Oscar. Modern England. SPECIAL WORKS. Arranged chronologically according to contents. Freeman, E. A. Old English History. Hu(;hes, Thomas. Life of King Alfred. Freeman, E. A. William the Conqueror (Twelve English Statesmen). * Freeman, E. A. A .Short History of the A'orman Conquest. Stubbs, W. Early Plantagenets (Epochs of History). Green, Mrs. J. R. Henry II. (Twelve English Statesmen). Maurice, C. E. Stephen Langton (English Popular Leaders Series). Longman, W. Edward III. Oman, C. W. C. The Art of War in the Middle Ages. Ashley, W. J. An Introduction to English Economic History. Seligman, E. R. a. Tivo Chapters in the History of the Medi- CEval Guilds of England. Palgrave, Sir F. The Merchant and the Friar. Seebohm, F. The Oxford Reformers (Colet, Erasmus, More). X A LIST OF SOME USEFUL BOOKS Crek;hton, AL\xdell. Cardinal VVolscy (Twelve English Statesmen). Creighton, Mandell. The Age of Elizabetli (Epochs of History). Beesley, E. S. (2icce)i Elizabclh (Twelve English Statesmen). Payne. Elizabethan Seamen. Cordery, B. M. (Mrs. S. R. Gardiner) and Phillpotts. The King and CoininoiwealtJi. Gardiner, S. R. Tlie Puritan Revolutio)i {Y.\iOz\\'i,oiYW'i,\oxy). Smith, Goldwin. Three English Statesmen (John I'ym, Oliver Cromwell, William Pitt). Boyle, G. D. Selections from Clarendon's History of the \_PHri- tan] /Rebellion. GuizoT, F. Oliver Cromwell. Harrison, Frederic. Oliver Cromwell (Twelve English States- men). Carlyle, Thomas. Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell. Hannay, D. Admiral Blake. Traill, H. D. William 11/. (Twelve English Statesmen). Lecky, W. E. H. History of England in the Eighteenth Cen- tury. 8 vols. — A new and convenient edition has been published, in which the portions dealing more particularly with Ireland are printed separately. Morris, E. E. The Age of Anne (Epochs of History). Morley, John. Sir Robert IVa Ipole (T\\&\yc English Statesmen). Trevelyan, G. O. Early History of Charles fames Eox. Seeley, J. R. The Expansion of England. ROSEBEKV. Lord. William Pitt (Twelve English Statesmen). Russell, W. Clark. Lord A'elson. Martineau, Harriet. History of England during the Thirty Years'' Peace (1816-46). Wali'OLIC, Spkncicr. a History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1S15 (to 1857). McCarthy. J. Epoch of Reform (Epochs of History). McCarthy. J. A History of our Own Times. Thursfield, J. R. Peel (Twelve English Statesmen). Morley, John. Richard Cobdcn. Froude, J. A. Lord Beaconsficld. FOR CONSULTATION. xi CONSTITUTIONAL WORKS. Amos, Sheldon. A Primer of the English Constitution and Government. Montague, F. C. The Elements of English Constitutional History. * Creighton, Louise. The Government of England. * FoNBLANQUE, A. DE. J/ow we are governed. Ransome, C. Rise of Constitutional Government in England. Creasy, E, The English Constitution. Taylor, Hannis. Origin and Growth of the English Consti- tution. Taswell-Langmead, T. P. English Constitutional History. from the Teutonic Conquest to the Present Time. Medley, D. J. Mantial of English Constitutional History. The following three works form together a comprehensive treat- ment of the subject : — Stubbs, \V. Constitutional History of England in its Origin and Development. 3 vols. Hallam, H. Constitutional History of England from the Acces- sion of Henry VII. to the death of George II. 3 vols. ; American edition in 2 vols. May, T. E. Constitutional History of England, 1 760-1 S60. 3 vols. MINOR WORKS. * Creighton, Louise. Stories from Eftglish History. Creighton, Louise. Social Histoty of England. * YoNGE, Charlotte M. Cameos from English History. * Jones, M. Stories of the Olden Time, from De Joinville and Froissart. * Lanier, Sidney, Editor. The Boy''s Eroissa?-t. * Edgar, John G. The Wars of the Roses. * Oilman, Arthur, Editor. Magna Charta Stories. * Kingsley, Rose G. The Children of Westminster Abbey. EwALD. Stories from the State Papers. xii A LIST OF SOME USEFUL BOOKS. * Dickens, Charles. A Child' s History of England. *RlDEiNG, William H. Young Folks' History of Loudon. * Brown, Cornelius. True Stories of the Reign of Victoria. * Valentine, Mrs. R. Sea Fights a?id Land Battles. * Bishop, Coleman E., Editor. Pictures from English History. * Scott, Sir Walter. Tales of a Grandfather. * Strickland, Agnes. Tales from English History, for Chil- dren, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Early Britain. Date. Page Continuity of English and American History i Early British Races 2 The Gaels 3 The Britons 4 Mode of Life 4 Religion 5 , Stonehenge 5 B. c. 55- 1 Roman Conquest of Britain 7 ■^ Roman Walls and Roads 7-8 a. D. 410 Roman Army withdrawn 9 CHAPTER II. How Britain became England (449-S27 a.d.). 449 Coming of the Jutes 10 The Saxons 11 The English 12 Religion of the English 13 Institutions: the Township, Hundred, and County ... 14 The Land System 14 The Meeting of the Wise Men 15 Conversion of the English to Christianity 15 827 England united by Egbert of Wessex 16 XIV CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER in. The Northmen in England (827-1042). Date. Page The Vikings 17 879 Treaty of Wedmore 18 87 1 -901 King Alfred of Wessex 18 St. Dunstan 19 1017-35 Cnut the Dane, King of England 19 The Earldoms 22 CHAPTER IV. The Norman Conquest (1042-10S7). 1066 Harold, Son of Godwin, chosen King 23 ic66 Battle of Senlac, or Hastings 24 1066-87 William the Conqueror 25 His Claim to the English Throne 25 Effect of the Conquest 26 Continuity of English History 26 1086 Domesday Book 27 1086 Oath of Salisbury Plain 27 Influence of the Catholic Church on England 28 The New Forest 28 London Tower and Westminster Hall 29 1087 William's Death . 29 CHAPTER V. The Norman Ktngs (1087-1154). 1087-1100 William II., the Red 30 His Extravagance 30 His Death 31 1100-35 Henry 1 31 Conquers Normandy 32 The White Ship 32 Geoflrey of Anjou marries Maud 33 1135-54 Stephen 33 Civil War , , 34 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. The First Two Planiagenets (1154-1199). Date. Page 1154-89 Henry II 35 His Reforms 35 Shield-money 36 1164 Constitutions of Clarendon 36 Conquest of Ireland 37 Henry's sons 37 I1S9-99 Richard 1 39 Richard's Death 39 His Place in England's History 40 CHAPTER VII. King John and Magna Charta (1199-1216). Prince Arthur 41 Philip of France seizes Normandy and Anjou .... 41 The Interdict 42 John submits to the Pope 42 1215 Magna Charta 43 John's Death 44 CHAPTER VIII. Hfnry III. (1216-1272). Earl Simon of Montfort 47 1265 Earl Simon's Parliament 48 1265 P>attle of Evesham ..." 48 CHAPTER IX. The First Two Edwards (i 272-1327). 1 272-1307 Edward 1 50 1276-12S4 Conquers Wales 50 Prince of Wales 50 The Welsh Bards 51 XVI CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. Date. Page Balliol and Bruce . . . 51 1296 Conquest of Scotland 52 Sir William Wallace -52 129S Battle of Falkirk 52 Robert Bruce 52 1295 The First Perfect Parliament 53 Its Composition 53 1297 Confirmation of the Charters .......... 54 1307-27 Edward II 54 1307-12 Piers Gaveston 54 Bruce in Scotland 55 1314 Battle of Bannockburn • • 55 The Irish 55 The Uespensers ■ • • 55 1327 Murder of the King 56 CHAPTER X. Edward III. (1327-1377). 1327-30 Supremacy of Mortimer . . . . , 57 1333 Battle of Halidon Hill 57 Cause of the Wars with France 59 1340 Sea-fight at Sluys 60 1346 Battle of Cressy 60 1346-47 Siege of Calais 62 134S-50 The " Black Death" 62 1356 Battle of Poitiers 63 1360 Peace of liretigny 63 1333 Parliament separates into two Houses 65 1353 Statute of Praemunire 66 John Wycliffe and the Lollards 66 Copyhold Tenure 67 1349 Statute of Laborers 67 CHAPTER XI. RrcHARD II. (1377-1399)- 1381 The Peasants' Revolt 68 ^399 -Xbdication of Richard 70 Ilcnry of Lancaster's Claims to the Crown 72 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. England in the Fourteenth Century. Date. Page Trade 73 Financial Policy 74 Clothes 74 Commerce 74 The Guilds 75 Rise of the English Language 76 CHAPTER XIII. The First two Lancastrian Kings (1399-1422). 1399-1413 Henry IV 77 Rise of the Commoners 77 Maintenance . 7S 1413-22 Henry V 78 Renewal of the War with France 79 1415 Battle of Agincourt So 1420 Treaty of Troyes . 80 CHAPTER XIV. Henry VI. (1422-1460). Regency of Bedford and Gloucester 82 1428-53 Loss of France 82 1450 Jack Cade's Rebellion 83 1460 Richard of York claims the Throne 83 1455 The Wars of the Roses begin 84 1 461 Edward I. of York crowned King 84 Forty-shilling Freeholders 85 CHAPTER XV. The Yorkist Kings (1461-14S5). 1461-S3 Edward IV 86 (475 Invasion of France 87 1478 Murder of the Duke of Clarence 87 b XVIU CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. Date. Page 14S3 Edward V 88 1483-85 Richard III 88 The Tudors and their Claims 88 1485 Battle of Bosworth . . . . , 90 CHAPTER XVI. Social Changes during the Fifteenth Century. End of the Middle Ages 91 Printing 91 Abolition of Villeinage 92 Loss of Power by Parliament 93 Money Bills 94 CHAPTER XVII. Henry VII. (14S5-1509). Henry's Home Policy 95 The Pretenders, Sininel and Warbcck 95~96 Henry's Foreign Policy 96 Court of Star Chamber 96 CHAPTER XVIII. Henry VIII. (1509-1547). The Spanish Marriage 98 1513 War with France and Scotland 100 Battle of Flodden 100 Cardinal Wolsey loi The Divorce from Katherine 102 Henry's Personal Rule 103 1533 The Statute against Appeals to Rome 104 Destruction of the Monasteries 106 Effect of this Destruction 107 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS, Xix Date Page 1536 Execution of Anne Boleyn 108 1539 The Act of the Six Articles ....,...<,. 108 1540 Fall of Cromwell 109 Last Years of Henry VIH 109 CHAPTER XIX. Edward VL (1547-1553)- Protector Somerset 1 1 1 1547 The Scottish War m 1551 Fall of Somerset 112 Lady Jane Grey 112 CHAPTER XX. Mary the Catholic (1553-1558). Mary's Policy 114 1554 Marriage with Philip of Spain 114 1554 Risings in England 116 The Martyrs 116 CHAPTER XXI. Elizabeth (155S-1603). Character of the Reign 119 William Cecil, Lord Burleigh 121 The Church of England 123 The Puritans 124 The Roman Catholics .' 125 Mary, Queen of Scots 126 Foreign Policy 12S 1569-86 Roman Catholic Plots 129 Court of High Commission 130 1587 Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots 131 1588 The Invincible Armada 132 The English in Ireland 135 Elizabethan Settlement of Ireland 135 Elizabeth's Last Years 137 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXII. State of Society. Date. Page Commerce 140 Architecture 140 The Poor Law 142 Literature 142 CHAPTER XXIII. James L (1603-1625). His Character 144 Sir Walter Raleigh 146 1605 The Gunpowder Plot 146 The Puritans 149 " The Spanish Marriage " 151 The " Divine Right of Kings " 151 1621 Impeachment of Bacon 151 1621 The Great Protestation 152 CHAPTER XXIV. Charles I. (1625-1649). The French Marriage, and War with France .... 153 1627 The Attempt to relieve La Rochelle 154 1628 The Petition of Right 154 1629 Sir John Eliot's Resolutions 157 1629-40 Personal Government of the King 158 Archbishop Laud and the Puritans 159 Ship-money 160 1637 Hampden's Case t6o The Scottish Church 163 1639 The First Bishops' War 164 1640 The Short Parliament 165 1640 The Second Bishops' War 165 1640-60 The Long Parliament 165 1641 Execution of Strafford 166 Constitutional Reforms 167 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXI Date. Page The Patriots disagree about Religion i68 1641 The Irish Rebellion 168 1641 The Grand Remonstrance 168 1642 The Attempt to arrest the Five Members ..... 168 1642 Civil War begins 170 CHAPTER XXV. The Civil Wars (1642-1649). 1643 Death of John Hampden and of John Pym 172 Oliver Cromwell 173 Cromwell's Ironsides , ... 173 1644 Battle of Marston Moor 175 1645 "^^^ Self-denying Ordinance 176 1645 " The New Model " Army, and Battle of Naseby . . . 176 Charles flees to the Scots 177 The Independents 177 The Army seizes the King 178 1648 The Scots invade England 179 1648 Battle of Preston 179 1648 " Pride's Pnrge " 179 1649 E.xecution of the King 180 1649 Cromwell in Ireland 181 CHAPTER XXVI. The Commonwealth (1649-1653). Charles II. in Scotland 182 1650 Battle of Dunbar 183 1651 Battle of Worcester 183 1653 The " Rump " expelled 186 Barebone's Parliament 186 1653 The Instrument of Government 186 xxii CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVIL The Protectorate (1653-1659). Date. Page Oliver, Lord Protector 18S 1655 The Major-Generals 189 War with the Dutch 189 1657 The Petition and Advice . 190 1658 Death of Cromwell 192 1660 The Restoration I93 Puritan Ideas 194 CHAPTER XXVI IL The Restored Stuarts (1660-1688). 1660-85 Charles II 196 1660 Act of Indemnity and Oblivion 198 The Regicides 198 1661-79 The Cavalier Parliament 199 1661 Corporation Act 199 1665 The Plague 200 The Dissenters 200 1666 The Great Fire 201 1666-67 War with the Dutch 202 1670 The Secret Treaty of Dover 203 1672 Declaration of Indulgence .... 204 1673 The Test Act . . 204 1678 Popish Plot 205 1679 Habeas Corpus Act 206 1680-81 Exclusion Pills . 207 1683 Rye-House Plot , 207 1685-88 James II 208 1685 Monmouth's Rebellion 20S CHAPTER XXIX. The "Glorious Revolution" of 16SS-1689. The Case of Sir Edward Hales 210 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 210 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXIU Date. Page 1688 Declaration of Lululgencc 211 Birth of the Old Prcicnder 212 1688 The Seven Bishops acquitted 212 The Invitation to William ot Orange ..... 213 ^"^^ 5' j William lands at Torbay 213 I boo ) .,,.,- T _ , . ' !< light ot James 214 The Jacobites 214 The Convention 215 1689 Declaration of Right . 215 CHAPTER XXX. The First Constitutional Monarchs. 16S9-1702 William and Mary 2i5 The Mutiny Bill ... 216 The Nonjurors 217 1689 Siege of Londonderry 218 1690 Battle of the Boyne 219 1690 Battle off Beachy Head 220 1692 Battle of La Hogue 221 1694 Bank of England established 221 1695 Liberty of the Press 222 1692 Massacre of Glencoe ... ....... 222 1702-14 Queen Anne 224 1704 Battle of Blenheim 224 1704 Seizure of Gibraltar 226 1707 Union with Scotland 227 CHAPTER XXXI. George I (1714-1727) 170T Act of Succession, or Settlement ........ 229 1715 Jacobite Plot 230 1715 Riot Act 230 17 16 Septennial Act 230 1720 South-Sea Bubble 230 1721-42 Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister 232 Walpole's Policy 233 xxiv CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXIL Date. 1739 1744-54 1745 1746 1751 1754-63 1756-63 George IL (1727-1760). Page Queen Caroline 234 The Methodists 234 War with Spain . 234 War with Prussia and France 236 Pelham Ministry 236 Stuart Rising 236 Battle of Culloden 238 New Style adopted . . . 239 Causes of the French and Indian War in America . . 240 The Seven Years' War m Europe 240 William Pitt 242 CHAPTER XXXI n. 1763 1765 1765 1766 1768 1773 1774 '775 1776 1776 1777 1778 1780 1780 George IH. (1760-1S20): part i. (1760-1783). Character of the New King 244 Peace of Paris .... 245 John Wilkes 246 The North American Colonies 248 The Stamp Act 249 The Regency Question .... 249 Stamp Act repealed 250 "The King's Friends" . ■ 251 Wilkes and the Middlesex Election 251 The Boston Tea Party 253 The Boston Port Act and other Oppressive Measures 254 Lexington and Concord . . . • • 254 The Declaration of Independence 255 The Surprise at Trenton 255 Burgoyne's Surrender 256 The French Alliance 257 Lord North's Plan of Reconciliation 257 Economical Reform 258 Lord George Gordon Riots 258 The Southern Campaigns 259 Arnold's Treason -60 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. XXV Date. P'^ge 1781 Capture of Yorktown 261 1782 End of the North Ministry 261 1782 The Second Rockingham Ministry 262 1782 Independence of the United States acknowledged . . 264 1783 Conclusion of the War 265 CHAPTER XXXIV. George III. Part ii. (17S3-1S20). 1783 The " Coalition " 266 1783 Fo.x's India Bill 266 1783-1801 William Pitt, Prime Minister 267 1784 Pitt's India Bill 26S Pitt's financial policy 269 1788 Trial of Warren Hastings begins 269 1788 The Regency Struggle 269 1789 The French Revolution 271 1793 France declares War against England 271 Pitt's Policy 272 1797 Mutinies in the Fleet 272 1798 French invasion of Egypt 272 1798 Battle of the Nile 273 Ireland in the Eighteenth Century 273 1779 The " Volunteers " 273 1791 The " United Irishmen " 274 1796-98 Rebellion in Ireland 274 1801 The Union 275 1803 Einmett's Rebellion 275 1S01-4 The Addington Ministry 275 1802 Peace of Amiens 276 1803 War renewed 276 1805 Battle off Trafalgar 276 1803-6 Pitt's Second Ministry 277 1806-7 Ministry of " All the Talents " 277 1807-27 The Tory Ministry 277 The Spanish Resistance to Napoleon 279 1809-14 The Peninsular War 279 Napoleon's Downfall 281 War of 1812 with the United States 281 1815 Battle of Waterloo 2S2 Agricultural Distress 283 xxvi CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. Date. Page Corn Law of iSi6 .... 2S3 Commercial Depression 283 The Luddites , 283 1819 The Manchester Massacre 284 1819 The Six Acts 285 1810-20 The Regency 286 CHAPTER XXXV. George IV. (1S20-1830). Queen Caroline 286 George Canning and the Monroe Doctrine 287 1828-30 Wellington-Peel Ministry 287 Daniel O'Connell 288 1829 Catholic Emancipation 289 CHAPTER XXXVI. William IV. (1S30-1S37). Character of the new King 291 Causes of Discontent 291 1S30-34 The Grey Ministry 293 1830-32 The Struggle for Reform 293 1832 The First Reform Act 294 1833 Emancipation of Slaves 295 1833 The Factory Act 295 1834 Reform of the Poor Law 296 '^34-35 Peel-Wellington Ministry 296 •835-41 Second Melbourne Ministry 296 CHAPTER XXXVn. Victoria (1837- ). Difficulties of the Ministry 297 1840 The Canada Act 299 ^^39 '^^^ Bedchamber Question 300 1841-46 Sir Robert Peel's Ministry . . 300 Overthrow of the Protective Policy 301 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxvii Date. Page The Anti-Corn-Law League 302 1S44-49 The Irish Famine 303 1846 Repeal of the Corn Laws 303 1S46-52 Lord John Russell's Ministry 305 " Young Ireland " 306 The "Clearances" 306 The Chartists 306 1851 Dismissal of Lord Palmerston 307 1852 The First Derby Ministry 30S '85-~5S The Aberdeen Ministry 30S 1854-56 The Crimean War 308 1855-5S First Palmerston Ministry 309 1S57-5S The Sepoy Mutiny 309 1858-59 Second Derby-Disraeli Ministry 311 1858 Jews admitted to Parliament 311 1859 The " Fancy Franchises " 311 1859-65 Second Palmerston Ministry 312 Gladstone's Financial Policy 313 The Cotton Famine 313 England's Policy during the Civil War 314 The "Alabama" 314 1865-6S Derby-Disraeli Ministry 315 186S The Second Reform Act 315 1S68 Compulsory Church Rates abolished 315 1S6S-74 First Gladstone Ministry 316 1869 Disestablishment of the Irish Church 316 The System of Landholding in Ireland 316 1870 The Irish Land Act of 1S70 319 The " Bright Clauses " 320 1881 Irish Land Act of iSSi 320 1871 National Education 320 187 1 Reorganization of the Army 320 1872 The Ballot Act 3-i 1884 Third Reform Act 321 1874-S0 The Disraeli Ministry 3^2 Disraeli's Imperial Policy 322 1876 Congress of Berlin 3^4 1880 Mr. Gladstone's Second Ministry begins 324 The British Empire 325 Conclusion 3^5 INDEX 327 XXVUl GENEALOGIES. — MAPS. GENEALOGIES. Page The Norman Kings 31 The Earlier Plantagenets 49 Succession to the Scottish Throne in 1290 51 Succession to the French Crown in 132S , 59 The Later Plantagenets 71 Claims of York and Lancaster 81 Lancasters and Tudors 89 The Howards 102 The Tudors no The Stuarts 143 The House of Hanover 242 MAPS. At the beginning : 1. Britain before the Norman Conquest. 2. The Dominions of Henry H. At the end : 3. f]ngland at the beginning of the Puritan Rebellion. 4. England since the Restoration. Folding Maps, after the Index. 5. The World, 1772, ) , . .1 f *i tj •^- u ir • i. ^,„ , , , , ' ( showmg growth or the British Empire. 6. I he World, 1892.) IMPORTANT DATES. , xxix IMPORTANT DATES. Year Caesar in Britain b. c. 55 Coming of the Jutes A. D. 449 Egbert of Wessex, Overlord of all England 827 Treaty of Wedmore 878 Battle of Senlac 1066 Murder of Becket 11 70 Magna Charta 1215 Simon of Montfort's Parliament 1264 Confirmation of the Charters 1297 Battle of Bannockburn 13 14 Battle of Cressy 1346 Peace of Bretigny 1360 Battle of Agincourt 141 5 Battle of Bosworth 14S5 First Act of Supremacy 1534 Defeat of the Spanish Armada 1 588 Petition of Right 1628 Battle of Naseby 1645 Battle of Worcester ,. 1651 The Restoration 1660 Bill of Rights 1689 Act of Settlement 1701 Union with Scotland 1707 Battle of Blenheim 1704 Peace of Paris 1763 Declaration of American Independence 1776 Union with Ireland rSoi Battle of Trafalgar 1805 Battle of Waterloo 1815 Catholic Emancipation 1829 First Reform Act 1832 Overthrow of Protection 1S45-46 Second Reform Act 1868 Disestablishment of the Irish Church 1869 First Irish Land Act 1870 Elementary Education Act 1870 Ballot Act 1872 Second Irish Land Act 1881 Third Reform Act 1884 LANDMARKS IN CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. [For supplementary reading on this topic, see p. xi.] Date Page Character of the English Conquest of Britain 12 Institutions of the English 14 827 Union of the Kingdoms under Egbert of Wessex ... 16 1066 The Norman Conquest , 26 1086 Domesday Book and the Oath of Salisbury Plain ... 27 1154-S9 Reforms of Henry II. in the Administration of Justice and in Finance . 35 1 164 The Constitutions of Clarendon 36 I215 Magna Charta . 43 1265 Earl of Simon of Montfort's Parliament 47 1295 The First Perfect Parliament 53 1297 Confirmation of the Charters 54 1327 Edward II. deposed by Parliament 55 1332 Separation of Parliament into Two Houses 65 ^353 Statute of Praemunire 65 1399 Abdication of Richard II 71 1407 The Commons obtain the Right to Originate Money-Bills 77 1430 Restriction of the Franchise 85 1461 The Practice of Passing Statutes begins . . ... 94 1487 Court of Star Chamber established . 96 1494 Poynings' Law 135 1534 First Act of Supremacy 106 1583 High Commission Court 130 1601 The Poor Law of Elizabeth 142 The "Divine Right of Kings" 151 1621 The Great Protestation 15^ LANDMARKS IN CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. XXXI Date Page 1628 The Petition of Right , .154 1629 Sir John Eliot's Resolutions ....... = ... 157 1634-36 Ship-Money 160 1640 Meeting of the Long Parliament . . . = 165 1641 Constitutional Reforms 167 1641 The Grand Remonstrance .... 168 1649 Establishment of the Commonwealth . iSo 1653 The Instrument of Government 1S6 1657 The Petition and Advice 190 1660 The Restoration 193 1660 Act of Indemnity and Oblivion 198 1661 ) The Corporation Act, Act of Uniformity, Conventicle } 1665 t Act, and Five Mile Act i 1673 The Test Act 204 1679 Habeas Corpus Act , . 206 16SS Declaration of Indulgence 211 1688-89 The " Glorious Revolution " 213 1689 The Declaration of Rights 215 16S9 The Mutiny Bill .216 1689 The Toleration Act .... 217 1695 Liberty of the Press 222 1701 Act of Setdement 229 1707 Union with Scotland 227 1715 Riot Act ' 230 17 16 Septennial Act 230 1721 Rise of Cabinet Government 232 Character of the Whig Administrations ....... 233 1763 Wilkes and General Warrants .......... 246 Constitutional Relations of the Colonies to Great Britain 249 1765 The Stamp Act 249 1766 The Declaratory Act 250 "The King's Friends" 251 1768 The Middlesex Election ............ 251 Economical Reform 258 1783 The " Coalition " dismissed ........... 266 1788 The Regency Struggle 269 1801 The Union with Ireland 275 1819 The Six Acts 285 1829 Catholic Emancipation 289 1832 The First Reform Act 2ca XXXll LANDMARKS IN CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. Date Page 1839 The Bedchamber Question = . 300 The Chartists 306 1858 Jews admitted to Pailiament 311 1868 Second Reform Act 315 1868 Compulsory Church Rates abolished ... ^ - • 315 1869 Disestablishment of the Irish Church .,..-,. 316 1870 The Irish Land Act . . 319 1872 The Ballot Act , . 321 18S4 Third Reform Act 321 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page View of Stoiiehenge » 5 Views of Parts of tlie Roman Wall 8, 9 Saxon Horsemen ... 16 Rural Life (Eleventh Century) 20, 21 An English Vessel 22 Silver Penny (time of William I.) 29 Seal, showing Mounted Armed Figure (time of Henry I.) . . . . 34 Effigies of Henry H. and Queen Eleanor 38 Silver Penny (time of John) 40 Royal Arms of England (Richard I. to Edward IH.) 45 Effigy of a Knight, showing Armor worn between 1 190-1225 ... 47 Seal, showing Mounted Knight in Mail Armor (about 1265) ... 48 Armed Knights (about 1300) 56 State Carriage (Fourteenth Century) 58 Contemporary View of a Walled Town (Fourteenth Century) . . 61 Tomb of Edward HI. in Westminster Abbey 64 Rural Life (Fourteenth Century) 69, 70 Gold Noble (time of Edward IH.) : from the Litttrdl Psalter, " Vetusta Monumenta " 72 Geoffrey Chaucer [from Harl. MS. 4S66) 76 Effigy of Knight in Plate-armor (about 1460) 79 Royal Arms (1408- 1603) 85 A Fifteenth-Century Ship 90 Tudor Rose 97 Henry VHI 99 Sir Thomas More 105 Angel of Henry VHL (1543) 113 Queen Mary Tudor 115 Mounted Soldier (1596) 118 Queen Elizabeth (1588) 120 William Shakspere . 122 Mary, Queen of Scots 127 .Sir Francis Drake 133 William Cecil, Lord Burleigh 138 XXXIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Coaches in the Reign of Llizaljeth i .i Sir Walter Raleigh i ,r James I i co Charles I i cc The " Sovereign of the Seas " (1637) i6[ Coach (Seventeenth Century) j6g Military Equipment (Seventeenth Century) 171 Oliver Cromwell jn, John Milton ij^r Wagon (Seventeenth Century) 187 Charles II igy Yeomen of the Guard (Seventeenth Century) 209 William III ' 21S Mary II 219 Queen Anne 225 Royal Arms (1603- 17 14) 228 George 1 231 Costumes and Sedan Chair (ajjout 1720) 233 Sir Robert Walpole 235 George II 237 William Pitt (afterwards Earl of Chatham) 241 Coach (about 1700) 243 George III. (in 1767) 245 The House of Commons in 1741-42 247 Costumes of Persons of Quality (about 1783) 260 Edmund Burke 263 Royal Arms (iSoi~i8i6) 265 William Pitt 268 Headdress of a Lady (about 1778) 270 Lord Nelson 278 The Duke of Wellington 280 George III. in old age 284 George Canning 288 Royal Arms (1S16-1837) 290 Old Sarum 292 Queen Victoria 298 Sir Robert Peel 3^4 Lord John Russell 312 Mr. Gladstone 318 Lord Beaconsfield 323 ENGLISH HISTORY AMERICANS. CHAPTER I. EARLY BRITAIN. OFF the western coast of Europe there are two large islands. One of these is a little larger than are the States of Ohio and Pennsylvania united, and the other is almost as large as the State of continu- Indiana. Two thousand years ago these islands English were mentioned by an old Greek author, Poly- ^""^ . -' ' -' American bins, as "the two Britannic islands of Albion history. and lerne;" and they are now known to us as Great Britain and Ireland. Small as they are, their history is of more importance to Americans than that of all Europe besides ; for the ancestors of the majority of Americans came from these islands, and thence came many, if not all, of our most important institutions. Indeed, the history of these islands until within two centuries and a half is a part of American history; without it we cannot understand our own institutions, or trace the history of our ancestors. Who were the earliest inhabitants of these islands.-* How did they live? What did they eat and drink, I 2 EARLY BRITAIN. and what kind of clothes did they wear? These ques- tions cannot be answered with certainty, for inhabit- the vcry first inhabitants of Albion and lerne lived before the period of written history. Let us begin at the beginning, and see what is really known about them. In many parts of the larger of these two islands there are still to be seen a great many small, roundish hills, commonly called barrows. They were made by Barrows. ■' ■' human hands, and graves have been found in the middle of some of them. When these graves were first opened, they were found to contain bones, not only of men, but of animals. Tools of stone and bronze were found in them, and also in the earth around them. In other cases everything but the stone graves had crumbled away and disappeared ; and when the graves are thus empty and uncovered, they are usually called cromlechs. Until lately the cromlechs were supposed to be altars, on which human beings were sacrificed; but they are now known to be only graves. The human bones found in these graves were evi- dently those of the early residents of Britain; so they ^ , have been carefully measured and examined. Early ■' British It is found that they belonged to two different races. , i i i i • races, who can only be known apart as being the people with long, narrow heads, and those with short, round heads. The long-headed people appear to have been the older race, and the more Long- headed ignorant. They were a good deal like the Es- kimo, or Iiisquimaux, of the present day. They lived in caves, and in villages built over shallow water. They used stone tools, and ate the flesh of wild beasts; THE GAELS. 3 but they had tame animals also, for the bones of the ox, the horse, and even the goose, have been found in the graves. It is not known who these long-headed people were ; but they have been thought to belong to a race called Iberian, or perhaps Ivernian, who were the early occupants of the peninsula of Spain, and also of Ireland, or lerne. The people with the round heads came at a later day, although long before the time of written history. They were larger, stronger, and less barbarous „ than the race just described. This is shown by headed the fact that they used bronze tools; for bronze is a mixture of copper and tin, and it cannot be made without some skill. They made earthen pots also, wove a rough kind of cloth, and built their villages over deeper waters than the others. They were per- haps of the Finnish race, which still occupies the northernmost part of Europe, although some regard them as Celts, or Kelts. At any rate, we know that men of Celtic, or Keltic, blood lived in Britain at the beginning of written his- tory, and they are the first British men of whom The we know much. Men of the same race still live *^^^^^- in France, especially in Brittany, in Spain, and in Northern Italy. Of those who came to Britain, the tribes of whom we know most were the Goidels, or Gaels, and the Brythons, or Britons. The Goidels came first, and then passed over into Ireland, where the western Irish are probably their descendants. Some of them passed over into Scotland, where the Scottish Highlanders are supposed to be sprung from them, and still speak a language called Gaelic. On the other hand, the Brythons came to the southern part of 4 EARLY BRITAIN. Great Britain, and the Welsh are their particular de- scendants. Their old neighbors on the continent of Europe gave them this name of Brythons, meaning either clothed men or painted men; but they called themselves Cymry, and their descendants, the Welsh, call themselves by that name to this day. We know more about these early Britons than about any of the other early races, because the Romans, The who afterwards conquered them, have told us a Britons, g^Qcit deal about them in their books. They lived in huts shaped like beehives, made of planks, and covered with basket-work and mud. The only ornaments of these huts were the heads of the Their mode of owucr's encmics ; and this shows what a savage life. race they were. The heads that were thought most valuable were kept in boxes, and were brought forth only on great occasions. In this they were no better than the wild tribes called head-hunters, who are still to be found in the island of Borneo. The Britons were a tall and well-formed race. They were dressed in skins and in woven cloth, this last being dyed in gaudy colors. The men allowed their mous- taches to grow so long that they strained what they drank through them as through a sieve. They were good farmers, and raised large crops of grain. Cattle and sheep abounded among them, and they had little horses, or ponies, which, when too old to labor, were killed and eaten like other animals. The Britons were brave, and fought chiefly from chariots drawn by three horses. When going to war, a soldier colored his hair bright red, and painted streaks of blue and green on his face and legs, like the American Indian. When the Romans afterwards conquered Britain, the STONEHENGE. 5 race which they overcame was really not much more civilized than the Manclans or Choctaws or Apaches of America. The religion of these early Britons was called Druid- ism, and their priests were called Druids. They wor VIEW OF STONEHENGE. (FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.) shipped several deities, and offered human sacrifices to them. Thev held oak srroves sacred, and particu- larly the mistletoe that hung from the boughs. There are in England several great buildings, or struc- tures of stone resembling buildings, which are stone- supposed to have been built in the time of the ''^"s*^- Druids, though no one can fix the date. As the trav- eller goes out from the city of Salisbury over a bare undulating plain, like one of the rolling prairies of the 6 EARLY BRITAIN. West, he sees at a distance a vast gray structure made of huge stones now fallen apart. This is called Stone- henge. The largest upright stones are nearly thirty feet long, and hold up cross-pieces that are sixteen feet long and weigh eleven tons. How these great stones were brought or shaped and raised to such a height with the imperfect tools and machinery of a barbarous age, is very puzzling; but there is no way of learning exactly when Stonehenge was built, or another structure of the same kind at Abury. But we have every reason to believe that the people who built them were ancestors of our own ; for the island of Albion, or Great Britain, has been conquered so many times that there is a great mixture of race in all English-speaking people. Ibe- rian and Finn, Gael and Briton, all mingle their blood in our veins; and so do other races yet to be men- tioned, such as Angle and Saxon, Dane and Nor- man. But it is a curious thing that our institutions and laws are mainly based on those of the Angles and Saxons. At a time when Britain was in an almost barbarous condition, the southern portions of Europe were much Early """orc civilizcd, and we know something of the visitors, early state of Britain through the writings and traditions of these more advanced races. For instance, an early Greek explorer named Pytheas is supposed to have visited the island, and the Phoenicians at Carth- age used tin that probably came from British mines, and they knew something about the Britons. Yet the route of Pytheas is not easy to make out, and the Phoenicians may, after all, have obtained their tin and their information from Gaul or Spain. But as to the Roman knowledge of Britain, we are on surer ground. A.D. S4.] THE ROMAN CONQUEST. 7 We know that, fifty-five years before the birth of Jesus Christ, the great Roman general, Julius Caesar, ^ ' ° ... Ccesar m crossed over to Britain, he being then governor Britain. of Gaul. The next year he came again, and ' '^^ " marched over part of the southeastern .portion of the island. He did not stay long; but his coming was of great importance, for he made the island known to the Romans, who were then the great conquering race of Europe. A century later these mighty conquerors came again and subdued Britain itself, making it a province of the Roman Empire. This took place under the Emperor Claudius (43 a. d. ). The Ro^-i^n Britons were brave and warlike, but they were ^""^^ no match for the disciplined Roman soldiers, (a-i^-43)- The chief who made the bravest resistance was Caradoc, or Caractacus ; and he was at last captured and sent to Rome, where the emperor was so pleased with his frank and open manner that he set him free. But the Romans in Britain were not so kind as was this emperor. They oppressed the Britons terribly, and even tortured them to obtain money from them. At last this could be borne no longer, and there was a rebellion under a brave chief named Boadicea, a woman. The Britons took and plundered the Roman town of Londinium (London); but they were defeated at last, and Boadicea is said to have taken her own life in her despair. After this the Romans went on from one conquest to another. In the time of the Governor Agricola (a. d. 78-84), all Britain, as far north as the Clyde Roman and the Firth of Forth, was in their hands. At ^^'^'^*- that point the island is very narrow, and Agricola caused a wall to be l^uilt across it, to aid in keeping back the wild Highland tribes called Scots and Picts, 8 EARLY BRITAIN. [84. who made constant raids upon the country. Fifty years later these bold mountaineers pressed the Romans so hard that the Emperor Hadrian caused another wall to be built, much farther south, between the Tyne and Solway Firth. Later still, the Emperor VIEW OF PART or THE ROMAN WALL. Severus rebuilt this wall, and a part of it is still stand- ings, although much has been taken away to mend the roads. While the Scots and Picts thus troubled the Romans by land, the sca-fi,2:;hters, or vikings, also at- tacked them by water; and to meet these the Romans built great roads, so that soldiers could be hurried from one part of the island to another. Some of these roads can still be traced ; and all over England there yet remain ruined walls and fragments of tiled floors to show where the towns and camps of the Roman con- querors of Britain were built. The Romans, having become Cliristian, introduced Christianity into Britain, and in this way the l^ritons 410.] ROMAN ARMV WITHDRAWN. became Christians. But soon the Roman power de- clined. In A. D. 410, Rome was taken by the West Goths under their chief, Alaric, and in the same rq^^^^ year the Roman legions were withdrawn from a™>' •' with- Britain. This strong arm being gone, the drawn Britons had to defend themselves from Scots and Picts and other invaders, — a task in which they succeeded very ill. PART OF THE ROMAN WALL AT LEICESTER. lO HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. [449. CHAPTER II. HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. A. D. 449-827. BY the seaside, in winter, we may sometimes see a floating log or plank on which a little flock of sea-fowl has perched. Then comes another flock, and another, all ready to alight, and each flock must either make room for the next, or be driven away. The early history of the island of Britain is very much like this. One flock of invaders after another settled upon it, each having a name of its own, but all belonging in general to the great Germanic, or Teutonic, race, which spread all over northern Europe. The modern Ger- mans, Dutch, and Danes all belong to this race, and so did the successive flocks of invaders who came to Britain. There were the Jutes, for instance, from whom the peninsula of Jutland is still named. They landed comint; about 449 ou the southeast coast of Britain, hites^ ^^^^ soon overran all that part of the island. "(449)- It used to be said that they were led by two brothers, named Hengist and Horsa, whom a British chief, named Vortigern, had asked to help him against his enemies. But it is now thought that this whole story may be false, and that Hengist and Horsa mean only horse and marc. Yet it is certain tliat the Jutes themselves came, and brought with them their families, 520.] THE SAXONS. II slaves, and cattle. The Romans had called the south- eastern part of Britain Cantium, and the Jutes changed the name to Kent, — a name it still bears. They called themselves Kentsmen, and named their chief town Kentsmen' s borough, or Canterbury, as it is now spelled. This is interesting to Americans, be- cause a large part of those who first settled this con- tinent came from this county of Kent, and kept up its way of speaiving and its institutions. The next flock of invaders, also belonging to the great Teutonic race, were of the Saxon tribe, and set- tled upon the land south and west of Kent, ^^g calling this region Sussex, or the land of the Faxons. South Saxons, — a name it holds to this day. Then another band of Saxons settled to the west of Sussex, and called that region Wessex. They are said to have fought many battles with the British king Arthur, about whom there are so many legends and poems, — he that founded the Round Table of famous knights, who went in search of the Holy Grail. The poet Tennyson, in our own time, has written much about King Arthur, but it is now believed that he existed only in poetry, as none of the early historical writers even mention his name. But the leader of these Saxons of Wessex was a real person, named Cedric, who was the ancestor of most of the later sovereigns of England, including the present queen. Cedric' s settlement of Wessex was the most important Saxon colony. Other Saxons settled in the eastern part of England, calling their part of the country Essex, while others settled between these tribes and called that region Middlesex. These two names yet belong to English counties, though the name of Wessex is lost. 12 HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. [600. Then other Teutonic invaders settled in the central and northern parts of Britain. These were called j],g Angles, or English, so that we now see whence English, came the words " English " and " Anglo-Saxon." They settled north of Essex, and gradually got to the borders of Wales. The old English word for border is "march;" so these English were called "march- men," and their country was called "Mercia. " Other Angles also settled north of the river Humber, and were finally united in a large kingdom, called North- umbria. They gradually spread yet farther north, and founded a city named Edwin's-borough, or Edinburgh, after a King Edwin of Northumbria, who lived in the seventh century. Thus the Angles, or English, gradu- ally got possession of the greater part of the island, and it came to be called Angleland, or England. What became of the early British tribes we do not know, although it is very likely that the present in- Tieat- habitants of Wales and Cornwall are mainly de- "j^e"' ° scended from them. Some writers, too, think Britons. i\^^^ ]^}iq prescncc of so many dark-haired Eng- lishmen shows that the slaughter of the Britons was not so complete as many historians have thought. For the English, Danes, and Normans belonged to the Teutonic race, and had light hair, while we know that the early Britons had dark hair. At any rate, there are hardly any British words in our present language, but there are many Latin words, and some of these may have come from the Britons, who probably spoke a dialect of Latin after the Romans conquered them. And our customs, like our language, came mainly from the Teutonic tribes, who, one after another, pos- sessed England, and whom we must now call English. 827.] ENGLISH INSTITUTIONS. 1 3 But we must not forget that these old tribes, from whom most of us are descended, were not only almost savages, but they were pagans ; that is, wor- ^ ' ^ i t> ' ' Religion shippers of many gods. What little of Chris- oftiie tianity had been planted in the island by the " Romans had disappeared, and the new tenants of Eng- land worshipped various gods, the chief of whom was Wodin, or Odin. Next to him was Thor, or Thunder. To this god the horse was sacred, and the English held feasts of horseflesh in his honor. After they had been converted to Christianity they gave up these feasts altogether; and this change of habits has been thought to be the reason why we do not eat horseflesh, as is done by some races. To this day we keep the names of Wodin and Thor in our Wednesday and Thurs- day; and this is why our Puritan ancestors in England and America refused to use these names, which they thought heathen, and why they preferred to name the days of the week by simple numbers, — First Day, Second Day, and so on, — as the Quakers, or Friends, now do. But as all these early English kings claimed to be descended from Wodin, they thought it very proper to call one day in the week by his name. All these English tribes kept up the customs of their Teutonic forefathers ; and it is thus that those customs have been handed down to Americans. To be- . , , ., . English gm With, each tribe, as it settled down on its institu- part of the conquered territory, divided most of the arable land among its members according to the old Teutonic method,- — -a portion to each family. Several families living near together formed a town- ship, and the affairs of the township were arranged at a meeting of the male freeholders, or freemen, of the 14 HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. [600. township. After Christianity was introduced, this "town-moot," or "town-meeting," took charge of the The religious affairs too, and did this under the ^°*"*"P'name of "parish." The English parish-meet- ing, or "vestry," of our own time is the survival of this organization; and so, probably, is the town- meeting of the New England States. Several townships, enough to furnish a hundred or so of warriors, formed what was called "The Hundred." The The hundred had its own meeting, at which hundred, ^j-^^^. towu pricst and reeve, with four more men from each township, were present. This organization of the hundred is still preserved in some States of the American Union. Then, as time went on, and there came to be but one king in all England, the little Thg kingdoms of former days became shires, or coun- county. ties. The affairs of a county were conducted at an assembly over which an officer called the ealdor- man (alderman) presided. The land was not all divided among separate owners. According to some writers a part of it was always reserved, to be given by the lords at some future The land. . ' , , n • 1 , tmie to those who deserved it, or to be let to those who had no right to a portion of free land, and who had to put themselves under the protection of some strong man. According to other writers, most of the land was owned by the community in common. More- over, many of the people were thralls, or slaves, some of these having sold themselves into slavery because they were poor, or having been fined for some offence, and having been unable to pay the fine. All who have read Scott's novel of " Ivanhoe " will remember Gurth and Wamba, who were slaves, and actually wore collars 827-] CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY. 1 5 around their necks; although Scott must not be too closely followed, as it is said that there is some his- torical error in almost every page of " Ivanhoe. " Besides these various classes of freemen, dependants, and slaves, there were the fighting men, or thanes, who followed the fortunes of their chief, or king, and The were often rewarded by a gift of land or by a ^'^^"^^• title of nobility. Where these thanes, or nobles, were powerful, the poorer and weaker were glad to come under their authority and have their protection; and thus the simple early Teutonic institutions went through a change, and became more like what was called "feudalism" in the rest of Europe. This change was seen, for instance, in the growth „, ° ' ' & The of the Witenagemot, or meeting of the Wise meeting ^ ' * of the Men (Witan). This was a body of great power, wise and took in some degree the place of a legis- lature or congress. It elected the king, sometimes passing over the older heir, and choosing some other member of the ruling family. It also appointed the officers of state, and decided questions of peace and war. At first the freemen had the right to attend its meetings ; but the attendance was gradually composed of the leading officials and nobles. For many years the English still remained pagan, worshipping the old Saxon gods ; but just before the end of the sixth century Augustine, a monk, visited conver- England. Fortunately for him, the king of chris-° Kent, named Ethelbert, had married a Chris- t'^mty. tian wife, daughter of the king of the Franks, so Augustine was allowed to land. Between his wife's persuasions and those of this monk, Ethelbert be- came a Christian, and allowed Augustine to live at 1 6 HOW BRITAIN BECAME ENGLAND. [827. Canterbury, where the head of the Church of England has ever since had a palace, his title being that of Archbishop of Canterbury. Then Edwin, king of Northumbria, the most powerful of the various Eng- lish kings, married a daughter of Ethelbert, and was also converted; and by degrees all the other kings and their people became Christian. And what was almost as important, before long the English Church became a portion of the Roman Catholic Church, to which the leading nations of western Europe also belonged. In this way England was brought again under the influences of civilization. During all this time no English king succeeded in really uniting all England, though by %2'j Egbert of „ , , Wessex was recognized by all Englishmen liv- England t> j fc> united ing south of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth (82"). as their ruler, or "over-lord." SAXON IIORSE.ME.