tUBRARYQc^ 
 
 )f'mm^ 
 
 ?Aavaan#' 
 
 m 
 
 mmms//^ 
 
 clOSANCHEr^ 
 
 
 ^5»EUN1VEM{^ 
 
 :10SANCEIQ^ 
 1 
 
 
 
 ^lUBRARYQ^ 
 
 :lOSANCEl£r^ ^OFCAUFOff;^ 
 
 ^OFCMIFOR^ 
 
 ^1 * . 
 
 t 4«UNIVER% ^lOS«El£r^ ^^ 
 
 g ^
 
 Jf^ ^tUBRARW^ 
 
 AWUNIVERy/A. 
 
 
 ^lOSANCElfj^ 
 
 <5»EUNIVER% 
 •71 
 
 ^iSUDHVSOl'^ 
 
 %aMII-3K^ 
 
 ^lOSANCtia^ 
 
 
 
 ^t;UBRARY«^ ^t;UBRARYfl<;, 
 
 ^OJIWHOl 
 
 ^^aoJiiw-jo^ 
 
 ^OF-CAIIFOR^ ^OFCAl!F0J?>^ 
 
 "^AjflAiNdiK^ ^omm^ ^^ommw^' 
 
 ^lUBRARYOr. <5XIEUNIVER% ^10SANCEI%
 
 p 
 
 ^. 
 
 lilJllV
 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND 
 
 FREDEKICA ROWAN 
 
 WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS 
 
 LONDON AND EWNBUEGH
 
 Edinburgh : 
 i'linted by W. aad R. Chambers.
 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PASE 
 
 Chap. i. — the ancient britons, - - - - 1 
 
 ii. — king alfred and the saxons, - - - 11 
 iii. — godwin the swineherd, - - • 26 
 iv.— william the conqueror and the normans, - 38 
 v. — henry fitzempress and thomas a becket, - 53 
 vi, — richard the lion-hearted, and john the craven- 
 HEARTED, - - - - - 67 
 
 VII. — THE BARONS OF ENGLAND, - - - 79 
 
 VIII. — CONQUEST OF WALES — WARS WITH SCOTLAND, - 92 
 
 IX.— WARS WITH FRANCE— RICHARD II., - - 102 
 X. — HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK — WARS OF THE 
 
 ROSES, - - - - - - 112 
 
 XI. — HENRY VIII. — EDWARD VI. — QUEEN MARY, - l26 
 
 XII. — THE MAIDEN QUEEN, - _ . . 142 
 
 XIII. — JAMES I., - - - - - - 153 
 
 XIV.— KING CHARLES THE MARTYR, - - - 160 
 
 XV. — ENGLAND A REPUBLIC — THE RESTORATION, - 172 
 
 XVI. — THE REVOLUTION OF 1688 — THE GOOD QUEEN ANNE, 183 
 
 XVII. — THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK, - - - 193 
 
 718S79
 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Chapter I. — The Ancient Britons. 
 
 For tlie earliest accounts of our country we are 
 indebted to the Romans, that extraordinary 
 people of antiquity, whose love of conquest was 
 so great, that they could not rest until they 
 had brought almost the whole of the then 
 known world under their dominion. After 
 having conquered Gaul, as France was then 
 called, they must needs have Britain too : so in 
 the year 55 before our present era, Julius Caesar, 
 their general, fitted out a fleet, with which he 
 crossed the Channel, and landed on the coast of 
 Kent. But the ancient Britons, though rude and 
 barbarous, loved their independence, and fought 
 bravely for it ; and the Romans did not then
 
 2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 succeed in subduing them. About one hundred 
 years afterwards, however, the Britons, who were 
 divided into many petty tribes, each ruled by 
 its own chief, quarrelled among themselves, and 
 one of the chiefs begged the Romans to come 
 and help him against his countrymen ; and the 
 foreigners, having once got a footing in the I 
 country, gradually made themselves masters off 
 it, in spite of the desperate resistance of the 
 various tribes, and the repeated revolts of those 
 already subjugated. 
 
 At that time our beautiful England was 
 very different from what it is now. Comfortable 
 homesteads; highly- cultivated fields, teeming 
 with the various grains and vegetables fit for 
 the food of man, and regularly separated by 
 verdant hedgerows ; rich meadow-lands, affording 
 pasture for herds of splendid cattle ; populous 
 towns and villages, noisy with the sounds ol 
 industry and commerce — did not then, as now, 
 meet the eye on every side. The country was 
 covered with extensive marshes, large tracts oi 
 wild heath, and immense impenetrable forests, 
 in which bears, and wolves, and wild-boars 
 had their lairs ; while the habitations of the 
 natives were little better than those of the
 
 THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 3 
 
 wild beasts. Some of the Britisli tribes, who 
 dwelt on the coast opposite France and Belgium, 
 having probably had intercourse with the more 
 civilised people of those countries, had indeed 
 profited by their example. These wore woollen 
 garments of their own manufacture, decorated 
 their necks and arms with ornaments of brass 
 and iron, and dwelt in regular houses built of 
 wood, raised on circular foundations of stone, and 
 covered over with thatch. They also knew how 
 to till the ground and raise corn, which they 
 preserved from one harvest to another, by storing 
 it in pits dug in the earth, or in the cavities of 
 rocks. But in the remoter parts of the country 
 the people were clad in sheepskins, lived in rude 
 huts, constructed of the branches of the forest- 
 trees, and fed upon flesh and milk alone, as they 
 knew not how to grow corn or make bread. 
 Their only riches were their flocks of sheep, 
 which they pastured on the downs. In the 
 north of Britain the people were in a still more 
 savage state ; they possessed not even flocks of 
 sheep, but roamed about half-naked, and lived 
 by the chase, being but little superior to the 
 brutes they slew for their subsistence. 
 
 Among a people so low in the ^ale of civilisa-
 
 4< HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 tion there was not of course any regular system 
 of government ; yet there was among the Britons 
 one class of men to whom all the others bowed 
 in submission, and to wdiom they applied for 
 advice and guidance in matters of importance. 
 These were the Druids, or priests, who presided 
 over their religious ceremonies, and who go- 
 verned by means of the superstitious awe they 
 inspired. These Druids dwelt apart from other 
 men, in the deepest recesses of the forests, or in 
 dark caverns where no other human foot ever 
 penetrated. They never appeared before the 
 people, except when in the act of chanting their 
 wild hymns to their deities, or in offering up 
 sacrifices to them under some mighty oak of the 
 forest, or on one of those great piles of stone 
 which served them as altars, and which still 
 survive in some parts of the country, presenting 
 memorials of what it once was. Of the nature 
 of the religion taught by the Druids little or 
 nothing is known, for its doctrines were kept 
 strictly secret by the brotherhood ; but it sanc- 
 tioned the horrid custom of human sacrifices, 
 and altogether had a character of ferocity and 
 gloom. Over the imaginations of the people it 
 exercised a powerful influence; and the Romans,
 
 THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 5 
 
 thinkino: that the extermination of the Druids 
 could alone insure the subjection of the Britons, 
 undertook an expedition against their chief 
 seat — the island of Anglesey. With desperate 
 bravery the Britons defended this stronghold of 
 their ancient superstition ; the women mingled 
 in the carnage, exciting the men to die rather 
 than submit ; and the Druids gathered round 
 the sacrificial fires, and rent the air with their 
 wild incantations. But Roman discipline and 
 skill triumphed over barbarian enthusiasm. The 
 faithful Britons were cut down, the sacred oaks 
 of the island felled to the ground, and the 
 Druids immolated on the altars they had raised 
 for their victims. 
 
 With the Roman dominion Roman civilisa- 
 tion was introduced into Britain. Not only the 
 knowledge of agriculture and its attendant 
 blessings were spread through the land, but the 
 country was divided into regular provinces, ruled 
 by Roman officers ; and stately cities arose, 
 governed, according to the Roman customs, by 
 magistrates chosen from among the citizens. 
 These cities were connected by excellent roads, 
 were adorned with splendid temples and palaces, 
 with sumptuous baths, and theatres of elegant
 
 6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 design and structure ; and, when required, were 
 provided with water from afar, conducted by 
 means of aqueducts of scientific construction. 
 Strong walls were built across the north of the 
 country, on different points, to stay the inroads 
 of the barbarian populations of Caledonia (thus 
 Scotland was then called), and camps and for- 
 tresses were erected in various parts of the 
 country, to keep the Britons in subjection. 
 Gradually this people, if not won over to civi- 
 lisation, at least abandoned in part their rude 
 habits, and adopted the dress, the manners, and 
 customs, and in some measure even the lan- 
 guage of the Romans, and bent unresistingly 
 under the yoke. Their warlike spirit was broken 
 by the policy of their masters ; while the Chris- 
 tian religion, introduced among them in the 
 second century, no doubt also contributed to 
 subdue the wild ferocity of their character. But 
 after having ruled over them four hundred 
 years, the Romans, being pressed on all sides 
 by the barbarians, whose invasions led to the 
 downfall of the Empire, were obliged to with- 
 draw their legions from Britain. The inhabi- 
 tants of this country then rose at once in rebellion 
 against the foreign governors who ruled their
 
 THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 7 
 
 provinces and cities, subverted the system of 
 government introduced by their conquerors, and 
 gathered again each tribe under its hereditary 
 chieftain. The remembrance of the ancient 
 state of things had been kept alive by the 
 bards, who were the poets and historians of 
 those days ; and who, though they could neither 
 read nor write, transmitted from father to son 
 the songs which contained the history of the 
 past, and sang these to the people to the tune 
 of their harps. But soon the various tribes fell 
 out among themselves. One ruler was indeed 
 elected, who was to be superior to all the rest, 
 and to be king over all Britain ; but then every 
 chief thought himself more fitted for this office 
 than his brother chiefs, and the dissensions 
 became worse than ever. Following this civil 
 discord came famine and pestilence, and carried 
 off multitudes of those whom the sword had 
 spared ; and when the Picts and the Scots — two 
 warlike nations inhabiting Caledonia — broke 
 through the great walls erected by the Romans, 
 the Britons, having spent their strength in com- 
 bating each other, were unable to defend them- 
 selves against these invaders. 
 
 In this distress, Grworteyrn, or Vortigern, the
 
 8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 chief king of Britain, could think of nothing 
 better than again to invite a foreign people, 
 dwelling beyond the seas, to come over and help 
 him to put down his unruly neighbours. At 
 that very time there had arrived on the coast of 
 Kent three vessels, manned by Jutes and Angles, 
 tribes belonging to a nation calling themselves 
 Saxons, or the men with the long swords, who 
 were spread along the German coasts north of 
 the Elbe, and the Danish peninsula of Jutland. 
 These Saxons were a tall and robust race, with 
 fair hair and blue eyes, renowned for their 
 indomitable courage and great ferocity, and for 
 their love of war, which they made the busi- 
 ness of their lives. When, therefore, Gworteyrn 
 addressed himself to Henghist and Horsa, the 
 two brothers who, tradition says, commanded 
 the Saxon vessels, proposing to them to enter 
 the service of the Britons with their men, the 
 brothers readily complied. It was agreed that 
 they should bring over a considerable army of 
 their countrymen to serve against the enemies 
 of the Britons ; that, in return, they should be 
 paid and supported by this people; and that the 
 little fertile island of Thanet should be assigned 
 to them for their dwelling-place. In the isle of
 
 THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 9 
 
 Thanet, accordingly, the Saxons took up tlieir 
 abode, and organized themselves, as was their 
 wont at home ; and hence they went forth to do 
 battle against the Picts and the Scots, armed 
 with their formidable battle-axes, and headed 
 by their standard, on which was displayed the 
 figure of a white horse, emblematic of the names 
 of their two chiefs. Their victories over the 
 enemies of the country at first won for them 
 the friendship) and gratitude of the Britons ; but 
 their numbers were daily increased by new ar- 
 rivals, and their exactions daily became greater. 
 No longer content with the isle of Thanet, they 
 took possession of territories on the mainland 
 also ; and the Britons ere long became aware 
 that, by inviting these allies to their shores, 
 they had prepared anew the subjugation of their 
 country. Thus, indeed, it proved. According 
 to tradition, Gworteyrn, who had married the 
 beautiful Rowena, a daughter of Henghist, did 
 more than he ought to conciliate the haughty 
 foreigners ; and a numerous Saxon population 
 was shortly established on the coast of Kent, 
 with whom the Britons were obliged to treat as 
 with an independent nation. Henghist and 
 ITorsa having matured their plans, at length
 
 10 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 tlirew off the mask. They invited the leading 
 chieftains among the Britons, to the number of 
 three hundred, to a banquet, and then, in the 
 midst of the festivities, fell upon their unsus- 
 pecting guests, and put them all to death. This 
 atrocious act of treachery, instead of intimidat- 
 ing the Britons, as it was intended, roused their 
 spirit. War was at once commenced against the 
 foreign intruders ; but though the ferocious 
 Horsa fell in battle, Henghist survived, and 
 made himself master of the greater part of Kent, 
 which he erected into an independent kingdom, 
 and transmitted to his descendants. Encouraged 
 by the success of their countrymen, new hordes 
 of Angles and other Saxons, under powerful 
 leaders, made from time to time descents upon 
 the British coasts ; made common cause with 
 the Picts and Scots ; expelled or enslaved the 
 rightful possessors of the land ; and established 
 kingdoms, peopled by men of their own race, 
 who came over in ever-increasing numbers. All 
 the bravery and perseverance displayed by the 
 various tribes of Britons in defence of their 
 country proved of no avail ; for, being disunited 
 among themselves, their strength was broken. 
 Each was subdued in its turn ; until, one hundred
 
 ALFRED AND THE SAXONS. 11 
 
 and fifty years after the first arrival of Heng- 
 hist and Horsa, the Anglo-Saxons (for under 
 this name the Picts, the Angles, and the Saxons 
 were eventually comprised) were left masters of 
 the country from the coasts of Devon to the 
 banks of the Forth. Such of the Britons who 
 preferred independence, even in a poor and 
 rugged country, to slavery, sought refuge in the 
 mountains of Cornwall and Wales, or passed 
 over to the northern province of Gaul, called 
 Armorica, where they established themselves 
 along the sea-coasts, and gave the country the 
 name of Brittany. 
 
 Chapter II. — King Alfred and the Saxons. 
 
 From the people who thus superseded the 
 Britons, our country obtained its present name 
 of England, which is a corruption of Angleland 
 (land of the Angles), which was first changed 
 into Engleland, and ultimately into England. 
 But this did not come to pass for a very long
 
 12 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 while ; for many many years elapsed before the 
 various Saxon kingdoms were merged into one 
 monarchy, and the whole country was designated 
 by one name. The Jutes, the Saxons, the Angles, 
 and whatever other Teutonic tribes settled in 
 England, were, as we have said, ferocious barba- 
 rians, addicted to war as a pleasure and as a 
 means of livelihood, and were followers of a 
 religion which held up animal courage as the 
 first of virtues, and which taught the existence 
 of many gods, who delighted in turmoil and 
 bloodshed. The immediate effect of the inva- 
 sion of these people was therefore the introduc- 
 tion of a barbarism almost equal to that which 
 prevailed before the arrival of the Romans. 
 Their manner of proceeding was indeed such 
 as to make it appear at first as if murder and 
 devastation, not conquest, were their object. 
 Wherever they advanced, the flames of burning 
 towns and villages announced their presence ; 
 and the inhabitants, flying to the woods for 
 safety, were hunted like wild beasts ! But 
 gradually this sanguinary fury subsided : the 
 vanquished Britons were spared, as slaves, to 
 cultivate the fields of their new masters ; and 
 their property and habitations were no longer
 
 ALFRED AND THE SAXONS. 13 
 
 destroyed, but were taken possession of by the 
 conquerors. The Saxons then began to develop 
 in their new country the institutions they had 
 brought with them from the old, and which, 
 though rude, contained the germs of much that 
 was excellent. 
 
 Seven Anglo - Saxon kingdoms — which are 
 generally by historians comprised under the 
 name of the Heptarchy — were founded in the 
 country, and continued to exist side by side, but 
 not in unity and peace. On the contraiy, the 
 most ambitious among the rulers of these king- 
 doms were always encroaching on the territories 
 of their neighbours, and endeavouring to rise 
 above the others in strength and power ; and for 
 several centuries after the total subjugation of 
 the Britons, the history of their conquerors is 
 little more than a narrative of bloody struggles 
 for supremacy among the various princes. In 
 the seventh century of our era, however, a 
 change came over the spirit of the Anglo- 
 Saxons. The Christian faith had been partially 
 adopted by the Britons during the Roman do- 
 minion ; but this people, now reduced to a state 
 of slavery, were looked down upon with con- 
 tempt by their oppressors, who would never 
 c
 
 14 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 have condescended to learn from tliem the 
 Christian doctrines, so much at variance with 
 their own wild and ferocious superstitions. In 
 the year of our Lord 597, however, Pope 
 Grregory I., surnamed the Grreat, sent a party 
 of Christian missionaries, headed by a Roman 
 monk, by name Augustine, to preach the Chris- 
 tian faith to the Anglo-Saxons. Those of Kent 
 and Essex at once received baptism at the hands 
 of Augustine ; churches and monasteries were 
 founded ; and Christianity, and with it a change 
 of manners and morals, spread slowly and gra- 
 dually through the country. The Anglo-Saxon 
 kings set the example to their subjects. Fre- 
 quently educated in convents, or under the 
 guardianship of ecclesiastics, if they did not 
 cultivate learning and piety themselves, they 
 at least learnt to appreciate it in others, and 
 thus became the most devoted servants of the 
 church. They not only ceased to consider 
 warlike courage and acquirements the most 
 meritorious qualities in a prince, but, on the 
 contrary, learnt to look upon those days on 
 which they endowed a monastery or a church, 
 and were present at its consecration, as the 
 most glorious of their reign; for the Chris-
 
 ALFRED AND THE SAXONS. 15 
 
 tianity they had imhibed was mixed with much 
 of gross superstition, and therefore, in those 
 times, men thought more of endowing the church 
 than of doing what was agreeable to the laws of 
 God. But though the monks and ecclesiastics 
 partook of the superstitions of the times, they 
 were devoted to a life of study and peaceful 
 industry, and to the maintenance of good-will 
 among men, and therefore the establishment 
 of communities of such men throughout the 
 country could not but produce a most beneficial 
 effect. Very soon after their settling in Britain, 
 the Saxons had turned their attention to agri- 
 culture ; but under the guidance of the Chris- 
 tian monks, this branch of industry, as well as 
 many others, was greatly developed. The fields 
 were divided by hedges and ditches, and care 
 was taken to sow each seed in the soil best 
 adapted for it. Many of the large forests having 
 been cut down in process of time, in order that 
 more land might be brought under tillage, 
 the patches of wood attached to each farm 
 were now tended with care. Water-mills and 
 windmills were introduced, and cattle-breeding 
 and sheep-breeding encouraged, while immense 
 herds of swine were reared, which found
 
 16 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ample nourishment among the forests of oak 
 and beech. 
 
 But just as things were progressing thus 
 favourably, and the number of independent 
 kingdoms was gradually diminishing, rapine and 
 carnage, and all the miseries of a foreign inva- 
 sion, were again introduced into England by, 
 foreign barbarians. These new-comers were the 
 Northmen — Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians — 
 who, sprung from the same root as the Saxons, 
 were very much like what the latter were at 
 the time they invaded Britain. Still fanatically 
 attached to their ancient faith, these men looked 
 with hatred and contempt on those of their race 
 who had deserted their war-gods to bend their 
 knee to the " pale God '' of the Christians ; and 
 when the new faith was introduced into their 
 own country, and measures were taken to put 
 an end to their wild and predatory habits, 
 hordes of them took to their vessels, and sought 
 in other countries the liberty they had lost at 
 home. Some attacked Ireland, others founded 
 the duchy of Normandy in France, and others 
 again, landing on the coasts of England, or sail- 
 ing up the rivers into the heart of the country, 
 found willing auxiliaries in the Britons, who
 
 ALFRED AND THE SAXONS. 17 
 
 still nourished an unconquerable hatred to their 
 Saxon despoilers. Thrown back repeatedly by 
 the Saxons, the Danes as often returned ; and at 
 last, having made themselves entirely masters of 
 the kingdom of Northumberland, they marched 
 thence southwards, pillaging the towns, massac- 
 ring the inhabitants, and setting fire to churches 
 and monasteries ; for to shed the blood of Chris- 
 tian priests, to desecrate Christian temples, they 
 reckoned among their most glorious deeds. East 
 Anglia next came under their dominion, and 
 obtained a Danish king ; and thus two Saxon 
 and two Danish kingdoms now stood opposed 
 to each other. 
 
 At this time the crown of Wessex (West-sex), 
 one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, devolved 
 upon the head of a prince whose name stands pre- 
 eminent in the history of our country during 
 this period. In the year 871, Ethelred, king of 
 Wessex, fell in battle against the Danes, and 
 the people elected in his place his brother 
 Alfred, a young man of two-and-twenty years 
 of age, whose military skill and personal bravery 
 seemed to qualify him for the kingly office in 
 such troublous times. The young king did in- 
 deed for a time succeed in holding in check the
 
 18 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 fierce invaders ; but in spite of his abilities and 
 bis virtues — and he was the ablest and the 
 most virtuous of his time — ill-will arose between 
 him and his people. King Alfred knew not 
 only how to read and write — an uncommon thing 
 even for princes in those days — but he was 
 well versed in Greek and Latin, and acquainted 
 with the best authors in those languages ; and 
 proud of his own acquirements, he looked down 
 with disdain on the illiterate people over whom 
 he reigned. Though he governed wisely and 
 equitably, he did it in a manner which was at 
 variance with the notions and the feelings of 
 his subjects, and they hated him for his justice. 
 But Alfred, who kept haughtily aloof from high 
 and low alike, perceived it not until seven years 
 after his accession, when a formidable invasion 
 of the Danes again threatened his kingdom 
 with ruin. According to ancient usage, the 
 king sent round his messengers from town to 
 hamlet, bearing in their hands a naked sword 
 and a pointed arrow, the sign of war, to pro- 
 claim, " Let every man who is not a nithing (a 
 good-for-nothing), be it in borough or in open 
 country, come forth and aid the king ! " But 
 the people responded not to his call, and the
 
 ALFRED AND THE SAXONS. 19 
 
 Danes, profiting hj tlieir apathy, overran the 
 country. Alfred, who would not submit, and 
 who could offer no resistance without the aid of 
 his people, then fled to the woods ; and for 
 months the king of the land, disguised as a 
 shepherd, had no other shelter for his head than 
 the miserable hut of a poor cow-herd, who kindly 
 took him into his family without knowing who 
 he was. Here Alfred was obliged to perform 
 the menial services of the house — to bake the 
 bread, and cook the broth ; and here he learned 
 to know how much goodness of heart and other 
 excellent qualities may be found in connection 
 with ignorance and poverty ; and he longed to 
 save his people from the oppression of the 
 Danes, and to be their father as well as their 
 king. In the meanwhile the people, on their 
 side, had felt the difference between the govern- 
 ment of a just and enlightened, though proud 
 and haughty prince, and the rule of barbarous 
 foreigners. Alfred was thus enabled to gather 
 round him by degrees a faithful band of war- 
 riors, with whom he harassed the Danes until 
 he should be sufficiently strong to venture a 
 decisive battle. At length he determined to 
 make an appeal to the country, and with the
 
 20 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 forces he could gather, to make an attack upon 
 the camp of the enemy, situated on the borders 
 of Wiltshire and Somersetshire. Before doing 
 this, however, and to make sure of the victory, 
 Alfred, disguised as a harper, entered the camp 
 of the Danes, and amused them with his ballads 
 and songs, until he had made himself fully ac- 
 quainted with their position. He then returned 
 to his followers, who were concealed in the 
 forest, and sent out his messengers to the Saxon 
 inhabitants of the surrounding country, desiring 
 them to meet him on the eastern borders of 
 Sel-wood. During three consecutive days small 
 bands of men were seen moving to this spot 
 from various directions. At length all were 
 gathered at a place called Egbert's Stone : the 
 royal banner of Wessex was unfurled ; Alfred, 
 at the head of his troops, attacked the Danes, 
 and after the carnage of the day, was again 
 the powerful sovereign of a numerous people. 
 The Danes failed to rally, peace was concluded, 
 and the Danish kings were compelled by treaty 
 to pay tribute to the Saxons. The united king- 
 doms of Sussex and Kent now likewise pro- 
 claimed Alfred king, and all those parts of Eng- 
 land which were not occupied by the Danes
 
 ALFRED AND THE SAXONS. 21 
 
 were, for the first time since the Saxon invasion, 
 gathered under one crown. All misunderstand- 
 ings between Alfred and his people were now 
 at an end, and so totally forgotten, that history 
 hardly makes mention of them, but attributes 
 to this king everything that was excellent and 
 wise in the Anglo-Saxon institutions. 
 
 During their establishment in Britain, the 
 Saxon chiefs, who were originally elected for an 
 indefinite period, had assumed the character 
 and power of hereditary kings, round whom 
 gathered a warlike nobility, who likewise trans- 
 mitted their wealth and their privileges to their 
 posterity. But the Saxon people never aban- 
 doned the right, possessed by all nations of 
 Teutonic descent, of voting the laws by which 
 they were governed ; and the power of the 
 Anglo-Saxon kings was therefore always limited 
 by that of the national assembly, called "Wit- 
 tenagemot (assembly of the wise men), in which 
 originally all freeborn men had a seat and a 
 voice. However, when tribes extended into 
 nations, and the limits of the kingdom widened, 
 the number of such individuals grew too great 
 to admit of all being present in the assemblies, 
 and representatives were therefore elected ; and
 
 22 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 eventually it- came to be only persons holding 
 a certain rank and property who were repre- 
 sented or sat in the "Wittenagemot. As long as 
 the country was divided into many independent 
 kingdoms, each kingdom had of course its parti- 
 cular Wittenagemot : but when all were merged 
 into one monarchy, one assembly did the chief 
 business of the nation ; while each province or 
 shire continued to have its local assemblies, 
 called Sheremot (shire meeting) ; and each minor 
 division of the country its Folkmot (people's 
 meeting), for the discussion and settling of local 
 aifairs. The people were divided into four classes : 
 the nobles, the freeborn men, the freedmen, and 
 the slaves. Among the freemen, from the king 
 to the ceorl, the lowest in the scale, there were 
 gradations in rank, each rank having its pecu- 
 liar privileges and its peculiar duties. Highest 
 in rank after the king were the ealderinen, or 
 earls ; after these came the gerefas, or sheriffs ; 
 and then the thegnes, or thanes. The ceorls, 
 though freemen, had no rank. Below these 
 were the serfs, or slaves, who counted for no 
 more than brutes, and might be sold like cattle; 
 yet it seems that they were in general humanely 
 treated, and not often disposed of except along
 
 ALFRED AND THE SAXONS. 23 
 
 with the lands on which they dwelt, and which 
 it was their vocation to cultivate. Originally 
 all trades and handicrafts w^ere performed by 
 slaves, but as it became more and more cus- 
 tomary to liberate slaves, or to allow them 
 to purchase their own freedom, these men 
 gradually settled in towns, and commenced 
 business on their own account, placing them- 
 selves, however, under the protection of the 
 king, or some other great lord, and paying in 
 return certain dues and services. These men 
 became, in consequence, what were called free 
 burgesses ; and among these burgesses of towns 
 soon ensued associations for the promotion of 
 trade and commerce, called guilds. These guilds 
 or corporations came in course of time to possess 
 many political privileges also, and became im- 
 portant institutions in the state. Among the 
 remarkable ordinances issued by Alfred to insure 
 the public peace and the safety of individuals, 
 was that of subdividing the shires or counties 
 into hundreds, comprising one hundred families, 
 and these into tithings, comprising ten families, 
 and making each hundred and each tithing 
 responsible for the acts of the individuals be- 
 longing to it.
 
 24) HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 In spite of their excellent political institu- 
 tions, the Anglo-Saxons had been too much 
 occupied with war to attain a high degree of 
 social refinement ; and their manners were rude, 
 and their homes uncomfortable, though in some 
 arts they were considerably advanced, and in 
 dress, and in the costliness of their weapons, 
 they were even luxurious. Their workers in 
 metal, their weavers, dyers, and embroiderers, 
 were in high repute ; but when King Alfred 
 wished to divide his time regularly, so as not 
 unconsciously to give an undue portion of it to 
 his dearly -beloved books, none of his subjects 
 could present him with a clock, or even a sun- 
 dial. The king was obliged to have recourse to 
 an expedient of his own invention. He had 
 rushlights made, sufficiently long to burn from 
 one sunrise to another. These candles he 
 divided oif by notches into a certain number of 
 parts, and by the consumption of each part 
 he calculated the flight of time. But Alfred 
 soon perceived that the current of air througli 
 crevices in the walls made his candle flare out, 
 and upset his calculations ; so he bethought him 
 of hanging up pieces of tapestry to keep out 
 the draught, and this is said to be the origin of
 
 ALFRED AND THE SAXONS. 25 
 
 tapestry hangings in England. To King Alfred 
 is also attributed the foundation of the English 
 navy, and of the university of Oxford. 
 