\ (lIAKL. MS. 603). S27.] THE VIKINGS. I? CHAPTER III. THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND. 827-1042. IN those days there were certain sea-rovers, called vikings, who used to land upon the coasts of England and France, and often took possession of the j^^^ land and held it. The word "vikings" does ^''i^'ngs. not mean that they were kings, but that they dwelt on a vi^, or bay. They came in long boats with high prows, often bearing the head of a dragon or some other animal. There were sometimes fifty rowers, whose shields were hung over the sides of the boat ; and when the boat was upset in a sea-fight, the men would escape their enemies by swimming, with their heads under their floating shields. These sea-rovers were called Northmen, or Norsemen, so that when they took pos- session of a part of the coast of France it was named Normandy, and has held that name ever since. Some of these same Northmen afterwards made their way to Iceland, and thence, it is believed, to America. But the sea-rovers who invaded England were from Den- mark, and came from the same part of Europe as the Jutes, who had landed in England before. They spoke a Teutonic dialect, probably not differing much from that spoken in England at the time. The Danish sea-rovers landed first in Ireland, where the people had been converted to Christianity before 1 8 THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND. [S78. the English, but were still far from being civilized. The native tribes retreated before the warlike Danes The into the forests and wilds of the interior. Then a^d^Kin^ the Danes crossed to England, and overran Alfred. Northumbria and Mercia; but when they came to Wesse.x they met with some resistance from young king Alfred, Egbert's grandson. But he had to re- treat to the forest, and is said to have taken refuge with a cowherd, whose wife did not know he was a king, and set him to tending the cakes that she was baking before the fire. Coming in, she found that they were burning; and she said to him, according to an old ballad : — " There, don't you see the cakes on fire ? Then wherefore turn them not ? You 're glad enough to eat them When they are piping hot." At last he gathered men enough about him to leave his retreat and attack the Danes. They were taken Treaty wholly by surprisc, and he drove them out of his n,„).g*^'^' kingdom of Wessex; but he could not drive (87S). them out of England, and he had to lei them remain, on condition of acknowledging him as their superior, or " over-lord. " They thus ruled over the northern part of England ; but we cannot trace many of our institutions to them, although the names of many English towns are Danish, as those of Whitby and Derby. Although Alfred could not get rid of the Danes, he was the best and greatest of these early English chiefs, .Alfred's or kiugs. Hc brought together the laws and ment." customs of the nation into a kind of code. He encouraged learning by translating books from other 98S.] CNUT THE DANE. IQ languages into English, and above all he built a navy, and brought England more into connection with the outer world. Under his son, Edward the Elder, and his successors, the work of Alfred was completed; so tliat, by the middle of the tenth century, the Danes were conquered, and even the Scots and Welsh acknowl- edged the authority of the English king. Edward died in 925, and the next fifty years were years of comparative peace and quiet. The ablest man of the period was Dunstan, a monk, after- saint wards known as Saint Dunstan, who became ^""*''''"- Archbishop of Canterbury. Under his wise guidance the Danes put away their wild habits, and became like Englishmen, and the Scottish king became a subject of the king of England, taking some of the northern part of England for his own, and having the old Eng- lish town of Edinburgh for his seat of government. Dunstan died in 988. Even before his death another horde of Danes came, this time determined to conquer England and rule it themselves. The English king, Ethelred "the Unready," or "Without Counsel," fool- ishly gave the Danes money to go away. Of course they came back the next year in still greater numbers. Their leader was their king, Swend, or Swegen, Fork- beard, who became king of England ; and when ^ , „ " !-> > Cnut. the he died, his son Cnut, or Canute, was king after ^^"e, hmi, although Edmund Ironside, the brave son England, of Ethelred the Unready, divided England with Cnut for a time. Cnut was a man of much force and energy. He succeeded to all Ethelred's possessions, and at last even married his widow; so that he no longer seemed a stranger to the people. He was not only king of 20 THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND. ^ C '^ RURAL LIFE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 21 THE NORTHMEN IN ENGLAND. [1042. England, but of Denmark, of a part of Sweden, and at last of Norway. He divided England into four .pyigg^i.]. earldoms, giving each to an earl, of whom the doms. ablest was Earl Godwin of Wessex. The best remembered story of Cnut is that of his ordering the sea to obey him; and it is told by an old monk named Henry of Huntingdon. One day, as the story goes, Cnut sat down in a chair upon the beach below high- water mark, and bade the tide stop rising. "O sea, I am thy lord. My ships sail over thee whither I will, and this land against which thou breakest is mine. Stay thou thy waves, and dare not to wet the feet of thy lord and master." But the tide kept on, and wet the royal feet before they could get out of the way ; and it is said that he was so humbled as never to wear Cnufs bis crown again. In fact, his children did not sons. wear it long either. His sons died without children, and the " Wise Men " gave the crown to Ethelred's son, Edward. AN ENGLISH VESSEL (HARL. MS. 603). 1042.J HAROLD CHOSEN KING. 2$ CHAPTER IV. THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 1 042- 1 087. THE new king's early years had been spent in Nor- mandy, and he was more Norman than English in his feelings. He liked to have his Norman friends around him, and gave them important offices, even making one of them Archbishop of Canterbury. This was bitterly opposed by a large party of the English, headed by Earl Godwin. This led to constant quarrels, and when the great earl died, and his" son Harold suc- ceeded him as Earl of Wessex, Harold really became more powerful than the king. Then the king himself died, and his influence became greater after his death than in his lifetime. Remembering his mild rule, so different from the oppressions that came later, men called him "Edward the Confessor," or "Saint." He was buried in the great Church or West Minster, which was completed before his deatli, and which is now called by the same name, Westminster Abbey, although of Edward's original building only the bases of a few columns remain. Edward the Confessor was the last of the direct de- scendants of Cedric the Saxon ; and the day -^ Harold after his death the "Wise Men met and chose chosen his young rival, Harold, to be king of England, Edward himself havinu" recommended this. But the 24 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. [1066. new king had little peace. William, Duke of Nor- mandy, had hoped for the crown of England, and was furious when he heard of the "Wise Men's" choice; for he claimed that Harold had promised in the most solemn way to help him to become king of England. Indeed, it seems certain that Harold had promised to do something William wished, though probably only to marry William's daughter. Then another Harold, surnamed Hardrada, or "stern of counsel," resolved to invade England, and did so; but his namesake defeated him utterly, Sept. 25, 1066. A few days later, while the English Harold was celebrating this victory, some one entered the room and said that Duke William of Normandy had landed, and had taken up his position near Hastings. Harold knew that the time for a deci- sive battle had come, and with all speed gathered his men, and marching southward, took up a strong posi- tion on the heights of Senlac, as the battle-field was afterwards called, seven miles from William's camp. Early the next morning the Normans prepared to storm the English fortification on the hill. It is said „ ,„ r that William, as he was putting on his hauberk. Battle of ' 1 o Senlac, or or bodv armor, turned it the wrong way. His Hastintjs "^ ... (Oct. 14, men were alarmed, thinking it a bad omen; but William, with ready wit, claimed it as a good omen, for that day, he said, was to change a Norman duke into an English king. The fight was long and doubtful, Harold's position being very difficult of at- tack. At last William pretended to retreat. This drew a part of the P^nglish out of their stronghold, and the Normans turned upon them, defeated them, and again attacked the fort. They fought with bows and arrows, and an arrow pierced Harold to the brain. io66.] WILLIAM'S CLAIM TO THE ENGLISH CROWN. 25 He fell mortally wounded, and William of Normandy became master of southern England. Who was this William of Normandy, and what right had he to claim the throne of England ? Long before, while King Alfred was fighting the Danes in ^y-^y^^^^^ England, another northern tribe under RoUo, or t'le Con- o ' qiicror Rolf, was besieging Paris in France; and the (1066- French king, to get rid of Rolf, gave him the city of Rouen, and some land along the sea-coast, on condition that he should become a Christian, and should render service to the French king in time of war. I'he region first given to him was called the North- m.en's land; but as years went on, and the Northmen grew civilized, and adopted the French language, they called themselves Normans, and their land Normandy. Now, William, the Conqueror of England, was the descendant and successor of this Rolf, who had invaded France. As to his right to the throne of England, William always said that Edward the Confessor had promised it to him; but it was not Edward's to promise, nisciaim and the '* W'ise Men " had, at any rate, chosen En^j^iLh Harold. William, however, referred the mat- "own. ter to the Pope of Rome, and by promising to bring the English Church into closer union with the Roman Catholic Church, he won the Pope's consent to his invasion. At Senlac he broke the strength of Eng- land; and though it took five years more to complete the conquest, yet the date of tliis battle is perhaps the most important in P^nglish history. To fix the memory of the event, the Conqueror built an abbey on the spot where Harold fell, and inscribed in it the names of the Norman knights wlio fought there. Only the founda- 26 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. [1066. tion of the building now remains; but Americans and Englishmen still like to trace their " Norman blood " to those whose names are on the roll of Battle Abbey. The Norman Conquest was unlike any other con- quest of England, because it gave only a new set of Effect rulers, and left the laws and political institu- Co'n-^ tions to a large extent unchanged. Yet there quest. ^y^g ^ great change in the ownership of the land, and it came about in this way. In the first place, William claimed that ever since Edward's death he had been the only lawful king in England. If this was true, then it followed that Harold had not been king at all; and from this it followed again that every one who had supported Harold, or had failed to support William, was a traitor. Now, it was the English law that the lands of traitors should be taken from them, and become the property of the king. Therefore, as nearly all Englishmen had been on Harold's side, or had opposed William's claim in some way, nearly all lost their lands, which the king gave to his favor- ites; and this, it must be remembered, not by mere right of conquest, but under the regular forms of English law. In other ways, too, the same thing took place; that is, the old forms were kept up, but were in the hands of different men. The English "Meeting of the Wise Men," for instance, was still continued, but only Normans came to it. However, within less than a hundred years the Normans themselves changed very much, becoming English in looks and manners, Continu- ^" ^^^^ ^^ ^^'''^^ really hard to tell from which ',l>' "I , stock a man was descended. Thus the old r.nglisn history. English institutions were again carried on by Englishmen. This continuity of English history is a ioS6.] DOMESDAY BOOK. 2/ very important fact. To it we owe much that is best in our laws and institutions, and to it we owe the best and strongest part of our speech. After a time a great many Englishmen were able to buy back part of their land from their Norman rulers. Now, all landowners, whether English or Nor- • 1 • • M • Domes- man, owed certain duties, called services, m day person or in money to the king, as their " over- lord. " To find out exactly what was due him, the Conqueror sent men to all parts of England to look into the titles of estates and estimate their value. The results were most carefully written down in a great book, called the "Domesday Book," which was then kept at Winchester. It can still be seen at Lon- don, and is so valuable that every page has been photo- graphed and reprinted exactly as it was first written. It took about a year to make this Great Survey. When it was done, William ordered all but the small- est landowners to meet him on Salisbury Plain. Theoath Sixty thousand came. They took a most solemn bur^^''^' oath to support William as king, even against (i°^6). their own lords. This made the English for the first time one nation. It was also a most important modi- fication of the feudal system, for it made all landowners directly subject to the king. Then, too, William did away with the old earldoms, and his foresight in these regards prevented his nobles or barons from becoming the equals of their king, as was the case in France and Germany. Thus England, in a great measure, escaped the petty wars which for centuries disturbed the rest of western Europe. In many other ways, too, the Norman Conquest af- fected England. For example, before long all the best 28 THE NORMAN CONQUEST. [1086. places in the Church were filled with foreigners. But most of the new bishops and abbots were far supe- , a rior in morals and education to the Euiilish- Innuence o of the \-\\Q\\ whom they succeeded. They were also Roniiin -' -' Catholic devoted to the Pope of Rome, and soon made the on English National Church a part of the Roman "°'^"'' Catholic Church. But William, while willing to bow to the Pope as his chief in religious matters, refused to give way to him in things which concerned only this world. No former English king had done that, he knew, and no more would he. This union with the Roman Catholic Church was of the greatest benefit to England, as it brought her once more into connection with the educated men of Europe. Indeed, Lanfranc, the Concjueror's Archbishop of Canterbury, was one of the best and wisest men of his day. In character the first William was stern to those who disobeyed him. "So harsh and cruel was he that TheNe\v"0"c dared withstand him," says an old chroni- Forest. (.|^._ j^^j. j|- j-,-,^j,t \^^ remembered that it took a man of very strong will to rule Itngland at that time. Next to war, William's greatest passion was for hunt- ing. " He loved the tall deer as though he had been their father." To provide a home for them he ordered a large tract in Hampshire to be turned into a forest. And still better to preserve them, he made a law that any one who should kill a deer witliout leave should lose both his eyes. The very name of this New Forest, therefore, was hateful to his subjects, and two of his sons and one grandson lost their lives within its limits. The Normans were great builders. The White Tower — the oldest part of the Tower of London — loS;.] WILLIAMS DEATH. 29 was built by the Conqueror as a fortress to hold the Londoners in check. The old Westminster London Hall was the work of his son William, the Red Tower and King, while all over England some of the West- grandest cathedral churches were planned and Haii. built by the early Norman bishops. The Conqueror's last years were very unhappy. His oldest son, Robert, rebelled, and the French king did his utmost to annoy him. At last, in an- wii swer to one of this king's insults, William Jeatif ordered the little town of Mantes to be burned. ('oS?). While he was riding through the town to see that his orders were carried out, his horse stepped on a burn- ing coal. The king's fat body was thrown against the high point of his saddle, and in three weeks he died. Normandy passed under the rule of his eldest son, Robert. The second son, William, received his ring and a letter to Lanfranc desiring the archbishop to crown him as king of England, if it were right. To Henry, the youngest son, he gave only a sum of money. As soon as the Conqueror was dead his sons hastened away to take possession of their inheritances. So stern had he been to his servants that they refused to touch his body; and it was witli difificulty that even a piece of land was bought for a grave. A SILVER PENNY OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. WILLIAM II., THE RED. [1087. CHAPTER V. THE NORMAN KINGS. 10S7-1 154. THE younger William had a big red face, and peo- ple called him Rufus, or the Red. Many of the great barons of England, owning large estates in Nor- mandy, would have preferred to have but one ruler for „..,,. both countries. But Robert was absent, and as \\ illiam ' II., the William Rufus promised Lanfranc to govern Red . ^ . '^ (10S7- well, the archbishop crowned him king without delay. William was a good soldier and hun- ter, and he kept the nobles in order; but there was nothing else that was good about him. Above all, he was fond of extravagance and show. One day his servants brought him a pair of new boots. " How much did they cost ? " demanded the king. His ^ extrava- "Three shillings," the man replied. In a rage the Red King threw them from him, demanding boots that cost three times as much. The servant was a sharp man. He soon returned with a pair of cheaper boots, though he told his master they were very expen- sive. "Ay," exclaimed Rufus, as he pulled them on, "these are suited to royal majesty." After this his servants always charged him twice as much as his food and clothes really cost. They grew rich very fast, l^ut the English people, wlio liad to pay for all this waste, were not very sorry when the Red King was iioo.] HENRY I. 31 found one afternoon in the New Forest with an arrow in his shoulder. No one knows who killed him. An intimate companion named Wat Tyrrel, who His was with him at the time, rode away as fast as ^^^*^" he could. It is thought that perhaps Wat Tyrrel killed him by accident. Others say his servants shot him. At any rate, no sooner was the breath out of his body than his servants deserted him. If a poor charcoal man had not found the body, and carried it to Winchester in his cart, William Rufus might never have been buried. It chanced that the Conqueror's youngest son Henry was riding in the New Forest at the time. The instant he knew of his brother's death he put spurs to ^, ^ '■ Henry 1. his horse and galloped to Winchester, where (noo- the royal treasure was then kept. After he had ^^ ' once made sure of that, his election was certain, and THE NORMAN KINGS. {^English kings in ilaiics.) Rollo, or Rolf, Duke of Normandy. I William. Richard the Fearless. I I Richard the Good. Ethelred the Unreadv (i) w. Emma m. (2) Otut. I 'II Robert the Devil. Edward the Confessor. Harthacnut. .1. William /, the Conqueror. Robert. Richard. William 11., //i-y/r;' /.;«. Edith (Matilda), Adela w. Stephen Rufus. I descendant of | of Blois. I Cedric. Stephen, I \ William Maud (Matilda) m. Geoffrey of Anjou. (drowned). | Henry II, (See p. 49.) 32 THE NORMAN KINGS, [iioo. three days later he was crowned at Westminster. Still there were many barons who would have preferred the elder brother Robert, Duke of Normandy, for king- so Henry was obliged to fall back on the native Eng- lish for support. To please them he married Edith, or Matilda, daughter of the king of Scots. She was descended, through her mother, from the old English line, and in this way a descendant of Cedric again came to rule in England. This marriage bound the English to Henry, and they stood by him in all his quarrels and wars. Indeed, he soon found himself so strong in England that he crossed over to Normandy, took his brother Duke Robert prisoner, and shut him up for the Conquers Nor- rest of his life. What was more important still, niandv. . ,.., he conquered a large part or Wales and joined it to England. In England itself he governed so well that an old writer declared: "No man durst ill-treat another in his days. Peace he made for man and beast." He had a good education, too, for a soldier of his time, and people called him "Beauclcrc, " — good-scholar. Henry had two children, William and Matilda, or Maud. He was very fond of them, and they often ac- companied him in his journcyings. One after- White noon he sailed from a little harbor on the French coast for England. His son followed in "The White Ship," whose captain was tlie son of the very captain who had steered tlie great William on his con- quering voyage. The young people delayed, dancing and drinking till it was dark. Then, just as she was leaving the harbor, "The White Ship" struck on a rock and went down. As the prince with a few others I [35] STEPHEN. 33 was rowing away in a little boat, he heard his fair cousin, the Countess of Perche, calling after him. He went back. The drowning men crowded into the boat. It sank, and when morning dawned one only, a butcher of Rouen, was saved. When Henry heard of his son's sad end he dropped senseless to the floor, and is said never to have smiled again. One of ]\Irs. Hemans's best-known poems is founded on this event, and also a poem by Rossetti, "The White Ship." But Henry did not give up all idea of founding a line of kings. He made the barons swear to be true to his daughter Maud, and then married her Geoffrey to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, one mafmr" of the greatest nobles in France. No sooner *^*"'^- was Henry dead, however, than his barons broke their oaths, and made his nephew, Stephen, king of England. This Stephen was a handsome, good-natured, popu- lar man, and at first everything went well with him. He even defeated Maud's uncle, David, king of ^ Stephen Scots, in battle. But when he had given to the (1135- barons much of the land and money belonging ^^" to the Crown, they deserted him, and took the part of Maud. She came to England, and at first was so suc- cessful that Stephen was captured and put in prison, and she was recognized as queen, or rather "lady," of the English; for they used this last phrase commonly in those old days. Maud even went to London to be crowned. But she was so haughty and proud that the Londoners turned her out before her coronation -day. Stephen, too, gained his freedom, and in the end Maud had to flee from England. This civil war lasted fourteen years. It was a ter- 3 34 THE NORMAN KINGS. [II 54. rible time for the English people. The great barons would sometimes come forth from their castles and Civil plunder whole towns. The roads were so un- ^^''"'' safe, it is said, that a lonely traveller, if he saw another man in the distance, would leave the road and try to conceal himself until danger was over. But everything has an end, and in 1153 the bishops con- trived to make an agreement by which Stephen was to be king for the rest of his life, with the understanding that at his death the throne should go to Maud's son, Henry Plantagenet. The next year Stephen died. SEAL OF iMII.O OF GLOUCESTER, SHOWING MOUNTED ARMED FIGURE IN THE REIGN OF HENKY I. 1 1 54] HENRY II. 35 CHAPTER VI. THE FIRST TWO PLANTAGENETS. 1154-1199. HENRY the Second was only twenty-one years old when he became king of England. But he already was a very powerful man, as he ruled over more than one-third of Erance. He was called Plan- tagenet, from a bit of broom plant {plaiitc-dc- Henry . genet) which he and his father were accus- ]^^^.. tomed to wear in their helmets to distinguish "^9)- them from other knights. Henry was a very great king. He made many changes in the laws and customs of England, the effects of which we still feel. He divided His England into circuits, and appointed persons, on '■'^fo™^- whom he could rely, to travel round in these circuits, and see that all men, nobles and commons alike, obeyed the laws. The English judges still travel * through England, as do many American judges through our country. When these judges came together in London, they sat as the King's Court, and were then called justices. When hearing cases in which the revenue was concerned, they sat around a great table with a top divided like a chequer-board. They were thence called barons of the exchequer, — a word which is still used as the name of one of the departments of the English sfovernment. ^6 THE PTRST TWO PLANTAGENETS. [1164. All these good things Henry was able to do because he had the support of the great mass of the people. Shield- H*^ trusted them, and instead of disarming money, them, Ordered every freeman to keep arms suita- ble to his social position. In addition to this national militia, Henry had a feudal army. It must be remem- bered that since the time of the great William nearly all English land was held on what was called a feudal tenure. That is, instead of paying rent for their pieces of land, or feuds, the great landholders promised to serve the king in time of war with their followers for forty days every year at their own expense. Henry made a law that all who were legally obliged to follow him, and yet wished to stay at home, could do so if they would pay "shield-money," or "scutage," instead. A very great many preferred to stay at home ; and with this money Henry hired a large army of foreigners. The result was that the barons grew less and less war- like, and, on the other hand, the Crown was much strengthened. There was one thing, however, that proved even stronger than Henry Plantagenet ; that was the T,, „ Church. The king wished to have the clergy, The Con- * ^■' ' stitutions -whenever thev committed criminal acts, tried by of Clar- ^ 1 TT 11 endon his judgcs, like other people. He summoned the '' ■ bishops and the great barons to Clarendon, and by the "Constitutions" formed at that place they all agreed to do as he wished. The Pope did not approve this, and, following him, the Archbishop of Canter- bury withdrew his consent. Henry could not reach the Pope, but he revenged himself on the archbishop. This was Thomas Becket, the son of a Norman citizen of London. In earlier days he and Henry had been 11S9.] CONQUEST OF IRELAND. 37 great friends; but no sooner had Thomas become arch- bishop than he did all he could to strengthen the Church, whether the king liked it or not. Becket fled to France; but in 11 70 he and Henry became recon- ciled. He had hardly reached Canterbury, however, before he suspended the Archbishop of York, who had done Henry a service. When Henry heard this he flew into a passion, exclaiming: "What cowards have I brought up in my court! Not one will rid me of this low-born priest." Reginald Fitzurse and three other knights took this as an order. They hurried to Canterbury, pursued Thomas Becket even to the altar in the cathedral, and killed him. It was a dreadful deed, and Henry was very sorry that he had lost his temper. Indeed, all his good fortune seemed to desert him from that time, until he knelt before Becket's tomb and bade the monks beat his bare shoulders. It was in Henry's reign that Richard of Clare, Maurice Fitz-Gerald, and other Norman knights went over to Ireland and put Dermot, king of Lein- ster, back on his throne again. After Dermot's quest of death, Richard of Clare married his daughter, ^'''^'^"^" and ruled over Leinster; but he was afraid of Henry's jealousy, and gave up his conquests to him. Henry crossed over to Ireland, and was recognized as the sovereign of the island. But he never really con- quered it, and for hundreds of years Ireland remained the scene of strife between the descendants of the Normans on the one side, and their Irish neighbors on the other. Henry's last years were even more unhappy than those of the Conqueror. His sons rebelled, and Henry's were so ably assisted by King Philip Augustus sons. 38 THE FIRST TWO PLAXTAGEx\ETS. EFFIGIKS OK HENRV TFfF. SECOND AND QUEEN ELEANOR. 1 192] RICHARD I. 39 of France that he had to submit to their demands. He asked to see the list of those joined against him. It was headed by the name of his favorite son, John. The old king's heart was broken. " Now let things go as they will," he said; "I care no more for myself or the world." In a few weeks he was dead. But John did not at once become king, for Richard, his elder brother, was in the way. Richard came over to London, was crowned, and then, as soon as „. , ,, ' Richaid I. he had scraped together all the money he could, (n^g- set out with his friend King Philip to conquer the Holy Land. They quarrelled almost as soon as they reached that land, and Philip returned home to seize all of Richard's French possessions that he could reach. In England, too, John rose to the head of affairs, although Richard had left a friend of his own to govern in his absence. Richard did not lay siege to Jerusalem, but set off on his return to England. He was wrecked on the shores of the Adriatic, and while trying to get through Austria unseen, was arrested by Duke Leopold, whom he had insulted in the Holy Land. Duke Leopold handed him over to the lun- pcror, who kept him close prisoner until the English people paid a large ransom. It is said that John even tried to bribe the Emperor to keep him still longer. At any rate, when he got back to England, Richard did not punish John very severely for his disloyalty. As soon as he got together an army, however, Richard's Richard crossed over to France to take vengeance '^*^^*'^- on Philip Augustus. He accomplished little, and while trying to capture a castle in his own dominions, where he said there was some treasure that belonged to him, he was mortally wounded by an arrow. The castle 40 THE FIRST TWO PLANTAGENETS. [1199. surrendered before he died, and he ordered all within it to be hanged, except the boy who had shot him. "What have I done that you should take my life?" said the king. "You have killed my father and two brothers," was the reply. King Richard commanded that the brave boy be set free; but after the king's death he was hanged, with cruel tortures. Richard Coeur de Lion was in England for but eight months during his whole reign. He cared nothing for His place England or for Englishmen, except as they sup- land-"^" plied him with money to carry on his costly history, ^^^ars. Nevertheless, he soon came to be looked upon as the nation's hero, and he is described as such in Scott's novel, "Ivanhoc. " Traditions gathered about his name all over Europe, and it is said that for hundreds of years the tired Arab mothers were wont to terrify their crying babes into silence with, " Hush ye! here comes King Richard." A SILVER PENNY OF JOHN, STRUCK AT DUBLIN. I199J PHILIP SEIZES NORMANDY AND ANJOU. 4I CHAPTER VII. KING JOHN AND MAGNA CHARTA. II99-1216. RICHARD'S younger brother John was crowned king in England. But in France there were many nobles who wished to have John's nephew, Prince Arthur, for their duke. Philip Augustus took the young prince's side. John captured the prince boy, and ordered Hubert de Burgh to put out Ai'thur. his eyes. "For," thought he, "the Normans will never want a blind man to be their duke." But the poor boy begged so hard that Hubert did not have the heart to carry out his orders. There was no mercy in John, however, and after he got possession of Prince Arthur the boy was never seen again. Men said that John had stabbed him to death; but no one really knows how he died. Now, John, as Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, was a vassal of the king of France. So Philip summoned him to Paris to clear himself of this p,,|,i,of charge of murder. John, who knew better than France ^ "^ seizes to trust himself within Philip's power, refused Nor- to appear, and so Philip seized his French domin- and ions. Aquitaine and the Channel Islands alone " "■'°"' remained to the English Crown. Aquitaine has long since been lost ; but the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark) still belong to the 42 KING JOHN AND MAGNA CHARTA. [1213. English sovereign, — the only remnant of the Norman possessions of William the Conqueror. In this way John was forced to become a real English king. His next quarrel was with the Pope. It was about the election of a new Archbishop of Canterbury. The The Pope declared that an Englishman, Stephen interdict. L^ngton by name, was the duly elected arch- bishop. John refused to recognize him. Then the Pope ordered all religious services to cease in Eng- land. This was called an interdict. If we remember that the Roman Catholic faith was then the only re- ligion practised in England, we can see how serious a thing this interdict was. It lasted six years, and for six years almost no one was married with regular re- ligious services in all England. Still John did not yield. So the Pope cast him out of the Church, or excommunicated him. And as this did not bring him to terms, the Pope deposed him, or declared him to be no king at all, and ordered Philip Augustus to carry out the sentence. Now, if John had been a good king, he might perhaps have been strong enough at home to care very little John for the Pope and the French king put together, to'the''' But unfortunately he was a very bad ruler, and Pope. ^11 i^[^ people hated him. So he soon found that his barons were actually conspiring with the French Philip against him. This so alarmed him that he not only recognized Langton as archbishop, but he put himself and his kingdom under the protection of the Pope, actually agreeing to pay rent for it. Philip never came over, but John kept on governing as badly as ever. The barons determined to stop it. With their armed followers they marched to London. 121 5-] THE GREAT CHARTER. 43 Nearly every one deserted John. He met the barons on a Httle island in the Thames not far from Windsor and near the meadow of Runneymead. There, ^^ •' Magna on the 15th of June, 121 5, he assented to the Chaita Magna Charta, or Great Charter, which his barons presented to him. This can still be seen, carefully preserved, in the British Museum, and it is the most important document in English history. In England there is no written frame of government like the American constitution. The English govern- ment is based on the laws and customs of the The pro- kingdom, and especially on three great docu- '^'^'°"^- ments, — -this Great Charter of rights of the thirteenth century, and the Petition of Right and Bill of Rights of the Stuart time. These documents are so important that Lord Chatham once called them " The Bible of the English constitution." The Great Charter is in reality a treaty between the king and the people of England. To it we, in common with English-speak- ing people the world over, owe many of the rights which distinguish us from all other nations. The most important clause of this Great Charter was that relating to taxation. Richard, and after him John, had wrung tax after tax from the barons and people. The barons now determined to put an end to this. It was provided, therefore, in the charter that thenceforth no tax (other than a few taxes specified in the charter itself) should be laid by the king without the consent of the nation, given through a national council. It was further provided that all the greater barons should be summoned to this council by a royal summons directed to each one of them, while the lesser landholders were to be summoned in a less formal way. 44 KING JOHN AND MAGNA CHARTA. [1216. by a writ directed to the sheriff of their sliire. Tliis provision never went into actual operation, and was omitted from tlie later issues of the charter. Yet its importance can hardly be over-estimated. It was the basis for the summoning of Simon of Montfort's I^ar- liament, and of the first regular Parliament in the great Edward's time. The more famous sentences of the Great Charter are the following, which have been thus translated from the original Latin: "No free man shall be taken, or imprisoned, or disseised [dispossessed], or outlawed, or exiled, or any ways destroyed. Nor will we go upon him, nor send upon him, unless by the lawful judgment of his peers [equals], or by the law of the land." "To none will we sell, to none will we deny or delay right or justice." It is on these sentences that the right to a speedy trial by jury is based, "the most effectual security against oppression which the wisdom of man has hitherto been able to devise." Twenty-five barons were chosen to see that King John obeyed the Charter. In truth, he had no idea John's of doing what he had promised. It is said '^'^^"^' that he was so angry at having been compelled to sign it that he rolled on the floor in rage, and gnawed a stick. The Pope soon declared that the charter had no force, as the king had been compelled to sign it; and John hired some French soldiers to help him jiut down his barons. But Stephen Langton, the archbishop, took their side, and they resolved to have a new king. So they called Prince Louis of France to be their ruler. As soon as he appeared, John's P^rencli soldiers refused to fight. The Scots and Welsh turned against their king; and there is every I2l6.] JOHN S DEATH. 45 reason to believe that he would have been the last of his race to rule in England, had not the vexation of spirit at his losses thrown him into a fever, from which he died. It may be that too many peaches and too much ale hastened his end, and there is a story that he was poisoned by a monk. In whatever manner he died, the English people were not sorry to have him out of the way. ROYAL ARMS OF ENGLAND FROM RICHARD I. TO EDWARD III. 46 HENRY III. I1216. CHAPTER VIII. HENRV 111. 1216-1272. A FEW barons had stood by John to the end, and one of them, William Marshall, Earl of Pem- broke, proclaimed John's son as king", under the title of Henry HI. As the new king was only nine years old, Pembroke ruled for him. The first thing he did was to re-issue the Great Charter. This pleased the barons, and they deserted the French prince in such numbers that he was glad to get back to France alive. But in time Henry grew up, and began to govern as badly as his father had ever governed. Above all, he made the barons pay a great deal of money to support his foreign wars. The barons rebelled, and compelled Henry to place the government of England in their hands. Then they quarrelled among themselves, and as Henry had the Pope on his side, he tried to get his power back again. Even in those old days young men came from all parts of luigland, Scotland, and Wales to the college ^ , at Oxford to iDursue their education. They Oxlord. ^ thought on political subjects very much as their fathers thought; and having no responsibility in the matter, expressed their feelings more openly than did their fathers. In fact, their fights in the streets of 1265.1 EARL SIMON OF MONTFORT. 47 Oxford so often showed the position which their fathers were about to take that it became a common saying : " When Oxford draws the knife, England 's soon at strife." They now showed the approach of civil war by driving the Pope's legate, or lieutenant, out of Oxford. The head of the na- tional party was Simon of Montfort. He Eari ,,,„„ u,. I • i-i. Simon of was by birth a Mo^t. Frenchman; but ^°''^- he had inherited an English earldom, and had become a thorough Englishman. He col- lected an army, and meeting the king at Lewes, captured him and his whole family. He then summoned a Great Council, to which not only the barons and large land-owners were admitted, but also rep- resentatives from the EFFIGY OF A KNIGHT IN THE TEMPLE CHURCH, LONDON, SHOWING ARMOR WORN BETWEEN II90AND I225. 48 IIENRV III. I1265. great towns, or boroughs. For some time the Great Council had been called a Parliament, from the French ^ , word parlci-, "to speak," because affairs were Simon's sDokcn about, or debated, there. This Great ment CcHHicil was therefore called Farl Simon's Par- ■ liament. It was really the beginning of the jnesent form of government in England. It happened one day that as the king's eldest son, Prince lulward, was out riding, he escaped from his Eves- jailers. Gathering an army, he came upon Earl ham. Simon at Evesham, and overthrew him. The great earl was killed during the battle, but his work did not perish with him, for Prince lulward, who ruled SKAI, OF RonKKT FtTZWAI.TER, SIIOWINC, A MOUNTKD KN'ICHT IN COAH'LKTK MAIL AKMUR. DA rK, AliOrT I265. for his father, was a wise man, and governed well. In fact, so quiet did the barons become that the prince 1272.] ROGER BACON. 49 left England and went on a crusade. Before his return King Henry died. As his body was lying in West- minster Abbey, Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, placing his hand on the dead king, swore allegiance to King Edward the First, and the king was proclaimed. It was in the Third Henry's time that Roger Bacon, a great scholar and a friar, put forth many famous books {Opus Majlis), applying" to the natural sciences what was afterwards called the inductive method of reasoning; that is, reasoning from observation and ex- perience. It is said that the clergy were so afraid that the new ideas would destroy their hold on the minds of men that they put Bacon into prison. It was in Henry's time, too, that the old Norman way of build- ing with round arches gave place to the lighter style of pointed arches. When, in its turn, this latter mode went out of fashion, men called it, after the bar- barous Goths, the Gothic style. Salisbury Cathedral is one of the most splendid examples of this mode of architecture. THE EARLIER PLANTAGENETS. Henry II, (See page 31.) Henry. Richaku I. Geoffrey. John. tiiS2. s. p. t 11S7. I Arthur of Henry HI. Eleanor Brittany. (See p. 71.) w. Earl Simon of Monfort. 50 THE FIRST TWO EDWARDS. [1272. CHAPTER IX. THE FIRST TWO EDWARDS. 1272-1327. AS the new king was the first of his name to rule in England since the Norman Conquest, he was called Edward the First. He was a very great and wise man, and did many important things. The first Ed di ^^^^ ^^^ conquest of Wales ; and this was how "Long- it happened. The Welsh chieftains had been shanks " 1 i • (1272- vassals of the English king for many years. '■^° But Llewelyn, udio was prince of all Wales when Edward became king, thought that it would be a good time to make himself an independent prince. He was betrothed to a daughter of Earl Simon, and it Conquers ^ ' Wales may be that he was really the head of a con- spiracy to dethrone Edward. Now the king, who had defeated Simon of Montfort at Evesham, was no ordinary soldier, and in a short time he conquered Wales, and compelled the prince to submit. A few years later Llewelyn again rebelled. He himself was killed in a chance encounter, but his brother, the real leader, was captured and executed. From that day Prince of Edward governed Wales as if it were a part of Wales. England. To please the Welsh, he made his eldest son Prince of Wales, and the title has been borne by the eldest son of the king of England ever since. There is a story that Edward promised to give them a native prince, who could not speak one word of I2S4.] THE WELSH BARDS. 51 English, and that he then showed them the young Edward, who had just been born in the Welsh castle of Caernarvon. But it is not certain that this is really true. Another story is that Edward, seeing the -phe Welsh bards, or minstrels, kept alive the spirit ^^'■'^^• of liberty, ordered them all to be killed. No historian now believes this, but it forms the basis of a poem called "The Bard," by the poet Gray. It so happened that at this time there were many claimants to the crown of Scotland. They referred their claims to Edward, who decided that John -' Balliol Balliol ought to be king. Balliol and his and rival, Robert Bruce, were of Norman descent on their father's side. They inherited their claims SUCCESSION TO THE SCOTTISH THRONE IN 1290. David I., 1 1153. I Henry. \ Malcolm IV., t 1165. William the Lion, 1 1214. David, t 1219. Alexander II., t 1249. I I I Margaret Isabella Ada w. W.Allan of w. Bruce of Hastings. Galloway. Annandale. Alexander III., f 1285. "Devorgild Marjory. Robert w. John Balliol. Bruce. Henry Hastings. Alexander, f 12S3. ' | I Eric ;«. Margaret John Balliol, Marjory w. Comyn Bruce, John Has- of Norway | f 12S3. t 1295. ' I the Earl of Carrick. tings. I ■ I I Black. I Margaret, " Maid of Edward Balliol. The Red Comyn, The Bruce, t 1329- Norway,"! 1290. Be- killed by Bruce I trothed to son of in 1306. | Edward I. On her t 1 death line extinct. David, t 1370. Marjory ;;/. W. Stuart. Robert II. 52 THE FIRST TWO EDWARDS. [1298. to the Scottish throne through their mothers. Balliol agreed to hold his kingdom as a gift from the Eng- lish king. But this made him and his son unpojou- lar in Scotland, and so, after his father's death, the younger Balliol made an alliance with the French king. He soon found himself a prisoner in London Tower, Edward now determined to govern Scotland as if it were his own kingdom. To show his right to that stone of throne, he carried to London the Stone of Scone. Scone, on which the Scottish kings had been crowned. There he had a chair built around it, and upon it every king of England has been crowned from that day to this. Now, the Scots did not at all like losing their inde- pendence. As soon as Edward got into trouble with France, they rebelled. Their leader was an William outlawed knight called Sir William Wallace. WiiiikJ''M'f H iMiVf^ L\ " - J of the class of independent farmers called "yeomen" dates. The remainder of Richard's reign was taken up with disputes between his favorites and the nobles who were out of power. In 1387 the parliamentary tion of party, led by Richard's uncle, the Duke of Glou- cester, gained the upper hand, and turned the favorites out, even executing many of them. But before long the king again got control. For a time he governed well ; but as soon as he felt himself strong enough, he revenged himself on his enemies. The Duke of Gloucester disappeared, and every one thought he was murdered, though it is now believed that he died from natural causes. Soon after this the Duke of Hereford, Henry of Bolingbroke, son of John of 1387.] ABDICATION OF RICHARD. 71 Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was exiled to France on a most frivolous charge. John of Gaunt felt his son's disgrace very keenly, and presently died. Richard, in defiance of a solemn promise, seized his estates. The king then went to Ireland to try to restore the waning fortunes of the English in that island. This was the young Duke of Lancaster's opportunity. Crossing over to England, he was everywhere most gladly received by the people. Richard, returning in haste from Ireland, was captured and forced to abdi- cate. Years before, he had been warned that the time might come when the English people would rise and depose him, and Parliament now did this very thing, on the ground of misgovernment. Then Henry of Lancaster, rising in his place in the House of Lords, THE LATER PLANTAGENETS. Henry III. I (Seep. 49-) Edward I. Edmund, 1 Earl of Lancaster. \ I Edward II. Henry, I Earl of Lancaster. Edward III. Henry, ] Duke of Lancaster. I \ 1 I Edward Lionel, John of Gaunt, w. Blanche, The Black Prince. Duke of Clarence. Duke of Lancaster. 1 Duchess of Lancaster. I I I Richard II., Philippa m. Earl of March. Henry Rolingbrokc, t 1400, S. P. I Earl of Hereford, Duke of Lan- Roger, Earl of March, caster, King Henry IV. t 1398- Edmund, Anne, Earl of March, ancestress of the t 1424. Yorkist kings. 72 RICHARD II. [1387- claimed the crown as the descendant of Henry III. It was said that his ancestor was the elder brother of the first Edward, and had been passed over on account of his humpback. Probably this was not true. At all events, Henry was elected king by Parliament,, and took the title of Henry IV. A GOLD NOBLE OF EDWARD III., STRUCK BETWEEN I360 AND I369. ijoo.] ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. "J^ CHAPTER XIL ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY, IN many ways the fourteenth century marked an epoch in the history of the English people. Let us stop a moment and see why this is so. In the first place, the fact that Richard was deposed proved to be of the very greatest importance. It was then estab- lished that the nation might depose the king if it wished. Years after, when this question again came up, in the time of James II., statesmen, turning back to find a precedent, relied on this one. In the next place, the English common people were every day acquiring more power and influence in the state. We have seen how the Commons began to sit by them- selves, and we have seen how, in the rise of copy- holders, the serfs began to free themselves from their servile obligations. Then, too, although the last part of this period was a time of almost constant war, it was also a time of great extension of trade. This was due in a great measure to the fact that the king could no longer seize the property of the merchants to pay his expenses, but was obliged to get their consent to taxes through their representatives in the House of Commons. It must not be supposed, however, that men's ideas on commerce were in those days like our own. At that time men saw, as some think they see to-day, that 74 ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. [1300. as gold and silver could be exchanged for anything, they formed a nation's whole wealth. Going one step Financial farther, they believed that a country would be policy. j.j^]-^ according to the amount of gold and silver actually within its borders. The more gold and silver England could draw from France and other countries, the richer she would be. The way to accomplish this was to sell as much wool, leather, and tin to foreigners, and buy as little from them, as possible ; the balance being paid in gold and silver. But we now know that gold and silver are commodities, like wool, flax, and leather, and that a nation cannot become richer by piling up within its borders more of any one thing than it can use. Now, these wars of Edward the Third introduced England to the outside world, and gave Englishmen ^, , an idea of the comforts and fashions of foreisfii Clothes. ^ lands. The effects were soon seen. Instead of the coarse, rough English cloth they formerly wore, men now began to wear colored clothes. The hose, which used to reach from the waist to the foot, were now divided at the knee, and the upper portion came to be called small-clothes. The most ridiculous things were the new-fashioned shoes, which sometimes were three feet long. Then, too, rugs and carpets began to take the place of rushes on the floors of the wealthier classes, and furniture, which up to that time had been very poor and scarce, began to be more plentiful and of much better quality. All these new fashions gave rise to an extended commerce, which the king encouraged as well as he Com could. But he saw with alarm the wool of merce. England exchanged for fine clothes and carpets J300-] THE GUILDS. 75 rather than for gold, and many attempts were made to regulate this foreign trade. It was determined, in the first place, that certain towns should be designated as "staple towns," from the German word stapcl, because in them a fair, or market, was kept open the whole year. Only in these places could wool, leather, lead, and tin be sold. At one time the laws were so strict that only a portion of the price of English goods could be exchanged for foreign goods, the remainder being paid for in gold and silver. At that time England was almost the only country where wool and tin were produced in large quantities. And as long as these laws could be carried out, gold and silver flowed into England. Gold was then very scarce, and silver was the principal medium of exchange. This silver was coined into money at the rate of two hundred and forty pennies to each pound of silver by weight. Thus we see the origin of the name "pound," which is still used in England as the standard of value, though a pound of silver would purchase much more wool and leather then than it will now. It must not be supposed that any one could go to a town where a fair was kept, and buy and sell for himself; far from it. Rights to trade and to The manufacture were then granted to certain per- smi-^is. sons or sets of persons, either for money or as favors. Sometimes the merchants of one town would combine into one trade-society, or guild ; but more often there were several guilds in each town, as of leather-dressers, tailors, silversmiths, etc. Each of these guilds gov- erned itself, and took full charge of all goods made by its members, oftentimes putting its mark, or stamp, on the goods as a proof of their purity and goodness. The 76 ENGLAND IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. [1300. guilds of each town often had a share m ils govern- ment, and the guildhall often answers very well to our town-hall. At this time, however, the beginning of the end of the guild system could be seen. This was due to the rise of a free laboring class, who worked f| by the day. They werr hence called "journeymen," from the French ^ord Jour, or joiirncc, a day. These and other labor- ers flocked to the towns in great num- bers, largely because of the privileges enjoyed by those living in towns; and their j^resence in the end gave a severe blow to the exclusive system of the guilds. This century also marks the rise of the English Ian- poRXRAir ofgeoffreychaucek. guage as we now know it. This was the time of Geoffrey Chaucer, the first great Rise English poet, and of Wycliffe, who may be re- Engiish garded as the father of English prose. English language, y^^^ ^j^q w?,(t(\. in the courts, and took the place of French as the language of the upper classes. i399-] Kl^K OF THE COMMONERS. ']'] CHAPTER Xlir. THE FIRST TWO LANXASTKIAN KINGS. "VTEXT to Richard, the rightful heir to the throne ■*- ^ was Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, since he was descended from the second son of Edward III. Henry was really a usurper, and ruled merely as being the king elected by Parliament. He was thus Henry obliged to keep on good terms with Parlia- ]^'^ & i » (1399- ment, and also with the Church. To please '-^'3) the Church he assented to an Act against heresy. Under this law a man once declared to be a heretic by the Church was handed over to the civil govern- ment for execution. This was commonly by fire; and the first Englishman burned as a heretic was William Sawtre. Henry was obliged to consent to the demands of Parliament. In this way the Commons obliged him to have the money voted bv them accounted for. „. . ■> ■' Rise of The Commons also obtained the right to origi- the com- moners, nate all laws granting money, and the king was even forced to allow perfect freedom of debate in both Houses of Parliament. Henry made these concessions in order to secure the support of the people in main- taining himself on the throne. In 1399 there was a sudden rebellion of the great lords friendly to the Earl of March, l^ut as the king, with a force of Londoners, was driving them to the 28 THE FIRST TWO LANCASTRIAN KINGS. [1413. West, the people of Cirencester, led by their mayor, surrounded and captured them, and executed several before the kinsr arrived. The same year wit- Rebel- ^ -' lion nessed Richard's death; though whether he was murdered or not, no one really knows. In time, however, events turned in Henry's favor, and by 1400 he was secure on his throne. Henry's last years were not happy. A dreadful disease tormented him, and it seemed as though his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, wished to be king before his time. At least that is the story; and the old king was so jealous of his son that he had him removed from the council. In 141 3 Henry IV. died. One of the greatest evils of this time was what was called the "right of maintenance." The great lords Mainte- Were accustomed to have in their service large nance, bodics of men, often old soldiers, who attended them when they went to Parliament, into court, and on other occasions. These men wore the liveries, or badges, of their masters, and were always armed and ready to fight. It thus happened that the great earls and dukes had small regular armies always at call, and it was this force of retainers that formed the founda- tion of the armies which fought in the Wars of the Roses. The new king came to the throne so quietly that it seemed hardly possible he was the son of a usurper. Henry He had led a wild life in his youth, which is de- ("^^ scribed in Shakspere's play of " Henry IV. ; " 1422). -^^^^ when he ascended the throne he became serious and patriotic. There was great discontent under the surface. The religious reformers called Lollards especially were so active that Henry may M'SJ ATTACK ON FRANCE. 79 have thought this the be- ginning of another Wat Tyler's rebellion. At any rate, he took sides with the churchmen against the Lollards, and forty of the reformers were burned at the stake as heretics. For the moment the ef- fort after reform seemed to be suppressed. Still, it might break out again at any time, and Henry resolved to divert Eng- lishmen's minds Attack on from their own France. wants and grievances by the conquest of France, — as if causing distress to any one nation would make another happier. Apart from this motive, which, after all, may not have been the true one, it was a good time to invade France. The French king was insane, and his eldest son, called the Dauphin, who ruled during his father's madness, quar- relled with the king's brother, the Duke of Bur- gundy. Now, this Duke kfi'k.voka knkuitaici.kho of Burgundy was the most armor, date, about 1460. NGER, ■LATp;- 8o THE FIRST TWO LANCASTRIAN KINGS. [1420 powerful man in P' ranee, and he and Henry of England, working together, soon had France at their mercy. Just as Henry was about to leave England, however, a plot to set the young Earl of March on the throne Adn- ^^^^ discovered. Henry's uncle, the Duke of court Cambridge, and some of the king's most trusted (1415). ° '^ advisers were in the plot. They were executed, and the expedition set sail. The campaign was very much like that of Cressy. A great battle was fought at Agincourt, — a battle well described in Shak- spere's "Henry V." The English were victorious, and, laden with booty and prisoners, they returned to England. Two years later, in 14 17, the invasion was renewed. This time the English advanced as far as Rouen unopposed. The Dauphin and the Duke of Troyes Burgundy now made peace, but the latter was ^^~° ' soon after murdered by order of the faithless Dauphin. Then the new Duke of Burgundy forgot all love of country in a desire for revenge. At Troyes he and Henry made a treaty, by which the English king agreed to marry the French king's daughter Katharine, and to rule France during her father's life as regent. After his death, Henry was to be king of France, and his son after him. The Dauphin was thus disinherited. All patriotic French- men gathered round him; but at the time they could do nothing but wait. Two years later Henry died, and was buried with the greatest magnificence in West- minster Abbey. Above his tomb may still be seen his helmet and saddle. Henry V. should be remembered not only as a great soldier. He saw the real path to greatness for 1422.] INCREASE OF THE ENGLISH NAVY. 8 1 England, and by extending commerce in every pos- sible way he contributed to the material prosperity of the next century. He also increased and reformed the English navy, which has since risen to such great power. THE CLAIMS OF YORK AND LANCASTER. Edward III. Edward the William, Lionel, D. Edmund, John of Gaunt, Thomas, D. of Black Prince, t i335- of Clarence. U. of York. D. of Lancaster. Gloucester. RiciiAKU II., Philippa ;;/. deposed. Mortimer, E. of March. Roger, E. of March. I Henry IV. Anne. Henry V. Humphrey. Edmund, E. of March, Anne ;;/. Richard, E. of Henry VI. t 1424. I Cambridge, | I t 141 5- Edward (never Richard of York, killed at reigned). Wakefield. Edward IV. Richard III, Thus, Richard of York inherited not only the claims of the House of York, but, through his mother, those of the older House of Clarence. 82 HENRY VI. [1422. CHAPTER XIV. HENRY VI. 1422-1461. THE abilities of Henry V. were so great, and his conquests so splendid, that the bad policy of his Erench invasion did not appear until after his death. His son, an infant of eleven months, succeeded Regency ' ... of Bedford to the throuc, and during" his minority his Giouces- uncles, the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester, governed for him. Bedford was an exceedingly able man, and for a time all went well. In 1428, however, he laid siege to Joan of Orleans. The English would probably have ^''^- taken the town, had not a new foe appeared in the most unexpected way. This was Joan of Arc, a peasant girl of Lorraine. She believed that Michael the archangel and other holy personages had person- ally ordered her to go to the Dauphin's aid. Her appearance at court aroused the enthusiasm of the soldiers; and seeing this, the counsellors of the Dauphin gave her an army, and told her to save Orleans. Now, this spirit of enthusiasm was what the French soldiers most needed. Adversity and practice had made them good soldiers, and able leaders were not lacking; but hitherto they had fought without spirit. Joan of Arc put new life into them. She marched to Orleans, and attacked the English first on this side, then on that. The I'2nglishmen were as I450] JACK cade's REBELLION. 83 superstitious as the French. They believed Joan of Arc to be a witch. The siege was abandoned, and soon after the Dauphin was crowned king of France. The next year, however, Joan of Arc fell into the hands of the English, and was burned alive. But the spirit she had aroused did not perish with her. In 1435 the Duke of Bedford died, and after his death one place after another was lost, till, in 1453, of all the English conquests Calais alone remained in their hands; and thus ended the Hundred Years' War. During these later years of disgrace and failure Wil- liam de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, had ruled the king- dom through his influence with the young king's Earl of wife, Margaret of Anjou. Upon him the people ^" ""^' laid the responsibility for the loss of France. The king, to save his life, banished him for five years; but on his way to France he was seized and executed. This was in 1450, and in the same year a rebellion broke out in Kent. Led by Jack Cade, who called himself Mortimer, the rebels marched to Lon- |ack don. They murdered many nobles and other Cade's , . , 111 rebellion. persons obnoxious to them, and then began plundering London. The Londoners turned them out, and some time after Jack Cade was captured and executed. It has been thought that the king's cousin, Richard, Duke of York, was at the bottom of this plot. This Richard of York was the son of that Duke of Cambridge who had plotted against Henry V. as he was setting out for France. Through his Kj^hard mother he inherited the claims of the Earl of of ^'°^^, claims tlie March, who had been passed over when Henry throne. IV. ascended the throne. His riu-ht to the En2:lish 84 HENRY VI. [1455. crown was better, therefore, than that of the reigning king. Now, it happened at this time, as it had so often happened before, that the Plantagenets not in power opposed those who were. And it is a little singular to see the same families fighting for the Duke of York as had fought for Henry IV. against Richard II. before Henry became king. In other words, a cer- tain portion of the great families of England were always in opposition to the existing government. The Lancastrians took for their badge a red rose, while the Yorkists adopted a white rose; and it is for this reason that the troubles which followed are called the Wars of the Roses. If Henry VI. had been a strong, able man, like his father and grandfather, these wars would probably .j.|^ never have occurred. He was not only always Wars of weak and feeble, but unfortunately was sub- Roses ject to fits of insanity. These attacks gave the '^^'"' Duke of York abundant opportunity to carry out his schemes. The two parties soon came to blows. In 1455 the Lancastrians were beaten, and the king fell into the hands of the Yorkists ; but he was soon released. In 1459 ^'^^ ^^^ again captured, and now the Duke of York came forward and'claimed the crown in right of his mother. Finally, it was agreed that the king should continue to rule during his lifetime, but that at his death the crown should pass to the Duke of York and his heirs. In this way the young Prince of Wales was disin- herited. It could hardly be expected that the queen Edward would SCO her son thus treated. Gathering an York. army in the North, she marched towards London. At Wakefield she met the Yorkists and defeated them. I46I.] FORTY-SHILLING FREEHOLDERS. 85 the Duke of York being killed during the battle, or put to death immediately after it. But his son Edward, a lad of nineteen, was still alive. Getting a small army together, he pushed on to London, reach- ing it before the queen, whose soldiers wasted time in plundering by the way. The people of London declared for Edward, and he was proclaimed king at Westminster as Edward IV. And thus ended the reign, though not the life, of Henry VL The most important constitutional event of this reign was the restricting the right to vote in counties for members of the House of Commons to those Forty- who owned land in the county to the value of f^e!'"^ forty shillings a year. In this way copyholders, ^^o'ders. as such, were deprived of the right to vote ; and this remained the law until 1832. ROYAL ARMS AS BORNE BV HENRV IV. AFTER ABOUT 140S, AND BY SUCCESSIVE SOVEREIGNS DOWN TO 1603. 86 THE YORKIST KINGS. [1461. CHAPTER XV. THE YORKIST KINGS. 1461-1485. THE crown was scarcely on Edward's head when he left London, and marched northward to meet the Lancastrians. He found them at Towton, and there overthrew them. He now felt reasonably secure Edward Oil the thronc, and so he might have been, but luhi- ^01' ^""^^ marriage with Elizabeth Woodville. M^j)- She was a beautiful woman, but did not belong to any of the great families. The marriage angered the Yorkist nobles, who became more angry when Edward raised her father to the peerage, and in many other ways increased the importance of her family. This was especially displeasing to the head of the Neville family, the great Earl of Warwick. He had really placed Edward on the throne, and was known as the king-maker. Finally he secured the aid of the King's brother, the Duke of Clarence. Small insurrections broke out, and for a time Warwick even kept Edward a prisoner; but in 1470 Warwick was forced to flee to France. There he found Queen Margaret, and chang- ing sides, he placed himself at the head of the Lancas- trians, and returned to England. Edward in turn was forced to fly, and for a time Warwick ruled in the name of poor mad Henry VI. The next year, however, Edward came back, overthrew Warwick at Barnet, and i4So.] iMURDER OF THE DUKE OF CLARENCE. 8/ Queen Margaret at Tewkesbury, and once more ruled as king. Warwick the king-maker perished at Bar- net, the young Prince of Wales at Tewkesbury, and only the old king remained. And he too soon died, murdered, it was said, in the Tower by Edward's brother, Richard of Gloucester. His rivals and enemies being out of the way, Edward set out on an invasion of France. He got some money in a regular way from Parliament, and raised invades more by what were called "benevolences;" that i^^^ance. is, he summoned the merchants before him, and asked them for money under this name. No one dared re- fuse, and he set out for France. Now, the king of P" ranee at that time was Louis XL, one of the most crafty men who ever sat on the French or any other throne. Seeing Edward's greed for money, he thought it would be much cheaper and better to buy him off than to fight him. Edward was not unwilling, and in this way his invasion of France came to an end. The only other striking event of his time is the murder of the Duke of Clarence. Edward had long suspected his brother of treason. He now for- Murder mally accused him, and the Peers convicted him Dui^e^f of treason. A few days later he was found dead Clarence, in the Tower, drowned, the story is, in a butt of Malm- sey wine. Not long after Edward himself died, a victim to intemperance. Li some ways Edward was not a bad king. He preserved order throughout the kingdom, at least during the latter part of his reign. This was of great advantage to the producing classes. In many other ways the king showed himself the friend to commerce, even engaging in it himself. Edward the Fourth left two sons, — Edward, Prince of 88 THE YORKIST KINGS. [1483. Wales, and* a younger brother Richard, Duke of York. Edward was but thirteen years old, and he reigned less than three months. Indeed, he can scarcely ■^ Edward be said to have reigned at all. From the v. very first, his uncle Richard, Duke of Glouces- ^^ ^ ' ter, seems to have determined to make himself king. Getting possession of the two boys, he sent them to the Tower, which was then used as much for a palace as a prison. He then made himself Protector, ruling in his nephew's name. Next he got rid of the Richard principal members of the queen's party, and then !"s,_ claimed the crown for himself. On July 6, 1483, i4S5)- he was crowned at Westminster as Richard III. ; and not long after the young King Edward V. and his brother disappeared, smothered, it was said, by Rich- ard's order. But this, like other stories of Richard, may be false. Until recent years almost all historians have given Richard a very black character. They have 'also added that he was a humpback, and was very ugly in person. We really know very little about him, and most that we do know is derived from writers of the Tudor period, whose interest it was to say all they could against Richard. At all events, his reign was so short and troubled that he had little chance to show what- ever good there may have been in him. It is now supposed, however, that he was by no means bad look- ing, and that his back was straight. Very likely some of the other stories about him had as little foundation as his hump. All the old rivals of the House of York had been killed on the field of battle or murdered; but ^,, ' The a new rival now appeared in the person of Tudors. Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Through his mother hSs-] the tudors. 89 he was descended from John of Gaunt, though his family had been excluded from the succession; but the Beauforts, of course, had never acknowledged the right of Parliament to do this. The claim at its best was not good for much. But Henry Tudor determined to win the throne for himself if he could. He soon won many Yorkists over to his side by promising to marry Edward IV. 's daughter Elizabeth; but his early attempt ended in failure. The people of England, however, were fast coming over to Henry's side; for Richard had raised money by means of a forced loan, and had shown favor to new men who were dependent upon him for their position and wealth. Especially he had placed great confi- dence in three men named Ratcliffe, Catesby, and Lovel. So much favor had he shown them that people went round shouting this doggerel: — " The Rat, the Cat, and Lovel our Dog Rule all England under the Hog." In fact, he became so unpopular, and his own party cared so little for him, tliat when Henry Tudor came to LANCASTERS AND TUDORS. Edward III. Blanche w. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster in. Katlicrine Swynford. Henry IV. John Beaufort, Marquis of I Somerset. Henry \' . in. Katharine in. Owen Tudor John. I of France. | | Henry VI. Edmund Tudor. Earl of Richmond w. I\Iar;^aret. .1 I Prmce Edward. Henry, Earl of Riciimond. crowned Henry VII. of England. 90 THE YORKIST KINGS. [14S5. England in 1485 he marched ahnust unmolested to the middle of the island. The two rivals met on Bos- worth Field. Richard's two most powerful ad- I5attle of Bos- herents proved faithless to him, Lord Stanley worth. ..... TT 1- 1 n ^ even joining his stepson Henry during the nght. In the battle Richard was killed, and at its close the Earl of Richmond was greeted as Henry VH. A FIFTEENTH-CENTURY SHIP. END OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 91 CHAPTER XVL SOCIAL CHANGES DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURV. AS we have already seen, the feudal system had begun to break down as early as the Second Richard's time. The introduction of gunpowder, by which a common man, armed with a fire-arm, became as dangerous as the knight in full armor, per- » =* . ' ^ End of haps more so, hastened this decay. During the Mid- the Wars of the Roses the great feudal families * * practically destroyed one another. And in this way, by the beginning of Henry VH. 's reign, the feudal structure of society in England may be said to have perished. A new era opened, not only for England, but for the civilized world. Columbus, sailing west- ward from the Canaries in search of a passage to India, first saw the New World in 1492. Five years later John Cabot, sailing under a license from Henry VH., dis- covered the northern continent. Upon this discovery of John Cabot rested the claims of the English sover- eigns to the mo.st habitable part of America. This discovery of a new world beyond the Atlantic might have produced little result, and even been for- gotten, had not another discovery already come . ^, . , -^ ^ ■; Printing. mto common use. This was the art of printing, which was introduced into England in 147;: by Caxton, who had acquired the art in Flanders. Before this time the only way of multiplying books was by 92 SOCIAL CHANGES IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. copying- by hand. This was not only slow, but very expensive. When Caxton set up his printing-press he was by no means a young man. Yet so eager were people for books that before he died he had either written or translated and printed sixty works. Learn- ing began to flourish, and in the next century England emerged from a state of semi-barbarism, and during Elizabeth's reign produced the greatest works in the English language. Another thing which marked the beginning of a new era was the decay of villeinage, or serfdom. This was brought about in i^art by the Roman Abolition ^ ^ -^ . of villein- Catholic pricsts, who induced many rich men ^^^' to free their serfs. Of course, in the long run, this was beneficial to the lower class and to the country; but for a while there was much suffering. In feudal times a man's importance depended upon the number of his followers. His only desire then was to make his land support as many persons as pos- sible. Now, however, with the growth of trade and commerce, a man's importance depended more upon his wealth than upon any other single thing. Men only desired to get as much profit from their land as possi- ble. In old days when the serf became sick or feeble he was taken care of, though not very tenderly, by his master. Now he was free, and was turned off, if he became useless, and another hired in his place. Then, too, it was often more profitable to raise sheep for their wool than to raise wheat. But it takes fewer men to tend sheep on a hundred acres than it takes to raise crops on those same acres ; and in this way many men lost tlieir occupation. Then again, under the old system of landholding, agriculture was very LOSS OF POWER BY PARLIAMENT. 93 slack. Now, however, under the leasehold system it was for the interest of the tenant to make as much as he could out of his holding. He therefore hired as little help as possible, making those in his employ work a great deal harder than they had worked before. In one way or another, therefore, vast numbers of men were thrown out of employment in the country. They flocked to the towns, where the capitalists stood ready to hire them by the day or week. We have already seen the beginning of this. Now, however, laborers streamed to the towns in such numbers that what was called the "guild" system, by which each trade managed its own affairs, was weakened, and the system of open competition, such as we now have, began to prevail. During this century Parliament, instead of gaining more power, had lost much that it had possessed. In the House of Lords the old nobility had almost Loss of disappeared. In its place was a new nobility, 'p°''^]^J.'^-^ as yet dependent on the king and devoted to ment. him. The House of Commons, too, had lost much of its strength. We have seen how the right to vote had been restricted in the counties. In the towns, or "boroughs," too, the same process had gone on. In the older time all freemen in the boroughs had voted. But gradually, in many boroughs, a small circle of men secured all powers of government ; and in this way, while the town, or borough, grew, its ruling class remained stationary or decreased in number. As these men elected the members of the House of Commons for their borough, the commoners ceased to represent the people at large. Now, it is easy to see that the smaller the number of men votinu: for 94 SOCIAL CHANGES IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. a member of Parliament, the easier it was for the Gov^ernment to intimidate or bribe enough voters to give them a majority in the House of Commons. In this way Parliament, during the whole Tudor period, became little better than a tool of the king and his ministers. One important gain had been made, though it did not bear fruit till later times. In the old days the Money two liouses had drawn up petitions asking the bills. king to grant certain laws. The king often con- sented to a petition, and then, after getting the money he wanted, and dissolving Parliament, so changed the law that, when it was finally passed, those who had asked for it could not recognize it. Now the two houses began to draw up the laws themselves, and present them to the king for his consent. At first, however, it was a change only in form. But the time was coming when the Commons would refuse to grant money for the king's use until he had assented to their bills, as these petitions now came to be called. The machinery, in other words, was all ready for the gov- ernment of the country by the House of Commons ; it only remained to bring a class into power which could and would use the machinery. And discerning men could already foresee the coming importance of the middle class, composed of merchants, shopkeepers, and small farmers, — a class destined in time to rule the House of Commons, and through it to govern England. That time was to be long deferred; but the beginnings were now made. And that is why with the reign of Henry VII. modern luiglish history may be said to begin. Let us now study the doings of these Tudor sovereists. exiles became intimate with the Calvin ists and other advanced reformers. It is important to understand what Calvin's doctrines reallv were, for their influence 124 ELIZABETH. [1559. upon England, and upon our own country also, has been immense. First of all, Calvin was a religious reformer. As such he went far beyond Luther in his plans, and wished to throw away all the ceremonies and associa- tions which had grown up around the Roman Catholic Church, except such as were commanded in the Scrip- tures. But it is as a social reformer that he is more interesting to us. He desired to remodel society, so that it might represent the society described in the Old Testament. He thus introduced a form of government which was then new in Europe. He thought that all society, whether in church or state, should be founded on the individual man. He believed that the best form of government would be obtained through men collected in congregations, and through congregations governed by elected councils. The heads of a Church founded on this model would be supreme in the land. They could explain the law of God to king or j^easant. The power of these men proceeded from below, and the historian John Richard Green has therefore said: "It is in Calvinism that the modern world strikes its roots ; for it was Calvinism that first revealed the dignity of man." This equality of baron and shoemaker before the law of God and man is the basis of all democratic society; but it is really incompatible with monarchy. Now these ideas of Calvin were being introduced into England by the reformers returning from abroad, and The numbers of men were eagerly accepting them. Puritans, -pi-^ggg iy,gj-j were called Puritans, because they wished to purify the Church. They regarded them- selves as good members of the Church of England. They had no desire to separate from that Church, but 1559] 'i'lIE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 1 25 only refused to conform to all its ceremonies. For exam- ple, the use of the surplice was to them very distaste- ful, as it reminded them of the Pope and their former connection with the Roman Church. They disliked many other ceremonies which were retained, but in all matters of doctrine they seem to have believed very much as did other members of the Church. As time went on, other sects arose. Especially there were some Puritans who went farther than the great mass of them were then willing to go. They refused longer to remain in the Church, and separated from it, and were hence called Separatists, and were also known as Brown- ists, from the name of an early leader. But the Puri- tans, whether merely Nonconformists or Separatists, saw that in Elizabeth's continued occupation of the throne lay their only chance for safety, or even for tol- eration of any kind. The next heir to the throne was Mary, Queen of Scots, and she was an ardent Catholic. So the Puritans supported Elizabeth loyally, although they had persecutions to endure even under her. In the reign of King James these persecutions continued and increased, and led, some years later, to the col- onization of a New England across the Atlantic Ocean. As has been already said, the Puritans felt the need of supporting Elizabeth, even if she did persecute them; and so Elizabeth and Cecil felt, on their The side, the need of support from the Puritans, even catiio" if their doctrines tended to the overthrow of gov- ''"• ernment by king and bishop. It seems probable that at her accession two-thirds of the English people were Roman Catholics. Her changes in the ritual were so few that the trrcat mass of them attended without 126 ELIZABETH. [1559. difficulty the new service. It is said, indeed, that only two hundred out of nine thousand priests resigned their livings. In time, as the old priests died, and others took their places, a gradual change came over the Church, and men almost without knowing it be- came really Protestant. But a powerful minority remained true to the old faith. To them the divorce of Mary's mother had been illegal, and Elizabeth was an illegitimate child. As such she had no right to the throne. To them, therefore, Mary, Queen of Scots, was the real queen of England, Elizabeth being a usurper whom it was their duty to overthrow. At the begin- ning of the reign, however, it happened, fortunately for Elizabeth, that her good-will was necessary to Philip of Spain, and so she was given time to consolidate her power before any further struggle came. We have seen how the Scots married their queen to the P'rench Dauphin. In 1559 he became king of France, though he ruled only a year. If his Philip II. ,,11 r T- T T queen should become queen 01 P.ngland too, France, Scotland, and England would be united under one ruler. That was something Philip of Spain could not allow, and he offered to marry Elizabeth. But she could not consent, without recognizing the right of the Pope to grant a dispensation. This of course she could not consistently do, and the project fell through. But for many years Philip and l^lizabeth remained the best of friends. In 1560 Francis II. died, and Mary, Oueen of Scots, returned to Mary, ^ j ^ Queen of Scotland. Before long she married her cousin, Lord Darnley. Their child was afterwards James VI. of Scotland and I. of England. But be- fore long, Darnley was murdered, and in 1568 Mary 1560.] MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. 127 MARV, QUEEN OF SCOTS : FROM THE MEMORIAL PORTRAIT DONE IMMEDIATELY AFTER HER DEATH, AND NOW AT WINDSOR CASTLE. fled to Eno;lancl and a.skcd protection from her kins- woman F^lizabeth. Now we really know very little about Mary, except that she was beautiful, fascinating. 128 ELIZABETH. [156S. and inherited the Scottish throne by clear right. Some people say that she was an accomplice in Darnley's murder, and rewarded the murderer, Bothwell, by mar- rying him. Others tell a somewhat different story. She may not have been so bad as many think, but she probably was false and treacherous. At all events, she did not gain much by coming to England. Eliza- beth alone would certainly have been a match for her. But with Elizabeth, Cecil, and Walsingham leagued together against her, Mary of Scotland was doomed from the first. It is not easy to understand this part of Elizabeth's reign. But if a few points are kept in mind, the story Foreign will uot sccm SO Complicated as it at first sight policy, looks. As yet the fate of English Protestantism hung on Elizabeth's life. Parliament urged her to marry, or at least to name a successor. Both these things she steadily refused to do. To us looking backward it is now clear that this was wise. As long as Mary was the next heir to the throne, she was almost compelled to keep quiet, that she might become queen on Elizabeth's death. Elizabeth de- clined, therefore, to name any one else as her succes- sor, and either from jealousy or for some other cause, refused to name Mary. For the same reason Elizabeth was unwilling to marry. Should she marry a foreigner like Philip, there was sure to be trouble of one kind or another. Should she marry an Englishman, all other Englishmen of equal rank would be offended. So she would marry no one, though she held out great hopes to many. Then with regard to foreign relations, at first sight her whole ])()licy seems in confusion, PHiza- beth doing this thing to-day, that to-morrow. But she J570.] ROMAN CATHOLIC PLOTS. 1 29 had a difficult part to play, to keep on the good side of France and Spain, and at the same time to do all in her power to hurt and weaken them. It hapjDened that the religious wars in foreign countries were a great help to her, for they kept the foreigners so busy at home that there was no time to attack England. In France the Protestants, or Huguenots, were struggling for existence, and Elizabeth sent aid to them in va- rious ways, though really she aided them as little as possible. As long as the Huguenots seemed to be doing well, she acted rather defiantly with regard to Spain. But when the Catholics began to get the upper hand in France there was nothing too good to be said to Philip. At last the Protestants of the Netherlands revolted against Spain. This was a great help to Elizabeth, and she encouraged them with money, for whose repayment she took possession of certain towns. Beyond that she would not go. So in every way Elizabeth had to be very careful, and the Pope was not long in adding to her cares. Mary had hardly arrived in England before the Roman Catholics formed plots to put her on the throne. The earlier plots were put down, and Mary was '■ '- ^ ■' Roman kept in strict confinement. But in 1570 the Catholic Catholics w^ere roused to action by a bull, or proclamation, of the Pope of Rome excommunicating Queen Elizabeth, and releasing her subjects from their allegiance. Priests and emissaries of all kinds were sent to England to stir up the Catholics and to recall the lukewarm Protestants to their ancient faith. The nation was called upon to take sides in religion, and it took the Protestant side. This bull roused against the Roman Catholic Church the independent 9 130 ELIZABETH. [1570. spirit of the English people, and England was lost to the Roman Church. From that moment there was little hope of recalling her to the old faith by peaceful means. Plots were discovered to assassinate the queen, and a panic swept through England. These schemes were made, of course, in the interest of Mary, and Parliament wished to put her out of the way by a Bill of Attainder, as though she were an English subject. But Elizabeth would not consent. While Mary lived, she felt that there would be peace. But an association was formed for the queen's protection, and to avenge her death in case she should be murdered. Severer laws were made against the Catholics, and the fines against non-attendance at the authorized service were enormously increased. There seems to have been little attempt made to carry out these laws against Court of laymen. But woe to the priests who fell into Commis- ^^^^ hands of the Government ! For them a sion. special court was set up. Elizabeth was the supreme governor of the English Church, and she delegated a portion of her authority to a commission consisting of the archbishop and other leading men, ordering them to inquire into and punish offences against the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. Be- fore this court the accused person was brought, and compelled to answer under oath whatever questions might be asked him. Those who did not answer were tortured. All forms of law and all the safeguards of English liberty were forgotten. While this great engine of oppression was directed against the Catho- lics only, there was little outcry. When, however, it was later used against the Puritans it aroused fierce opposition. Neither the queen nor the archbishops [5S6.] EXECUTION OF MARY. 131 seem to have cared very much about a man's thoughts, but they were determined he should keep them to him- self, unless they were in harmony with the ideas of the Church. This the Puritans refused to do. They preached and taught on all sides as long as they were allowed to preach and teach. In truth, it was not long before the bishops silenced the outspoken ministers. The Puritans then resorted to the printing-press; and as nothing could be printed without the consent of the archbishop, they used a press which was kept moving about the country. It seemed as though nothing could stop these attacks on the bishops and the English Church. The most famous pamphlets were signed Martin Mar-Prelate. Even to this day the name of the writer is not known, but a man named Penry was executed as the author. It had been impossible to connect Mary directly with any of the earlier plots to kill the queen. But in 1586 the Government was able, by its spies, to prove Execu- that Mary knew of a plan to assassinate her. tion of Whether the plot really existed is not abso- Queen of lutely clear. Some writers have thought it was ^*^°'^" merely a scheme got up by the Government to entrap Mary. At all events she was convicted, and, Eliza- beth's consent having been obtained, was executed. What Elizabeth had feared now came to pass. Mary, disliking her son, who was a Protestant, left her claims to the throne of England to Philip of Spain, and he, as a good Catholic, set about making them good. There were other and perhaps stronger causes that made him attack England. Elizabeth had sent aid to the Dutch; and the English sailors, led by men like Haw- kins and Drake, were endangering the Spanish control 132 ELIZABETH. [15S8. of the West Indies and the Pacific coast of America. The English were also beginning to found colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America, though up to this time their settlements had not been successful. So Philip decided to send a great fleet to England, and with it the army which, under the Duke of Parma, had been fighting in the Netherlands. It had been intended to send this Armada against England in 1587, and provisions and ships were actually gathered at Cadiz. But the English under Drake sailed into the harbor one day, and destroyed so many of the vessels and so much of the provisions that the attempt was ^^ j^_ abandoned for that year. The next year, 1588, vincible the Armada actually sailed from Lisbon for Armada. Dunkirk, where the army was to join it, and a joint descent was to be effected on the English coast. The Armada numbered about one hundred and fifty vessels, most of them large ships. At that time England had nothing properly to be called a navy. When the queen wanted vessels she called upon the seaport towns to furnish them. This was not so difficult then as it would be now, for in those rough days all vessels were obliged to go armed to protect themselves from sea-robbers and pirates. So a fleet of about seventy-five sail was collected, and with it Lord Howard of Eflingham, Elizabeth's kins- man, went forth to meet the great Armada. . With him were Hawkins and Drake and others experienced in fighting on the water. At the same time two large armies were made ready on shore to repel the Spaniard if he should attempt a landing. The Armada was soon seen sailing up the Channel in the form of a crescent. Hanging on its rear, the English cut off and captured I5SS.] THE INVINCIBLE ARMADA. ^35 SIR FRANCIS DRAKE, IN HIS FORTY-THIRD YEAR: FROM THE ENGRAVING BY ELSTRACKE. or sank every ship that lagged behind. The Spaniards then anchored off Calais. But the English sent fire- ships among them, and compelled them to weigh 134 ELIZABETH. [15S8. anchor and run northward. The English fleet had by this time increased to perhaps one hundred and forty vessels of all sorts and sizes. But if their ships were smaller, they sailed better. Besides, the English even then were great sailors and sea-fighters. Their guns were better aimed than were those of the Spaniards. Indeed, it seems probable that had Queen Elizabeth not been so stingy with her powder and provisions, the English would have completely destroyed the Armada. As it was, after driving the Spaniards to the north, the English turned homeward, and many sailors who had nobly fought for their country and religion died of starvation on the way back. As for the Spaniards, many of them never returned home. Trying to regain Spain with their shattered ships by the north of Eng- land and the Irish Channel, they were met by a furious storm. Ship after ship was wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and it is said that of that mighty Armada only fifty-four vessels ever returned to Spain. The destruction of the Armada broke the power of that nation. The supremacy of the seas passed into other hands. Even with that supremacy it had been difficult for her to hold her vast empire together. From this time one possession after another was torn from her grasp. With the control of the Channel in English hands, troops could not be sent to the Netherlands, and the independence of the United Provinces was assured. Another Protestant power thus arose in Europe, des- tined ere long to stand side by side with England in the struggle for liberty. From the clay when Drake chased the Armada north from Calais, England's power has gone on ever increasing, till on her empire, exceeding in extent even that of the second Philip, I494-] " POVNINGS' LAW." 135 the sun never sets. We must now turn from this glorious scene, and begin our study of the most objec- tionable chapter in England's history, — her misgov- ernment of Ireland. As far back as the times of the Normans there had been some kind of an assertion of the right of the English king to be considered the ruler, or t" » ' "Poyn- " overlord, " of Ireland. But the relations be- ings' tween the two islands and the two peoples did not become close till the time of Henry VII. It was in 1494 that, a Parliament of some kind having met at Drogheda, an Act, called " Poynings' Law," named after the English king's deputy, was passed. By this law no bill could be brought into the Irish Parliament until it had received the approval of the Government in England. Thus Ireland was put, as far as legislation went, completely under subjection to England. During Henry VIII. 