 In spite of all that Alfred the Great did to 
 promote enlightenment among his subjects, by 
 establishing schools and universities, the science 
 of law, and of the administration of justice, 
 were in a state of infancy among the Anglo- 
 Saxons, as among most of the other European 
 nations of that period. "When the judges, in 
 their ignorance, and with the imperfect means 
 at their disposal, found it difficult to deteraiine 
 who was the guilty person in an intricate case, 
 recourse was had to what was called the judg- 
 ment of God. In these cases the guilt or inno- 
 cence of the accused was proved by their sub- 
 jection to certain ordeals, such as single combat, 
 in which the innocence of the victor was con- 
 sidered established by the fact of his having 
 conquered his opponent. At other times two 
 pieces of wood, wrapped up in wool, one of which 
 was marked with the sign of the cross, were the 
 means employed. Prayers having been pro- 
 nounced over the bits of wood, the priest took 
 up one, and if it happened to be that with 
 the mark, the accused was acquitted ; in the
 
 26 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 contrary case lie was declared guilty. In otlier 
 instances the accused was made to hold in his 
 hand a bar of red-hot iron, or to merge his hand 
 into boiling water, when his innocence or guilt 
 was proved by his coming off scathed or un- 
 scathed from the ordeal. Sometimes the sinking 
 or floating of the accused, when thrown into cold 
 water, was the test ; and at other times means 
 still more absurd and futile were adopted. 
 
 Chapter III. — Godwin the Swineherd. 
 
 During the reigns of Alfred's son and grand- 
 son, Edward the Elder, and Athelstan, the Saxon 
 monarchy was further consolidated, and the 
 Danish chieftains of Northumbria and East 
 Anglia were reduced to the state of subjects ; 
 and notwithstanding repeated revolts of the 
 Danes, and temporary successes, the power of 
 the Anglo-Saxon monarchy continued supreme 
 in England for upwards of one hundred years. 
 After the lapse of that period, Ethelred, sur- 
 named the Unready, because he never did the
 
 GODWIN THE SWINEHERD. 27 
 
 right tiling at the proper moment, ascended the 
 throne. During his reign, the piratical fleets of 
 the Danes again began to infest the coasts of 
 England ; and Ethelred, too indolent to employ 
 the repressive measures necessary, bought off" 
 their attacks with money. This proof of weak- 
 ness, however, only served as a new stimulant 
 to the rapacious Northmen. In the spring of 
 the year 994, Svend, king of Denmark, sailed 
 up the Thames with a fleet of eighty vessels ; 
 and in sign of his taking possession of the land, 
 planted a lance on the banks of the river, and 
 threw another into the waters of the first tribu- 
 tary stream he encountered. Again an enor- 
 mous sum of money, tendered by Ethelred, 
 bought off" the invaders ; but an act of cruel 
 and cowardly vengeance on the part of the 
 Anglo-Saxons soon brought them back in in- 
 creased numbers. Goaded beyond endurance 
 by the continued outrages of the foreign depre- 
 dators, the people, with the concurrence of the 
 king and his officers, entered into a great con- 
 spiracy to exterminate in one day all the Danes 
 remaining in the south and west of England 
 since the last invasion. Accordingly, on the 
 festival of St Brice, in the year 1003, at a given
 
 28 HISTORY or ENGLAND. 
 
 hour, men, women, and children, belonging to 
 the doomed race, were surprised in their houses, 
 and mercilessly put to death. Dearly did the 
 Saxons pay for this inhuman deed. Under pre- 
 tence of seeking revenge for the slaughter of his 
 countrymen. King Svend returned with a more 
 formidable fleet and army than before. Again 
 Ethelred, instead of standing up bravely in 
 defence of his people, oppressed them with bur- 
 thensome taxes, to enable him to keep oif the 
 Danes ; while the latter took his money, and 
 continued, nevertheless, to pillage and devastate 
 the country. At last the people, tired of two 
 tyrants, decided for the strongest. Ethelred, 
 v/ho had married Emma, sister of the Duke of 
 Normandy, fled to that country with his wife 
 and two younger sons, and Svend was proclaimed 
 king of England. At the death of Svend, which 
 took place the following year, and that of Ethel- 
 red, which ensued the year after, the struggle 
 for dominion in England was continued by their 
 respective sons, Canute (in Danish, Knud), and 
 Edmund, surnamed Ironside, for qualities the 
 reverse of those of his father. Ultimately the 
 rival princes, equal to each other in courage, 
 ability, and perseverance, and tired of a conflict
 
 GODWIN THE SWINEHERD. 29 
 
 which seemed to lead to no result, determined 
 to divide the country between them ; and on 
 Edmund's demise, Canute the Dane remained 
 sole king of England, 
 
 During the wars between Edmund and Canute, 
 and after a battle which had been lost by the 
 Danes, a Danish captain, by name Ulf, while 
 flying from the enemy, lost himself in a forest 
 unknown to him. Having spent the night in 
 vain endeavours to rejoin his comrades, he met, 
 towards morning, a young Saxon peasant driving 
 a flock of swine. Ulf, saluting the peasant, 
 asked his name, and begged him to be his guide 
 through the forest. " My name is Grodwin, son 
 of Ulfnoth,*' replied the driver ; " and if I mis- 
 take not, thou art a Dane. Foolish is the Dane 
 who asks aid of a Saxon ! '' But Ulf redoubled 
 his intreaties, and adding what he thought, to 
 a poor man, would be more irresistible than 
 prayers, he proff'ered a golden ring of great value. 
 The young Saxon took the ring, and having 
 contemplated it in silence for some moments, 
 returned it to its owner, saying — " Thy gifts I 
 will not take, but I will be thy guide." He then 
 led the stranger to his father's hut, concealed 
 him there until nightfall, and then prepared to 
 
 D
 
 so HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 conduct him to the Danish camp. At the 
 moment of starting, Godwin's father, addressing 
 the Dane, said, " It is my only son who is thus 
 confiding in thy honour ; but having once acted 
 as thy guide, he can never more have peace 
 among his countrymen. Prevail, therefore, upon 
 thy king to take him into his service." Ulf 
 promised to do this, and more ; and in reality, 
 when he returned to the Danish camp, he placed 
 the young cow-herd in a seat on a level with his 
 own (a sign of distinction among the Danes), 
 and treated him like his son. He also obtained 
 for him a grade in King Canute's army; and 
 Godwin having served the king faithfully and 
 ably in the wars carried on by him in Norway 
 and Sweden, for the purpose of joining the two 
 crowns to those of England and Denmark, which 
 already graced his brow, the young Saxon ob- 
 tained the rank of earl, and the government of 
 a province in his native country. 
 
 After having consolidated his position in 
 England, Canute endeavoured, by respecting the 
 manners, the customs, and the ancient laws of 
 the Anglo-Saxons, to gain the affections of his 
 English subjects ; and during his wise and 
 vigorous administration, commerce, agriculture,
 
 GODWIN THE SWINEHERD. SI 
 
 and the various arts of peace, began again to 
 flourish in the country. The king, who then 
 reigned with undisputed authority over four 
 realms, did not, you may be sure, lack flatterers 
 who would fain make him believe, that because 
 he was a successful conqueror, and a mighty 
 monarch, he was more than man. But if what 
 the ancient chroniclers tell us be correct, the 
 Dane, in his dealings with these flatterers, 
 proved that in truth he was more than a con- 
 queror, that he was a high-souled man, and a 
 humble-minded monarch. Among other things, 
 they have recorded of him that one day, when 
 walking along the sea-beach with his courtiers, 
 he placed himself within the line of high- 
 water -mark, and in order to have an oppor- 
 tunity of reproving them for their fulsome 
 adulation, he forbade the waters of the rising 
 tide to wet his feet. The waves of course 
 continued, nevertheless, to roll in, and the 
 king, having first severely rebuked them for 
 their disobedience, was at length obliged to 
 retreat. He then turned to his nobles and 
 said, " You have often told me that my authority 
 knew no bounds ; behold now its limits ; and 
 reserve in future such expressions for that
 
 32 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Sovereign to whom alone they can in truth he 
 apphed ! '' 
 
 With a view to conciliating the English, and 
 to gaining the alliance of the Duke of Normandy, 
 King Canute had married Emma, the widow 
 of Ethelred, and in dying, bequeathed the crown 
 of England to the son whom she had borne to 
 liim. But Hardicanute — such was the name of 
 the prince — being absent from England at his 
 father's death, Harold, a son of Canute by a 
 Danish princess, was proclaimed king by the 
 Danish party in England, and maintained his 
 position, being ultimately supported by Godwin, 
 the son of Ulfnoth the swineherd, now the 
 mightiest lord in the land. During Harold's 
 reign an act of extreme cruelty and treachery 
 was practised on one of the sons of Ethelred 
 and Emma, in which Godwin was accused of 
 taking a part. A letter was written to the 
 young princes, Alfred and Edward, inviting 
 them to come over to England, where the 
 Saxons were anxious to place upon their heads 
 the crown of their father. Prince Alfred, fol- 
 lowing the invitation, arrived in England, ac- 
 companied by a number of Normans. These 
 were all immediately seized, and put to death
 
 GODWIN THE SWINEHERD. S3 
 
 under the most dreadful tortures ; while Alfred, 
 summoned before a court of justice, was sen- 
 tenced to have his eyes put out, and died in 
 consequence of the operation. 
 
 At the death of Harold, which occurred in 
 1040, Hardicanute was elected, and began his 
 reign by having his predecessor's corpse dis- 
 interred, decapitated, and then thrown into 
 the Thames. After having given this proof 
 of a barbarous feeling of revenge against one 
 brother, Hardicanute pretended to be very 
 indignant at the treatment to which Alfred, 
 his brother on the other side, had been sub- 
 jected, and Godwin, and other persons ac- 
 cused of having been implicated in the affair, 
 were called to an account. The presents by 
 which Godwin bought off the royal displeasure 
 prove the wealth and the power to which 
 he had attained, and which made him ob- 
 noxious in the eyes of the monarch. He is 
 said on this occasion to have presented to 
 the avaricious king a ship, fully rigged and 
 equipped, and manned by eighty warriors, 
 wearing golden casques, and each carrying in 
 his right hand a gilt javelin, and on his right 
 shoulder a gilt battle-axe, while each arm was
 
 34 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 encircled with a bracelet of gold, weighing six 
 ounces. 
 
 Hardicanute, though English by birth, op- 
 pressed the Saxons, and favoured the Danes; 
 and the spirit of the English nation being at 
 length awakened to its former energies by his 
 numerous exactions and cruelties, at his death 
 they again called in a Saxon king to reign over i 
 them. They also put to death all those among 
 the Danes who maintained a hostile position, 
 while those long settled in the north of England, 
 who were willing to submit to Saxon sovereignty, 
 were spared, and ultimately became absorbed 
 by the Saxon population. It was Godwin who, 
 at the decisive moment, inflamed and upheld the 
 courage of the Saxons. To him was intrusted 
 the direction of all public matters, and had he 
 desired it, upon him the crown would have been 
 bestowed. But Godwin turned the attention of 
 the people to Edward, the second son of Ethel- 
 red, the representative of their ancient line of 
 monarchs ; and the people hailed with delight 
 Edward's return to his native land, and to the 
 throne of his fathers. But though English by 
 descent, Edward had ceased to be so in feel- 
 ing, and the nation was doomed to a arrievous
 
 GODWIN THE SWINEHERD. 35 
 
 disappointment. Edward, who was unmarried, 
 indeed, chose for his wife Ethelswitha, the 
 daughter of the people's favourite, Godwin, but 
 otherwise it was Normans alone w^ho enjoyed his 
 confidence. Among that people he had spent 
 his youth, and formed all his early friendships ; 
 and numbers of adventurers from the land which 
 Jiad so hospitably received him in his adversity 
 ilocked over to claim proofs of his gratitude ; 
 and Edward so far forgot what he owed to the 
 people who had called him to reign over them, 
 that he intrusted these foreigners with the 
 highest functions in the state. Norman captains 
 commanded the fortresses of England ; Norman 
 priests filled the episcopal sees, and sat in the 
 king's councils. Whoever solicited in the Nor- 
 man tongue was sure to be heard, and this 
 language superseded at court the Saxon tongue, 
 which was made a subject of ridicule among 
 the king's Norman courtiers. Next the Anglo- 
 Saxon nobles began to be ashamed of their old- 
 fashioned ways, and to assume the language, 
 the manners, and the dress of the strangers, 
 and everything national daily fell more into 
 contempt. But the people still clung with 
 reverence and love to the language and customs
 
 36 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 of their fathers, and began to murmur; and 
 Godwin and his sons, who, though high in rank 
 and power, had not forgotten their origin, sym- 
 pathised with them, and adopted their cause. 
 An occasion for open remonstrance soon occurred. 
 A Count Eustace of Boulogne, married to Ed- 
 ward's sister, came over from France on a visit 
 to his brother-in-law, and finding the Normans 
 and the French in general so powerful in Eng- 
 land, he seems to have thought himself en- 
 titled to take any liberty with the people who 
 so tamely submitted to foreign encroachments. 
 Passing through Dover on his way home, he 
 entered the town, followed by a numerous 
 retinue, and with the utmost insolence marked 
 out the houses of the inhabitants in which it 
 was his pleasure that he and his followers 
 should pass the night. A Saxon, who ventured 
 to resist this forcible invasion of his home, was 
 wounded by the aggressor, and in the struggle 
 which ensued killed the Frenchman. On hear- 
 ing this, Eustace and his followers broke into 
 the house of the Saxon, and murdered him on 
 his own hearthstone ; then mounting their 
 horses, they rode through the town sword in 
 hand, cutting down whoever they met on their
 
 GODWIN THE SWINEHERD. 37 
 
 passage. The indignant citizens rushed to amis, 
 and a regular combat ensued, in which thirteen 
 of the Boulonnaise were killed. Eustace, forced 
 to flj, sought refuge at Edward's court ; and 
 the weak monarch, instead of investigating the 
 matter, called upon Earl Godwin, as lieutenant 
 of the county, to chastise the town of Dover for 
 having broken the peace. But Godwin, less 
 prone to think the foreigners right, proposed 
 that the matter should be brought before 
 the legal tribunals. " It behoves thee not,'' 
 said he to the king, " to condemn unheard 
 the people whom it is thy duty to protect." 
 Edward, indignant at being thus opposed, accused 
 the earl of disobedience and rebellion, and sen- 
 tence of banishment was pronounced by the 
 Wittenagemot against Godwin and his sons ; 
 and to complete the disgrace of the family, the 
 queen was shut up in a convent. 
 
 Godwin and his sons now in reality raised the 
 standard of rebellion, asserting, however, that 
 they did so to save the Anglo-Saxons from 
 oppression by foreigners. Marching upon Lon- 
 don, they got the king in their power : a recon- 
 ciliation took place, and a decree of banishment 
 was now issued against all the king's former
 
 38 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 favourites. In the following year (1053), God- 
 win died ; but his eldest son, Harold, a man of 
 verj great ability, and much beloved by the 
 people, continued until Edward's death, which 
 took place in 1057, to maintain a great ascen- 
 dancy over the king, and indeed to reign in his 
 name ; for the last years of Edward's reign were 
 spent in acts of devotion only, which earned for 
 him the surname of " The Confessor." At his 
 death Harold became king in name also — the 
 people having elected him, in the absence of 
 any worthy hereditary claimant to the throne. 
 The fortunes of the swineherd's family had now 
 reached their climax ; but were soon after to be 
 buried in the grave, along with the independence, 
 the language, and even the very name of the 
 Anglo-Saxon natioru 
 
 Chapter IV. — "William the Conqueror and 
 THE Normans. 
 
 Harold proved himself, as king, just, prudent, 
 affable, and in every way active to promote the
 
 WTLLTAM THE CONQUEROR. 39 
 
 happiness of the people. But he knew that a 
 great danger threatened him — that he sat upon 
 a tottering throne — and the people felt it as 
 well. A strange vague sense of something 
 dreadful being about to happen seems to have 
 taken possession of all minds, and a comet 
 which appeared in the heavens, and which, in 
 those ignorant times, was always supposed to 
 portend evil, added to the superstitious fears 
 that prevailed. The cause of the uneasiness felt 
 in England was an event which had taken place 
 some time before Edward's death. While God- 
 win and his sons were in exile, and Edward's 
 Norman favourites lorded it more than ever 
 over his Anglo-Saxon subjects, William, Duke 
 of Normandy, Edward's relative and great 
 friend, paid a visit to England. On this occa- 
 sion, it seems, the desire of becoming king of 
 England at Edward's death entered his mind, 
 and Edward joined in the wish and encouraged 
 the hope. After the reconciliation between 
 Godwin and his sons and Edward, William fore- 
 saw that this family would form the chief 
 obstacle to the realisation of his views upon 
 England ; and accustomed to conquer by cun- 
 ning when he could not do so by open means,
 
 40 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 he devised a stratagem, by which he extorted 
 from Harold a solemn oath, that he would at 
 Edward's death assist him to mount the throne. 
 When elected king of England, it was not, 
 however, his broken vow which made Harold 
 uneasy, but the knowledge of William's inten- 
 tions ; while the people trembled, because they 
 feared that luck could not attend the perjurer. 
 On being informed of how ill Harold had kept 
 his faith, William was highly indignant ; but, 
 nothing daunted, he prepared to turn his rival's 
 treachery to account. Having first, in vain, sum- 
 moned Harold to resign the crown just bestowed 
 upon him, he next published to the world the 
 perjury of the king of England, took every 
 means in his power to prove the justice of 
 his own claims to that kingdom (though such 
 claims existed nowhere except in his own 
 desires), and appealed to the pope for his judg- 
 ment in the matter, and to the barons and 
 knights of France in particular, and of Europe 
 in general, for their assistance to maintain his 
 rights. The pope, glad of an opportunity of 
 extending his power in England, responded to 
 the appeal by excommunicating Harold as a 
 perjured usurper, and presenting William with
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 41 
 
 a consecrated banner, and a ring containing a 
 hair of St Peter ; while hosts of adventurers 
 from all quarters of Europe flocked to William's 
 banners. The rapacious minds among them 
 were lured by the spoils of England ; the more 
 chivalrous spirits grasped with equal avidity at 
 the opportunity of gathering laurels in the ser- 
 vice of the far-famed Duke of Normandy. 
 
 William of Normandy, who was thus pre- 
 paring to invade England, was son of Robert, 
 Duke of Normandy, surnamed Le Diahle (The 
 Devil) — on account of his violent temper and 
 many misdeeds — and Arlete, a young maiden of 
 Falaise, who had won his heart one day when 
 he saw her washing clothes on the borders of a 
 rivulet. Some years later, Robert, seized with 
 a fit of repentance, determined to walk on foot 
 to Jerusalem, by way of doing penance for his 
 sins. Before setting out, however, he presented 
 Arlete's son, then seven years of age, to the 
 Normans as their future ruler ; and the powerful 
 barons of Normandy placed their hands in the 
 hands of the child and swore him fealty. When 
 he grew up, William gave evidence of those 
 warlike talents and energies, and those chival- 
 rous attainments, which at that period were all
 
 42 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 that was required to make a man honoured ; 
 and his subjects were proud of him, while his 
 neighbours feared him. William had, however, 
 many of the higher qualities of a ruler also ; but 
 he was ambitious and vindictive to an excess, 
 and cruel even beyond the ordinary degree in 
 those rude times. One example will suffice to 
 show you what England had to expect from 
 such a conqueror. While he was besieging the 
 town of Aleneon, the besieged one day, from 
 the height of their battlements, made some 
 taunting allusion to the tanner of Falaise, from 
 whom William descended on the mother's side. 
 In reply to the sarcasm, he ordered the hands 
 and feet of all the prisoners who were in his 
 power to be cut oif, and the bloody limbs to be 
 hurled over the walls into the city. 
 
 At length William's preparations were com- 
 plete. A fleet of 3000 vessels, great and small, 
 was assembled on the coast of Normandy, and 
 60,000 men were ready to be embarked. In the 
 meanwhile Harold's brother, Tostig, in league 
 with William, and aided by a Norwegian fleet 
 and army, had made an attack upon the north 
 of England. Harold hurried to meet the in- 
 vaders. One battle decided their fate. Tostisr
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 43 
 
 and the king of Norway fell ; and the rest, 
 taking to their ships, quitted the coasts of Eng- 
 land, which were never again hostilely invaded 
 from the north. But the same wind that 
 swelled the sails of the retiring, still barbarous 
 Northmen, wafted to England's shores their 
 more civilised descendants of the south, des- 
 tined to be her future masters. Harold was 
 reposing at York, when he learnt that William 
 had landed at Pevensey, and had struck his 
 camp in the neighbourhood of Hastings. Fol- 
 lowing the inspirations of his indignation and 
 his courage only, Harold hurried to arrest the 
 progress of this new invader wdth an army much 
 inferior in number and in warlike skill. The 
 rivals met near Hastings on the 14th October 
 1066. The Saxons fought with the recklessness 
 of despair, the Normans with the enthusiasm of 
 hope ; and for a long while victory hung sus- 
 pended between the two. Before night, how- 
 ever, Harold, his two younger brothers, and the 
 greater number of his men, lay dead on the field 
 of battle, and William the Conqueror had gained 
 for himself the name by which he is designated 
 in the history of our country. On the spot 
 where the last Saxon king of England had
 
 44 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 planted his banner, and where it had been 
 captured by the Normans, William ordered a 
 monastery to be built in commemoration of the 
 day. The outer walls were traced round the 
 hillock which the bravest of the Anglo-Saxons 
 had deluged with their blood, and all the cir- 
 cumjacent lands, on which the divers incidents 
 of the battle had taken place, formed the 
 endowment of Battle Abbey, as this monument 
 of the Norman Conquest of England was called. 
 It is said that in digging the foundations of the 
 abbey, the workmen discovered, to their dis- 
 may, that a supply of water would be wanting ; 
 but that William, on being apprised of this, 
 replied, laughing, " Work on all the same ; 
 for if God grant me life, there shall be more 
 wine among the monks of Battle than there is 
 water in the best-supplied monastery in Chris- 
 tendom." 
 
 It was not in this jovial spirit that William 
 treated the conquered country. At first, indeed, 
 after all attempts at resistance had been put 
 down by force of arms, and he had been crowned 
 king of England by an Anglo-Saxon bishop in 
 Westminster Abbey, he put on a semblance of 
 justice and mildness, and seemed to wish to
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 45 
 
 'make the people forget that he was a usurper. 
 But afterwards the Anglo-Saxons — goaded on 
 by the oppression and tyranny of the Normans, 
 whom he had everywhere set to rule over them, 
 and whom he had installed in the possessions 
 of all those who had taken arms in defence of 
 their country — broke out in insurrection, rallying 
 again round their national chiefs ; and then 
 William showed himself in a very different 
 character. A regular war of extermination was 
 carried on against the Saxons ; no means of 
 conciliation were tried ; but in those parts of 
 the countiy where the resistance was greatest, 
 whole tracts of land of many miles in extent 
 were laid entirely waste. The habitations were 
 reduced to ashes, the implements of husbandry 
 destroyed, the cattle and other moveable pro- 
 perty carried off to the castles of the Normans, 
 and those among the inhabitants who could not 
 escape, were left to perish from hunger in the 
 woods. 
 
 "When numbers had thus been driven out of 
 the country, or had fallen in battle, or died from 
 sheer want and misery, then began the great 
 division of the spoils, by which the whole of the 
 landed property of the Anglo-Saxon nobility 
 
 E
 
 46 HISTORY or ENGLAND. 
 
 and gentry was transferred to the Normans and 
 French who had aided William in conquering 
 the country. Reduced to beggary, those who a 
 few brief months before had been the wealthiest, 
 the most powerful, the most honoured in the 
 land, had no alternative but to become humble 
 dependants on their despoilers, to seek new for- 
 tunes in other countries, or to fly to the woods 
 and marshes, there to become the chiefs of bands 
 of outlaws, who sought, by petty attacks upon 
 the conquerors, to avenge the wrongs under 
 which they were smarting. And to the woods 
 and marshes many of the bravest hearts of the 
 country did flee. On the confines of Cambridge- 
 shire and Norfolk in particular, in the so-called 
 Isle of Ely, surrounded by sw^amps and marshy 
 grounds, whither the cavalry of their persecutors 
 could not follow them, numbers of the Saxon 
 fugitives assembled, and formed a great military 
 station, called the Camp of Refuge. Thither 
 fled many of the leading men among the Saxons, 
 followed by their retainers, and bringing with 
 them as much of their property as they could 
 save from the depredators. Thither also came 
 patriotic bishops and abbots, with the treasures 
 of their churches and convents, to devote them
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 47 
 
 to the cause of tlieir country ; and hence appeals 
 were made to foreign allies to come and help 
 the Saxons to liberate their country. 
 
 Fearing that the reinforcements which the 
 Danes, the Irish, and the Scotch were preparing 
 to bring to the Saxons, might indeed prove for- 
 midable, William at length determined to make 
 a strong effort to reduce the Camp of Refuge. 
 He ordered the Isle of Ely to be besieged 
 by sea as well as by land, while the Norman 
 pioneers set to work to open a passage for a 
 regular assault. But months elapsed ; and 
 though the Isle of Ely was so closely blockaded 
 that no provisions could be introduced from 
 without, and famine began to rage in the 
 camp, its gallant defenders, ready to endure 
 everything rather than submit, remained as firm 
 as before. There was, however, in the isle a 
 monastery, the monks in which, unaccustomed 
 to hardships, could not long bear the sharp 
 pang of hunger, and these betrayed their coun- 
 trymen into the hands of the Normans. The 
 royal troops having been secretly introduced 
 into the camp, put 1000 of the refugees to 
 death. The rest, who were forced to surren- 
 der, were treated in a most barbarous manner.
 
 48 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Those who fared best were shut up in dungeons ; 
 the others had their eyes put out, and their 
 hands and feet lopped oif, and were then, in 
 inhuman derision, allowed their liberty ! 
 
 While a petty warfare such as that we have 
 described was being carried on in many parts of 
 England, William persevered in his cruel system 
 of spoliation and denationalisation. Almost all 
 the Anglo-Saxon dignitaries of the church were 
 turned out, to make room for Normans and other 
 foreigners : even the Anglo-Saxon saints were 
 disinterred, and declared not to be true saints ; 
 and while the people were thus wounded in 
 their most sacred feelings, measures were taken 
 to extinguish their language — an order being 
 given that in future the French tongue alone 
 should be used on all public occasions and in 
 all legal documents. At length William and his 
 Normans so completely succeeded in breaking 
 the spirit of the Anglo-Saxons, that a quiet as 
 of the grave succeeded to the former turbulence L 
 and opposition. Though this was at first very || 
 awful and melancholy, it ultimately led to a 
 happier state of things. The Normans, being less 
 harassed by the people they had so grievously | 
 wronged, began to feel less hostilely inclined 
 
 i
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 49 
 
 towards tliem, and thus peace was gradually 
 restored to the country. But many many years 
 
 I elapsed before the Saxons learnt to look upon 
 
 I the Normans otherwise than with resentment, 
 and before the Normans ceased to regard with 
 contempt the individuals of a nation they had 
 so easily subjugated. Slowly and unconsciously, 
 however, the races became blended, as did their 
 languages, and from the fusion arose the Englisli 
 nation and the English language such as both 
 now exist ! 
 