's reign little at- tention was paid to Ireland, except to give to some of the Irish chieftains the title of earl. But during the minority of Edward VI. an attempt was made to establish the Reformed Church in Ireland. The attempt was a failure from the beginning, — partly because the Irish could not understand the service in English any better than when it was read in Latin, but more especially because the Roman Catholic Church was well suited to their habits and needs. Of course the attempt was abandoned at the accession of Mary. As we have already seen. Queen Elizabeth was deter- mined that there should be one religion in England, and only one. She soon became equally determined that there should be but one religion in England and 136 ■ ELIZABETH. {1590 Ireland, and that this should be the religion pre- scribed by the English Church, of which she was the The head. So the Acts of Supremacy and Uniform- bethan i^y wcrc extended to Ireland. Wherever English settle- J could be enforced there, the Roman Cath- ment of ' Ireland. (jI[q clergy wcrc turned out, and Protestants put in their places. It was very difficult to get good men to go to Ireland, in fact difficult to get any one to go. It resulted that in many places the churches went to ruin, and no services were held at all. English law, however, could be enforced only in a very small part of Ireland. In the rest the Roman Catholic service was kept up. The Protestant Established Church was weak from the beginning, and was an object of con- tempt and hatred to the bulk of Irishmen. Thus was introduced an element of discord which has lasted to our own time. There were other causes of jealousy. At this time Ireland was under the control of three families, — the Geraldincs, descended from the Norman Fitz-Gerald; the Butlers ; and the De Burghs, or Burkes. Now, of these, the Butlers, led by Ormond, were Protestant, while the Geraldines, headed by Kildare and Desmond, were Catholics. The opposing forces were so arranged that it was impossible for the Ikitlers to be of much use to the English, cut off as they were by the Ge- raldines from the English part of the island. It was now proposed to send over English colonists to occupy a large portion of the lands of Desmond, he having relinquished his title to escape being tried for treason. It was hoped also that the courts would find defects in the titles to much more land held by the Irish. In this way it was thought to make a large portion of the 1 598-1 603.] ELIZABETH'S LAST YEARS. 1 37 island English. But the first attempts were failures. To take an Irishman's land was to touch him in the tenderest part. A fearful insurrection broke out in Munster in 1569, and ten years later in Connaught. Both were put down with the greatest severities and almost unheard-of cruelties. In the northern province alone was the colonization a success. There was already a colony of Scots there ; and Essex, the leader of the English in the enterprise, was an exceedingly able man. By 1584 the English were supreme through- out the island, though at a tremendous cost in suffering to the Irish. When the Armada had been driven away from Eng- land, Elizabeth was already an old woman. She had reigned thirty years, and the men whose advice EUza- and help had so far made her reign a success jj^t^ ^ were rapidly passing away. Leicester, her y^^""^- favorite though incompetent commander, died while the rejoicings over the defeat of the Armada were still ringing in his ears. Sir Walter Mildmay, the founder of the Puritan College of Emmanuel at Cambridge, — the college from which our own Harvard is in a manner descended, — died in 1589. Walsingham, whose marvellous skill in ferreting out plots had saved Elizabeth's life more than once, followed in 159L Finally, in 1598, after forty years of service such as few men have given to their sovereign and country, William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, passed away. Young men were now coming to the front. Prominent among them was Robert Cecil, Burleigh's son. His most formidable rival was Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. Essex was not in any sense a statesman, but he had succeeded to Leicester's place in the queen's 138 ELIZABETH. [1598-1603. affections, and become her favorite. Essex rapidly rose to prominence. In 1596 he and Lord Howard of Effingham led a successful expedition against Cadiz. But Essex did not gain all the advantages from this WILLIAM CECIL, LORD lUIRLEKlH, K.C,.. 152O-1591; FROM A PAINTING IN THE BODLEIAN LUiRARV, OXFORD. success that he had expected, as most of the credit was given to Lord Howard. It is related that some time after this, in 1598, when the appointment of a deputy for Ireland was being discussed in the council, the queen said something displeasing to Essex. He turned his back on her, which so enraged Elizabeth 1598-1603.] ELIZABETH'S LAST YEARS. 1 39 that she gave him a sound box on the ear. This story may be true or not, but one thing is certain, that when Burleigh died, in the same year, it was Robert Cecil, and not Essex, who succeeded to his place and power. The next year Essex went to Ireland as deputy. There he used his power in a very mysterious manner. Exactly what he intended is not clear. Perhaps he expected to create a government for himself in Ire- land. Perhaps he intended to use the Irish army against his enemies in England. At all events, he found it necessary to hurry back to England and try to regain the queen's regard. But with all her love of flattery, P^lizabeth never allowed her personal feelings to interfere with her duties as queen. Essex was placed under restraint. Gathering about him several desperate characters (Sir Ferdinando Gorges among them), he tried to incite the Londoners to rebellion. The attempt failed. Gorges, with the most contemp- tible meanness, betrayed his friend. Essex was tried, condemned, and executed for treason. Whether he was justly executed or not, li^lizabeth seems never to have recovered from the shock of his ingratitude. In 1603 she died, having lost, in these later years, much of her former popularity. I40 STATE OF SOCIETY. [155S-1603. CHAPTER XXII. STATE OF SOCIETV, AS we have already seen, Queen Elizabeth's reign was very remarkable for the great material ad- vancement then made by England. Her foreign com- merce was greatly extended. The cruelties of the Com- Spaniards drove many (it is even said one half) merce. ^£ ^^iq merchants of Antwerp to London. The decline of the former city and the supremacy of the latter date from this time. In Queen Elizabeth's time, too, the port of Archangel was discovered, and a trade with Russia opened. The East India Company and others like it were formed to trade with foreign parts, and from all directions wealth and luxuries poured into England. There was at the same time a great expansion of home industry. Hitherto English wool had been mainly worked up outside of England; now the cloth was made at home. The same was true, though in a less degree, of the manufactures of steel, and from this time on, the names of Manchester and Sheffield began to be heard more and more. The country had been so long free from civil wars that the mode of domestic architecture had undergone Archi- a- complete change. The turreted castle gave tecture. ^^y ^^ ^^iQ hall of the Elizabethan time. Chim- neys took the place of the hole in the roof, and the master no longer ate with his dependants in the great hall, but withdrew to his parlor, — called for this reason I55S-I603.] ARCHITECTURE. 141 a withdrawing-room, and afterwards a drawing-room. Pewter dishes w^ere beginning to take the place of the old wooden trays, though forks were not common until some time after Elizabeth's death. Nor were these COACHES IN THE RF.ICN OF KLIZAHF.TH. FROM " ARCH.'EOLOGIA. improvements in the art of living confined to the very rich, for the moderately rich class, which was now coming into existence, enjoyed advantages which had been denied to the wealthiest of only a generation or two before. The lot of the laboring class, however, did not improve. 142 STATE OF SOCIETY. [15S8-1603. The changes in agriculture which we have already described had gone on with increasing rapidity. Un- The poor tloubtedly one cause of this was the fact that '^^^" people w^ere beginning to live very differently. But the suppression of the monasteries had much to do with it. The monks had been easy landlords. They had taken care of the sick and poor of their district, even going so far as to encourage begging by their indiscriminate giving. All this was now stopped. The new owner of the forfeited monastery lands wished to get as great a return from them as possible. Some he turned into sheep-walks, the rest he cultivated with care, employing, either by himself or through his ten- ants, as few laborers as possible. Masses of men were thrown out of work. The country became infested by vagabonds and beggars. Several remedies were tried. At last it was determined to make each locality, whether called parish or town, take care of its own poor. In this way the old principle of local responsi- bility was once more brought into use. There were other reforms in the same direction, but this making the parishes responsible for the poor within their own limits is the most important. The principal law was passed in 1601, and remained in force till 1834. The immediate effect of the new system was startling. In the time of Henry VIII. some two thousand robbers had been hanged each year. This number was now reduced to three or four hundred, although the population had greatly increased. It has been already said that English literature was carried to a high point in the reign of Elizabeth, Shakspere being its chief ornament. There was a whole circle of authors, — such as Marlowe, Ben Jonson, 1558-1603.] THE STUARTS. 143 Massinger, Ford, Chapman, Beaumont, and Fletcher, — who have never since been equalled, as dramatic poets, by any similar group in any other age — The modern form of prose fiction had not yet been created ; but people were fond of reading long narratives of imagi nary adventure, either in verse, like Spenser's "Faerie Oueene," or in prose, like Sir Philip Sidney's "Area dia. " Sir Walter Raleigh was not merely a great ex- plorer, but also an author; and wrote, while a prisoner in the Tower of London, his "History of the World." William Tyndale produced in this reign the first im- portant translation of the Bible into English. Scott's novel of "Kcnilworth" gives a tolerably vivid picture of the society and manners of the Eliza- bethan period; but these can best be studied in the actual literature of that period. THE STUARTS. James I. Charles II. James, the Old Pretender. Charles I. James II. Anne. Elizabeth, ancestress of Hanoverians. (See p. 242.) Mary w. William of Oranije. Mary m. William of Orange, afterwards King William III. Charles, the Young Pretender. Henry, ti8o7. 144 JAMES I. [1603 CHAPTER XXIII. JAMES I. 1 603- 1 625. / IT was well understood towards the end of Eliza- beth's reign that James VI. of Scotland, son of Mary of Scotland, and descended from Henry VIII.'s sister Margaret, would be Elizabeth's successor. After Elizabeth's death he was proclaimed King James I. of His char- England, and succeeded to the throne as quietly acter. ^g j-^^j ^^^y heir-apparcnt before him. It is a cu- rious fact that although he was the son of the most beautiful and attractive princess of that time, James was of very disagreeable and repulsive appearance. His face was plain and foolish, with a tongue so large that he could not help showing it all the time. His legs were very small and weak, so that he walked feebly and awkwardly; and this was noticed by the people all the more, because he wore a thick padded coat, for fear some one should stab him. He was very timid, and also false and obstinate, so that he was un- popular in character as well as peculiar in his looks. He had been well educated, and had a good deal of learning; but he had very little common-sense, and was called by the Erench minister Sully "the wisest fool in Christendom." He was hardly seated on his new throne before plots began to be formed against him, especially by MK wAMi'iK i;ai,i;igii '1552-161S) AND HIS i:i,ui-:sT SON' WAi TKR, \i THK \c.v. Ill' i-ii.nr; KKUM A flCTUKE, DATED 1602, UELONCINc; TO SIR J. f. LK.NN'AKU, HAKT. 146 JAMES I. [1605. the enemies of Robert Cecil, his Secretary of State. Among those who joined in these plots was the cele- brated Sir Walter Raleigh, so well known for tk.nof the interest he took in colonizing the American ^'^'^''" continent. The plan of some of these conspira- tors was to dethrone James I. and give the crown to Lady Arabella Stuart, who, like James, was descended from Henry VII. The plot did not succeed; but it gave the king a great dislike to this lady, and when, some years later, she married Henry Seymour, a third descendant of Henry VII., James thought her so dan- gerous that he had her shut up in the Tower, where she died insane. Sir Walter Raleigh was also sent to the Tower, and lived there many years, writing books, some of which are famous. At last, in 161 6, the king released him, that he might take command of an expe- dition to look for gold mines in South America. But James, with his usual deceitfulness, let the Spaniards, who had claimed the country where the mines were said to be, know just where Raleigh was going, so that the expedition was a failure. When Raleigh returned unsuccessful, he was first charged with misconduct in regard to the expedition, and then the old complaint was brought up against him that he had plotted against the king; and on this last charge he was beheaded at the Old Palace Yard in Westminster. The king's real object was to please the Spaniards, who found in Raleigh's enterprise a great danger to their colonies. The most famous of these plots is known in history as the "Gunpowder Plot." James's mother, it must be remembered, was a Roman Catholic; and be- TheGun- r t- i i i powder fore he became king ot hngland he wrote to a (1605). prominent Englishman of that faith, the Karl of 1605] THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. I47 Northumberland, that when he came to the throne no CathoHc should be punished for religion's sake. Perhaps he meant it sincerely, and for a time the Catholics were well treated. But the king soon found that there was in England a strong popular feeling against them, and that he himself was charged with being at heart of their faith. When he found out this fact, he began to deny that he had ever pledged himself that they should have freedom of worship, and he ordered his lawyers and judges to enforce the severe laws that existed against all who refused to attend the Protestant services. These persons were called under the law "Popish recusants," and they were subject to a fine of ;^50 — -which would to-day be equivalent to $500 — for each month when they had failed to be present at the services of the Church of England. This severe persecution led to the formation of a plot, led by Robert Catesby, who belonged to one of the oldest families in England, to blow up the Parlia- ment House at a time when the king, lords, and com- mons should all be there together. "In that place," wrote Catesby, "they have done us all the mischief, and perhaps God hath designed that place for their punishment." Catesby had followers, of whom the best known is Guy, or Guido, Fawkes, and they placed six barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords without being detected. Then, while waiting for Parliament to assemble, they tried to hit upon a plan by which the Roman Catholic noblemen could be kept away from the House of Lords and their lives saved. But it was finally left to each person to caution those whom he thought fit ; and thus it happened that Lord Mounteagle, a brother-in-law of one of the conspira- 148 JAMES I. [1605. tors, just as he was sitting down to supper one even- ing, received a note, written witliout punctuation or capitals, advising him to retire into the country for a time. "God and man hath concurred," this strange note said, "to punish the wickedness of this time;" and it added, " though there be no appearance of any stir, yet to-day they shall receive a terrible blow, this Parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts them." Lord Mounteagle sent this letter to the Sec- retary of State, and the very night before Parliament was to assemble, a search was made, and the gunpow- der was found, with Guy h\awkes standing guard over it. P'awkes, on being seized, said to the man who arrested him that if he had only had the chance, he would have blown him up, his house, himself, and all. When taken before the king, he confessed the truth, saying that he meant to have blown up king, lords, bishops, and all the rest. He gave the names of the other conspirators, and they were all put to death. This made the greatest excitement, and led to still severer laws against the Catholics, most unwisely and unjustly, for it was the cruelty of the laws that first led to the plot ; and although the conspirators were Catholics, Lord Mounteagle, who foiled them, was of the same religion. This happened Nov. 5, 1605; and to this day, in some parts of lingland, it is the custom to make bonfires on that anniversary, and to burn a stuffed image of Guy Fawkes, singing this rhyme: " IvcniL-mber, rememl)cr the Fifth of November, (iiinpowder Treason and plot; I .see no reason why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot." Tt shows how long traditions last, that within a few i6ii.] THE PURITANS. I49 years, on the banks of the Merrimack River in Massachusetts, these bonfires have still been made. As the king was always in trouble with the Roman Catholics, so the same want of frankness kept him always in trouble with the Puritans. They ^^^ presented to the king a petition signed, as was Puritans, claimed, by a thousand persons, asking for changes in the Church usages. As James's early years had been passed in Presbyterian Scotland, they had reason to think that he, at least, would not be a very strict Episcopalian, and would treat them fairly. On receiv- ing this petition he called a conference between the petitioners and the High Churchmen, as those were called who opposed the request. The conference was held at Hampton Court, and the king himself presided. P^rom the beginning he took sides entirely with the Episcopalians, and with the bishops who represented them, and he said fiercely of the Puritans, " I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land." But although the Puritans got no fair treatment from this conference, the assembly had one good result, — an English translation of the Bible, better than any that had yet appeared. Forty-seven clergymen, it is said, began working on it soon after the conference was closed, and they finished their work in i6ri. This translation is still in general use among Protest- ants who speak English. It is known as King James's version, and was one of the few good results of his reign. James I. had three children. There was one daugh- ter, Elizabeth, who married a German, Prince Fred- erick, called the Elector Palatine. This marriage was very important, as will be seen by and by. Then there was a son Henry, who soon died, and a son Charles, ISO JAMES I. KINO JAMES I.: FROM A PAINTING BY P. VAN SOMER, DATED 162I, IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. i6ii.] THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS. 151 for whom it was necessary, in time, to find a suitable wife. James set his heart upon having a Spanish prin- cess for a daughter-in-law. But the Spaniards thought he should show some favor to the English Catho- "The lies, which he could not well do. Prince Charles mT"'''* and a young companion, George Villiers, Duke "^se-" of Buckingham, actually went to Spain to see the princess. But the match fell through. This greatly pleased the English people, and for a time Buckingham was the most popular man in the kingdom. One of James's follies was a belief in what used to be called "The Divine Right of Kings." He had come to the throne in defiance of an Act of The Parliament, and merely because he was the KJghTof nearest in blood to Queen Elizabeth. He did ^'"§*- not regard himself in any way responsible to the people of England, but thought himself an absolute monarch. He would have had no such thing as a Parliament if he could have helped it. Fortunately for England, there was no safe way for a king to get money except from Parliament, and he was obliged to call it together much oftener than he w^ished. Now, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Parliament had been quite submis- sive on the whole, though once in a while some bold member would openly say what he thought. There was a feeling of loyalty towards Elizabeth, which was not the case with regard to James. Then, too, she was thoroughly a queen in her bearing, while in mind and body James was very far from being the Englishman's ideal of a king. So members of Parliament neither respected nor feared him. And they soon showed their independence by impeaching the Lord Chancellor, the highest judge in England. This was Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, one of the most eminent men in the 152 JAMES I. [1621. nation, and one of the few really great men whom James had about him. He was charged with taking bribes, and confessed to having received presents from , those whose cases were being tried before him. Impeach- ° mentof Hc was declared guilty by the House of Bacon. , ^ ^ ^ ^ '' , . Lords, and sentenced to fine and imprison- ment, from both of which he was almost entirely excused by the king; but he spent the rest of his life in retirement. It must be remembered in his behalf that the practice of taking bribes was then almost universal; and he was perhaps right when he claimed to have been the most honest lord chancellor for many years. The House of Commons also turned its attention to foreign affairs, and informed the king that it was not safe for the nation to have a Catholic queen, Tlie Great as might be the case if his son should marry a tion Catholic princess. James became very angry, ^' ~^'' and called it an assembly of five hundred kings. He bade the Commons not to meddle with the "mys- teries of state," and threatened even to imprison some of them in the Tower of London. The commoners had often listened to this sort of language from Queen Elizabeth. But they now drew up the "Great Pro- testation," claiming that the king's view of his own powers was quite wrong. They declared "their liber- ties and privileges to be the undoubted birthright of the subjects of England." They asserted also that they had a clear right to inquire into anything that concerned the public good. This enraged the king so much that he dissolved Parliament, and sending for their records, tore out this "Protestation" with his own hands. A few years later he died. 1625.] THE FRExNCII MARRIAGE. 1 53 CHAPTER XXIV. CHARLES I. I 625- I 649. A S soon as matters could be properly arranged, the -Tjl new king married the Princess Henrietta Maria of France. She was a sister of the French king, and daughter of that Henry IV. portrayed by Macaulay in the ballad of the "Battle of Ivry." But Henry The IV. had turned Catholic in order to become j^^^^^-*^^^ king, and Henrietta Maria had grown up to be '''''^^''^' f*V'^ o' ^ ^ o 1 war with a very strict Catholic. She was accompanied France. to England by several priests, who often advised her very ill. One day she went with them to Tyburn Hill, and prayed to some of the Roman Catholics who had formerly been put to death there, as if they were saints and martyrs. This Charles considered an in- sult to him and to his whole nation. Again, she re- fused, under the advice of her priests, to be crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, as the king had been. This enraged Charles above all, and he ordered Buckingham to send every one of the French priests out of the kingdom. He said, " If you can, by fair means; but stick not long in disputing. Otherwise force them away, driving them like so many wild beasts." This sending away the priests was against the marriage agreement, and so the French king made war ao:ainst England. 154 CHARLES I. [1628. It seemed to Charles and his favorite, Buckingham, that the best way to carry on the war was to help the Attempt French Protestants, or Huguenots, against their to relieve j^jj-^or xhc stroughold of the Huguenots was at i,a Ko- 00 o cheiie. Lg^ Rochelle, a fortified city on the sea-coast; and the Duke of Buckingham led a great expedition to the relief of that place when it was besieged by Cardinal Richelieu. This enterprise was at first popular; and though it cost a great deal of money, this would have been joyfully „ . . given, had the English iDcoiDle felt confidence in Petition !^ ' . of Right Buckingham. For want of this confidence, the House of Commons refused to provide the neces- sary funds unless he was dismissed. Charles was angry, dissolved Parliament, tried in vain to raise money on his own responsibility, and then called Parliament together once more in March, 1628. But the House of Com- mons, instead of voting money, drew up a paper called the "Petition of Right." This paper, which received the consent of the Peers, asserted the following prin- ciples : P'irst, that no English subject could be com- pelled to pay any tax whatever without the consent of Parliament, secondly, that no one could be imprisoned without cause shown; thirdly, that no one could be compelled to receive soldiers or sailors into his house; and fourthly, that no one could be tried by martial law in time of peace. All these things had been done by the king; and for him to surrender the right to do them was to give up a great deal of what he and his father before him had regarded as kingly power. But his need of money was desperate, and the House of Commons held the purse; so at last, most unwillingly, he consented to the petition. Even then he tried to 1 628.] PETITION OF RIGHT. 05 soften the fall by giving his consent in an unusual way. But the Commons were not to be put off in this manner, and at once set about adding an additional document, called a Remonstrance, or Statement, of KING CHARLES I. : FROM A PATXTIN(^ I'.Y VAN DYCK. Grievances. Then the king sent them a message in- forming them that it was their business to vote money, and not to draw up remonstrances. Then followed some I^old debates, in whicli .Sir John Eliot was begin- ning to say something against the Duke of Bucking- 15^ CHARLES I. [1629. ham, when the Speaker interrupted him, and said, "There is a command laid upon me to interrupt any that should go about to lay an aspersion on the minis- ters of state." Presently the Speaker asked permis- sion to leave the House ; and when he was gone, the members found their tongues. Sir Edward Coke stood up, and named the Duke of Buckingham as the source of all the people's troubles. Then the Speaker re- turned, and adjourned the House till next day. But the words that had been spoken, and the spirit shown, had such an influence on the Peers that they sent a deputation, with Buckingham at its head, to beg the king to give a prompt and clear answer to the Peti- tion of Right. That very afternoon he answered by coming to the House of Peers, and giving his approval in the customary form to the petition. The clerk said in old Norman-French, which is even now used in many official proceedings in lingland, " Soit droit fait comme est desire" (Let it be enacted as jirayed for); and henceforth the Petition of Right became the law of the land. It was so great a step in the direction of popular government that it has been called "the second Magna Charta. " After all, when the House had voted the money desired, it went on with the " Remon- strance;" but the House had now lost its hold on the king, as he had all he wanted, and so he dissolved it. Another expedition for the relief of Rochelle was now fitted out with all speed, and the Duke of ISuck- ingham went down to Portsmouth to take command. But he was there murdered by an officer in the army who felt himself ill-treated by Buckingham. Parliament came together again in 1629, amid dis- aster abroad and discontent at home. The House of 1629.] SIR JOHN ELIOT'S RESOLUTIONS. 1 57 Commons, instead of voting- money, began by adopting a eomplaint against Laud and two other clergymen who favored more elaborate religious cere- sirjoim monies in the Church of England. Then Kesoiu- came up anew the question of the Petition of ^'°"^- Right, which had been disregarded. The Speaker tried to prevent action by the House, even breaking up the sitting by leaving his chair. A few days later, after having twice adjourned the House in this same way, he again refused to keep his place. This could be endured no longer; and two members, Denzil Holies and Benjamin Valentine, seized him, and held him in his place by main force. Holies saying, " You shall sit until we please to rise." Then Sir John Eliot made a bold speech, defending the House against any charge of disrespect to the king, and presenting a series of resolutions, on which he demanded a vote. Several members rose to leave the House; but a mem- ber locked the door, and put the key in his pocket. Then Eliot again called upon the Speaker to do his duty, and put the resolutions to vote, reminding him that every one who had tlius far defied Parliament had been broken down by it. The Speaker said he dared not do it. At last Denzil Holies, standing by the Speaker's chair, and while the royal messengers were pounding on the door, read the resolutions himself, put them to vote, and saw them passed by an overwhelming majority. They asserted that every one who tried to introduce new ceremonies into the Church, or who ad- vised the levy of taxes without the express grant from Parliament, or who paid taxes so levied, was a betrayer of the liberties of England, and an enemy to the king- dom. The door was then flung open, and the members r58 CHARLES I. [1635. went out, meeting" the soldiers whom the king had sent to force their way in. The work of this Parliament was done. It was now the king's turn, and for eleven long years no House of Commons was called together in England. Sir John Eliot was placed in confine- ment, and refusing to make his submission to the king, died there a martyr to the cause of English liberty. Among the members who spoke for the first time in this Parliament was Oliver Cromwell. Charles was now resolved to govern without parlia- ments, if it were possible. The money question was , the only difficult one. But he had a treas- Personal -^ govern- urcr named Weston, who had great skill and ment .... , , 1 r of the ingenuity in getting money out of the people or '"^' England without driving them into rebellion. To begin with, Weston and his friends looked up and enforced certain old laws which people had long since forgotten. For instance, there was an old law which required that when a new king was crowned, all men who owned land to a certain amount must be raised to the rank of knighthood, whether they desired it or not. Now, as years went by, and the value of money decreased, it became impossible for such landowners to support the dignity of knighthood. They had not asked to be knighted, and the existence of the law itself had been wellnigh forgotten. Weston now com- pelled all who had broken this law to pay large fines. Another way he had of raising monev was by the sale of monopolies, or the exclusive right to sell or make a certain article. There was now no Parliament to object to the creation of monopolies, so Weston sold the right to make and sell innumerable things, even soap, to those who would jiay a large sum to the king, 1635] ARCHBISHOP LAUD AND THE PURITANS. I 59 and a smaller sum to himself. In these and other ways Weston kept the king supplied with money for several years. The king had another and worse adviser in William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. After Weston's death, he became the real head of the treasury, . , ' . . ^ Arch- and the most powerful subject in England. He bishop was honest and sincere, but narrow, harsh, and and tiic arrogant. To him "Church and King" were everything, while the people seemed a body to be trained, amused, and kept down. He especially wished to restore the Church and clergy to the high power in the state they had once held, and to bring back many of the ceremonies that had been given up since the Reformation. He wished to replace in the churches the stained glass windows that had been destroyed or removed. He wished also to encourage dancing, the theatre, and Sunday afternoon sports. He even persuaded Charles to reissue a certain "Declaration of Sports," which King James had withdrawn, for fear of offending the Puritans and their friends. The clergy were now ordered to read this declaration from their pulpits. Some refused, and were pun- ished. One man read the offensive document and the Ten Commandments in succession, and then said to his congregation: "Ye have heard the command- ments of God and man; obey which ye please." When it came to play-acting, there was more to be said for the Puritan view. The stage was degraded, and reflected the moral tone of the people, which was low. All this displeased the Puritans, whose moral tone was good, though their views might sometimes be narrow. One of them, William Prynne, wrote a book l60 CHARLES I. [1635. against stage-plays. Laud declared this an insult to the queen, who sometimes had taken part in private theatricals. So the Star Chamber sentenced Prynne to be placed in the pillory, where everybody might insult him, to lose his ears, to pay a fine, and to be imprisoned during the king's pleasure. And this sentence was executed without arousing much remark. During all this time the need of money became more and more pressing. All the extreme measures resorted Ship. to by Weston and his successors were not money, enough ; so a new device was invented. This was called ship-money. The English navy had become very much reduced, and it was decided to revive it. In Queen Elizabeth's day she used to call upon the seaport towns or counties to furnish ships for the navy, as they were needed. This was now done; but the ships demanded were so large that only London could furnish them, the other seaport places being let off with paying a sum of money instead, to be collected from the individual taxpayers. A large sum was thus raised without much opposition, and there is no rea- son to doubt that it was honestly spent on the navy. The trouble was that it created a very strong tempta- tion to go a little fartlicr, and raise money in this way for all the expenses of the court. Accordingly, during the next year (1635) there came another call for ship-money. This time it was ingeniously argued that the inland counties den's were as much interested In the defence of the kingdom as the rest, and why should they not pay their sliare? This they did, with some farther grumbling. ]3ut when there came, in the next year, a third call for ship-money, addressed to all the coun- l62 CHARLES I. [1637 ties, and payable by individual taxpayers, the people began to open their eyes. It became plain that the king had hit upon a method for raising just what money he pleased, even while refusing to call together a Parliament. The excitement spread fast, and many prominent men refused to pay their share of the ship- money, believing that the Parliament alone had the right to tax them. Among them were Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brook (for whom Saybrook in Connecticut is named), and John Ham.pden, one of England's greatest men. Hampden's case was brought to trial. Seven of the "twelve judges" decided against him, giving their opinions in favor of the king. We shall see what became of the "ship-money judges," and their decision in Hampden's case, when the Long Parliament met. For the present the ship-money was collected. The king's triumph seemed complete ; but his best advisers cautioned him that the popular feeling was Public with Hampden, and that he would do well to opinion ij ^ Parliament. Soon Prynne was again against -i <-> the king, brought before the Star Chamber, this time for speaking his mind very freely about Laud and his bishops. Others were brought up at the same time, — Burton, a clergyman, and also a physician named Bastwick. This last man had gone even farther than Prynne, and had prayed : " From plague, pestilence, and famine, from bishops, priests, and deacons, good Lord deliver us." All three were condemned to stand in the pillory. Burton and Bastwick to lose their ears, and Prynne what was left of his; and the last-named to be branded on each cheek " S. S.," for Sower oi Sedition. When the prisoners went through the I637-] THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 1 63 streets to meet their punishment, they found the pavements strewn with flowers and green wreaths in their honor. A groan went up from the whole assembly when the cruel punishment was inflicted; and when the prisoners were afterwards carried to distant parts of England, the same deep sympathy met them everywhere. Between Prynne's two punishments a great change had taken place in public opinion. The great middle class now stood behind Hampden and Prynne, thoug-h Charles and his favorite archbishop had Scottish , . ^, -r^ . . . Church. not discovered it. Ihe great Puritan emigration to America was going on all this time (1630-1640) ; and we cannot understand the bitter feeling that the emi- grants carried with them, not merely against bishops, but against kings, without remembering how Laud and Charles were associated in their minds. Before long these two men took a new step in what the people called tyranny. They resolved to strengthen the Episcopal Church in Scotland. They found the Scots less loyal and patient than the English. In Scotland, at the Reformation, the bishops had generally left their flocks, and, under the lead of John Knox, the Church of Scotland, or Kirk, as it was called, had come to be governed, according to the methods of Calvin, by rep- resentative assemblies, "presbyteries," and the like. King James had established bishops in Scotland, but they had obtained little influence. The king and Laud now resolved to make the Scottish Kirk uniform with the Church in England. So the Scottish clergy were ordered to wear surplices, which they hated, and a new prayer-book was sent to them from England, with orders for every minister to buy two copies, and use 164 CHARLES I. [1639 the book every Sunday. On July 23, 1637, the Dean of St. Giles's Church in Edinburgh began to read from the new prayer-book. A riot followed, and it did not take long to put all Scotland in open rebellion. An old agreement, called "The National Covenant," was revived. .It was signed by all the leading men except a few royalists in the North. Its signers agreed to stand by their own religious faith and forms. The Covenanters soon raised an army, seized Edinburgh Castle, and went to war with the king. The war, however, did not last long. Neither party really wished to fight, and a treaty was made at Ber- ^, wick. Unfortunately the Scots had no con- The •' first ^ fidence in Charles. They kept their army War together, and applied to the French king for ''* aid. Charles wished to renew the war, but he had no money; aiid at last, after eleven years of refusal, he made up his mind to call Parliament to- gether once more. In doing this he acted under the straf- advice of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, ford. jyjgj., called this statesman "the apostate," be- cause at one time he had seemed to be on the people's side. But his opposition to the court at the time of the Petition of Right had been merely because of his dis- like to Ikickingham, after whose death he fell into his natural place as the chief defender of royalty against the rising spirit of liberty. He wished to preserve the king's power as it had existed under the later Tudors. While Weston and Laud had been at work for the king in P^ngland, Strafford had been doing the same in Ireland, where, under his favorite watchword, "Thorough," he had ()]:>pressed the Irish most cruelly. He had advised the king against the treaty of Berwick, 1640.] THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 1 65 and he now urged him to call a Parliament. That body met in April, 1640. It utterly refused to vote money until the popular grievances were re- dressed. 13ut the king refused thus to give up short all the principles at stake ; and after a twenty- nnnt three days' session Parliament was dissolved. ^'^'■♦°'- It is hence known as the Short Parliament. In one way or another Charles and Strafford got together some soldiers and armed them. At their head Strafford set out to meet the Scots. But ™ The the English soldiers hated Laud more than they second ,. , , . ^ Bishops' did those against whom they were marching. War They called the war " The Bishops' War. " They ' "^^ ' tore down the altar railings which Laud had caused to be erected in the parish churches. They deserted by hundreds, and sometimes killed their own officers. The Scots poured over the border, took possession of the coal-mines of the North of England, and were only pre- vented from coming farther southward by the king's promising to pay them ^^"25,000 per month until peace should be made. The king could not possibly pay such a large sum, and he was compelled to call a Par- liament. It met at Westminster Nov. 3, 1640, and sat, with intermissions, for nearly twenty years, until March 16, 1660. It is for this reason known in history as the Long Parliament. The new Parliament was differently situated from any other that had ever come together. In the first place, the great mass of the English people was The behind it, for men were weary of paying taxes Pa"iL to which their consent had not been given, ",'^"^_ while many were tired of Laud and his innova- '^'^o)- tions. Then again, and what was most important, l66 CHARLES I. [1641. Parliament had an armed force behind it, — not the English army, to be sure, but the Scottish army. The king could not pay the Scots ; and as long as Parlia- ment paid them only enough to secure their staying in the North of England, and not enough to induce them to return to Scotland, so long Parliament held a sword hanging over the king's head. If Parliament were dissolved, and the Scots came south, no one could tell what might happen. Or again, if Parliament refused to pay any money, and they came south, it was un- certain how many Puritans would join them; so the king was obliged to do and hear many things he did not like. Recognizing in Strafford the one man capable of opposing them, the patriot leaders determined to over- throw him. On November 11, therefore, John Execii- ' / tionof Pym — "King Pym " his enemies called him — ford appeared before the House of Peers, and in the ^ ■ name of the Commons accused Strafford of high treason. Even while Pym was speaking, Strafford entered the House, intending to bring the same charge against Pym on account of certain dealings with the Scots. He was forbidden to speak, and was sent to the Tower to await trial. Laud, too, was arrested, though his trial was long delayed. When Strafford's trial began, it soon became evident that it would be hard to convict him on the charge of treason. So the trial before the Peers was abandoned. A bill declaring Strafford a public enemy, and providing for his execu- tion, was brought into the Commons and passed. This was called a Bill of Attainder, and, like any other bill, required the consent of the Commons, Peers, and king, to become a law. The excitement during its passage i64r.] CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS. 167 was intense, and once when a board in the floor of Parliament creaked under the weight of a very heavy member, the other members drew their swords, as if the Gmipowder Plot were begun again. Charles was very slow to give his consent to the Bill of Attainder, and when he did so, he tried to put off the execution. As soon, however, as it became known that Strafford had tried to bribe his jailer with ;^20,ooo, — a sum that would be worth, in these times, several hundred thousand dollars, — the House of Commons demanded that his execution should be hurried, and refused to wait. So on May 12, 1641, the great earl was beheaded. During the year 1641 Parliament made many other changes, aiming to overthrow the whole system of arbitrary government built up by Strafford and ^ ^.^ Laud. The courts which had been misused tionai TT- 1 reforms. were abolished, — the Star Chamber, the High Commission, and the Council of the North. Prynne and his fellow-sufferers were released from prison. Ship-money was declared illegal, the judgment in Hampden's case was annulled, and the ship-money judges who did not get away were impeached. Then a law was passed arranging for more frequent parlia- ments in the future, even if the king did not summon them. When the king's consent was obtained to a bill providing that the present Parliament should not be dissolved except by its own consent, the two Houses went to work to pay off both armies and to disband them. Charles now went to Scotland, found he had very little authority there, and then came back to Eng- land, where he was better received than before. This 1 68 CHARLES I. [1642. was due partly to the concessions he had made, but still more to the fact that the reformers themselves The ^^^*-^ ^^^^^ begun to disagree as to what to do with patriots the Church of England. Some of them, like disagree about Falkland and Hyde (afterwards Earl of Claren- "^ ' don), wished simply to have the Church service as it was before Laud had meddled with it. Others, like Pym, Hampden, and Cromwell, desired that it should be completely reformed; a few, like Lord .j.,^g Brook, stood for a middle course. Moreover, Irish a fierce rebellion had broken out in Ireland. Rebel- lion After Strafford's iron rule had been removed, ■^' ' the L-ish peasants, who had been driven from their homes by the English, drove out the English in return; and these last were either killed or made their way to Dublin half-starved and naked. It was plain it would never do to give Charles an army to put down this rebellion, for he would surely use it against the patriots in England, who were now having a hard time to maintain themselves. To revive the resentment of The the people against the king, the reformers car- Remon- ''iccl through thc Commons the " Grand Remon- strance, strance," reciting all Charles's illegal acts since the beginning of his reign. Their majority in the Commons, where at first they had met with almost no opposition, was now only eleven, and they came near drawing swords among themselves. Two days later the king returned from Scotland, and found himself so well received that he believed his power to have revived, and refused to make any concessions whatever. On Jan. 3, 1642, the king's attorney-general came into the House of Peers and imiieachcd of high trea- son one peer. Lord Kimbolton, and five commoners, — 1642.] ATTEMPT TO ARREST THE FIVE MEMBERS. 169 Pym, Hampden, Hasclrig, Holies, and Strode, — the complaint being that they had intrigued with the Scots during the late troubles. When the king de- manded the persons of the live accused com- attempt moners, the House of Commons voted to take the^fivf the matter into consideration. Not satisfied f"^'"- bers. with this, Charles decided to go the next day to the House and seize the five members. When the moment came, his heart failed him, and had not the A COACH OF THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY! FROM AN ENGRAVING BY JOHN DUNSTALL. queen called him a coward, he might not have gone. At last, however, he entered the House, and stand- ing before the Speaker's chair, told the members that he had come to take the traitors. Not seeing them, he asked the Speaker if they were there. Wil- liam Lenthall, the Speaker, kneeling before the king, answered bravely, " May it please your Majesty, I have 170 CHARLES I. [1642. neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me." "Well, well," said Charles, " 't is no matter. I think my eyes are as good as another's." Then, finding, as he ex- pressed it, that the birds were flown, he departed amid cries of "Privilege! privilege!" This was to remind him that it was the legal privilege of members not to be arrested for what they said in Parliament. He soon found that the five members had taken refuge in the City of London, by order of the House, and he accordingly went and demanded them of the Com- mon Council. The same cry of " Privileges of Parlia- ment " met his ear, and this was all he could get from the City, which had lately received him so cordially. These attempts, too, made all the reforming party in Parliament feel that their own freedom was in danfjer; so that the peers, the city merchants, and the moder- ates, like Falkland, were once more united with the Puritans. The Commons left Westminster, and sat as a committee in the Guildhall of the City of London. They appointed a general to command the London train-bands, or militia, who were loyal to the people's cause; and even the Thames watermen pledged them- selves to protect the Commons. After this they thought they could safely return to Westminster, and did so, Jan. ii, 1642. Charles L had not waited to see the triumph of " King Pym " and the Puritans, but had fled with the queen and their children ; and when next he Civil '■ ^ War entered his palace of Whitehall, it was as a begins. . __ , ., i -r-. i • prisoner. Meanwhile, the Parliament made one more demand upon him, — to place the control of all the militia in the hands of ofiicers chosen by 1642.] CIVIL WAR BEGINS. 171 Parliament. Refusing this, Charles raised his royal standard at Nottingham, and called on all loyal sub- jects to aid him against his rebellious Parliament. It was thought a bad omen for his success when the great flag, blown by the furious wind, fell to the earth. But it was again set up, and the great Civil War bea'an. TENTS AiNU MILriAKY EQUU'MENT IN THE RFIGN OF CHARLES I 172 THE CIVIL WARS, [1642 CHAPTER XXV. THE CIVIL WARS. 1 642- 1 649. PARLIAMENT found no sort of difficulty in rais- ing an army. The City of London held to the Parliament's side, and so did the people of the South- ern and Eastern counties, then the richest and most -P,^ thickly settled parts of the kingdom. As for ^'^i' arms and ammunition, the Parliamentary ijarty War begins had scizcd whatever the king had collected. Yet their soldiers were inexperienced, and the king was therefore generally successful at first. The first conflict at Edgchill was indecisive, and the king advanced as far as l^rcntford, a few miles from Lon- don; but there the city train-bands stopped him, and he turned back to Oxford, where he spent the winter, and where, indeed, he had his headquarters during most of the war. The next year neither side gained much. The greatest loss to the Parliament was in the death of ,, , , John Hampden, who was killed in a skirmish at Death ot -' ^^ ' John Chalgrove P'^ield, near Oxford. Not very much den is known of Hampden's private history; but the respect he won both from friend and foe shows his character to have been high. At last the aid of the Scots was secured by the Parliamentary leaders. This was the last achievement of "King Pym," and he 1643] OLIVER CROMWELL. 1/3 also died at the end of 1643. A year or two later came the execution on the scaffold of Archbishop Laud, who had done more than any one, except, perhaps, Death of Charles himself, to bring civil war upon the ^'^™- country. Hampden and Tym upon the one side, and Strafford and Laud upon the other were thus re- moved. But a new personage, more powerful in his way than either of them, had meantime appeared upon the scene. Years after, it was related that when the members were leaving the House of Commons after the passage of the "Grand Remonstrance," a man of good '^ Oliver stature, very plainly dressed, with a sharp, un- Crom- tunable voice, and a red and swollen face, was heard to declare that had the Remonstrance been rejected, he, for one, would have sold his all the next morning, and never have seen England more. He added : " I know there are many other honest men of the same resolution." That was Oliver Cromwell, known to his neighbors as " The Lord of the Fens," for the manful way in which he had asserted the rights of his friends against both king and nol)le. Cromwell was not a great Parliamentary leader, like Eliot or Pym, but he had a wonderful way of seeing the needs of the moment, and of seeking a remedy with immense energy and strength. He saw that the Parliament's troops, who were, as he said, mostly "old, decayed serving-men and tapsters, and such kind of fellows," were no Ciom- match for the adherents of the king. "You iron-'' must get," he said to Hampden, "men of a ^'"^' spirit that is likely to go on as far as gentlemen will go, or else you will be beaten still." Soon after 174 THE CIVIL WARS. [1643. this, Cromwell was made a colonel of cavalry, and he took good care that none but "godly men," by which he meant honest, well-behaved men, should enlist in his regiment. He never asked them what OLIVER CROMWELL : FROM A I'ALMl.Nt'. RY SIR PETER LELY. Church they preferred, but only made sure that they were honest, sober Christians, who had an interest in the welfare of the country. These men he drilled until they obeyed orders as men liave seldom obeyed before or since. "Truly thev were never beaten at 1644.J MARSTON MOOR. I75 all," he said at a later clay. They went into battle singing psalms, and were known as the "Ironsides." At the head of these men he helped the Earl of Manchester to drive the king's forces from the eastern counties. He then marched into Lincolnshire, ,. Marston and beat the Royalists at Winceby Fight. Soon Moor after, he joined Fairfax and the Scots, and the united armies laid siege to the city of York, whither the Marquis of Newcastle, the king's commander in the North, had retreated. Before long, Prince Rupert came to the marquis's aid. The two armies met on Marston Moor. Cromwell, with his Ironsides, dashed through Rupert's hitherto unconquered troopers as through a field of growing corn. "God made them as stubble to our swords," he wrote to the Speaker of the Commons. Recalling his men from the pursuit, he rode to the aid of the Scots, who were hard pressed on the other flank. In a few moments the day was won. Soon after, York surrendered, and Cromwell was a power in the land. Meantime, in the south of ICngland, the king had been very successful, and liad ca])ture(l the greater part of tlie main army commanded by the Earl of Essex. And even Cromwell was not always so fortu- nate as at Marston Moor. At Newbury, wlien he and Manchester had driven the king off the field, Cromwell had begged to be allowed to make one charge with his Ironsides on the retreating arm}'. "No," said Man- chester, " if we should beat the king ninety-nine times, he would still be king, and his ])ostcrity after him, and we should be subjects still; but if he should beat us only once, we should be hanged, and our posterity undone." To Cromwell this lukewarmness seemed 1/6 THE CIVIL WARS. [1645 little better than treason to the cause of freedom. What though he should be hanged, if the cause was gained.'' As for the king, Cromwell declared that if he met him in battle, "he would fire his pistol at the king, as at another." He rose in his place in the House of Commons and declared: "It is now a time to speak, or forever hold the tongue;" adding, "I do conceive if the army be not put into another method, and the war more vigorously prosecuted, the people can bear the war no longer, and will enforce you to a dishonorable peace." It was determined to put the army into a new method, and to get rid of Manchester, Essex, and others who were afraid to beat the king too . thoroughly. This was done by the passage of denying the " Sclf-dcnying Ordinance," depriving all Ordin- r t-> i • r i • ance members of rarliament of their military com- ■^^ mands. The army was also reorganized, or "new modelled," as the phrase was, on the plan of the Ironsides. Fairfax was placed at its head. He soon enlisted twentv thousand "godlv, honest " The ^ . -^ ... New men," never asking what were their religious preferences. Cromwell's presence was felt to be so necessary that the ofificers petitioned Parliament to relax the "Self-denying Ordinance" in his favor. The request was granted, and on June 13 he rejoined his Ironsides, who gave "a great shout for joy of his coming to them." In truth, he came in good time, for the very next day the " New Model " army met the king Naseby ^^ Naseby. As at Marston Moor, so at Naseby, (1645). Cromwell's Ironsides won the day. The king's cause was utterly ruined ; he never found himself at the head of an armed force again. But more fatal to him than the loss of his army was that of his writing-desk. 1646.J CHARLKS 1-LKES TO THE SCOTS. 1 77 which proved to be filled with papers showing his terrible faitiilessness to his promises and his people. The war was virtually ended at Naseby; but it was not until two years had passed away that Harlech Cas- tle, the last royalist stronj^hold, surrendered. Then, at length, in the words of one of Charles's faithful fol- lowers, "the conquerors might go to play, unless they fell out among themselves." Unfortunately, this last was just what they did. The Puritan leaders may have expected that the king, after so many defeats, would yield to their de- mands. ]kit no such idea seems to have crossed Charies the mind of Charles. On the contrary, seeking flees to [■ .,, „ ., ,,. , •ii'^ the Scots. refuge with the hcottish soldiers, he tried by promises to induce them to take his side, and to make war on their English allies. If Charles had not de- ceived them already so many times, they might have done as he wished; for they were discontented at the growing strength of Cromwell and his Ironsides, who were no Presbyterians. As it was, however, they put no faith in the word of a king, arid, on condition that their expenses should be paid, handed him over to the commissioners of Parliament. The king ncnv saw that his best course was to come to terms with the Pres- byterian leaders in Parliament ; so he agreed to do what they wished with regard to religion. But this did not at all suit the army. It will be remembered that P'airfax and Cromwell, when they enlisted the soldiers of the " New , , ... The Model," asked no man what his religion was. indepen- T 11 1 • • r 1 dents. It turned out, liowcver, that a majority of the soldiers were, like their great leader, Independents. That is, they thought that every Christian had a 1/8 THE CIVIL WARS. [1647. right to worship as he saw fit, always excepting the Roman Catholics. They had no wish to have a Pres- byterian Church thrust upon the nation. So one evening, before any treaty between the king and the The Parliament was concluded, an army officer ap- ^''"^^ ., peared at Holmby House, where the king was seizes the i -' ' '-' i^'"s- imprisoned by Parliament. He called upon the king to accompany him. The next morning this demand was repeated, as the king had at first refused to comply. "Where is your commission.^ " asked the king. "There, behind me," answered Joyce (for that was the officer's name), pointing to his soldiers. " Your instructions are written in a very legible character," said the king, and he went with the officer. The army next turned the Presbyterian leaders out of Parliament; and when the London mob interposed in their favor, the army marched through the City, and put an end to all opposition. Meantime Cromwell and the other officers had been trying to get Charles to con- sent to certain propositions, securing to all English- men, except the Roman Catholics, freedom of worship and a more equal representation in Parliament and on the juries.. But Charles, believing that London would prove too strong for the army, refused his consent. When he saw his hopes dashed to the ground, he escaped from his jailers, and rode rapidly to the south of England, where he was arrested by Colonel Hammond, and locked up in Carisbrooke Castle, on the Isle of Wight. There now came another attempt to induce the king to agree to a treaty ; but before anything was concluded it became known that Charles was negotiating with the Scots. Indeed, he had promised that if they r64S.] BATTLE OF PRESTON. 1 79 would set him on his throne again, he would establish Presbyterianism for three years as the state chureh. This was perhaps the worst thing that he could have done; for however much they differed among them- selves on religious affairs, the great body of the patriots was united against having these cjuestions decided for them by the Scots. They forgot their differences, and bent all their energies against the Scots Scots and the Royalists. But first the soldiers held England a prayer-meeting, and resolved that if they were ^' "* ^' victorious, they would bring " Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to account for that blood he had shed, and mischief he had done to his utmost against the Lord's cause, and people of these poor nations." While Fairfax was beating the Royalists in the eastern and southern counties, Cromwell captured Pem- broke, and then went in search of the Scots. He Ti • T , . Battle of came upon them near Preston, m Lancashire, as Preston they were marching southward, unsuspicious of ^""^'■^' danger. They were scattered along many miles of road, and the Ironsides dashed down first on one body, and then on another, until, after three days of hard fighting, the Scottish army was no more. Now, while the army was thus employed, Parliament had been negotiating with the king. But he, hoping even to the last, had delayed too long before yielding. The army returned to London, and told Parliament to stop their negotiations, and to bring the king to justice. Parliament refused. Then one morn- . "Pride's mg the members found Colonel Pride s regiment Purge" surrounding the Parliament House. Colonel ''"* Pride himself was at the door, and as fast as the Presbyterian members appeared, they were arrested l80 THE CIVIL WARS. [1649 and taken to a neighboring tavern. This was repeated the next day, until at length the House of Commons was "purged," as they called it, of all members op- posed to the army. The Commons then voted that there should be no more debate with the king, but that he should be brought to London and tried for his life before a court established for that purpose. The Lords — for there were twelve peers who still sat in the upper house — refused their consent. The Com- mons then voted that the consent of neither king nor Lords was essential to legislation. The army, to make sure of its control, had again taken possession of the king. He was brought to London. He refused to recognize the authority of the court, and, The . ^ king ex- bciug fouud guilty of treason, was beheaded before his palace of Whitehall on the 30th of January, 1649. Whatever may be thought of the pre- vious faults of Charles L, he met his death like a king. In the words of the poet, Andrew Marvell, — " He nothing common did or mean Upon tliat memorable scene, But with his keener eye The axe's edge did try : Nor called the gods, with vulgar spite. To vindicate his helpless right : But bowed his comely liead Down, as upon a bed." The army was now supreme in_ luigland and Scot- land, so that Cromwell was at liberty to turn his atten- tion to L-cland. The Puritans had never forgotten the massacres of 1641 ; and the L-ish had added to the hatred with which they were regarded, by entering into an engagement to fight in the king's army. They 1649I MASSACRE OF DROGIIEDA. 18I plainly could expect no mercy from the Ironsides, and they got none. Cromwell landed at Dublin in August, 1649. A month later he took Drogheda by storm. In the heat of the action he ordered his soldiers to spare no one found with arms in his hands; and so none Massacre were spared, not even the priests, whom the heda"^"^' Puritans hated with the most bitter hatred. ^"'■*^)- Cromwell felt that some explanation was required for such a barbarous act, even in an age when the horrors of the Thirty Years' War in Germany were still fresh in men's minds. So he wrote to the Speaker of the " Rump," as Parliament was called after Pride's Purge, that this slaughter was a righteous judgment upon the Irish for the massacres of 1641. He added that the remaining garrisons, seeing what their fate would be if they resisted to the end, would surrender before the storm, and that thus bloodshed would be avoided. There may have been some truth in this, for the future conquest was easy, and in a few months Cromwell was able to leave it to other hands, and to return to Eng- land, where his presence was much needed. In the end, the Irish were mainly driven out of three of the four provinces into which Ireland is divided, and were left to starve, as they had left the English set- tlers to starve years before. The only difference was that, as there were more Irish than English, there was now more suffering. Some years later, the Irish again tried to uphold the Stuart cause, and were again de- feated ; but the complete subjection of the island really dates from this "Cromwellian settlement." 1 82 THE COAIMONWEALTH. [1649. CHAPTER XXVI. THE COMMONWEALTH. 1649-1653. THE Scots had never given up the hope of living under a Presbyterian ruler; so they invited Charles L's eldest son, Prince Charles, or Charles H., as they called him, to be their king. He came; but before he was allowed to land, he was compelled Charles H.in to swear to the Covenant and to promise to be ' a good Presbyterian. The young Charles cared very little for religion, and was very desirous of being a king. So he promised everything they asked of him, and was allowed to land and to be declared king. Eor a time the English leaders hardly knew what to do. Here was a young Charles ready to march through England, and there was every reason to suppose that many who had fought against the old king would not fight against his son, as he had never yet done anything despotic, and indeed had never had the opportunity. And besides, the Presbyterian leaders in the first rebellion were so dissatisfied at being gov- erned by the Independents in the army that it was probable they would welcome the prince with open arms as a deliverer. It was therefore decided by the English leaders that he must be captured or driven back to P'rance, and that Scotland must be brought under pjiulish rule. P'airfax refused to lead the Eng- 1651.] BATTLE OF WORCESTER. 1 83 lish army, as he could not see why the Scots should not manage their own affairs as they chose. But Cromwell was of a different way of thinking, and he led the army to Edinburgh. But the Scots, who had learned the strength of the Ironsides at Preston, retired to ihe city, carrying with them all the food from the surrounding; country. Battle of Cromwell dared not attack them in their strons; Dunbar position, and retreated to Dunbar, where he ^° ' could get i^rovisions from his fleet. The Scots fol- lowed, and posted themselves on top of a hill, where Cromwell could not get at them, and whence they could attack him whenever a good chance offered, and especially if he should try to march back to England. At last it seemed that their opportunity had come. So, late one afternoon, when they thought Cromwell could not see them, they descended the hill, and pre- pared to surprise him the next morning. But he had seen them; and, as they were setting out on their march to surprise him, the Ironsides burst upon them, and in one short hour swept the Scottish army to utter ruin. The next winter and spring Cromwell passed in Scotland, capturing some strong places, and trying to force into action another army which the young king had raised. The Scots were too wary for him, and sud- denly turning southward, they marched into England. Charles probably hoped that his father's friends would rally to his aid. l^ut they had been so roughly treated after Preston that they dared not show their Battieof faces. Cromwell overtook the Scots at Wor- t^j."'"'" cester, and after a severe fight routed them. ("'sO- Almost alone, and after many hair-breadth escapes, the l84 THE COMMONWEALTH. [1652. young prince found his way to the sea-coast, and thence to France. It is related that during his flight he sought refuge amidst the leaves of a wide-spreading oak; and, until within the recollection of men now living, he who wished to show respect to the Stuart cause would hang an oak-branch over his doors. But the victory at Worcester put an end for a time to the hopes of the exiled prince. It was indeed, as Crom- well said, "a crowning mercy;" for it was the last battle of the civil wars. So long as the best-dis- ciplined army of the day remained of one mind, and under the guidance of the greatest commander of his time, no one dared, after this, to oppose it in battle. Upon the death of Charles I., Parliament had de- clared that there should be no more kings in Eng- land. In the future the country should be governed by a Parliament of one house. They called this new form of government "The Commonwealth." In reality, however, it was no republic, but a government by an oligarchy, or small number of persons. For what with "Pride's Purge," and the abolition of the House of Lords, the Long Parliament had dwindled down to The ^n assembly of only about fifty members, the paHia- R^mp Parliament, as it was called. Now, among ment. thcsc thcrc wcrc many dishonest men, who voted to exempt from confiscation the property of any Royal- ists who paid them a sufficiently large bribe. This, of course, made all honest men very angry. After the great victory at Worcester, Cromwell put himself at the head of this opposition. He and the army demanded that there should be a new election. The " Rump " seemed to agree to this. But one day ,652.] THE RUMP PARLIAMENT. 185 JUHN MILTON, THE PURITAX POET. Crnmwcl] fdiind that, in spite of ]iromiscs wliich the leaders had made to him, they were about passing; a bill to make themseh^es members of the new Parlia- 1 86 THE COMMONWEALTH. [ib^^. ment, whether they should be re-elected or not. Crom- well thereupon went into the House, and standing in his place, accused them of dishonesty. He declared that they had forfeited the respect of the coun- "Kump"try, and had no right to sit longer. Then, call- U65^). ii"ig ill his soldiers, he turned them out, and locked the door. No one was sorry for them, and, as Cromwell said, "We did not hear a dog bark at their going." The army officers then formed a council of state, and upon their advice Cromwell, as head of the army, summoned about one hundred and fifty of the leading Puritans to London to heljD him govern the country. Years after, when it had become the fashion to laugh at the Puritans, people called this assembly " Bare- Bare- bone's Parliament," after Praise-God Barebone, ParUa'- "^ Wealthy leather-dresser who had a seat in it. ment. 3^^: all its members were not mechanics, nor did they all bear such grotesque names. Yet they had little practical ability, and by trying, in a few short weeks, to reform the abuses of a hundred years, they accomplished nothing, and were glad to resign their power into the hands of Cromwell. The army officers next drew up an " Instrument of Government," or constitution, as we should now call The it. Some time before, Cromwell had declared meiuof that "a settlement with somewhat of monarch i- Govern- | powcr would bc Very effectual. " And this (if'>53>- constitution made the chief ruler a monarch in reality, though only called Lord Protector. He had all executive power, although he was obliged to con- sult his council of state upon important matters. The power to raise money and to make laws was given to a 1653] THE INSTRUMENT OF GOVERNMENT. 1 87 Parliament of one house, which was to meet once every year. But the Lord Protector and the Council, when the Parliament was not sitting, could make temporary laws, to which the consent of Parliament must be obtained at its next session. It was impossible that, during these civil wars, lit- erature and art should flourish, as had been the case during the great reign of P21izabeth; but John Milton, the Puritan pt)et, has always ranked second among the great poets of England. \VAl;u.\ uK IHK SKCUNI) HALF OF TIIK SEVENTEENTH CENTURY FRij.\l LOGGAN's Oxon'ia Itlustyata. 1 88 THE PROTECTORATE. [1653. CHAPTER XXVII. THE PROTECTORATE. 1 653- 1 659. OF course, there was but one man who could have secured the support of the army, and that man was Oliver Cromwell. So he was invested with the office of Lord Protector w^ith as much pomp and cere- oiiver, mony as ever had been witnessed at the corona- Profec- ^^*^" ^^ ^ l^ii''&- Ii^ idct, since the days of the tor. "Grand Remonstrance," Oliver had procured a new tailor; and one writer, who describes him as being at first harsh and rough, says that he now pos- sessed "a great and majestic deportment, and a comely presence." Oliver's first Parliament came together in Septem- ber, 1654, and immediately denied the legality of the new constitution. The Protector, after a little while, went to them and told them that if the " Instrument of Government " was illegal, they had no business there. He then excluded all who did not agree to recognize his government, and, as soon as the constitution allowed, dissolved the Parliament itself. Scarcely had these over-zealous republicans left the House when two Royalists, Wagstaff and Penruddock, rode into Salisbury at the head of about two hundred men. They turned out the judges. Who were then holding a court in that town, but they gained nothing, I655-] WAK Willi HOLLAND. 1 89 for a troop of Ironsides, which chanced to be in the neighborhood, soon killed or captured most of them. This little rising convinced Cromwell that the Royal- ists needed to be watched with greater care; so he divided England into military districts, to each The of which he assigned a major-general and a '"J||e,'ais sufficient number of soldiers. The Royalists ('^^55)- were made to pay the cost of this supervision; but the major-generals acted so harshly, " like so many Eastern Bashaws," that all good people were offended. In addition, Cromwell held it necessary to forbid the celebration of divine service according to the Episco- palian rites, as he thought that such meetings were the rallying points of those hostile to his rule. But this order was never strictly carried out, and meetings in private houses were seldom suppressed. The open- ing chapters of Scott's novel, " Peveril of the Peak," give a graphic description of the condition of affairs in England at this time. When Cromwell became Protector he found England at war with Holland. It might seem at first sight that as both countries were inhabited by Protestants, W'ar and had similar governments, they would have with been good friends. But this was not so, for they were commercial rivals. It chanced, too, that at this time the English were trying to get the carrying trade away from the Dutch, and, under the lead of Sir Harry Vane, once governor of Massachusetts, Par- liament had passed a Navigation Act, compelling Eng- lish merchants to import goods in English vessels, or else in those of the country where the goods were produced. This was aimed directly at the Hollanders, and the two nations were soon at war. The Dutch I90 THE PROTECTORATE. [1657. fleet was very strong, and soon drove the English ships into harbor. Then the Dutch admiral, Van Van Tromp, sailed up and down the English Channel -md'"'' with a broom lashed to his masthead, to show Blake. ^]^^t \^q ^yg^g able to sweep the English from the seas. But this did not last long; for, after a series of desperate sea-fights, Admiral Blake compelled the Hollanders to cease their opposition to the Navigation Act, and to salute the English flag in the "narrow seas " surrounding the British Isles. Cromwell and Blake then turned their attention to the Spaniards, who had been harboring Prince Rupert and his privateers. Blake soon stopped that proceed- ing; and Admiral Penn, father of Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, failing to cai:)ture San Domingo, seized the island of Jamaica; while still another fleet took possession of some Spanish treasure-ships which had so much silver on board that it took thirty-eight wagons to convey it through the streets of London. It required a great deal of money to fit out these fleets and to pay the sailors. Cromwell could have wrinig this from the Royalists by the aid of his major- generals, but he preferred to get it in a more consti- tutional way from a Parliament. No one was allowed to sit in this Parliament who was hostile to him, and therefore he had little difficulty in getting the money The ^^^ wanted. In return, he recalled the major- Petition generals. The Parliament then adopted a " Peti- and • 1 A Advice tion and Advice ' to the Lord Protector, which ^^^' was really nothing but an amendment to the constitution. In some ways this restricted the Pro- tector's powers; in others enlarged them. It provided also for a new body to take the place of the old House 165S.] DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. 191 of Lords, gave Cromwell the right to name his succes- sor, and asked him to take the title of king. This last he refused, as the soldiers did not wish him to accept it. The new House of Lords did not turn out well. In the first place, not many of the old peers were willing to sit in it, and some of those created by Cromwell hardly deserved the distinction. Then again the new House of Commons, which was elected to work with it, called it in contempt "The Other House," and refused to have anything to do with it. Li an angry speech, ex- claiming, "The Lord judge between you and me," Cromwell dissolved the Parliament. For the remainder of his life he ruled England by the strength of the army and by the silent consent of a majority of the people. If Cromwell was strong enough at home to rule without a Parliament, that "greatness was but a shadow of his glory abroad. " He became the head of Protes- tant Europe, and his alliance was sought by the great- est monarchs of the time. He decided to support France in her war with Spain. The Ironsides, under the generalship of the great I'rench commander, Turenne, proved irresistible. Dashing over fortifica- tions that had before been thought impregnable, they scattered the best infantry of Spain, just as they had routed Prince Rupert and his Cavaliers years before. Dunkirk was turned over to Cromwell as the price of his assistance. This was Oliver's last triumph on earth. It was in the same summer (of 1658) that George Fox, the Quaker, interceded with him on behalf of his fellow Quakers. "Before T came to him," wrote Fo.x, "as he rode at the head of his Life Guards, I saw and l(-)2 THE PROTECTORATE. [165S. felt a waft of death go against him; and when I came ^ , , to him he looked like a dead man." In truth. Death of _ ' Cromwell anxiety and private sorrow had worn him out ; ' ' and on the 3d of September, as the anniversary of Dunbar and Worcester was drawing to a close, he died. We might almost wish that Cromwell had died at Worcester fight. Then he would have come down to us as the leader of the victorious army in the cause of freedom. As Protector, he was the slave of a party, the army; and he ruled, not as he desired, but as the army wished. The minds of Strafford, Cromwell, and Laud were cast in the same mould. The first and last tried to force upon England forms of government and religion which it had outgrown. Cromwell, many years in advance of his time, tried to force upon his countrymen the government and religion of the future. Both attempts were failures, for successful revolutions are not made in that way. At first it seemed as if the revolution was to last longer than Cromwell, and his eldest son, Richard, succeeded him as quietly as ever a king's son had succeeded his father. But this quiet did not last long. A new Parliament, attempting to assert its power over the army, was turned out of the Parliament House. Richard then tried to rule the army, and it put an end to the protectorate. The officers meantime had brought back the " Rump." But the members of that body had learned nothing by experience. They, too, tried to gov- ern the army, and they, ere long, were turned out by it. The officers then governed the country without any attempt at concealing tiicir usurpation. Men of all parties began to sigh for a settletl form of government. i66o.j monk's roLicv. 193 Even then the army might have maintained itself, if it had remained united. Fortunately for English lib- erty, however, the troops in Scotland, under General Monk, could not see what right their fellow-soldiers in England had to rule over them. So they marched to London, where they found the " Rump " once more in place. Now, however, there came another complication. The Londoners refused to pay taxes levied by the "Rump," on the ground that, as their members Monk's had been excluded at the time of "Pride's P"'"^y- Purge," they were not represented in the Parliament, and therefore were not bound to pay any taxes levied on its authority. The army easily put down this little rebellion. But Monk saw clearly enough that the mass of the nation was impatient of the rule of the army; so he declared for a free Parliament. It is possible that he did this because he thought that the return of the Stuart family would aid his own advance- ment. At all events, many people were delighted at the prospect of getting rid of the army and the " Rump," and fell to roasting rumps of beef on the street corners in London with such vigor that Pepys, who wrote a diary of the events of this period, relates that he counted thirty-six fires at one time. The Presbyte- rians once again took their places in the House of Commons, and after making provision for a new elec- tion, the Long Parliament dissolved itself on March 16, 1660. At this, the most favorable time he could have chosen, Charles IL issued a Declaration from the little town of Breda, in Holland, where he vyas then living. In this declaration he offered a jreneral 194 I'HE PROTECTORATE. [1660 pardon to all who should not be excepted by Parlia- ment from forgiveness, assured holders of the confis- The cated Royalist estates that they should not be t^on'""^^' tlisturbed in their possessions, and promised to (1660). persecute no one on account of his religion. The new Parliament came together in April, and at once invited the young Charles to return to England, and sent a fleet to convey him to his native land. He em- barked on the flag-ship, whose name he changed from " Naseby " to "Charles," and after a pleasant voyage entered London on the anniversary of his birth, May 29, 1660. "Oh, the twenty-ninth of May, It was a glorious day, When the king did enjoy his own again! " Scott's novel of "Woodstock" gives an animated description of this scene. The army that had so fiercely beaten Charles at Dunbar and Worcester, now disunited and powerless, received him, and then dispersed. But even then the Ironsides showed how unlike ordinary soldiers they were; for instead of becoming paupers and a burden on the community, they resumed their old occupations; and if one saw a particularly industrious farmer or mechanic, it might very well happen that he would turn out to be one of Cromwell's old soldiers. Many persons suppose that the Puritans made severer laws than any persons who had ruled England before Puritan them, and that the time of the Commonwealth ideas. g^j^j-i Protectorate was a period of great intol- erance in religious matters. But this is quite untrue. On the contrary, the Puritan state was in most respects more tolerant and humane than any previous English i66o.] PURITAN IDEAS. IQ^ government had been, and many great legal reforms date from that time. After 1558 no person was ever burned in England for his religious opinions, — a thing which had before been common, — and no one was put to death in any way for such opinions, except when returning to England after being previously banished. Of course this fell very far short of complete tolera- tion, but it was a great advance on what had been the earlier custom. Cromwell, moreover, allowed Jews to live in England for the first time since the reign of Edward I. Torture was abolished as a means of ob- taining confession, though it lasted nearly a century longer in most European countries, and was legal in one German state down to 1831. The principles of the Habeas Corpus Act were established under the Com- monwealth, although the Act itself did not follow until later, as will hereafter be shown. It also became the practice to examine all witnesses in open court, instead of condemning men, as had sometimes before been done, upon evidence taken in secret. All these were great steps in human progress. And though the Puritans forbade some innocent amusements, yet that was but a trifle compared with what they did to reform the terrible cruelty of the early English courts. 196 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1660. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE RESTORED STUARTS. 1660-1688. CHARLES II., the "restored" king, and his prin- cipal adviser, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, now acted as though nothing had happened since 1641. They even called the first law that was passed after The the "Restoration," the Act of the 12th year of tbnT^' Charles's reign, just as if he had been reigning ^j'^^^^||^_ since 1649. Now it was easy enough to print '685). such a figure in a book, and to make believe that all the laws of the Protectorate and the Long Par- liament were no laws at all. But the Cavaliers soon found that it would be as easy to make everybody around them really twenty years younger as to undo all the work of those twenty years; so they found it necessary to confirm many of the laws of that period, among the rest the Navigation Act. They found, too, that it was impossible to revive many old customs which had gone out of use wdiile there was no king in p:ngland. Thus, in old times, the king had the right to make the heiresses of the great landowners marry any one who pleased him, whether the bride liked the man or not. This and other similar rights had bound the landowners to the king, and had made it advisable for them to be attentive to him, and to vote as he wished in Parliament. These riuhts were i66o.] THE RESTORATION. 197 now swept away in a legal manner, and it was soon found that the ties whieh had hitherto bound the coun- charlks ii.: from the portrait i!v sir peter lely in Christ's hospital, i.ondon. try o^entr}^ to the king- were s^reatly loosened. Before long, indeed, a eountry ]iarty began to be formed to 1 98 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1660. oppose the king and his courtiers by their votes in the Commons. During the civil wars the lands of the Church, of the king, and of the Royalists had been mostly confiscated. The kintr and the Church now had thtir estates Act of * indem- rcstorcd to them, but the poorer Royalists were nitv and , ^ , . , , , - 1 > 1 1 Oblivion left to recover theirs as best they might through (1660). ^^^^ courts of law. If a sale of any kind could be proved, they could not get their estates again. Even when they did recover their homes they could not collect any rent for the use of their farms and houses during all these years. Moreover, all who had taken part in the Great Rebellion, except the king's judges and a few others, were pardoned. These things were done by what is called "An Act of Oblivion and Indemnity to those who had taken part in the late dis- orders." But the disappointed Cavaliers declared that it was an Act of indemnity, or reward, for the Puritans, and of oblivion, or forgetfulness, for the services of the king's friends. Many of those who had borne a prominent part in the execution of Charles I. were imprisoned for life, thirteen were hanged, while others escaped, Tlie Keyi- some to Switzerland, some to New England. "'"^'' These last could never be found, though the king sent the strictest orders for their arrest, and although we now know a good deal about their move- ments in this country. The most unjust execution was that of Sir Harry Vane. He had not got on well with Cromwell, and had taken little part in the events of the ]iast few years; but he was such an out- spoken republican that the king was afraid of him, and he was beheaded. Yet when one considers how many i66i.] THE CAVALIER PARLIAMENT. I99 were guilty of treason and murder in the eyes of Charles and the Ro)'alists, fourteen executions seem a very small number, compared with the practice of ear- lier kings. Indeed, some years later, when the gov- ernor of Virginia crushed a little rebellion in that colony, Charles, in alluding to it, declared that "the old fool has taken away more lives in that naked coun- try than I for the murder of my father." In the day of their triumph the Presbyterians had often treated the Episcopalians with harshness; and if they expected that the Episcopalians, whom they had restored to power, would treat them cavaiier as friends, they soon found that all such expec- n^en[^' tations were vain. It was in tlie spring of f"^''"- 1 66 1 that the new Parliament came together. The House of Commons, elected in the midst of the reaction against the Puritans, was so completely in the hands of the Royalists that it went by the name of the Cavalier Parliament. Later on its members be- came so corrupt that they took bribes from all sides, and it then was called the Pensioned Parliament. The first law against the Presbyterians and Indepen- dents was called the Corporation Act, because by it all l)ut P2piscopalians were turned out of the . Corpora- offices in the cities. The next year came the tion Act Act of Uniformity, requiring all ministers and teachers who did not accept everything in the Episcopal service-book to leave their places. Two years later all religious meetings, other than those of the Episcopali- ans, were declared illegal by the Conventicle Act. By these laws all the Puritans had been driven from the schools and churches. It so happened that the very next year (1665) a dreadful disease, called the Plague, 200 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1665. raged with fearful violence in London. Every one who was able to leave the city ran away as fast as he could. Among the first to seek safety in flight Plague were the ministers of the Episcopal Church. (i06j). ^j^^ Nonconformists thought it a pity that the poor in London should die without the consolation which a minister alone can give, and they took the pul- pits left vacant by their persecutors. Their reward for this heroism was the Five-Mile Act, which forbade any minister who had not subscribed to the Act of Uni- formity from coming within five miles of any place in which he had once been a minister. To make sure that these various laws were carried out, a single jus- tice of the peace, without any jury, was given author- ity to try and convict these people, and to sentence them to transportation for seven years to any place outside of England, except to New England, for there they would find friends and sympathizers. It is difficult to describe the sufferings of these pious men. But Richard Baxter, one of their number, has left the following: "Many hundred of them, with their wives and children, had neither houses nor bread. Some lived on little more than brown bread and water, many had but eight or ten pounds to maintain a family, so that a piece of flesh has not come to one of their tables in six weeks' time. ^lany, being afraid to lay down their ministry after they had been ordained to it, preached to such as would hear them in fields and i^ri- vate houses till they were seized and cast into jails, where many of them perished." The result of this cruelty no one foresaw at the time; for in the end, instead of converting tlie Puritans to the Establislied Church, it gave them a hatred for that Church, and i666.] Till: GREAT FIRE. 20I they ceased to regard themselves as a part of it. They formed little churches of their own, and from Nonconformists became Dissenters, or people Dissen- outside of the regular Church. The Episcopa- lians, finding that the Dissenters no longer wished to change the forms of the Episcopalian service, relaxed law after law, until now religion is as free in England as in our own land, except that the Episcopal Church is established by law as the State religion, and the various forms of dissent are only tolerated. The Great Plague was in 1665. In September of the next year many of those who had escaped the plague saw their homes and places of business burned The down by the Great Fire of London, without being p[,^^' able to save anything. The fire began in the sho]?) (•^^•j)- of a French baker, near the end of London Bridge. In those days the houses were built of wood, and thatched with straw. A furious east wind fanned the flames, and before the fire could be stopped by destroying houses in its path, London, from the Tower to the Temple, and from the river in some places a mile inland, was in ashes. Baxter has left us a vivid picture of this event : — " It was a sight that might have gi\cn any man a lively sense of the vanity of this world, and all the wealth and glory of it, and of the future conflagration of all the world. To see the flames mount up to heaven and proceed without restraint ; to see the streets filled with the people astonished, that had scarce sense left them to lament their own calamity ; to see the fields filled with heaps of goods, and sumptuous buildings, curious rooms, costly furniture, and household stuff, yea, ware- houses and furnisheil shops and libraries, all in a flame, and none durst come near to receive anything ; to see the king 202 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1666. and nobles ride about the streets, beholding all these desola- tions, and none could aiford the least relief," So wide was the sympathy excited by this great ca- lamity that collections were taken up in the New Eng- land churches for the relief of the sufferers; and those of Charlestown, Mass., alone sent ;^io5 sterling. Meantime the English and Dutch had again come to blows about their commercial interests. This time the Dutch were successful. They entered the u ar -^ with the Thames, and sailing into the Medway, burned Dutch , , , . . ^-,, , .