 No sooner had the oppression of the Saxons 
 ceased in some measure to occupy William and 
 his Normans, than they fell out among them- 
 selves. When dividing the landed property of 
 the Saxons among the adventurers who had 
 enrolled under his banner, the Conqueror estab- 
 
 I lished in England the feudal system, such as it 
 existed on the continent — that is to say, all the 
 
 1 lands, with very few exceptions, were divided 
 into baronies, and these were bestowed upon 
 the most considerable among his followers, on 
 condition of their performing in return certain 
 military services, and making certain payments 
 to the crown. The barons, who thus held im- 
 mediately of the crown, shared out part of their
 
 50 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 lands on the same condition to otlier individuals, 
 who were termed their vassals, as the barons 
 were called vassals of the crown; and these, 
 again, frequently granted lands to others of 
 lesser degree on similar terms. Thus through- 
 out the land was established a chain of depen- 
 dencies, the inferior owing service and obedience 
 to the superior, while the superior was bound to 
 protect his subordinates ; and the same person 
 might be in the position of vassal on the one 
 side and of liege lord on the other. Thus 
 King "William himself, in his character of Duke 
 of Normandy, was the vassal of the king of 
 France. Even the clergy were made to enter 
 the feudal system, doing homage, as it was 
 termed, for the lands they held, and furnishing 
 men-at-arms for service in war. The king, who 
 had reserved to himself as crown domains upwards 
 of fourteen hundred manors, in addition to the 
 possessions of the Saxon kings, of course ranked 
 highest in the scale ; then came the governors of 
 shires or counties, called counts in Norman, and 
 earls in Saxon ; next their lieutenants, called 
 vice-counts ; and after these barons, knights, and 
 esquires — all noble by right of conquest. The 
 same relations existed between the baron and
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 51 
 
 hii;^ vassals as between tlie king and liis barons, 
 ex/cept that between the former tlie tie was more 
 intimate, because tlie minor vassals gathered 
 i^iore frequently around their chief In his 
 castle and in his service they received their 
 military education, in his halls they enjoyed 
 the pleasures of the festive board, and in his 
 forests they pursued the still greater pleasures 
 of the chase. As his retainers, they could alone 
 make a figure in the world, and to him alone 
 
 I they could look for protection against the moles- 
 tations of other great lords. He being, there- 
 fore, to them the dispenser of every good, and 
 
 ! the defender against every danger, to him they 
 were devoted in life and death, and they formed 
 a compact band of warriors upon whom he could 
 
 i always depend. But the king having only to 
 assemble his barons from time to time, and 
 when once he had endowed them with fiefs, 
 having little more to bestow, no such lien of 
 dependency and affection sprung up between 
 him and his immediate vassals, and he was as 
 often opposed as supported by them. Indeed 
 the spirit that animated the great barons, or 
 tenants-in-chief of the crown, began to show 
 itself very soon after the Conquest. Though
 
 52 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 tliey had sworn submission and obedience to the 
 king, they were displeased when he exacted it 
 from them, and used the power he had bestowed 
 upon them to stir up rebellion against him. j 
 However, William, who was in Normandy at 
 the time, came over, and gave them a taste of 
 the treatment to which, until then, Saxons alone 
 had been subjected ; and order was again restored 
 in England. Many of the rebels were hanged, 
 others imprisoned for life, and others, again, 
 mutilated in the usual barbarous fashion. But 
 the man who inflicted in such various ways 
 misery upon thousands, did not enjoy in peace 
 the fruits of his iniquities. Dark fears and 
 suspicions were always haunting his mind : in 
 Normandy he had to carry on bloody wars 
 against a rebellious son, and his deathbed was 
 rendered terrible by the remorse of a super- 
 stitious mind destitute of the consolations of 
 true religion.
 
 Chapter V. — Henry Fitzempress and Thomas 
 A Becket. 
 
 During the half century which elapsed be- 
 tween the death of William the Conqueror and 
 the accession of Henry II., three kings of the 
 Norman race reigned successively in England. 
 These were — William Rufus, or the Red-haired, 
 second son of the Conqueror ; Henry, surnamed 
 Beauclerc, on account of his learning, younger 
 brother of the Red-haired ; and Stephen, Count 
 of Blois, who usurped the throne, to the preju- 
 dice of Henry's daughter, Maud, whom he had 
 designated as his successor, and who was mar- 
 ried first to the Emperor of Grermany, and after- 
 wards to Geoffrey Plant agenet. Count of Anjou 
 and Touraine. During these reigns, though 
 disturbed by civil wars and ecclesiastical en- 
 croachments, no essential change took place in 
 the state of England or of the French pro- 
 vinces, with which by the Conquest she had 
 become so intimately connected. Henry Plan-
 
 / HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 3net or Fitz empress — as the son of Matilda 
 ctx.i Geoffrey Plantagenet was called, in allusion 
 to liis motlier s rank — being the legitimate heir 
 to the crown, and succeeding to a usurper whose 
 reign had been one long civil war, was, on his 
 accession, welcomed with enthusiasm bj the 
 English nation. Being, moreover, a prince of 
 great talent and of much firmness of charac- 
 ter, and possessor by inheritance of the rich 
 provinces of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and 
 Touraine, while in dower with his wife, Eleanor 
 of Aquitaine, he had obtained Guienne, Poictou, 
 Saintonge, Auvergne, Perigord, Angoumois, and 
 the Limousin, forming together about a third 
 part of the French monarchy, his reign was 
 looked forward to as one likely to prove happy 
 and glorious for himself as well as his people. 
 But mighty as was the king, it soon appeared 
 that there was another power in the state which 
 pretended that he should bend his knee to it ; 
 and the struggle which ensued in consequence 
 caused troubles innumerable. 
 
 We have seen that the Christian priests and 
 monks were at first almost the only useful class 
 of people in England, and that they did much 
 for the happiness of the people and for civili-
 
 THOMAS A BECKET. 55 
 
 sation. The same was pretty much the case in 
 all Christian countries ; and to the reverence 
 felt for the sacred character of the clergy was 
 added love and respect for them as individuals. 
 The influence thus obtained was used for ex- 
 tending the power of the church ; no doubt at 
 first with a sincere desire to promote the 
 spread of religion and the national welfare. 
 But with every increase of power the love 
 of it grew. At length, exceeding all bounds, 
 the clergy of all countries, headed by the 
 pope of Rome, not only declared themselves 
 exalted above every temporal authority, even 
 that of the king, and would in no matter be 
 judged except by ecclesiastical tribunals, but 
 the pope demanded, as head of the Christian 
 church, that all princes should do homage to 
 him for the countries they ruled, and thus recog- 
 nise him as their master in all things. He also 
 laid claim to the right of deposing them in 
 cases of criminality. The temporal sovereigns 
 struggled hard against these usurpations, but 
 in those days the clergy taught, and the people 
 believed, that the keys of heaven were in the 
 hands of the pope ; that men would be admitted 
 into, or excluded from, the presence of God
 
 56 HISTORY OF ENGLAin). 
 
 according as the pope and the clergy might 
 decide ; and the sovereigns, who in a great 
 measure partook of the popular superstitions, or 
 were obliged to yield to them, were frequently 
 forced or induced to bend to the ecclesiastical 
 will. If they resisted, the popes excommuni- 
 cated them, or laid an interdict on the country. 
 In the first case, the people were absolved by 
 the pope from their allegiance to their sove- 
 reign, and to revolt became a meritorious act 
 in the eye of the clergy, while every individual 
 dying under the sentence of excommunication 
 was believed to be eternally lost. In the second 
 case, as in the first, divine worship, baptism, 
 marriage, and funeral services, together with 
 all other rites of the church, were interdicted ; 
 and as this was very dreadful, the people fre- 
 quently forced their rulers to submit to the 
 will of the sovereign pontiff, in order that the 
 interdict might be withdrawn. In England, 
 owing to the particular opinions of a great 
 number of the clergy, and to various other cir- 
 cumstances, the popes of Rome, though they 
 had tried hard for it, had not succeeded in 
 acquiring the same power as they had attained 
 in other countries ; and the clergy, though
 
 THOMAS A BECKET. 57 
 
 exercising a great influence over the minds of 
 men. had not achieved their total emancipation 
 from the power of the sovereign. Some points 
 had indeed been won during the three reigns 
 succeeding that of the Conqueror, but many 
 more remained to be gained ; and for these 
 the struggle commenced under Henrj Fitzem- 
 press. 
 
 The man who undertook to fight the battle 
 of the clergy against the king was, like himself, 
 of handsome appearance and winning address, 
 and possessed of talents of the highest order, 
 enhanced by a superior education ; but of lowly 
 birth and Saxon extraction. Thomas a Becket, 
 such was his name, was early taken into the 
 service of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 
 primate of England. His great thirst for know- 
 ledge, together with his eminent qualities, soon 
 rendered him a favourite, and he rose from 
 preferment to preferment. Eventually intro- 
 duced to the king, he was equally fortunate in 
 gaining the royal favour, and was raised to tlie 
 dignity of chancellor — the highest civil office 
 in the kingdom, next to that of the king. The 
 Saxon, the first of his race who had risen to 
 any social eminence in England since the Con-
 
 58 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 quest, now became distinguislied for the pomp 
 of his retinue, the sumptuousness of liis furni- 
 ture, and his great liberality to all who ap- 
 proached him. The most powerful barons con- 
 sidered it an honour to be admitted to his 
 table, and sent their sons to be educated in 
 his service, and to receive the honour of knight- 
 hood from his hand ; for Thomas was as dis- 
 tinguished as a gay cavalier as he was as a 
 learned and able statesman. So many were 
 the guests generally present in his house, that 
 all could not be accommodated at his table ; 
 and we are told that, for fear the gentlemen, 
 who were obliged to sit upon the floor, should 
 soil their fine clothes, the floors were every day 
 in winter covered with fresh straw, and in sum- 
 mer with green rushes ; which shows that, witli 
 all his magnificence, Becket had not attained 
 to having other carpets for his drawing-rooms 
 than such as we now strew for our pigs and 
 cattle. Indeed for many centuries after this 
 period, though luxury continued to increase, 
 what we now call comfort was utterly unknown. 
 As chancellor, Becket could not aim higher 
 than to serve the king faithfully and ably, and 
 consequently we find him promoting in every
 
 THOMAS A BECKET. 59 
 
 way Henry's interests, even in liis contests with 
 the ecclesiastical powers. But the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury died, and Henry, wishing to have 
 a complacent friend in the see, prevailed upon 
 Thomas to enter holy orders, and to accept the 
 mitre. A new act in Becket's life then began : 
 he was now no longer content with being second 
 in the kingdom. The gay and luxurious cava- 
 lier was transformed into an austere churchman, 
 who inflicted upon his own person those cruel 
 tortures, and imposed upon himself those absurd 
 privations, which in those days obtained for a 
 man the character of sanctity. He lacerated 
 his flesh with leathern thongs, wore sackcloth 
 next his skin, and changed it so seldom, that 
 it was filled with vermin ; and not content with 
 making pure water his sole beverage, he mixed 
 with it bitter herbs to render it unsavoury. On 
 entering upon his new oflice, Becket at once 
 prepared to make himself the champion of all 
 the rights already possessed by the clergy, as 
 well as of those coveted by them. In the first 
 contest which ensued between him and the king, 
 Henry remained victor ; and in consequence the 
 archbishop and the clergy were obliged to sub- 
 scribe to certain articles drawn up by his order,
 
 60 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and known by the name of the Constitutions of 
 Clarendon, by which the power of the clergy 
 was greatly limited. But Pope Alexander III. 
 refused to sanction these articles ; and Becket, 
 findinof that he had some one to back him, 
 retracted his consent, and began to oppose the 
 king in all ways. A new and still more formid- 
 able struggle ensued, during which Henry, who 
 Avas incensed at what he regarded as ingratitude 
 in the man whom he had raised to the dignity 
 he enjoyed, exceeded the bounds of justice, and 
 subjected Becket to a series of persecutions, 
 which at length so alarmed him, that he fled to 
 the continent for safety. Here he was warmly 
 received and supported by the king of France 
 and the pope, both anxious to encourage any 
 quarrel which might tend to weaken the power 
 of the king of England. Excommunication was 
 pronounced against all who had abetted the 
 king in his contest with the archbishop. Henry 
 retaliated by withholding the payment of the 
 usual tribute to Rome, called Peter's Pence, 
 and by denouncing punishment of death against 
 any person who should bring to England any 
 interdict which might be pronounced by the 
 pope or the archbishop against the kingdom.
 
 THOMAS A BECKET. 61 
 
 But though apparently so little daunted, Henry 
 was in reality greatly alarmed by the prospect 
 of an interdict, for his people had long mur- 
 mured. He therefore hastened to make such 
 concessions to the proud archbishop as should 
 induce him to consent to a reconciliation. 
 Becket's return to England resembled the 
 triumphal entry of a restored monarch. People 
 of all ranks flocked along his passage, and 
 paid to him the homage they thought due to 
 a saint and a martyr. Even Henry, probably 
 to conciliate public opinion, stooped to hold his 
 stirrup while he mounted his horse ; and this 
 humility, though only feigned, rekindled the 
 hopes and the ambition of the archbishop. 
 Again he contended for the perfect indepen- 
 dence of churchmen from the rule of the civil 
 governors ; again the king resisted ; and the 
 struggle, thus recommenced, was at length 
 brought to a bloody issue. The king being 
 one day more than usually exasperated by the 
 humiliations heaped upon him by the arch- 
 bishop, exclaimed that he should never have 
 peace as long as the ambitious prelate lived, 
 and upbraided his servants for leaving him so 
 long exposed to such insults. Four gentlemen
 
 62 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 of his household hearing this, and thinking that 
 they would but be fulfilling the secret wishes of 
 the king, proceeded to Canterbury, and having 
 followed the archbishop into the cathedral, 
 where he was at his private devotions, they 
 basely murdered him on the steps of the altar, 
 unrestrained by the sanctity of the spot, or by i 
 the defenceless state of their victim. This 
 atrocious and sacrilegious deed filled the king 
 and the nation with horror and consternation. 
 During three days Henry shut himself up, and 
 would take neither food nor comfort. When 
 the first burst of grief or remorse was over — for 
 it has always remained doubtful whether or not 
 lie had meant his servants to act as they did — 
 the king hastened to send messengers to the 
 pope to deprecate the wrath of the pontiff, and 
 to declare himself innocent, but ready to submit 
 to any penance that might be imposed upon 
 him. The pope was not then in a position 
 to drive matters to extremities with the king 
 of England, so the affair was compromised. 
 Directly afterwards Henry undertook an expe- 
 dition to Ireland, while Thomas a Becket, now 
 looked upon as a veritable martyr, was canon- 
 ised, and the people made pilgrimages to his
 
 THOMAS A BECKET. 63 
 
 tomb, wlilcli was enriclied witli presents from 
 all parts of Europe. 
 
 Tlie Irish, like the ancient Britons, belonged 
 to the Celtic race ; but their country having 
 never been invaded by the Romans, they re- 
 mained much longer in a state of utter bar- 
 barism. When at length they had emerged 
 from this, by the aid of the Christian religion, 
 which in Ireland, as in all other countries, 
 awoke the nobler instincts of the inhabitants, 
 they became subject to the inroads of the same 
 Northmen who brought so much desolation upon 
 Britain, and they were thrown back into a state 
 almost as degraded as that from which they had 
 been rescued. When Henry II. undertook his 
 expedition against them, they were still divided 
 into numerous tribes, for ever at war with one 
 another, though one chief ruler held a nominal 
 sway over all. Here, as in the case of the 
 Britons, civil discord led to foreign subjugation. 
 In the early part of Henry's reign, an Irish 
 chieftain applied to him for assistance against 
 a brother chief, and Henry empowered Richard 
 de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strong- 
 bow, and some other noblemen, to engage in his 
 service. This they did so much to the purpose,
 
 64 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 that at the death of the chieftain, Strongbow, 
 who took his place, enjoyed for a time the 
 authority of king of Ireland. Finding, how- 
 ever, that Henry meant to assume that title 
 himself, Strongbow hastened to offer to hold the 
 country as tenant-in-chief of the English crow^n. 
 Henry consented ; and it Avas to secure the pos- 
 session of this new dominion that he repaired to 
 Ireland, where, however, he did little more than 
 nominally take possession. But during subse- 
 ([uent reigns the English dominion over the 
 island was permanently established, and Ireland 
 became an integral portion of the empire. 
 
 On Henry's return to England, though no 
 contumacious archbishop was there to beard 
 him, new enemies and opponents arose in the 
 bosom of his own family. His three eldest sons 
 — instigated by the king of France, who was 
 jealous of his power, and by their mother, who 
 was jealous of his attentions to other women, 
 but more than all instigated by their own bad 
 passions — raised the standard of rebellion against 
 their father — filling his heart with bitterness, 
 and his empire with all the miseries of war ; for 
 many of the warlike barons in Henry's French 
 and English dominions joined his sons. The
 
 THOMAS A BECKET. 65 
 
 king seems to have felt the cruel and unworthy 
 conduct of his sons as a punishment sent from 
 Heaven for his treatment of a Becket, for he 
 made a pilgrimage to the shrine of the saint 
 in Canterbury cathedral, and submitted to be 
 publicly scourged by the monks attached to it. 
 Having in this way, as he thought, satisfied 
 justice, he set about chastising his rebellious 
 sons, and soon reduced them to the necessity 
 of suing for pardon, which he freely granted. 
 
 The peace and leisure which Henry then 
 obtained he ; .ailed himself of to introduce the 
 reforms which he had long meditated. He 
 enacted severe laws against murder, robbery, 
 false coining, fire-raising, and other crimes which 
 rendered life and property insecure: he abo- 
 lished trial by water ordeal ; and though he left 
 in force the trial by single combat, which was 
 so much in accordance with the manners of the 
 times, he endeavoured to reintroduce the more 
 sensible Anglo-Saxon custom of trial by jury, 
 which indeed, as civilisation increased, gradually 
 superseded all others. He further instituted 
 itinerant judges, who, visiting annually the 
 various divisions of the country, afibrded the 
 people the means of appealing against the
 
 66 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 oppressions of the feudal lords, whose numerous 
 castles, whence they sallied forth to the attack 
 of whoever excited their cupidity or their hos- 
 tility, were also in a great measure demolished. 
 The right of the lords of manors to appropriate 
 all property wrecked on their shores was limited 
 to such cases only when none of the crew sur- 
 vived ; while during this reign the military ser- 
 vice of the barons was for the first time com- 
 muted for a money contribution, called scutage. 
 New dissensions in his family arrested Henry's 
 beneficial labours. His two sons, Henry and 
 Richard, having first made war upon each other, 
 next turned their united arms against their 
 father. Prince Henry, however, was soon seized 
 by a mortal malady, and died overwhelmed with 
 remorse — having not had time to implore the 
 forgiveness of a father whose only fault towards 
 his children had been that of too great indul- 
 gence. Geofirey, King Henry's third son, soon 
 followed his brother to the grave ; but Richard 
 persisted in his rebellion ; and the fortunes of 
 war having this time declared for him, the 
 king was obliged to come to terms, and to 
 grant a general pardon to all who had been 
 implicated with him. When Henry saw among
 
 RICHARD THE LIOK-HEARTED. 67 
 
 the names of tliese that of his youngest and 
 best-beloved son John, the cup of bitterness was 
 filled to overflowing : a malediction upon his 
 ungrateful children escaped his lips, and he 
 died shortly after, without having retracted it. 
 Thus died, of a broken heart, Henry Fitzempress, 
 whose reign commenced under such happy 
 auspices. Happiness had throughout his life 
 eluded his grasp ; but glory he did acquire, for 
 he was desirous of promoting the welfare of his 
 people, and the few years of tranquillity he 
 enjoyed he devoted to that object. 
 
 Chapter VI. — Richard the Lion-hearted, 
 AND John the Craven-hearted. 
 
 On hearing of his father's illness, Richard 
 hastened to Chinon to implore his pardon ; but 
 it was too late : he found the corpse only of his 
 injured parent, from the mouth of which the 
 blood began to ooze at the very moment he 
 entered the chamber of death. Such a symptom
 
 68 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 was, by tlie superstition of the day, attributed to 
 the presence of the murderer of the dead ; and 
 Richard's conscience joining in the accusation, 
 he was strengthened in a determination pre- 
 viously come to with the king of France, to join 
 the Crusaders in the Holy Land. The Crusades, 
 or holy wars, as they were also called, were 
 undertaken for the deliverance of the supposed 
 sepulchre of our Lord Jesus Christ from the 
 hands of the Mussulmans, who had become 
 masters of Jerusalem ; and it was believed that 
 so pious an undertaking was sufficient to atone 
 for any sins. But besides the supposed re- 
 mission of sins, military glory, the great idol of 
 the times, was acquired by participation in 
 these wars, in a higher degree than by any 
 other warlike enterprises ; and to Richard's 
 ardent mind and adventurous spirit such an 
 expedition presented many more attractions 
 than the prospect of staying at home and 
 ruling his people in quiet. 
 
 Before the king set out to kill the infidels in 
 Syria, his people enacted at home a crusade 
 against the Jews, who in those days of ignorant 
 and mistaken religious zeal were objects of con- 
 tempt and aversion to all classes of Christians.
 
 RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED. 69 
 
 Henrj II., who in so many respects was in 
 advance of his age, had tolerated this people on 
 account of their frugality, industry, and love of 
 commerce, which benefited the country at a 
 time when the rest of his subjects squandered 
 away their substance in warlike undertakings 
 only ; but Richard was very different from his 
 father, and partook of the general prejudice 
 against the Jews. Contrary to his orders, some 
 individuals of this race gained admission to 
 the royal palace on occasion of his coronation ; 
 but being insulted by some bystanders, took 
 to flight. They were pursued, and during the 
 excitement which this caused, a rumour was 
 spread that the king had given orders to put all 
 Jews to death. A general massacre ensued : 
 not only the Jews that were abroad on the 
 streets were killed, but their houses were broken 
 into, pillaged, and set on fire, and the inhabi- 
 tants murdered. The news having spread from 
 London to the other large cities, these followed 
 the example of the capitaL In York, five hun- 
 dred of the doomed race shut themselves up in 
 the castle ; but finding that there was no hope 
 of rescue, the men put their wives and children 
 to death, and having hurled down their dead
 
 70 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 bodies on the heads of their assailants without, 
 set fire to the castle, and perished in the flames. 
 Many were the persecutions to which, in subse- 
 quent reigns also, the Jews were subjected ; but 
 this scene of horror was never equalled. 
 
 Having levied a large sum of money by means 
 of numerous exactions, and by a most scanda- 
 lous sale of almost every office in the state, of 
 many of the crown domains, and of the right 
 of feudal suzerainty over the king of Scotland, 
 which his father had gained by force of arms, 
 Richard set out for Palestine with a numerous 
 army. Arrived there, the fame of the glorious 
 feats of arms or valour performed by him soon 
 threw into the shade those of all the other 
 knights and princes assembled in the Holy Land, 
 and to the jealousy of the political power of the 
 king of England previously felt, was now added 
 envy of his military prowess. Enmities and 
 intrigues abounded in the camp of the Cru- 
 saders ; and the king of France, Philip Augustus, 
 took occasion of the prevailing dissensions to 
 return home, where he thought some advantage 
 might be gained during Richard's absence. The 
 king of England remaining thus the leading 
 chief of the Christian army, still further dis-
 
 RICHARD THE LIOK-HEARTED. 71 
 
 gusted the other princes by his overbearing 
 conduct ; and several of them returned home, in 
 their hearts vowing vengeance against him. At 
 length Richard also, having gained some advan- 
 tages over the Saracens, and seeing no imme- 
 diate possibility of pushing matters further, pre- 
 pared to return to his dominions. The fleet in 
 which he left Palestine having suffered much 
 in a storm, Richard was obliged to land on one 
 of the Greek islands, having first had to contend 
 with pirates, who attacked his vessel. Being at 
 enmity with the Greeks, he assumed, on landing, 
 a false name and title, but sent a valuable ring 
 to the governor of the island, requesting a. safe 
 conduct. The governor recognised the giver by 
 the costliness of the gift, but in courteous terms 
 granted his request. On another occasion, a 
 knight sent out to intercept his passage (for the 
 enemies Richard had made in Palestine were 
 trying to take him captive), overawed by 
 Richard's fame, refused to molest him. At 
 length the king of England reached the terri- 
 tories of his most deadly enemy, the Duke of 
 Austria, and knowing how much he had to fear 
 from him, redoubled his precautions. Obliged 
 to part with his retinue, in order not to awaken
 
 72 ' HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 suspicions, Ricliard, whose path was constantly 
 tracked, wandered about during three nights and 
 days without food, and accompanied only by a 
 single squire and a boy. Being reduced to a state 
 of exhaustion, the wandering monarch, having 
 approached a village near Vienna, sent forward 
 the boy to procure some food, and the conduct of 
 the messenger having awakened suspicions, he 
 was arrested, and forced to reveal who and where 
 his master was. The following night Richard was 
 seized while asleep, and thrown into a dungeon. 
 But the Emperor of Germany having learned 
 that his vassal, the Duke of Austria, had caught 
 the precious prize, claimed the right of keeping 
 him in custody, and Richard was removed to one 
 of the imperial castles. Here, as some accounts 
 have it, he was treated more leniently, and 
 mingled freely with his guards ; and being an 
 accomplished troubadour (as the poets of those 
 days were called) as well as warrior, he enter- 
 tained them with poetry and music of his own 
 composing. On one of these occasions his 
 voice was recognised by a faithful follower, who 
 had gone out in search of his master, and 
 through him. Richard's subjects first learned 
 the fate of their king.
 
 RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED. 73 
 
 While tlie king had thus been held in durance 
 hy his enemies, matters at home had taken 
 a turn most dangerous to his interests. Long- 
 (•]iamp, bishop of Ely, to whom he had committed 
 the care of the kingdom during his absence, had 
 made himself so hated by the English nobility, 
 that they drove him out of the country ; while 
 Philip of France instigated Richard's brother 
 John — a base and cowardly prince, stained with 
 (■very vice — to make himself master in England, 
 ;ind he on his side invaded Richard's French 
 possessions. In the midst of the confusion 
 created by these events, the news of the king's 
 captivity reached England, and the nation, who 
 liad believed him dead, overjoyed at the intelli- 
 gence, made speedy arrangements for paying 
 the ransom of 150,000 marks (about i?300,000) 
 which his sordid enemies demanded for his 
 release. When Philip, who had exerted himself 
 to the utmost to prevail upon the emperor not 
 to give up his captive, heard that Richard was 
 at liberty, he wrote to John — " Take care of 
 yourself; the devil is broke loose ! " And indeed 
 Richard prepared at once to take vengeance on 
 both for their treacherous conduct. Craven- 
 hearted John soon implored mercy, and was
 
 74 HISTORY OF ENGLAND- 
 
 contemptuously forgiven ; but between Richard 
 and Philip hostilities continued until the death 
 of the king of England, which took place in 
 1199. The bravery evinced by Richard on 
 all occasions obtained for him the appellation 
 of the Lion-hearted (Coeur de Lion), and his 
 numerous adventures made him interesting in 
 the eyes of his contemporaries as well as of pos- 
 terity ; yet he had few qualities to recommend 
 him except his brute courage, and a certain 
 frankness of disposition, arising from the fear- 
 lessness of his character, and not from any high- 
 principled regard for truth, than which nothing 
 was more foreign to the age in which he lived. 
 
 His crown as well as his French possessions 
 Richard bequeathed to his brother John, though 
 — according to the rules of inheritance now pre- 
 vailing, but which were at that period some- 
 times departed from — they ought to have 
 descended to young Arthur, Duke of Brittany, 
 son of his elder brother Greoifrey. John, who 
 was arrogant, yet mean and cowardly, and there- 
 with false, selfish, licentious, and cruel, brought 
 upon himself and his people, during a reign of 
 sixteen years, every humiliation to which a king 
 and a nation can be subjected ; while the barons
 
 RICHARD THE LION-HEARTED. 75 
 
 of England, by tlieir firmness, saved tlie countiy, 
 and laid the foundations of English liberty. By 
 his accession to the dignity and power of king 
 cf England, John became obnoxious in the eyes 
 of his former confederate, Philip of France. 
 This prince, espousing the cause of Arthur, who, 
 as a minor, was, according to the feudal cus- 
 toms, his ward, excited the young claimant to 
 put forward his pretensions to the crown. Dur- 
 ing the war which ensued, Arthur fell into the 
 liands of John, and was by his orders basely 
 assassinated. Philip, taking advantage of this, 
 summoned John, as a vassal of France, to take 
 his trial for the murder of a royal ward ; and on 
 John's refusing to comply, declared him to have 
 forfeited all the lands which he held in fief of 
 the French crown. An army was marched into 
 Normandy, to carry out the sentence ; and in 
 spite of the desperate resistance of the Normans, 
 jr all the French possessions of the Norman kings 
 »; of England, which had added so much to their 
 power at home and abroad, were, with the ex- 
 ception of the Duchy of Gruienne, wrested from 
 the degenerate John, who did not even make a 
 serious efibrt to regain them. Yet, while sub- 
 mitting to the humiliations inflicted by an
 
 76 HISTORY or ENGLAND. 
 
 enemy witli whom he might fight on equal 
 terms, and after having, by his cowardice, his 
 cruelty, and his treachery, forfeited all claims to 
 the esteem and affection of his subjects, John 
 commenced a struggle against Pope Innocent 
 III. — one of the most ambitious and ablest men 
 who ever wielded that spiritual sceptre, which 
 by this time had attained to almost absolute 
 power in Europe. The cause of the quarrel was 
 the election of an archbishop to the see of 
 Canterbury. The pope appointed one Stephen 
 Langton, but the king would not recognise him, 
 and forbade his entering the kingdom. Expostu- 
 lation and remonstrance proving of no avail, the 
 pope at length laid England under an interdict. 
 Still John persevered, and the dreadful sen- 
 tence of excommunication was then pronounced 
 against the country. This was tantamount to 
 a dissolution of all the bonds of society. Law 
 was suspended, crime could be committed with 
 impunity, all contracts and engagements lost 
 their binding force. Still the king held out ; and 
 the pope, as obstinate as he. then pronounced 
 against him sentence of deposition, and called 
 upon Philip of France to carry out the sentence. 
 For though the popes had arrogated to them-
 
 JOHN THE CRAVEN-HEARTED. 77 
 
 selves the right of deposing monarchs, the sen- 
 tence of course remained a dead letter unless 
 they could find some one to carry it into effect 
 for them. The king of France was but too 
 happy to avail himself of the opportunity for 
 extending his power ; and having received 
 assurances of support from some of the discon- 
 tented barons of England, he prepared to take 
 possession of the throne supposed to be vacant. 
 But John, frightened by the martial array of 
 Philip, and by the evident disaffection among 
 his nobles, at length yielded to the will of the 
 pope, who in consequence arrested the move- 
 ments of the king of France. 
 