-j^, (1666- Sheerness and the shipping at Chatham. Ihey ' ^''' then blockaded the mouth of the Thames for some weeks, although at the peace which followed, they confirmed England in her possession of the New Netherlands, which were now called the Province of New York, in honor of James, Duke of York, the king's brother. Now the English people did not at all like such defeats. They soon discovered that much of the money which Parliament had voted for the carry- ing on of the war had gone into the pockets of the worthless men and women by whom Charles was sur- rounded. They were too loyal to accuse the king ot stealing, but they fell heavily on Clarendon, who had managed to offend all parties. Knowing that many of his acts would not bear investigation, Clarendon fled to the Continent, and passed the remainder of his life in writing his attractive, though untrustworthy, history of the Great Rebellion. The Commons then declared that no more money should be voted unless an officer in whom they had confidence should have the spending of it. This was a very serious limitation of the king's authority, and Charles resisted as long as he dared. But the Commons were in earnest, and as he above 1670.J THE SECRET TREATY OF DOVER. 203 all did not wish, as he expressed it, to "set out on his travels again," he yielded to their demands, and a great step towards parliamentary government was taken. There were many, too, who remembered the victo- ries of the great Puritan Admiral Blake. They con- trasted the gayety and license of the present time with the morality of the past, and "did not stick to say that things were better ordered in Cromwell's time, for then seamen had all their pay, and were not permitted to swear, but were clapped into the bilboes, and if the officers did they were turned out, and then God gave a blessing to them." In those old days Cromwell had been the arbiter of all Europe. Charles II. was now the paid servant of the King of France. Louis XIV., who was then on the French throne, wished to make France the foremost country in Europe. As a step in this attempt he determined to .^.j^^ seize the little strip of land on the north of Secret Treaty of France which we now call Belgium, but which Dover was then known as the Spanish Netherlands. Spain was too weak to offer much opposition, but Hol- land was strong, and did not at all relish the thought of having France for such a near neighbor. Now Louis saw that, although as rivals in business, the English and Hollanders might quarrel, yet as fellow- Protestants it was hardly probable that England would stand still and see Holland defeated by France. He therefore offered Charles a considerable sum of money if he would help him against the Dutch, and declare himself a Catholic. Charles agreed, by a secret treaty, signed at Dover in 1670, to do both these things, for he wanted money, and was at heart a Catholic. Louis 204 '^HE RESTORED STUARTS. [1673. then invaded Holland. But the stnrdy Hollanders were not easily beaten. The young Prince of Orange was given the command. He cut the dikes, and let the waters of the ocean flow over the country, except where the walls of the towns kept them out. And the French, to avoid being drowned, ran away as fast as they could. The English people now forced Charles to make peace with the Dutch. Some years after this, the Prince of Orange, William by name, came over to England, and married the eldest daughter of the Duke of York. We shall meet with him again, for he after- wards became King of England. Nor did Charles succeed much better in an attempt to make things easier for the English Catholics. In ,^ , 1672 he issued what was called a Declaration Declara- ' tion of of Indulgence, because by it the king gave notice Indul- J^ ; 1 -r. -r^ • gences to the Catliolic and Protestant Dissenters that '" the laws aimed against them would not be carried out. These last might have accepted this in- dulgence for themselves ; but when it was offered to the Catholics also, the Dissenters refused to take any advantage of it. Moreover, they joined with the Episcopalians in Parliament, and compelled the Test Act king to recall it. They even went further, and '' passed the Test Act, requiring all the great officers of state to take part in the service of the Eng- lish Church or resign. This was especially aimed at the Duke of York, who was supposed to be a Catholic, and he acknowledged the truth of the suspicion by resigning. It may be that even then the existence of the Secret Treaty of Dover was known, by which Charles had sold himself to the French kimi. But tlie full extent of 167S.] POPISH PLOT. 205 his infamy was not known until the spring of 1678, when Ralph Montague, then English minister to France, suddenly appeared in his place in the Com- mons, and read a letter ordering him to tell Louis that, if he would pay Charles ;^24,ooo a year for three years, England would remain neutral in the war which France was then waging against Holland. A post- script to this letter was in the king's own handwriting, and the date of the letter was only five days after the Commons had actually voted money to enable Charles to aid the Dutch. Naturally the whole nation was furious. The Commons could not touch the king, but they impeached Danby, the Secretary of State. It was while the people were thus wrought up that Titus Gates appeared before Sir Edmondsbury God- frey, and on his oath declared that the Roman -^' . . "Popish Catholics were plotting to murder the king, in Plot" order to put the Catholic James, Duke of York, on the throne. In ordinary times no one would have placed any confidence in what Gates said, for he was a miserable wretch, and James was so unpopular that Charles said to him, "No one will murder me to set you on the throne." But these were no ordinary times, and a few days later the excitement grew into a perfect frenzy when Sir Edmondsburv Godfrey was found on a lonely hillside with a sword sticking in his lifeless body. To this day no one really knows whether he killed himself or was murdered. At the time, however, most Englishmen believed that the Catholics had killed him, and were very ready to be- lieve anything that Titus Gates might say. There may, indeed, have been some truth in the story. At any rate, many Catholics were executed, and because 206 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1679. Gates had declared that the London fire had been the work of Catholics, a lying inscription to that effect was placed on the monument which marks the spot where it was first discovered. This inscription was taken down at James's accession. It was replaced after the Revolution of 1688, and was not finally removed until 1831. Even more unjust was a law excluding Catholics from Parliament; and this was not repealed till 1829. The Cavalier Parliament, which had been so loyal at its first assembling, had now become very hostile to Habeas the king. He dissolved it, and a new Parlia- Corpus j-^Qj-^t ^YiQi ij^ March, 1679. This lasted for less (•679)- than three months ; but in that short time it passed one of the most important laws in the whole history of the English race. This was the Habeas Corpus Act. Of course, ever since the days of Magna Charta, every free Englishman had possessed in theory the right to a speedy trial. But in practice so many obstacles could be interposed that the right was often denied. By this Act any judge was obliged to grant at any time a writ, or paper, addressed to the jailer, ordering him to produce his prisoner in court at such a time, and to show cause why the prisoner should not be released. The judge's order, or writ, began with the Latin words Habeas corpus, meaning, "You must have the body of such a person before me at such a time," etc. It is therefore called a writ of habeas corpus. The judge and jailer were subject to heavy fine if they disobeyed the Act; and therefore since that time no one has been imprisoned in England for any length of time without a good reason. In times of great public excitement. Parliament has sometimes x6S3.] RYE HOUSE PLOT. 20/ suspended the operation of the Act, thereby giving the Government power to keep susjjected persons in jail, even when a clear case could not be made out against them. This Act was really passed because people were afraid of the Roman Catholic James ; and they even went further, and tried to exclude him from • 1 1 Exclu- the succession to the throne. Unfortunately, sion Bills instead of naming the next heir, the Princess Mary of Orange, they named a worthless illegiti- mate son of Charles, the Duke of Monmouth. The scheme fell through ; but the struggle gave rise to two party names that have ever since been famous. It seems that the Presbyterians in the west of Scotland were called "Whigs." The name spread to England, and was applied by the courtiers in derision to their opponents. These in turn called the king's men " Tories," — a name under which some wild Irish Catho- lics had plundered their Protestant neighbors. And as Whigs and Tories the two parties have been known until recent times; and the same names were formerly used for political parties in America. The bill to exclude James failed, and then there was a reaction in favor of the king. Indeed, for a while it seemed as though the times of Charles Rye I. and his policy of " Thorough " had returned. pi°"*^ Some of the Whigs, driven to desperation, ('^Sj). planned to kill the king at a lonely spot near the Rye House. The plot was discovered, and Lord Russell and Algernon Sydney — to whom we owe the motto on the shield of one American State — were unjustly executed, while the Earl of Essex killed himself in prison. The defeat of this plot greatly 208 THE RESTORED STUARTS. [1685. Strengthened the hands of the king, and he was fast becoming as absolute as his father, when he died. On his death-bed he professed himself a Roman Catholic. As he had no lawful descendants, his brother James, Duke of York, became king. The first thing James the Second did was to revenge himself on Titus Gates and his fellow informers for the lies they had told about the Catholics. James 11. 1 • i 11 c ^ (16S5- They were whipped so severely that one of them i6Sb). ^-^Q^i g^^ Gates had strength to survive and be forgotten. The king then undertook to suppress the rebellion which had broken out in the North and West. In the North the revolt was easily subdued, and Argyle, the leader, executed. But the rising in the southwest of England, where Monmouth had put himself at the head of a considerable army, was not so easily quelled. Indeed, it seemed for a short time as if the young king — for such Monmouth declared himself to be — would succeed. His soldiers, however, were gg"Jg.°^ poorly armed and led. They were beaten in the "^°2'"n battle of Sedgemoor, which should be remem- (16S5). » ' bered as the last battle fought on English soil. Monmouth himself was found partially concealed in a ditch, and was taken to London and executed, although he begged on his knees that his father's brother would grant his life. The king then ordered the persecution and death of all who had in any way helped the un- fortunate duke. It is impossible to say how many were killed, but in one county two hundred and thirty- three persons were hanged. Probably at least four hundred lost their lives, and as many more were sold into slavery. All this was done by a judge named 1685.] THE BLOODY ASSIZE. 209 Jeffreys, at a session of court which has ever since been called "The Bloody Assize." The name of Jeffreys has always been infamous in consequence of these trials; but it is now admitted that he was not more harsh and brutal than was the custom of English judges at his day. There was then a great deal of cruelty and brutality in the habits of the English race, and the courts shared this bad character. J_ ^ vV. YEOMEN OF THE GUARD: FROM SANDFORD'S Coroiialiuil ProcesuOH of James 11. 2IO THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. [1688. CHAPTER XXIX. THE "glorious REVOLUTION" OF 1688-1689. AS soon as Monmouth was fairly out of the way, James threw off the mask, and devoted all his energies to making England a Roman Catholic coun- try. Though the Test Act declared that no one but an Episcopalian could hold office, James appointed of^^^iJ:^^^ Sir Edward Hales, a Roman Catholic, colonel Haies"^ of a regiment. The judges, who had been appointed for this very purpose, declaring that the king could waive the penalties of a statute in a particular case, Sir Edward Hales retained his place until he became governor of the important fortress and prison, London Tower. Roman Catholics were by degrees given places in the Privy Council, the univer- sities, and even in the English Church itself. In 159S Henry IV. of France had issued the Edict of Nantes, giving the French Protestants equal political rights with the French Catholics, and Revoca- ^ *- . ^ , . tionof securing to them a certain measure of religious of ' freedom. Louis XIV. revoked this edict in Nantes. ^^^^ j^ j^ ^^.^1 ^^^^ ^^^^^ thoUSaud HugUC- not families fled from France. Many of them took refuge in England, and set up the silk manufac- ture in the Spitalfields, now a part of London. They were very poor, and a collection was authorized in their behalf in the churches. But King James was so i688.] THE SEVEN BISHOPS. 211 afraid that the ministers would tell the truth about the way these poor people had been treated that he ordered the clergy not to preach against the Roman Catholics. The Bishop of London, refusing to punish one of his subordinates who had disobeyed this order, was him- self summoned before a new and illegal High Commis- sion Court, and suspended from office. Now James determined to go one step farther, and grant general liberty of conscience to all Englishmen, whether Protestants or Roman Catholics. This .^ , Declara- was entirely different from dispensing with a tion of 1 • -1 T • 1 Indul- smgle statute in a particular case, it is proba- gences ble that James hoped to gain the Dissenters to his side by this Act. A few, indeed, took advantage of it. But it shows the bitterness of religious hostility at that time that the great mass preferred to suffer all the rigors of the law rather than to see the Roman Catho- lics well treated. The clergy had been ordered to read the declaration to their congregations, as that was the easiest way of making it generally known. The Arch- bishop of Canterbury and six bishops petitioned the king not to insist on their reading it. He did insist, however, and the declaration was read by a few minis- ters who were too timid to refuse. As for the arch- bishop and his companions, the Seven Bishops, as they were called, James had them arrested, on the ground that their petition was a seditious libel. They were taken to the Tower, where the Catholic ^, Tlie Sir Edward Hales was sure to keep them safe. Seven T) 1 1 I . • 1 1-' Bishops. But the people were on their side. Even the soldiers on guard at the gateway of the Tower knelt before them, asking their blessing. Later they drank to their good health and acquittal. The excite- 212 THE GLORIOUS REVOLUTION. [i6S8. ment spread to the remotest corners of England ; and the Cornish miners declared their intention of march- ing to London and rescuing their beloved bishop, Trelawney, one of the seven. They sang a song- beginning, — " And shall Trelawney die? And shall Trelawney die ? Then thirty thousand Cornish men Will know the reason why." This sympathy was not confined to the Episcopalians. The Nonconformists visited the Tower, as did also an enormous number of persons of all grades and ranks, from the peers down to the humblest. It was in the midst of this excitement that the king's Catholic wife gave birth to a son who is known in history as the Old Pretender. No one but Catholics had been present at the birth, and the English people generally declared that the , bov was no son of the king's, but some spu- The Old ^ & ' 1 Preten- rious child palmed off on them by the Jesuits. It was plain that the child, if he was the real son of James, was the heir to the English throne, to the exclusion of the Protestant Mary of Orange, wife of the heroic William. So the people, especially the Whigs, refused to believe that he was a genuine son, and determined to rebel at the first good opportunity. Every one was now waiting to hear the result of the trial of the Seven Bishops. For a long time the jury wavered. Eleven of the twelve were for ac- The Seven quittal. The twelfth was the king's brcwcr. He Bishops . 1 T 1 • ^ • c ^ ^ acquitted said that he should be ruined ii he voted against the king. But he was at length brought over, and the verdict of "Not guilty " was received with an l688.] WILLIAM LANDS. 213 enthusiasm witnessed but once in a century. Even the royal army, which James had brought to London to put down a rising, should tliere be one, sliowed by their cheers that their sympathies were with the people. The Patriot leaders saw that now at last the time had come to act. Admiral Herbert, dis- guised as a common sailor, set out for Holland. invUa- He was the bearer of a letter signed by the most \)viiiL°m influential among the Whigs and Tories, asking William to come to England to protect the rights of his wife against the spurious son of James, and to save England from a Catholic tyranny. William joyfully accepted the invitation. He loved his wife, and did not wish her to be deprived of her rights. But above all, he desired to be king of England, that he might use England's strength, both of men and money, in the grand struggle he was making against the power and ambition of Louis XIV. of France. Everything favored William. His proclamation was received with rejoicings, while the concessions made by James were looked on with suspicion, as winiam people saw that they had been extorted by '^'"'''• fear. Louis, too, offered to help James, by attacking William, and thus keeping him at home in Holland. I5ut James scornfully refused, and the French king, in a rage, sent his army into Germany. Even the winds helped William; for, though at first adverse, the breeze soon became favorable, and then increas- ing, the strong east wind — " the Protestant east wind," as they used to call it, — drove William's ships safely through the English Channel, while at the same time it kept the English fleet cooped up in the Thames. 214 THE GLORIOUS RE\'OLUTION. [1688. William landed at Torbay, in Devonshire, on the 5th of November, 1688, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. For several days no prominent men joined him, and it is said that he was on the point of returning to Holland, when they began to come. Among the James . ^ ^^ . runs first to arrive was Lord Churchill, afterwards ^^^^^" the celebrated Duke of Marlborough. His wife was the most intimate friend of the Princess Anne. And so it fell out that when Lord Churchill deserted his master, the Princess Anne ran away from her father. " God help me ! " cried the abandoned James, "even my children have forsaken me." So he sent his wife and son to Prance, and then escaped himself. Unluckily, however, some fishermen caught sight of him as he was leaving the shore. Mistaking him for the Jesuit Father Petre, they seized him. He IS ^ . brought Soon hc was in London again, — much to the dismay of William, who would have had the field all to himself if he could have said that James had deserted his people. James was easily scared away again, however, and care was taken this time that he should not be stopped. Louis received him, and gave him a palace to live in. But the means used to 1 lie _ Jacob- get rid of him seemed to many good people so very much like force that they took his side, and were called, from James's Latin name of Jacobus, Jacobites. William now summoned the Peers, and all who had sat in the House of Commons during the reign of Charles the Second, to meet him at Westminster and advise him as to what he should do. Upon their advice he summoned a Parliament, though it 16S9.] DECLARATION OF RKHITS. 215 was called a Convention for the time being. It met on the 14th of March, 1689, and after some discussion of- fered the crown to Mary. But she was too loyal ■' . ^ The to her husband to accept it, and he on his part Conven- declared that he would not be his wife's ser- vant. So, after more discussion, the crown was offered to William and Mary as king and queen; William to have control of affairs. At the same time the Declara- Lords and Commons presented a Declaration of tion of the Rights of the people of England. The main " points of this great declaration, which was afterwards made into a regular law, were that the king had no power, without consent of Parliament, (i) to dispense with the laws, (2) to raise money, or (3) to keep a standing army. It was further declared (4) that the subjects had a right to bear arms, (5) to petition the king, and (6) to have freedom of debate in Parliament. (7) The High Commission Court was declared illegal, and (8) frequent Parliaments were declared necessary. On these terms the throne was offered to William and Mary, and accepted by them. Henceforth no English king could claim to rule by divine right, but only by the will of the nation. 2l6 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1689. CHAPTER XXX. THE FIRST CONSTrrUTIONAL MONARCHS. 'T'^Hl^^ Declaration of Rights did not seem to be all -L that was necessary to protect the people. So, to make sure that no king could again turn tyrant, Parliament granted William the revenues from customs for a few years, instead of for life, as had hereto- and Mary ^01'^ been douc. Thcu, too, the Commons said (16S9- ^^r^^ £qj. ^i^^ future money must be spent on the 1702). '' ^ _ objects specified in the vote. This was to guard against the king's obtaining money for some particular purpose, like the navy, and then spending it to keep up a large arm>' to hold the people down. Still further to guard against the same evil, Parlia- ment voted the bill giving the army officers The . . Mutiny control ovcr the soldiers — the Mutiny Bill, as it is called — for one year. If Parliament for any cause should wish to disband the army, it had only to refuse to pass a new Mutiny Bill; for when the old one expired, the army would drop to pieces, as the soldiers could not be punished for disobeying the officers. And this practice of passing money and mutiny bills has lasted to our own times. This is a very important fact, for in this way the House of Commons has obtained control of the government, as it is in that House that money bills are first passed. The king was, and is, obliged to have for his ministers 1689.] RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT. 21/ men who have the confidence of a majority in that House ; in other words, men who can get these very bills through Parliament. In this way the great Brit- ish Empire has come to be ruled by a committee of the party which for the moment has a majority in the House of Commons. This is called " responsible government," as these men are responsible to the House of Commons, and through it to the people of England. The next thing Parliament did was to pass a law de- claring that all officers in church and state must swear to support William and Mary as king and queen. Non- Many good people still believed that James was ]urors. ^^^ ^^^^ king, and refused to swear. They were called non-jurors (non-swearers). They were sincere, and did what they thought was right ; but their ac- tions made William's position much more difficult. It was found impossible to repeal the harsh Acts which the Cavaliers had passed against the Dissenters. But one great step was made in the passage of the Tolera- tion Act, allowing Dissenters to stay away from the Episcopal service without being fined. Now that William was firm on the throne, James was glad to accept the helping hand held out by Louis of France. The Irish were devout Roman Catholics, and were thus disposed to be friendly to James. It is probable, too, that the Irish leaders hoped that by aiding James they might free Ireland from the Eng- lish yoke. At any rate, no sooner had James fled to France than they made war on the English and Pro- testant settlers in Ireland, and compelled them to seek refuge in two towns in the northern part of Ireland, Enniskillen and Londonderry. Soon James came over 21 8 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1689. with some French soldiers, and siege was laid to the two towns. The garrison of Enniskillen, sallying forth, drove their assailants away. Those at Londonderry WILLIAM III. : AFTER A PORTRAIT BY J. H BRANDON. ate everything that was eatable in the town, inclu- ding all the rats and salt hides. Then at length London- two London ships broke through the obstructions '^"^' which the Irish had placed in the mouth of £690] BATTLE OF THE BOYNE. 219 of the harbor, and the town was saved, after one of the most persistent defences in history. The next year William himself went to Ireland with MARY n. : AFTER A PORTRAIT I'.Y J. H. BRANDON. a famous French general, — Schomberg, — whom Louis had driven from France because he was a Hua-ue- ^ .., •^ battle not. They fought with James and his French '^f^e and Irish troops at the Battle of the Boyne, and (1690). 220 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1690 beat him so thoroughly that he fled to France as fast as horse and ship would carry him. Nevertheless, it took several years to reconquer Ireland thoroughly. The news of this great victory reached England in good time, for Admiral Herbert — now Lord Torrington Beachy — had been badly beaten the very day before Head. ^y. ^^^ French off Beachy Head. The French admiral then landed his soldiers and set fire to the huts of some poor fishermen who lived in a little town in the southern part of England. This outrage so angered the English people that thousands who had hitherto been lukewarm now came to the assistance of William and Mary, and did all they could to save the land from James and his allies. In fact, all danger from the Jacobites was for the moment at an end. William crossed over to Holland and took his place at the head of the European powers who were opposed to Louis. Now the French king thought that the best way to compel William's return to England would be to send James over there. So he gathered a great army at Boulogne. James was so sure of being successful that he drew up a proclama- tion, telling people what would happen when he was on the throne again. Among other things he said that the ignorant fishermen who had stopped him on his first attempt to escape would be treated as traitors, and have their heads cut off. Indeed, the proclamation was so ridiculous that the English Government re- printed it, and sent copies all over the country at its own expense. But James never got to England again, for an English fleet under Admiral Russell swept from the seas the French fleet that was to have conveyed him to England. The English sailors remembered 1693] BANK OF ENGLAND, 221 the humiliation of Beachy Head, and now at La HogLie sank, captured, or drove ashore every French ship. They even rowed in small boats right up to some ships that had taken refuge under Hogue the guns of a fort, and set them on fire. All '' this was done under the eyes of James himself. There was no longer any need for William to feel anxious for England. At the Peace of Ryswick (1697) Louis was compelled to give back all the places he had seized. This was mainly owing to the pluck and skill of Wil- liam; for though he seldom won battles, he knew how to prevent the French from making any use of their victories, — and that is sometimes as important as winning battles. The fight which William was so manfully making was not merely a fight for the Protestant religion, but a struggle for English liberty. His success would benefit succeeding generations for hundreds of 01^ His years. So the Government borrowed a portion financial of the funds needed to support the armies, the first loan being made in 1693. It was the beginning of the English national debt. At this time there were no banks in England. All large sums of money were collected and paid through the goldsmiths and silversmiths of London, Bank of who in this way acted as bankers. Of course ^"§'=i"'^- this was not a very secure way of doing business, as everything depended upon the honesty of some par- ticular man. So a Scotchman named Paterson agreed to establish a national bank. As an inducement for the authorities to give him the necessary power, he proposed to lend to the Government one-half the capi- tal of the bank. Thus the Government would be able 222 THE FIRST COxXSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1692. to borrow money, and at the same time the share- holders and those who had deposited money in the bank would be interested in the stability of the Gov- ernment of William, because if it should be overthrown they would never get their money back. In this way the Bank of England was established. Another great reform was the recoinage of the cur- rency. To-day an English gold sovereign is good the world over; but two hundred years ago this was not the case. The money then in circulation had been coined with smooth edges. Any one could clip off a little without its being noticed. In the end, however, so much might be clipped off that the coin would not be worth anything like its face value. The merchants refused to take these coins in payment, except by weight, so many ounces of gold or silver for so many pounds of bread and butter. Of course this was very inconvenient, and the Government employed Sir Isaac Newton, the great philosopher, to make some new coins. The new pieces had milled edges, and could not be clipped. In this year, too, the "Licensing Act" of 1660, which had placed the control of printing in the Gov- ernment, expired by limitation, and Parliament of'the^ refused to renew it. Since that time every Press Qj^g i^^g been at liberty to publish anything he (1695). J i- ■' chooses. But he is responsible for what he publishes, as he is for everything else he does. The one great blot upon William's name is the massacre of Glencoe. Ian Maclan, chief of the Massacre . - . of Glen- Macdonalds, who lived m Glencoe, in a fit of stubborn pride had waited until all the other chiefs had taken the oath of submission to William 1694] DExVni OF QUEEN MARY. 223 and Mary. Then he went to the nearest fort, and offered to take the oath ; but there was no one there who could administer it. Now thoroughly alarmed, be- cause those who did not take the oath before a certain day were to be declared outlawed, he trudged over the snow to Inverary, only to find when he arrived there that it was too late. The sheriff, however, made out a paper to the effect that the chief had tried to take the oath at the proper time; indeed, he took it then only six days late. It chanced that the king's representative in Scotland at that time was a bitter enemy to the Macdonalds. He contrived to suppress the fact that Maclan had offered to take the oath at a proper time, and obtained from William an order to "extirpate the Macdonalds of Glencoe. " This sentence was in the middle of a long document, and it is probable that William never saw it. At all events, one morning in February, 1692, a company of Scottish soldiers, led by Campbell of Glenlyon, after enjoying the hospitali- ties of the Macdonalds for two weeks, suddenly fell on them and killed thirty-eight on the spot. The remain- der fled to the mountains. How many died from cold and hunger will never be known. The act was one of private revenge on the part of the Campbells. But it was done under orders, and William felt obliged to shelter the authors, and no one was ever punished. Queen Mary died in 1694. This was a great loss to William, for she was very popular with the people, while he was very unpopular. Indeed, it might have gone hard with him, had not Louis of France, in defiance of treaties and promises, put his grandson on the throne of Spain. This aroused the jealousy of the English people, and William found himself at 224 THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1704. the head of another Grand Alliance of Europe against the Bourbons. Just at this moment the exiled James II. died in his borrowed palace of St. Germain's. In direct opposition to the Treaty of Ryswick, Louis acknowl- edged James's son James (the "Old Pretender") as king of England. All England was now anxious for war. But William was not again to lead the armies of Europe. In the winter of 1702 he was thrown from his horse, and a few weeks later he died. Suspended about his neck, where no one could see it, was a locket containing a gold ring and a lock of Mary's hair. As William and Mary had no children, Mary's younger sister, the Princess Anne, became queen. Oueen She was more of a Stuart than Mary, and al- t™l_ lowed herself to be ruled by favorites, as her 1714)- ancestors had allowed themselves to be ruled. During the first part of her reign her favorite was the wife of the Earl, afterwards the Duke, of Marl- borough. This Marlborough was a selfish man. But he saw that by carrying out the plans of William he might make a great name for himself. And, indeed, for the next few years he was the real ruler of Eng- land, and even took William's place at the head of the Alliance against Louis. The first year he accomplished little. But in 1704 he broke away from the Dutch allies, who always pre- vented his doing anything at all hazardous. Battle of 1 T-,1 • 11 Blenheim Marchiug up the Rhme and the Neckar, he ■^ crossed over the mountains to Donauworth, on the Danube. There he was joined by an Austrian army under Prince Eugene. They encountered the French and their allies, the Bavarians, at the little town of Hochstadt. The two opposing forces had no sooner 1704.1 BATTLE OF BLENHEIM, 225 come into contact than Marlborough saw that the enemy had stationed a large part of his army in the village of Blenheim, at the end of the line. He there- QUEEN ANNF : FROM A PORTRAIT R.V SIR GODFREY KNELLER. fore made the middle of his own line as strong as possible. Then, wliile a false attack was made on Blenheim on the one flank, and wldle Prince Eugene 15 22C THE FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1704 kept the Bavarians eng-aged on the other flank, Marl- borough threw his whole weight on the centre. He broke through, and turning half round, wrapped his army around the village of Blenheim. Not a French- man in the village escaped; they were all killed or captured. On the morning of that day the French and Bavarian generals had commanded an army of some sixty thousand men. At night but twenty thou- sand remained. The road from Ulm to Ratisbon runs through a part of this battlefield, and the pathway is said to be founded on the bones of men and horses who perished there. In fact, to this very day the skulls of men are sometimes turned up by the plough. " ' 'T is some poor fellow's skull.' quoth he, ' Who fell in the great victory.' " The victory of Blenheim placed England at the head of Teutonic Europe. To Marlborough it brought the thanks of Parliament and a magnificent estate. Marlborough gained many other victories, but none so important as this. Nor was he the only English commander to gain victories, for Admiral Rooke, Seizure of having with him a small land force under the "command of a German prince, captured Gibral- tar, the key to the Mediterranean Sea. The English held it through the war, retained it at the peace, and it is still in English hands, and is claimed to be the strongest fortress in the world. The Treaty of Utrecht ended this long war. The I'rench prince kept his Spanish throne, but France had been greatly weakened by the struggle. The twenty-five years of peace which followed brought her little strength, though giving England time to grow, and to become the leading 1707.] UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 22/ power in luirope. In America this war was usually called Queen Anne's War, and during its continuance Acadia was taken from the French. At the Peace of Utrecht it was retained by England, and this was the first step in the breaking up of the French empire in America. One of the principal reasons for the prominence which England now gained was the union with Scot- land. Ever since James VI. of Scotland be- came James I. of England, the two countries vvith°" had been ruled by one sovereign. But, except fj^^l.^s"'^ for a short time during the ascendency of the Puritans, a Scottish Parliament, sitting at Edinburgh, had made laws for Scotland ; a Scot had been regarded in England as a foreigner; and Scottish goods could be brought into England only on terms which made their profitable sale impossible. Of course the evils of such a state of things were apparent to every one. But so jealous were all parties of their rights that it was not until 1707 that the union of the two kingdoms was brought about. After that date, laws for the United Kingdom of Great Britain were made by a Par- liament sitting at Westminster. The Scots sent one- twelfth of the new House of Commons, and in the House of Lords there were sixteen Scottish peers, chosen by all the Scottish peers. Besides these, how- ever, many Scots sat in the House of Lords, because they possessed English titles of nobility, so that the dis- proportion was not so great as it, at first sight appears. For purposes of trade and taxation the two kingdoms were placed on an equality. Many people thought that the less numerous Scots would be lost to sigfht among their more numerous neighbors. Such has not 228 THE FIRST CONSTrrUTIONAL MONARCHS. [1707. been the case. By patience and energy the Scots have made Glasgow on tlie Clyde the rival of Liverpool on the Mersey. In colonial enterprises the two races have stood side by side, while in the government service, in the army, the navy, and even in the Church, the Scots have taken a leading part. And this, though the Presbyterian Church was recognized as the Established Church of Scotland. The old English flag had been the red cross of St. George on a white ground. The white "saltire" of St. Andrew, or cross, in the shape of an X, on a blue ground, was now combined with this, and the "union " flag became the symbol of the union between the two countries. ROYAL ARMS BORNE BY JAMES I. AND SUCCEEDING STUART SOVEREIGNS. ijoi] ACT OF SUCCESSION, OR SETTLEMENT. 229 CHAPTER XXXI. GEORGE I. 1714-1727. OUEEN ANNE was the last of the Stuart mon- archs. She died in 17 14, leaving no children. As long ago as 1701 an Act had been passed regu- lating the succession to the crown in such a way that none but a Protestant should ever become succes- king or queen of England. The Protestant hav- settie°-'^ ing the best right to the crown after Anne was '"!."^ & o (1701). the Electress Sophia of Hanover, that small country being governed by an elector; and on her and her descendants, provided they were Protestants, the crown was settled. A few things which had been omitted from the Bill of Rights were inserted in this new agreement between Parliament and the future kings and queens of England, especially one clause requiring the judges to be appointed to hold office during good behavior, and not merely during the king's pleasure. Electress Sophia died a few weeks before Queen Anne. So upon the latter' s death, Sophia's son, Elector George of Hanover, became King George the First of England.^ There were many persons in England, and even in the government itself, who would have preferred a Stuart king. But just before Queen Anne's death, ' For genealogy, sec p. 242. 230 GEORGE I. [1715. some noblemen favorable to the Hanoverian cause, suspecting the ministers of conspiring with the Stuarts, seized the government. That their Jacobite . . ' ^ plot suspicions were correct is shown by the fact ^ ' that Lord Bolingbroke, who had been the lead- ing minister, soon after ran away to France, and ojjenly joined the Pretender, James Stuart. Then the elec- tions to the new Parliament were scenes of such Riot Act great disorder that the Riot Act had to be passed. ^ ' When, a year later, it came to be time to elect a new Parliament, there was still so much opposi- tion to the Hanoverian Succession that an Act was passed extending the duration of Parliament to seven years, unless sooner dissolved by the king. This was called the Septennial Act, and is still in force. bepten- . niai Act No Parliament can sit for more than seven years, (1716). . . - , . , \n any case, without a new election ; and new elections may be held much oftener than this, as, for instance, when the ministry is defeated in any impor- tant vote, or when a Prime Minister thinks it a favor- able time for his party. When a ministry is finally defeated, the sovereign sends for some leading ipem- ber or members of the successful party, and they agree upon a new list of ministers. The next few years were marked by a desire among the people to grow rapidly rich. A great scheme for trade to South America and the islands of the Pacific South was set on foot. The company which under- Bubbie ^oo'^ ^'^ carry on this trade was called the South (1720). Q^Q^ Company, from the old name of the Pacific Ocean. It soon made some very corrupt bargains with the English Government, and thus attracted much atten- tion. Its shares rose from one hundred pounds apiece 1720.. SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 231 Georguls GEORGE I.: FROM AN ENGRAVING BY VERTUE. to one thousand pounds apiece; and there were not so many shares as people wished to buy at any price. New companies were quickly started: one to "trade 232 GEORGE I. [1721. in human hair," for instance, another " to insure against losses from dishonest servants, " and still another for the "making of iron with pit coal." Pit coal, or coal as we call it, was then regarded as unfit for smelting iron, which was done with charcoal. A few years later a method of smelting iron with coal was intro- duced, and this industry is to-day the basis of Eng- land's prosperity. Alarmed at the sudden rise of these companies, the South Sea Company procured their downfall. When the distrust of the people had been aroused in this way it was directed against the South Sea Company as well as against its rivals. The Government interfered, and the South Sea Company was saved. During this fit of speculation thousands had lost all their property, and there was much discontent and misery throughout England. The Jacobites thought the time had come to overthrow the Hanoverian monarchy. But again their scheme fell through. The leaders were executed, while others, like Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, were exiled. The bursting of the South Sea Bubble brought Sir Robert Walpole, a skilful financier, to the head of Sir affairs. He became First Lord of the Trensury, Waroie '^""-^ from that day to this it has been usual for Prime that official to be prime minister, or premier. Minister ^ ' ^ (1721- All the members of the Government, too, began '"*" ' now to act together under the leadership of the premier, the principal ministers forming a select council, or cabinet. Sir Robert Walpole saw that what England now needed was a period of repose, during which the Hano- verian kings might become firmly seated on the throne, and be associated in people's minds with prosperity '727 1 WALPOLES POLICY. 233 and quiet. He resolved to let well enough alone, and never to do anything which might arouse opposition. In this he was successful. He also bought, by gifts of money or easy places under the Government, the votes of a majority of the members of the pole's House of Commons, and in this way secured his p°"^^" own power, and kept the two Houses of Parliament from GROUP SHOWING COSTUMES AND SEDAN CHAIR, ABOUT I72O FROM AN ENGRAVING BY KIP. quarrelling. In 1727 George I. died, and his son, George II., succeeded to the throne as quietly as any son ever succeeded his father. The first George had been a dull and heavy man, who spoke English very imperfectly, because of his German birth, and had won very little affection or admiration from his people. 