 John now became as abject in his submission 
 as he had before been obstinate in his resist- 
 ance, and even consented to resign his crown 
 into the hands of Innocent, and to receive it 
 back as a fief of the holy see ; to bind himself 
 and his successors to obey the orders of the 
 pope as the sovereign lord of England ; and to 
 pay a large annual tribute to Rome. Having 
 thus humbled himself to a foreign potentate, 
 John resumed at home his course of oppression, 
 licentiousness, and injustice ; and the barons of 
 England, driven to extremities, entered into a 
 
 G
 
 78 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 league, headed by Stephen Langton, the arcli- 
 bishop, to secure their rights and those of their 
 fellow-subjects by more efficient means than 
 liad until then been employed. They first 
 limited themselves to demand from the king 
 the renewals of charters granted by his prede- 
 cessors, but which had never been adhered to ; 
 but when John continued to prove himself as 
 little to be relied upon as ever, the barons at 
 last took to arms, and showed themselves so 
 resolute, that he no longer ventured to de- 
 ceive or resist them. A document was drawn 
 up setting forth the grievances of the nation, 
 as well as the remedies proposed for their re- 
 dress. Among these the most important was 
 the stipulation, that the king should not be 
 allowed to levy taxes without the concurrence 
 of the great council, afterwards called the Par- 
 liament, and then composed of all the barons of 
 the realm. This document was presented to 
 the king in a solemn assembly of all the barons 
 and prelates, at a place called Runnymead, be- 
 tween Staines and Windsor; and here Magna 
 Charta (the Great Charter), the foundation of 
 the liberties of England, was signed on the 19th 
 of June 1215. But John, utterly devoid of
 
 THE BARONS. 79 
 
 lionour, did not scruple, as soon as he liad ob- 
 tained sufficient power, to act in direct opposi- 
 tion to all tlie engagements he had entered 
 into. A war between him and the barons broke 
 out in consequence, and the latter being de- 
 feated, in their turn purchased safety at the 
 expense of national honour by offering the crown 
 1 Louis, eldest son of the king of France. But 
 though this prince came over to England, and 
 was by some acknowledged as king, his rule 
 ^va3 of short duration ; for John having ended 
 liis disgraceful life the year after the signing of 
 Magna Charta, his son, Henry III., succeeded 
 him, and the whole of the nation returned to 
 its allegiance. 
 
 Chapter VII. — The Barons of England. 
 
 It will be remembered that William the Con- 
 queror divided almost all the lands of England 
 into baronies, and distributed these among the 
 men who had helped him to conquer the coun-
 
 80 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 try ; and that these men, grown powerful, very 
 soon showed their desire to make themselves 
 independent of the king. However, William 
 and his two immediate successors held the reins 
 of government too tight to allow of any of their 
 subjects obtaining an immoderate extent of 
 power, and though during these reigns the 
 nobles could oppress the people, they could not 
 for any length of time oppose the king. But 
 during the civil wars engendered by the con- 
 test between Stephen and Matilda, as both pre- 
 tenders stood equally in need of partisans, to 
 gain such they were obliged to cede to the 
 barons privileges which, in the sequel, proved 
 destructive of the public peace and of the royal 
 authority. Among these privileges was the 
 right to fortify their castles, granted to the 
 nobles, and in consequence of which England 
 was soon filled with impregnable fortresses, and, 
 like the other countries of Europe in which the 
 feudal system prevailed, soon became a vast 
 arena in which the mighty of the land settled 
 their quarrels sword in hand, while behind the 
 strong walls of their castles they set the king 
 and the law at defiance. The garrisons of the 
 castles were maintained at the expense of the
 
 THE BARONS. 81 
 
 defenceless country people, and the equally de- 
 fenceless inhabitants of towns. Whoever amono: 
 these classes was possessed of any property was 
 seized by the rapacious barons, and put to the 
 torture, to force them to make known where 
 their treasures were hidden. Some were hune: 
 up by the feet, and thus exposed to a suffocating 
 smoke ; others were suspended by the thumbs, 
 a slow fire being lighted under their feet ; some 
 again were thrown into pits filled with snakes, 
 and toads, and other reptiles ; and others were 
 shut up in dungeons so small, that they could 
 not stand upright or extend their limbs. On 
 other occasions arbitrary tributes were imposed 
 upon towns and villages, and when all the 
 money they possessed had been extorted from 
 the inhabitants, their houses were set on fire, 
 and a general pillage commenced. At length 
 the consequences of their misdeeds recoiled 
 upon the devastators themselves ; for the lands 
 being laid waste, and the industrious popula- 
 tions either hunted to death or driven to seek 
 safety elsewhere, the fields in many parts of the 
 country were left untilled, and dreadful famines 
 ensued, from the sufferings of which the baronial 
 castles were not exempt.
 
 82 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Tliougli a narrative of dreadful deeds such as 
 these and many others that will follow is neces- 
 sary to give a proper idea of the general man- 
 ners and morality of the times, we must beware 
 lest we be led into the erroneous belief that the 
 evil was at any period unrelieved by good. 
 Individuals proving themselves an honour and a 
 blessing to the society in the midst of which 
 they were placed — truly pious souls, whose lives 
 were devoted to the service of God and of their 
 fellow-beings — good and just men struggling 
 against the iniquities of the age in which they 
 were born — quiet, thoughtful beings, pursuing 
 the path of science, undisturbed by the turmoil 
 of the world around them — have appeared at 
 all periods to vindicate the nobler qualities of 
 liuman nature. Their sphere of action has not 
 always, it is true, been such as to gain a place 
 for their names in history, but it is to the action 
 of the good, however obscure and unperceived 
 at the time, that, under Providence, the pro- 
 gress of society is owing ; and this is a thought 
 that ought to bring home to each of us the 
 responsibility which we bear relative to the 
 character of the times in which we live, and of 
 those which will succeed us.
 
 THE BARONS. 83 
 
 Henry II. in a great measure remedied the 
 evils of wliich we have just spoken, by keeping 
 the barons within bounds, and forcing them to 
 <lemolish a great number of their castles ; but 
 during the absence of Richard Coeur de Lion in 
 the Holy Land, as well as during the reign of 
 ]iis weak and vicious brother, the power of the 
 barons attained to a greater height than ever, 
 and the reign of John's feeble son and successor, 
 Henry of Winchester, or Henry III, proved 
 iittle else than a struggle for supremacy between 
 i\}e monarch and the aristocracy. Murderers, 
 robbers, incendiaries, and malefactors of all 
 kinds became so numerous, that the justices 
 were afraid of executing the laws against them. 
 Piracies at sea were as frequent as robberies on 
 land, and merchants and mariners were as good 
 hands at plundering as barons and their re- 
 tainers ; while the inhabitants of the cities and 
 the rude peasants of the country were as deeply 
 tainted with the wild licentiousness of the times 
 as any of the other classes. 
 
 As long as Henry, who was but nine years of 
 age when he succeeded to the throne, was too 
 young to assume himself the reins of govern-, 
 ment, the affairs of the state were admirablv
 
 84 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 managed, first by the able and virtuous Earl of 
 Pembroke, maresclial of England, and afterwards 
 by the equally excellent and able justiciary, 
 Hubert de Burgh. But when the king grew to 
 man's estate, and proved himself little better 
 than a good-natured imbecile, ready to be 
 governed with absolute sway by the favourite 
 of the hour, and when he chose his favourites 
 and ministers among foreigners, who placed 
 their minions in all the highest and most lucra- 
 tive posts in the kingdom, and looked down 
 with contempt upon the natives ; when to this 
 was added several disastrous foreign campaigns 
 and heavy tributes imposed by the pope, and 
 submitted to by the king in his weakness, then 
 the proud blood of the barons of England boiled 
 in their veins, and they vowed that it should no 
 longer be thus. 
 
 The first check offered by them to the king 
 -was wise and legal. Being assembled in parlia- 
 ment, the king applied to them for supplies, 
 which they refused to grant, until he should 
 again have ratified the Grreat Charter, which he 
 had sworn to on his accession, but which he 
 had since then frequently violated. The king 
 assented ; and to render the ceremony more
 
 THE BARONS. 85 
 
 imposing, all the prelates and abbots were 
 assembled, holding in their hands lighted tapers. 
 The Gfreat Charter having been read out before 
 them, sentence of excommunication was pro- 
 nounced against whoever should violate it ; then 
 throwing their tapers on the ground, the pre- 
 lates exclaimed, " May the soul of every one 
 who incurs this sentence so stink and corrupt in 
 hell ! '' The king next pronounced these words : 
 " So help me God ! I will keep all these articles 
 inviolate, as I am a man, as I am a Christian, as 
 I am a knight, and as I am a king crowned and 
 anointed ! " Yet hardly were these awful words 
 spoken, before the weak and wicked king, who 
 could not resist the wishes of his favourites, vio- 
 lated the Charter in every way. The barons, now 
 headed by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, 
 a Frenchman by birth, but who had great posses- 
 sions in England, assembled again in parliament. 
 But this time they appeared in full armour, and 
 brought with them their armed retainers ; and 
 the king, finding himself in a manner a prisoner 
 in their hands, was obliged to subscribe to terms 
 which entirely deprived him of his kingly power. 
 This parliament, which is generally called in 
 history the Mad Parliament, because of the ille-
 
 86 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 gality of its proceedings, and the state of confu- 
 sion it led to, determined that unlimited authority 
 to reform the state should be granted to twenty- 
 four barons, selected for the purpose ; while the 
 king, his son, Prince Edward, and all the sub- 
 jects of the realm, were sworn to obey whatever 
 ordinances these barons might choose to pro- 
 mulgate. The first step of the commission thus 
 created, and at the head of which was Simon de 
 Montfort, was to order four knights to be elected 
 in each shire in the kingdom, who, after having 
 inquired into the condition of their respective 
 counties, should meet the barons in parliament 
 and lay all grievances before them. This was 
 an innovation which, though on this occasion 
 merely adopted by the barons as a means of 
 rendering themselves popular, nevertheless led 
 to very important results ; for it furnished the 
 classes below the barons with the means of 
 making their wants and their wishes known in 
 the great council of the monarch, and conse- 
 quently proved an immense boon to the people. 
 But De Montfort and his colleagues did not long 
 continue to play so moderate a part. They 
 placed creatures of their own as governors in 
 all the king's castles, and even in the offices of
 
 THE BARONS. 87 
 
 his household : and they displaced all the chief 
 officers of the crown, advancing themselves or 
 their adherents in their places. While they 
 thus usurped the power of the crown, and used 
 it for the oppression of the people, they also de- 
 prived the latter of the means of appeal or 
 redress, until then possessed by them, by forbid- 
 ding the judges going the circuit, or holding their 
 courts more than once in every seven years. 
 
 During three years the barons had exercised 
 the extraordinary powers intrusted to them 
 without the state of the country being in any 
 way improved, when the insolence of this 
 oligarchy went so far as to demand that their 
 powers should be confirmed to them not only 
 during King Heniy's lifetime, but during that of 
 his successor also. Prince Edward, whose cha- 
 racter was as manly and vigorous as his father's 
 was wavering and weak, and who had until then 
 honourably kept his promise of obedience to the 
 dictates of the commissioners, now took to arms 
 against them. In the civil war that ensued the 
 I barons were at first victorious ; but the avarice 
 and immoderate ambition of De Montfort, who 
 (wished to secure to himself all the spoils and all 
 tthe power in the state, at length awakened the
 
 88 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 hatred and disgust of his party, which spht into 
 two factions, one of which joined the king. 
 Under these circumstances De Montfort again 
 endeavoured to strengthen his own hands by- 
 flattering the people. He directed that two 
 representatives from each borough and city in 
 the kingdom, the inhabitants of which had until 
 then been too much despised to be allowed any 
 political power, should be summoned to parlia- 
 ment, and be associated with the knights of the 
 shires in a chamber apart from that of the 
 barons ; and thus, during the struggle for power 
 between the crown and the aristocracy, the 
 foundations were laid of the House of Commons, 
 which was in time to counterbalance the power 
 of both. The free burgesses of towns, who seem 
 to have attained to some eminence during the 
 Saxon period, sunk, after the establishment of 
 the feudal system, again into utter contempt. 
 To bear arms being then considered the only 
 honourable profession, the peaceful citizens 
 were looked upon as little better than serfs. 
 The mode of living of the barons and gentry 
 besides gave little encouragement to industrial 
 and commercial enterprise, while the lawless- 
 ness of the times acted as an effectual check on
 
 THE BARONS. 89 
 
 their development. Yet slowly but surely riches 
 accumulated in the hands of the industrious ; 
 and by degrees needy kings and barons learnt 
 to extend the privileges of towns and corpora- 
 tions, in order to obtain pecuniary assistance. 
 Citizens also commenced arming their appren- 
 tices, and sometimes ventured to resist violence 
 by force ; while, on the other side, battles were 
 not unfrequently fought in the streets between 
 the apprentices of one corporation and those of 
 another, and a new element of turbulence was 
 thus introduced into the state. 
 
 De Montfort's cause was but little served by 
 his last expedient. He fell in a great battle 
 fought at Evesham on the 4th August 1265, 
 and the barons Avere held in check for a time. 
 But though Edward I., Henry's son and suc- 
 cessor, proved himself one of the most vigorous 
 and most arbitrary monarchs who ever sat upon 
 the throne of England, and though his barons 
 never broke out into open rebellion against 
 him, we may judge, from the insolent answer 
 given to him by the Earl of Hereford, that 
 they still felt their power, and were nowise 
 disinclined to use it. Edward had assembled an 
 army with which he intended to attack the
 
 90 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 king of France, and which he desired to place 
 under the command of the Earl of Hereford, 
 constable, and the Earl of Norfolk, mareschal of 
 England. But the barons being at that time 
 displeased with Edward, on account of his arbi- 
 traiy proceedings, the two powerful earls refused 
 to obey. A violent altercation ensued, in which 
 the king, addressing Hereford, exclaimed, " By 
 Heaven, Sir Earl, you shall either go or hang ! " 
 " By Heaven, Sir King,'' answered the earl, " I 
 will neither go nor hang ! " And he, together 
 with Norfolk and thirty other barons, leaving 
 the royal presence, Edward was obliged to post- 
 pone his expedition. Indeed for upwards of two 
 centuries after the accession of Edward I., the 
 destinies of England continued to be swayed by 
 the influence of the great barons, except when 
 the monarch happened to be of so firm and 
 decisive a character as to be able to hold them 
 in check. 
 
 There was one peculiarity in the feudal 
 system which must be borne in mind, in order 
 to be able to understand the sudden revolutions 
 which took place in the governments and in the 
 position of parties, as also the length of time 
 during which wars were frequently protracted.
 
 THE BARONS. 91 
 
 A regular military force did not exist, and the 
 barons and their vassals were not bound to 
 remain under arms longer than forty days at a 
 time. If, therefore, it suited their purpose, 
 they could at any moment, by availing them- 
 selves of their right, dissolve the army of which 
 they formed part ; while, on the other side, if 
 any number of barons intended to rebel against 
 their sovereign, or to make war upon each other, 
 it was easy for them to assemble their vassals 
 within a very short space, and whoever got the 
 first start in the conflict was pretty sure of 
 success for the time being. But gradually the 
 number of great barons diminished, and that 
 of smaller landed proprietors, holding imme- 
 diately of the crown, and more devoted to it, 
 increased ; because, as the lands of the barons 
 became forfeited to the crown by some act of 
 criminality in their possessors, the kings fre- 
 quently divided them into smaller fiefs, the 
 holders of which could not become so formidable 
 to their authority. Grradually, also, the kings 
 began to leyj scutages on their vassals, in lieu 
 of demanding military service ; and with the 
 money thus obtained they hired troops, which 
 were more completely under their control.
 
 Chapter VIII. — Conquest of Wales — W^rs 
 WITH Scotland. 
 
 During the reign of Edward I., the Britons, 
 who, when persecuted by the Saxons, had sought 
 refuge in the mountain fastnesses of Wales, and 
 had there maintained their independence, were 
 at last brought under subjection to the English. 
 Though frequently reduced to pay tribute to 
 the Saxon and Norman kings of England, they 
 were never before entirely subjugated; and 
 though, whenever opportunity offered, they 
 infested the English frontiers, the English, con- 
 tent with repelling their invasions, had never 
 followed up the advantages gained over them, 
 until Lewellyn, Prince of Wales, harassed by the 
 rebellion of an undutiful son, sought the protec- 
 tion of Henry III., and submitted to become the 
 vassal of England, in order to insure peace and 
 tranquillity for his declining years. Lewellyn's 
 eldest son and successor, David, renewed the 
 homage ; but afterwards took advantage of the
 
 CONQUEST OF WALES. 93 
 
 rebellion of De Montfort and tlie barons, and 
 joining these, endeavoured to throw off his alle- 
 giance. On coming to the throne, Edward I. 
 summoned Lewel'lyn, the son of Griffith (the 
 rebellious son), who had succeeded to his uncle 
 David, to renew the homage. Lewellyn refused, 
 and Edward marched an army into the country, 
 drove the Welsh up into the mountains, and 
 liaving secured the roads, so that no provisions 
 could be brought to them, he waited patiently 
 until famine should force them to surrender. 
 Wlien this took place, hard terms were imposed 
 on Lewellyn ; and after Edward withdrew from 
 the field, the English lord marchers, intrusted 
 with the guardianship of the borders, com- 
 mitted so many outrages on their Welsh neigh- 
 bours, that these took to arms in their own 
 defence. Edward, who was very ambitious, and 
 fond of conquest, was not sorry of the opportu- 
 nity thus afforded him, and again marched an 
 army into Wales. This time he accomplished 
 the conquest of the country. Another prince 
 David, who had succeeded the second Lewellyn, 
 was hunted from hill to hill, from one hiding- 
 place to another, until at length, betrayed into 
 the hands of the enemy, he was put to death. 
 
 H
 
 94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Thus, after eight hundred years of independence, 
 the descendants of the original inhabitants of 
 Britain Avere incorporated with the divers people 
 who had superseded them in other parts of their 
 ancient territories ; for after this conquest, the 
 laws and civil organization of England were in- 
 troduced into Wales, which ever after remained 
 an integral portion of the English empire. 
 After the subjugation of the country, a scene 
 was enacted there similar to the one in the 
 island of Anglesea in the time of the Romans. 
 Edward I., knowing the influence which the 
 songs and music of the bards exercised over 
 the people, and fearing their love of the past — 
 of their independence and their nationality — 
 ordered all these innocent men to be put to 
 death. The chroniclers relate that Edward sub- 
 sequently promised the people of Wales that he 
 would give them a prince to reign over them, 
 w^ho was a Welshman by birth, and could speak 
 no other language ; and that when the people, 
 overjoyed at the proposal, replied to it by 
 acclamation, he presented to them his infant 
 son, afterwards Edward II., born a few months 
 previously in the castle of Caernarvon. The 
 prince was indeed invested with the principality
 
 WARS WITH SCOTLAND. 95 
 
 of Wales, which, on his accession to the throne, 
 was fully annexed to the crown, and thence- 
 forward has always given a title to the eldest 
 son of the kings of England. 
 
 In his attempts upon the independence of 
 Scotland, which country he next attacked, 
 Edward was for a time not less successful. 
 Before this period a kind of desultory warfare 
 had repeatedly occurred between the English 
 and the Scotch, when the kings or chieftains of 
 Scotland passed the borders to assist some 
 struggling party in England, or to avail them- 
 selves of civil dissensions for their advantage ; 
 or when the kings and barons of England were 
 equally guilty of encroachments on the terri- 
 tories of their northern neighbours. However, 
 up to Edward's reign, a regular war had never 
 been carried on between the nations. At this 
 time Alexander III., king of Scotland, who was 
 married to Edward's sister, was killed by a 
 fall from his horse, and his granddaughter 
 Margaret, an infant Princess of Norway (with 
 the king of which country Alexander's daughter 
 had been married), succeeded by right to the 
 Scottish throne. As the union of the kingdoms 
 of Scotland and Endand seemed then to both
 
 S6 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 parties to promise many advantages, tlie states 
 of Scotland' and the king of England agreed 
 that Margaret should, when she grew up, be 
 married to the Prince of Wales, who was like- 
 wise then a child ; and that she should in the 
 meantime be brought up at Edward's court. 
 But the infant princess died suddenly on the 
 passage from Norway ; and there now appeared 
 three claimants to the crown of Scotland, in the 
 persons of John Baliol, Robert Bruce, and John 
 Hastings, all three descended on the female 
 side from the Earl of Huntingdon, who, had he 
 been alive, would have been the heir to the Scot- 
 tish throne. The states of Scotland, believing 
 Edward to be their great friend, invited him to 
 arbitrate between the three rival princes ; and 
 Edward, who was not at all pleased at the 
 change of affairs brought about by the death of 
 the little Princess of Norw^ay, and who, to gra- 
 tify his ambition, did not scruple to trample on 
 the laws of truth and justice, availed himself of 
 the opportunity to put his plans upon Scotland 
 into execution. He acceded to the proposal of 
 arbitration ; and when the Scottish prelates and 
 nobles came to meet him, agreeably to his 
 summons, he let them know that it was in
 
 WARS WITH SCOTLAND. - 97 
 
 Ilis capacity of feudal superior of Scotland that 
 ]ie felt himself bound to determine who should 
 succeed to the vacant fief. Now Edward very 
 well knew that though, in bygone times, the 
 Scottish kings had sometimes acknowledged 
 themselves vassals of the English crown, this rela- 
 tion between the two kingdoms had never been 
 renewed since the period when Richard Coeur 
 de Lion had sold his right of feudal superiority 
 to King William of Scotland ; and the Scottish 
 people knew this as well as Edward, and would 
 not recognise his pretensions. But Edward 
 was surrounded by numbers of his barons and 
 their retainers, and the Scotch had come with- 
 out any militaiy retinue, so they could offer no 
 efficient resistance ; and John Baliol became 
 king of Scotland, because he was the one of 
 the rivals most willing to acknowledge himself 
 the vassal of England. Soon, however, he was 
 forced by his people, who w^ere a fierce and 
 proud nation, to resent the indignities practised 
 upon them by the English, and to renounce his 
 allegiance to the king of England. Edward 
 hastened with an army to the north to reclaim 
 his rebellious vassal, and crossing the Scottish 
 frontiers, commenced the war in earnest. Under
 
 f)8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the walls of Dunbar 40,000 Scots were totally 
 routed by 12,000 Englishmen. Equal success 
 attended the English in every subsequent engage- 
 ment ; and at the close of the year, the whole 
 of Scotland was in the possession of Edward, 
 who annexed the crown to that of England, 
 after having deposed Baliol, whom he took back 
 to London with him as a prisoner. But the 
 spirit of the Scots was not broken. Headed 
 by the renowned hero. Sir William Wallace, and 
 by several other eminent patriots, they rose 
 against their English subjugators ; and while 
 Edward was engaged with other matters on the 
 continent, they carried on a fierce and bloody 
 contest against his lieutenants. Again Edward 
 returned, defeated the Scots, and imposed his 
 authority on them ; and again, when his back 
 was turned, the high-spirited people rose against 
 him — Sir William Wallace, who had been cap- 
 tured and cruelly put to death by the English, 
 having been succeeded as leader by Robert 
 Bruce, the grandson of him who contended with 
 Baliol for the Scottish throne. 
 
 Bruce, having won the hearts of his country- 
 men by his brave defence of the country, was 
 crowned king in 1306, but had still to maintain
 
 WARS WITH SCOTLAND. 99 
 
 a fierce struggle against Edward, who liad 
 marched towards the borders with a large army, 
 and with the professed determination of making 
 a desert of a country which had so often rebelled 
 against him. But it was otherwise ordained : 
 the hand of the destroyer was arrested by death, 
 which overtook him in camp in 1307. On his 
 deathbed he enjoined his son and successor to 
 continue the war with vigour, and not to lay 
 down arms before Scotland was made a depen- 
 dence of England ; and he desired his body to 
 be carried at the head of the army. But the 
 second Edward was in character very different 
 from his father; peace and pleasure were his 
 chief objects; so, after having sent the body of 
 his parent to Westminster, to be interred there, 
 he withdrew from Scotland without striking a 
 blow. On a subsequent occasion, indeed, he 
 made a new attack on the independence of 
 Scotland ; but being ill supported by his English 
 barons, who held him in utter contempt, he was 
 obliged to retreat without having gained any 
 advantages. Once more he returned to the 
 charge under more happy auspices, and with 
 an army of 100,000 men, to which Bruce had 
 only 30,000 to oppose. Yet the English suffered
 
 100 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 a complete defeat at Bannockburn, and that 
 battle secured the independence of Scotland, 
 and fixed Robert Bruce firmly on the throne. 
 During the reign of Edward III, who inherited 
 his grandfather's abilities and ambition, renewed 
 attempts were made to subjugate Scotland ; but 
 though the Scottish kings were frequently pri- 
 soners in the hands of the English monarchs, 
 the Scots always successfully resisted every 
 attempt to place an English prince on the throne 
 of their country, while they were destined at a 
 subsequent period to give a line of monarchs to 
 England. 
 
 The defeat of Bannockburn still further weak- 
 ened the authority of Edward II., who, being 
 feeble of intellect, and prone to leave the reins 
 of government in the hands of unworthy favou- 
 rites, was utterly incapable of governing so 
 fierce and turbulent a people as the English 
 then were. After several contests with his 
 unruly barons, Edward was at length dethroned 
 by a faction, at the head of which was the 
 queen his wife, and a young nobleman, by 
 name Roger Mortimer, Lord Wigmore. The 
 unhappy monarch was confided as a state pri- 
 soner to the care of a set of merciless wretches.
 
 WARS WITH SCOTLAND. 101 
 
 who strove to break his heart by the indignities 
 they practised on him. Among other humilia- 
 tions offered to him, it is said that one day 
 when he was to be shaved, they ordered water 
 from a ditch to be brought to him for the pur- 
 pose. The mild and harmless Edward burst 
 into tears at the insult ; and pointing to the 
 warm drops that were coursing each other down 
 his face, said, that in spite of his jailers, he 
 would be shaved in warm water. The heart of 
 the people was not so hard as that of the 
 queen and the men into whose custody she 
 liad delivered her unhappy husband. The public 
 began to view wdth abhorrence her conduct, and 
 to judge more leniently of the king's past 
 offences ; but to guard against a still stronger 
 revulsion of the popular feeling, the king was 
 secretly murdered. This was the first time since 
 the Norman Conquest that a king of England 
 thus died ; but many more such deeds were in 
 future to stain the annals of our country.
 
 Chapter IX. — Wars with France — 
 Richard 1 1. 
 
 Few monarchs have been more esteemed than 
 Edward III., who, at the age of thirteen, suc- 
 ceeded his poor deposed and murdered father. 
 Owing to the prudence and vigour of his admi- 
 nistration, England during his reign enjoyed a 
 longer interval of internal peace and tranquil- 
 lity than ever before. But however much the 
 ability as well as the popularity of the king 
 may have contributed to this result, it was also 
 greatly owing to the occupation which he gave 
 to his turbulent vassals in foreign wars. Though 
 King John had lost to France the hereditary 
 dominions of the Dukes of Normandy — become 
 kings of England — the fair provinces of Aqui- 
 taine, brought in dower to Henry II. by Queen 
 Eleanor, continued to be held in fief of France 
 by the kings of England until the reign of 
 Edward I. A quarrel having then arisen 
 between some English and Norman seamen,
 
 WARS WITH TRANCK 103 
 
 this led to a kind of maritime war between the 
 seafaring populations of the two countries, in 
 which, however, at first the two kings did not 
 take any part. But at length Philip IV. of 
 France was induced to call upon Edward, as 
 Duke of Guienne, to give satisfaction for the 
 injury done to French subjects. In order to 
 avoid war, it was then agreed between the two 
 monarchs that Edward should surrender the 
 duchy during forty days, with the distinct 
 understanding that after that period he should 
 be reinstated in all his rights. But at the 
 expiration of the term Philip refused to restore 
 the duchy ; and the king of England, though 
 burning with indignation, was prevented by 
 matters at home from at once seeking redress. 
 When at length he repaired to the continent 
 with an army, the war languished, until the 
 pope brought about a reconciliation between 
 him and Philip, and the restitution of the fief 
 But Edward III., not content with being a 
 vassal of France, laid claim to the throne 
 of that country, which had become vacant 
 at the demise of Charles IV. without direct 
 heirs. Edward based his claim on his relation- 
 ship to the extinct dynasty; but this relation-
 
 1 04 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ship being derived from the female side, Philip 
 of Valois, a French prince, who stood in a 
 similar relationship to the throne, but on the 
 male side, was preferred by the French nation ; 
 and Edward did homage to him for the duchy 
 of Guicnne. Subsequently, however, Edward's 
 hostility to France was provoked by Philip's 
 adoption of the cause of the Scots, with whom 
 he was at war ; and having secured to himself 
 the support of parliament and the alliance of 
 many continental princes, he commenced a war 
 which, in spite of his mighty preparations, led 
 to nothing more than his assumption of the title 
 of King of France, though he had not attained 
 any additional poAver in that kingdom. Four 
 years afterwards, a new opportunity for war 
 with France was eagerly seized by Edward ; and 
 during this war, which continued for a period of 
 twenty years, with some intervals of truce, the 
 English acquired more militaiy glory than had 
 ever before fallen to their lot. The battles of 
 Cressy and Poictiers, in which the English, 
 fighting against fearful odds, carried the victory, 
 and the reduction of Calais, have in particular 
 been celebrated in history ; but it is the huma- 
 nity and the chivalrous generosity evinced by
 
 WARS WITH FRANCE. 105 
 
 our countrymen on these occasions^ more than 
 the mere brilliancy of their military achieve- 
 ments, which impart to these wars their glory. 
 
 At the end of the twenty years, little more 
 than the fame they had acquired remained to the 
 English ; for towards the close of the war, town 
 after town and province after province of their 
 ancient possessions and of their new conquests 
 were lost. The cities of Bayonne and Bour- 
 deaux, and the fortress of Calais, continued 
 alone in their hands. 
 
 From this period the English may be said to 
 have become, for the first time since the Con- 
 quest, a nation entirely distinct from the French. 
 Up to this time the English nobility and gentry 
 prided themselves on their French extraction ; 
 and the French language was used by them in 
 familiar conversation, as it was in all public 
 transactions ; while their ranks w^ere constantly 
 being renewed from among the nobles — natives 
 of the French possessions of the kings of Eng- 
 land. But the losses of Edward III. dissolved 
 all these connections, and the wars led to an 
 animosity between the two nations, which, fur- 
 ther fed by subsequent events, continued up to 
 very recent times ; while the French language
 
 106 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ceased to be used in the courts of law ; and 
 the English tongue, which had arisen out of the 
 fusion of the Saxon and the Norman, put forth 
 its first blossoms in the writings of Geoffrey 
 Chaucer, the first English poet of any note. 
 
 The Prince of Wales, commonly called the 
 Black Prince (from the colour of his armour) — 
 the idol of the English people ; and deservedly 
 so, for his character was without a blemish — 
 preceded his father to the grave, and his son 
 succeeded to the throne under the name of 
 Richard II. When Richard had attained his 
 sixteenth year, an event took place which gave 
 reason to hope that, when he should be of the 
 age to assume the reins of government, he would 
 prove himself a worthy descendant of two such 
 illustrious princes as Edward III. and the Black 
 Prince. The progress of society in that age was 
 in all countries proved by the endeavours of the 
 lowest classes of the populations to emancipate 
 themselves from the state of slavery and degra- 
 dation in which they had been held. As a 
 natural consequence of that state, these endea- 
 vours were attended by deeds of atrocious 
 vengeance on those classes which had so long 
 oppressed them. The news of what had been
 
 RICHARD II. 107 
 
 done by the populace in France and Flanders 
 spread to England, and inflamed the minds of 
 the same classes here ; and the imposition of a 
 tax of three groats per head on every individual 
 in the realm above the age of fifteen caused the 
 conflagration to burst forth. The tax-gatherer 
 liaving presented himself in the workshop of a 
 blacksmith, and having insulted the daughter 
 of this man, was felled to the ground by a blow 
 from the father's hammer. The bystanders 
 applauded the deed, and exclaimed that it was 
 time for the people to assert their liberty, and 
 to take vengeance for the oppression of cen- 
 turies. The whole neighbourhood accordingly 
 flew to arms, and was soon joined by bands from 
 different parts of the country, who, under the 
 leadership of Wat Tyler the smith, Jack Straw, 
 Hob Carter, and Tom Miller, whose names de- 
 note their original vocations, committed every- 
 where the most cruel outrages on the nobility 
 and gentry. After some time, the infuriated 
 mob, amounting to about 100,000, marched upon 
 London, where they were joined by the populace 
 of the city. Having set fire to the palaces, they 
 pillaged the warehouses, and cut ofi" the heads 
 of as many of the nobility as they could lay
 
 108 inSTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 hands on. At length it was deemed advisable 
 that the young king should go out and meet the 
 mob, who desired to speak to him. Tyler, who 
 w^as the spokesman, requested his confederates 
 to keep aloof until he should give them a signal 
 to advance. He then laid before the king the 
 demands of the people, wdiich were nothing 
 more than just, though they had resorted to 
 such atrocious and ill-advised means for having 
 them put into eifect. During the conference 
 Tyler began to handle the hilt of his dagger, 
 and laid his hand on the bridle of the king's 
 horse, upon which the mayor of London, who was 
 at Richard's side, suspecting treachery, struck 
 the smith a violent blow with his sword. The 
 people, seeing their leader fall, rushed forward 
 to avenge his death, when the young king, with 
 singular presence of mind, riding quite alone 
 into the midst of them, exclaimed, " What 
 mean ye by this disorder, my good people ? Are 
 ye angry that you have lost your leader ? I am 
 your king— I will be your leader I" The popu- 
 lace, overawed by his presence, followed him 
 out of the tow^n ; and the king then dismissed 
 them Avith a charter, granting the liberties they 
 liad demanded. But wliat Avas extorted by
 
 RICHARD II. 109 
 
 force was soon retracted by superior force. No 
 sooner had the king assembled an army, than 
 he took the field against the rioters, defeated 
 them, punished the ringleaders severely, and 
 revoked the charters which had been granted to 
 them. 
 
 Wofully did Richard disappoint the hopes of 
 a vigorous administration, which had been raised 
 by the courage, the presence of mind, and the 
 address evinced by him in his meeting with the 
 rioters. At the age of eighteen, indeed, he 
 shook off the trammels of his uncle, the Duke of 
 Lancaster, who had governed the kingdom dur- 
 ing his minority; but at twenty-one his career 
 had already been marked by so much weakness 
 of character, by so many errors of policy, and 
 by such a love of low pleasures, that another of 
 his uncles, the Duke of Gloucester, was able, by 
 the assistance of a strong party among the 
 nobility, to seize the reins of government, under 
 the pretext that Richard was still too young to 
 govern. A year after this, Richard, with another 
 burst of energy not expected from him, resumed 
 his rights ; and feeling that his power would 
 not be secure as long as his ambitious uncle 
 Gloucester lived, he sent him over to Calais, 
 I
 
 110 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 where lie was subsequently assassinated at the 
 king's express coriimand. 
 
 A short time after this event a quarrel took 
 place between the Duke of Norfolk and Henry 
 Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, son of the Duke 
 of Lancaster by a Spanish princess whom he 
 had married. It was determined that the matter 
 should be settled by single combat. The lists 
 were marked out, the king and his court were 
 assembled ; a vast concourse of knights, and 
 barons, and people of all classes had flocked to 
 the spot, to see in whose favour destiny would 
 ])ronounce ; when Richard, fearing the conse- 
 quences, suddenly stopped the proceedings, and 
 pronounced sentence of banishment for life 
 iigainst the Duke of Norfolk, and of ten years 
 against Henry Bolingbroke. The king, besides, 
 promised his cousin, that should the Duke of 
 Lancaster die during his absence, his inheritance 
 should not be withheld from him. However, 
 Lancaster died not long afterwards, and Richard 
 took possession of the inheritance he had pro- 
 mised to secure to his cousin ; and continued to 
 indulge in those disgraceful pursuits, in that 
 violence of temper, and in that love of idle show 
 and magnificence, combined with weakness of
 
 RICHARD II. Ill 
 
 character and of intellect, which had hefore 
 brought him into contempt. Murmurs and 
 discontent arose on all sides ; but the king, 
 heeding them not, undertook an expedition to 
 Ireland, to punish some disorders which had 
 broken out there. During his absence, Boling- 
 broke, now Duke of Lancaster, who was highly 
 indignant at Ilichard's violation of his promise, 
 and who had in vain remonstrated,, came over 
 to England to try his popularity against the 
 king's unpopularity. Exerting all the gifts 
 which nature had so lavishly bestowed upon 
 him, he soon won a powerful party, and before 
 Richard could return from Ireland, was at the 
 head of 60,000 men. On all sides Richard's 
 subjects, disgusted with his government, flocked 
 to the standard of his handsome and engaging 
 competitor. The very troops the king brought 
 with him deserted to his rival, and the despair- 
 ing monarch then made a fruitless attempt to 
 fly to the continent. He was captured, insulted 
 by his cousin, led in triumph to London, for- 
 mally deposed by parliament, shut up in Pomfret 
 Castle, and there cruelly starved to death.
 
 Chapter X. — Houses of Lancaster and York 
 -Wars of the Roses. 
 
 That the had passions which had led to fac- 
 tion and rehellion, and ultimately to usurpation, 
 were not allayed hy the parliament's recog- 
 nition of the Duke of Lancaster as king of 
 England, under the name of Henry IV., hecame 
 evident soon after his accession ; and that the 
 king himself never forgot how unjustly his 
 crown was won, was evident throughout his 
 reign of thirteen years, during which he was 
 constantly engaged in endeavours to consolidate 
 a throne which he felt stood on a tottering foun- 
 dation. For this purpose he extended the autho- 
 rity of the House of Commons, in order to gain 
 the goodwill of the people, that this might serve 
 as a counterpoise to the power of the barons. 
 Every extension of the privileges of the Com- 
 mons was a step forward in civilisation, because, 
 as their power extended, a greater number of 
 individuals became participators in the benefits •
 
 WARS OF THE ROSES. 113 
 
 of political rights and civil liberty, and new- 
 classes were raised to wellbeing. But the means 
 taken by Henry to conciliate the clergy led to 
 very different results. During the reign of 
 Richard II., one John Wickliffe had begun to 
 preach religious doctrines based upon Scripture, 
 but much at variance with the teachings and 
 practice of the Roman Catholic church. Against 
 the Lollards, as the followers of Wickliffe were 
 called, the king induced the parliament to pass 
 I a law, called the Law against Heretics — that is, 
 persons who differ in opinion from the received 
 religious doctrines ; and in consequence of this 
 i law, England beheld for the first time the horrid 
 I spectacle of persons committed to the flames for 
 their religious opinions. 
 
 In the very first parliament assembled by 
 Henry IV., the temper of the barons towards 
 each other was proved by the words liar and 
 traitor bandied between them, and by forty 
 gauntlets flung upon the floor of the House ; this 
 being the manner in which knights challenged 
 each other to single combat. In the following 
 year these passions broke out in conspiracy and 
 1 insurrection. The king put down the rebels: 
 las much blood was spilt upon the scaffold as
 
 114 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 upon tlie field of battle ; and the Earl of Rut- 
 land, presenting to the king on the point of a 
 spear the head of his brother-in-law, Lord 
 Spencer, as a test of his loyalty, showed what 
 were the spirit and the manners of the times. 
 Two more rebellions — one in Wales under Owen 
 Glendower, and another in the north of Eng- 
 land under the powerful Duke of Northumber- 
 land and his son Harry Percy, surnamed 
 Hotspur — troubled Henry's reign; and worn out 
 by disease and anxiety, the monarch sunk into 
 the grave, leaving his crown to a son who had 
 added not a little to his cares in life. 
 
 Henry V. had, as Prince of "Wales, been an 
 object of jealousy to his father, and had in 
 consequence been excluded from all participation 
 in the government of the state. Being of an 
 active and lively disposition, idleness drove him 
 into bad company ; and the heir to the prown, 
 associated with a set of dissolute companions, 
 disgraced himself by attacking passengers in 
 the streets and highways, and amusing himself 
 with the terror he and his associates inspired. 
 But many an act of generosity, and many a 
 proof of a noble disposition, endeared the prince 
 to the people, in spite of his faults. On one
 
 WARS OF THE ROSES. 1 1 5 
 
 occasion some of the prince's confederates having 
 been sentenced to imprisonment, he insisted 
 on their being released ; and when this was 
 refused, he drew his sword against the judge. 
 The magistrate, undaunted by the rank of the 
 oifender, did his duty, and ordered the prince 
 into confinement ; and Henry having cooled, 
 and feeling that the judge w^as right, quietly 
 submitted. The king and the people alike 
 rejoiced in the reverence for the law shown by 
 the magistrate and by the prince ; but when 
 Henry succeeded his father, it w^as feared by 
 some that he would revenge himself on those 
 who had thwarted him as Prince of Wales. 
 They knew but little Henry's noble disposition. 
 Judge Gascoigne was the first who received 
 proofs of the new king's regard ; and his disso- 
 lute companions were at once discarded, with a 
 recommendation to reform in like manner as he 
 intended to reform. 
 
 The king was true to his promise ; and his 
 virtues and conciliating policy for a time allayed 
 those dreadful passions which had so lately 
 desolated the country. But though peace was 
 thus secured at home, the greater part of this 
 reign was occupied by war with France. This
 
 116 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 kingdom was at that period distracted bj the 
 rivalry of the factions of the Dukes of Orleans 
 and Burgundy, who were disputing for power, 
 while the poor king, Charles VI., was struggling 
 with a dreadful mental malady, which prevented 
 him from attending to the affairs of the state. 
 Taking advantage of the confusion, Henry pro- 
 posed to the dominant faction to give him the 
 daughter of the French king in marriage, and 
 demanded in dower a large sum of money, 
 together with all the provinces which had once 
 formed the hereditary possessions of the king's 
 of England. Weakened as they were by civil 
 war, the French would, nevertheless, not listen 
 to such proposals ; and Henry took to arms, 
 hoping to gain by violence even more than he 
 had asked in dower. His first campaign, though 
 he won the brilliant victory of Agincourt, which 
 in the annals of England ranks with those of 
 Cressy and Poictiers, led to no results ; but a 
 few years later, the dreadful demoralisation of 
 the French brought about the realisation of his 
 most sanguine hopes. The Duke of Burgundy 
 was treacherously murdered by the followers of 
 ( the Dauphin, as the eldest sons of the kings of 
 France were called; and the son of the murdered
 
 WARS OF THE ROSES 117 
 
 duke, willing to do anything to avenge hisf 
 father's death, entered into an alliance with 
 Henry Y., who had landed in Normandy with al 
 formidable army. A treaty was signed between*' 
 the two, to the effect that Henry should marry 
 the Princess of France ; that he should be 
 declared heir to the monarchy ; and that he 
 should govern the country during the lifetime 
 of the poor mad king. The power of Henry's 
 arms, aided by the Burgundy faction, next 
 carried the treaty into effect ; and while the 
 dauphin, persecuted even by his own mother, 
 was driven to seek an asylum elsewhere, the 
 king of England took his place next to the 
 throne of France, and governed in the name of 
 his father. Henry now only visited England 
 occasionally ; and jealousy was in consequence 
 beginning to spring up in this country, when 
 the king, being at the summit of the glory he 
 had coveted, his queen, the Princess of France, 
 having presented him with a son, he died on 
 3 1st August 1422. 
 
 During the minority of Henry's infant son 
 and successor, Henry VI., all the power which 
 the English had gained in France was lost, 
 and the kings of England were thenceforward
 
 118 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 obliged to rest satisfied witli the empty title of 
 King of France, which, np to very recent times, 
 they continued to assume, to the great, and it 
 must be confessed just, annoyance of their proud 
 neighbours. Two months after the death of 
 Henry V., poor King Charles of France also 
 died; and the English having thus lost the 
 screen behind which they mashed their usur- 
 pation, the national pride of the French began to 
 rebel against the idea of being governed by 
 foreigners. Even those among them who had 
 until then been hostile to the dauphin, began to 
 think with compassion on the wrongs inflicted 
 on him, the rightful heir to the crown ; while 
 many other circumstances also combined to 
 imdermine the English ascendancy in the coun- 
 try. However, during the first seven years after 
 the death of Henry V., they still maintained 
 their ground ; but after this period, there came 
 forward to the assistance of the French a young 
 enthusiastic peasant girl, who believed that she 
 had obtained from Heaven the mission to libe- 
 rate her country from the yoke of the foreigners. 
 The faith of Jeanne d'Arc — this was her name 
 — in her own mission was such, that it inspired 
 others with equal faith. She was placed by the
 
 WARS OF THE ROSES. 119 
 
 (laupliin at the head of his army, and the Frenclj, 
 firmly believing that a Heaven-sent messenger 
 was fighting for them, performed such prodigies 
 of valour, that the English on every side gave 
 way before them. The English were, besides, 
 infected by the same superstition as the French, 
 and the presence of the Maid of Orleans, as 
 Jeanne was also called, generally spread a panic 
 among them. On the 25th of May 1430, how- 
 ever, the spell was broken : Jeanne d'Arc was 
 captured by the English, and the heroic, self- 
 devoting maiden, who had saved her country 
 from foreign subjugation, was basely abandoned 
 by her king and countrymen, and as basely put 
 to death by the English, who, under pretence of 
 ]ier being a sorceress, condemned her to be 
 publicly burned. But in spite of this inhuman 
 deed, which was probably intended to revive the 
 courage of their troops, and to dishearten the 
 French, the English did not recover their ascen- 
 dancy, but lost fortress after fortress, and battle 
 after battle, until, in 1451, the town of Calais 
 alone remained to them of all their conquests. 
 
 In the meanwhile, England had been dis- 
 tracted by the dissensions and intrigues of the 
 regents who governed during the king's minority ;
 
 120 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and when he attained his majority, matters did 
 not hecome better, for Henrj VI. was so weak 
 in mind and character, as to be quite incapable 
 of directing himself His queen, Margaret of 
 Anjou, who had been selected to be his wife, 
 because of her possessing those masculine qua- 
 lities in which he was so deplorably deficient, 
 failed to win the aifections of the people, she 
 being of a proud and vindictive temper. Disturb- 
 ance and turbulence reigned on all sides ; and 
 soon was to commence the fearful drama called 
 in history the Wars of the Roses, because of a 
 red rose being the device of the House of Lan- 
 caster, and a white rose that of the House of 
 York — the two rival factions by whom the wars 
 were carried on. When Henry's uncles were dead, 
 and he remained the sole head of the House of 
 Lancaster, which, as we have seen, descended 
 from a younger son of Edward IIL, then 
 Richard Duke of York, the descendant of an 
 elder son of that same monarch, seeing that 
 Henry's imbecility rendered him incapable of 
 governing, made several attempts to seize 
 power, and ultimately even put forward claims 
 to the crown. Soon the whole nation was 
 divided into Yorkists and Lancastrians : the
 
 WARS OP THE ROSES. 121 
 
 mightiest barons of the realm were ranged on 
 each side ; battles were fought with words in 
 parliament, and with deadly weapons in the 
 field ; the axe of the executioner was as busy as 
 the sword of the warrior ; for, according to the 
 cruel practice of the times, prisoners of war were 
 put to death as soon as captured. To make 
 confusion worse, the lower classes rose on their 
 own behalf, under one Jack Cade, demanding 
 redress of grievances ; and in the meantime 
 used the sword and the axe, as did the other 
 factions ; and thus, in the cottage as in the 
 palace, desolation reigned. 
 
 At length, after a victory gained by the Duke 
 of York, a compromise was entered into by par- 
 liament, in virtue of which it was determined 
 that Henry VI. should reign during his lifetime, 
 but that at his death the Duke of York should 
 succeed to the throne, to the exclusion of the 
 king's son Edward, then an infant. But in spite 
 of this decision. Queen Margaret stood up for 
 her son's rights, and York fell in a battle fought 
 near Wakefield in 1460. His eldest son, the 
 Duke of Rutland, a beautiful and accomplished 
 lad of seventeen, while making his escape from 
 the field of battle, was overtaken by Lord de
 
 122 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Clifford, one of tlie Lancaster party. Struck bj 
 the boy's appearance, Clifford inquired who he 
 was, and on being told, shouted, " Is it so ? 
 Thy father slew my father, and thus I will slay 
 thee and all thy kin!"' and he plunged his 
 dagger into the innocent boy's heart ! Such was 
 the spirit that faction had bred, and that raged 
 throughout the country ; and as another proof 
 of it, tlie head of the fallen Duke of York, deco- 
 rated with a crown of silver paper, was exposed 
 in derision on the walls of York. But Margaret's 
 triumj^h was not of long duration : her troops 
 soon gave way before the arms of the Yorkists ; 
 and while she fled to Scotland with her infant 
 son and the king, now perfecth^ imbecile, 
 Edward of York, second son of Richard, entered 
 London, and was proclaimed king by the title of 
 Edward IV. 
 
 During ten years there were now two kings 
 in England ; for though Henry VI. was the 
 greater part of that time a prisoner in the 
 Tower, and Edward IV. was at one period a 
 fugitive in Holland, yet both continued to 
 maintain their claims and titles, and England 
 was deluged with the blood of their partisans. 
 But the battle of Tewkesbury in 1470 decided
 
 WARS or THE ROSES. 123 
 
 matters against Hcnrj VI. In this battle fell 
 the powerful Earl of Warwick, commonly called 
 the King-maker, because of the influence he 
 exercised on the fortunes of the kings, he having 
 at difl*erent times adopted different sides. Mar- 
 garet of Anjou and her son, for whose rights the 
 King-maker was at this time contending, fell into 
 tlie hands of Edward. The young prince having 
 given a proud answer to the king, who asked 
 him how he dared to enter the realm in arms, 
 Edward brutally struck him in the face with his 
 gauntlet, and then allowed him to be put to 
 death. Henry YI. died immediately afterwards, 
 and Queen Margaret, being ransomed by the 
 king of France, withdrew broken-hearted into 
 his dominions. Edward IV. then reigned during 
 fourteen years in comparative peace, and died 
 at the age of forty-two, having been as distin- 
 guished for his personal beauty as for every vice 
 that most disgraces a monarch and a man. 
 
 He left two sons, the eldest of whom, Edward 
 Y., was proclaimed king ; but he being too young 
 to assume the government of the realm, his 
 uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, w^as ap- 
 pointed protector or regent. This Richard was 
 a man of great ability, but devoured by am-
 
 124 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 bition, and of a character that shunned no 
 crime, however atrocious, for the attainment of 
 an object. Instead of maintaining the. cause of 
 his young nephew, he, on the contrary, in- 
 trigued, and played upon the many bad passions 
 still alive in the nation, until he got himself 
 proclaimed king by a faction. To secure^his 
 position, he then put to death the two innocent 
 babes committed to his care. The poor young 
 king, and his little brother the Duke of York, 
 who had for some time been confined to the 
 Tower, under pretext of being held in safety, 
 were suffocated in their sleep, and buried under 
 a heap of stones, at the foot of the stairs lead- 
 ing to their room. A few brief months only 
 did the blood-stained uncle enjoy the fruits of 
 his iniquity. The English nation, all inured to 
 deeds of horror as it was, revolted at crimes so 
 unnatural as those of Richard III., and turned 
 its hopes to Henry, Earl of Richmond, the son 
 of a princess of the House of Lancaster and the 
 Earl of Richmond, a son of the widow of Henry 
 V. and of Owen Tudor, a Welsh gentleman 
 whom she had married. Richmond, who was 
 in Brittany, came over to England, was joined 
 by a powerful party, and gave battle to Richard,
 
 WARS OF THE ROSES. 125 
 
 who was slain. Henry VII., the first of the 
 House of Tudor, was then proclaimed king ; and 
 as he subsequently married the Princess Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of Edw^ard IV., the interests of 
 the two parties, it was supposed, were thus 
 reconciled. But the king continued to perse- 
 cute the Yorkists, and they retaliated with 
 hatred and rebellions. Twice they put forward 
 impostors, w^ith a view to depriving him of his 
 crown. One of these, Lambert Simnel, was 
 made to represent Edward Plantagenet, the last 
 of that family, and grandson of the King-maker, 
 who had been incarcerated in the Tower, and 
 was believed to be dead. By producing the real 
 Plantagenet, the king unmasked the pretender ; 
 and a contemptuous pardon having been be- 
 stowed upon the poor boy, who had been a 
 tool in the hands of others, he next aspired to 
 and obtained the place of scullion in the king's 
 kitchen. The second impostor, Perkin "Warbeck, 
 who was given out to be the Duke of York, who, 
 it was pretended, had in some miraculous way 
 escaped from the Tower w^hen his brother was 
 murdered, kept up his character somewhat 
 longer. He w^as cherished by the enemies of 
 Henry at home and abroad as the "White 
 J
 
 126 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Rose of England," and obtained in marriage a 
 beautiful and high-born Scottish lady. But at 
 length he also was deserted by those who at 
 first had made use of him for their own pur- 
 poses ; and after having been exposed in the 
 pillory, he died the death of a traitor. His 
 lovely and virtuous wife, who clung to him 
 with undiminished affection till the last, was 
 honoured by the queen for her fidelity with a 
 place at court. Thenceforward Henry VII. 
 reigned in peace, though not beloved, and ex- 
 erted himself successfully in imj^roving the 
 material condition of the country, and in ex- 
 tending the power of the crown. 
 
 Chapter XI.— Henry VIII.— Edward VI. — 
 Queen Mary. 
 
 Although the history of England, during the 
 century which elapsed between the accession of 
 Henry V. and the death of Henry VII. in 1509, 
 is a narrative of almost incessant warfare,
 
 HENRY VIII 127 
 
 society had, in the midst of turmoil and blood- 
 shed, been slowlj working its way upwards. 
 Almost every country in Europe had been pass- 
 ing through the same phases as England, and, 
 like England, each was now coming into a more 
 settled state. In all countries alike, by some 
 means or other, the strength of the feudal 
 nobility had been broken, as it was in England 
 by the Wars of the Roses ; the labouring-classes 
 had in a great measure been rescued from 
 serfdom ; and the monarchs had, like Henry 
 VII., acquired a greater degree of power. This 
 power, though for a time it led to despotism, 
 nevertheless vastly promoted order and stabi- 
 lity, and by so doing, contributed materially 
 to the further progress of society. In the 
 course of the fourteenth century, the writings of 
 the ancient Greeks and Romans had been 
 restored to Europe by a few enlightened indi- 
 viduals, who had zealously sought out the old 
 manuscripts, and given them to the world ; and 
 these had exercised a great influence on the 
 mental condition of some classes. The taking 
 of Constantinople by the Turks in the fifteenth 
 century, and the consequent dispersion of the 
 Grreeks, among whom some degree of learning
 
 128 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 still remained, led to a further acquaintance 
 viiih the literary productions of a highly-civi- 
 lised race, and greatly stimulated the mental 
 activity of the living generation. Poets, men of 
 science, thinkers of all kinds, began to share 
 with warriors the honours of the world, and 
 numerous inventions were made calculated to 
 increase and diffuse knowledge. The art of 
 printing, and the manufacture of paper from 
 cloth, which may be said to have changed the 
 destinies of the human race ; gunpowder and 
 firearms, which effected a total revolution in 
 the art of war ; and the compass, which gave 
 such an immense impetus to navigation — were 
 invented. A passage round the Cape of Good 
 Hope to India was found ; Columbus had dis- 
 covered America ; other navigators had come 
 upon numerous islands and continents until 
 then unknown ; and new worlds were thus opened 
 up to European commerce and enterprise. The 
 art of oil-painting was developed, and that of 
 engraving on copper invented; and with all 
 this the state of society was of course changed. 
 Not only did cities rise into opulence and power 
 in consequence of the spread of commerce, 
 arts, and manufactures, but peaceful employ-
 
 HENRY VIIT. 129 
 
 ments came to be held in honour, so that even 
 the nobility and gentry would seek them. 
 Such employments rendered a higher state of 
 mental cultivation necessary ; and thus edu- 
 <'ation was sought, and gradually extended. 
 Universities and schools were multiplied, and 
 numerously attended. In the time of Henry 
 VI. there were in the Inns of Court no less 
 than two thousand students belonging to the 
 class of the nobles and the gentry. Even in the 
 relations between state and state, mental power 
 was brought to bear upon many subjects of dis- 
 pute which would formerly have been settled 
 by brute force ; and the art thus developed is 
 what we term Diplomacy. 
 