234 GEORCxE II. I1737 CHAPTER XXXII. GEORGE II. I 727-1 760. IT seemed at first as if Walpoh' would be turned out of office ; but he soon discovered that the new king was governed by his wife, Queen Caroline. So he promised her that if he should remain Prime Min- ister, she should have a larger allowance than CamUne "^^^^ quecn had before received. This pleased Queen Cai-oline, who also saw that Walpole was the ablest and safest man then in public life. She threw her influence on his side, and while she lived he was secure in his place. It was during this reign that the brothers Wesley began a great revival in the English Church. As they laid much stress on their peculiar methods, they The Metho- were in derision called Methodists. But the Methodists grew and prospered, and now are a strong and influential body, not merely in England, but in our own country as well. Ii"* ^7d7 Queen Caroline died, and the mainstay of Walpole's power was removed. His peace policy, too, . was becoming distasteful to Englishmen, who War with ^ ^ ' Spain thought he yielded too much to foreigners. At "^ ' last an English seaman named Jenkins ap- peared in Eondon with one of his ears carefully pre- served in a box. This, he declared, had been cut off 1739] WAR WITH SPAIN. 235 SIR R0I:F.RT WALPOLE : FROM THE PICTURE P.Y VAX LOO IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. by a brutal Spanish sailor. When asked what his feelings were at the time of the ear-cutting, he replied: " I commended my soul to God, my cause to my coun- try. " This story aroused great ill-will among the 236 GEORGE II. [1745, people, and the king, too, was eager for war. He was still Elector of Hanover, and, being a German by birth and breeding, he cared much more for the interests of Hanover than for those of England. So in 1739 Wal- pole was compelled, quite contrary to his own judg- ment, to declare war against Spain. In the next with year King Frederick H. — called Frederick the Prussia and Great — of Prussia seized some valuable terri- tory belonging to Austria, and the war became general, England and Austria fighting on one side, against Spain, France, and Prussia on the other. In 1742 Sir Robert Walpole was forced from office, and before long Henry Pelham became prime minister, with his brother, the Duke of Newcastle, as his Pelham • i , , Ministry right-hand man. The war was now carried on 1754)7 with more vigor. The English took part in two noted battles, Dettingen and Fontenoy. The former is especially memorable as the last battle in which an English king took a personal share, and the latter as one in which Irish troops fought against England. The war is important in English history, however, as giving occasion for the last attempt of the Stuarts g^^^ to regain their lost throne by force. The risinij French Government gave all the assistance it could, and many Scots rallied around Prince Charles Edward, the son of the Old Pretender, or James HI., as the Jacobites called him. " Prince Char- lie " beat the I^nglish at Preston Pans, near Edinburgh, and then, advancing south, marched almost unopposed to Derby, in the heart of England. In London all was confusion. The king made jDreparations to escape by sea, and Newcastle even thought of u-oin • • 1 With its garrison and stores, to the Jiritish. Major Andre, a young officer of Clinton's army, came to West Point to conclude arrangements with Arnold. COSTr.MFS >F PERSONS ( ABOUT 1783. lySr.] CAPTURE OF VORKTOWX. 261 In disguise, and with compromising papers in his boots, he was captured by a party of Americans. Arnold escaped, but Washington was compelled to treat Andre as a spy, and as a spy he was hanged. During the summer of 1781 it became known to Washington and Rochambeau that a powerful French fleet under Comte de Grasse would arrive at the ^ , Capture mouth of Chesapeake Bay early in September, of It was decided to march the allied army from town Newport and New York to Virginia, to join '^ Lafayette and any French troops De Grasse might bring, and, while the French fleet should prevent Clin- ton from reinforcing Cornwallis, to capture him and his army. This i^rogramme was carried out to the let- ter. The French ships at Newport slipped out of the harbor, and reached the Chesapeake safely. De Grasse and the allied armies arrived in good time to come to- gether. De Grasse fought a battle with the English fleet; but while neither side was victorious, all the advantages of victory were gained by the allies, as the English fleet was obliged to return to New York for the purpose of refitting before it again put to sea. Cornwallis surrendered Yorktown, with its defenders, Oct. 19, 1 78 1. This was the last important conflict between the English and the Americans. But the war was still vigorously prosecuted against the allies of the colonies. The royal disaster at Yorktown not only settled the question whether America should be free, but it also decided the fate of the North ministry. Lord Endofthe George Germaine, the Colonial Secretary, was Mbistry the first to resign. He had had the principal ('^so- direction of the war in America, and to his mis- 262 GEORGE III. [1782 management the failure of the British armies was largely due. He was now raised to the peerage as Lord Sackville. As he had been dismissed from the army during the Seven Years' War for disobedience to orders, many peers objected to his sitting in the House of Lords; but they could do nothing to prevent it. The Opposition in the Commons now rapidly acquired strength. The 20th of March, 1782, was selected for a great attack on the Government. But when that day came. Lord North seized a chance to speak, and an- nounced the resignation of the ministry; and the House, as was its custom, adjourned, to give the Oppo- sition leaders time to talk over their future plans. It was a harsh, wet night, and the members, expecting a long debate, had sent their carriages away. Lord North had retained his, and stepping into it, he re- marked, with a smile, "You see, gentlemen, the advantage of being in the secret." In fact, this un- broken good nature was Lord North's most noteworthy characteristic. He even used to fall into a gentle slumber while Fox and Burke were attacking him and his Government. The Marquis of Rockingham and the Whigs now took office. Charles James Fox and Lord Shelburne were the two Secretaries of State and the real leaders of the Government, in which Lord Camden, The Rocking- Admiral Keppel, and Edmund Burke had places. Ministry Lord Chauccllor Thurlow alone represented the ^'''^''^" king. The ministry had three important ques- tions to settle, — the conclusion of peace, the reform of the home administration, and the pacification of Ireland. Tlie Irish question will be best considered later in connection with the union. To the Opposition ;782.] THE ROCKINGHAM MINISTRY. 263 in power the project of a reform of the administration in the direction of purity and economy seemed less desirable than it had seemed while others were enjoy- ing the spoils. It was desirable, however, at least to seem to carry out their former promises. A bill was EDMUND BURKE ; FROM A PAINTING BY REYNOLDS IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. passed abolishing many abuses, though not till the Whigs had secured a good deal of spoil for themselves. Edmund Burke alone consistently refused to share in the general distribution. The Rockingham ministry had come into power mainlv on account of the disasters in America. Peace 264 GEORGE III. [1782. with America was their policy. They believed that the Americans might be detached from the French as the price of independence, provided ample concessions in the way of boundaries were made in return. Now it so happened that John Jay, himself of French descent, and John Adams, two of the American com- missioners to negotiate a treaty of peace, distrusted the French Government. They believed that France was using the United States as a tool for her own ends, and was really opposed to the extension of the new state as far as the Mississippi River. It is proba- ble that Jay was right in his belief; but for a long time the third commissioner, Benjamin Franklin, refused to believe him. The treaty of alliance provided that neither party should make peace without the other, and the instructions to the American commissioners ordered them to act in conjunction with the French Govern- ment. Finally, however. Jay prevailed. The com- missioners broke their instructions, and, without the knowledge of the French Government, con- Indepen- '^ ^ . , . , dence cludcd an agreement, or set of articles, which edged"^ should bc made into a treaty whenever France ^'"^~^' and England should make peace. In this way the United States became an independent nation, with boundaries extending as far as the Mississippi on the west, and as far south as the thirty-first parallel of latitude. Before the treaty was actually concluded, Rockingham died, and Fox, who had quarrelled with Shelburne, withdrew from the Government with his friends. Shelburne became Prime Minister, and had for his Chancellor of the Exchequer a young man of twenty-three. — William Pitt, — the younger son of the Earl of Chatham. 1783- CONCLUSION OF THE WAR. 265 After the disaster at Yorktovvn, En<2;land was every- where successful. Gibraltar, which the Spaniards and French had been besiccrinjr since I77q, was re- „ , inforced, and supplied with provisions in 1782. s'on In the same year Achniral Rodney defeated, with war great loss, the Comte de Grasse off Martinique. "' " These two disasters made France and Spain willing to make peace on reasonable terms, and in September, 1783, the treaties were signed at Versailles and Paris. In the course of the war Spain had overrun the Flori- das, and at the peace she retained all of North America south of the United States, as well as Louisiana, west of the Mississippi River. KOVAL ARMS, AS BORNE FROM iSoi TO lSl6 : THE IIANOXEKIAN SCUTCHEON, SURMOUNTED liV AN ELECTORAL BONNET. 266 GEORGE III. ' [17S3. CHAPTER XXXIV. GEORGE III. I 760-1820. Part II. 1783-1820. FOR years Charles James Fox and Lord North had sat on opposite sides of the House of Commons, The and had abused each other in the most outra- tion"'" geous fashion. They now joined hands, or coa- (lySi)' lesced, to turn Shelburne out of office, and put themselves in. Between them they possessed a large majority in the House of Commons. In 1783 Shel- burne resigned, and North and Fox came in. The king was furiously indignant. He hated Fox, and did not wish to have anything to do with him. But he was enraged above all at the ingratitude of Lord North, for whom he had done so much. At first the king declared he would go to Hanover. But sober second thought convinced him it would be better to endure Fox and North for a while till something should turn up which would bring about their downfall. He did not have long to wait. The English East India Company had made itself master of a large part of India. The Company was Fox's first of all a business venture, and must pay g"^j'^ dividends to its stockholders. The hostility ('783) of the French, and the desire to extend the Company's boundaries, gave rise to incessant wars, 17S3] WILLIAM PITT, PRIME MINISTER. 267 which cost enormous sums of money. The Gover- nor-general was now Warren Hastings. To meet the demands for funds in India and in England he had resorted to many tyrannical measures, and great hard- ship and oppression to the natives had resulted. It was perfectly plain that this state of things could not be allowed to exist indefinitely. Fox and Burke (h-e\v up a bill for the better government of India, by wliich the political control of the country was placed under the Home Government. This was all very well, except that Fox so arranged matters that the appointment to the offices in India would be in his hands, or in those of his political friends, even if he ceased to be in the ministry. This of course aroused great opposition. The king saw his chance, and when the bill came to the Lords, declared he should regard any peer who voted for it as his personal enemy. The measure was defeated, and the king sent an under- officer to tell North and Fox that they were dismissed. He chose as his new Prime Minister William Pitt, now twenty-four years of age. While still a youth in appearance, William Pitt, as a political leader and debater in the House of Com- mons, had no equal. As a war minister and , . r • 1 ■ r 1 • n 1 William orator he was interior to his father; m all else pHt, he was his superior. Besides the small party jy/mi's'ter called the "King's Friends," and those few ('/^l" members wlio remained true to his father's principles, William Pitt had no adherents in the Com- mons. In fact,' almost all his companions in the minis- try were members of the House of Peers. Alone, therefore, he faced the combined oratory of Fox, Burke, Sheridan, and Lord North. But the lack of principle 268 GEORGE 111. [1783- shown by Fox and North in making their coalition had disgusted a great many people. One by one their ad- herents went over to the side of Pitt and the king, till the majority against him was reduced to one. Then Parliament was dissolved. In the general elec- tion which followed, one hundred and sixty of P'ox's friends ("Fox's Martyrs," they were called) lost their seats. Pitt had a great majority, and it was full half a cen- tury before the Whig party recovered from the effects of this blow. Secure now of a ma- jority, Pitt brought in a new India Bill, Pitt's establishing a b"ii'^ Board of Con- (17^4)- trol resident in England, and consist- ing of members of the ministry, as the su- preme governing body. The business management of tlie Company was left to its directors. This system of" double government" lasted till 1858. The leading feature of the first half of Pitt's long ministry was his financial policy. He was a friend and disciple of Adam Smith, and believed in interna- tional friendliness in matters of business. For cen- I'lTT SPEAKING IN THE HOUSE OF COM- MONS; FROM HUCKEL's PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. 1788.] TRIAL OF WARREN HASTINGS. 269 turies England and France had been injuring each other's trade as much as possible. It seemed to Pitt best that the two countries should buy of one an- Pitt's other what each country could best produce. A financial commercial treaty between them was made. Pitt ^°^^^' wished to extend the same principle by establishing freedom of trade between Ireland and England. But English manufacturers were too much afraid of Irish competition, and the scheme fell through. Pitt also thought that England should try to pay her national debt, and he planned a Sinking Fund by which this would be accomplished in time. For a while this scheme worked well; but in the great wars which soon fol- lowed, all thought of paying the debt was for a time abandoned, and the money already saved for the pur- pose was used to prosecute the war. Another scheme that Pitt had much at heart was a reform of the repre- sentation in the House of Commons. But the time had not yet come for this, and the plan failed. In 1785 Warren Hastings returned home from India. While drawing up their India Bill, Fox and Burke had come across acts that seemed like extortion and tyranny on the part of Hastings. They now Trial of presented Articles of Impeachment; and as Pitt HastTn"gs refused to interfere in the matter, Hastings was ('"SS). impeached. The trial began before the Peers in 1788, and continued at intervals for seven years. Hastings was finally acquitted. In 1788 the king again became insane. The Prince of Wales was the boon companion of Fox, who now proposed that the prince should, of his own ^,^g authority, assume the title of regent, with full ''-sency power. Of course this meant the overthrow of (17SS). 270 GEORGE III. [1793- Pitt. It happened that Pitt and the doctors re- garded the king's attack as temporary. Pitt thought it would be more agreeable to the king when he re- HEAD-DRESS OF A I.ADY (MRS. ABTNGTON), ALOUT I77S : FROM THE " EUROPEAN MAGAZINE." covered to find affairs as little changed as possible. He therefore proposed to limit the powers of the re- gent, at least until the king should become, in the opinion of the doctors, permanently insane. To this I793-] FRANCE DECLARES WAR AGAINST ENGLAND. 27 1 Fox would not listen, and while the two sides were still debating, the king recovered, and Pitt was ^rmer than ever in his office. In 1789 began the great social upheaval in France known as the French Revolution. At first most Eng- lishmen sympathized with the movement. But The when it became apparent that the revolutionary Re^."i[). leaders were aiming to establish a democratic ^'""• form of government, many Englishmen took alarm. At the same time societies for political reform sprang up in England. Edmund Burke became the leader of those opposed to change. He wrote a book called "Reflections on the French Revolution." In this book he enlarged on the democratic tendencies of the French Revolution, and called the Frenchmen "the ablest architects of ruin that have hitherto existed in the world." For four years Pitt maintained a policy of non- intervention. But in 1792 France offered aid to all nations who would overthrow their rulers. In 1793 those who sympathized with the excesses in France •grew more outspoken in England. Pitt, now himself alarmed, called out the militia, and carried an Act through Parliament giving the Government France control of the movements of aliens, or strangers, w^r^^^^ visiting England. France now declared war ^^l^iand on P^ngland, although she was even then at war ('/93)- with nearly all western Europe. At the time, Pitt's attitude of repression and opposition was greatly applauded. But some historical writers now regard it as a very great political blunder. During the early years of this war Pitt contented himself with hiring Austria and Prussia to fi":ht Ens:- 272 GEORGE III. [1797. land's battles on the land. He also helped the royal- ists to return to France to stir up disaffection and re- Pitt's hellions against the central government atParis. policy, Qf course the English navy was not idle. As the war went on, Pitt's home policy became more and more repressive. The most insignificant publications and disturbances were treated as the beginnings of revolution. But there seems to have been no real danger, although there was much suffering among the working-people, and although the king was more payments than oncc insultcd in the streets. Then fol- suspend- . . ed lowed a great scarcity of money in England. (I/97)- ]vjy(>}^ ^vas sent abroad by the Government, and much was hoarded at home by careful people. At length the cash in the Bank of England was so dimin- ished that the Government ordered it to suspend specie payments, and they were not resumed till 1S19. In this year, 1797, two mutinies broke out in the fleet, — one at Spithead, by the Isle of Wight, the Mutinies other at the Nore, in the Thames. The sailors fleet ^ were soon brought to terms, and many of their (1797)- demands granted. A few months later some of these very seamen won the battle of Camperdown over the Dutch and French fleet. France was now at peace with all the rest of Europe, and as she could not, owing to this disaster at Camper- down, attack England directly, she sent an army Invasion "^ of to seize Egypt, which lies on the road to Eng- ^^^ ' land's possessions in India. The leader of this invasion was Napoleon Bonaparte. On his way to Egypt he seized the island of Malta, which up to that time had been in the hands of the Knights of Malta. All this time there was in the Mediterranean a great 1779-] IRELAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 273 English fleet commanded by Admiral Nelson; but he did not find Napoleon's fleet till the French Battle general had been on shore about two weeks. ^tjI^^ Nelson attacked it as it lay at anchor in Aboukir ''/yS)- Bay, and captured or destroyed all but two of the French ships. The French army never left Egypt. But in 1799 Napoleon returned home, and made himself ruler of France. We must now turn to Ireland ; for the r^rench now helped the Irish against England, as tormerly they had assisted the Scots. The Irish Roman Catholics formed the great mass of the population of Ireland, but they were ruled over by the small minority of English and Scottish , , , ■' JO Ireland Protestants. Successive conquests had given in the nearly all the power to the Protestants. They teenth regarded the Irish Catholics as a half-barbarized "" "'^^' and degraded race, much as some of our ancestors in this country regarded the negro. An Irish Roman Catholic could not marry a Protestant. He could not serv^e on a grand jury, practise law, or act as a magis- trate. He was not allowed to carry arms, and it was against the law for him to educate his children through Roman Catholic teachers. He was compelled to pay taxes for the support of the Established Protestant Church, which he detested. And finally he could neither sit in any Parliament nor vote for a member of any Parliament. During the American Revolution the English troops previously stationed in Ireland were sent to America, and an association of Protestant Volunteers was The formed to preserve the peace in Ireland. In t\er""' 1779, under the lead of Henry Grattan, the ('"79). Volunteers turned against the Government, and some 18 274 GEORGE III. [179S. modifications of the trade laws were made. In 1782 the Catholics joined the Protestants in urging their demands, and the Rockingham ministry so far yielded as to give up the right of the British Parliament to legislate for Ireland. The ideas of equality forced on the world by the French Revolution spread to Ireland, and in 1789 a The great association of Catholic and Protestant oniTe^ Irishmen — The United Irishmen — was formed. iriTif'^ In 1792 and 1793 two Acts were passed, repealing men. the morc odious laws against the Catholics, and even allowing them to vote for members of the Irish Parliament. But as no Catholic could sit in that Parliament, this last right really amounted to little. Later a bill was introduced to allow Catholics to sit in Parliament. But the king became convinced that if he assented to this he would violate his coronation oath, which obliges him to maintain the Protestant Church as established l^y law. The plan was abandoned. The Irish leaders now thought the only way to secure their rights lay in complete separation from Great Britain. To counteract them the Protestants formed a secret society, calling themselves Orange- men, in memory of William of Orange. The Rebellion ' ■' ^ (1796- discontented Catholics appealed for aid to the ^^ ' P^rench, and in 1796 a P^rench fleet anchored off the Irish coast. A storm arose, and no Irish appeared, and the fleet returned to France. When the French- men were gone, the Irish rose in various places. The rebellion was soon put down with much ^'igor and great cruelty by General Lake. The only conflict worthy the name of battle was at Vinegar Hill, in 1798. In 1799 the P^rench decided to invade P2ngland, and also iSoo.] THE UNION. 275 attack her on her weak side in Ireland. But the French and Spanish fleets were thoroughly be^itcn by the English, off Cape St. Vincent, and nothing came of this attempt. Lord Cornwallis now became Lord Lieutenant, or Governor, of Ireland. He had for his secretary Lord Castlereagh, a young Irish Protestant. They ,^,j^ soon decided that the only cure for Irish Union troubles was a union with England, like the union made with Scotland in the early part of the century. Pitt had already made up his mind that this would be the best policy. So Cornwallis and Castle- reagh secured a majority of the Irish Parliament to vote its dissolution. In 1800 the Act of Union passed the Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland. By this Act Ireland was to send one hundred commoners to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom; while the Irish peerage was to be represented in the House of Lords by twenty-eight Irish peers, elected for life. The Irish Catholics had not opposed the Union, probably because they expected Catholics would be allowed to sit in the Parliament of the United King- dom. What promises Pitt and Cornwallis may have made is not known. But Pitt, when he found Emmett s that the king would not permit any con- Rebellion cessions to be made to the Catholics, felt ^ ' obliged to resign. In fact, the Irish Catholics gained nothing by the Union. Their discontent resulted in Emmett's Rebellion in 1803. It was easily put down, and Emmett was hanged. Pitt was followed by Addington, whose principal re- commendation for office was the favor of the king. By this time Napoleon had conquered most of west- 2/6 GEORGE III. [1805, ern Europe, while the EngHsh had been successful Peace of wherevcr their navy could be used to advan- Amiens. ^^^^^ There seemed to be no way of attacking each other directly, and in 1802 peace was made at Amiens. This peace, however, did not last long. Neither party trusted the other, and neither France nor Eng- land acted in perfect good faith. In addition, England ^^^ furnished a refuge to Frenchmen hostile to renewed Napoleon, and from London they attacked (1803). 1 • • 1 . him m the newspapers with great violence. So in 1803 the war began anew. It lasted till 181 5, and was waged by England and her allies against the ambitious designs of Napoleon, who took the title of Emperor of the French. Napoleon's first idea was to invade England, and he made great preparations to embark his army at Boulogne. He had control of the fleets of France, Holland, and Spain, and determined to combine them against the English fleet, and thus make the passage for his army to England secure. But now once more the English showed their great superiority on the water. Admiral Nelson caught the French and Spanish fleet Trafalgar ofC Cape Trafalgar. He hoisted at his mast- (1805). head his famous signals, which read, " England expects every man to do his duty ! " The allied fleet numbered thirty-three line-of-battlc ships, and seven smaller vessels. Nelson had with him but twenty- seven ships. Of those forty ships of the allies only eight ever reached a friendly port. It was only on the sea, however, that the French were defeated. On the land they were everywhere victorious. The Austrians joining the English, Napoleon captured one Austrian iSoy] TORY MINISTRY. 277 army at Ulm, in October, and overthrew a combined army of Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz on De- cember 2d, 1805. Meantime William Pitt had again become Prime Minister. His health luid always been poor, p.^^,^ and these disasters to England's allies, coupled ^econd "^ Ministry with the attacks of the Opposition at home, (1S04- proved too great a burden. In January, 1806, he died. A ministry was now formed, comprising men of all parties ; hence it wa^ called the min- All the istry of "All the Talents." Lord Grenville (,806-^ and Mr. Fox were its leading members. Fox '^°7' was Foreign Secretary. He had always maintained that if Napoleon were treated fairly, he would act honestly in return In a short time he was undeceived; and, worn out by care and dissipation, he followed Pitt to the grave. Side by side the two are buried in West- minster Abbey. " The mighty chiefs sleep side by side. Drop upon Fox's grave the tear, 'T will trickle to his rival's bier ; O'er Pitt's the mournful requiem sound, And Fox's shall the notes rebound." Left to himself, Lord Grenville tried to modify the laws against the Catholics' serving in the army, and was dismissed by the king. A Tory ministry was Tory then formed, which lasted, with some changes, (']s"o!'J^ till 1827. Mr. Spencer Perceval was at first the '^^7)- real head of this Government, though for a time he only held the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The two most remarkable members were Mr. George Can- ning and Lord Castlercagh, Secretaries for Foreign Affairs and War, 2/8 GEORGE III. [1S09, While these changes had been taking place in Eng- land, Napoleon had in turn defeated the Prussians, the Russians, and the Austrians, In fact the Czar of Russia became for a while the ally of Napoleon, who, to strengthen his position, married a daughter of the Emperor of Austria. He Napo- leon's successes LORD NELSON : FROM THE riCTURE BY AIUIOTT IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. was now master of Europe, with the exception of Spain and England. He again turned his attention to the invasion of the latter country. During all this i8o9.] THE PENINSULAR WAR. 279 time the Danes had preserved a good-sized and well- manned fleet. Napoleon resolved to add these vessels to those he still controlled, and with their aid attack- England. But Canning heard of Napoleon's plans, and sent an English fleet to Copenhagen which seized the Danish fleet and brought it to England. Thus once again all fears of invasion were removed. Napoleon then conquered Spain, and tried to make his brother king of that country. But the Spaniards were a high-spirited people, and resisted this foreign domination. The English at first sent the Span- Spanish rGsist3.ncG- iards money and arms, and then an army to help them. But these early efl"orts produced little per- manent result. In 1809, too, the English tried to seize Antwerp, and failed most ignominiously. This same year, however, a considerable force of soldiers , „ ■' Arthur was sent to Portugal, and the Peninsular War Weiiesiey, really began. The commander of the English Weiiing- army was Sir Arthur Wellesley. He had already done good service in Portugal, and at a still earlier day had achieved great distinction in India, where he had won, against great odds, the battles of Argaum and Assaye. In a short time he drove the French from Portugal, and, entering Spain, beat them at Talavera. For this victor}' he was raised to the peerage as Lord Wellington of Talavera. Before long he was compelled to retire to Lisbon, near which town, at Torres Vcdras, he had constructed great works to shelter his armv. On his retreat „, f' ' The he destroyed or carried away every eatable Penin- ^ ^ ^ sular War thing; and when the French reached Torres (1S09- Vedras, they could not attack him, and retreated ' ^^ ' back to Spain again, to avoid being starved. Many 28o GEORGE III. [1814. English writers regard tliis as tlie turning-point of the war, and say that the lesson taught by Wellington at Torres Vedras saved Europe. At all events, from this time on, Napoleon was attacked, first on this side, and then on that. We cannot follow W^ellington's campaigns THE DLTKE OF WELLINGTOX : FROM A liUST BY FRANCIS IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. in detail. For years the war went on with varying for- tune. At last, in 181 3, Wellington overwhelmed the French at Vittoria, and, forcing them north over the Pyrenees, compelled their surrender at Toulouse in 1814. Rut on the day of this surrender Napoleon was no longer Emperor. In 18 12 he quarrelled with the Czar, i8i2.] WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. 28 1 and invaded Russia. Of his great army a mere fraction returned to France. The Prussians and Austrians joined the Russians. Napoleon, defeated at Leipzig, re- ^^^ treated from Germany. The allies pressed on, leon's downfall. while Wellington entered France from the south, and Napoleon abdicated. He was allowed to retire to the little island of Elba. Louis XVI. 's brother became king of France as Louis XVIIL, and the allies held a great Congress at Vienna to undo, if possible, the work of the French Revolution and Napoleon. Lord Castle- reagh and Wellington, now become Duke of Wellington, represented England at this meeting. While all this had been going on in Europe, England had become involved in a war with the United States. As one means of injuring Napoleon, the English „. , Government had issued a proclamation, or Order 1S12 with the in Council, as it was called, declaring all the United States ports of Europe, from Brest to the Elbe, closed or blockaded to commerce. Napoleon had replied with the Berlin Decree, declaring Great Britain blockaded. Now there was some excuse for this first Order in Council, as the English were actually blockading the ports of France and Holland. But Napoleon could not keep a French fleet on the sea, and, what was still more laughable, at this very moment when he declared the commerce of England at an end, his own soldiers were wearing clothes made in England. Orders in Council and Decrees now followed in quick succession. It happened that the only neutral nation possessing any ships at that time was the United States, and these decrees ruined man}' American shipowners. Then, too, there was another cause of disagreement with England ; for English cruisers were in the habit of stopping Amer- 282 GEORGE III, [1815 ican ships, and seizing any British seamen they found on board. As British and American seamen looked much aHke, many Americans were seized, and much irritation was aroused. The war broke out in 18 12, and lasted till 1 8 14, when it was concluded by a treaty made at Ghent. The principal result of the war for America was the loss of the fishery rights the Americans enjoyed under the treaty of 1783. As for England, the war diverted resources soon to be sorely needed elsewhere. The allies did not get on very smoothly in their dis- cussions at Vienna, nor did Louis XVIII. win the good Napo- will of the French people. In March, 181 5, return Napoleon landed on the southern coast of (1815). France. All the troops sent to oppose him went over to his side, and he reached Paris without any trouble, and once more ruled France as Emperor. The allies dissolved the Congress, and determined to crush Napoleon at once, before he could consolidate his power. The Duke of Wellington (the " Iron Duke," as his soldiers called him) took command of the English and Belgians in Belgium, while a strong Prussian army under Marshal Bliicher marched to his aid. The Russians and Austrians entered France from the east. Napoleon determined to attack Wellington and Bliicher before they could unite. He defeated the Prussians Waterloo, June iSth, at Llguy. and then marched to Waterloo, and ''■ attacked Wellington on June i8th, 1815. For hours the English maintained their ground, even after the Belgians had fled. At length, in the early evening, the Prussians appeared. They attacked the French with vigor, and in a short time all was over. Napoleon fled to Paris ; thence to the seaboard, where he tried to 1819] COMMERCIAL DEPRESSION. 283 embark for America. That plan failing, he surrendered himself to the English. To their keeping he was con- fided by Europe. For six years, till his death, in 1821, he lived on the island of St. Helena, strictly guarded. The next five years were marked by great distress and suffering in England. During the war Englishmen had been obliged to rely upon England alone ^ . -^^ ^ ^ At;ricul. for food. The price of meat doubled, and tmai —.-. distress that of breadstuffs increased threefold. This great rise led to undue extension of grain-raising, and to a great rise of rents. At the return of peace prices of breadstuffs fell nearly one-half. Great num- bers of farmers were ruined. The demand for labor in the fields declined, and there was great suffering throughout the farming districts. The land- comLaw owners were represented in Parliament, how- °^ '^'5- ever, and a law was passed forbidding the importation of wheat till the price of English grown wheat had reached a high figure. This helped the farmers, but increased the distress of the manufacturing population. During the years of war great inventions were made in the arts, and steam began to be used to drive machinery in large factories. Manufacturing by hand was still practised, and the hand-workers saw with dismay a machine set going in their neighborhood, capable of making as much in one day as all the workers of „ _ ° _ -^ Commer- the village could make in a month. The working- ciaide- 111 11 -11 pression. men thought the trouble was with the new inventions, and bands of them went about breaking machinery. They were called Luddites, from a ^Yhe crazy lad, John Ludd, who set the evil example. Luddites. The working-men now fell under the influence of agita- tors. In 1 8 16 a meeting was held on Spa Fields, in 284 GEORGE III. [1819. London, to bring about the seizure of London Tower, then, and now, used as a storehouse for arms. Other meetings followed, and the Government on its part adopted very severe measures to prevent disturbances. GEORGE III. IN OLD AGE : FROM TURNER'S MEZZOTINT. The most famous of these meetings was held at Man- chester in 1 8 19. The people assembled to listen to The Man- Mr. " Orator " Hunt, a popular speaker. The Massacre authorities of the town ordered the officers to (1819). arrest him while speaking. Some militiamen were sent to help the officers. The crowd was so great that these few men could do nothing. Now thoroughly i820.] THE REGENCY. 285 alarmed, the magistrates ordered a body of cavalry to disperse the mob. The cavalry charged with drawn sabres, striking right and left. The crowd became panic-stricken, and a terrible scene resulted. How many were killed and wounded will never be known. The meeting was held on St. Peter's Fields, and the massacre is known as the " Manchester Massacre," or " Peterloo." The massacre, however, gave new strength to the ministry, and the Six Acts were passed, placing almost unlimited power to deal with disturbance Acts in the hands of the Government. A few months later, in the beginning of 1820^ King George III. died. Since 18 10 he had been hopelessly insane, and for the last few years he had been blind also. His son, The the Prince of Wales, had governed for him as /^s^q"^'' Prince Regent; he now became king as George 'S^°) IV. The Tory ministry which had followed " All the Talents " was still in power, though Perceval had been murdered by a lunatic in 18 12. Lord Liverpool suc- ceeded him, and remained Prime Minister till his death, in 1827. Canning and Castlereagh had quarrelled in 1809, and had both resigned. In 1812, however, Castle- reagh returned to office as Foreign Secretary. 286 GEORGE IV. [1820. CHAPTER XXXV. GEORGE IV. 1820-1830. THE Prince Regent, now become king, was the last of the " Four Georges," and the worst. He seems to have had no redeeming quahty either as man Queen or rulcr. His first effort as king was to get rid Caroline, of his wife, CaroHnc of Brunswick. His father had compelled him to marry her as a condition of paying his debts. Queen Caroline was by no means a high-minded woman, but George IV. was so detested that popular sympathy was on her side. A Bill of Pains and Penalties to divorce the queen and to deprive her of her rights was introduced into Parliament, but popular feeling was too strong, and the plan was aban- doned. Queen Caroline was refused her proper place at the coronation, however, and died of a broken heart. In 1822 Lord Castlereagh died, and George Canning again became Foreign Secretary. Castlereagh had sym- pathized with the despotic attempts of the European monarchs to revive the old state of things in their coun- tries, and to resist all future attempts at revolution. Canning was liberal, and at once England's foreign pol- icy underwent a complete change. He could not effect much on the continent of P^uropc, as there the military power of the kings was supreme. No sooner would a revolution break out in one state than all the neiijhboring i828.] WELLINGTON-PEEL MINISTRY. 287 kings would send their armies and put the rising down. In 1820-25 the Spanish American colonists, in com- mon with the people of the mother-country, rebelled. The rising in Spain was put down by France. It was tiien decided to send over an army to crush the rebellion in the colonies. But the English fleet was supreme on the water. Canning declared that Spain might put down the rebels if she were able, but that neither France nor any other power should help her. England and the United States then joined in declaring to the world that the repressive systems then employed in the Old World should not be extended to America. This, with other declarations, forms what is called the " Monroe Doc- trine." Of course England was glad to see Spanish America free, as in this way new markets would be open to her commerce ; but, as far as Canning, at least, was concerned, a love of freedom was probably the leading motive for the action of the English Govern- ment. In 1827 Lord Liverpool died, and Canning became Prime Minister. The Conservative members of the ministry, Wellington, Lord Chancellor Eldon, „. „. Robert Peel, and some others, at once resigned. ton-Peei They and their adherents then attacked Canning (1S28- so fiercely that he was unable to bear the strain, ''■^°^' and died. For a few months his friends continued in office, and then the Duke of Wellington became Prime Minister. Robert Peel, however, was the real leader in this ministr}', which lasted till 1 830. George Canning was Prime Minister for only a few months ; but his ministry none the less marks the downfall of the repressive system forced on England by the excesses of the French Revolution. From 1827 288 GEORGE IV. [1827. dates the period of social and constitutional reform which has lasted to our own time. Curiously enough, two of the greatest reforms of this whole epoch are associated with Wellington and Peel, the leaders of the conservative Tories. In his earlier years Peel had been mi ^•^^^^Hl '^Bl ^H^O^^-^ ^H 1 CANNINr, : FROM STEWARDSON S PORTRAIT. Secretary for Ireland. He had introduced the con- stabulary, or rural police, and had so energetically up- held the rights of the Protestants as to earn the title of " Orange Peel." There was in Ireland a leader named Daniel O'Connell, a lawyer, a few years older than Peel. Under his guidance was formed a society called the Catholic Association. Before long the Association be- came in some parts of Ireland more powerful than the 1829.] CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 289 luiglish Government; and at a time when the Govern- ment could not collect the church tax, the Association collected what was called the Catholic rent, or annual contribution to carry on the agitation for Catholic relief. Canning favored the Catholic claims, and carried a bill for their relief through the House of Commons, which was thrown out by the Lords. At the same time a law was passed suppressing the Catholic Association. O'Connell obeyed the law, while carrying on the organi- zation by other means. In 1828 O'Connell discovered a new way of showing the Catholic power. In Ireland all freeholders, or leaseholders for a long term of years, to the extent of two pounds, or forty shillings, could v'ote for Members of Parliament. It so happened that ^ , ,. ^^ Catholic the landlords in some parts of Ireland had Emancipa- broken up their estates into forty-shilling " free- holds," to increase their political influence. O'Connell now took advantage of this, and caused himself to be elected to Parliament for County Clare. Of course he could^not take his seat; but the power of the great agitator was apparent. Thirty thousand Irish peasants assembled at Ennis. Not a disturbance of any kind occurred, and the only drunken man in the place was O'Connell's coachman, who happened to be an English Protestant. This meeting convinced both Wellington and Peel that something must be done; and in 1829 the Catholic Relief Act was passed. By it Catholics might sit in Parliament on taking an oath to support the state and not to injure the Ivstablished Church. The first Catholic to enter Parliament was the Duke of Norfolk, premier peer of luigland, whose family name of Howard recalls the defeat of the Armada and so much that is 19 290 GEORGE IV. [1830. memorable in English history. Just before this Act was passed, a bill for the relief of Protestant Dissenters had become law, so that now all Christian subjects of the English Crown residing in the United Kingdom enjoyed equal civil rights, except in a very few trifling instances. At the same time the Irish franchise was raised from forty shillings, or two pounds, to ten pounds. Thus at the very time the Catholics were admitted to Parliament, the right to vote was taken away from the great mass of Catholics in Ireland. The next year George IV, died, and was succeeded by his brother, Duke of Clarence, as William IV. ROYAL ARMS, FROM 1816 TO 1S37 : THE HANOVERIAN SCUTCHEON, SURMOUNTED BY A ROYAL CROWN. 1S30.] CAUSES OF DISCONTENT. 291 CHAPTER XXXVI. WILLIAM IV. 1S30-1837. / \ T/'ILLIAM IV. had been brout,^ht up in the navy. * V He resembled the bold, bluff admiral of the olden time. People called him the Sailor King, and trusted and liked him. It was fortunate that he was a popular man, with a good deal of common sense, The new though he had little of good breeding. Eng- '^'"s- land was, in fact, on the eve of a great revolution. The movement was guided wisely and well, and the nation took a very great step forward. Had an attempt been made to suppress the revolution, no one knows what might have happened. There was vast discontent and misery. Manufacturing towns had doubled and trebled in population in fifteen years, yet nothing was done to help the people who increased England's material prosperity, ofdis- Parliamcnt was in the hands of landowners, who seemed to think that the factory hands might starve, pro- vided the price of English-grown grain were maintained. It was felt that the merchants and manufacturers should be more fully represented in Parliament, and there fight for the good of their working-people and of them- selves. The condition of the representation in Parlia- ment was, to an American, almost incredible. A large and prosperous town like Birmingham sent no member ig2 WILLIAM IV. [1830 to the House of Commons, while a ruined mound of earth showing where Old Sarum once stood, but now without a single human inhabitant, sent two members. These were the two extremes. But places whose in- habitants could be counted on one's fingers sent two OLD SARUM : P'ROM AN ENGRAVING PUBLISHED IN 1843, SHOWING MOUND. (it IS NOW OBSCURED BY TREES FROM THIS POINT OF VIEW.) members apiece, while great centres of commercial and manufacturing life were not represented at all. Then, again, in towns where many substantial people lived, only a very few could vote. In other places all the voters were tenants of some great landowner, and must vote as he directed, or be turned out of their farms. These last boroughs were called " pocket boroughs," and some great noblemen possessed several of them. So it came to pass that a majority of the House of Commons was returned by a few hundred persons, 1832.] THE GREY MINISTRY. 293 mostly landowners ; and many of them were members of the House of Lords. And this was not all ; the right to sit in Parliament was a great honor, and many a rich man was willing to pay a large sum of money to a borough which would return him to Parliament. Some boroughs habitually sold the right to represent them. The nation, awaking to the fact that the House of Commons no longer represented England, was begin- ning to demand a change. While public feeling was in this state, the Duke of Wellington made a speech to the effect that the English constitution was perfection itself, and should not be changed at all. He was obliged to resign, and the Whigs, after nearly fifty years' exclu- sion from office, took control of the government. P2arl Grey was the new Prime Minister. For nearly half a century he had advocated reform, and now at last, at the very end of his life, he was to bring The Grey it about. The new Lord Chancellor was Henry "^'n'^t^y. Brougham, who was even more radical in his views than Earl Grey. The leader of the House of Commons was Lord Althorp, eldest son of P^arl Spencer. He was no speaker, but was so honest and upright that men of all parties respected and trusted him. To Lord John Rus- sell, a younger son of the Duke of Bedford, who held at the time a minor office, was given the task of bring- ing in the reform bill. Lord John Russell proposed to disfranchise the smaller boroughs, giving the seats thus gained to the larger towns and to the counties. He also proposed to make the voting qualification more uniform. When the names of the boroughs to be disfranchised were read, the members of those boroughs broke forth into shouts of loud laughter. Lord John Russell was supported by Mr. Thomas Bab- 294 WILLIAM IV. [1832. ington Macaulay (afterwards Lord Macaulay) and Mr. Stanley (afterwards Lord Stanley, and, still later, Earl Derby). Mr. Macaulay's speeches best show in many respects the arguments for reform. The Government was soon defeated on a minor point, and Parlia- ment was dissolved. The new election was marked by much rioting and disorder. It resulted in a great majority for the reformers. Led by Sir Robert Peel, the Opposition opposed the second reform bill by all means within its power. It finally passed the Commons by a great majority. But the Lords were so hostile to reform that, foreseeing the defeat of the bill, Earl Grey resigned. The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel then tried to form a ministry. But they could not hope to face the great reform majority in the Commons, and Earl Grey returned to office, but only on one condition ; namely, that the king should create enough peers to turn the hostile majority in the House of Lords into a majority favorable to the measure. This was not neces- sary, however ; for when the Duke of Wellington became convinced of the earnestness of the king, he and enough other hostile peers left the House, and allowed the third reform bill, which had meantime been passed by the Commons, to pass the Lords also. In this way the Reform Act of 1S32 — the First Reform Act — became law. The Revolution of 1688 ^, had transferred power from the Crown to the The ' First aristocrac\'. The Reform .\ct of 1833 trans- Reform ' . • 1 ,1 Act ferred power from the aristocracy to the middle "^'' ' class, as it is called in P^ngland, consisting mainly of merchants and manufacturers. It was, there- fore, the first step in the process which has changed aristocratic En^jland of 1800 to the democratic England i833-] THE FACTORY ACT. 295 of to-day. The Mouse of Lords still remains, but it was shorn of all its real power when it became clear that the king and ministry could at any moment control it by creating a sufficient number of new peers to form, in connection with the minority, a new majority. In 1833 the first Reformed Parliament met, and for the next few years reform after reform was accom- plished. For centuries there had been no system of slavery in Great Britain. Slavery in its harshest forms still continued in some of the colonies; but up to 1S33 the capitalists interested in its maintenance had pre- vented abolition. This was now decreed; but Emanci- the emancipation was to extend over several pation of years, and the Government agreed to pay the slave-owners nearly one hundred million dollars as com- pensation. Sir Fowell Buxton carried the final measure through the Commons, the chief English abolitionists having been Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce. The latter died just before the bill abolishing slavery became law, though not before the success of his life- work was assured. While doing so much for the laborers in the colonies, Parliament could hardly refuse to do something for the laborers at home. In fact, the condition of an English factory operative was scarcely better than that of a West India slave. In 1833 a Factory Act was -phe Fac- passed, mainly through the persistent efforts ^°''y ^^t. of Lord Ashley. After this no woman could legally be employed in a factory more than twelve hours a day; no person under eighteen years of age more than twelve hours; no person under thirteen more than eight hours; and very young children could not be employed at all. In 1847 the hours of all persons under eighteen were still further reduced to ten hours. 296 WILLIAM IV. [1837. The Poor Laws passed towards the end of Queen EHzabeth's reign were still in force. Great abuses had grown up, till the honest, hardworking laborer was un- Reform able to Compete with his pauper neighbor who PoOT^aw received a small allowance per week from the (1S34). parish in addition to his wages. This was called out-door relief. Of course it is easy enough to see that the man who received this out-door relief could work for lower wages than the man who depended on his wages alone. Yet such was the condition of affairs in the agricultural districts. This was now changed, and in the future any one applying for aid must go to the workhouse and there work. The discontinuance of out-door relief caused great hardship for a time, but in the end the honest laborer has been greatly benefited. A few years later the same system was extended to Ireland, and, as the condition of things there was dif- ferent, it caused considerable suffering. In 1834 the king, without any valid reason, dismissed Lord Melbourne, who had taken Earl Grey's place at the head of the Reform Ministry; and .Sir Robert Peel, Peel- with the Duke of Wellington, tried to form a ton '"^' ministry. In this ministry Mr. Gladstone first ministry appears. A general election was held in 1835, iS35)- and Peel issued a sort of party platform. It was called the Tamworth Manifesto, because it was addressed to the electors of Tamworth, which place c , Peel represented in Parliament. In this, he hecond ^ ' Melbourne accepted the Reform Act as passed. But the ministry _ '■ (1835- Liberals were nevertheless successful, and Lord Melbourne again became Prime Minister. In 1837 William IV. died, and his niece Victoria became Queen. I837-] VICTORIA. 297 CHAPTER XXXVII. VICTORIA. QUEEN VICTORIA was a young woman of eighteen when she became queen, in 1837. She had been carefully brought up by her mother, and soon won the hearts of Englishinen by her dignity and good sense. In 1840 she married Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. But he was never crowned as king consort, and was called simply the " Prince Consort" to his death. Lord Melbourne continued Prime Minister, and for a time the change of sovereigns made little or no difference in England's policy. In fact, affairs were now in a satis- factory condition in Great Britain. But in Ireland, Canada, and Jamaica a spirit of resistance to the Government was the rule. The Melbourne Government seems to have tried to govern Ireland fairly. Indeed, this was necessarily so, as it was obliged to rely on the votes of the Irish mem- bers of the House of Commons. An under-officer of the Government even went so far as to tell a delegation of Irish landlords that " property has its duties as well as its rights," — a proposition which quite astonished the Irish landowners. But the landlords were so strong in the House of Peers that the ministry was able to do very little for the Irish. In Canada there was open rebellion. The French and English colonists did not get on well together, and 298 QUEEN VICTORIA. [1837. / 1/ QUEEN VICTORIA, AT HER ACCESSION : ENGRAVED BY THOMPSON AFTER A PORTRAIT BY LANE. 1S40.] CANADA ACT, 299 the English settlers themselves did not like being governed by England. The Canadian Constitu- Canada tion was suspended, and Lord Durham was sent ^'^'^'^■*°^' over as High Commissioner, or dictator, as he might well have been styled. He acted so despotically that popular feeling was strongly against him, and he was obliged to return home. In the end Parliament passed an Act uniting the two Canadas, and giving the colonists control of their local affairs. In 1867 a confederation of all the British North American colonies was set on foot. The new constitution resembles in some par- ticulars that of England, and, in more particulars, that of the United States. Canada now has almost complete control of its own internal affairs, though the direction of diplomatic relations is retained by England. It should be remembered, however, that Parliament still has the substantial control of Canada in its own hands, and by merely passing an Act can any day alter this whole arrangement. All the British North American colonies, save Newfoundland, now belong to this confederation. The trouble in Jamaica grew out of the scheme for gradual emancipation. While the planters owned their slaves it was in general good policy to treat their dependents fairly well, and thus prolong the period of their usefulness. Now, however, when the planter would lose his slaves' services at the end of a few years, he was naturally tempted to get as much work out of them as he could while they were yet his. The Jamaica planters in particular treated their slaves with great harshness. The English Government acted somewhat hastily in the matter, and these planters refused to pass any laws in their colonial assembly till their demands 300 VICTORIA. [1841. should be complied with. A bill to compel the Jamaica colonists to submission was introduced into the Com- mons. The Opposition saw the opportunity, and de- feated the Government, upon which the Melbourne ministry resigned. Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington now formed a ministry. It so happened that the ladies in The Bed- attendance upon the queen were the wives, que^sdon'^ sistcrs, daughters, aunts, cousins, or friends of (iS39)- the Melbourne ministers. The Duke of Wel- lington said that, as he had no small-talk, and Peel had no manners, it was necessary to have some ladies about the queen to explain the plans of the Government. Sir Robert Peel' accordingly wrote to her that it would be necessary to change some of the chief ladies of her household. The queen, alarmed at the prospect of having to surround herself with strangers, refused, and the Melbourne ministry returned. But they had a majority no larger than before, and were sneered at as " hiding behind the ladies-in-waiting." However, they struggled on till 1841, when there was a general election. Lord Melbourne proposed to reform some of the trade laws. He was opposed by Peel on this issue, and, when Parliament met, Peel had the majority and became Prime Minister. Two great questions occupied Sir Robert Peel's atten- tion during his administration. The first was the ever- ^,. ,> , present trouble in Ireland, which will be best Sir Robert ' Peel's considered later. The second was the over- (1S41-' turning of England's long-cherished financial ■* ' policy. During the wars with France the manufacturing industr\' in I^ngland had received a great impetus, which carried it safely o\er the dull period 1841.] SIR ROBERT PEEL'S MINISTRY. 30I after Waterloo. The opening of the ports of South and Central America «;ave England's commerce new life. It now became evident to several men skilled in think- ing on such subjects that, however it might be with other nations, the protective system was no longer suited to England. Mr. Huskisson was the leader of this new school, and he set on foot a revolution in England's commercial policy. As a member of Canning's minis- try he opened the British ports to ships of such coun- tries as would open their ports to British vessels. He also lowered the duty on several raw materials, — wool and silk, for instance; and this made it easier for British manufacturers to compete with those of other countries. It was impossible to repeal the duty on breadstuffs, but a scheme was proposed by which they might be im- ported when the price was high in England. The Duke of Wellington, however, would not hear of such legislation, and it accordingly fell through. But not long afterwards the Duke of Wellington himself was obliged to carry through just such a law, and this was in force in 1841. Sir Robert Peel had won. in the elec- tion of 1 84 1, as the leader of the Protectionists. But he himself was in no sense a Protectionist. His mind worked slowly, and he had a habit of waiting to see which way the country was going before he full}- decided on his course. Before long he became con- vinced that if England was to become a great manu- facturing country, the tariff must be revised, and as many articles as possible added to the free list. In five years the duties on raw materials used in the arts were either entirely repealed or greatly reduced. The most notable instance, perhaps, was the abolition of the duty on cotton, — a product almost entireh^ imported 302 VICTORIA. [1S45. from America. This duty amounted to 680,000 pounds sterling, or over three milHons of dollars. A great The In- deficit vvas thus created in the revenue ; but come lax. ^.j-^jg ^^^g made good by a tax on incomes of so many pence in the pound. While Peel was thus reducing the taxes on the manu- facturers' supplies, the manufacturers themselves were agitating for a repeal of the taxes on breadstuffs. The Anti- ^ ^ ^ . . Corn-Law The leaders in this agitation were Richard Cob- '^ ' den and John Bright. John Bright was one of the greatest orators of the time, and Richard Cobden had a remarkable power of explaining intricate details of trade to popular audiences ; so that together they exer- cised an irresistible influence. A great association, called the Anti-Corn-Law League, was established. Pamphlets were distributed broadcast, and Bright and Cobden, trav- elling from one end of the country to the other, soon aroused a tremendous interest in the subject of free trade in grain. The working-people deserted their usual lead- ers, and money poured in from all sides to aid the new crusade. This demonstration was the one thing needed to hasten Peel's mental processes. The argument of the agitators was something like this. English manufac- turers possessed cheaper coal and iron than any other manufacturers. Under the new laws other raw materials would be as cheap to them as to their competitors. One thing alone was dear, and that was labor. Labor was dear because the workers must have good wages wherewith to buy the high-priced English-grown grain, or starve. Now, if they could be permitted to buy cheap grain, — imported from America, for example, — they would be equally well off with much lower wages. Finally, if the English manufacturer could get labor 1845] PEEL AND DISRAELI. 303 at a low rate, he could undersell all his rivals, manu- facture for the world, and give steady work to all. Therefore the Corn Laws should be repealed. It so happened that at the precise moment when Peel, under the pressure of the Anti-Corn-Law League, was coming to this conclusion, an event occurred which made at least a temporary suspension of those laws a necessity. This event was the famine in Ireland. The people of Ireland lived principally on potatoes. Grain was grown in Ireland, but it was sold to England, and the proceeds were used to pay the rent due The Irish from the farmers to their landlords ; almost (^§44- none of it was consumed by the Irish people. '^■*9)- They lived on potatoes, and they did this because that was the cheapest food. In 1844-45 ^ disease, or blight, called the potato rot, swept over western Europe. In England and Scotland it did not matter so very much, but in Ireland in a few months the food supply of millions of men, women, and children was destroyed. It was now absolutely necessary, if the Irish, and even the English, poor were to live, that the Corn Laws should be at least suspended. Peel saw that if they were once suspended they could never be re-im- posed, and he therefore proposed their total repeal. Now Peel's supporters were mainly landowners ; and to many of them his conduct seemed simply treason- able. Among the younger men of the Conservative party was Benjamin Disraeli. He had begun life as an extreme Liberal, or Radical ; but now he was a Conser- vative of an extreme type. Up to 1 845 his career as a politician had not been remarkable, but he now saw that his opportunity had come. Placing himself at the head of the discontented landowners and other believ- 304 VICTORIA. [1845. ers in " protection," he attacked Sir Robert in Parlia- ment with all the venom and energy of a venomous and energetic nature. He called the Government " an organized hypocrisy," and clamored for " vengeance on ■ 1 ^^^^^H H 1 1 l^^^^riK^ ^H ^H H ■Ft >^ ■ ^^^H ^M H ^^^V- ^^^"^^ ^^1 ^^H ■ 1 !H W / ^m m .^1 m i 1' v^H SIR ROBERT PEEL ; FROM THE BUST BY NOBLE IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. the betrayer." Another convert to the Conservative party was Lord Stanley, who, as a Liberal, had been one of the Reform ministry. In the earlier days of Peel's own ministry Lord Stanley had sat in the cabinet. He now found himself leading the attack on Peel's policy in the House of Lords. Disraeli's vengeance was not long delayed. Among other measures. Peel had brought forward a Coercion Bill for Ireland. The I849-] LORD JOHN RUSSELL'S MINISTRY. 0^5 Protectionists and Liberals joined hands, and, on the very day when the bill to repeal the Corn Laws passed the House of Peers, Peel resigned. Sir Robert Peel never again held office. But during the remainder of his life he helped Lord John Russell and the Liberals carry out the policy he had begun. As a political leader and financier, no modern English- man stands higher than he. He had also the highest clement of true statesmanship, — the ability to sub- ordinate one's former convictions to the necessities of the time. Peel left behind him a devoted band of dis- ciples, — the Peelites, as they were called. The most notable of them was William Ewart Gladstone, who, even at that time, had a seat in the cabinet. The famine in Ireland continued till 1849. In 1847 " soup kitchens " were opened in the worst districts, and English writers claim that after their establishment no one died from actual starvation. But with , , , , Lord John the famine came a dreadful fever; and diseases Russell's , r ^ • -11 1 , • ministry not always latal now mvanably resulted m (1S46- death. "The people," to use the words of''" Mr. Stuart Trench, " died on the roads, and they died in the fields; they died on the mountains, and they died in the glens ; they died at the relief works, and they died in their houses, — so that little streets or villages were left almost without an inhabitant ; and at last some few, despairing of help in the country, crawled into the towns, and died at the doors of residents." How many died from the famine will never be known. The popu- lation of Ireland in 1841 was over eight millions. In 1851 it was but six and one half millions, — over one and a half million less. As a great many chiklren must have been born in the intervening years, more than one 20 306 VICTORIA. [1848. and a half million men, women, and children must have perished in those years or have emigrated. During the years following the passage of the Catholic Relief Acta party of young and enthusiastic Irishmen "Young J^^d been gradually supplanting O'Connell. In Ireland." jg^^^ j^g jj^^^ ^j^j ^^ic party of " Young Ireland " carried on and extended the agitation he had begun. They established a paper, called the " Nation," at Dublin, and openly advocated separation from England as the only cure for Ireland's ills. Nor were they averse to armed resistance. In 1848 a rising came, and proved a complete failure. Famine and unsuccessful rebellion brought only miseiy to Ireland. Many landlords seized the opportunity, and turned the tenants out of their ^, farms by the wholesale. Entire estates were The •'clear- cleared of their former occupants in a week. This was done, the landlords said, that a new and better class of laborers might be introduced. Thou- sands of Irishmen, with their families, sought a new home in America. In their emigration they were often assis- ted by their former landlords and by people in England, who seemed to think that partial depopulation, and not a just social organization, w\as the remedy for Ireland's wretchedness. " The Irish rebellion was not the only rising in Europe in 1848. In fact, there were so many rebellions in that year that it is still often mentioned as the " Year of Revolutions." In England there was no actual rebel- lion, but the radical reformers were very active. They The were called the Chartists, because they had em- Chartists. j-jQ^iJej their demands in a document called "The People's Charter." They demanded equal elec- toral districts, vote by ballot, annual elections, universal 1848.] THE CHARTISTS. 307 manhood suffrage, a repeal of the property quahfication for members of the House of Commons, and the pay- ment of members. To an American these things seem reasonable enough ; but to Englishmen thirty and forty years ago they portended anarchy. The Chartists pre- sented petition after petition, — the largest in 1848. It was to have been carried to Parliament at the head of an enormous procession ; but the Government refused to allow any such body to march. One hundred and seventy thousand citizens of London enlisted as special constables, and soldiers and artillery were placed to command the principal streets and bridges. The whole demonstration turned out a complete failure. More- over, when the Government clerks counted the names attached to the petition, they found that there were, not five millions, as the Chartists claimed, but only two millions. Worse yet, many signatures were forgeries, as " the Queen," " Duke of Wellington," " Peel," etc. ; while others, like " Pugnose " and " No Cheese," were plainly written for the purpose of filling as much paper as possible. Since then, however, many of these de- mands of the Chartists have been granted. The principal man in Lord John Russell's ministry was Lord Palmerston, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Lord Palmerston thought he knew more about foreign affairs than any one else, and did many things without telling the queen, or even his fellow ministers. Now, it happened that the queen and her husband — both Germans by extraction — took a great interest in German politics. They felt that Lord Palmerston did not treat them with due respect, and the queen wrote to that effect to Lord John Russell. The next year, 185 1, Prince Louis Napoleon, nephew of the great 308 VICTORIA. [1852. Napoleon, seized the Government of France. Lord Palmerston distrusted the French people, and felt a good deal of contempt for them. In an off-hand way he told the French minister at London that Napoleon had done right. As Palmerston had not even asked the Prime Minister what he thought about it. Lord John Russell was furious, and Palmerston was dismissed. ,„^ _,. Soon after, he and his personal friends, joining: Ihe dis- '- ' J & missal the Opposition for the moment, defeated Lord of Lord ^^ Palmer- John Russell on an unmiportant matter, and compelled his resignation. Lord Stanley, now Earl Derby, became Prime Minister, with Mr. Disraeli as leader of the House of Commons. Two other events connected with the Russell ministry deserve mention. The first is the entire repeal of the Navigation Laws, in 1849, and the opening of The first ^ . . ^-^ ... Derby the first international exhibition in the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park, London, in 1851. This last was a great success in every way. The surplus was used to found the South Kensington Museum for the advancement of art. In November, 1852, Parliament came together, and the opponents of the Derby-Disraeli ministry were in the majority. That ministry resigned, and, the Aberdeen PecHtes joining the Liberals, a coalition minis- ministry. - , -IT 1 A 1 1 T-. • try was tormed, with Lord Aberdeen as rnme Minister. Ever since the time of Peter the Great the Czars of Russia had cast longing eyes on Constantinople and the provinces of Turkey in Europe. Nich- Crimean olas was now Czar, and he thou^jht the time to War . . ^ (1S54- seize Constantinople had arrived. He spoke ^ ^^ ' of the Sultan of Turkey as "the sick man of Europe," and actually proposed to divide his territo- 1857.] THE SEPOY MUTINY. 309 rics with England. But England was jealous of Russia, and when Nicholas attempted to conquer Turkey, Eng- land and France joined forces with the Turks, and soon drove the Russians back. The war then took the form of a siege of Sebastopol, — a great fortress and naval station on the Crimea, as the peninsula reaching out into the eastern end of the Black Sea is called. During the winter of 1854-55 the English troops suf- fered terribly from cold and lack of suitable clothing, and even of the very necessaries of life. The English people declared that this suffering was due to the inca- pacity of Lord Aberdeen; and he and some others opposed to the war resigned. The ministry was reconstructed, with Lord Palmerston as ston . ministry Prime Minister. The war was now carried on (1S55- with more vigor, and great reforms were made ' ^ in the condition of the English soldiers, under the leadership of a woman, Florence Nightingale. In 1855 Sebastopol was surrendered, and early in 1856 peace was made at Paris. Scarcely was this war ended when a terrible rebellion occurred in India. The skill, energy, and unprincipled extortion of Clive and Warren Hastings laid a The Sepoy foundation upon which later governors built a /is-'-l^ splendid empire. In 1856 England ruled, either '^5^^- directly or through subordinate princes, nearly the whole peninsula of India. The number of English soldiers in India was small. The expedient of employ- ing natives as soldiers, and teaching them to use Euro- pean arms, had been adopted. The native soldiers in the English service were called Sepoys. The English Government of India endeavored to rule according to modern ideas, and they found it very hard 3IO VICTORIA. [1858. work. Indian society was founded on a mass of castes, or fixed grades, between which there was no inter- minghng. In trying to simplify the collection of taxes, the English, perhaps without realizing it, gave a great blow to this system. The good-will of the upper caste was thus lost, and the suspicions of all the natives were aroused. At this inopportune moment the Eng- lish Government decided to equip the Sepoy regiments with the Enfield rifle, in place of the old-fashioned musket. In those days, before the epoch of the breech- loader, the rifle was loaded from the muzzle, the car- tridge being covered with grease, to enable it to slip down the barrel more easily. Now, animal grease was an abomination to the native, whether Hindoo or Mohammedan. To his suspicious mind this seemed a direct blow at his religion, — especially as the end of the greased cartridge had to be torn off by the teeth before loading. The Sepoys mutinied, and in 1857-58 there were fearful massacres, especially at Meerut and Cawnpore. After a time, and largely through the efforts of Havelock and Sir Colin Campbell, the mutiny was suppressed. Its principal results were the repeal of Pitt's India Act, and the transference of the govern- ment of India to the Crown. In 1858 an Italian, Orsini by name, attempted to murder Napoleon III., Emperor of the French. It was asserted that Orsini planned his scheme in England ; and to prevent England's being made the basis of future attacks, Palmerston introduced a bill increasing the penalty incurred by those conspiring to murder, no matter where the murder should be attempted. This awakened great jealousy among the English people, who are very sensitive about anything which looks like iS59-] THE "FANCY FRANXHISES." 311 "foreign dictation." Some went further, and declared that Palmerston was acting under direct orders Second from Napoleon. He was obliged to resign, ofs^raeTi and Earl Derby again became Prime Minister, J^J'^^gi"^^ with Mr. Disraeli as his right-hand man.,^ 1859)- This second ministry of Earl Derby is memorable for the passage of an Act to admit Jews to Parliament. Hitherto all members of Parliament had been jews obliged to swear to certain things on " the true t^ paru^- faith of a Christian." Ten times over, bills had '"^nt. been brought in to remove this disability. The Com- mons were in favor of the measure, but whenever it had come before the Peers they had rejected it. It was now agreed to let each House regulate its oaths as it pleased. The Commons immediately changed the form of its own oath, and in July, 1858, Baron Rothschild, the great banker, took his seat in the House of Commons. The next spring Mr. Disraeli brought forward a scheme for further reform in the representation in Par- liament. Mr. Disraeli disliked any scheme of ^, The '• fancy representation based on mere numbers. He franchises" thought, however, that all classes in the com- "' munity should be represented, and in his Reform Bill of 1859 he tried to provide for this. He proposed, in short, to give the right of voting to doctors, lawyers college graduates, those receiving a pension from the Government, or owning Government bonds, or having money in a savings-bank, and many other classes of persons. The Opposition laughed at these " fancy fran- chises," as they were termed, and defeated the bill. A general election was then held, and when Parliament assembled, Mr. Disraeli found himself in a minority in the Commons. He and Lord Derby resigned, and the Liberals aiiain took office. 312 VICTORIA. [i860. Lord Palmerston was again Prime Minister with Lord John Russell as Foreign Secretary. Mr. Gladstone now definitely threw in his lot with the Liberal party, and LORD JOHN RUSSEI.I, : FROM A I'AINTINC; 1;V MR F. (;RANT, IN POSSESSION OF DOWAGER COUNTESS RUSSELL. became Chancellor of the Exchequer, or minister of Second finance. Lord Palmerston was now an old man, and for the rest of his life, which ended with his ministry, he tried only to keep his party together, and to avoid all causes of excitement at home. In i860 Lord John Russell brought in a Reform Bill ; but no interest was taken in the subject, Palmer- ston ministry (1S59-' 1S62). iS6t.] THE COTTON FAMINE. 313 Palmerston even staying away from the debates ; so Russell withdrew the bill, and no reforms of any kind were attempted, except in the finances. By this time free-trade doctrines had been accepted as true by the great mass of Englishmen. In 1859 a commercial treaty with France caused a large , , ■' ^ Gladstone's extension of English commerce. Mr. Gladstone financial , , ... , . policy. seized the opportunity this treaty gave him to rearrange all the taxes. In 1845, 1163 articles v/ere taxed when imported. By 1859 the number had been reduced to 419. During these years of Palmerston's second ministry Mr. Gladstone carried bills reducing the number of articles taxed at importation to forty-five ; and yet all the time the revenue went on increasing. This was the more remarkable because during these years the Civil War was raging in America, and England's trade with the United States was seriously impaired. The most serious blow to trade, however, was the almost entire stoppage of the American cotton supply during the Civil War. Upon this cotton the =' ^ The working-people of Manchester, Liverpool, and Cotton other manufacturing towns depended. When the supply ceased, the mills stopped, and no more wages could be earned. Starvation stared the working-people in the face, and that through no fault of their own. Yet they recognized that the cause of the American Union was the cause of free labor the world over, and deserv- ing of the sympathy of the working-class. But it must be remembered that this class had at that time little or nothing to do with governing England. ^ - It was far otherwise with the upper classes. Mr. Gladstone placed himself squarely on the side of the 314 VICTORIA. [1863. Confederate States. So did other Liberal leaders, one of them going so far as to say that the separation of _ , „ the North and South was desirable. Mr. John England's _ "^ policy Bright and the Prince Consort remained through- during ,-.,-, , . . , the Civil out the fneuds of those struggling in the cause of union and freedom ; and it required all their influence to prevent England's taking sides. The min- istry was soon assailed by both belligerents. The seceding States wished belligerents' rights granted them, even if England would not go farther and recognize their independence. The Southern Confederacy was, in fact, recognized as a belligerent ; that is, England determined to be neutral, and forbade either party using her ports as starting-points for hostile expeditions. The trouble was that the English law did not give the Government sufficient power to carry out this policy. Americans are apt to censure too severely Lord Palmcr- ston and Earl Russell for their actions during the strug- gle. Eor some unexplained reason, " English society " sympathized very strongly indeed with the seceding States, and Lord Palmerston needed all his tact and energy to prevent the ministry from being forced to take the side of the South. Charles Francis Adams was the American Minister at London during these The "Ala- years. He had a most difficult part to play. bama." ^^^ EngHsli-built privatccr, the " Alabama," escaped before the Government could make up its mind to seize her. Other and more powerful Confederate cruisers were on the point of being launched, when Mr. Adams wrote promptly to Earl Russell that such negli- gence on the part of the English Government was equivalent to war. The ministry awoke, and seized the cruisers. In the end, the insufficiency of her laws to 1867.] THE SECOND REFORM ACT. 315 prevent the fitting out of armed expeditions against friendly powers cost England fifteen and one-half mil- lion dollars, — this being the sum a Court of Arbitration held at Geneva awarded as damages to the United States. In 1865 Lord Palmcrston died, and Lord John Russell, who had been raised to the peerage as Earl Russell, took his place as Prime Minister. Earl Russell, with rather injudicious haste, now brought forward a Reform Bill ; but his party was not yet ready to vote for such a measure. He was ,, , ■' •' Derby- defeated, and resigned. Earl Derby and Mr. ujsraeii Disraeli for the third time took charge of the (1S65- government. In February, 1868, Earl Derby resigned, and Mr. Disraeli for nearly a year was Prime Minister. The Liberals, though disunited, formed a majority in the Commons, and Mr. Disraeli was obliged to act very nearly as they wished. He soon brought „. in a Reform Bill himself; and as the people Second ^ . ^ Refonn were now taking a great interest in the subject. Act a bill for this purpose was carried through. As '' '' ' finally passed, the Second Reform Act was really a Liberal measure, — more radical, in fact, than either Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Bright then wished ; and it greatly extended the franchise. Up to this time all inhabitants of the several towns and parishes in England had been obliged by law to pay taxes, or rates, for the support of the Estab- ,, , lished Church, whether they attended its services sory ■^ Church or not. On the motion of Mr. Gladstone, an Rates . , , . , . , . P 1 • • abolished. Act abohshmg compulsory taxation tor religious purposes in England was passed. Then he hit upon a scheme for uniting the divisions of the Liberal party. 3l6 VICTORIA. [1868. Ever since the time of Queen Elizabeth the English P^jj Church had been established in Ireland. Pro- of the bably not one-tenth of the people of Ireland Disraeli '■ '■ ministry evcr attended the services of the Established Church. The Catholics hated it, not merely because it was a Protestant Church, but also because it was a religion forced upon them by their conquerors ; nor did the great mass of the Protestants like it much better. Most of them were Presbyterians, and were opposed to the English Episcopal Church on their own account. The continuance of this State Church of an alien minority seemed to Enghsh Liberals to be a great evil. They joined Mr. Gladstone to disestablish it, or, in other words, to separate it from the State. In the general election in 1868 the Liberals were successful. Mr. Disraeli resigned, and Mr. Gladstone became Prime Minister. The first thing to be done was to redeem the promises made with regard to the Irish Church. This was now disestablished, notwithstanding the opposition Gladstone of many Peers, who dreaded a change in the (186S- relation of Church and State. In place of the ^ Irish Church an independent Episcopal Church was organized in Ireland. The passage of this measure opened the flood-gates for reform, and in the next five years one measure after another was carried. The most important of these was the Irish Land Act. To understand it and the reasons for its passage we must look a little more closely into the mode of holding Irish land in Ireland. This is the more necessary, ^^"of because to an American the whole land system (1870). Qf ^Y\e United Kingdom seems more or less absurd. In all settled countries arable land has a iS/o.] THE IRISH LAND ACT. 317 value. In America it is usually divided into moder- ately small estates, owned by the farmers who cultivate them. It is true that many American farms are mort- gaged ; but even then the title to the property is in the cultivator, as long as he pays his taxes, and interest on the mortgage. In England, however, the case is quite different. There, the arable land is owned in large pieces by a small number of rich landowners. These estates are usually divided into farms, which are let, with all their improvements, to the farmers who cul- tivate them. The terms in each case are determined by an agreement between the owner and tenant, called a lease. Now, English farmers are usually men of some means, who can use their money and brains in an- other way if they fail to find a farm to their tastes. In Ireland precisely the same conditions prevailed in theory. In practice, however, the land systems of the two countries were as unlike as two things of the same kind could well be. The soil of Ireland was owned by a small number of persons, as was the case in England; but there the similarity ceased. In Ireland there were few well-to-do farmers able to make satisfactory terms with the landlords, or to engage in any other occupa- tion. On the contrary, it was absolutely necessary for most Irishmen, if they wished to live in Ireland, to have land to cultivate ; there was nothing else for them to do. Thus the landlords were able to make their own terms with their tenants. Instead of providing a farm with a system of drainage and buildings all complete, the landlord only let the land itself to his tenants. If the tenant wished a house to live in, he must build one. If he wished a barn to place his crops in, he must build that. If he thoutjht draining would make the farm more 3i8 VICTORIA. [1870. profitable, he must make the necessary improvements himself. Then in Ireland there were few leases, and the great mass of the farmers were only tenants at will ; that is, the landlords might turn them out of their farms at will, the forms of law, of course, being complied with- MR. GLADSTONE, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY ELLIOTT & FRY, 1S80. This was called " eviction." Let us see how this sys- tem worked in practice. Suppose a tenant were to hire a farm and to improve the land so as to make it more profitable. The landlord may immediately raise the rent; for is not the tenant able to pay more rent? If the tenant demur, he may be evicted, and the farm let to some one else. So it was not for the interest of the iSjo.] THE IRISH LAND ACT. 319 Irish farmer to improve his property, or, in fact, to appear to be in any way prosperous, — not even to buy a new coat; for if the landlord saw him with a new coat on his back, he might be tempted to raise the rent. The inevitable result of such a system was bad cultiva- tion, and a conflict between the two classes, which went by the name of the " land-war." The Irish claimed a share in the land. They demanded fixity of tenure; that is, the right to one's holding as long as the rent was paid. They also demanded that the tenant should have the right, when he left his holding, to sell his improvements to the incoming tenant. Finally, they demanded fair rents, — the amount to be determined by a court instituted for that purpose. The first two de- mands were practically included under what was known as the " Ulster custom " of landholding, — the practice which prevailed in the Protestant northern province of Ulster. There the tenant enjoyed his holding as long as he paid his rent; and when he parted with it, he might sell his improvements under the name of " good- will." Mr. Gladstone now made the custom of Ulster, which was indeed that of some other parts of Ireland also, the basis of his Land Act. By this Act no tenant, as long as he paid his rent, could be turned out of his holding, or evicted, without receiving from the landlord compensation for disturbance. Compensation for im- provements was also provided, and the Ulster custom and other similar customs were legalized wherever they obtained. The other great feature of the Act was the attempt to establish a peasant proprietary, or small farm system, in Ireland. The clauses embodying this scheme were mainly the work of Mr. John Bright ; and they are hence 320 VICTORIA. [1871. called the " Bright Clauses." The Act as a whole, how- ever, was a complete failure, owing to the imperfections ^, of its details. No further attempt was made till The '■ "Bright 1880 to carry out the great principles of right and justice which gave rise to the bill. But by the Land Act of i88r the Government conceded a por- tion of the demands of the Irish for the " three F's," as they were called, — fixity of tenure, free sale, and fair rents. Since that time the Irish have sought to secure " home rule," or local self-government. It is scarcely conceivable that before 1870 there was no scheme for free elementary education in England. National ^^^ sucli was the case. Attempts had indeed education, ^ggj^ from time to time made to remedy this state of things ; but the Churchmen and the Dissenters were never able to unite on any measure. In 1871, however, a bill was passed providing for free elementary education to all not able to pay for it. At the same time secondary education was much improved, and the religious tests at the universities were abolished, except for holders of some fellowships. The next subject taken up was a reform of the army. Perhaps in all England there was nothing more anti- quated than the army organization ; and nothing more ., ,. . antiquated in that organization than the system Abohtion i & y of Pur- of allowing officers to choose their own rank chase in . . . „ . ^ the Army by purchasmg a commission, rromotions tor '' merit were rare, and splendid officers, deserv- ing well of the nation, might be superseded by rich men who could buy a commission. Yet the conserva- tive feelings of Englishmen were so strong that it was only by a doubtful constitutional expedient that this absurd practice could be abolished. The other reforms 1872.] BALLOT ACT. 32 1 in the army were not so strongly opposed, and its organization was in many ways very much improved. The two greatest reforms in the direction of good government were the separation of the civil service from party politics, and the introduction of vote by ballot. Civil service reform had been begun long be- fore, and it was now completed. But the Ballot . „ '- Ballot Act was an entirely new measure as far as Act (lS"2). Englishmen were concerned. Up to this time the voting had been entirely open, and every landlord knew how his tenants voted ; every manufacturer knew how his working-people — such of them as possessed the franchise — voted; and every parish priest in Ireland knew how his parishioners voted. Indeed, elections in Ireland were struggles between the landlord and the priests. The elections throughout the United Kingdom could in no sense be called free under such a system. In 1872 this was remedied by the passage of the Ballot Act, which introduced a system of secret voting. At the same time very stringent measures were taken for the prevention of bribery, which were made still more stringent in 1883. A further extension of the franchise was desirable, and this was won by the Third Reform Act in 1884. At the same time the old borough system was abandoned, and representation was based on popu- lation. Thus by the three Reform Acts, by the Acts forbidding contractors from sitting in the Commons, by the Acts against bribery, by the Acts separating the civil service from party politics, and by the Acts providing for secret voting, the whole structure of Par- liament has been changed. The House of Commons no longer represents the landowning and wealthy classes alone, but the whole mass of the people of the United Kingdom. 322 VICTORIA. [1S74. These changes, however much they promoted good government and freedom, could hardly fail to arouse strong opposition. And Mr. Gladstone's Government was weakened in another way. It so happened that, in 1870, a great war broke out between Germany and Mr. Glad- France. The Czar of Russia seized the oppor- fSeign tunity, when France was engaged in this life- pohcy. and-death struggle, to undo the work of the Crimean War, and to overthrow the Treaty of Paris of 1856. Single-handed, England could do nothing, and was forced to acquiesce in Russia's demands. This was not the fault of Mr. Gladstone or his ministry, but it no less made him unpopular. Then, too, while pursuing a policy of peace and justice in submitting the disputes between the United States and Great Britain to arbitra- tion, the Government acquired still more unpopular- ity, for the decisions of the arbitrators were in every way against Great Britain. All these things, added to the desire for rest from reform, turned people against Mr. Gladstone. A general election was held in 1874. The Liberals were defeated, and Mr. Disraeli became Prime Minister. The Conservatives had opposed these reform mea- sures as strongly as they could ; but they were now compelled to carry them out, while taking off Disraeli's the cdgc of the most distasteful changes. But ministry ^ . ^ (1S74- not much was done, in one way or the other, as far as the home land was concerned, and, in fact, the main interest of Mr. Disraeli's administration was in his foreign policy. This was in marked con- " Imperial trast witli that of his predecessor. In the first place, Mr. Disraeli believed in what he called an " Imperial polic}-." That is to say, he thought England 1875] PURCHASE OF SUEZ CANAL SHARES. 323 LORD liEACONSFIELD : FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY J. HUGHES, 1876. should take a leading part in the disputes of the world. Perhaps the most striking act of. his time was the pur- chase of the Khedive of Egypt's shares in the Suez Canal. That canal formed part of England's road to 324 VICTORIA. [iS8o. India. 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