 In spite of all this progress, a century of 
 violence of a new kind was, however, about to 
 open ; for men began to apply the light let in 
 upon their minds to religious subjects also, and 
 this led to the great mental revolution called 
 the Reformation, which commenced in England 
 during the reign of Henry VIII. This prince, 
 young, brave, handsome, and accomplished, and 
 uniting in his person the rival claims of the 
 Houses of Lancaster and York, was, when he 
 first ascended the throne, adored by his people,
 
 130 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 who looked forward to his reign as one pro- 
 mising peace and prosperity to the nation. In 
 the commencement, indeed, not a cloud obscured 
 the prospect. The court of England, over which 
 a gloom had hung during the penurious admi- 
 nistration of Henry VII., became the scene of 
 constant gaiety and amusements ; of balls, 
 tournaments, and gay processions, in which, it 
 is true, the treasures amassed by the king's 
 father were squandered away ; but the people 
 were amused, and did not look further. Money 
 was also spent in repeated interferences in the 
 affairs of the continent, where France and Spain 
 were contending for supremacy ; and while the 
 king gratified his love of arms by these military 
 displays, he proved his erudition and his attach- 
 ment to the Roman Catholic faith by a treatise 
 written in defence of its doctrines, which gained 
 for him the title of " Defender of the Faith," 
 bestowed by the pope. This treatise was directed 
 against Martin Luther, an Augustine friar of 
 Wittemberg in Germany, who having persuaded 
 himself, by the study of the Bible, that there 
 was much in the teachings and practice of the 
 Eoman Catholic church in his day contrary to 
 the spirit of the Holy Scriptures, pointed out 
 
 I
 
 HENRY VIII. 131 
 
 these errors to other men; translated the Bible 
 into the language of the people — a thing which 
 had never been done before — and called upon all 
 persons, now that the holy volume was opened 
 to them, to judge for themselves, and to throw 
 oif the trammels in which they had until then 
 been held. The public mind of Europe had long 
 been prepared for this change : the Albigenses 
 in France, Wickliife in England, and John Huss 
 in Bohemia, had before Luther expressed opi- 
 nions in accordance with his ; and the Bible 
 being now translated into the languages of the 
 various people of Europe, in spite of all that the 
 pope and those who remained faithful to the 
 ancient state of things could do, the reformed 
 tenets spread rapidly through Germany, the 
 north of Europe, the Netherlands, Switzerland, 
 France, and also England, though here King 
 Henry, and his powerful chancellor, the famous 
 Cardinal "Wolsey, at first resisted the invasion of 
 the new opinions. 
 
 Immediately after his accession, Henry had 
 married Catharine, a Spanish princess, widow of 
 his elder brother, and daughter of the powerful 
 sovereigns of Castile and Arragon — Ferdinand 
 and Isabella- Marriage with a brother's widow
 
 132 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 was contrary to tlie canonical laws and the 
 received opinions of tlie times. The pope had, 
 however, granted a dispensation: the scruples 
 which Henry had at first felt were allayed, and 
 did not revive until after the expiration of 
 eighteen years, and when Catharine had already 
 borne him several children, only one of whom, 
 the Princess Mary, sui-vived. At this period the 
 king formed an attachment for Anne Boleyn, 
 one of the queen's maids of honour, a beauti- 
 ful and accomplished young lady ; and being 
 desirous of marrying her, he renewed the ques- 
 tion of the legality of his marriage with Catha- 
 rine, and endeavoured to obtain a divorce, in 
 spite of the intreaties of the poor queen that 
 he would not cast dishonour on her and her 
 daughter. But the king had before this given 
 proofs that to the more amiable qualities of his 
 mind, which had made him so much beloved at 
 his accession, was joined a temper headstrong, 
 impetuous, and capricious, which governed him 
 in all matters, which bore down all resistance ; 
 and which being indulged by himself, and 
 unchecked by others, was rapidly changing him 
 into a ruthless and selfish tyrant, ready to 
 sacrifice everything and every one for the grati-
 
 HENRY VIII. 133 
 
 fication of the moment's desire. Tlie numerous 
 delays caused in the matter of the divorce, by 
 the political difficulties of the pope and the 
 wish of Cardinal Wolsey to prevent the king 
 from marrying Anne Boleyn, who was known to 
 lean to the reformed tenets, led to the disgrace 
 of the minister, and to a complete rupture with 
 the see of Rome. Wolsey was banished from 
 the king's presence, and deprived of all his 
 honours; and one law after the other was passed 
 severing the connection which had until then 
 existed between the clergy of England and the 
 see of Rome ; as also annulling all powers 
 hitherto acknowledged to reside in the pope 
 as head of the church. That title, and the 
 privileges attendant on it, was thenceforv\^ard 
 to be held by the kings of England themselves. 
 After this reform was introduced, Henry and 
 his parliament, by virtue of the powers vested 
 in them, declared the king's marriage with 
 his brother's widow invalid, and Henry married 
 Anne Boleyn, who was shortly after crowned 
 queen. 
 
 The renunciation of allegiance to the see of 
 Rome, which was the consequence of the Refor- 
 mation in all countries where it was introduced.
 
 134 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 in England thus preceded this introduction ; for 
 at first Henry left the doctrines of the Romish 
 church untouched, though he dissolved all 
 monasteries and convents in the country, seized 
 their property, and threw their inmates penni- 
 less and helpless upon the world. But subse- 
 quently the king promulgated a kind of Con* 
 fession of Faith of his own composing, and 
 whoever did not subscribe to the " Bloody 
 Statute,'' as it was called, on account of its 
 severity, were committed to the flames for their 
 dissent. This confession of faith was alike 
 distasteful to the king's Catholic and Protestant 
 subjects ; and though the horrid fact seems 
 almost incredible, it is calculated that during 
 the reign of this bloody tyrant no less than 
 72,000 individuals of the new and of the old 
 faith attested by their death the sincerity of 
 their convictions. But it was not only in 
 punishing religious dissent that Henry showed 
 this dreadful disposition to cruelty. Whoever 
 stood in the way of his wishes, or resisted his 
 will, was treated in like manner; and parlia- 
 ment, by passing a bill to give royal proclama- 
 tions the full force of law, placed in his hands 
 unlimited power. Queen Anne, who had pre-
 
 HENRY VIII. 135 
 
 sented the king with a daughter, and had 
 been highly cherished for three years, after that 
 time lost her husband's affections, which were 
 now bestowed upon Lady Jane Seymour. Anne 
 Boleyn was therefore condemned to death on 
 false pretences ; and the day after her head fell 
 by the executioner's axe, the king married the 
 new object of his impure love. In about a year 
 the young queen gave birth to a son, Edward, 
 and died immediately after. Three times more 
 the vicious and capricious tyrant contracted the 
 bonds of wedlock, and twice more broke them 
 at his pleasure. The Princess Anne of Cleves 
 was repudiated after a few weeks, because she 
 was plain in person and ungraceful in manner ; 
 Catharine Howard, niece of the Duke of Nor- 
 folk, was beheaded because of faults committed 
 before her marriage ; and Catharine Parr, widow 
 of Lord Latimer, narrowly escaped the same 
 sentence, because she entered into religious 
 controversies with her royal husband. In the 
 meanwhile the king continued his innovations 
 in the church ; and his health having given 
 way, the irritability and malignity of his temper 
 increased with his bodily sufferings ; and neither 
 sex nor age, rank nor learning, was admitted as
 
 136 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 a plea in favour of those who incurred his 
 displeasure. 
 
 At length, in 1547, death put an end to the 
 sufferings and the crimes of the tyrant, and 
 the young son of Jane Seymour succeeded to 
 the throne by the title of Edward VI. During 
 the reign of this monarch, who lived only until 
 he was sixteen, the true work of the Reforma- 
 tion took place in England ; the reformed 
 religion was established in the country without 
 bloodshed or violence, and the most cruel laws 
 of King Henry were repealed. But the extreme 
 youth and weak health of the king gave rise 
 to many ambitious schemes, and his short reign 
 was disturbed by the intrigues of his uncle, Sir 
 Thomas Seymour, and Dudley, Earl of Warwick, 
 afterwards created Duke of Northumberland. 
 Sir Thomas Seymour, and his brother the Duke 
 of Somerset, Lord Protector during Edward's 
 minority, at length fell victims to the inordinate 
 ambition of Northumberland, who, having ob- 
 tained supreme power, and having won the 
 king's favour, endeavoured by means of the 
 latter to perpetrate the former. Having married 
 his son Lord Guildford Dudley to Lady Jane 
 Grey (granddaughter of Mary Tudor, the sister
 
 EDWARD VI. 137 
 
 of Henry VIIL, who was first married to King 
 Louis XII. of France, and afterwards to Charles 
 Brandon, Duke of Suffolk), he began to work 
 upon the mind of the young king to induce 
 liim to change the order of succession to the 
 throne in favour of Lady Jane. Henry VIIL 
 liad by his will determined that in case his son 
 :ind his two daughters should die without issue, 
 the crown should revert to the descendants of 
 liis younger sister Mary, to the exclusion of 
 those of his elder sister Margaret, who had 
 married James IV., king of Scotland. Northum- 
 berland's efforts were directed towards inducing 
 Edward, in like manner, to exclude his half- 
 sisters, and in case he should die without issue, 
 to let the crown pass at once to the descendants 
 of the queen of France. The Princess Mary, 
 daughter of Queen Catharine, had, by persever- 
 ing in the Roman Catholic faith, caused much 
 uneasiness to the young king, who was warmly 
 attached to the reformed tenets ; and, as far as 
 she was concerned, he was not disinclined to 
 listen to a plan which might avert from the 
 country the danger of the re-establishment of 
 the Romish church. But his sister Elizabeth, 
 the daughter of Anne Boleyn, Edward sincerely
 
 138 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 loved ; and he was therefore averse to attack 
 her rights. However, Northumherland repre- 
 sented to him that Mary could only be excluded 
 on the plea of illegitimacy, and that the same 
 stigma attached to the birth of Elizabeth, Henry 
 VIII. having annulled his marriage with the 
 mothers of both the princesses, on pretence of 
 t?ieir illegality. Edward was on the brink of 
 the grave ; recent illness had further enfeebled 
 his sinking constitution ; he was warmly attached 
 to his cousin Lady Jane Grey, who had been 
 the companion of his childhood and his youth ; 
 and he yielded to the importunities of her father- 
 in-law, but died before the proposed change in 
 the succession had been submitted to and sanc- 
 tioned by parliament. 
 
 Northumberland immediately took measures 
 to have the Lady Jane proclaimed queen; and 
 this young princess, as remarkable for her beauty 
 as for her virtues and accomplishments, accepted 
 with a bleeding heart a crown which, in her 
 eyes, possessed no attractions. But she was soon 
 relieved of the burthen ; for the Princess Mary, 
 on hearing of her brother's death and Northum- 
 berland's treachery, speedily assembled an army, 
 and marched upon London, where she was received
 
 QUEEN MARY. 139 
 
 as the lawful sovereign, while Northumberland, 
 in dismay, relinquished his daughter's claims. 
 Mary possessed all her father's vices of character 
 without any of those more amiable qualities 
 Avhich made him beloved in his youth. Ob- 
 stinacy, bigotry, violence, cruelty, and a love of 
 revenge, were her leading characteristics ; and 
 under their dominion she set about punishing her 
 enemies, and re-establishing the Romish religion 
 and hierarchy in England. Northumberland had 
 deserved death, and was at once brought to the 
 scaffold; but the young, the lovely, the virtuous 
 Lady Jane, and her equally innocent husband, 
 who had only yielded to parental authority and 
 intreaty, were also condemned, and suffered 
 death shortly after, though it was evident that 
 the queen had nothing to fear from the ambition 
 of one who had so reluctantly accepted of the 
 crown. In dying. Lady Jane proved what she 
 would have been in life. Supported by implicit 
 trust in the love and mercy of God, she was 
 enabled to behold with calmness her husband's 
 mangled remains borne past her as she was on 
 her way to the scaffold. Before the gentle girl 
 placed her head on the block, she made a speech 
 to the bystanders, in which she took all blame
 
 140 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 upon herself for not having rejected the proifered 
 crown with sufficient firmness ; declared her 
 willingness to submit to death, as the only- 
 amends she could make to the injured state ; 
 and expressed a hope that her example would 
 prove a lesson to others, that the absence of 
 selfish motives does not excuse actions which 
 tend to the destruction of the commonwealth. 
 
 The axe having done its work, fagots and 
 flames were next called in to do theirs ; and 
 during a reign of five years, two hundred and 
 ninety individuals, among whom five bishops, 
 twenty- one clergymen, fifty- five women, and 
 four children, expiated on the stake the crime 
 of refusing to accept of the Roman Catholic 
 faith, and of resisting the re-establishment of 
 popish supremacy in England. Posterity has 
 recorded its abhorrence of such deeds by the 
 appellation of the Bloody Queen, generally given 
 to Mary ; but while turning in disgust from the 
 atrocious cruelty of the persecutors mentioned 
 in history, we are, on the other hand, elevated 
 by the contemplation of the fidelity unto death 
 of the persecuted to what they believed to 
 be a righteous cause. Mary had, contrary to 
 the wishes of her people — who even took
 
 QUEEN MART. 141 
 
 to arms on the occasion — married Philip of 
 Spain, one of the gloomiest and most bigoted 
 Catholics of the times ; but in the persecution 
 of the English Protestants he had no share. 
 He had married Mary from political motives, 
 and was chiefly bent on engaging England in a 
 war with France. In this object he at length 
 succeeded; and Calais, the last continental pos-^ 
 session of England, was lost. Her husband's 
 coldness, her people's hatred, and a painful dis- 
 ease, had for some time been weighing heavily 
 on Mary ; this last humiliation gave her a fatal 
 blow, and she died shortly after. The crown 
 then passed to her half-sister Elizabeth, whom 
 she had always disliked, and who was as fer- 
 vently and constantly attached to the Reformed 
 religion as Mary was to the Romish, though 
 from prudence she had during her sister's reign 
 pretended conformity to the latter.
 
 Chapter XII. — The Maiden Queen. 
 
 Elizabeth had spent her youth in retirement 
 and study, and in a position which rendered 
 circumspection, prudence, and self-control highly 
 necessary ; and her whole reign bore evidence 
 of the qualities of mind thus acquired. Never 
 had England possessed a more eminent sove- 
 reign — never was the country more respected 
 abroad, and the government more honoured at 
 home ; but Elizabeth's policy was on all occa- 
 sions marked not only by wisdom and pru- 
 dence, but by a calculating selfishness which 
 frequently degenerated into bad faith, and by a 
 suppression of all the softer feelings of her sex, 
 which sometimes amounted to hard-heartedness. 
 The re-establishment of the Reformed religion, 
 immediately after her accession, was indeed 
 attended with no persecution and no cruelty;! 
 but her conduct to her ill-fated cousin, the! 
 beautiful queen of Scots, partook of both, while] 
 her interference in the affairs of Scotland was 
 wily and selfish in the extreme.
 
 THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 143 
 
 Marj Stuart, granddaughter of Margaret 
 Tudor, who had succeeded, when an infant, to 
 the crown of Scotland, had at a very earlj age 
 been sent to France, and married to the dau- 
 phin, afterwards Francis II., while her mother, 
 a French princess, governed in Scotland as 
 regent. Immediately after Elizabeth's acces- 
 sion, Mary, by the advice of her uncles the 
 Dukes of Guise, assumed the title of queen of 
 England — a plan being laid to uphold her right 
 of inheritance against that of Elizabeth, whose 
 illegitimate birth, it was maintained, ought by 
 right to exclude her from the throne. When 
 Elizabeth demanded reason for the strange 
 assumption of the queen of Scotland, it was 
 replied that it was merely an act of retaliation, 
 because she herself assumed the title of queen 
 of France. Elizabeth, nevertheless, fully under- 
 stood the real intention, and she conceived 
 a violent hostility to Mary Stuart, who ever 
 afterwards appeared to her in the light of an 
 enemy, ready to deprive her of her throne when- 
 ever an opportunity should offer ; while in 
 reality Mary, even after she had renounced her 
 uncles' aggressive projects, was the next in suc- 
 cession to the crown, should Elizabeth die with-
 
 144 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 out children. The state of Scotland, where the 
 Reformation had led to the most violent dissen- 
 sions, aiforded frequent occasions for inter- 
 ference ; and Elizabeth, not only from personal 
 hatred to Mary, who was a Catholic, but from 
 well- understood policy, always supported the 
 Protestant party, which persecuted the young 
 and beautiful queen because of her faithful 
 adherence to the religion in which she had been 
 educated, and of the gaiety and frivolity of the 
 French manners, which she had adopted during 
 her long residence in France. Mary's conduct, 
 it is true, was frequently such as to give her ene- 
 mies weapons in their hands against her. After 
 the death of Francis II., when she returned to 
 Scotland, she married her cousin Lord Darnley, 
 whose misconduct, however, soon led to an 
 estrangement between them. During this pe- 
 riod Darnley was foully murdered. The Earl 
 of Bothwell, his personal enemy, was commonly 
 accused of having committed the deed, and 
 Mary was conjured to bring him to trial. In- 
 stead of doing this, however, the queen married 
 Bothwell a few weeks after her husband's mur- 
 der. Until that moment, Mary's extraordinary 
 beauty, and gentle, fascinating manners, had
 
 THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 145 
 
 given her a hold upon the affection of the great 
 mass of her people, in spite of their abhorrence 
 of her religion. But her conduct on this occa- 
 sion called forth universal indignation. An 
 insurrection ensued; Both well was obliged to 
 flee, and Mary to surrender herself into the 
 hands of the rebels, who imprisoned her in 
 I the castle of Lochleven, where she was after- 
 
 i" wards forced to sign her abdication in favour of 
 lier son, then one year old. The baby was 
 crowned shortly after under the name of James 
 \ VI., and the mother was condemned to per- 
 I petual imprisonment. But Mary's beauty won 
 I the heart of her jailer, who opened her prison 
 I doors, and she was soon after at the head of an 
 army ; but only to encounter defeat. Forced to 
 flee before the troops of the Regent Murray, her 
 half-brother, Mary now sought refuge in Eng- 
 land, expecting to meet with a hospitable recep- 
 tion from Elizabeth, who had protested against 
 the violent proceedings of her subjects, and 
 against her forced abdication. But it did not 
 suit Elizabeth to break with the reformed party 
 in Scotland ; so, instead of being received at 
 court, and treated like a queen, Mary was put 
 into confinement, and, under one pretext or
 
 146 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 another, was kept a close prisoner in England 
 eighteen years. During this period A^arious 
 schemes were devised by the Roman Catholic 
 powers for the universal suppression of Pro- 
 testantism. In France, the horrid massacres of 
 St Bartholomew took place, during which 60,000 
 Protestants were assassinated in cold blood ; 
 and in England several plots were got up to 
 release Mary, by means of foreign invasions ; to 
 depose, and even murder the queen ; and to re- 
 establish the supremacy of the pope. Each con- 
 spiracy was detected and counteracted in time 
 by the vigilance and wisdom of Elizabeth and 
 the eminent statesman Lord Burleigh, who sat 
 in her councils. At length, in 1587, Elizabeth's 
 ministers succeeded in making out what they 
 considered a clear case of Mary Stuart's having 
 connived at one of these conspiracies, and the 
 Queen of Scots was tried by a commission formed 
 of English peers, and condemned to death. 
 Total seclusion from the world during eighteen 
 years had prepared Mary to resign life without 
 a regret ; but her spirit was not broken, and to 
 the last she bore herself with royal dignity, and 
 submitted to her sentence with the utmost firm- 
 ness, though protesting against the right of
 
 THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 147 
 
 those who i:)resumed to be her judges. Never 
 before had the world beheld such a spectacle as 
 the sovereign of one country j^ronouncing sen- 
 tence of death on the sovereign of another, and 
 the indignation felt was universal. Elizabeth, 
 who, during Mary's eighteen years of sorrow and 
 suffering, had treated her with the utmost liard- 
 heartedness, and who had signed her death- 
 warrant, now feigned the deepest grief at her 
 death, and pretended that the sentence had 
 been carried out without her knowledge ; but 
 no one was imposed upon by her hypocrisy. 
 
 While Elizabeth at home kept down Roman 
 Catholic discontent with a strong hand, and by 
 means of severe repressive laws, her aid and 
 protection was afforded to the oppressed Pro- 
 testants throughout Europe, though she con- 
 tinued to maintain a semblance of amicable 
 relations with the sovereigns against whom they 
 were in several cases in open rebellion. Once 
 only did she depart from this rule, by adopting 
 openly the cause of the Netherlands, then about 
 to throw off the yoke of Spain. This engaged 
 England in a war with Philip II., who fitted 
 out for the invasion of this country a fleet and 
 an army on a scale of magnificence never before
 
 148 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 witnessed in Europe. Even Queen Elizabeth's 
 brave heart misgave her, for her people had long 
 been unaccustomed to war; she possessed no 
 standing army, and the royal navy consisted 
 only of thirty-four ships ; and to add to her per- 
 plexities, the pope had just pronounced sentence 
 of deposition against her, and she did not know 
 what effect this might produce on the loyalty of 
 lier Roman Catholic subjects. But at a moment 
 when all other countries of Europe were dis- 
 tracted by the civil wars caused by religious 
 dissensions, the English nation set a bright 
 example of high-minded patriotism. Every 
 difference was forgotten in solicitude for the 
 welfare and independence of the common father- 
 land. Catholics and Protestants alike flocked 
 round the queen, to offer their services ; all 
 ranks of men flew to arms ; and soon the coun- 
 try presented the appearance of a vast camp, so 
 speedily had the nation transformed itself into 
 an army for the defence of its shores. Unlike 
 her sister Mary, who, after her marriage with 
 Philip, had hedged herself round with stiff, 
 formal, heartless Spanish etiquette, Elizabeth 
 had always mixed freely with her subjects, been 
 present at the innocent sports and pastimes of
 
 THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 149 
 
 the humbler classes, and by her affability and 
 condescension won their hearts, while her intel- 
 lectual acquirements and great natural talents 
 insured the respect of the higher classes. On 
 this occasion, also, she did not fail by her per- 
 sonal presence to heighten the enthusiasm of 
 lier people. She visited the docks where the 
 fleet was fitting out, and addressed the sailors 
 in tones of encouragement and cheerfulness ; 
 she rode down the ranks of the army, and pro- 
 mised the troops to lead them in person to 
 battle. But this time — the first, but not the 
 last in English history — it was the sailors who 
 were to have the honour of saving their coun- 
 try; for the Invincible Armada — as the Spa- 
 niards called their fleet, in anticipation of vic- 
 tory — never touched the shores of England. 
 Adverse winds, and the bravery and skill of the 
 English admiral. Lord Howard de Effingham, 
 and the seamen serving under him, dispersed 
 Philip's ships before they reached so far; and 
 after repeated defeats and innumerable disasters, 
 the Spanish fleet and army returned home in 
 diminished numbers, to tell of the indomitable 
 valour of the English sailors, and the dangers 
 of the English seas.
 
 150 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 At tlie commencement of her reign, Queen 
 Elizabeth, when pressed to form a matrimonial 
 alliance, replied that she desired no better epi- 
 taph than the inscription, '* Here lies Elizabeth, 
 who lived and died a maiden queen/' To the 
 determination thus expressed she remained 
 faithful to the last, though at different periods 
 of her life she showed herself capable of strong 
 attachments. When she grew old, she conceived 
 quite a maternal affection for the young Lord 
 Essex, whom she loaded with favours. But 
 Essex was a wayward spirit, and caused his 
 doting sovereign much sorrow. At length he so 
 far forgot himself in a moment of resentment 
 as to endeavour to raise an insurrection in Lon- 
 don. He was committed to the Tower, tried, 
 and condemned to death for high treason. Until 
 that moment he had remained obstinate, and 
 would not sue for pardon from her who longed 
 to grant it, but who never forgot the dignity of 
 the sovereign in the tenderness of the woman. 
 But now the love of life prevailed, and by the 
 Countess of Nottingham he sent to the queen a 
 ring which she had once given to him, with the 
 promise that, if he were ever in trouble, she 
 would, if this ring were presented to her, come
 
 THE MAIDEN QUEEN. 1 51 
 
 to his assistance. Lady Nottingham's husband, 
 however, was Essex's enemy, and the ring never 
 reached the queen. Essex suffered his doom, 
 and from that moment it was evident that the 
 queen's life was blighted ; yet she still bore up, 
 and nowise neglected the business of the state. 
 But Lady Nottingham fell ill, and thinking she 
 was about to die, begged the queen to come to 
 her, disclosed the fatal secret, and implored her 
 mistress's pardon. For some moments the queen 
 was stunned with horror, then seizing the coun- 
 tess by the arm, she shook her violently, and 
 exclaimed, " God may pardon you — I never 
 can ! " Then bursting from the room, she re- 
 turned to her own apartments, threw herself 
 upon the ground, and never rose again. 
 
 During the reign of Elizabeth, as well as that 
 of her two immediate predecessors, the spirit of 
 liberty, w^hich some years afterwards broke out 
 into such wild excesses, found no voice in parlia- 
 ment ; no resistance was made to the sovereign's 
 demands, except when money - supplies were 
 wanted ; and no Russian czar ever ruled with 
 more despotic sway than the people's favourite 
 — Queen Bess. Even in the smallest thing she 
 did not hesitate to give her wishes the force of
 
 152 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 law. She disliked the smell of woad — a plant 
 used in dyeing — and a royal proclamation for- 
 bade its cultivation. She also disliked the high 
 ruffs and long swords which came into fashion 
 in her day, and she declared open war against 
 them, sending about people to cut and break 
 the offenders wherever they met with them. She 
 also issued proclamations against other species 
 of luxury, which began to increase much during 
 her reign ; but her example was at variance with 
 her precepts, for she was very vain, and very 
 fond of personal adornment, and at her death 
 left no less than 3000 dresses in her wardrobe ! 
 During the first thirty years of her reign, the 
 queen, when she went out on state occasions, 
 appeared mounted on horseback behind her 
 chamberlain ; but after this period the Earl of 
 Arundel introduced coaches into England, and 
 the queen also had one. This same Earl of 
 Arundel was the first who built a house of 
 bricks in London, all private houses being until 
 then built of wood, and during this reign also 
 glass windows were first introduced. But though 
 private dwellings were so humble in their mate- 
 rial and design, the capital was not wanting in 
 beautiful architectural features ; for Westminster
 
 JAMES I. 153 
 
 Abbey and "Westminster Hall, as well as several 
 other fine buildings still extant, are the works 
 of a much earlier period. Whitehall was built 
 and inhabited by Cardinal Wolsey ; and Somer- 
 set House was the palace of the Lord Protector 
 Somerset. 
 
 Chapter XIIL — James I. 
 
 Providence had now brought about that union 
 of the crowns of England and Scotland which 
 the English sovereigns had so repeatedly la- 
 boured in vain to effect, for on Elizabeth's 
 demise the crown reverted by right to the son 
 of the unhappy Mary Stuart, the sixth of his 
 name in Scotland, but who in English history 
 bears the title of James I. But though the 
 crowns were united on one head, the kingdoms 
 continued for a long while to have distinct 
 administrations. In person and manner James 
 was very different from his beautiful and fascinat- 
 ing mother, for he was awkward and ungainly ;
 
 4 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 while in character lie was so strange a mixture 
 of contradictory qualities, that several historians 
 have amused themselves with describing him in 
 a string of paradoxes. The love of ease and the 
 love of power were prominent characteristics of 
 liis mind ; and having in consequence been sorely 
 troubled by his refractory subjects in Scotland, 
 his accession to the throne of England filled 
 him with delight, because he flattered himself 
 that in this country he should enjoy the happi- 
 ness of having everything his own way. But 
 when the firm hand which had so long held the 
 reins of the state was supplanted by one of 
 feebler grasp, it became evident that a new spirit 
 was beginning to stir in the nation and in par- 
 liament, and King James frequently found his 
 English subjects as difficult to manage as the 
 Scotch. As for the Roman Catholics — against 
 whom, in Elizabeth's time, severe and oppressive 
 laws had been passed, in consequence of their 
 repeatedly- evinced disaiFection — they had flat- 
 tered themselves that, on the accession of Mary 
 Stuart's son, these would be repealed ; and when 
 therefore James, brought up in the tenets of the 
 Reformed Church, on the contrary expressed his 
 determination to persevere in all Elizabeth's
 
 JAMES I. J 55 
 
 rigorous measures against tliem, tlieir displea- 
 sure knew no bounds. Some gentlemen of that 
 faith even entered into an atrocious conspiracy, 
 commonly called the Grun powder Plot, by means 
 of which they intended, by one destructive blow, 
 to get rid of the king and the most powerful of 
 their enemies. Having hired a house next to 
 the houses of parliament, they contrived, through 
 a hole in the wall, to introduce into the cellar 
 under the House of Lords a great quantity of 
 gunpowder, and it was determined that, on the 
 5th of November 1605, when the king, the 
 queen, the princes, the peers, and the members 
 of the House of Commons should assemble in 
 parliament, the train should be fired by one of 
 the conspirators, a Yorkshire gentleman, by name 
 Guy Fawkes, and a common ruin embrace all. 
 Happily one of the conspirators was anxious to 
 save a friend among the peers, and thus the 
 fearful plot was discovered before the crime was 
 perpetrated. The willingness to forgive evinced 
 by King James on this occasion, and his desire 
 to be tolerant to the Catholics — proved on future 
 occasions — rendered him suspicious in the eyes 
 of the reformed party in England ; while his 
 endeavours to introduce Episcopacy in Scotland,
 
 156 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 where the people were zealously attached to 
 Presbyterianism (the form of church government 
 established by Calvin, the reformer of Geneva), 
 rendered him unpopular among his Scottish 
 subjects ; and to the end of his reign this king 
 never satisfied any party or settled any dispute. 
 Though unsuccessful in England and Scotland, 
 James I. was able to do for Ireland more than 
 any English sovereign before him had accom- 
 plished. Ireland, nominally subjugated, and 
 under the rules of English laws, had made very 
 little progress since the time that Henry II. 
 first carried his arms into the country, and 
 the English governors and armies despatched 
 thither had done little for the establishment 
 of order — the first condition of civilisation. 
 But King James had recourse to better means 
 than force : he parcelled out the lands of Ulster, 
 and bestowed them on English and Scotch 
 immigrants. These new settlers served as 
 examples to the natives, among whom lands 
 were likewise distributed : who were taught the 
 arts of agriculture and manufacture ; who were 
 blessed with laws that secured them against 
 violence and oppression, and rendered life and 
 property safe in the country ; and who thence-
 
 JAMES T. 157 
 
 forward began to settle down into a compara- 
 tively quiet and industrious race. About this 
 time also Sir Walter Raleigh introduced on his 
 estate in Ireland the culture of the potato, 
 which root he had brought with him from the 
 English colony he had founded in America 
 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and to 
 which he had given the name of Virginia, in 
 honour of the maiden queen. This colony did 
 not flourish ; but another settlement, which 
 took the name of New England, was made in 
 King James's reign, and considerably increased 
 during the subsequent reign, and laid the 
 foundation of the British empire in America. 
 
 If there was one strong point in King James's 
 character, it was his detestation of war; yet 
 he was forced into a war with Spain by a 
 romantic incident, pleasing to his people, be- 
 cause it aiforded a pretext for hostilities against 
 a Catholic power ; for in those days of super- 
 stitious bigotry and mistaken zeal much injus- 
 tice was perpetrated by all parties in the name 
 of religion. The king had a young favourite, 
 by name George Villiers, whom he had raised 
 to the rank and title of Duke of Buckingham, 
 and who governed him with an irresistible 
 
 L
 
 158 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 sway. Being a man of no principles, but of 
 fieiy passions, of a capricious and haughty 
 temper, and strongly addicted to pleasure, 
 Buckingham, besides interfering injuriously in 
 public affairs, in private life led the poor 
 weak king into the commission of many follies. 
 He encouraged him in his dislike of business, 
 and induced him to spend his time with cock- 
 iSghting, hunting, hawking, and carousing, and 
 his money in shows, tournaments, combats of 
 wild beasts, &c. ; and though Charles, the Prince 
 of Wales, was of a very different temperament, 
 the unworthy favourite, being gifted with most 
 attractive manners, exercised a kind of fas- 
 cination over him also. Now it so happened 
 that King James, who was always in want of 
 money, and never. could induce his parliament 
 to grant him sufficient supplies, cast his eyes 
 on a Spanish princess as a desirable match for 
 his son, on account of the rich dower which 
 would be bestowed upon her. Spain was a 
 Catholic country, and the alliance therefore 
 highly distasteful to the English ; and the 
 Spanish court on its side did not show much 
 alacrity in concluding the match. Pending the 
 decision, the Duke of Buckingham, desirous of
 
 JAMES I 159 
 
 a frolic, persuaded the Prince of Wales, who 
 was of a romantic turn of mind, to undertake a 
 journey incognito to Madrid ; to learn to know, 
 and to win the heart of his destined bride, 
 before entering into irrevocable engagements ; 
 and thus to prepare for her a happier future 
 than was generally the lot of princesses, obliged 
 by reasons of state to marry men they did not 
 know, and often could not love. The prince, 
 much pleased with the plan, set out in company 
 with the duke and one attendant only. They 
 passed through France without being recognised, 
 and even attended a court ball, where Charles 
 saw for the first time, and danced with, the 
 beautiful Henrietta Maria, daughter of King 
 Louis XIII. of France. On the arrival of the 
 adventurers in Madrid, the rank of the prince 
 soon became known ; and the Spaniards, highly 
 flattered by the confidence shown by his ventur- 
 ing alone and unprotected among them, and 
 much pleased with the dignity and reserve of 
 his manners, overwhelmed him with honours 
 and attentions ; and the king of Spain, in order 
 to return confidence with confidence, presented 
 him with a golden key, by means of which he 
 might introduce himself into the royal presence
 
 1 60 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 whenever lie pleased. The princess, however, 
 Charles never saw but in public ; and whether 
 she there failed to win his heart — whether the 
 image of the lovely Henrietta Maria interposed 
 — or whether the advice of the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham prevailed (who was displeased with the 
 little attention paid to him by the Spanish 
 (50urt), the prince, on his return home, declared 
 his intention not to marry the Spanish princess, 
 and soon after sued for and obtained the hand 
 of the Princess of France. Spain, in resentment 
 of the insult, began to arm ; and though King 
 James would willingly have conciliated the 
 indignant Spaniards, the wishes of his people 
 forced him to be the first to declare war. 
 
 Chapter XIV. — King Charles the Martyr. 
 
 Prince Charles was high in favour with the 
 public when his father died, the year after his 
 romantic expedition to Spain, and he assumed 
 the reins of government with a most earnest
 
 KING CHARLES THE MARTYR. 161 
 
 desire to promote the welfare of his people ; but 
 lie soon learned that he and his subjects differed 
 much in their views of the means by which 
 this was to be accomplished. During the reign 
 of the House of Tudor the power of the sovereigns 
 of England, though constitutionally limited by 
 the existence of a parliament, had in practice 
 become almost absolute ; for royal proclamations 
 had obtained the full force of law, and the 
 sovereign could at his pleasure remove the 
 members of the two courts called the Star 
 Chamber and the Court of High Commission, in 
 which he presided as supreme judge, and which 
 possessed unlimited discretionary power to fine, 
 imprison, or inflict corporal punishment, and 
 even punishment of death, on all citizens cited 
 before them, and for all kind of offences ; besides 
 which, the crown might at any time nominate 
 courts - martial, which executed prompt and 
 arbitrary judgment not only upon soldiers, but 
 upon all citizens. In addition to this, any 
 subject of the realm, whatever his position, 
 might be arrested and kept in confinement for 
 any length of time upon the mere warrant of a 
 secretary of state. Where the crown possessed 
 such means of enforcing its will, independent of
 
 162 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the authority of parliament, the enactments of 
 that body of course became of secondary im- 
 portance, particularly as long as the great mass 
 of the people did not take an interest in public 
 aifairs, and did not in consequence throw their 
 influence into the scale on the side of parliament. 
 It was therefore only when they wanted money 
 that the sovereigns were obliged to have recourse 
 to parliament, yet even this dependence they 
 were able to evade by the usages of the times ; 
 for when parliament refused a subsidy, as the 
 money voted by it was called, the sovereign 
 raised arbitrary taxes. 
 
 Charles I., brought up with exalted notions 
 of the prerogatives of the crown, never doubted 
 of his full right to exercise all those transmitted 
 to him by his predecessors, and which had not, 
 until the reign of his father, been disputed by 
 parliament. But the diffusion of knowledge 
 caused by the invention of the printing-press, 
 and the spirit of free inquiry to which the reli- 
 gious innovations had given rise, had worked a 
 change in the English nation. The reasoning 
 powers exercised on theological subjects, and on 
 matters of church government and discipline, 
 were also brought to bear on the subject of civil
 
 KING CHARLES THE MARTYR. 163 
 
 government and the rights of the citizen. On 
 all these matters, however, opinions were divided, 
 and at the time of Charles's accession three 
 parties prevailed in the nation and in the par- 
 liament. These were the Puritans — a numerous, 
 enthusiastic, and extending body, who, conceiv- 
 ing that the Church of England had not sepa- 
 rated itself sufficiently from that of Rome, was 
 greatly opposed to it on that account, and de- 
 nounced its forms and ceremonies in most exag- 
 gerated language ; and who, being themselves 
 extremely austere in manner, evinced great 
 hostility to the king and court, not only because 
 of their upholding the established church, but 
 because of their gaiety of life and manner. In 
 the eyes of these people every innocent amuse- 
 ment, as every pomp and ceremony, was sinful 
 and connected with popery ; and they sought to 
 reform society, church, and state, according to 
 their notions of Scriptural doctrine. The second 
 party was composed of men of high talent and 
 abilities, who, with well-defined notions of civil 
 liberty, sought to realise these in the constitu- 
 tion of England. The third party was made up 
 of those who, brought up in high principles of 
 loyalty, would not admit that the king could
 
 164 HISTORY OF ENGLA^'D. 
 
 err, and thought that they ought to uphold him 
 in all things. 
 
 Immediately on coming to the throne, Charles, 
 who had inherited his father's dehts and the 
 Spanish war, required the aid of parliament for 
 obtaining supplies, and it was at once deter- 
 mined by the party bent on reform that they 
 should avail themselves of his necessities to 
 curtail his prerogatives. From the moment 
 that they began to act on this determination, a 
 struggle for supremacy began between the crown 
 and the House of Commons, which, though at 
 first carried on by the latter by strictly consti- 
 tutional means, and >vith a very laudable pur- 
 pose, at last degenerated into civil war, and led 
 to the overthrow of the constitution. The first 
 victory gained by parliament was the obtaining 
 the royal sanction to the famous Petition of 
 Rights, which considerably curtailed the prero- 
 gatives of the crown, and gave guarantees for 
 the liberty of the subject, and which, next to 
 Magna Charta, is considered the great palladium 
 of England's liberty. But in spite of the restric- 
 tions thus imposed upon him, the king con- 
 tinued to avail himself of his ancient preroga- 
 tives to resist the parliament, and make himself
 
 KING CHARLES THE MARTYR. 165 
 
 independent of its opposition. These proceedings 
 being now illegal, his opponents obtained new 
 weapons against him, and matters became worse 
 and worse. At length, in 1629, the king dis- 
 solved the parliament then sitting, and he did 
 not convoke another until 1640. During the 
 interval he proceeded in the most arbitrary 
 manner against the civil and religious liberty of 
 his subjects, availing himself of the Star Cham- 
 ber and the Court of High Commission for his 
 purposes. The spirit of religious fanaticism 
 increased with the king's and Archbishop Laud's 
 measures to force all sects into conformity with 
 the established church ; and the same being 
 done in Scotland, where the hatred of the Epis- 
 copal form of church government was much 
 stronger and more universal than in England, 
 the people there broke out into open rebellion. 
 They entered into a bond, which they called the 
 Solemn League and Covenant, for the subversion 
 of prelacy, and a formidable army assembled 
 and went forth to do battle for what they con- 
 sidered the only true religion ; for in those days 
 all sects were equally intolerant. In Ireland, 
 also, a rebellion had previously broken out, and 
 which, though put down by the king's devoted
 
 166 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 friend, the Earl of Strafford, yet required the 
 maintenance of a military force. The king, 
 sorely beset for money, and not venturing at 
 this juncture to have recourse to any of the 
 arbitrary means which had before caused so 
 much discontent, was obliged to call a parlia- 
 ment. The first was found impracticable, and 
 was immediately dissolved. Another was con- 
 voked, but proved itself of the same temper. 
 Its first proceeding was to condemn as illegal 
 and oppressive every act of the king during the 
 interval of twelve years in which no parliament 
 had met ; and it then went on curtailing the 
 dangerous and unjust prerogatives of the crown, 
 and introducing reforms calculated to insure 
 justice and rational liberty. Its next step, 
 however, was not reformatory, but revolutionary : 
 it passed a bill to the effect that it could not 
 be dissolved without its own consent; and the 
 king, who had no means of resistance, gave his 
 sanction to a law which virtually deprived him 
 of all power ; and he continued to yield right 
 after right, until nothing remained of his sd- 
 vereignty but the name. He even went so far 
 in his weakness as to sign the death-warrant of 
 Lord Strafford, who, because of his fidelity to
 
 KING CHARLES THE MARTYR. 167 
 
 the crown, had become obnoxious to parliament, 
 and had been condemned for high treason. By 
 this single act King Charles has almost forfeited 
 the sympathy of posterity, which, however great 
 his errors as a king, is due to him for his eminent 
 private virtues and the general purity of his life. 
 Soon it became evident that even the empty 
 title of king was too much for the faction which 
 now swayed the country, and that republican 
 prill ciples were at work in the parliament. The 
 king's adherents, distracted and divided among 
 themselves, fled from their posts, and left the 
 revolutionary party in undisputed possession of 
 the parliamentary field. The movements of the 
 legislative body, which was now also the execu- 
 tive, became so threatening, that the king, no 
 longer considering himself safe in its vicinity, 
 fled to York, and sent the queen abroad with 
 the crown-plate and jewels, to raise a sum of 
 money wherewith to levy a military force. At 
 length the sword Avas drawn, and civil war raged 
 from one extremity of the land to the other. 
 The sympathies of the great mass of the people 
 were with the Koundheads, as the Puritans were 
 called by the Royalists, who in their turn 
 received the name of Cavaliers. With the par-
 
 168 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 liament money was abundant, the people mak- 
 ing every sacrifice in its favour ; and its armies 
 became day by day more numerous and better 
 disciplined. The king had no other resources 
 than the private means of his followers, who 
 generously devoted life and fortune to his cause. 
 In spite, however, of the loyalty of this faith- 
 ful band, the royal cause succumbed. The 
 spirit of the times required a reorganization 
 of the royal power, and it was felt that King 
 Charles would never submit to this. All his 
 endeavours at reconciliation were therefore of 
 no avail ; his sincerity was suspected ; and the 
 war continued to rage. The royal troops receiv- 
 ing most inadequate pay, were driven either to 
 desertion or to plunder ; and tlic king's cause 
 was further damaged by these illegal proceed- 
 ings ; while those among the country-people who 
 had hitherto taken no part in the great struggle, 
 were forced to take arms for the protection of 
 their property. Armed with any kind of weapon 
 or efficient instrument they could lay hold of, 
 these clubmen, as they were called, moved about 
 in bodies of from four to five thousand, and 
 executed justice upon whomsoever they found 
 in the act of plundering, without reference to
 
 KING CHARLES THE MARTYR. 169 
 
 the party to which they belonged. The chief 
 leader of the Scottish army was Leslie ; the 
 English Parliamentary armies were headed by 
 Essex, Fairfax, and Oliver Cromwell. The last 
 was a private gentleman, w^ho, by the superiority 
 of his genius and his religious enthusiasm, had 
 gained great influence, and who, when placed at 
 the head of an -army, proved himself a consum- 
 mate general, though he had never served an 
 apprenticeship to war. In the king's army none 
 were more distinguished for valour and intrepi- 
 dity than Prince Rupert (Charles's nephew), and 
 the Marquis of Montrose, a Scottish nobleman. 
 
 The Royalists having been completely defeated 
 in the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby, the 
 king was induced to surrender himself to the 
 Scots ; for the Presbyterian party, of which they 
 formed the main force, had evinced less extreme 
 views than those adopted by the Independents, 
 headed by Oliver Cromwell and others, who at this 
 juncture predominated in England, to the great 
 disgust of the more moderate party in parliament 
 and in the nation. In believing in the existence 
 of a feeling of generosity among his Scottish 
 lenemies the king was singularly mistaken ; for 
 Ithey basely gave him up for a sum of money
 
 170 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 to the English, who were anxious to obtain pos- 
 session of the royal person. The king was deli- 
 vered into the hands of commissioners nominated 
 by parliament, but he was very soon after taken 
 from these by a military detachment despatched 
 from the Parliamentaiy army, which was now 
 on all occasions acting in open opposition to its 
 masters. The parliament represented Presby- 
 terian opinions in religion, and in politics had 
 gradually grown more moderate as it observed 
 the extremes towards which the Independents 
 — of whom the army was almost exclusively 
 formed — were progressing. These were, what 
 their name denoted them to be, persons who 
 in church matters, as in civil matters, would 
 recognise no constituted authority, and claimed 
 absolute equality for all men. The spirit of 
 insubordination called forth by such principles 
 at length manifested itself in the ranks. The 
 soldiers and officers constituted themselves 
 into a kind of parliament for the discussion 
 of public affairs, and prepared to use their 
 power for enforcing their opinions. But Crom- 
 well, who had hitherto held parliament in sub- 
 jection by means of the army, was not of a 
 temper to allow his servants to grow into his
 
 KING CHARLES THE MARTYR. 171 
 
 masters. By a few prompt and energetic 
 measures lie repressed the rebellion, and again 
 moulded liis instrument to liis hand. He next, 
 with its aid, expelled from parliament those 
 members which would not submit to the dicta- 
 tion of himself and his party, and induced the 
 remaining members, commonly called " The 
 Rump,'' to go through a mock trial of the king, 
 and condemn him to death. On the 30th of 
 January 1649, Charles — who throughout his 
 trial had maintained a most dignified composure, 
 and evinced a truly Christian spirit — was con- 
 ducted to a scaffold erected in front of Wliite- 
 hall, where, after praying for the welfare of his 
 country, and for his enemies, he laid his head 
 upon the block, and died by a single blow — a 
 martyr to the cause of royal absolutism, in 
 opposition to the new ideas and feelings which 
 had sprung up in the nation, and which he was 
 neither by nature nor by education qualified to 
 understand.
 
 Chapter XV. — England a Republic — The 
 Restoration. 
 
 Witli King Charles royalty ceased for a time 
 to exist in England. Even the king's statue 
 was pulled down, and on the pedestal were 
 inscribed the words, ^^ Exit iyrafinus, regum 
 ultimo ! " — (" The tyrant is gone, the last of the 
 kings ! ") A new seal was formed for the state, 
 on which was engraven the legend, " The first 
 year of freedom, by God's blessing restored." 
 The House of Lords, which savoured too much 
 of regal pomp and the hereditary principle for 
 the taste of the predominating faction, was 
 abolished. The Prince of Wales was thence- 
 forward to be named and recognised only as 
 simple Charles Stuart ; and public business was 
 carried on in the name of the " Keepers of the 
 Liberties of England," the few remaining mem- 
 bers forming the House of Commons being sup- 
 posed to be such. In truth, however, the liberty 
 of the British islands for some time after the
 
 ENGLAND A REPUBLIC. 173 
 
 king's execution was nothing but anarchy — the 
 worst of despotisms. The Scots, who, on deliver- 
 ing up King Charles to the Parliamentary 
 Commissioners, had stipulated for his personal 
 safety, were highly indignant at his trial and 
 execution. After his death they immediately 
 proclaimed his eldest son, Charles II., king, 
 and invited the prince to come over from the 
 Netherlands, where he had sought refuge. In 
 Ireland also a formidable movement, under the 
 Marquis of Ormond, was being made in favour 
 of royalty ; and in England the parliament was 
 neither popular nor obeyed, while the three 
 factions that had long divided the country 
 remained in the same hostile position towards 
 each other. But at length the mighty spirit 
 that had so greatly contributed to bring about 
 the state of chaos which prevailed, stood for- 
 ward to re-establish order by substituting the 
 iron rule of one for the vacillating councils and 
 the contending principles of many. Oliver 
 Cromwell, having obtained the commission of 
 lieutenant of Ireland, repaired to that countiy, 
 where the danger was considered most immi- 
 nent, and with a ruthless hand put an end to 
 the disorders there. This done, he was placed 
 
 M
 
 174 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 at the head of an army destined to reduce the 
 Scots, who had been joined by Charles. The 
 prince, seeing that he had no other chance of 
 regaining the crown of his father, had, though 
 rehictantly, consented to subscribe to the Cove- 
 nant, a condition Avhich the Scots had imposed 
 upon him. He had found, however, on his 
 arrival in Edinburgh, that he was regarded not 
 with the respect due to a sovereign, but as a 
 puppet, to be used for the purposes of others. 
 He was not only compelled to do penance for 
 liis own sins, and for those of his father and 
 grandfather, but was in many other ways 
 insulted and humiliated by all classes of the 
 nation. Yet in his name war was declared 
 against the usurping parliament of England. 
 
 Cromwell gained repeated victories over the 
 Scottish troops ; and Charles having moved 
 southwards, in the vain hope of being joined by 
 great numbers of English, his army was com- 
 pletely routed at Worcester, and he was obliged 
 to flee, as a persecuted traitor, from the 
 realms to which he was born heir. Sometimes 
 he was disguised as a peasant, sometimes as a 
 servant, and at others again as a woman. On 
 one occasion the prince owed his safetv to the
 
 ENGLAND A REPUBLIC. 175 
 
 concealing foliage of an oak-tree into which he 
 had climbed, while a party of soldiers, sent out 
 in pursuit of him, were passing bj. This oak 
 was for a very long time after an object of 
 veneration to the Royalists, who gave it the 
 name of the Royal Oak. At length the royal 
 fugitive, by means of the devotion and fidelity 
 of those who undertook to conduct him and 
 conceal him — and who, in aiding him to escape, 
 risked even their lives — reached in safety the 
 shores of Sussex, and embarked thence for 
 Normandy ; while in England men began to 
 call upon the parliament to dissolve itself, now i 
 that the civil war was at an end. The parlia- 
 ment, however, refusing to do this, on the con- 
 trary, endeavoured to get rid of the domineering 
 influence of the army by issuing orders for dis- 
 banding it. But Oliver Cromwell, repairing to 
 the House on the 20th April 1653, with a band 
 of three hundred soldiers, declared to the mem- 
 bers that they were no longer a parliament, 
 ordered a soldier to seize the mace, which he 
 called " a fool's bauble,'' and telling the mem- 
 bers to " make way for better men," drove them 
 out before him, locked the doors of the House, 
 put the key in his pocket, and thenceforward
 
 176 HISTORY or ENGLAND. 
 
 constituted liimself sole master in tlie British 
 Empire. He caused summonses, it is true, to bo 
 issued to a certain number of individuals in 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, to come and 
 form a kind of parliament, which, from the name 
 of one of its members, acquired the appellation 
 of the Barebones's Parliament ; but this body, 
 formed of the wildest fanatics in the three 
 realms, having evinced a disposition to govern, 
 as if it held its authority from God, and not 
 from Cromwell, it was in its turn ejected from 
 St Stephens's by a detachment of soldiers acting 
 under his directions. Cromwell, the idol of the 
 army, was then, by its influence, declared Pro- 
 tector of the Commonwealth, and by means of a 
 standing army of 20,000 men, the first that had 
 ever been maintained in England, he governed 
 as such until his death in 1658. This extraor- 
 dinary man now proved, as a statesman, the 
 superiority of the genitis which had raised 
 him to the position he held ; but though he 
 made himself respected and feared abroad, where 
 his armies, whenever they engaged in battle, 
 were victorious, and where they gained for the 
 English the important island of Jamaica ; and 
 though he governed at home with wisdom and
 
 ENGLAND A REPUBLIC. 177 
 
 moderation, and with a steady view to the 
 public good, he never reconciled the nation to 
 his usurpation, each party detesting him for rea- 
 sons of its own. In the eyes of the Royalists he 
 was the murderer of the king, and the usurper 
 of his place ; in the opinion of the Presbyte- 
 rians he was the persecutor of the Covenant ; 
 while the Independents looked upon him as an 
 apostate from their principles, and tried to get 
 rid of him as a deadly enemy. 
 
 At the death of Oliver Cromwell, the Protec- 
 torship devolved upon his eldest son Richard, 
 who, possessing neither his father's genius, 
 energy, nor ambition, soon proved himself too 
 weak to maintain his position. Having abdi- 
 cated, he was succeeded in power by that par- 
 liament which, convoked under Charles I., had 
 declared that it could not be dissolved except 
 by its own consent, but which had been so un- 
 ceremoniously turned out of doors by Cromwell. 
 Another period of anarchy ensued, during which 
 the parliament was again dismissed by a division 
 of the army under General Lambert, and super- 
 seded by a body called the Committee of Safety, 
 which governed until General Monk restored 
 the monarchy and King Charles II. Monk, who
 
 178 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 had been left by Cromwell chief in command 
 in Scotland, and had, by his vigorous and wise 
 measures, kept that turbulent country in a state 
 of perfect submission, was in his youth an ad- 
 herent of the royal cause. On beholding Lam- 
 bert, whom he cordially hated, in power, the 
 feelings of his youth seem to have revived, and 
 he began to nourish plans of reinstating the 
 royal house. But up to the moment of its rea- 
 lisation, his project remained a profound secret 
 in his own bosom. He marched upon London, 
 Avith the professed object of substituting the 
 iiile of a parliament for that of the Committee 
 of Safetj'' ; but, as if by a sort of intuition, the 
 Royalists flocked to his banners, and even the 
 troops levied by the Committee to oppose him 
 deserted in order to join him. The Committee 
 feeling itself pow^erless to carry on government, 
 then reinstated the Rump Parliament ; and this 
 latter body, obliged to bend to Monk's will, at 
 his desire removed from the capital every 
 soldier not under his command. The general's 
 next step was to induce the parliament to dis- 
 solve itself; and in March 1660, the Long Parlia- 
 ment, as it was called, on account of the length 
 of time it had nominally sat, at length put an
 
 THE RESTORATION. 179 
 
 end to its own existence. A new parliament 
 being called, the elections, as Monk had antici- 
 pated, went in favour of the royal cause, for all 
 parties alike were tired of anarchy and tyranny. 
 The parliament was constituted in its ancient 
 form, the House of Commons being freely elected, 
 and the peers resuming their seats in the House 
 of Lords. One thing more only was wanting for 
 the perfect restoration of the ancient constitu- 
 tion, and this soon followed. Monk, taking 
 advantage of the disposition of the House, an- 
 nounced that a messenger was at the door with 
 a letter from the king to the Commons. The 
 messenger was admitted, and the letter, contain- 
 ing a promise of a general amnesty, was read. 
 The effect was electrical ; a cry of '* Grod Save 
 King Charles the Second ! " burst from the as- 
 sembly, and shortly after Charles Avas seated on 
 the throne amidst universal rejoicings. 
 
 The king — easy, gay, and good-humoured, and 
 possessed of manners singularly gracious and 
 attractive — at first won all hearts by his cordial 
 politeness and affability; but he was at the 
 same time indolent and selfish to an extreme 
 degree, as also unprincipled and profligate. His 
 true character spoke out in the course of his
 
 180 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 reign in deeds which made even the stanchest 
 Royalist blush for the man in whose cause they 
 had so freely bled, and filled every patriotic 
 heart with a sense of shame and humiliation. 
 Up to 1670, indeed, flagrant errors only marked 
 the king's policy, though his measures had en- 
 abled the Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, to attack 
 the coasts of England, to sack the naval arsenals 
 at Sheerness, and to insult the national flag 
 in the very port of London ; but in this year 
 Charles selected for his ministers men as desti- 
 tute of principle and honour as himself, and from 
 this period forward he incurred by his conduct 
 dishonour such as has never before or since been 
 attached to the reputation of a sovereign prince. 
 In order to gain the means of re-establishing 
 the prerogatives of the crown, which had been 
 limited at his accession, but still more for the 
 purpose of obtaining money for the prosecution 
 of his unworthy pleasures, he not only laid vio- 
 lent hands on the public funds, but he even 
 stooped to accept of an annual subsidy from the 
 king of France ; and, in return, sacrificed to that 
 monarch the best interests of England abroad, 
 and the allies with whom he had bound himself 
 by treaty to act. In addition to these corrupt
 
 THE RESTORATION. 181 
 
 proceedings, the king, a Roman Catholic at 
 heart, though professing to be a Protestant, 
 showed more favour to the members of that 
 faith than his people would tolerate ; while his 
 brother the Duke of York, the next in succes- 
 sion to the crown, as the king had no legitimate 
 children, openly declared his adherence to it. 
 The people, driven to a state of fanatic fury, 
 implicitly believed in all kinds of atrocious plots 
 ascribed by bad and designing men to the 
 Roman Catholics, and numbers of the latter 
 were unjustly condemned by the tribunals on 
 false evidence. Strenuous efforts were also made 
 to exclude the Duke of York from the succes- 
 sion ; and the hopes and aifections of the people 
 began to centre in the Duke of Monmouth, the 
 king's natural son, who w^as in consequence in- 
 duced to participate in conspiracies, which, being 
 detected, led to his banishment. In Scotland, 
 the Covenanters, continuing to protest against 
 Episcopacy, which had been regularly estab- 
 lished in the country at the Restoration, were 
 objects of the most atrocious persecutions. For- 
 bidden to worship Grod in peace after their own 
 fashion, these men resorted with arms in their 
 hands to the hill -sides, there to hold their
 
 182 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 conventicles under the dome of lieaven; and at 
 last, driven to despair by oppression, broke out 
 into open rebellion. The rebellion was put 
 down, and barbarities, equal to the worst prac- 
 tised during the middle ages, were inflicted on 
 the vanquished by the Duke of York. 
 
 While the bad and unbridled passions of man 
 evinced themselves in such various ways during 
 this disgraceful reign, the hand of Providence 
 was laid heavily on the country. In the sum- 
 mer of 1665 a dreadful plague broke out in 
 London, and soon transformed the capital — the 
 scene on which a brilliant nobility and a gay 
 and licentious court went through its daily rou- 
 tine of pleasure, and where the din and bustle 
 of a great commercial mart broke constantly on 
 the ear — into a dismal and deserted city of death, 
 whose silence was disturbed only by the groans 
 of the dying, or by the tinkling of the bell 
 which at night announced that the death-cart 
 was going its rounds to take from the houses, 
 marked with a red cross, the victims of the pes- 
 tilence. No coffins were prepared, no funeral 
 service read, no mourners followed the heavily- 
 freighted cart ; the dead were as speedily as 
 possible removed from the public gaze, and com-
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. 183 
 
 mitted to the grave in the nearest cemetery. 
 From the capital the plague spread to the sur- 
 rounding country, and in a few months it is 
 computed that a quarter of a million of persons 
 fell victims to this dreadful disease. No sooner 
 liad men begun to recover from the panic it had 
 inspired, and to return to their habits of busi- 
 ness or of pleasure, than another calamity befell 
 the capital, in the form of a dreadful fire, which 
 reduced upwards of thirteen thousand houses 
 and eighty-nine churches to ashes. 
 
 Chapter XVI. — The Revolution of 1688 — 
 The Good Queen Anne. 
 
 Charles II. died of a fit of apoplexy in 1685, 
 and his brother the Duke of York succeeded 
 him under the title of James II. This prince, 
 though always very unpopular, on account of his 
 morose and bigoted character, his tendency to 
 cruelty, and his open adherence to the Roman 
 Catholic faith, had nevertheless acquired a
 
 184 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 reputation for sincerity and honour. Wlien, 
 therefore, on his accession, he declared to the 
 nation his intention to uphold the constitution 
 in church and state, and assured it, that though 
 he was reported to entertain arbitraiy prin- 
 ciples, it was his full intention to govern strictly 
 according to the existing laws, perfect reliance 
 was placed in his word ; and the nation felt the 
 less uneasy, because both the king's daughters 
 were educated in the Protestant religion, and 
 were married to Protestant princes, and a Pro- 
 testant succession was thus secured. But in 
 spite of the king's protestations, his first act 
 was an endeavour to raise taxes without the 
 concurrence of parliament ; and his next step 
 to send an agent to Rome to tender liis sub- 
 mission to the pope, and to prepare for the 
 readmission of England and Scotland into the 
 bosom of the Roman Catholic church. Indeed 
 his short reign was but a series of uninterrupted 
 efforts to extinguish the faith and the liberty 
 for the establishment of which the nation had 
 struggled so hard and so painfully. 
 
 Before the king had had time to show his 
 real intentions, and while, therefore, the nation 
 was still inspired by feelings of loyalty towards
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. 185 
 
 him, the misguided Duke of Monmouth, with a 
 handful of followers, invaded England, main- 
 taining that the late king had been privately 
 married to his mother, and that, consequently, 
 he was the rightful heir to the throne ; and the 
 Duke of Argyle landed in Scotland with a 
 small force, and there proclaimed the cause of 
 the Covenant. The two rebellions finding little 
 support from the higher classes in particular, 
 were easily subdued ; but the excessive cruelty 
 evinced towards the vanquished, served to ren- 
 der the king unpopular, and contributed greatly 
 to his subsequent downfall. The Duke of Mon- 
 mouth, who had fled from the field of battle 
 after his final defeat, had exchanged clothes 
 with a peasant, in the hope of escaping detec- 
 tion ; but his horse having sunk under him from 
 fatigue, he was obliged to conceal himself in a 
 dry ditch, where he was at length discovered, 
 with a few peas in his pocket, which he had 
 picked in a field, and which had been his 
 only sustenance. Unnerved by the hardships 
 he had undergone, and having never possessed 
 any strength of character, though noted for 
 valour in the field, the unhappy fugitive burst 
 into tears when seized by his pursuers, and
 
 J 86 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 afterwards wrote the most submissive letters to 
 the king, imploring mercy and forgiveness. 
 But in spite of the weakness thus evinced, he 
 honourably persevered in not betraying any of 
 his coadjutors, and was handed over to the 
 executioner to die the death of a rebel. After 
 his execution began the legal proceedings 
 against those who had espoused his cause. 
 These have been denominated the '' bloody 
 assizes,'' on account of the atrocious severity 
 and injustice with which the prosecutions were 
 carried on by Chief-justice JefFeries — a tiger in 
 human form, who revelled in cruelty, and de- 
 lighted in the agonies, mental and bodily, of 
 his victims, and whose name is recorded in 
 history as an object of universal execration. 
 The king professed to disapprove of JefFeries' 
 proceedings ; but the judge was promoted to 
 the post of Lord Chancellor ; and James then 
 began in full earnest to push forward the accom- 
 plishment of his great objects — the re-establish- 
 ment of the Romish religion and of the arbitrary 
 power of the crown. 
 
 During three years the nation exerted itself 
 in vain to counteract by legal means the king's 
 sinister plan ; but in 1 688, being driven to
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. 1S7 
 
 extremities, and seeing the hope of a Protestant 
 succession destroyed by the birth of a Prince of 
 Wales, every idea of coming to an understand- 
 ing with the king was abandoned. The Prince 
 of Orange, Stadth older of the Netherlands, who 
 was married to James's eldest daughter, was now 
 invited to come to the rescue of the people of 
 England. William of Orange landed at Torbay 
 with an army of 14,000 men. The English 
 flocked to his banners ; even the men on whose 
 fidelity the king most relied, those on whose 
 gratitude he had most claims — even his most 
 beloved daughter the Princess Anne, and her 
 husband, Prince George of Denmark — deserted 
 the falling monarch, and went over to the prince, 
 who had raised the banner of Protestantism and 
 liberty against Catholicism and despotism. 
 James haAang previously sent his consort and 
 the infant prince over to France, seeing that 
 eveiything was lost, next endeavoured to make 
 his escape. He cast the Great Seal into the 
 river, and fled in the dead of night, but was 
 seized by mistake, and brought back to London. 
 His reappearance there, though in the character 
 of a prisoner, was by no means agreeable to the 
 Prince of Orange and the English statesmen
 
 1S8 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 acting with liim. They did not wish to proceed 
 violently against the king, but, on the contrary, 
 desired that by his flight from the country he 
 should virtually abdicate the crown. James 
 was therefore carelessly watched, and when he 
 made another attempt to flee, w^as allowed to 
 escape. In Scotland, as in England, hardly any 
 eftbrt was made to uphold the king's autho- 
 rity, and nothing remained but to settle who 
 was to be his successor. All parties being 
 anxious to maintain as far as possible the forms 
 of law, and to avoid anarchy, though a nation 
 was about to depose one monarch, and elect 
 another, this took some little time. But even- 
 tually the crown was settled on the Prince and 
 Princess of Orange conjointly, who reigned 
 under the names of William and Mary ; and it 
 was determined that, after their death, they 
 having no children, it was to devolve upon the 
 Princess Anne and her posterity, to the exclu- 
 sion of James's son, born just before the revolu- 
 tion. The same parliament that determined 
 the succession also passed the Declaration of 
 Rights, which was subsequently followed by 
 the Bill of Rights — two documents which settled 
 all the points hitherto in dispute between the
 
 THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. 189 
 
 crown and the people, circumscribed tlie royal 
 prerogatives within narrower limits than ever 
 before, and insured to the British people the 
 liberty which they now enjoy. In Scotland, the^ 
 form of church government, so long and so 
 zealously contended for, was granted, and for a 
 time no objections w^ere raised to the change of 
 monarch. 
 
 King James, however, did not submit to his 
 fate without making an attempt to regain his 
 lost power. Ireland, where the Romish faith 
 had always continued to prevail, and where the 
 same reasons of discontent wdth his government 
 did not therefore exist, declared almost unani- 
 mously for him ; and thither the deposed 
 monarch proceeded with some French troops. 
 But James proved himself a most unskilful 
 general, and his army having been completely 
 defeated by William III. in the battle of the 
 Boyne, he fled without a thought for any one 
 but himself, and spent the rest of his life as 
 an exile at St Germains in France, where he was 
 most hospitably entertained by Louis XIV. In 
 his former domains, in the meanwhile, party 
 spirit was again running high ; and at various 
 periods the factions in the state even seemed
 
 J 90 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 inclined to recall the exiled monarch ; for 
 William III., though a man of great ability, 
 never became popular. Before he became king 
 of England, his life had been devoted to the 
 object of checking the power of France, which, 
 under Louis XIY., had outgrown that of all 
 other European governments ; and, as king of 
 England, he pursued the same policy. This 
 made the English think that he neglected their 
 affairs ; while the extreme coldness and reserve 
 of his manners, and the little tenderness he 
 evinced towards the queen, to whom he seems, 
 however, to have become in course of time 
 sincerely attached, also contributed to make 
 him disliked. Queen Mary died before her 
 husband, and without having borne him chil- 
 dren ; and some years later, tlie son of the 
 Princess Anne, the hope of the nation, also 
 died. The same year King James departed life, 
 and his son was recognised by France as king 
 of England. The English parliament, then, to 
 put an end to all intrigues, passed a bill deter- 
 mining that, at the demise of the Princess 
 Anne, the cro\vn should pass to Sophia, Electress 
 of Hanover, and her descendants. 
 
 During the reign of Charles II. it had become
 
 THE GOOD QUEEN ANNE. 191 
 
 customary for the court party to call their 
 opponents Whigs, because of their pretended 
 resemblance to the fanatical Covenanters of 
 Scotland, who were generally designated by that 
 name. The national party retaliated by bestow- 
 ing upon the king's supporters the name of 
 Tories, which was a common appellation for a 
 set of lawless men in Ireland, who were sup- 
 posed to be under the influence of Popish 
 priests. From that period up to the present 
 day these two appellations have continued to be 
 used to designate political parties in the country, 
 though the principles which they represent have 
 at various periods been very different. Queen 
 Anne, who succeeded William III. in 1702, 
 being of a weak character and mean intellect, 
 but naturally warm-hearted and confiding, was 
 constantly ruled by some favourite or other ; and 
 her reign, as regards internal matters, presents 
 little else than the history of a struggle for 
 power between Whigs and Tories. The Whigs 
 were representatives of the opinions that pre- 
 vailed at the Revolution ; the Tories were such 
 as inclined to a return towards the former state 
 of things, and to the restoration of the exiled 
 family ; but in both parties there were corrupt
 
 192 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 men, whose principles varied with the promises 
 of personal advancement held out to them. 
 Abroad, Anne's reign was rendered illustrious 
 by the military genius of John Churchill, Duke 
 of Marlborough, who, during the reign of James 
 II., had risen by the king's favour from the 
 position of a page to that of a peer ; who was 
 one of the first to desert his royal master ; and 
 who used the influence which his wife exercised 
 over the Princess Anne to induce her also to 
 abandon her father. On coming to the throne, 
 Anne, following William's wise policy of pre- 
 serving the balance of power in Europe, imme- 
 diately engaged in the war of the Spanish Suc- 
 cession, in which almost all the states of Europe 
 took part ; and Marlborough, who had already, 
 under William, given an earnest of his talents 
 as a military commander, was placed at the 
 head of her armies. The names of Blenheim, 
 Kamillies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, and others, 
 inscribed on the banners of England, bear testi- 
 mony to the brilliant victories of this renowned 
 soldier ; but the rock-fortress of Gribraltar, one 
 of the most important of England's foreign 
 possessions, and which was taken, as it were, 
 accidentally by Admiral Rooke, remains a still
 
 THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 193 
 
 more precious trophy of these wars. The most 
 important transaction of Queen Anne's reign is, 
 however, the union of the parliaments of Eng- 
 land and Scotland, which was effected in 1707, 
 and by which the countries became politically 
 blended, under the name of the kingdom of 
 Great Britain, though to Scotland was secured 
 the full enjoyment of her laws, customs, and 
 religion. 
 
 Chapter XYIL — The House of Brunswick. 
 
 In 1714, at the death of Anne, whose infirm - 
 ness of will, more than any very decided 
 benevolence of character, obtained for her the 
 name of the " Grood Queen Anne," the crown, 
 by the law of succession, again devolved upon a 
 foreign prince — George, Elector of Hanover and 
 Brunswick. Though raised to the high fortune 
 of being the ruler of one of the mightiest nations 
 in the world, George's heart continued to be 
 exclusively devoted to his hereditary German
 
 J 94 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 dominions. To their interests those of England 
 were sacrificed ; while in manners, language, 
 and feeling, the king ever remained a stranger 
 to his new subjects. The want of unity in the 
 British nation, and of respect for established 
 law, which is the unhappy consequence of all 
 revolutions, had during the preceding reign 
 evinced itself in the secret intrigues carried on 
 with the exiled family of Stuart. In this reign 
 it showed itself in open rebellion, when the 
 Chevalier de St Georges (as James II. 's son 
 styled himself) landed in Scotland in 1715, and 
 made an attempt to reassert his claim to the 
 throne. But the prevalent corruption spoke out 
 still more plainly on occasion of the extraordi- 
 nary scheme called the South-Sea Bubble, and 
 others of the same nature. The first of these 
 schemes was projected by a man named Blunt, 
 who, having formed a company under the name 
 of the South-Sea Company, obtained for it from 
 government the exclusive right of trading with 
 countries situated on the Pacific. He next, by 
 a series of falsehoods and deceptions, made this 
 trade appear as likely to prove most lucrative. 
 The shares of his company, in consequence, rose 
 to such a price, that the first holders in a few
 
 THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 195 
 
 days realised immense sums. "When fortunes 
 could be gained in so short a time without the 
 trouble of working for them, all would be 
 reapers of the golden harvest, and a perfect rage 
 for stock-jobbing seized the nation. No scheme 
 propounded seemed too preposterous for the 
 greedy avidity with which shares in speculative 
 undertakings were sought for. From morning 
 till night the dark alleys of the city of London, 
 where such transactions were effected, were 
 thronged with a motley crowd. Here were seen 
 statesmen, churchmen, and dissenters of all 
 denominations ; physicians, lawyers, tradesmen, 
 and simple artizans ; nay, even women of all 
 ranks and classes, jostling each other in the race 
 for riches ; and not only the names of dukes and 
 marquises, but even that of the Prince of Wales 
 was seen at the head of trading companies. A 
 few brief weeks, and the frauds of the South- 
 Sea Scheme were disclosed ; the shares declined 
 as rapidly as they had risen ; another and 
 another bubble burst ; and then came the sad 
 moral of the tale. Those who had so hurried 
 to grow rich without industry were precipitated 
 into the direst poverty, and the nation was 
 brought to the brink of ruin.
 
 196 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 During the first half of George II/s reign, 
 the spectacle presented bj the nation was still 
 more disgraceful. Sir Robert Walpole, who 
 during this period sat at the helm of the state, 
 was a man without one honourable principle. 
 Bribery and corruption of all kinds were his 
 means of government ; and thus, unhappily, the 
 moral taint spread from his mind to the whole 
 people. Never, even during the middle ages, 
 do the English seem to have been more vicious 
 and more turbulent. Few men were above 
 taking or oifering a bribe ; and the police being 
 inefficient, and the moral restraints in the breast 
 of the people removed, robberies, assassinations, 
 riots, and lawless tumults of all kinds were the 
 order of the day. The flames of civil war also 
 were again kindled by the Jacobites, as the 
 partisans of the House of Stuart were called. 
 In 1745, the banner of this family was for the 
 last time unfurled in Britain, and the Pretender, 
 or the Chevalier de St Georges, was proclaimed 
 king in Scotland. But in spite of the chivalrous 
 devotion of his Highland supporters in parti- 
 cular, his young and interesting son, Charles 
 Edward, who had come over to maintain his 
 cause, was completely defeated in the battle of
 
 THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 197 
 
 Culloden. A price of dS^SO^OOO was placed upon 
 the head of the young prince ; but notwithstand- 
 ing the prevalent corruption, none w^ere found 
 base enough to betray him ; and after undergoing 
 toils and hardships innumerable, after having 
 been forced to adopt as many disguises as his 
 namesake Charles II., this descendant of a long 
 and illustrious line of monarchs arrived in 
 France in a state of utter destitution, and clad 
 in rags. 
 
 The reign of George II. was a long one, and 
 the political as well as moral state of Great 
 Britain was much brighter at its close than at 
 its opening. The British nation was indeed in- 
 volved in wars which concerned only its German 
 sovereign (for George was at heart as much a 
 German, and as little of an Englishman, as his 
 father) ; but though in Europe no advantages 
 were derived from these wars, in America, 
 Canada was added to our possessions, and in 
 India a new empire was won ; while the world 
 resounded with the renown of the British 
 fleets and armies. 
 
 Though, from the point of view of political 
 morality, our country during several reigns had 
 presented a deplorable spectacle, in other re-
 
 198 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 spects it had moved rapidly onwards. Civil and 
 religious liberty, such as had never before been 
 known, was obtained at the Revolution. Its 
 effects on the mind of the nation were evinced 
 in the domain of literature, art, and science, 
 in which genius shone forth conspicuously in 
 all branches, and caused a proportionate adr 
 vancement in the practical fields of com- 
 merce and manufactures, and in the general 
 wellbeing of society. During the reign of 
 George III. (1760-1820), the longest and most 
 eventful in the British annals, this happy pro- 
 gress continued, and Britain bore with undi- 
 minished strength the loss of her most impor- 
 tant colonies, and stood firm amid the shock of 
 revolutions such as had never before convulsed 
 the world. The colonies in America, the foun- 
 dations of which were laid in the time of Eliza- 
 beth and James I., had in the course of time 
 gradually extended, and others had been added 
 to their number. In the times of the religious 
 dissensions and religious intolerance in England 
 more particularly, numbers of men flocked to 
 the other side of the Atlantic, where they 
 might worship God according to the dictates of 
 their conscience. But whatever the motives
 
 THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 199 
 
 whicli drove the settlers from the mother coun- 
 try, they all, on arriving in America, made per- 
 fect civil and religious liberty the foundation of 
 the societies they constituted. These societies, 
 in consequence, flourished and increased ; and 
 though many of the founders parted from Eng- 
 land in disgust, separation obliterated the re- 
 membrance of past offences ; and up to the 
 reign of George III, the inhabitants of New 
 England remained loyal subjects of the British 
 crown. But at this period George's unwise 
 ministers, anxious to swell the revenues, which 
 were greatly reduced by the war with France — 
 begun under George II., and continued under 
 his grandson — arbitrarily imposed new taxes on 
 the flourishing New-England states. The liberty- 
 loving colonists protested against this invasion 
 of their rights ; the ministry would not yield, 
 and foolishly drove the Americans to extremes. 
 The States rose in insurrection : England in 
 vain tried to subdue a unanimous people which 
 had risen in defence of its rights ; and finally, 
 in 1775, delegates from the thirteen united Bri- 
 tish provinces of North America met in Con- 
 gress, renounced in the name of the people their 
 allegiance to the British crown, and declared
 
 200 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the independence of their country under the 
 name of the United States of North American 
 independence wliich at length was recognised 
 by Great Britain. 
 
 The Americans had been supported in the war 
 of independence by France, and many French 
 officers served in their armies. These, on their 
 return home, spoke in terms of high admiration 
 of the republican institutions of the United 
 States, and added fuel to the fire that had for 
 some time been smouldering in France. A 
 revolution soon after broke out in that country, 
 more dreadful in its lawless and sanguinary 
 character than that in England under Charles I., 
 but somewhat similar in its causes and conse- 
 quences. But the French Revolution of 1789 
 kindled the flames of war throughout Europe ; 
 for the French people, not content with behead- 
 ing their own king, and erecting a republic at 
 home, would have all nations follow their ex- 
 ample. The consequence was, that all the kings 
 of Europe made common cause against these 
 propagandist republicans, and the king of Eng- 
 land among the rest. Though some minds 
 among the English caught the infection of the 
 French revolutionary spirit, upon the whole the
 
 THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 201 
 
 nation remained calm, for it felt that it possessed 
 the liberty necessary for its development in all 
 directions, and a constitution that might be 
 gradually reformed as the times might require. 
 But in Ireland the case was different. In this 
 kingdom, which had always been more or less 
 mismanaged by the English government, a spirit 
 of discontent was rankling, which broke out in 
 open rebellion in 1797, when hope of assistance 
 was held out by France. The French fleet sent 
 out to aid the Irish was, however, beaten and 
 dispersed by an English fleet ; and the year 
 after, when another French force was despatched 
 to Ireland, the spirit of the rebels, who had been 
 repeatedly defeated by the king's troops, was 
 already so broken, that they could not be induced 
 to take up arms again. 
 
 The allied armies of Europe did not succeed 
 in putting down the French republic, but the 
 feat was accomplished by its own army ; and 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, one of its own servants, 
 and the idol of the army, then founded an impe- 
 rial throne on its ruins. France was not, how- 
 ever, large enough for the ambition of him who 
 had risen from the position of an obscure lieu- 
 tenant to be an emperor ; he must needs have
 
 202 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 all the crowned heads of Europe kneel at his 
 feet ; and for this object, which was in a great 
 measure attained, the soil of Europe was for 
 many years deluged with blood. But one coun- 
 try there was which never crouched before the 
 imperial eagle, against which, therefore, the 
 Emperor Napoleon nourished the most intense 
 hatred, and to humiliate which he would have 
 given all his other laurels. Even where British 
 armies and fleets were not present to oppose 
 him, British money helped to maintain the fleets 
 and armies of his other opponents ; and to the 
 tremendous efforts and sacrifices made by Great 
 Britain, Europe and France in a great measure 
 owed their deliverance from the rule of this 
 despot. The crowning victory of Waterloo, in 
 which British valour and British generalship 
 again bore a distinguished part, hurled Napoleon 
 from his throne, and put an end to the war 
 which, during twenty years, had devastated 
 Europe ; and then devolved upon the British 
 nation the melancholy part of being the jailers 
 of the unsciiipulous but mighty genius who 
 during all these years had filled the astonished 
 world with his renown. The fallen emperor was 
 conveyed to the rocky island of St Helena, in
 
 THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 203 
 
 the Southern Atlantic, and there ended his 
 eventful life as a state prisoner under the guar- 
 dianship of the English government ; and Eng- 
 land's statesmen helped to restore the disjointed 
 political world to something like its former 
 condition. 
 
 In the meanwhile George III. had been af- 
 flicted with a grievous mental malady, which 
 rendered him unfit for governing, and his place 
 was for several years filled by the Prince of 
 Wales, who acted as Regent, and who eventually 
 succeeded to the throne in 1820 by the title 
 of Greorge IV. Numerous were the wounds to 
 be healed in Britain and in Europe after so 
 many years of a life-and-death struggle ; but 
 while Britain set about the task in earnest, 
 Europe was convulsed by new struggles for that 
 liberty which had been promised in the hour 
 of danger, and was denied when the danger was 
 past. These new revolutions, however, exercised 
 no direct influence upon the internal affairs of 
 our country, though no doubt they served to 
 keep the nation in the path of refonn and pro- 
 gress into which it had entered. During the 
 first French Revolution a good deal of nonsense 
 was spoken about the "rights of man,'* while
 
 204 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 the most atrocious tyranny reigned under the 
 name of liberty. But England understood the 
 words in their true Christian sense, comprising 
 the duties of man ; and during the thirty- five 
 years of peace vouchsafed to her, they have not 
 been without a witness in her internal policy. 
 In 1828 and 1829 the last vestiges of religious 
 intolerance in her laws disappeared with the 
 acts passed for placing the members of all Chris- 
 tian persuasions politically on the same footing. 
 In 1834, when William IV. had succeeded to 
 his brother, who died in 1830, the foul stain of 
 slavery was washed from the national escutcheon 
 by the emancipation of the negro slaves in our 
 West India possessions ; and these great reforms 
 liave been follow^ed by innumerable others, all 
 liaving for their object the promotion of the 
 general welfare, and particularly of those classes 
 w^ho can do least for themselves, and for whom, 
 therefore, the mighty of the world are bound to 
 do most. We have now come to mark eras, 
 not by certain great battles, but by measures to 
 promote not only the physical, but also the moral 
 wellbeing of the people ; not only by the reduc- 
 tion of taxes, by the establishment of free trade, 
 by the commencement of sanitary reforms, but
 
 THE HOUSE OF BRUNSWICK. 205 
 
 also by the^ntroduction of model prisons for the 
 reformation of the criminal, by the establish- 
 ment of schools for the instruction of the poor 
 and ignorant, by endeavours to ameliorate the 
 condition of labourers in mines, factories, &c. 
 The campaigns in which we most glory are 
 those which originate with the nation itself 
 more than with the government, and are called 
 free-trade movements, sanitary movements, edu- 
 cational movements, temperance movements, &c. 
 Our trophies are such as are won by science in 
 the material world, and in the moral world by 
 Christian charity, with enlightenment for its 
 weapon. During none of the many reigns 
 touched upon in this history, therefore, has the 
 nation had such truly glorious trophies to ex- 
 hibit as during that of Queen Victoria, which 
 began in 1837, at the death of her uncle King 
 William ;* and let us hope that her name may to 
 future generations mark the era of England's 
 definitive victory over the powers of darkness 
 
 * Females being by the laws of Hanover excluded 
 from the throne in that country, the connection between 
 the two crowns ceased at the accession of Queen Victoria ; 
 that of Hanover passing to the Duke of Cumberland, 
 eldest surviving son of George III, 

 
 206 
 
 HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 
 
 represented by sloth, squalor, indifference, in- 
 temperance, ignorance, crime, and all the bad 
 passions which engender party strife and secta- 
 rian enmity. But that it may be so, all must 
 use their best endeavours . great and small, 
 vounjj and old ' 
 
 THE END. 
 
 i 
 
 kJ 
 
 [t 
 
 V^ 
 
 ft.
 
 ^c/Aavdaniv^'^ ''c/A«vaaiii>f^' 
 
 
 )SANCEl% ^lUBRARYdK <J.lUBRARYfl(^ 
 
 s ml mi 
 
 LIBRARYOc, <5JAEUNIVER%. ^lOSANCElfjjx 
 
 J(7l it^l l(dr=.t 
 
 i 
 
 S3— J/ 'JCS U, ^P-O I I §< 
 
 ^EUNIVERS/A A>:U)SANCEl£rA a' 

 
 </^aiAINirib 
 
 University of California, Los Angeles 
 
 
 i 5 
 
 53 
 
 L 006 176 298 5 
 
 'b 000 021834 7_^^ 
 
 yoKmm^ ^Mw-m^^ •%3aimii# 
 
 ^lOSANCEia^ 
 
 
 
 ^OFCAUFOMi^ 
 
 ^tUBRARYQr 
 
 ^ i i L fit 
 
 JUI7I iis^i 
 
 ^\\^EUNIVER«5t 
 
 ^^AHvaan#